Not Every Consultant’s Website Has The Same Goal
When you are a consultant setting out to commission a new website, it’s important to identify what business goals your website needs to achieve. Believe it or not, not every business wants their website to generate new leads. Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper to figure out what you really want your website to achieve.
Case and point, I have a longtime client Bruce who has more business than he can handle. He’s already working evenings and weekends just to keep up. This isn’t surprising, Bruce is a smart, unassuming guy who is always happy to go that extra mile, and his clients love him. Check out his client testimonials! Bruce chooses to work as a sole proprietor, and so he’s not necessarily looking to grow his client base. He’s cautious about taking too much on and diminishing his high level of service. So when we recently redesigned his website, identifying how his website could make his business run better was not so straightforward. He wasn’t looking to generate leads, like most consultants are. Instead, he wanted his website to do different things.
“In Your Face” Online Support
First and foremost, Bruce wanted his new consultant website to make it easier for clients to reach out and get the support they need as quickly as possible. He’s an accounting software consultant, and so his clients rely on his help to keep mission-critical functions like payroll running smoothly. To make sure his clients could find his online support services quickly, we placed an Online Support button in bright yellow in the top right hand corner of his site, easily spotted by new users. Once the users have clicked the Online Support button, they are just one click away from safely downloading the TeamViewer app they need to get support from Bruce the first time. This saves Bruce the hassle of emailing them a link, or worse, having the client Google the TeamViewer app and accidentally downloading malware instead.
Self Serve Help
Bruce also wanted to help his clients help themselves. His new website features a public Client Resource section, where clients and prospects alike can access “Show Me How” instructional videos on the software he recommends, as well as a Learning Centre populated with commonly asked questions, and links to external technical support resources.
This self serve section does more than just help Bruce’s clients help themselves, which frees Bruce up to spend his time on more challenging problems. It also serves to position Bruce as the expert that he is in his accounting software field. This type of “content marketing” constantly reinforces the message that ARX Business Solutions is the “go to company” for Adagio Accounting solutions in Southern Ontario. In other words, it’s a positioning strategy.
Flexibility For The Future
At some point Bruce may choose to pivot his business goals. He might want to expand his client base, in which case lead generation will become a priority. His website can easily shift to accommodate this goal, with some changes in copy, the addition of a lead magnet, list building and subsequent email marketing, for example. Or Bruce could decide to narrow his focus on a very specific niche client, in which case he’ll need to add content that targets that niche on additional search engine optimized pages of his website. He might then want to run some GoogleAds and set up some corresponding landing pages. Or maybe paid online courses will become Bruce’s thing, and a Learning Management System (LMS) will be in order?
No matter where Bruce decides to take his business, he has made a solid invesment in a well designed and current WordPress website that can easily accommodate his current and future goals.
