What are the 29 Essential Website Pages for
Professionals, Speakers, Consultants, Trainers, Authors?
Are you a Professional, Speaker, Consultant, Trainer, or Author? Are you thinking of creating or revamping your website? What pages will you include and exclude to be sure you attract and satisfy your market’s needs? What pages would you include as part of your website planning and your website briefing? This is your shortcut – this article will make planning your website simple!
You may ask yourself why a Social Media consultant would write on this topic? Setting up websites is part of my learnings and doings! Imminently I may be setting up website for another client. I’ve become a consultant who embraces the fusion of the digital trends: websites to local marketing, social media to video marketing, mobile marketing and interactive offline technologies. So I not only write, but also get involved in strategy and technical aspects. So websites are just one piece of this marketing mix so that I provide a strategy / frame work ready to generate leads and revenue.
After to many years of using a blog style website that does not meet client needs nor mine, that is exactly what I am in the midst of. I have also received enquiries about how to go about the website planning. (Would you like me to create a more focussed product for you on with checklists for all considerations, website theme 0ptions and step by step processes?). Some of the core things we need to think about when planning the website are:
* BRANDING – colours, font styles, emotive triggers, look and feel, creates affinity with your market’s suspects and prospects e.g. the retro look appeals to the young and the young at heart! I’d use it for various niches and different markets’ psychographic profiles.
* PERSONAS & YOUR TARGET MARKET’S KEY PROBLEMS – who is your target market? what are their key concerns? how do they try to solve their problems? when where and how do they spend time? what is business life (or personal life) like for them? what are their demographics? what are the unique market segments?
* MARKET GAPS – what questions and info needs does the completion not fulfil? what experience level does the market need that you offer?
* MONETISATION OF KNOWLEDGE – how will you make it simple and easy to provide info that the market wants? what parts will be free, a low entry, mid and high level product offering be to suit various market affordability? what services will complement this?
* SALES FUNNELS – the ways you will take visitors through seeking information to enquiry and sale
* PRODUCTS & SERVICES– from self service online training products, mentoring & coaching services to speaking, consulting, and done for you services
What Pages Will You Add to Your Website?
From the thinking and planning of your website it will become clear which of these types of pages you will need to add to your menu. See if you can create these 21 types of pages on your site. Select from these:
1. HOW WE WORK / VALUES / OUR CLIENT PHILIOSOPHY or MANIFESTO – Try to communicate what your business/brand’s DNA is. Add in how you like to work with clients from a process viewpoint as well as your philosophies. Use these to attract clients who are a mutual fit.
2. SERVICES – CONSULTING / SPEAKING / TRAINING MENTORING COACHING/ DONE FOR YOU Be results focussed. Examples you could include: ‘pick my brains sessi0ns’, monthly contracted mentoring, professional audits & assessments, strategies, analysis, projects; training topics, timeframes and outcomes; professional services & customised solutions you offer to save clients time and effort.
List all your services, have a description on each, and link to a page for each. Do the same if you offer products, rather than services.
Individual service – The more detail you can give on each service, the better.
3. FREE OFFER for LEAD GENERATION – free time limited consultation, free ebook / audio/video/webanr/ hangout, free mini review
4. FREE RESOURCES / LEARNING CENTRE – Define relevant, useful, and unavoidable jargon terms you think customers should know. Explain concepts you’d like your customers to grasp – for their sake and for yours. Even cannibalise some of your FAQs and use them here.
5. PRODUCTS – books, downloadables, online self service products you offer (usually training) that you offer. These are delivered on autopilot from a coaching site, learning management system, membership site or even via email using an autoresponder series of emails. Training can be delivered using email, videos, pdfs, audio, webinars, hangouts, Skype. Define the process that gets prospects to sign up then buy. Use online training as a cost effective way of delivering what is more expensive the one on one training and coaching.
6. BOOK-SPECIFIC PAGES – book reviews, order pages / order links, Amazon links / display
7. MEET OUR TEAM or WHO IS or ABOUT US – This is a page everyone expects to see. It’s also one that you can pretty easily optimise with keywords from your industry: These examples can be adapted to professional services aslo: ‘Our Trainer Team’ or ‘About Social Media Strategists’, ‘Meet Your Lawyers’
8. ABOUT / WHO IS / INDIVIDUAL BIOS – Have a page for each team member, alliance, employee. Professional, medical services may add in technician, agent, doctor, nurse, lawyer, paralegal, etc.
9. WHY HIRE US / ME – show what kind of credibility can you provide clients? how you are one step ahead of the competition?
10.WHAT DOES [YOUR NAME] DO – describe what you do, how you do it and for who. Make it really clear who you want to attract as clients and how you will help them.
11. SPEAKING CALENDAR / WHERE IS [YOUR NAME] SPEAKING? – this verifies your experience, demand and availability.
12.BOOKING PAGE – for consulting appointments as well as for speaking engagement. WordPress has great plugins to do this very thing well!
13.SPEAKING TOPICS, DATES, TOPIC OUTLINES BENEFITS & OUTCOMES, ARRANGEMENTS – tell them how it works!
14. FAQs – You could have a general FAQ and one (or several) for more-specialised questions using keywords for your target markets. You could have ‘For First-Time Website Owners FAQs’, ‘Common Questions on Hiring a Sales Trainer’
15. TESTIMONIALS – Ideally you’d mark them up with Schema or hReview-aggregate.
16. IN THE MEDIA – Have you been featured in the local paper, or did the local news reporter stick a mic in your face for 15 seconds? Show or mention it here.
17. PHOTOS – Be sure to name the photos relevantly, and try to include captions. Don’t overdo it.
18. VIDEOS – There are several types: you speaking or training, interviews, talking about your products and services, how to’s etc. Embed your videos on the page. See if you can name your page something like ‘x in action’ or “Videos on How to ____.”
19. KEY RECOGNITION or AWARDS – It’s fine to mention little stuff until there’s bigger stuff.
20. QUALIFICATONS or CERTIFICATONS – Same idea as with the “Awards” or “Recognition” page. Use what you’ve got.
21. COMMUNITY or GIVING BACK – Describe what you do for charity. (Do something, if you’re not already.)
22. COMPANY HISTORY MUNITY – Stories sell! Stick to the story; on other pages you can talk about what makes you great. If there’s not much of a history yet, consider doing a Values page.
23. TERMS of TRADE and financing – if applicable.
24. CASE STUDIES – Describe what you did for a specific customer or client (with his/her permission, of course). Include pictures if you can.
25. SNAPSHOT OF OUR CLIENTS – ideal if you have some well branded clients!
26. PORTFOLIO / SNAPSHOT OF RESULTS– Most applicable if you’re a contractor, designer of any kind, or consultant.
27. REQUEST A QUOTE and link it to an enquiry form using form creator or plugins or to Google Docs or a survey tool
28. SALES FUNNEL PAGES – these are optin pages, sales pages, download pages designed to take people from asking people to giving you their email address to get a freebie to downloading it or to ‘selling people ‘ into ordering a product to receiving the digital product.
OTHER WEB OPTIONS:
29. MOBILE APP consider setting up a mobile app. Mobile apps are not mini websites! Apps are tools designed to deliver one specific item or is for one specific purpose. It might be a tool to solve a client problem while they are on the go, to provide helpful how-to content, reminder info. Think about what and where your prospects go with their mobile phone and ways you can simplify their life! For example, a recruitment company may choose to have an app to give a checklist of ways to prepare for an interview, tips on how to relax before getting there, keeping a positive mind-set, or on being focussed.
Is now a good time for you to brainstorm what you want to include in your new website? What have I missed off this list?
© Jenny Wilmshurst – please ask for permission to reproduce or share. There are requirements!
The Tweet Twins Online World 