Lessons

Lesson Info

Tool #4: Your Marketing Smart Website

Now we're moving toe lesson eight which is your marketing smart website right which remember is not about you just keep in mind it's not about you so what I have prepared here now are three essential questions that your website needs toe ask and then we'll look at some examples so the questions are who are you speaking to? You need to know that how is your portfolio and your client list ordered and what is the call to action? So the uh implication is that your marketing smart website speaks directly to someone very specific and you know they are your portfolio and client list is ordered from ah perspective that would make sense to them and that positions you in a way that you want to be positioned so you need to know strategically what is your message and who what are you trying to convey and then what is do you have a call to action? Every website should have at least one and perhaps several different calls to action because you wantto motivate them to do something all right. Any ques...

tions so far. Okay, so let's look at some examples all right now I think we can go thank you, let's go to the web have to show you my website first, right? And this is me promoting myself but I'm not bragging right? Is it slimy? I'm just saying here's what mine says if you are a creative professional consultant or freelancer who wants better clients, bigger budgets and better projects marketing mentor can show you how to find them right that's my positioning phrase it's similar to the summary on my linkedin profile right and it's speaking to so the questions are uh who am I speaking too I'm speaking to you are a creative professional consultant or freelancer and here's what you want uh how is the portfolio or client list ordered that isn't as relevant for me since I don't have a portfolio and then finally what is the call to action so on my website your calls to action I have four of them sign up for the free tips uh you can go to the online store you can pay me for something that's a call to action or you can sign up for the free mentoring session so I have four calls to action right? I suggest at least one all right now let's look at some other examples so as I said we're going to meet jill anderson later but we're gonna look first at her current website and she's going to talk more about this also so I'll just briefly touch on it but as I said earlier she has three questions that she is addressing the pain of her prospects so hello there I'm jill I make websites for creative businesses that is who is she speaking to she's speaking to creative businesses and she's addressing the pain by saying are you a designer agency or creative who needs to make your website and your clients look like it belongs in this century or perhaps you suffer from website shame right? So there's the pain right there website shame she also says do you wish you could find a web designer that could help with your online presence web sites social media branding and is someone you can collaborate with on your client's projects so again mohr pain there I wish I could find someone who that's uninterested construction of it maybe help you think about how to figure out what the pain is and finally do you want to work with a web designer that can design and code someone who loves typography, white space and the latest web design standards? So what she's doing which is very interesting here is she's talking about herself in the context of the needs of the prospect do you wantto work with someone like me, right? I can design and code I love typography white space on the latest web design standards right? So she's speaking to them and it draws you in and the idea is as I said before that someone lands on this and says this is exactly who I need to work with or I need to know more so than they dig in a little bit further okay let's go on okay, so this is laura workin of laura beth studio and uh I'll scroll down a little bit, but here we see her positioning statement it says welcome I'm laura I work exclusively with nonprofits to design brands, event collateral and strategic communications that attract the support organizations need toe fulfill their missions. So who is she speaking to? Very clear she's speaking to nonprofits and she's talking to them about what they need and even more important she's speaking in their language you see that's nonprofit language organizations need toe fulfill their missions right and that's a little trick if you're targeting nonprofits, talk about it in the in the language of missions as opposed to goals and they will it will resonate more with the language that they come to you with. Okay let's, just scroll down a little bit here to see what else laura has. Okay then she's got questions just like jill does. Are you looking to engage new donors, volunteers and participants? Do you wish your brand was consistent and focused throughout all of your communications? Do you want your next event to attract more attendees raise more money and increase awareness? And are you ready to tell the world what differentiates you from other nonprofits that air seeking the same support right so again addressing the pain? Do you wish the outcome as we were talking about in the elevator pitch guys do you wish your brand was consistent and focused throughout all of your communications because she knows that the nonprofits that come to her are all over the place and very inconsistent in their branding and so she is speaking directly to that need that's what she's using to engage them so for each of you what would that be what is that that they wish they could d'oh that would draw in their prospects and then she gets to herself I'd love to help if this sounds right if this is exactly what you need learn more and then you click there and you find out about her services all right now um we might come back to her when we talk about packages but for now let's just scroll down a little bit more and we see examples of work and here we have three different categories branding and identity event collateral and strategic communications this is organized right I said before is your portfolio ordered from the perspective of your client this is what her clients think they need event collateral branding and identity or strategic communications and that's what you're trying to convey that you understand that I often see in fact let's look at her client list let's see where is it maybe it's not there oh who help thank you so she has organized her client list by category within nonprofits right. So who help nonprofits, fundraising professionals and event planners right so this is digging down a little bit deeper into the type of prospects is not just nonprofits and then within that she has organized based on the category that they themselves see themselves in so that they could come here and say oh yeah she's done work with three of our colleagues or three of our competitors even and that means she knows what they need and can help right? So thinking about how do you order your client list so that speaks to your position name to your strengths and to the needs of your prospects and clients most people I want to know in the chat room how many people do this um order their client list alphabetically why that means nothing right? What do you get from that? Maybe some of the names are going to be familiar maybe most of them will not but alphabetically doesn't tell me anything it doesn't give me any marketing information and that's really the whole point about a marketing smart website is that every decision you make every piece of content has to be filled with marketing information that is relevant to and speaks to your client and prospect take a oh surprise I was thinking most people say yes but that's not happening sue says no lady says no I don't christened does but she does it with in categories on jeffrey says I jumble up buy what I want people to see that's a very important point what do you want people to see that's the most important question instead of you know here's everything I've done right from a historical perspective as opposed to aspirational what do I want people to see all right let's look at another one so this is another client of mine in chicago it's called our ex creative lab right so you can guess even by the company name that they're targeting healthcare and this is the home page which has one very simple message which says focused holistic communications for associations right so they didn't start there and again we'll talk about this in session to when you start to focus you don't start very very narrow you narrow as you go along and so this is as narrow as they've gotten so far but the idea is that the narrower you khun b the more likely someone's going to land on your site and go oh yes that's me right I am an association that needs focused holistic communications and there's something behind it this is pediatrics which implies medical right so medical associations is their specialty alright so that's that's uh an ideal this is an ideal I don't expect people to just tomorrow be able to do this but this is really where we're heading because this is how you get to charge a lot of money you say I specialize in this particular type of organization and that means I know exactly what you need and I've done it before and you're gonna pay for that that is actually if I had to say, how do you command the fees you deserve? You make it clear that this is your specialty and you wouldn't be getting as high quality work from anyone else that's why you pay all right let's look at another one. So this is stone soup creative another client, julia rice and she says welcome were stone soup a brand strategy consultancy for nonprofits, foundations and educational institutions, right? So a lot of people are very interested in this nonprofit world they want to do good, they want to help people who do good but she's doing it in a slightly broader way. Then laura at laura beth studio, right she's saying we are a brand strategy consultancy, which means that they're not just designers, they do strategy and this is important this is actually very important in the design world these days because with, you know, software anyone can be a designer, right and that's a big problem. So how do you differentiate yourself from the person they have in house whose working on the software and so part of it is positioning yourself as a strategist, as someone who bring a strategy to the table and the design flows from there and so again her focus here is on nonprofits, which is a very broad category, and so she's narrowing down to foundations and educational institutions. All right, so that so actually let's go back to our questions. Who are you speaking to? She knows who she's speaking to. In fact, let's, scroll down a little bit more, and we can see how can we help you achieve a deliciously successful project let's start cooking, which is a reference to stone soup creator, right, so that's part of their branding and then let's go down a little bit more here talking about the work because a lot of designers, especially and other creatives who are in the visual world, think, you know, have a portfolio sight. You were talking earlier about a portfolio site. Just the work will speak for itself. All I have to do is show the work, but that is not a marketing smart website. And frankly, most clients cannot tell the difference between wonderful work and mediocre work and really bad work sometimes too so. The focus should not always be on the work it should be on these other things that are going to be more relatable to the prospect so the work is kind of in proportion to what's actually important in terms of your positioning so here we will help you strategize design right think research publicized and communicate right it's not just a design firm were on top of the latest developments in design thinking brand strategy, responsive design content creation and marketing tools that deliver results to engage your constituency and reach more donors again the language of the market right? All of that has to be chosen very clearly all right and actually let's just scroll down a little bit more because they've got testimonials here on the home page what our clients say that is very, very important from a marketing point of view for a marketing smart website so you should be collecting testimonials as you go along and asking people for testimonial so that you could post them here. You know how important reviews have become in the online world and people make their decisions based on what other people say and that is why your testimonials have to be very important now just one little tip since I'm talking about testimonials and I'm not really planning to talk much more about it later but a lot of people say but I don't have any testimonials or my my client say they'll give it to me but then they never do the best way to get them is to capture them when they happen right so if someone says oh my god that was a wonderful thing you did or we got these results from that project you worked on immediately say can I capture that? You know can I use that as a testimonial all write it up I'll run it by you will post it on the website you don't have to do anything make it really easy for people teo give you their testimonials instead of them having to do the work justin what would you recommend if you've had a testimonial our recommendation on linkedin and you want to use that on your web site what's the best way to do that uh and actually it can happen the other way too but if you've already got it I don't see it as any problem to just posted on your website but it doesn't hurt to ask permission just to let people know what you're doing and vice versa if you have a testimonial on your website but you really wanted on linked in you can't do that right someone else has to do that for you so it's a little bit trickier to make it easy for someone but you can ask and just say you know I'd love it if you would post it as a recommendation or an endorsement for me but that's a good point thank you alright, I feel like I've been talking a lot I have one other website to show and then we can go back to the slide show but is there anything happening in the chat room we should know about websites and particularly when you're creative and how you show what that was commissioned by a client because often the client doesn't want you to show their work and therefore you don't really have a portfolio that you could show I'm sure that's something you've encountered many times yes okay, so they're different aspects to this the first one is in your contract when you sign on to do a project you should have a clause in there that says I will use examples of the work or images of the work as part of my self promotion and you give me permission to do that if they have a problem with that, you can make other arrangements or maybe won't be able to use it but most people don't even ask wright this is another situation where you have to ask for what you need and you need permission it should be standard now sometimes you've done work on someone else's behalf or under the auspices of an agency or some other organization in which case you may not be able to post it on your website or if you do you could just give credit to the organization and of course, get their permission. But there's, nothing wrong with your not basically saying I did this and no one else was involved as long as you give the correct context there's no problem at all. Okay? So let's, look at one more because we've mostly looked at designers here and I wanted to show a copywriter. So this is connect with copy. I mentioned dedra re enzo earlier and ah, this is the top of her home page. Actually, jill anderson designed this site. So can you talk then? Writing just got fun, right? So she's targeting creatives who don't think they can write that's her target market creatives who don't think they can write so that's her message on her home page you talk I work my magic equals words your clients love right, it's such a simple message and very clearly conveyed. So who is she speaking to? She knows exactly who she's speaking to you. And how is her portfolio and client list ordered? We could look for that. And then what is the call to action? Okay, so let's, look back here. So there's lovely. Deidre, are you a creative professional or service provider? My specialty is helping you find your unique brand personality and bringing it across inauthentic, engaging words need web content newsletters and block post that show off your brand all insure your written words are sticky like honey and make your audience swoon so some personality some humor there right and that's an example of her work essentially she says I'm deidre and I'd love to sweeten your copy creating experience now in terms of calls to action let's scroll down a little bit here's work with dedra designers so she targets designers but she doesn't on ly work with designers and in fact on her linked in profile it's a general message in her summary and then she has a special paragraph targeted two designers that's one interesting way also to use your lengthen profile and then she says no robots here this robot is cute but he's not doing any writing here when we get together you get human crafted words written to connect with other humans so again emphasizing the pain in a way addressing the pain that she knows people come to her with and what people are concerned about and then pleasing packages she's got packages again we'll talk more about packages on another in another session but need website copy, newsletter copy or blogged help check out some of the ways we can work together and then she's got three or four different packages that you can choose from with prices but we haven't gotten to the call to action yet scrolling them there it isthe twelve sparks to write sizzling audience attracting website words you sign up to get my unknown newsletter right quick monthly tidbits with be authentic right authentic tips that will hopefully make you smile now who wouldn't want that newsletter right don't you love that newsletter already? And could you write or create or have dedra help you create a newsletter that will be like that that will make other people on it so you put in your little name and email and that's the call to action and that is really one of the most important calls to action all of us should have is to be building our list right building our list and yes, you can give them something you don't have to you can just say you're going to get my tips in this case you get a little document twelve sparks to write sizzling audience attracting website words all right all right questions, thoughts I think we can go back to the powerpoint and let's see now I had some examples we've looked at these oh actually that's the old version of laura's ah website stone soup we looked at that and then this actually on my pinterest page I have a section called best websites of designers, copywriters and other freelancers where I have lots of examples of what I call marketing smart websites so the best websites of them you'll find them there all right all right, this is the exercise for the marketing smart website. And in the workbook, you're going to see links to the models, and we're not gonna do this exercise now, but take a look at your own website. Is it marketing smart? Is it answering the three essential questions? And then we want you to identify one simple change you could make toward a marketing smart website without completely revamping it.