A couple of years ago, I started to get that professional itch. You know the one: you love what you do, but feel ready to up the ante a bit (or a lot).
My immediate thought was “I need to re-brand.” I started a Pinterest board of websites and brands I loved, started to think about who would do my branding (one of the perks of my job is I know the best creative talent). I thought about hiring a copywriter to overhaul my messaging, and a photographer for new brand photos, natch.
A quick back of the napkin calculation informed me that this professional day-dreaming was going to come with a hefty price tag. So, I asked myself this one simple question.”
What did I think a re-brand would do for me and my business?
That one question was enough to burst my day-dreaming bubble because I was imagining a re-brand would be a magic fix for something that was no longer working as well as it should.
As it turns out, I didn’t need to re-brand (go figure!). What was actually called for was a re-positioning of my business to connect a new in-house/agency client profile, without alienating my creative business owner and freelance clients. That meant:
- Doing some market research and interviewing my ideal clients.
- Simplifying my current offers and clarifying who they were for (and who they weren’t).
- Creating new offers that support leadership, teams, and creative professionals in-house and agency side.
- Developing messaging, not only for the new offers, but for my entire website (because tacking something on without touching the rest doesn’t work – trust me, I tried).
- Streamlining the website user experience.
I didn’t use anything fancy: a google doc, a lot of thinking, writing, and re-writing, and my fantastic virtual assistant who served as proofreader and truth-teller.
Only then, did I engage a photographer and loop in my website designer/developer.
The outcome was a website that truly reflects who I am (a business coach, facilitator, and speaker), who I’m for (creative entrepreneurs and companies), and how I serve them (one-on-one coaching, facilitation, and speaking).
Total outlay: $2,100 (for reference, the re-brand I was envisioning would have cost at least 25K)
If you’re experiencing a gap between where you’re going and what your current website positions you, read on for 3 ways to transform your website into a powerful sales tool.
Step one: Give your website a job
One of the biggest website mistakes I see creative freelancers and business owners make is designing a beautiful website that is essentially an online portfolio. Of course, you want to show potential clients what you can do, but without the context of why they should hire you to help them (a) solve a specific business problem or (b) achieve a specific business outcome, you’re potentially leaving opportunities and money on the table.
If your goal is to connect with high-quality clients who are willing to invest the big bucks, your website needs to communicate why you’re the best person to help them achieve a specific outcome they know they can’t do alone.
If your website is strong on looks, but a little light on context the first step is to give your website a job. If you’re not quite sure what that should be, here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Build confidence and credibility
- Connect on a personal level
- Educate by sharing your process and select resources
- Validate where clients are stuck and paint a picture of who they are becoming
- Filter non-ideal clients out early saving everyone valuable time
- Allow prospects who are ideal, but not ready, to stay in touch
Step two: Get clear on exactly who your ideal client is
Many creative websites make the mistake of offering a list of capabilities VS clearly defined services. What’s the difference? The analogy I always use is this: imagine you get a meeting with an ideal client. You go in with a huge waste paper basket of ALL the creative work you’ve ever produced and you dump it on their desk telling them “Sort through all that, figure out what you’d like me to do for you, and get back to me.” Uh, no thanks. Now imagine you go in with a clear understanding of what their challenges are, what they’re trying to accomplish, and a clearly defined solution, all packaged up and ready to go. Now you’re cooking!
Suggested action:
Do a quick audit of your past clients and projects and give them a grade. What clients did you love working with? Who paid you well and on time? What projects were you really proud of? Where were you able to price based on value and outcomes, not your time?
This very easy exercise is incredibly illuminating. You’ll start to see clear patterns emerge about who your ideal client is and the kind of work you do for them. Similarly, you’ll start to see the projects and clients you’re ready to move on from or have grown out of.
Step three: Create 1-3 clear services
If you completed step two, you’re going to be in really good shape for step three, which is to create 1-3 clearly defined services.
How will you do this? Well, each business is different, so you might have to play around this one a bit, until it comes together, but here are some things you might consider:
A tiered offer
This might be a similar offer broken up into small, medium, and full service versions. The tiers might speak to different clients e.g. smaller businesses VS larger business, their familiarity with you (they may want to start small and build once they realize you’re the bees knees), or where they are in their business journey.
Distinct offers for different profiles
If you have more than one client profile, you’ll want to create a distinct offer for each. For example, one of the refinements I needed to make when I re-imagined my website to accommodate a new client profile was to streamline how my website visitors would encounter my offers. I actually didn’t need to cut any, but what I did need to do was hide some pages, re-name and re-write others, and create a clear pathway for each client profile from home page, to service, to my contact page.
I’m not going to lie, step 3 can feel a bit like a bit of a brain bender – you try it this way, you try it that way, but I promise, if you stick with it, you WILL land of 1-3 clear offers that you can pitch, sell, and deliver with far more ease than you could imagine.
Need help? These kinds of puzzles (especially when they’re not my own LOL) are my favorite ones to solve. Let’s talk and see if I’m the right person to help you turn your website into a tool that reflects your expertise, dazzling personality, and unique value proposition.