I have a confession to make.
I hate the word ‘sell’ and I don’t love the word ‘client’ either. It irks me a little when I need to use them.
For me personally, I prefer to think of ‘sales’ as helping and serving someone. It isn’t about me taking from them, it is about me giving to them and helping them get from A-B with my expertise and knowledge.
That’s so much more impactful than just simply selling them something, right?
And, as for ‘client…’ well for me, these are incredible women who have put their trust and faith in me to deliver a service, which is helping them start an online business.
The word ‘client’ just doesn’t do my gratitude for them justice.
So often I see out in the online world, the only focus is getting clients by selling to them, point blank.
Pretty much ‘buy this now!!’ or ‘25% off’ or ‘flash sale.’
I tried that when I first started out in business because that’s what everyone else was doing and to be honest, it became quite soulless.
When I flipped it to serving and giving, sharing information, helping people and giving value first, everything changed for me and I became a lot more fulfilled knowing that I helped someone and you know what happened then? More people came.
Money is a byproduct of helping and serving people.
My philosophy in business is to lead with good intention and value first, and as I have experienced personally, the rest will follow. You’ll notice in my Facebook group and on my Facebook page, I rarely hard sell and when I do I follow the 80/20 rule. 80% value and 20% sell.
This then leads people to ask, well how do I actually turn followers into clients?
Over the last three years of running Business Jump (and before that as well) I have implemented a mixture of several sales psychology pillars within my messaging and content. This helps potential clients make an informed decision about whether they’d like to work with me on their own, without me saying anything to them verbally or needing to convince them. It generally leads to us having a chat on the phone and getting to know each other better but the beauty is, they come to the phone call already feeling like they know me.
It is also in alignment with my work smarter, not harder philosophy. I’d rather put everything out on the table about who I am and what I stand for and then if someone wants to work with me, they come to me 90% of the time already having made their mind up.
I call it, selling without needing to actually sell, and it involves a few strategic pillars:
SOCIAL PROOF
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people who are unsure about something see someone else’s actions and assume (in most cases) their behaviour is correct.
The use of social proof can be weaved not only throughout your website, but also throughout your entire business. Think emails, blog posts, social media posts, Facebook lives and more.
If they like it, I might like it too.
If they had a good experience, I should as well.
If they commented, I might as well.
If they trust it, maybe I can too.
If they have a lot of engagement, they must be good.
I’m not implying that we all blindly follow other people just because they like something, because we are smart intelligent women and can form our own opinions.
But, social proof is still a thing.
According to Robert Cialdini, who studied the principle of social proof in-depth in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, “we view a behaviour as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it”.
When you utilise social proof successfully, you convey to potential customers that buying your product or service is the safe thing to do and lowers their buyer resistance.
There are loads of different ways you can apply social proof to your website but they all basically revolve around showing that other people like what you’re offering, such as:
- Positive reviews and/or comments that you can screenshot and weave into your blogs or landing pages.
- Customer testimonials / case studies in a specific category of your website, like here.
- Influencer or celebrity endorsements placed on relevant pages.
- Highlighting and linking back to your social media following and numbers in relevant sections of your content, like I did in my intro paragraph.
EXPERTISE
Your website should show people what your expertise is and why you are the best person for them to buy from.
Expertise doesn’t always have to come in the format of formal qualifications. Think about it for a second. Would you prefer to learn from a professional dog groomer who has only studied how to groom dogs? Or would you prefer to learn from someone who has had ten dogs and they all have immaculate coats – but no formal qualifications?
I personally want to learn from people who have real life’d it.
Showcasing your expertise doesn’t have to just be segmented to the ‘about me’ or ‘work with me’ page. Weave it all throughout your website by giving out helpful expert advice and information and use stories and draw backs to how you got to where you are, what you’ve learned, how you became skilled in what you do.
Give tips, recommendations, and content that will help them and don’t hold back in fear of ‘giving too much away’ It is a paradox that people won’t then buy from you. In fact, just the right people will.
Ways that you can compose your expertise into your website are:
- About me page (obvs)
- Your blog – write how to’s, share your experiences & top tips. (Like this blog that you’re reading right now.)
- Freebies – create free resources like checklists and e-books, like my Truth About Passive Income Streams e-book.
- Masterclasses – like my How to Start an Online Business Masterclass.
EMOTION
Did you know that emotion is what really drives the purchasing behaviour, and also, decision making in general?
We humans are driven by feelings. So if you want the consumer to remember your product or brand, they must be engaged and impassioned by the interaction you have with them. So really try to tap into how your audience is feeling.
If you’ve heard about the red brain/green brain concept you’ll know emotion drives everything before logic.
We generally think we make decisions based on logic (green brain.)
But the truth is, 95% of the time we buy based on emotion instead (red brain) because we are attracted to products and services by how we FEEL when consuming it.
Take Coke for example, the marketing is all about having fun, enjoying the outdoors, being happy and being surrounded by family and friends. So they are selling to your green brain. They’ve been doing so with great effect for decades, same with Apple, they don’t tell you how many gig’s and RAM their products have, they focus on beauty, belonging and, of course, being connected and how that feels.
How to add emotion on your website:
- Photos and images – If a person looks genuinely happy or sad, we’re likely to feel similarly, but be wary of stock photos. Overly exaggerated emotions likely will be off-putting and seem fake.
- Within your copy, focus on logic but also the emotion of the experience of using your product or service.
- Use photographs, images and storytelling within your copy to connect and create emotion.
- Don’t feel obligated to be all corporate on your website, show people who you are because people do business with people, not businesses.
- Use language and wording that your audience relates to and use non vanilla emotive words to trigger emotion.
- Think about the colours, shapes and fonts & what emotions they could be triggering.
- Use your blog to tap into a wider circle of emotions your audience might be feeling, like this blog I wrote about overcoming PND.
PERSONALISE
Are you a mum with a baby that doesn’t sleep? How good is it when you meet another mum who also has a baby that doesn’t sleep? You just ‘get’ each other. Or when you meet another mum that loves wine as much as you do and isn’t scared off when you drop the f bomb. That instant connection is what we are looking to achieve on your website, so don’t be afraid to let people know who you are and what you stand for because it will fold into attracting the right type of clients for your business and weed out anyone who isn’t a good fit.
I’m not saying we need to overshare and come off looking less than right for the job, but share a little and let people in to the person behind the business. Remember people do business with people, & it’s mostly based on whether they like them or not.
If you’re on the same page as someone and they ”get you’ it creates a foundational bond to help set you both up for a successful working relationship together.
How to personalise on your website:
- Share things about yourself on your website, even just a little.
- Personalise your ‘about page’ to who you are, and what’s important you. If you’ve niched to yourself, chances are your audience are going to find the same things important.
- Use a mix of ‘real’ and professional photos. I like to use professional photos on my homepage and certain areas of my website, because you know, still have to be profess, but I also use real every day photos on my blog to show my audience ‘who I am.’
AUTHORITY
Authority and positioning is really all about perspective and how people perceive you.
At a Traffic & Conversion Summit, Frank Kern stated, “Positioning, most importantly positioning yourself as an authority, is the single most important thing you can do to increase your perceived value to your audience.”
If you’ve written a book, spoken at a large event, been featured in the media, been on TV, people will perceive you as an expert and ‘at the top of your game’ and the flow on impact is they trust you easier which leads to easier sales conversions and people are more likely to reach out to you for partnerships and collaborations.
Here is the key though, it has to be authentic. Personally for me, the ‘fake it til you make it’ doesn’t feel genuine and gives me anxiety because I can’t handle anything that is fake online. Anything that I do for ‘authority’ comes from believing in myself and my value first then I share and allow myself to be seen as an authority figure.
Gaining authority and positioning yourself correctly is one of the most powerful ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors and stand out from the crowd.
So, on your website make sure you add anything that you’ve done that can raise your authority, such as:
- Footage or photos of you speaking at an event.
- Section linking to where people can buy your book or listen to a podcast you’ve been on.
- A blog about the tv show you were on, like here when I was interviewed on Sky Business.
- Third party media logos where you’ve been featured and interviewed.
TRUST
Building trust within your website (and business) is super important and if you do this successfully your website will convert sales so much easier, especially if you have high ticket items. Get to know your audience and find out what their buyer’s objections are and answer them within your website pages and copy.
Ways to build trust on your website:
- Have a proper T&Cs section so everyone is on the same page & people can be informed.
- Consider your refund policy. I’ve introduced a 7-day money back promise if someone signs up with us and in 7 days realise we aren’t the right fit. I would much rather refund them and wish them the best then have someone who is regretting their decision.
- Have a clear FAQs page that offers all the information people might be looking for without them having to search for it.
- Have professional and real photos of yourself so you are front and centre and people can see who they are dealing with.
- Offer advice and valuable information so your audience can gain confidence that you know what you’re talking about.
INFLUENCE
The people who you collaborate with in business, like it or not, will influence how people perceive you either for the better or the worse, so choose wisely. I once had a client tell me she had decided to take the jump and sign up with us because she saw I was associated with Kate Toon, Kate does have an SEO module in my e-course. But, to be upfront, Kate is my business bestie, so nothing is strategic when it comes to her, we just like to flow together in business but it did highlight to me that other people’s influence will rub off.
But, here’s my biggest tip, don’t forge relationships with people just to get their smell. I see this happen all the time and it irks me when it isn’t genuine. Collaborate and partner with someone because you are aligned with them and what they do in business, then if they have a higher status than you, it’s a bonus if it contributes to the influence you absorb.
Ways to add influence to your website are:
- Run a masterclass with someone and add it onto your website.
- Have someone you admire write a guest blog for you.
- Have someone that’s aligned with what you offer contribute to your e-course or membership.
FUNNELS
It is widely noted within the online marketing community that your potential clients generally won’t buy on their first visit to your website, generally people these days need within 8-20 touch points and I have found this to be absolutely true. So I always advise to have a plan in place to ensure that people don’t navigate away from your website and forget all about you.
Having an opt-in strategy to more free information about your services or offering is vital. When someone requests more information on my website a series of emails is automatically triggered and sends them not only the information they requested, but more value and more info about me and how I can help them. This all runs behind the scenes without me needing to go back and forth via email and when someone has decided they’d like to talk to me or sign up with me there are links and next step guides on how to do that.
How to add funnels on your website:
- Use an email marketing platform like Active Campaign and place opt-in boxes in relevant sections.
- Create a free offer / workshop / challenge and have people opt-in to it via a special landing page on your website.
TO WRAP IT UP
We’ve only really just touched on these and I could keep on writing forever but the purpose of this blog is to just give you an insight to some really powerful strategies that you can apply to your website and design it to be doing the heavy lifting of your business so you don’t have to.
Depending on where you are in your business, as you’re reading this you may be thinking to yourself that you actually don’t have any of these pillars to add to your website or maybe you only have one or two but add whatever you’ve got and craft it as you go.
Adding these to website should be part of your strategy moving forward because as a collective, they allow potential clients to see you, obtain the information they need and work out whether you can help them get to where they want to go without you needing to say anything in order to ‘sell’ them your services and the beauty of it is you set it up once, it sells* for you over and over again without you having to do anything else but occasionally update it. #worksmarternotharder
* You know I hate the word ‘sell’ right?!
