Got a site up that isn’t getting much action? Do you have visitors coming that just seem to go away and not get on your list, and not sign up for a program, and not call you for coaching?
That stinks.
There’s a big chance that your site wasn’t properly planned. That is, you may not have taken key preliminary steps to ensure people will be excitedly ushered TO your site, THROUGH your site and onto BUYING from you.
If the graphics are clean and the pages load fast, your problem is probably lack of attention in these three preliminary pieces of building a website.
- Getting juicy words
- Planning how to get traffic
- Creating a site selling strategy
1. Getting Juicy Words
In short, survey your market. Ask them question about their challenges, nightmares, biggest fears, deepest wishes, etc. They will give you great words for your copy.
For example …
Your target market is super-busy women in the work force and they wish they had more time for family. They may say their biggest nightmares are missing their kids growing up and getting a divorce due to fizzled love. They may say their biggest wishes are to work half as much, rekindle the fire with their husbands, spend five more hours a week with their kids, and take more bubble baths.
Your website might feature a give-away short report called, “How to get back 10 hours a week – for romance, soccer games, and that long overdue bubble bath.”
Juicy!
But, what do I see coaches do?
They will do something like, “Work-Life Balance” or “Happiness with Your Family.” My gut tells me those titles won’t be as juicy.
Go get coffee with your market, whoever they are. Ask them what’s going on and let your pen go crazy.
Coffee on you!
2. Planning How to Get Traffic
Websites are useless without traffic.
And, when new sites go up, they come with no traffic.
Just the same, as a new coach, finishing school, you’ve got some skills developed but without people knowing about what you can do, there will be no coaching.
So, you and your website need a traffic – or, what I like to call it, a visibility plan.
Some examples are:
- Giving a talk at a gym if you’re into health coaching.
- Emailing everyone you know for a limited time special coaching package as you open up shop.
- Going to a writer’s association online and offering to write articles for that market – say on “Getting More High Paying Writing Assignments,” if you want to coach around business development for writers.
Oh, and doing a newsletter is not a visibility plan. But finding a strategic partner who will share your newsletter with her list IS a visibility plan (it gets you in front of people).
Nor is writing blog posts a visibility plan. But, if you submit your blog online to blog directories, target your article’s keywords to topics that people are searching for, and submit your website to search engines, then you’ve got a visibility plan for getting traffic.
You’ve got a visibility plan if a human being will make that first contact with something that gets them aware of your coaching business – oh, and a handy link to your website.
3. Creating a Site Selling Strategy
Ok, so let’s say you’ve got ideas for #1 and #2 above, juicy words and visibility plans.
Your next must-do-before-building is to create a selling strategy at your website.
By selling strategy, I mean a series of steps the visitor can take that ends in a sale (whether today or some time in the future).
For example:
- You write a blog post with specifically chosen keywords (and you’re blog is already being visited by search engines).
- Search engines catalog your blog post and associate with those words.
- People find your blog post when searching, click to your site, and read your blog post that invites them onto your email list.
- You send a follow-up email five days later offering them your ebook on say goal setting.
- They buy it.
You’ve made some money. They’ve gotten some good coaching value. Good job.
Be intentional about what you want to sell, and lead visitors to end up doing that. Remember, you’re a coach who has great things to offer people. Make it easy for them.
There you have the three do-before-building keys:
1 – Get Juicy Words (ask your market!)
2 – Devise a visibility plan (help them encounter you!)
3 – Create a site selling strategy (make buying easy!)
Once you’ve got those answered, you’re website will do a helluva lot more for you.
Kenn Schroder helps coaches createclient-attracting websites. Get your free copy of 5 WEBSITE STRATEGIES
FOR ATTRACTING COACHING CLIENTS at http://www.coachingsitesthatwork.com
