Here’s why this is important: Do you have a nice shiny website, but still aren’t getting the bookings you expected?
Read on to find out the simple steps you can take to turn website visitors in to paying clients.
I help a lot of clients build their first website for their wellness business. Particularly for those of us who are not tech experts and certainly don’t know how to code, I realise it’s a hugely daunting prospect.
The process is inevitably filled with perfectionism, fear of visibility and a healthy dose of wanting to throw the laptop out of the window when you can’t get it looking how you want!
Having built websites starting with my own blog The Flourishing Pantry back in 2016, to now over 20 sites for clients and given feedback on countless more through my Just Start Now course and community, I feel I’m fairly well versed in what makes a good or a bad website.
Here are the mistakes you’re making when you pour all your time and energy into a website that, once released into the world, still does not work for your ideal clients:
Your homepage doesn’t hit me between the eyes with who it’s for
People’s attention span is seriously low online. I think we can all agree that unless we find what we want on a website within seconds, we’re off out and back to Google or social media to find someone who can give it to us.
When I land on your website I want to see I’m in the right place.
If I’m someone who is looking for support with weight loss, I want to see that straight away.
If I’m looking for resources around coping with my endometriosis, I want to know I’m going to find that immediately when I land.
If I’ve been browsing for downloads to help me learn how to start meditation, I want to be assured that’s what I’ll get as soon as I hit your site.
What I don’t want or need to see is your qualifications (you can read more about that in this blog post) or your long-winded story about your journey (because it’s not about you, it’s about the reader).
And I sure as hell don’t want you to be vague or unclear about whether you’re the expert I need.
If I’m confused for even a second that you’re going to be able to provide what I’m looking for, I’m off.
This all ties in with knowing your ideal client really well.
You should know exactly who you want to serve, what they’re struggling with and what results they’re looking for when they come to you.
This isn’t a step that can be skipped in successful wellness business building!
If you want to know more about niching then listen to my podcast episode on this topic.
I can’t tell how to work with you
It’s far too easy to get distracted with website building and think your focus needs to be on creating hundreds of recipes and blog posts, resources and downloads or other shiny things that you’ve seen other ‘successful’ people have on their sites.
All that sort of content takes time to build and it isn’t essential when you’re just getting started.
When I launched this website, I had just 3 blog posts and four resources.
But what I did have was really clear sales pages that spelt out who I helped and how you could work with me.
Because ultimately, a business is all about helping people, rather than shiny websites that can look impressive, but are ultimately dressed-up hobbies if they’re not actually making money or supporting the people they’re designed for.
Don’t make it ambiguous how to work with you. Make it clear. Make sure you have a Work With Me tab or similar in your menu, so if readers are loving what they find on your site, they can immediately find out how to go deeper with you.
There isn’t a clear way to connect or book to work with you
I am continually surprised that in the 21st century, where you can make a purchase on Amazon in one click and have it delivered to your door within an hour, wellness business owners think it’s acceptable to make their booking process complicated and long-winded instead of simple.
Why would I go to my bank to make a transfer to you to pay for a yoga class, when I can just click and book one with the next instructor through my PayPal where the details are all saved?
Why would I go to the trouble of fishing around for your email address or contact form and waiting to hear back from you when I could just check my calendar and book straight into your system right now?
Why would I want to attend your online webinar when I have to email you first to get a payment link, when someone else is offering one where I can click and buy straight away?
These facilities are not hard to set up and there are loads of free tools to enable them – read this blog post for my review of the best ones.
If your website hosting doesn’t support taking payments, using something like EventBrite for online event listings are great cheap ways to be able to pay you quickly and easily.
We have to make things easy for people. That’s what they’re used to.
Stop using the “I’m not good at tech” excuse and get learning how to set up something that supports quick and easy booking and communication for both you and your clients.
Long-term the investment of time to get these things set up and automated will be the best thing you ever did.
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