As a small business owner, your website can and should be more than just a landing spot for your ideal audience. A well-designed website acts as an honored team member working for you 24/7—guiding potential business to build trust and make that sales call, purchase that course, or sign up for that retreat in Joshua Tree. A hypothetical retreat in Joshua Tree sounds pretty good btw ; )
In order to make this happen, and create your 24/7 amazing employee website, you need to start with a little (ok, maybe a lot) strategy…
Start with goals.
First, it’s important to understand your ideal person and how you can help them. This may seem pretty basic, but attracting your dream client or customer doesn’t have to be complex. In fact, your website should flow with ease and with very little confusion on how that person can work with you, collaborate, and/or buy from you.
Before jumping into adding your design elements and what photo should go where, you need to take some time and review the actual goals for your website and business. You may already have these set, and if so, wonderful! This is your foundation for your website. If you’re not 100% sure, it’s time to start brainstorming. Establish 1–2 main website goals that will generate revenue and 1–2 secondary goals that may or may not directly generate revenue.
For example: my main website goal is to have ideal clients book a call about a larger branding and web design projects. My secondary website goals are to direct clients to my products and to engage with my blog and Instagram.
For your main goal(s)
Make sure you’re guiding your clients throughout your website in the form of a sales funnel. It should be clear what you do and who it’s for before the fold (or scroll) on your homepage. Make sure there’s a clear outline on where they should click next. Having an easy to navigate menu is important, but it shouldn’t be the only way to move around on your website. What’s going to make your website convert is by having a clear next step that guides them to your call to action.
For example: on my homepage, it states who I am and who it’s for (a design studio for the dreamers that make moves). Right after that, I elaborate on how I can help (It’s time to thrive in your biz through a strong brand that speaks to your unique story), and just below I have a button that says “Start Here.” Anyone who’s new to OWS will have a great starting point to learn more. Clicking on “Start Here” takes them to a page that talks more about them, their pain points and how my services can help elevate their business and fix these pain points!
Side Note: I know it’s tough as service providers and/or e-commerce businesses to not feel super salesy, but if you truly believe that what you offer can help your ideal person, then it shouldn’t feel salesy. Speak from the heart, speak from your past experiences, let your ideal audience feel seen. They’re reaching out to you because they need your offering, so let’s make that easy for them!
For your secondary goal(s)
How can you establish trust? Is one of your secondary goals a way to help establish trust, which then possibly turns into a sale later? Things like having a blog can help people stay longer on your site and establish that sense of relationship with you. If a written blog is not your thing, you can always start a vlog and connect your YouTube channel, or start a podcast and link each episode as a separate blog post. Whichever way you chose, adding content to your website isn’t just great for relationship building but boosts your SEO as well. Which, well, brings more people to your website to hopefully stay a little longer.
A few other great secondary goal options are to have people sign up for your newsletter, or offer products and courses that may be at a smaller investment. This allows people to get to know you and your expertise before making the big jump into your main offering… and yes, establishes more of that relationship building!
With these goals, think like your ideal client or customer. Make sure they feel truly seen by addressing their pain points and how you can help. How would they respond to your messaging, what do they need to see, hear, or feel to say an ecstatic ‘yes’ to your services or product?
Put those goals into action.
Now that you have your goals set, it’s time to map them out on your website. This mapping, also called a wireframe, does not involve any type of design but more of an outline for your website. It’s where your content will go and how you want your goals to be placed. Do this for each page, creating a sales funnel for your ideal person to reach that end goal. You can map this out in Adobe Illustrator, Canva, or even simply with pen and paper. Where you create your wireframe doesn’t exactly matter, it’s more about how you map out your website according to your main and secondary goals.
For Example: On my homepage, I outlined my main goal closer to the top of the page and placed elements of my secondary goals closer to the bottom. When visiting my website, I’d like people to first get to know my offerings, who it’s for and what I stand behind. If they’re intrigued they’d either want to jump in and book a call or connect through my blog or Instagram.
Depending on your offerings, messaging and your business in general, this may look different for you. Designing an effective website isn’t one size fits all—take into account what makes sense for your business and ideal audience.
Before you start designing… get your content together.
Now that you have the essential bare bones of your website mapped out, it’s time to get everything together. Having these next three elements and your wireframe will make designing your website so much easier!
Branding: Before starting your website, you should have all your branding together and finalized. This includes your primary logo, logo variations, design elements, color, typography selection, and style guide (which will help you set the tone and aesthetic for both your copy and photography).
Content: Well-crafted copy that will speak to YOUR audience. Use your voice, speak to them, and keep it consistent. Address their pain points, and make sure they are the main focus of your site and not vice-versa. Talking about yourself helps your ideal person get to know you, but it shouldn’t be the main focus.
Photography: Not to make it all about you, but having some photos of you (especially if you’re a one-woman service provider) can help establish trust and the feeling of already knowing you! This may be obvious, but if you’re an e-commerce business, having beautiful shots of your products are very important. It’s the closest your customers may get to your product before purchasing. Hire a professional photographer if you’re able—and trust me, it’s worth the investment. Communicate your brand to them, make sure they understand who you are, who your audience is and your overall brand aesthetic.
Once you have everything set, it’s time to start designing!
It’s time to finally bring all of your elements together. Refer to your wireframe (goal mapping) and bring in your branding, design elements, copy, and photography. Design on your platform of choice. A few great options are
Showit (my personal favorite),
WordPress,
Squarespace, and if you’re e-commerce, definitely
Shopify!
How I begin is by starting my designs in Adobe Illustrator as mockups—this allows for more creative freedom, as opposed to getting distracted by a template. However, you can always start on your platform of choice, just don’t let those templates distract you from your original wireframe (goal mapping). If you are on a more structured platform, where you need to stick to a template, you may need to modify your wireframe just a little. If you need to do this, keep in mind your goals and sales funnel. Reviewing templates before creating your wireframe may be helpful as well. Overall, if everything flows similarly and the layout works for your messaging and brand, you should be good to go!
A few additional things you can do.
Test your site with your ideal audience. Ask a few friends (if they’re in fact your ideal client/customer) and have them review their overall experience, and how they felt when interacting with your site for the first time.
Test your site speed. Having a quickly loading website is pretty important in our fast-paced world. If someone has to wait even a few seconds too long, they may skip to the next. Here’s a great resource for testing your site speed.
Create buzz around your new site! Before and when you launch, start talking about your new website, features, new offerings, etc. This will draw more people to your site when it does launch!
In conclusion…
Think about your ideal audience and how they will experience your website. Owning a small business makes us very close to what we do, which in turn can create distance from what it is our dream clients/customers really need. Having a thoughtful plan enables you to build a website that has your dream client saying ‘oh yes!’
