Case Study: Online Marketing Strategy & Website Development

Posted on August 31, 2017 by Laurel Lindsay

About the Company:

Florie Varga is the founder of Affinity Life and Family Coaching. She is a certified life & family coach that helps good people turn lemons into lemonade.

Specializing in parent coaching, Florie supports parents survive and thrive during the transition into the teen years.

The problem:

Florie needed to get her website up and running and start marketing herself online.

She’d been working with a branding agency and had gone through numerous iterations of her website text and the website map – but she just wasn’t happy with the end result.

One of the main problems was that she didn’t have a clear direction for her business. After three or four rounds of writing and rewriting her website text, she was feeling unclear and no closer to her goal.

What we did together: create an online marketing strategy

Before we could get clear on what Florie’s website would look like, we had to develop a strategic direction that addressed:

What Florie was really good at, really enjoyed and what was the most profitable aspect of her business – what services to offer and prioritize.
Where she wanted her business to go and how she wanted to grow – her objectives and business direction.
What the marketplace and demand looked like – who her competitors and customers were, and where there was a gap between customer demand and services offered.
Who her ideal customers were, what they were worried about, what they wanted and hoped for, and the types of things they said to her when they were describing their situation.
Where were her customers online – and how to get in front of them.
How to position Affinity Coaching as a business that stood out from the competition and become the logical choice for her ideal client.

What we did together: create a website that attracts clients

One of things that kept popping up is that Florie knew so much about her industry, her process and her tools, she wanted to share so much of it in her website text.

We had to keep coming back to the question: “Why would your customer care about that?”

Instead of emphasizing things from Florie’s perspective, meeting the client where they are – using their language, pain points and hopes and dreams.

From there, we created a website and online brand together that Florie can be proud of.

We worked together to identify:

What the website map looked like, what pages we would need and which ones could wait.
How to lay out a lot of text in a way that was easy to digest.
How to build consumer trust in Affinity, despite the fact it’s a relatively new business.
How to use images & graphics to engage the audience
How to capture prospective client contact information and schedule new clients easily

The results:

Affinity Coaching has an website that is:

Professional and consistent with the initial branding
Speaks to the ideal client’s pain points and needs
Clearly communicates the benefits and transformation that occurs working with Florie
Captures interested party’s contact information.
Stands out from the thousands of coaching sites out there

In addition, Florie has the clarity, confidence and a structured online marketing plan to continue to market herself online in a way that works to attract clients.

What the client said:

“With Laurel’s commitment and amazing knowledge and skills, I transformed not only my website but the whole marketing approach to my business. Laurel brought a well-defined step by step strategy for shifting my business focus to the client’s need over a focus on the services offered. As an end product, I have a unique, dynamic and very client centered website.

More than this amazing deliverable, however, Laurel’s professional know-how and steadfast focus encouraged a transformation and evolution in my thinking about the purpose, reason and value of my professional services to my clients. This was a wonderful and unexpected pay-off for me as I establish this new business. One that I envision would have taken a long time to realize without Laurel’s guidance.

I cannot recommend Laurel enough! She knows her business, is always professional, and has amazing positive energy. With my website and new focus I am so excited to move forward with the outreach and growing of my business.”

In gratitude Laurel!”

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What my Dad’s Style and your website should have in common

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Laurel Lindsay

What my dad's style and your website should have in common

Going to the mall as a young teen with my Dad was absolute torture.

I’d ask him to give me a ride and drop me off at the doors, but he’d always insist on entering the building with me.

I’d spend hours getting ready so I could look exactly like my posse of girlfriends, and my Dad would wear track pants WITH his dress shoes.

In PUBLIC.

I was basically a permanent cringe.

When I’d beg him to wear something else – ANYTHING else – he’d shrug his shoulders, refuse and and say, “well, it works for me”.

“It works for me”

Last week I posted an article warning against letting your website become the online equivalent of an 80’s perm.

But being outdated and unfashionable online is totally fine – on ONE condition – that your website is working for you.

By working for you, I mean that it’s positively contributing to you achieving a specific goal.

Most of my clients tell me they want their websites to help them generate revenue.

If that’s your goal, than there are only a few basics you’ll need from your website.
In the case of your website, think like my dad (trends be darned!) to ensure your website works for you.

My big thumbs can’t click these tiny buttons!

It was 2015, in Nanton Alberta that I predicted you would see a decrease in where your website ranks on Google if you don’t have a mobile friendly website.

This may surprise you, but for the last few years, more people use their smartphones than desktops to navigate the web.

In 2017 the majority of web traffic is mobile.

So, if your website is next to impossible for the majority of people online to use, than it’s not exactly functional, is it?

What do I do next?

What action do you want your website visitors to take next?

Whether you want them to call you, give you their email address or shop online, it should be painfully obvious what the next step is.

All the visual indicators and functionality on each page of your website should lead to this action.

An example:

This is my home page.

screen_shot_2017_02_24_at_4.34.05_pm

With the funky orange arrow, you can tell exactly what I want you to do.

(Don’t be shy, you can feel free to head on over there and sign up for free online marketing tips)

Another example. Again using orange, you can tell we want you to Try TILOS.

screen_shot_2017_02_24_at_4.55.54_pm
I could go on, but I think you get the point.

Yeah? Prove it!

Sure, your website tells me you’re the best around, but I need you to prove it before I spend.

And I am not alone.

Most customers trust online reviews, or what other people say about you.

Take the time to ask for and collect customer reviews and post them on your website.

Literally, no-one can speak as powerfully to your potential customers as your existing ones.

This is called social proof, a phenomenon I discuss on CNN here.

In Summary:

Whether your website is the crocs with socks style or more haute couture, it should be mobile friendly, have a call to action and social proof.

In my opinion, these are the three most important factors in making sure your website works for you and aides in your sales process and revenue generation objectives.

Sharing is caring!
If you found this valuable (or humourous), don’t be shy, share this with your network.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below…

Is your Dad more stylish than my Dad?
Did I miss a contender for the top three most important basics for a website in 2017?

What No One Will Tell You About Your Brand New Website

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Laurel Lindsay

Reading a good book can change your outlook on life.

Philosophically speaking, you may even be a different person than you were before you read the book.

Most of the successful business owners I know are voracious readers, they have coaches and consultants and are in regular attendance at workshops and seminars.

Their growth game is strong.

The continued evolution of their offering, brand, services and approach to business and life has a downside no-one talks about.

Sometimes, you can evolve so fast, the online reflection of your business is outdated as soon as you launch.

Yep. Your website is outdated the minute you launch.

The text, images, wording…call to action, all of it is the product of your reality 3-6 months ago, when you were working to get it launched.

If you’re a perfectionist, or like the feeling of being done, once and for all, or even for this quarter, this can eat away at you.

Whether you change your hair as often as Madonna used to, or you’re committed to providing the best in service you possibly can, you’re going to be out of date.

It’s the side-effect of being an evolving entrepreneur.

And it’s ok!

The web has enabled you to become your own broadcaster – and that’s wonderful.

Just know that it’s iterative. Your website, your headshots, your official bio…all of it.

It’s all progress.

It’s never, ever going to be perfect.

And that’s ok.

Going into your new website development or product design or photo shoot or whatever it is with this knowledge can save you a ton of time and frustration.

It may never, ever, ever feel done, or perfect, or 100%.

But it can be an improvement on the last iteration.

Don’t let great be the enemy of good.

Just launch your website, then refine it.

Launch and refine, launch and refine, launch and refine.

That’s the evolutionary way.

But do continue to evolve your online presence on a somewhat regular basis.

Don’t just give up and settle for the online equivalent of an 80’s perm.

5 Quick and Easy ways to get more traffic to your website

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Laurel Lindsay

Let’s talk about getting more traffic to your website!

Here are 5 quick and easy ways to get more people to your web site.

1. Leverage your already existing promotional materials.

One of the easiest and most overlooked ways to promote your website and get more traffic to it is to mention your website address on your voicemail!

Also, don’t forget to add your website address to your email signature and any other promotional materials, and I’m talking any – vehicle decals, brochures, signage, anything else you can possibly add your website address to, go ahead and do it!

2. Work your email contacts.

Either send out a newsletter once a month to existing clients and contacts or a personal email out to the folks you know letting them know you have a website, what it can do and ask them to share it with their network.

3. Network on Social Media

Speaking of networks, if you are not leveraging social media to promote your business yet, you definitely want to go ahead and do that as soon as you are done reading this.

Promote yourself on Facebook, Pinterest, Google +, LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, you name it! Those are just a few sites out there that can help you drive traffic to your website.

4. Update your site often.

You have to give these contacts a reason to visit your site so make sure to update it on a frequent basis and provide valuable information to your target audience.

5. Pay for traffic

Last but not least, if you haven’t thought of it already, you might want to consider advertising on Google.

Google Pay Per Click ads are an affordable way to get exposure to your clients when they are typing in what you sell on Google.

That’s your one minute tip. If you found it helpful please share and thanks again for visiting!

3 simple ways to get more leads from your website

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Laurel Lindsay

Let’s talk about how to capture more leads from your website!

Is your website your best producing sales person?

If you’re not getting a steady stream of leads from your website, keep reading for 3 simple ways to get more leads from your site!

1. Have a call to action – clearly ask people to engage with you

An example of a simple call to action are “Call this number to get a quote”

2. Another thing you may want to consider is have an email newsletter signup.

You can offer an ethical bribe like, “sign up for our newsletter and get our free report on the 22 questions you must ask your web developer before signing on the dotted line.”

A strategic ask like that will allow you to trade information for somebody else’s email address and that way you can continue to market to them going forward.

3. You may also want to consider a live chat option.

Live chat from ZopIM is a super cool and affordable tool you can utilize to engage with your customers directly, in real time if they have questions, want to book an appointment or purchase something from you.

PROTIP: Take advantage of human nature- no one likes to miss out! Offer a Time Sensitive Special that ends soon!

Those are a couple tips for capturing more leads from your website, if you found this valuable please share and don’t forget to subscribe to our channel!

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