Start Here Website Marketing
Before you even think about creating a website, we have a simple checklist before starting our website design course.
Who is your website for
Research 30 different websites like yours
Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)
Who is the website for?
When we launch a website, we have a set of 3 criteria that we should pencil in before we start creating the website. The parts are yourself, the viewer, and the customer in no particular order. Everything that goes into your website should always touch on those 3 categories.
Yourself
Everyone makes a website for themselves or their businesses. Most websites always have this aspect where they showcase their products and their customers.
Most websites make the business owner work harder rather than the other way around. A website is a tool in your arsenal that can help streamline your process and give the business an advantage. Creating a website for someone to pay for your product once isn’t your goal. Collecting relevant data points on your customers, having email automation when clients fill out certain parts of a form, and creating an experience that you enjoy is the ultimate goal.
Your Viewer
The problem with most websites is that they showcase what the company is doing. They aren’t encouraging the viewer to stay on their website, they aren’t encouraging them to learn more about their business, and it ends up becoming sucky fluff that doesn’t help you or the viewer (we made this mistake). When creating your website, visualize a website that you would enjoy. Chances are you are making this website for your business, which you know more about than most. So take the opportunity to create the experience you wish you had on other websites.
While this may sound easy, it’s not. Let's show the differences between the first iteration of the website we created and the new one that we have.
Here is the first iteration of our website (a bunch of sucky fluff) that doesn’t solve a problem. The entire page is trying to rank for keywords and to get viewers to purchase something. Thankfully, we realized sooner rather than later.
If someone is visiting a marketing services website, shouldn’t it try to solve their marketing problems instead of sending them a brochure on what they can purchase?
The answer is duh.
Look at us flashing that we helped nonprofits raise over 6+ million dollars. Every website developer has fallen for or created this type of website. Our website didn’t work because we didn’t have the framework of trying to help the viewer when they visit the website before anything.
Our new website might look familiar because it copies another website known as acquisition.com. We recreated the website to look like theirs as an homage so we don’t forget the three principles. While ultimately you make a website for yourself, you should solve your viewer's problems before trying to sell them something.Our new website now addresses only one thing, to address people's problems that they have with marketing. While you can access the other pages with the menu bar at the bottom, it focuses your attention on solving your marketing issues.
Your Customer
The reason why people create websites is to sell a product or service to a viewer. A person doesn’t become a customer unless they purchase a product. Most websites think a viewer is already a customer. That couldn’t be further from the truth. A viewer is like a window shopper. They know you exist but won’t buy your products or services unless they are 100% confident in the purchase. Now they see your website with all these different products on the virtual floor, hoping they purchase something. How can you imagine selling and retaining a customer this way?
When thinking about someone who has the potential to be a customer, serve them something they need. Your social proof shouldn’t come from sucky fluff. We find it more effective to showcase our careers, refer a client page, how to partner with us, etc. Building up trust with a viewer creates an environment where they can feel comfortable purchasing.
How To Create a Website That Includes All 3 Principles
Every page that you make should carry all three principles that we have been talking about. For instance, our main page collects information on our viewers, which is what we need to make a sale. The viewer clicks to solve their problems whether they are a beginner in marketing or an expert. When they fill out the form and click submit, it automatically sends an email depending on what was selected to help the client with their unique issues. Sending an email with content specifically targeted to their needs creates the confidence to turn a viewer into a client.
Solving the equation for all three parts is possible by thinking this way. Addzey has been helping more viewers, which turns into more customers and helps collect the data we need to make proposals instantaneously using automation.
What should I do now?
First, we made a list of the pain points for our business. While my handwriting is horrendous, it gets the point across.
We need others to refer us.
We need to hire talented people.
We need to create something that gives us credibility.
We need to collect information before sending a proposal.
We want proposals to be automated.
We want to sell one product, not forty.
We need to generate more sales.
We need to have a consistent source of recurring revenue.
We need others to spread the word about Addzey.
We don’t have a 10th pain point. That is a pain, but it looks better to complete a list of 10 reasons rather than show a list of nine.
With your list of pain points, create a website that solves your needs.
We needed other people to refer us. Giving people a chance to earn a piece of the pie, they could earn a percentage for referring a client. For our customers, by referring a client, they get a free upgrade on their service. For our viewers, they can help others by referring them to the content that we are creating, which gives us credibility. Our pain points help the company while helping the viewer and helping the customer. It's a win, win, win all around.
This standard applies to all of our pages. We created one starter product for clients as a taste of what we can offer them without viewing 40 different products. We reduce our workload by managing 1 product that everyone can see versus 40 different individualized products. Plus, we help our viewers see that the bar for entry for us to help them is nominal to the information we provide for free.
Each pain point creates a focus that needs to be solved. By solving the problems creatively, we create a better product for our customers and a better viewing experience for viewers.
Research 30 Different Websites
Researching websites within your niche will help you understand what is working for them. Incorporate what is working into your business and find what you wouldn’t add. Our core offer took us to review over 150 websites to solidify our marketing plans and pricing. It took over 300 websites before we landed on how we could provide the most simplistic experience possible to our viewers.
Putting in 10 times the effort creates a better product. Research others who are doing well first before you iterate. When looking through websites, see how they solve your pain points while helping their customers and viewers. You will notice substantial gaps in the industry when doing this. That gap in the market is what we are trying to solve.
Keep It Simple Stupid
KISS was a term that was thrown around art school a lot. Keeping it simple doesn’t mean there isn’t complexity behind the scenes. It means you should focus on creating things that make your life easier. Creating a 50-point automation structure on your forms when you haven’t sold anything isn’t the process you should solve. You can create the automation later. Keeping it simple means you get more done that gets the ball rolling versus perfection.