Laurel Staples

Thank you guys for having me. I love your show. I’m excited to be here today and I’m excited about this topic on website management.

Laurel Staples

Yes, I’m ready to launch.

Laurel Staples

Well, first I want to start with the statistics saying there’s an average of about 7 seconds that you have to grab a person’s attention when they land on your site. Seven seconds is not very long. This is important to know if you’re performing website implementation.

Laurel Staples

That means you have to have things on your homepage that grab people’s attention and indicate to them you are the person they need to spend money and more time with, and it’s critical that you do that in a certain way.

So if you don’t mind, I want to go over some false assumptions that people have about website management, and then give some tidbits about what should be on there. Does that sound good to you all?

Laurel Staples

People who perform website management, many of them do it because they want to sell online, but first they need to understand some false assumptions about website management.

Laurel Staples

These are assumptions that I definitely had when I started my first business. And the false assumption number one is that prospects don’t want to know what you do when they’re visiting your website.

When you go to a lot of websites, people just start listing out what they do. But what people want to know is what you can do for them. It’s a subtle difference but it’s a big difference when it comes to your website. This alone is a game changer if you’re doing website management.

Laurel Staples

You don’t want to make your homepage all about you and what you do and the services you provide. That stuff can come on a different page or down below or something like that, but they want to know what you can do for them. So we’re going to talk about how to make that happen in a little bit.

Laurel Staples

Another false assumption about website management is that prospects are looking for your services when they come to your website.

I work with coaches so I always tell them, prospects aren’t looking for a coach when they come to your website. Some of them are, but generally they’re not looking for a coach.

The truth is that prospects are looking for a solution to their problem when they come to your website.

If you’re trying to position yourself as a coach if you’re a coach, or if you have a different service and talk all about your service and not talk about your service as a solution to their problem, people are just going to bounce right off your homepage.

Laurel Staples

Another false assumption about website management is that your website is there to close the deal with new clients.

Depending on what you do or what your service or product is, your website might close the deal. But for coaches who I work with and a lot of other service providers, your website is not there to close the deal. Your website is there to pre-sell your services to clients.

So you are going to close the deal when you talk to them on the phone and a strategy session or free session or something like that. But your website is there just to help people take the next step, take action, sign up for your newsletter, schedule a strategy session with you and not always there to close the deal with new clients.

Laurel Staples

My last false assumption about website management which I always thought this in the beginning is that the design of my website was the most important thing.

I spent a lot of time making it look pretty and have the perfect pictures on it and have a rotating carousel of these beautiful images from iStock or whatever. It didn’t do anything. It actually like detracted.

The important thing is the copy on your website. You guys know that because you guys write copy for people, right?

Laurel Staples

Exactly and that’s the thing that people don’t realize and I definitely didn’t realize in the beginning.

Like your designer, I thought, “Okay, the design is the most important. The color choices are the most important.” What I call it is pretty website syndrome because I was having this like syndrome that I had to make it pretty and if it was pretty, then people would buy from me.

I don’t know where I made that connection that a pretty website made people want to spend money with me. There’s absolutely no data on that. But I had that assumption and it didn’t work at all.

Laurel Staples

You’re right. The copy, speaking to people’s needs, and drawing them in with the words on the page are the things that matter on a website management.

Have you guys seen this pictures of like 3 stones stacked up or something like that on a beach?

Laurel Staples

Yes.

Laurel Staples

Yes, exactly and I had that on my website and it didn’t do anything. It didn’t do anything for my online sales or offline sales. So those are my false assumptions that I had in the beginning about website management that I see the coaches that I work with have.

Laurel Staples

I try to help those coaches turn those around and help them look at their website as the tool for them to use to help their prospects take the next step with them, whatever that step is.

If they hadn’t heard about you before, maybe taking the step to sign up for your email newsletter. If they have heard about you, they’ve signed up for your email newsletter, they’re coming back to your website, taking that next step to sign up for a strategy session with you.

Laurel Staples

Reframe how your website is going to be used in your business and if you have a different type of business, just figure out what it is that you want your website to be doing for you. Maybe, it is selling your services and closing the deal. But maybe it’s just making people take that next step with you.

Laurel Staples

Yeah, when you do it that way, you don’t feel as salesy, too.

You’re giving them all this free content and there’s this underlying tone you’re trying to rope them in. It can feel like a bait and switch sometimes. I don’t like that approach.

Laurel Staples

Fantastic.

Laurel Staples

Yeah, I have 5 critical components of a website management.

I work with coaches. I’ve designed them for coaches so I’d love to hear your thoughts as well and maybe you can fill in the gaps if there’s something for other groups of people that you feel like is critical on there. So I’d love for that as well.

Laurel Staples

The first thing you do, as what I said before, is you want to get clear on what the goal of the website management is. What I think the goal is, is to help a prospect or get a prospect to take action.

Typically, that’s in the form of subscribing to your email list or setting up a consultation or strategy session with you. But you can have them take action in a different way.

Usually, I don’t think the action that you want people to take is to sign up or to follow you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter, something like that. Because that doesn’t directly channel them to purchasing from you.

Laurel Staples

What I would say is go the other way around. Get people from Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn. Get them onto your website, then subscribe to your email list, and then set up a consultation. Not necessarily in that order.

Think of the action that you want people to take on your website. Is an action moving them closer to buying from you, to purchasing, to making the sale online, to signing up, to working with you?

Laurel Staples

You want to make sure you know what that is because when they’re on your homepage, you’re going to be guiding them to take those next steps. So you don’t want them to pick what the next step is. You want to be in control.

You want to be in control of what they do and sherpa them along every step of the way to make sure they go into your sales funnel and do what you want them to do and not give them like 100 choices and say, “Okay, whatever you want or whichever choice you want to pick. Great!”

Laurel Staples

Yes.

Laurel Staples

Yes, so the five critical components for your website management. Again, we have 7 seconds to grab someone’s attention. What has to be on there? Because you can’t make it too complicated. Because then, if there are so much information on there and their links to Facebook and Twitter and all this stuff, people are just going to bounce off, like hitting a brick wall. That’s not going to happen.

So the first thing that I would say that’s going to draw someone in and grab their attention in that first seven seconds is to write a compelling headline, and this is Copywriting 101. I know you guys have talked about this and can expand on this.

Laurel Staples

Have a compelling headline that doesn’t answer the question what you do but answers the question what you can do for that person.

In your case, it would be the target market, what you can do for your target market. And the headline should answer the question basically, “Why should I care?” Why should I care what you do and what you can do for me?

Those are the things that you want to have big bold in your headline and I would say above the fold and so people don’t have to scroll down to see this headline like it’s right there when they get to your homepage.

Working with coaches, I’ve seen some where they have big bold headline, their name and then certified life coach or certified health coach. That’s their headline and that’s not compelling. That doesn’t make me want to learn more about them. That doesn’t make me want to read their About page. It doesn’t make me want to do anything.

Laurel Staples

Let’s say they’re a health coach in this case or say you offer some sort of healthy service for your clients. Instead having your name and “certified health coach” or whatever you are, and say, “Discover a healthy and permanent approach to losing weight so you can re-claim your most vibrant self without ever dieting again!” It’s like BAM! Like, “Okay, that’s what you can do for me.” If I read below that headline, I’m going learn how you can do that for me.

The first thing that I would say to do is write some compelling headline that answers the question for your prospect “What can you do for me?”

Laurel Staples

Yes.

Laurel Staples

Yes.

Laurel Staples

You have to know who your target market is. If you don’t know who your target market is, you’re not going to be able to create a compelling homepage because you’re not going to know what they want.

If you don’t know what your audience wants, you’re not going to be able to write a headline and you’re not going to be able to write copy that draws them into what you do because you don’t know what they want.

You do have to know who your target market is. You have to know what their problems are, what they’re struggling with and what their issue is. Then, you want to basically hook them in by talking about those things through your website management.

That’s the second thing I would do is you want to write a compelling headline that draws them in and gives them an overview about what you do. With that example that I gave, it would be you help people lose weight.

Laurel Staples

And the second thing that I would included on the website management, right underneath the headline is I would highlight your prospect’s pain points. This is the struggle they’re having, the challenge they’re having, the problem they have or whatever that is.

People are walking around every day thinking about the problem that they have, whether they have a health issue and want to lose weight, or they have a money issue or a relationship issue. Those are the big three that people are walking around, and it’s a like a record playing in their head all day long.

Laurel Staples

When you write on your homepage website and you start to talk about these problems already playing in their head over and over again, and now they see it on the screen in front of them, that’s going to capture their attention. It’s because they’re like, “This person gets me. They get me. They have put the record that’s been playing in my head down into a written format that is what I’m going through.”

That’s going to build a lot of trust and going to rope that person even more into what you’re doing. That’s going to make them want to keep reading on your website. If they keep reading, they’re not bouncing off and going to another website.

Laurel Staples

That’s the second thing I would say about website management. It is to highlight their most important pain points. This can be in bullet point format or in paragraph format. I like to do a little bit of both just to highlight those things.

With the bullet points, people can read in and like, “Oh, I’m struggling with that,” and “I’m dealing with that.” And usually above it I say, “Is this you?” And you just write their pain points down and that is going to grab them.

Laurel Staples

And you said it.

Laurel Staples

Even on your website on Thriving Launch, if you’re like, “Oh, you want to make more money?” It’s like, “Yeah!” Everyone wants to make more money. You can’t say that. But you guys are saying like, “Do you want to launch a product? Are you struggling to get your product out to people and to get PR and fame with your product?” And things like that.

Excuse me if I didn’t say the great copy on your website perfectly but it’s specific that the people that are launching products and dealing with this stuff would read your website and think, “Yes, that’s me.” As opposed to, “Do you want to make more money? Do you want to start a business? Do you want to grow your business?” Well, everybody wants that. That’s not specific.

People are just going to bounce off and they’re going to go find somebody else that does have the capability to help them launch their product. I like that you said the word “vague” because being vague is going to kill the homepage.

Laurel Staples

Let’s see. I think I had “compelling headlines” so that’s first. I would lead that into the pain points.

Laurel Staples

We talked about knowing what step you want people to take, but I would lead everything into the call to action. You have to pick what that call to call to action is for you.

What I always recommend is having people opt-in to your email list, because I feel like that’s the most effective call to action to take people to that next step towards buying and working with you.

And you want to have one main call to action and we said this earlier. You don’t want to lead people away to Twitter or away to Facebook.

I went to one website that had 20 different call to actions right on the homepage. While I was countie, I was laughing and thinking, “Oh, gosh.” And at that point, your prospect or your reader on your website has to choose what to do. How you do know what they’re going to choose to do?

Laurel Staples

You want to funnel them towards doing one thing and that’s what I call the DOT Method—DOT—Do One Thing. What is that one thing you want them to do? I say sign up for your email list. So all the headline and the pain point funnel people down to your main call to action which is going to be to sign up for your email list.

So in this case, you want to have a compelling call to action there. You want to have a compelling lead magnet that’s something you give people in exchange for their email address.

You don’t just want to say, “Oh, sign up for my newsletter.” That adds no value to them. That’s nothing for them. You’ve took them all the way through their pain points and struggles and everything, and then you just kind of drop them off with “sign up for my newsletter.”

Laurel Staples

But what you can do with the main call to action, if you’re getting people to sign up for your email list is offer a solution to the problem that you just laid out in front of them. It doesn’t have to be the full solution. It’s just a part solution.

That part solution could be an eBook that addresses the struggle they’re having and gives them a solution. It could be a checklist or something like that but it offers value to address the pain point that you just connected with them about.

Making sure that everything on your website leads to that is going to be the next thing you want to do. By being clear about what you help people with, then offering to help them, and leading them towards signing up to be on your email list you are clearly leading towards having people who like you, people who will be happy to buy what you have.

Laurel Staples

And I would say with the call to action, if it’s the opt-in for your email list, I would put it above the fold on your website so no one has to scroll down to see it. It’s not on the very bottom. I’d put it in the sidebar.

Generally, it’s better on the right side than on the left side, but you can put it in the top part like right under your header. You can put it in the right side of your header, in the sidebar, and the most effective is to have a pop-up on all of your pages on your website. So do that as well.

Give people the opportunity to give you their email address, and later let them know what you have to sell online. The pop-up and optin bars wouldn’t necessarily have to be on your homepage, but I would definitely place the call to action on your homepage somewhere on the right side above the fold and then you can do the pop-up as well.

Laurel Staples

Yes, it absolutely has to be congruent and I’m so glad that you brought that up because that’s what you’re using your lead magnet as. You’re using it as a filter and it’s like panning for gold. You’re trying to get rid of the people that aren’t your people, that aren’t interested in your services and you’re trying to keep the people that are, and you have to have a congruent offer.

Like what you said, if someone’s a coach and helping people with Lyme disease, you can’t have like five days of meditation or something like that.

Laurel Staples

It doesn’t make sense because somebody might want five days of meditation and that might be fantastic for them but when you go to sell them in your email newsletter or get them to sign up for a consultation or strategy session with you to talk about Lyme disease, they’re not going to want that because that’s not what they opted in for.

Laurel Staples

Your main call to action should absolutely be related to what you offer. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter who’s on your email list because you’re going to have the wrong people on there and then those people never buy from you.

You could have a huge email list but if it’s not your people, it’s not going to work for you and you’ve done all this work for nothing.

Laurel Staples

Yes.

I wasn’t at this convention but I was reading an entrepreneur telling the story about it.

The guy on the stage said, “Okay, raise your hand if you hate pop-ups.” Everyone in the audience, all the business owners raised their hands.

Laurel Staples

Then, he said, “Raise your hand if you love pop-ups and they work for you.” And everybody raised their hand. That’s how it is.

Pop-ups work and they may be annoying but at the end of the day they work and people get your content and working with you. That’s a win-win for everybody and maybe it’s like a nuisance for some people but it works and it helps people. So, I say, “Go for it!”

Laurel Staples

I have 2 more. Maybe, you guys will disagree with these. We’ll see what happens there.

Laurel Staples

This is just a little tip. I recommend renaming your homepage “Start Here.”

What I try to do with people again is like Sherpa them through my website. I don’t need them to make all decisions because people have decision fatigue. They’re making thousands of decisions per day and when they come to my website, I don’t want them to have to make another thousand decisions.

What I do is I try to guide them along, because I’m a coach and that’s what coaches do. We guide people in the right direction.

Laurel Staples

I find that by naming your homepage “Start Here” instead of Home, if someone lands on one of your blog posts or they come and see your podcast, then they know exactly what to do if they’re new to your website.

People just click on your “Start Here” button and then that’s what you want people to read first anyway. It’s a good thing to get people over with the “Start Here” button.

You could also have a homepage and a separate Start Here button, but you’d probably put some of the same elements on it, so I would just combine them unless there’s some reason not to.

Laurel Staples

And the last thing that I think is really effective for a homepage is to showcase social proof.

I find that having testimonials on your homepage, multiple ones or just one or two is going to be helpful to make you look like the authority and to bring your expertise to the forefront.

When I originally started out, I wasn’t doing marketing coaching, I was doing health coaching when I started out as a coach years ago.

Laurel Staples

I don’t think I had any testimonials for my website management but what I did was I took my favorite clients because they were all in my town and my city that I lived in and I said, “Can I videotape you and do a video testimonial for the time we spent together and the results that you’ve gotten?” And I picked my favorite people, and they said, “Yes.”

I created this two to three-minute testimonial video where 4 or 5 of my favorite clients talked about the results that they’ve gotten, talked about why my approach worked for them and things like that.

Laurel Staples

I stuck those video testimonials first and foremost on my homepage. I’m telling you it made a huge difference for me. It pre-sold my services to the point where my strategy sessions that I was having with clients. Before, I’d have to go through a long strategy session and overcome their objections and talked to them about what I did and explained what I did as a health coach.

And I once I put up this video and people would watch it and see that other people got results through my approach, like those strategy sessions just became like a formality to take their credit card. It was amazing to see the difference on this.

I know you all do some video production and things like this so you’ve probably seen those results as well, but it doesn’t have to be a testimonial video but just to put something that somebody else has trusted you with their money and with their time and gotten them results. It’s something that’s very powerful to put on your homepage.

Laurel Staples

Yeah. Well, too bad we couldn’t have a heated debate today because I came prepared for that and we’re not going to do it.

Laurel Staples

If you’re doing those five things—if you’re writing a compelling headline, highlighting your prospect’s pain points, and then giving a solution with your main call to action to get people on your email list, changing your homepage to the Start Here button, showcasing the social proof, I would say to not be too overwhelming with your homepage.

I have been to many homepages where it’s just like a wall of text and that’s where the layout comes in so it does have to be pretty and that it flows for people like you want it to be laid out in a way that it’s not overwhelming. You’re not writing a novel on the homepage. This is not a long form sales letter or anything like that, but you want to just have the essentials on there.

Laurel Staples

If they want to read more, you have options for them to read more about you and understand more about your services, but just keep it basic and simple. Don’t overwhelm people on the homepage.

It’s like if I met somebody in person at a networking event and I’m telling them everything that I do and all about myself and all about my business, they would walk away. That’s the same for your homepage. So you just want to keep it brief and keep it to the main points.