I bet you get messages in your inbox promising insider secrets to making money online. Thats because they made huge money in their business, they can show you how to do the same and if you just follow their prescribed path *exact steps included* you’ll be successful like them.
Ugh. I hate this because it’s just marketing, playing on your fears and insecurities (because entrepreneur life is hard and everyone is a little bit insecure) & trying to get you to buy their thing so that you feel soothed and they become your hero.
Because entrepreneur life is hard and everyone is a little bit insecure
In the website world, we see this all the time. People offer to build you a website in as little as a week or even a day, because they’ve figured out the successful formula and if you just take their course or pay them to apply their formula to your business, you’ll be super successful, just like them!
I’m going to tell you their secret formula right now:
Use a nice looking template, insert your logo, branding colours, and your content (which YOU have to write on your time and ahead of their build), and boom! You’re off to the races. The crowded, noisy internet business races.
So here’s what we know based on 18 years of working with biz owners:
Anyone can pop branding elements into a good template and make a slick looking website but that’s not how you make money online.
The actual “secret formula” is different for every business, and it takes a little time and effort to uncover it. You can’t get it from a box or a template.
Anyone can pop branding elements into a good template and make a slick looking website but that’s not how you make money online.
The secret formula is this:
Know your customers and build your website for THEM.
Your customers are your secret formula every time. If you make decisions while building your website with the aim to make everything easy for your customers, to serve them better with every message, graphic, function, and call to action, you WILL be able to make more money online. But not because of any trickery or any secret internet trend. You’ll be able to make money online because you genuinely understand your customers’ wants and needs and you know how to provide it to them in a way that feels easy and good!
That’s why you can’t apply someone else’s *exact steps* to your website and expect it to work. You don’t need their secret formula. Yours has been right in front of you the whole time!
Your secret formula has been in front of you the whole time.
That’s why before you even start talking with your web designer (or thinking about your website if you’re DIYing) you need to spend some time looking at your customer base. You’re probably interacting with your customers a ton already and you probably know them well enough to know what’s most important to them. What are the main products or information they’re looking for? How do they like to be interacted with? What kinds of words do they use or never use? What kinds of feelings does your product or service usually give them? Do some market research, and figure out what is typical in your industry and what makes you a little different. Why do your customers shop with you and not with someone else? Doing this planning helps you build a website that your customers love (and makes you consistent money online).
Market research and content writing are two things we do on repeat around here that help business owners make more consistent sales. So, if you’ve got a pretty website that’s not making the sales you thought it would, it might be time to put the focus on your customers. Send us a message and let’s talk about how we can help you uncover *your* secret formula so that you can apply it consistently and make more money online with less hassle.