7 Website Mistakes Costing You Clients
In today's post, I'd like to talk about seven website mistakes you might be making that are costing you clients. Your website is your best marketing asset — it's your business best friend and if you treat it right, it can get you sales, clients, and subscribers on autopilot. But, if you're making one of these mistakes that's not going to happen so let's dive in and make sure we don't make those mistakes.
1. You have no clear niche
I know that if you're just starting out or if you've been in business for a while, you might be tempted to offer your services or products to everyone. The problem with that is if you try to appeal to everyone, you will appeal to no one. I struggled with this myself when I started out and I thought that I wanted to serve everybody because I wanted to help everybody get a beautiful online website for their brand and business.
But when I was trying to serve everybody, nobody really wanted my services and it wasn't until I really niched down and defined who I want to be working with that I started seeing some success. My first advice to you is to get really clear on who do you want to serve and the type of people you want to work with. By doing so you will be able to make them feel like you're inside their head and that is exactly the result you want to achieve.
2. It's not clear what you do.
You might think that it's really clear what you do, but people visiting your site might not feel the same way. If that's the case, then you won't be attracting anybody. If your visitors can't understand what you do the minute they land on your website, they're not going to spend time trying to figure out what it is that you have to offer.
So, right from the get-go, your homepage (and your entire website) has to make it absolutely clear what it is that you do. Again, this is where you want to be really clear and very precise and avoid any jargon or technical language that will leave them confused.
A great way to make it clear on what it is that you do is a tagline that's visible in your header area or right below your logo that tells them what you do and who you do it for.
3. Unprofessional design
now let's face it — today, it's easier than ever to make a website. And if you DIY-ed your website, that's perfectly fine and perfectly normal. But if you're an established business, those messy layouts, clashing colors, and unprofessional typography, that are often the result of somebody who doesn't have design experience, will only hurt you in the long run.
And let's be honest — you do not aspire to be a designer and you don't want to spend time messing with your website, tweak this and that just to make sure that your website looks professional and attracts the right type of clients. However, you do need to make sure that your website does have a professional design because that speaks a lot about your brand.
4. No social proof on your website.
Social proof such as testimonials, places you've been featured, blog posts that showcase your expertise and your knowledge, are nothing more than authority builders that basically tell other people that you know your stuff. That's why you want to add testimonials strategically throughout your website in places like your homepage, your services page, and you can also leave them on your sales pages --that's actually a must for a sales page.
There are really a ton of ways to add testimonials throughout your website that will boost your credibility. Another thing you might want to add is any logos from places where your guest blog post has been published.
5. No funnel or follow up method in place.
A lot of people get scared when they hear the word funnel because a funnel can be associated with some shady marketing tactics or long and complicated drawn-out funnels that basically make your head spin. Here's the thing — it doesn't have to be complicated.
All you really need to start out with, is a way for people to either contact you or sign up for your email list. What you can do then, is create a simple email sequence that's two, three emails long that tells them basically more about you and what you do that can help solve their most pressing concerns as related to the services you offer. After that, check in with them a week or two after the initial contact to basically make sure that they are truly interested in working with you or staying in touch with you.
6. Lack of call to actions or CTAs.
CTA (or a call to action) tells people what you want them to do to do. Here's the thing — when somebody lands on your website, they don't know what they should do next. While they might see what type of services you offer or what products you sell, there's probably a million questions going through their mind.
Do you take new clients right now are you booked out? How can they work with you? It's your job to tell them where you want them to go and lead them to the next logical step.
For example, if they should book a discovery call, then have a clear call to action to do so. If you're more focused on building your email list, then include option forms on your pages as the main call to action.
7. Boring or non-existent signup forms.
One of the main goals of your website should be to either get people to work with you or get them on your email list so that you can get to know them and they can get to know you. If you have a sign up form that says sign up for my newsletter — guess what? They are probably like most people and don't want to sign up for your newsletter. They, like most of us, have hundreds of emails hitting their inbox every day and the last thing they want is yet another email that they have to go through.
You have to make it valuable for them so that they want to receive that email, so that they want to stay in touch with you. If you are, for example, a productivity coach and you offer me seven ways to be more productive in my day; then I'm more inclined to sign up for that than just to get your newsletter.
Be sure to grab my DIY website roadmap to avoid these mistakes and build a website that works for you!