Just one more week to go and there’s a glaring omission from the tasks so far…have you spotted what it is?
You’ve got no formal marketing plan in place – although you’ve got some excellent foundations on which to build one. So this week we’re going to be focusing on creating a game plan for the moment which comes right after you unveil your baby to the big wide world and then sit back and think “Now what?”. This task will help you answer that question…
Some of you had an extra breather last week, while some of you had a steep tech-filled learning curve to negotiate. This week, we’re bringing the focus right back to your people again. Whether your site has been up and running for a while or it’s brand spanking new, this week’s task is very valuable, highly effective and a good indicator of whether your site will “work” once it’s launched.
Here’s your task for Week 6 of the 12WC: Put yourself in the shoes of a reader and edit, amend and tweak your website content to within an inch of its life. Or until it elicits the response you want it to!
A bit like a gift, the wrapper is always important – it must be shiny, attractive and make the recipient want to open it up and find out what’s inside. But it is what’s inside the wrapper that will make a difference to the recipient – or not.
It’s the same with your website – the wrapper (design, layout & visual elements) all have a part to play in attracting a visitor to look more closely but it’s the contents (your copy) which will determine whether what you’re offering will make a difference to your reader or not.
Here are a few suggestions to follow to ensure your website copy does the job you want it to:
Make sure you lead with the answer to “What’s in it for me?”. A first time visitor to your site should instantly know what they’re going to get out of your site. In an ideal world, if your website title doesn’t make it clear what this is, your tagline definitely should. And if that doesn’t, then you need to make sure your high level pitch from week 3 features somewhere near the start of the page so that a reader knows what value they’re going to get by sticking around for a bit longer on your site.
Determine what action you’d like a reader to take at the end of each page. Now make sure it’s clear to them how/what to do when they get there. It’s always useful to finish each page or section with some sort of instruction or hint as to where you suggest the reader goes next. It can be as simple as a “Read more” link or “Sign up for updates” or “Check out the details here” – but whatever it is, make sure you leave some sort of suggestion as to where to go and what to do next at the end of every single page of your site.
Ensure each sentence/paragraph passes the “So what?” test. As with the question “What’s in it for me?”, you also need to answer the “So what?” question with every paragraph (even sentence) on your site. As you’ve probably heard, most people scan websites these days, looking for pertinent information before committing to reading through swathes of text. What this means for you is two-fold:
The “So what?” test is a way of putting yourself in your reader’s shoes – what difference does this sentence or that paragraph make to them? Why have you included it? Is it even relevant or interesting to your reader? Or did you just include it because it’s something you want them to read, not necessarily something they would want or need.
Get strategic feedback. Sometimes asking for feedback creates more hassle, stress and frustration than it’s worth which means people don’t bother doing it and if they do, they ignore it! If you do it strategically however, it can save you from weeks and weeks (or months and months) of heartache, wondering why your website isn’t performing as you wanted it to. This week, why not seek feedback from the following people:
Don’t just ask them to look at the site & tell you what they think in general terms, ask for specific feedback about different aspects of your site (you can ask each guinea pig to focus on different things) – you might want to ask them about usability, ease of navigation/finding their way round, persuasiveness or “compelling-ness” of the copy, the overall look & feel of the site, whether they understood what you’re offering, whether there was too much or too little content and more specific questions on both the overall usability of the site plus the information you’ve included.
Take a peek at linguistic techniques such as NLP. The way you use language can have a dramatic effect on the response and the responsiveness of your readers. One of the most valuable skills I’ve learned in the past few years is NLP (neuro linguistic programming). I learned it to help effect greater change in my health coaching clients but from a copywriting and marketing perspective it’s been a massive benefit and something I’d highly recommend studying.
Article by Michel Fortin, a good place to start which outlines some of the emotional buttons a copywriter uses to elicit the desired response – it’s also worth checking out the most popular posts on the site for more great copywriting resources: How To Capture & Captivate Attention
Article series on Copyblogger, an excellent series from one of the definitive resources on the web about writing content for the web : Copywriting 101
Free book by Claude Hopkins, a classic but indispensable book that all copywriters and marketers (you!) should read: Scientific Advertising
Book by Joe Vitale, a really good introduction to the power of persuasive writing utilising numerous NKP-based techniques: Hypnotic Writing
As you know, there’s a prize draw at the end of the challenge for anybody who participates and shares their progress each & every week here on the blog, so make sure you bookmark this post and let us know what you achieved this week as soon as you’ve completed the task.
The prize bundle currently includes prizes from the following 12 Week Challenge sponsors:
Welcome back! Hope you’re feeling refreshed and/or caught up after last week’s breather. This week we’re going to dive right into the creation process and get started on creating the main platform you’ll be using to sell your coaching services to the world…your website.
Here’s your task for Week 5 of the 12WC: Set up your main online platform (aka your website) for your coaching.
If you’re hoping to leverage online tools as the main methods to promote your health and wellness business, this is where you’ll ultimately succeed or fail. Yes, it’s that serious.
What’s one of the first things you do when you want to find out more information about a subject? Do you perhaps head to the internet, head on over to Google and start searching? You can bet that if you do that, many of your potential clients and customers will do that too – so your website needs to be up to scratch.
Your website will largely function as your store front. It has to invite people in to look more closely, it has to be easy for people to find what they’re looking for and it has to encourage and enable them to make a purchase.
As web designers & developers ourselves (as well as having run a business solely online for the past 3+ years), we’ve learned an awful lot from personal experience as well as having advised and worked with clients from multiple industries. If we’ve learned one thing it’s this:
Don’t design your site for you, design it for your people.
On that note, let’s move on to the more practical & technical side of things. Here are a few tips we’d suggest having built hmtl-based sites, Blogger-based sites, Typepad-based sites and WordPress-based sites over the past few years:
If you are a complete non-techy, fear not! This task is not as scary as it seems or sounds and the resources we’ve suggested below are designed to make it even simpler for you and give you step-by-step help – just work through them one-by-one.
Oh – and don’t worry if this seems a lot to get done in one week. The main part of this task is getting the technical stuff done – so getting the site actually up, a basic design in place and some basic content on there. We’ll come to the tweaking next week 
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. These are the *only* resources and services we recommend which is why we’re affiliates. Feel free to skip the affiliate links but look out for our extra support bonuses below if you do use them.
Need extra (free) technical help setting up your site?
If you’ve purchased your hosting & the Headway theme via the affiliate links above and you need help installing & configuring WordPress and/or installing Headway, give us a shout – as a thank you, we’ll be happy to do this for you at no extra charge during this week only.
Please note, the support includes basic WordPress configuration, installing the theme of your choice and installing a couple of the extra plug-ins we always recommend. Nothing more, nothing less. If you do need extra help, we offer personal tech coaching but the above guides & tutorials should be enough to help you get the job done yourself.
As you know, there’s a prize draw at the end of the challenge for anybody who participates and shares their progress each & every week here on the blog, so make sure you bookmark this post and let us know what you achieved this week as soon as you’ve completed the task.
The prize bundle currently includes prizes from the following 12 Week Challenge sponsors:
Image by Graphixel
I know, I know.. the first thing you want to do when starting a new business is create a website. Before you just throw something up, put some thought into what exactly you want it to say. Think about what you want your clients to see, feel and do when they arrive. Sketch out a basic idea of what you would like your site to look like and include. Anyone can create a basic website, but a professional looking site with the right content and language for your target market will set you apart from the rest. This is extremely important in creating the right brand and image for your business.
In this digital age, your website is your storefront, make it look good.
One of the most important things to consider is making sure your site is easy to navigate. If your client isn’t sure where to go or gets frustrated clicking away to pages that don’t contain anything, they will not come back. Flow is extremely important. Getting your visitors/potential clients to the information they need will keep them coming back.
WordPress is well known as a quality, easy to use blogging platform. Not many people know that it can also be used to create professional looking websites for small businesses. And you can edit content very easily without always having to contact your web designer when you want to change something. One of the best new themes that allows you to edit content and style easily is the new Headway. It is the newest and easiest to use theme out there. And you can customize it to look any way you would like. More on Headway later..
Make your website stand out in the sea of bland, manufactured business sites. It should look professional but it should also be interesting and eye catching. Inject a little bit of your personality into your design, content and overall feel of your site. This will be part of your brand. Are you more serious or playful? Prolific or brief and to the point? What colors do you want to use? A web designer can help you with some of this but you should have a general idea of what you want your website (storefront) to look like… if only to give the designer a starting point.
Be careful with this. Some people know enough to create their own websites and they look great. However, I think most of us do not know enough about web design and creation to really build a solid and professional looking website. If you hire out, it doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. You can simply hire someone to do a little design to make things look nice and then add the content yourself. Look around at other sites that draw you in, that make you want to visit again, and use them as a loose model.
Creating your own website or hiring someone else to do it also depends on what type of business you are running. If you’re a coach, there are certain ways to structure your site that helps point visitors in the right direction whether that be your e-mail sign up sheet, a product, etc. Someone who has had experience in this may be helpful. However, if you’re simply selling wellness products on your site, you may be able to do it yourself. Use your best judgement and just make sure it’s attractive, easy to navigate, and points your visitors in the right direction.
