Breaking Down My Freebie, The Ultimate Checklist To Getting Your Website Started:

My favorite question to ask a new client is why they want to build a website. Sure websites are fun and can be exciting to look at, but what is the purpose of them staking their claim in the internet world? 

The answers to this question can vary. I may get answers of, “well I want to show off my portfolio”, to “I know that for a small business to look creditable having a website is great”. Which are both valuable reasons why you want to have your site, but what is the purpose? What do you want your client or future customer to do when they land on that homepage? Do you want them to be scheduling a consultation with you or do you want them to enter their email address so you can build your email list? Maybe you are pushing a new amazing product that you just launched, are you going to have it hiding at the bottom of your website? Absolutely not! You want to shout from the rooftops about your amazing product or service!

Giving your future clients or customers a clear pathway will also provide your site with credibility and structure. Think about what happens when you go on someone else’s website that you like, do you know right away what your purpose is, and from there can you find your purpose easily? I’ll take my client Brows By Carly for example. When someone clicks on her site they are either going on there to schedule an appointment or check out her education services. Those are the two main buttons you see when you go on the homepage. Clear direction in what you want your future clients or customers to do when they land on your site keeps things cohesive and clean.

I also encourage my clients to have clear goals for each section on their homepage. If they know what they want to focus on, it helps bring a sense of confidence to their site design process. Today I want to share with you my three favorite tips on knowing ‘the why’ behind your homepage and knowing what you want your customer to accomplish when landing on your site. 

Before we jump into the blog though I wanted to take the time to share that this is part four of my blog series about my freebie The Ultimate Checklist To Getting Your Website Started. If you haven’t signed up for it yet fill out the box below. If you want to read the other three parts of this blog series check them out below as well. 

Now back to your scheduled program. 

Learning Your Why Behind Your Business:

I know what you are probably thinking: 

“Ugh again with this ‘why’ nonsense?!” 

But hear me out! Knowing your why is really just a short way of stating the purpose and drive behind your business. I mean anyone can have a lemonade stand but why do they want to have one, why do you want to have it on that specific corner? Asking yourself these questions can lead to you learning more about your business and possibly yourself. There are so many books out there that talk about your why and finding what it may look like. A popular one is Start with Why by Simon Sinek. If you are a reader I would recommend this book because it helps you with those thought-provoking questions on this topic.

So the question remains, why do you want your customer to land on your site? What is it that you want them to accomplish when they come to your homepage? Knowing the answers to these questions can provide a better path to learning how you want your site to flow. Again I’ll take my past client, Bows By Carly as an example. She knows that part of her why for her business is she wants to educate other brow artists so they can also have their own studio or own income on the side. Since part of her why is education, we knew that education was going to be a big area to focus on when creating her site.

Knowing your why isn’t just for you, but for your customer. Why do you want them on your site? Why should they be clicking on your website and not competitors? Don’t just think about why you want your business to succeed, but why they would want it to. Let’s dive deeper into this why and start talking about who. Who is it that you want to land on your site? 

Knowing Your ICA (Ideal Client Avatar):

My next tip is to know your ideal client avatar or ICA. Again this may be another practical business advice that you are sick of hearing about but think about it for a second. Who is it that you want to land on your site and when they do land on your site, what pain points or provoking questions can you say to get them to go, “wow this person gets me!” That is what will make your site or brand stand out to this customer because somehow they feel like they have a connection with you but have never met you before. 

Really dive deeper into who this ICA is. What kinds of books are they reading, who do they follow on social media? In their spare time would they be that customer using your product and how would that fit into their life? Another question to provoke the thought process of an ICA is what is their name? Naming them almost helps you create this whole story in your head about who this person is and who they could be with the help of your product or services. 

Another point to make about your ICA is that they should be evolving. Just like any other person they grow and adjust with their life, which means that your product or service may have to do the same. Let’s say you are redesigning your website and your original goal was to book clients, but maybe now it is to secure email addresses with this great new freebie you created. Changing the original purpose of your homepage may be the direction to move in. You would need to provide a fresh new prompt question that your ICA may be struggling with now versus the one before. After working with your product or service their struggle or pain point before was solved, so what does it look like now? How have they grown? 

Creating your ICA should be a fun thing for you to work on. Looking at who this ideal person of why you wanted to start your business should get you excited! This is an exercise that you can do before you start your website, especially if you have no idea where to start. Another point about your ICA is how do they talk? Are they a Gen Z kid who loves the show ‘Euphoria’ or are they a 90’s kid who grew up with ‘Dawson’s Creek’ knowing their lingo or interests is a great way to create the copy for your website.

CTAs (Call To Actions):

Your CTAs or call to action is where your talking points from your ICA will come in. How are you going to entice someone to click that button? Also, make sure your CTA is a button and not just a link. There are sometimes areas where links work as a CTA but not on the upper fold of your homepage. Buttons help create the mindset of ‘ I need to click this to go to the next part’. 

Keep things short and sweet. You don’t need to say, ‘click here to learn more about this amazing offer!’ but just ‘click here’ can work. Sometimes you may want to have fun saying on the button, but keep things short and sweet. A CTA is quick and basically just telling that person whatever the next steps are in the process. Another tip would be don’t be afraid to have the entire thing capitalized. It makes the words stand out more and become bolder when you see them. 

Finally, don’t be afraid to have lots of CTAs on your website. If you see a CTA above the fold on a website and as you start scrolling down you never see one again, are you going to scroll back up to the top to click that button, maybe not? Having multiple points where someone can click into the next step can be helpful for the customer and it gives them a clear direction of what to do next. CTAs are an easy part of the copy, so don’t overthink it too much! 

All in all the point of this blog is to help you think about the purpose of your website. We want to make sure that you are getting the best bang for your buck when you hit publish! If you don’t know why you are paying for your website or the reason that someone should go to your website, then why have it? I hope this post helped you and if you have any other questions let me know in the comments below! 

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