After building websites for coaches, consultants and small businesses for over 15 years I discovered a new way to create your best website ever.
…and I created a homepage in 30 minutes!
It used to be a struggle to find the right words for my clients’ website.
Without ‘the right words,’ it was a challenge to find great images. The ones that create a “Wow!” response the minute someone lands on your site.
Instead of launching their new website in a few weeks, things dragged on for months.
We would tweak the headlines to death. Or move one design section to another part of the page hoping that would ‘do the trick.’
It did not.
I had fallen into the same trap that most do-it-yourselfers, website designers and developers fall into…creating the homepage first by relying on the website theme template to guide my image choice and words.
A different approach to website design
Instead of starting with the homepage I now write the sales page first.
I finally have a website that I really love because it’s like I’m talking to my clients. It’s a completely different experience for me, and for them. It’s terrific.
Jan Wallen, Raise Your Fees Expert
Would you like a free website design review and find out what keywords people are using to find you online? Click here to schedule your 20 minute call.
The secret sauce
My client, Jan Wallen, is a writer, but the LAST thing she wanted to write was her website copy.
To get past that hurdle I asked Jan a series of questions.
Her answers gave me exactly what I needed to create a long form sales landing page and choose the best images.
Using Jan’s sales landing page as a guide, her RaiseYourFees.com home page was built in 30 minutes.
Why write your sales landing page first
The gold is in your sales page because it contains all your best website copy that will guide all your design decisions, too.
What to put in your sales landing page
- WHY they should listen to you (i.e. your unique offer)
- WHAT process or method will solve their problem
- HOW your process or method will help them solve their problem
Need help with your website?
Get a free website review. You will also discover what keywords people are using to find your business online.
Click here to schedule your free call.
What is in the video
Video walk through of my new website design process, comments from my customer, Jan Wallen, and questions from others who attended 10-Minute Monday.
Transcript
If you’re creating a new website, what page should you build first? What if I told you it was not your homepage? Would you be surprised I’m Nancy Fields. And today I’m going to share a little secret. That has been a real game changer for me, but before we get started, click the subscribe button below. If you’re watching this on YouTube.
I am so excited to share this with you today because I’ve been designing websites for over 15 years for other people. And I started out with creating sites in HTML and Dreamweaver, and then on WordPress.
And this was such a game changer for me.
And it started with my last launch, which was a website package for coaches and consultants who wanted a profitable website.
My product launch formula coaches, always say, write the sales page first. So for my launch, I did the sales page first, but I also needed to other things because I wanted a new homepage because I wanted to show coaches and consultants what was possible.
And I also needed a landing page.
The problem was when it comes to doing landing pages, it’s like, ‘Oh my heavens. There’s just so much to put on a landing page.’ There’s so much text.
It always puts me in a kerfuffle.
But then I thought, ‘wait a minute, I just created a sales script.’
Duh. Light bulb moment.
So I thought, ‘What if I took my sales page script that I was taught how to write, and then used it to create a long form landing page first before I created my homepage?’
And I’m telling you that truly, truly changed everything because what I realized is, as I was putting together my landing page, suddenly the landing page was easy to put together.
I then looked at all this text. It was long form text, but that’s not what you put on a home page because your homepage is actually very different.
Your home page is about pulling out little nuggets and really grabbing people. So you get this strong, provocative statement in the header. So first, problem. Then it’s a solution. The next thing is, well, here’s a problem. You follow with a solution.
And then we’re talking about my product.
As a coach, you’re not up at the very top. You’re really grabbing the people with what their problem is.
I was able to get that down to three short sentences .
I had a great testimonial. And then I followed with a little short bio about me, how people could get started with me if they were ready, but chances are, they’re really not ready. So my call to action was to get in touch with me and I thought this is crazy and amazing because I literally put this together in 30 minutes.
And then another light bulb moment, because I realized this is where most do it yourself and designers, even developer go wrong. We go back and forth trying to pull out clever bits for a home page when it’s really difficult to do. And what ends up happening, we only talk about the how, and we stay on the how.
And so we often fall in love with themes. And when you look at the theme that you’re falling in love with, and you break it down, the themes are all about the how. If you end up using the how as a guide, you’re ending up in the wrong place, because the problem is you’re not talking about the “why’ or the “what.”
There are thousands and thousands and thousands of themes to choose from, you’re going to see a pattern that the themes are about selling you the themes. So if you’re using those to guide you for your copy, you’re starting off in the wrong place.
At the same time. I truly love themes by StudioPress because StudioPress themes are built for business. I want to show you what I did with the StudioPress theme and why I chose this theme in particular for myself. I liked it because it was going to allow me to start out with something big and bold.
A big, bold statement, not about me. I like the font. But what I liked most about this theme is that each button that I clicked on brought me down to the next part of the homepage. And so that kept them on the home page longer, which is great for SEO.
You know, there was this section, I didn’t really need this. The way it ended was a great ending as well. And I thought, oh, this is a great way to tell a story. But there again, the theme sold me the theme. After having built websites for this long, I’m realizing that the worst place to begin a website is with a home page.
Guess why? Well, it’s all about the message and you need to engage your visitors. , it’s so tempting to take these little bits of information and say, oh, I’m just going to spin this with my own language. But you’re not getting the “Wait, what?” response?
So then I thought, okay, when I go back to my landing page, I’m starting with the problem. The big problem and then going into a solution. So it’s the problem. I’m agitating this problem and then I’m showing them, there’s an opportunity here for you. I’m going back to the problem and then,
here’s a solution. This is a landing page to sell them on the idea. You have more opportunity to speak about this and then the ownership experience. A little bit about, who’s going to guide them through and how they can get started.
Testimonials are always really important on a landing page. And then ending with agitate, more, you’ll leave them with, you still have this problem and you’re going to keep having this problem unless you take an action.
So if I take all this text, but it’s following the same format, you’re starting with the problem.
And why they should listen. And I do have a solution, but notice it’s really a tiny bit of text and then, oh, here is the solution. And how I’m going to help them there again, the ownership experience, and I’ve taken all this texts and I’ve gone from, three or four paragraphs and just one little short short bio here about me and how they could get started.
I went down to a few testimonials and a little agitation here. You can have a profitable website. What’s the next step. The next step is to book a call with me.
I also want to show you that I really did use the theme. I’m letting the theme do the heavy lifting. I’m not trying to change things or I’m not trying to move things in a certain location.
And so also this, the landing page, the one on the far, right? The theme is letting me set this up the way that it looks so, and I thought, well, it’s working great for me. But, does anybody else want this?
Hello, Jan, Jan who’s with us today. Sign me up !
She said, I need a new website because I’m writing a book and I want to have a new message. We worked on the message. We didn’t even look at themes. We were working on the message and we went back and forth. After we did all the back and forth, it was so easy to choose.
What did it take us Jan, maybe 20 minutes or 10 minutes to choose a theme, 20 minutes, 20 minutes. And then from there I’m doing the landing page first and not the homepage.
And so here we go. Here’s the problem. And even though, Jan’s a coach, we’re not focusing on Jan, we’re focusing on the problem. Are you afraid to raise your fees? So we’re agitating, agitating. This is also a work in progress. When you eventually do get to Jan site, it’s going to look a little different, but we’re setting this up with the texts that she gave me .
A little bit about the how, and now we’re getting into the how, but we’re only staying on the “how” for a tiny bit, because next, who’s going to help you. the ownership. What’s it like to work with Jan. And then I built up the home page.
I put all that together in 30 minutes. Starting with, the problem, here we go. And now we’re getting stronger with the problem. It’s going to be a little video going in the what, what is the solution is going to help them. Then we’re talking about the three levels of how Jan helps them.
Testimonials. People who have been helped by them.
Here’s Jan, as the guide. Notice she’s not at the top. When you look at these coaching websites , what are you seeing? Hi, I’m the coach I’m here to help you. No, no, no, no. That’s so wrong.
Showing what’s possible.
I just can’t tell you how writing the sales page first. And then repurposing the sales page. We’ve also repurposed that sales page was small landing page. That’s going to go right into Jan’s free offer. We’re just rinsing and repeating as many times as we can.
And I thought it was just a brilliant, brilliant strategy. And this is now the way that I am putting together websites.
Love it. This is so perfect. So perfect. I can tell you it was perfect and easy for my part too. Nancy took things that I’d already written. I write. And I do a lot of speaking. Writing website copy. No, I don’t even want to do, but Nancy took some things I’d written already and put it in this landing page format.
And then we’ve tweaked it a little bit, but doing the landing page first, like she said, made all the difference.
Yeah. It really does make sense, Nancy. It’s just like you’re right. You’re so right. That’s great.
For somebody who’s a coach and consultant knowing what you’re selling. And also having a free offer, that’s going to then lead them into list building it. This is making so much sense to me. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for so long and there’s been struggles.
Jan had mentioned, she reached out because she was working with a partner who said, oh, I’ll build your website. But it got to be a struggle,
The way most companies put together website is, show me three websites you really like, and show me three that, that you don’t like. And I think that’s a very good thing because it makes you focus on and really look at it.
Like, what do I like? Or what don’t I like? And then they would take the one I like and copy it, not take this what Nancy’s done instead of.
We, we easily picked the theme and she made it come to life. It’s so many other websites I’ve seen and had, have been so static. And this moves you through. It’s like I’m talking to my clients and it’s completely different experience for me. And for them, it’s terrific.
Each site is going to be unique because, it’s you, and that’s where you’re really going to shine because you’re telling your story and all of our stories are unique and we all have a different way of talking and we’ll have to go in that particular order.
No, not necessarily. It depends on what’s the strongest point. But the one thing that will follow is problem solution, problem, solution, problem, solution. You talk about one problem and then you give the solution to that problem, which brings up another problem.
So you’re constantly saying, well, once you solve this problem, then this comes up and it is amazing that that is just so, so true because one thing uncovers something else. So then it strengthened threats is the fact that why people really need to work with you and your story, because you understand that they start at point A, but to get to point probably Z , you’ve got to get a few more steps dialed in and completed.
Nancy, quick question on the landing page that you have there, is there her free offer that you talked about, you know, that lead magnet is that somewhere in this flow well, that’s why I say it’s a work in progress. We are working on that.
The offer for the freebie to list build, there will be one on her website for sure. By the time they get the landing page, it’s really the sell them on the next step, the long form landing page. So the free offer will not be on the long form landing page.
There is a free offer this on a very short landing page, which is basically here’s the problem. Download this.
So the homepage is the abbreviation of the landing page. It has all the goodies. So the homepage will have the freebie.
Correct.
Gotcha. Okay.
Nancy. Can I ask a question? Two, actually it used to be that we were taught. Don’t put a lead magnet on a landing page, although my new website, because I’ve opened up an online company has three.
Should you put them everywhere? Cause I thought maybe social , to drive traffic to your website or to drive traffic to your landing page.
Absolutely. Landing pages kind of like Kleenex now in terms of, you know, the word there’s a long form landing page for sales. And then there’s the short little landing page. it’s only a few inches tall and this just has the offer and a little lead in to have them download it.
Your solution is a PDF. It’s not a $10,000 course because you don’t make that jump at that point, but that tiny landing page to get people on your list, that will absolutely go everywhere. It’s going to go on your social media profile.
Actually every page on your website, if you have a blog, it should be going , a certain place in your blog. It should be on the home page somewhere, probably at the very end, but it will be on the homepage, but it’s not going to be on where you’re trying to sell them when you’re trying to sell them.
You’re trying to close that
Jan is also an expert in sales and that’s actually how she’s working with people, but as someone who knows how to close the deal .
Just another quick question then.
Landing pages, the traditional viewpoint, as far as I’m aware was no menu. All they can do is they can go to the landing page and they can either sign up or leave. So is it actually part of that website, but just not with any of the Parent
Correct.
It is a page on a website. It can be either accessed from the website or it can a hidden page that you roll out the link when you need to roll out the link. You can be rolling out the link in an email.
On Elsie Kearns’ sit
On Elsie Kearns’ site, parts of her site that once they get there, when they click, they will just go to a landing page. They could do nothing else. So there’s a few ways you can structure them depending on your customer and how you know, your customer wants to buy.
If you start building your website by creating a long form sales landing page first, you will not only have a great sales page. You’re also going to have an amazing homepage.
Plus your end up with copy that’s for a free offer, email, even launch copy. You’re going to get so much return on your investment by putting the time and effort into creating a long form sales landing page for. If you’d like me to create that for you, schedule a call with me, you’ll find my calendar link below.
And if you liked this video, like it, share it, tell other people about it. You can also head over to my website, fields, graphic design.com, and I’ll invite you to my 10 minute, Monday free series, where I share a tip or a trick on how to create a great business website. Thanks for watching.
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