Written by Jude Wharton, Co-Founder of Ready Steady Websites®
Jude Wharton and her husband Chris have had their own business in the web industry since 2010. In 2019 they co-founded Ready Steady Websites® an off the shelf website and membership site template service, specialising in websites for small business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches and speakers.
Making sure your online presence is appealing to your potential clients and making it easy for them to make that step to work with you, has never been more important. This is why Emily asked me to write this blog post to help HR Consultants attract new clients with their website.
Here are five things that you should be doing on your website to ensure you are giving yourself the best chance of attracting new clients:
Clear calls to action
One of the most important things on your website is to make it clear how people can work with you or if they aren’t ready for that yet, how they can stay in touch with you.
Call to actions or CTAs are the buttons or links that you want your website visitor to click on. You should have at least one call to action above the fold (the area of your website before you have to scroll to see more) on every page. Ideally you should have two.
Your main call to action is the action you really want your website visitor to take, which is whatever they need to do to work with you. So that may be a “Contact Me†button or “Book a Callâ€. However, if your website visitor doesn’t feel ready to do this then a second call to action giving them the chance to find out more about you and sign up to a mailing list is a great idea to capture warm leads. It might be that you have a free resource they could download or a blog they can subscribe to.
Donald Miller refers to these two types of call to action as “marry me†if they’re ready to jump right in and work with you and “second date†if they’re interested but want to know a bit more before they commit. I really recommend his Building a Storybrand Book. It is fantastic for any business owner to help them get their marketing right.
This is how we have used our call to actions on our website and you can see we have our “Join Now†button in our top navigation bar. That’s really good practice because it’s in the same place on every page, making it really easy for our website visitor to remember where it is and take action when they are ready.
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Homepage copy that engages the client
Your home page copy should be focused on your potential client. You need to draw them in quickly on this page.
Use a bold statement at the top to attract their attention and show them that they are in the right place.
Once they are drawn in, show them that you understand the problems or the needs that they have that have brought them to your website. Show them that you have the solution to these problems and how different they will feel after working with you. Give them some proof that you have actual experience of doing this.
This needs to be fairly concise, don’t launch into a whole case study or a full explanation of all of your services, but show them enough to want to find out more.
Also, in HR it’s key that you have certain qualifications or are affiliated with certain bodies. I would make sure that these are clear on your home page because it might be the first thing that someone wants to check before they even consider working with you. You could do this but putting them in your footer or by having a row across the middle of your home page that looks something like this, but instead of “As featured in†you would have “Qualifications†or “Member of†and the relevant logos.
Professional photos of you
Something that is just as important as your copy, possibly more so in some ways, are the images on your website.
You can have written the most amazing copy but if your photos look unprofessional, dull and uninspiring, your website visitor might not even get to reading your copy. If the images don’t draw them in, they may just leave. That’s how quick to judge people are when they’re browsing online!
I always recommend that if your business centres around you, then you should have a
professional branding shoot done. If that’s out of your budget then some photographers will offer a headshot package and if that’s still out of reach, getting some tips on how to take good photos on your phone will certainly help. If you do have the budget to invest, I urge you to do it. It will help you to attract clients if you present all of your marketing materials well, which means it will be a very good investment.
It’s also a great convincer to have photos of a nice working environment on your website. Think a tidy desk against a calm background of a wall painted in a pastel shade and leafy plants. Photos of your actual workspace would be great, if it looks good! If you haven’t got your workspace quite as you’d like it yet or if you’re reading this during lockdown and you’re working from your kitchen table with clutter all around you, then perhaps look for some high-quality stock photos to put on your website for the time being.
Testimonials
Having testimonials throughout your website is also really important. It proves you actually do what you say you do.
Some people like to have a testimonials page and you can do this if you like the idea of having them all in one place for people to look at but I don’t think it’s necessary. I would recommend you have them throughout your website.
You should definitely have some on your homepage. If you have pages specific to certain services, then have testimonials that are relevant to those on those pages.
Make sure you add new testimonials whenever you get them. It’s important to keep them fresh, because quite often people won’t take any action the first time they come to your website but if they return and see a new testimonial then that’s an extra thing that’s going to help them think you are the right person for them to work with.
Clear services page
Many websites will have services as a menu item and then a drop-down menu from that with each service listed, meaning the website visitor has to click into each one to find out more about it.
It’s a much better experience for your website visitor if you have a services page that is nicely laid out with an image for each service and a brief overview of the service underneath and who it is aimed at. Then the website visitor can make a decision about which one they would like to find out more about, rather than having to click through each one before they find what they are looking for.
Take action
If you already have a website, I really recommend you go and cast a critical eye over it, taking into consideration everything you have read. If you are planning on creating a website (which you really should if you don’t have one) then you can use these tips to help you plan it before you launch into building it.
If you would like any further support or guidance on creating a website that will help you attract clients, then we have a number of free resources and courses on the Ready Steady Websites® website or you can follow us on Facebook on Instagram.
Good luck!!