Laura: Welcome to the Raving Coaches minicast and YouTube blog. This is your go-to source for information that's going to transform your coaching passion into a profitable business. Every week you can join me and Laura Holliman as I dive deep into essential topics like branding, marketing, strategy, sales, pricing, all tailored to be able to help you generate consistent revenue in your business. Each week I do the ranting so your clients can do the raving. Rock on. As a marketing strategist, I've been able to help quite a number of coaches be able to brand and work through the process of designing their website. And although I'm not a website designer, I've picked up a few lessons. One of the big things and the terminology that you're going to hear when it comes to the website is above the fold. Now, that goes back to newspaper times when, right, the headline was above the fold of the newspaper. So basically what it means in website terminology is when you land on a webpage, what's the first thing that you see on a desktop monitor, laptop monitor, computer? That first little part. That is a huge asset to the website. It sets the tone. Now, one of the big mistakes that I see coaches make frequently is they use this to talk about themselves, to introduce the, hi, I'm Laura, I'm a marketing strategist and the host of the Arabian Coaches podcast. Nobody cares. That's not why they came to your website. They did not come to your website to meet you, to have you tell them a story about your qualifications. Nope. They came to your website because currently they are having a problem. Do you know the problem your clients are trying to solve? If you don't, that's a problem for you. If you don't know the problem that they're trying to solve, then you don't know how to talk to your clients. And this above the fold space, this should talk about the problem your clients are trying to solve, the problem they want to throw money at right now. What's the problem they want to throw money at? And it should speak directly to them. It could be a bold statement. It could be a question. It can be phrased a lot of ways, but it needs to, it is right, it is the bait. If we're fishing, it's the bait that gets them to scroll down further. Then the next piece expands on that, this above the fold, directly talking to the problem they want to solve. The next piece, opens it up a little bit more. If we're fishing, it's when I shake the little bait just a little bit. Jiggle, jiggle, jiggle. Yeah, I'm alive. I'm not a hook. It is the hook. It explains it a little bit more. Not talking about you yet. Talking about the problem your clients have. From that point on, your website can go a number of different directions and you can design it very differently. But the main focus on that main page needs to be to hook them in because they land there and they go, oh my, it's exactly what I've been waiting for. It's exactly what I've been looking for. This person describes the problem that I'm having so clearly. and then you can start explaining some next steps. Having a clear next step in your website is huge. I want you to think about your website a little bit like a choose your own adventure book. If you're a person of a certain age, you're gonna know exactly what those are, but where do you want them to go? Giving them on that front page a couple of options of things that they can explore It's like, is it this choice in exploration or is it this choice? Might take them to other pages. What I see frequently, mistake number two of websites for coaches, is that that title bar across the top has about eight or nine different choices on it. And then each of those choices has a dropdown menu of more options and more things to talk about. And people get lost in your website. It's a website, not a book. What are the two to four different options, different ways that you want your client to connect with you? If you're a coach, maybe it's a discovery call. Whatever you call your discovery call is fine. I think not just calling them discovery calls, but having them focus in on what the client, again, back to that problem, problem. Maybe that's one of them. Book a discovery call with me. Maybe you have a lead generator and that's another great tool. Do you know what your lead generator is going to be focused on? You're so smart. Yes, it's the problem that they want to throw money at. Maybe it is a way of connecting with you and learning more about you. Doesn't cost them any money. It's a way for them to snoop on you. So perhaps that's video content, a blog, a podcast that you have, some other ways that they can snoop around on you. And then problem number three that I will talk about when it comes to coaches websites is under utilizing testimonials. I wanna see those testimonials on that first page and I want you to curate those testimonials. Laura, how do I curate those testimonials? Sometimes we get those testimonials back from our clients and it's like, ooh, I love this line, but this kind of gets a little weird and rambly and I don't really want to post it. One of the things that I'll do with my clients is I'll ask them for testimonials while we're on a coaching call. Like, can you describe your experience of working with me? Then I take that transcript and utilizing their own words and maybe doing just a little bit of editing. I turn it into a great testimonial. I send it over to the person and I say, based on that conversation today, this is kind of what you said. um would this be an okay testimonial is there anything you want to change about this testimonial uh before i'm able to utilize it and then they can make changes if they want to but see i am getting them to say a little bit more in line with what i want them to say a little less rambly a little bit more dialed in and ready to post on that website Those are three mistakes that coaches make when it comes to their website. Time to go visit yours. And friends, if you do not know, if you cannot just so clearly articulate the problem your clients have, and in reality, your clients right now, all of your clients right now have three problems, one, two, three. If you don't know what those problems are and how you uniquely solve them, to figure it out right now. Because all the marketing that you're doing and all the introductions you're doing at networking and all that website and social content that you're putting out, unless you can clearly identify what their Google-able problem is, what the shame-filled problem is, and what the root problem is, and know how to use the language around them in your marketing, then you're probably not having the marketing, the success with your marketing that you wish you had. I do have a course that's called Stop Calling Yourself a Coach. Start telling people what you really do, where we dig into very simply those three problems your clients have. It's a self-study coach. You can check it out. I'll drop the link below.