This past week was so much fun speaking to two different groups of coaches & consultants – in the same day! And guess what – one attendee was at both sessions. In fact, she was delighted to hear the content again!
During these presentations, we discussed what it takes to have a successful ONLINE business today. Specifically, I shared the 8 foundational elements of a client-attracting online business so that your marketing works for you!
It’s so important to know not just what needs to be done in your business but WHEN to work on specific activities. This allows us to do less with more focus!
If you want to build a solid house, most builders know that it begins with a solid foundation – you don’t start with the roof first. First you build the footings and the foundation; then the walls; then the roof. It’s the same for your online business.
Without these foundational elements in place, you end up wasting time, wasting energy, and wasting money.
Here are the 8 critical foundational elements almost every business needs to build a client-attracting online presence.
- Website
- Dream client avatar (DCA)
- Blog/podcast
- Email system & list
- Social media profiles
- Content marketing plan
- Signature offer/product/service
- Metrics & analysis
Let’s talk a little about each one …. But I’m going to leave website till the end (and for a good reason)!
2. Dream Client Avatar (DCA)
It’s so important to understand your DCA’s emotions and feelings. You should know them better than they know themselves! Once you’ve pinpointed their emotions & frustrations – these become keywords for ALL of your marketing!
3. Blog/podcast/vlog
At one time, people might have called these a newsletter … but not today. Truth is that no one wants another newsletter – they want value delivered to them consistently. Do you connect with your prospects on a regular basis? Once a week? Or is it sporadically? Is it valuable content to your DCA? Do they comment in return? (If yes, that’s a good sign).
4. Email System & List
One of the biggest mistakes that CEOs, coaches and consultants make is NOT having an email list and using it. Your email list is a list of prospective clients – it’s the list you can invite to webinars; and sell your products to on a regular basis. If you have an email list:
- Is it actively growing?
- Is it 500+ names? 1000+?
- What is your open rate? (20-30% is good depending on the size of your list?)
5. Social Media Profiles
- Here are some questions to consider:
- Have you mastered ONE platform before moving to the 2nd
- Do you have a profile, business page and FB group?
- Are these complete & are they linked?
- Do you use lives or videos?
- Are you consistent on social media or is the last time you posted last Christmas?
- Are your pictures professional?
- Do you have good engagement i.e. comments, not likes
- Is your brand consistent across platforms?
Remember that your prospects, suppliers and others will check you out on social media to see what you are doing.
6. Content Marketing Plan
Any time you create a plan/roadmap or a system – you save time!!! I recently read that one hour of planning will save you 10 minutes every time you repeat the task. So, imagine, spending some time creating a content plan for your blog, social media, website, etc. could save you MANY hours in the long run.
Your content plan also enables you to repurpose content (i.e. this content for this blog came from my talk that I gave this past week). Also, I will use a portion of the content as a video training in my Facebook group during Tuesday’s Trainings.
7. Signature Offer/Product/Service
Every successful business will know their ONE core offer/product/ service that is their specialty; where their expertise shines. It does NOT mean that you need to have an online course (you could, however I would suggest that you put it online only after you’ve created and sold it several times offline so that you’ve been able to test and tweak it).
8. Metrics & Analytics
I’ll try not to be too ‘techie’ here! But each one of us has the responsibility to understand the effectiveness of each of our marketing efforts. Do you know about SEO, keywords, conversion rates, etc.? Do you understand your growth (or lack of it)? Do you know what to measure with respect to your marketing?
1. Website
I’ve left this foundational element until the end for a very particular reason. I believe your website is the place you’ve probably invested the most money and time; and it’s the place that can be fixed the quickest!!! In other words, with a few changes you could be attracting more clients.
Over the last several years, I’ve looked at hundreds of websites and most of them are bad – really bad. Instead of attracting clients, many websites actually repel prospective clients.
Times have changed and so have websites! People are busier than ever which means they typically will spend less time on your website than ever.
In fact – here’s a couple of fundamentals:
- People scan websites – they don’t read them. Which means that most websites have too many words
- People spend on average 3 seconds on your website and in that 3 seconds they want to know
- Exactly what you do.
- Who you do it for.
- What benefits they will get from working with you.
In summary – I’m guessing that your website is too confusing and too cluttered. I’m also guessing it’s not attracting clients as well as it could.
To help you improve your online presence quickly, I’m hosting a FREE webinar entitled: Website Makeover: Critical Elements to create a client-attracting website
If you’re website is bringing in tons of leads & sales – pat yourself on the back and ignore this invitation.
But for most of us – we know our websites need work.
I can help –as a client recently told me – if only he had worked with me sooner on this – it would have saved him THOUSANDS of dollars).
Not only will you learn some practical and simple changes you can make to your website immediately to boost income & impact – I know that it won’t cost you a fortune.
REGISTER here ! I guarantee you’ll never look at your website (or anyone else’s the same)
Sharing is caring – tell your friends about the webinar.
Diana
PS. REGISTER for Website Makeover; a free webinar to help you create a client-attracting website!
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Other articles on making improvements to your client-attracting website:
https://dianalidstone.com/blog/2019/02/26/8-ways-to-ensure-your-website-makes-a-great-1st-impression/
https://dianalidstone.com/blog/2018/07/17/sure-fire-website-secrets-for-ongoing-sales/
