Before I dig into the topic of websites, I feel like I have to express, again, the grief I have for my country, the United States, around the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and dozens, hundreds of other unarmed black men and teenagers killed by police.
What does this have to do with business? Why not keep these kinds of words to my Facebook profile, or among friends and colleagues in private?
I don’t have the space here to describe the economic history of racism. If you’re interested, I recommend reading Learning to be White by Thandeka and if you’re wanting to understand the pervasive nature of racism and the pain associated with it, I recommend reading Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Joy DeGruy.
For those of us involved in trying to make the world a better place, and who ended up in business either by choice or because it was the only outlet for the work you’re here to do, we need to face the stew of grief and pain that exists in the world.
My work is affected by my grief, as it should be. The answer is emphatically not to turn my grief off and turn toward work, but to face my grief. As I allow it to wash through me, I can, God-willing, find the connection to the Source of Love even in this place. Then my actions come from that Source.
Love is not some namby-pamby thing. Love turns everything upside down. It’s clear to me that our economic system, along with many aspects of our culture, could used to be turned upside down in Love.
Action without love is often destructive or empty. Action inspired by an authentic love that has arisen from the ashes of anger and uncontainable grief may be the most powerful expression humanity holds. Because love that has passed through that fire is a love that can encompass anything, and that’s Divine love. That’s how creation is born.
So I talk about my grief, let it wash through me, and hopefully step into actions from a place of Love that will support the revolving of all that we do toward life and beauty.
Let’s honor those who were killed with our love, our awareness, and our actions.
Hard to change topics after that… but that’s what we do. Grief comes in waves, and between the waves are the laundry, cleaning the bathrooms and, maybe, your website.
Article: The 3 People Who Visit Your Website
An essential element in expanding your reach is having a heart-centered website, a website that both contains your heart and your self-expression, and also meets the hearts of the people who come to it.
And this is where people can choke up. What do you write? I recently explained that while it is important what you write, as important, or even more so, is knowing who you are writing to.
To help bring some ease and clarity, I want to describe to you the three people who visit your website, why they come, how they get there, and what the focus is for each of them.
First Person: The Stranger
The Stranger is someone who is a new visitor. They don’t know you, they haven’t been on your website. They found their way here because you are offering help in an area where they need help.
How did they get here? Either through a search engine, like Google, or a referral. Referrals could be from a client of yours, a social media link, someone who forwarded them a newsletter, or someone who mentioned your name. You could’ve referred them yourself through a flier, or maybe they heard you speak at an event.
Because The Stranger probably isn’t ready to buy, the main focus for you is to help them decide if they fit, and if they do, to invite them onto your email list.
Most of the top navigation pages should be written to The Stranger. The intention is that The Stranger can decide easily whether a) your values matches his/her values, b) you really see and know The Stranger and the situation the The Stranger finders her/himself in and c) your approach feels resonant to The Stranger.
If so, they’ll probably step into a deeper relationship with you and subscribe.
Second Person: The Reader
The Reader is someone who has subscribed. They might even be a past client who is ready for more work. They find their way to your website often from links within emails, but sometimes they go to your home page on their own.
The intention here is to help The Reader find out about your offerings, so she/he can decide whether it’s time to step in (or step back in) and purchase or sign-up for something. You are writing your offer/sales pages to your Readers, people who are already familiar with you to some extent, they already like you. Now they need to make the decision about whether your offering is the right one for them, and if the timing is right.
Because they usually get to you through a link in an email or social media, the top-level and most visible pages don’t need to be aimed at them. However, there should be a Services page of some sort that makes it easy for a Reader to return to the website and find the offering they are looking for easily.
Third Person: The Client
A client is someone who is actively partaking in your services or products. For them, they come to the website from a link in an email, or from a book mark. And, like the Reader, they sometimes just come directly to your home page.
Your website can be a tremendous resource for your clients, making their life and your life easier. If they’ve signed up for one of your offerings, then you can have protected web pages with downloads, course times and dates, call-in numbers, priority contact forms, and recordings of calls, among other things.
By having these online pages protected from the general public, but still easily accessible, you can make your life a TON easier, and decrease the number of clients emailing you asking you for this or that.
Because The Client is familiar with you already, they only need one space on your website where they can easily find Client Resources.
Writing the Website
When someone is speaking to you, it’s so important to be present with them. If you have three different people in front of you, each with a different need, it will be hard to be present for the conversation in the way each person really wants. You’ll end up being scattered and not effective with any of the three.
Instead, when you sit down to write a page of your website, think about which of the three it’s speaking to, The Stranger, The Reader, or the Client, and then just speak to that person. Your heart can rest easy, and you can let go of the other two while you are speaking to the one.
Remember that your website is a chance to be really present with people, to give them love, to help them feel truly seen, and give them what they need. It will be SO much easier to do this if you focus on one person at a time.
p.s. Do you need to expand your reach?
I realized I needed to create some website review videos, so here’s what I’m wanting to do.
If you are thinking your business is enough past start-up that you are ready to expand your reach, then you will want to consider taking our six month Foundations2: Expand Your Reach program. There is in-depth help and support in creating the content and strategy for your website, and that’s just one part of the program.
For the first 16 who sign up this month, I’ll personally be doing a video review of your website, telling you what’s working, what’s less effective, and the top things you can do to improve it.
Take a look at the program: Foundations2: Expand Your Reach
And after you do, please ask any questions you may have.
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