How to Build a Website that Converts: Website Tips for Service-Based Entrepreneurs
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What if your website could be your top salesperson, attracting and converting leads while you sleep? Join Victoria as she shares how she transformed from a freelance website designer to the founder of BrandWell, all by harnessing the power of a high-converting website. Learn how your site can make a lasting first impression, turn visitors into loyal clients, and significantly boost your income, particularly if you're running a service-based business. Unravel the common traps of endless DIY web design that often amounts to nothing and instead focus on proven strategies that have empowered hundreds of women entrepreneurs to succeed.
Discover the secrets to crafting compelling messaging and design that captivate your audience from the first glance. Victoria offers actionable insights into creating engaging headlines, effective calls to action, and leveraging social proof through testimonials. Emphasizing the benefits over features, Victoria explains how a customer-centered approach can transform your website into a vital part of your sales team. Consistency in design elements and mobile optimization are key to building trust and retaining clients. For those overwhelmed by the process, Victoria offers a special offer to listeners. Don't miss out on the opportunity to elevate your brand's online presence!
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Does Your Website Work for You? [01:41]
Your website should be the number one lead generating machine for your business, but Victoria has seen a lot of entrepreneurs that are working for their website instead. Are you spending hours and hours trying to DIY your design, trying to write blog posts, buying templates, and redesigning, only to bang your head against a wall when it continually produces a few, if any, leads for your business? If so, you’ve come to the right place. In this episode, Victoria is sharing website design advice and strategy that she lives by, and what has made her website so successful. On average, BrandWell’s website produces one lead per day for her business, and the average dollar spent per customer is about $5,000. This is without ever spending a dollar on Google ads for the website.
Why Does Your Website Matter? [03:20]
Your website is often the first interaction that potential clients are going to have with your brand in today’s digital age. The vast majority of consumers begin their search for services online and studies are showing that 75% of consumers are judging a company’s credibility based on it’s website design alone, meaning that the look and the feel of your website can significantly influence how your business is perceived. It’s not just about having a pretty website, it’s about having a website that actually works for you, one that doesn’t just look good but can convert viewers into customers. There was a study done by Behavior and Information Technology Journal that says that it only takes about 0.05 seconds for users to form an opinion about your site, which directly impacts whether they stay or leave. Other research indicates that around 85% to 90% of online consumers are less likely to return to a website after a poor experience, which is exactly why Victoria always shares that you don’t get a second chance at a first impression. If 90% are not willing to come back to a site after a negative first impression, that’s business you lost for good. Your website design, your messaging, and your usability of your website are critical factors for making a lasting positive first impression on your prospective clients.
Website Purpose [05:26]
For service providers, your website is not just a digital business card. Your website is your best salesperson and it’s working 24-7. Your website should be your number one lead generating machine. It’s always on, it’s always promoting your services and it’s always giving customers an opportunity to book your services. Your website should be three things: informative, engaging, and conversion focused.
Informative [06:20]: Your website needs to communicate what you do, who you serve, and how you solve your client’s problem.
Engaging [06:39]: Your website needs to captivate and guide visitors through a journey that leads them to wanting to work with you. More than being aesthetically pleasing, it’s about creating a tailored experience that resonates with your ideal clients. Engaging websites don’t just tell visitors what you offer, they invite them into your brand’s world and they make them feel like they belong, and this is what guides people towards taking action.
Conversion [08:29]: The end goal is to get your potential clients to take action, whether that's booking a consultation or signing up for a newsletter or purchasing your service. This is the part that most DIYers overlook, because it does require knowledge of website design and conversion best practices. A HubSpot study showed that a well-optimized website can increase conversion rates by 200 to 400%, which proves that intentional design directly impacts your bottom line.
Practical Tips to Improve Your Website [09:56]
Know Your Audience [10:00]
The foundation of a high converting website is understanding who is coming to that website. It’s nearly impossible to design a high converting, strategic website without knowing your audience. When you design your website, you want to speak directly to the people that you are trying to attract, in other words, your ideal client. You need to use language that resonates with them and you need to choose design elements that appeal to their taste. It’s all about crafting an experience that makes your ideal client feel like, ‘Yes, this is the person I’ve been looking for’.
Focusing on Clear and Compelling Messaging [11:15]
The words on your website matter just as much as the design. You want your messaging to be clear, concise, and customer focused. A non-negotiable on your website should be a headline. This is the first thing visitors see and it needs to grab their attention immediately. Make sure it is communicating exactly what you do, how you help people, in one simple sentence. Now that you have a headline, you need to have a call-to-action (CTA). Every page of your website should have a strong CTA. Donald Miller considers CTAs like cash registers, and you never know when someone is going to be ready to buy so you need to put a cash register near them wherever they might be shopping. That said, you want to make it clear what the next step is going to be for your visitor. Make sure you have a good CTA supporting every headline that you have.
Social Proof [14:23]
People are more likely to trust you if they see that others have had success with your services. Client reviews build credibility, they build trust, and we know that those are crucial in the decision-making process. To this point though, Victoria doesn’t recommend having one page dedicated to reviews, but rather pepper them all throughout your content like it’s supportive messaging. Make a claim about your business, and then back it up with what somebody else says about you, because there is nothing more powerful than a customer’s review of your business. It’s stronger than your own marketing will ever be.
Talk About Benefits Over Features [15:27]
Your potential customers want to know what’s in it for them. Be very careful not to talk about yourself and the “features” of your business all over your website. Your messaging should be centered on your customer and on helping them feel seen. The goal is to make the messaging about them and not about you. You want your visitors to see themselves in your website copy and to feel confident that you’re the solution to their problem.
Strategic Design [16:35]
Strong messaging paired with strategic design is the ticket to a website that consistently produces leads for your business. First things first, keep it clean and try to avoid clutter. Professional designers have the experience and skill to push creative boundaries in ways that DIYers just simply cannot, and that allows them to take more bold risks and lead to unique and standout designs. If your website is screaming DIY, it’s going to repel the people that you want to work with the most. It would be better to just not even have one. So, for DIYers, simplicity is key. White space is your friend. Focus on clean layouts, have straightforward navigation and just go with minimalistic design. A good place to incorporate color is with your call to actions. You want to make sure that those buttons, the CTAs, are really standing out. Something that’s really important with design is having a clear, legible font. Please don’t use script fonts for your CTAs, it’s hard to read. If you confuse, you’re going to lose people. When it comes to those action driving buttons on your website, you want to have a CTA on the top right of the website header, and BrandWell likes to make it a button, not just linked text. It creates a visual contrast and naturally draws your eye there.
Mobile Responsiveness [20:58]
This is a non-negotiable. Statistically speaking, over half of website traffic comes from mobile devices these days. Victoria checked her own analytics in Squarespace and surprisingly, her website traffic favors desktop to mobile, 66 to 34%, but that’s not industry standard. Even so, over 22,000 people have visited BrandWell’s website this year and more than 7,000 of those visits came from mobile. If BrandWell was not mobile optimized, imagine that first impression that 7,000 people would have had. At converting at 0.5%, with 7,000 website visitors, 35 clients could have been lost. BrandWell’s average dollar spend is $5,000, so that’s a lot of money that would have been left on the table by neglecting to mobile optimize their website.
Brand Consistency [25:14]
Your website should reflect your brand across the board. Fonts, colors, imagery, and tone all need to be in alignment. If not, you’re going to break the trust. Make sure there is consistency throughout the elements on your website. Your primary headlines should be the same size, your subheadings should be the same size, your paragraph font should be consistent throughout the website. Margin, hierarchy, and all those things need to be consistent because inconsistencies are the easiest way to spot a DIY.
Special Offer to Listeners [26:18]
People are judging you off of your website. They are judging the quality of your offer by the quality of your website and if you have a poor quality website, it’s probably not telling the correct story about your brand. Or it’s at least not telling the story that you want it to be telling. Online consistency builds trust, inconsistencies cause doubt, so make sure you’re being consistent with all of your elements on your website. Because you’re a faithful listener of The Branding Business School Podcast, and because this can be overwhelming, Victoria is offering free website audits for the month of November. If you’re not quite ready to invest in hiring a designer, this is a great way to get feedback on how to improve your website based off of what was talked about today. Victoria will share specific and individualized ideas on how to improve your site for better conversion. This offer is valid for NOVEMBER 2024 ONLY. To apply, click here.
If you need to hand over the reins to a professional and you want to have a website that you know is going to be your best salesperson, the girls at BrandWell Designs are ready to help! Visit BrandWell Designs website or email Victoria at victoria@brandwelldesigns.com.
Key Quotes
“Strong messaging paired with strategic design is the ticket to a website that consistently produces leads for your business.”
Victoria Marcouillier
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