So you’ve finally done it: you’ve decided to talk to a web design agency to build your coaching website. As nervous as you might be about it, don’t worry; you’re already on the right track!
While web design aesthetics and website development requirements will be touched on in your first meeting, a lot of the questions will revolve around your business and the clients you want to work with. The design and development of a website that is going to truly deliver results starts with user experience design.
Talking about your ideal clients will go a long way in informing the style of web design and any special requirements you may have for both engaging, converting, and possibly even delivering your service.
While you should trust your web design company, it pays to communicate clearly. If you have little to no experience in web development, you might not be familiar with what elements should be included in your website, but by sharing your business objectives an experienced website agency should be able to suggest things you may not have thought of, or had never even considered as a possibility.
To help, here are five elements that you’re coaching website needs to have:
A personality-centred homepage design
Since you’re selling your services as a coach, the credibility you need to impress upon your potential clients stems from you personally. This means prominently displaying your personal offering, achievements, and credentials tastefully!
Your clients need to know whose services it is they’re signing up for. As a coach, your clients need to see your expertise and credentials. They need to know how long you’ve been helping people through your coaching process and how many lives or businesses you’ve changed for the better. Your website should also clearly convey why you’re the best coach in your field.
An excellent way to do this is by sharing personal stories and a few testimonials from satisfied clients. It also helps to include prominent pictures of you and your clients in action, instead of stock photos that poorly connect you with your audience. This way, your clients can better visualise themselves working with you and prod them to convert into paying clients.
It’s extremely important that your messaging clearly identifies the outcomes you achieve for your ideal clients, and differentiates you from the many other coaches that are currently out there….the more aligned your message is with the needs of your ideal client, the more likely you are to convert.
If you have more than one avatar for your ideal clients, sometimes the best thing your home page can do is act as the gateway to a page that speaks to an individual client avatar’s needs.
Client-centred services page – think solutions!
While you are still selling your services, your service pages should be talking about what you can do for your clients—not about who you are! Reserve your credentials for the About Us page.
Your services page needs to be clear and equivocal about what you can deliver. Don’t just enumerate your services; dive deep into how your services will finally put an end to their suffering, or at least put them on the road to achieving the outcomes they are after!
When designing and writing copy for your service pages, think about talking to the outcomes your clients want to achieve. Don’t do a deep dive into the nitty gritty of everything you do…when have you ever expected your mechanic to tell you every tool they will use to do a car service – you just want the result.
Take note of how, as a digital agency, we even have separate service and solutions pages…. We understand there are going to be plenty of people that just want web design (or think that is all they need), but note also that we have “solutions” pages that talk to specific needs of some of our ideal clients, e.g. our “Coaches & Consultants” solution page. So we push people to solutions pages when we can.
Let your clients know that they have found the way to their goals in your services, and life-changing moments are about to happen with your help!
An engaging blog page
Your coaching website needs a blog, no questions about it. Blogs allow you to establish your authority in your field by writing about topics that interest your audience. This helps you grow your brand equity as a coach and is a cost-effective way to execute a brand awareness campaign.
Select pieces of content can be used to first push brand awareness, and through features of ad platforms like Google, Facebook & LinkedIn, you can target people that have already engaged with your content and are presumably “warmed up”.
Blogs also help you rank better in search engine results pages. Posting fresh content regularly helps more people find you in search results as part of an effective search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy.
A clear Call-To-Action on the homepage
Your coaching website needs to be direct and to the point about what you want your customers to do. If you want them to sign up for a weekly newsletter, contact you to learn more about your services, or click through to a page that is more specific to their requirements, that should be evident on your homepage.
One of the most fundamental concepts in web development is designing with a clear intent in mind. Ideally, it shouldn’t take your audience more than five seconds of looking at your website to understand what you want them to do. Ensure that your CTA is displayed prominently…wherever possible you want to control the visitor experience so understand what your primary and secondary call-to-actions are.
Depending on your business model your primary CTA may be different. Some businesses want people on the phone straight away, whereas others want visitors filtered through some preliminary steps before they get on the phone or book an appointment. Whatever the visitor experience you have in mind you still need to make it clear what the next step is.
Plan to include capability for your marketing funnel
As a coach, you know how important planning is and the journey that your clients go through. The thing to understand is that the journey starts before they even engage you. It’s important to understand that just as there are many symptoms of the problems you solve, these symptoms are all potential entry points – be it blog posts or sign-up pages for free resources or training.
So if you plan on nurturing people through your marketing funnel it’s important to allow for the capability to add squeeze pages, thank you pages, sales pages or whatever your business model is going to need.
As your web marketing agency, this is a conversation we will always have with you because if we don’t help you put in place something that will convert visitors then all your website will ever be is a brochure.
Will Your Website Set You Apart Or Be a Simple Placeholder?
With over 2 billion websites on the internet today, it can be challenging to ensure that your website stands out. While web agencies have the expertise to create a good coaching website, they still need your input to make sure that your coaching website truly represents you.
A good web agency will consider your objectives and guide you to find out what you need, and deliver an outstanding website that converts your ideal clients. However, it’s essential that you communicate regularly to ensure that through the process of user experience design, web design and website development all come together to ensure you and your business are effectively presented and your objectives are met.
The Adviser Brand is a full-service web agency based in Sydney. We specialise in web development, social media marketing, and search engine optimisation, among others. Book a discovery call today to learn how we can help you succeed!
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