If you’re about to start a consultant business, no matter what industry you are in, you will need a website that sells you and your business. So what does it take to have a successful consultant website? In this article, we give our top 7 tips for a website that will not only sell your business and you, but will encourage trust in your brand and ultimately, be a lead generating machine.
1. Make sure your visitor immediately and clearly understands your unique value proposition.
3. Use Social Media networks effectively.
4. Show them that you do your job well.
5. Have a clean, user friendly website.
6. Optimise your website for search engines.
7. Network widely and maintain your existing connections.
1. Make sure your visitor immediately and clearly understands your unique value proposition.
What is it that makes you different from all the other consultants in your industry? How do you make sure you demonstrate to your prospective customers that you are the best option?
– Be immediately clear about your own unique value proposition and let clients know why you are different to your competitors. You can do this with a statement or paragraph displayed prominently on your homepage. Adding a photo of yourself to your website helps potential clients feel a sense of trust in you and your business as you are seen as being “up front”.
– State who your customers are and how you can solve their unique problems. If you have a number of discrete groups of customers, separate them and make clear how you can work with each of the different types.
– Provide value to your website visitors. Offer educational resources, information and other content (video, slideshare presentations) to assist your visitors and demonstrate your knowledge in your field.
– Offer examples of your work. By providing testimonials and a portfolio of your work, potential clients can see your skills in your field.
2. Trust and Legitimacy:
It is vital that you establish credibility for you and your brand by showing your photo, photos of other employees or associates, awards and accolades, testimonials and any credentials that would boost trust and a knowledge that your business is a legitimate consultancy with a track record. Adding past client logos to your homepage with a link to a page about the project you completed for the client, can also add credibility to your business.
– List all achievements, awards and testimonials.
– Keep your website up to date and with fresh content. Don’t make the mistake of having a website created and then allow it to just sit there. Change copyright date each year and try to have an editorial blog calendar for adding regular, fresh content that will draw potential clients to your website.
– Be approachable and authentic.
– Make sure you add social media links to your website so that people can connect with and follow you.
3. Use Social Media networks effectively:
– you need to be visible on LinkedIn – this is the main social media network for business to business and is used widely by consultants. (Check out Nate Kievman’s post on Linked Strategies to help with ideas for using LinkedIn successfully as a consultant.)
– use other social media networks wisely. Consider creating your own groups on LinkedIn as well as using their “Sponsored Posts” option to generate more followers and interest in your business. By sharing your latest blog post within the “Sponsored Posts” section, you also demonstrate your knowledge in the chosen topic.
4. Show them that you do your job well.
Advertising your consultancy business is not regarded as best practice by Louis Dubois in a recent article in Inc.com. Instead, it is better to demonstrate that you are successful at and know your job well.
– Take care of your current clients – since “word of mouth” recommendations are one of the best ways to pick up new clients, make sure your current clients are positive when they talk about you.
– Ensure due diligence in your business – make sure you are dotting the I’s and crossing your T’s when it comes to clients and projects.
– Display your past achievements and testimonials – there are many ways to do this. You can include a logo accordion/slider on your homepage of client logos that link to project pages. Add a testimonials widget and case studies or portfolio so potential clients can see your past achievements.
By doing these things your chances of having a successful consultant business is higher than if you spend a lot of money on advertising. Solid SEO will also ensure your website is found easily when people conduct searches for your type of consultancy. Instead of being found in the ads section, your website will sit on page 1 at the top of the organic listings for major keywords/phrases, this is regarded as far more trustworthy than when you take out paid advertisements.
5. Have a clean, user friendly website.
Only through having a clear and clean website will you be able to demonstrate your skills, understanding, knowledge, past case studies and client testimonials to potential customers.
– Make sure your site is user friendly. It must be easy to find information about you, your business and your unique selling proposition.
– Offer a sitemap and a simple-to-navigate menu system.
– Ensuring you offer a custom 404 page with robust search options to allow your clients to find their way to a page, even if they typed in the wrong url.
– Make contacting you as easy as filling in a few fields on your homepage. Don’t make a potential client have to navigate away from the homepage to contact you. Display your phone number on the homepage and consider adding a contact form or button to your contact page as well.
– Add Call to Action (CTA) buttons to increase conversions on your homepage. Add CTA’s for visitors to “learn more” or to “contact us” to encourage higher conversions on your website. Site visitors like to be told what to do.
– Add sign up forms on your homepage. Consider adding a newsletter or “Further info” sign up form on your homepage. This will not only increase conversions but will also keep people on your site longer, increasing your chances of a higher rank in Google’s search results.
6. Optimise your website for search engines
(SEO):
– add all meta data to your page.
– ensure your (preferably responsive) website is built to the latest design and that it loads quickly and is W3C compliant.
– use rich snippets to tell Google what your website is about
– use Google+ for Business to create a G+ business page, Google local map and further optimisation. This is particularly effective for businesses that work within a local area.
7. Network widely and maintain your existing connections.
– existing (warm connections) are considered the best connections of all. Make sure you foster and maintain these well.
– make sure you thank people who connect with you on social media and if you start or join a group, consider inviting your connections, to this group.
The most important factors in a successful consultant website are:
– to establish trust and credibility in you and your brand by telling people who you are.
– to articulate your unique value proposition.
– to showcase your past achievements through client logos, testimonials, awards and other accolades.
– to demonstrate your knowledge of the industry by writing informative, fresh and educational blog content.
By using the above methods, solid SEO practices, social media and other networking connections, your website will be a huge asset in your consultancy business.
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