If You are not on the web, you don’t exist

The other day I was fortunate to start a conversation with a “small business” owner, she is a professional coach and much respected in my country. She has been working many years as a professional coach and started her business on a decision from one day to the next. Since I have many years of experience of marketing within many different industries and companies, it was only natural that we started talking about the struggles she have and had with marketing to grow her coaching business. Especially when she was to start her coaching business. Her main concern was that she needed a website. She worried about it since she didn’t know how to create it, work with it or what it should look like. She knew or really thought that she needed one, because, -“everyone has one….. and if you aren’t on the web, you do not exist.” -“People look for content and information about you as a coach or about your business there.”

She was right. Of course you had to have a website, but why complicate it. I realized that she wasn’t clear about the potential a website could bring to her business. The sales cycle has changed and the customer is doing a lot of research on the web before making a purchase. They are much more educated about the product or service because it is available to them.

Our conversation continued.

I started to ask her:

• What is the real purpose with your website?
• What are the benefits for your business
• What potential does your current customers have?

-“What shall I put on the website besides availability on training, courses, mentorship availability and text about the business and me as a coach?” she asked – I realised, she had missed the one most important purpose of a website – capturing leads and building relationships! -“A website, I continued, must deliver value to your visitors and give your business important insight to the visitors. It should engage visitors and be interested enough to invite your visitors to a long-term relationship with your business. Tickle their curiousity so that they do not want to shut the browser down.”

It is also important to remember, from a business point of view – your website is your company’s branding, the one place that never sleep and that is accessible 24/7 all around the world. This means, opportunities are available every hour, day and night, 365 days a year. The website should do the selling for you – and you should minimize your cold calling.

-“So, what shall I do?”
Think about the following:

• What is unique in your business? Your Unique Selling Point (USP)
• Think about the brand “You”.
• What would trigger your curiosity?
• What would you be interested in knowing more about that a similar businesses don’t give away for free?
• What can you give away free of charge so that you can tickle curiosity and deliver value?

Our conversation continued for a little while longer, but when we said good bye and she left me, she had a lot of ideas for her current website, she now knew how to improve it, and change it so that she could deliver more value to her current and potential customers and at the same save time, and most importantly, capture leads online! Her excitement was contagious. Her creativity on what her customers wants, what was unique for her business and what her customers would find valuable was really clear to her now. Now she only had to start implementing our conversation to her website. I wish her much success!

I hope that you were helped by this article, I would love some feedback.

All the best,

Carina Asp
Marketing Coach