Having a clear plan before you start building your website will make people stay longer!
Create your website for your ideal client
There are four important elements to planning your new website – get these right from the start.
1. What is the purpose of your new website?
Is it to showcase your services, get people to buy products, book an appointment or opt-in to your mailing list?
To make the experience a positive one for your visitors, they need to be able to see that your website has the following:
- Easy navigation
Your website navigation has to be straightforward and easy to understand. Direct your visitors from your Home page to the pages you want them to visit next.
For example, if you want them to join your mailing list, direct them to your opt-in with a CTA button on the Home page.
Dubsado does this well, two CTA buttons on their Home page:
- High-quality images
Using high-quality images gives the visitor a sense that you’re the ONE they’ve been looking for!
Headshots that you’ve snapped on your iPhone at your friend’s wedding aren’t going to cut it anymore. Engaging a professional photographer will save you more than you realise in sustaining your brand recognition.
- Consistency in branding
The style of your website needs to reflect your branding, the same fonts, colours and logos.
You can see that my website CloudXS, has really clear branding, the colours and images have a soft pastel hue. The fonts are the same on every page. This makes my brand easily recognisable when you see it online.
2. Who is your target market, your ideal clients?
It’s super important to know who your target market is, what makes them tick and what they want or need. Consider creating an avatar of your ideal client.
Write down the points that make up your avatar or draw them if you’re artistic. Think about their demographic, business type, their income and where they hang out, even give them a name that reflects the person you’re ‘creating’.
3. Do you have clear branding that will attract your ideal client?
Choose a logo, colours and the same font to create your ‘brand voice’ that will ‘speak’ directly to your target market.
If your ideal client is a startup female who is looking for a Business Coach that they can really connect with, you could choose calming colours with images of two people in conversation and make this consistent on every page of your website. This gives a feeling of professionalism and a strong voice of reason.
If your ideal client is an artist who needs a new website design, then your colours, tone of voice and images need to reflect what they’re imagining their website will look like too.
Always keep your branding consistent.
PRO HINT: Raam Dev the developer of Independent Publisher 2, a WordPress Theme, gives advice about choosing the right theme for your overall branding consistency.
4. Your content needs to portray a clear ‘image’ of your business
To keep your brand instantly recognisable, you must have a consistent style and your content needs to reflect that as well.
The content on the page tabs helps to create an ‘image’ of your business in people’s minds so that they can envisage how the service or product you have, is going to make their lives simpler.
The 5 essential pages of a basic website are:
- Home page
- About Page
- Services Page
- Contact Page
- Blog Page
You’ll find much more of an explanation of what you need to include on these pages in my Your Website Plan guide.
Ready to get your website in tip-top shape!
“News Flash: You don’t have to do everything on your own, lovely, we’re here to help.”
Alethea Tuitahi from CloudXS
TBH, you know you don’t have time to be sitting up at 1 am watching YouTube tutorials on how to get this right, don’t you?
To get your comprehensive plan to create a ‘swanky’ new website your ideal clients will love, click the image below.
Want help to create a website that is consistent in branding and flow? Check out our Website in a Box and book in a call today to get the website you’ve been wishing for!
Alethea xo
Alethea Tuitahi
Online Course Designer & Founder
Alethea specialises in creating beautiful, conversional, student focusd online courses. Allowing course creators to deliver their course or program to the world… sans tech frustrations and problems. Need help building your online course? As a Thinkific specialist, Alethea is here to help! Book in a free call here.