subject: Creating a Successful Website for Your Consulting Business [print this page] Creating a Successful Website for Your Consulting Business
When you're an Internet marketing consultant, creating a successful website for your consulting business is imperative. All good websites contain some common design characteristics, such as ease of use, cohesiveness and consistency. But an offline consultant's site should also include some specific aspects.
As an offline consultant, your job is to sell your personal skills, individual talents, marketing solutions and online experience rather than physical products. Solid, hype-free website copy that outlines specific services and answers specific questions is a good place to start.
In addition, a clean site with minimal distractions, clear navigation and quick-loading pages is important. Working to attract visitors to your site through whatever methods you use (blogs, PPC, AdWords, offline advertising, etc.) and then losing them the minute they arrive because of slow-loading pages or irritating animations is self-defeating. Instead, work to create an attractive, appealing design that presents a professional image and encourages confidence in both you and your abilities.
Focus your content on your client's needs rather than your own. Remember What's In It For Me? (WIIFM) and you'll go far in creating a site to draw-and keep-targeted visitors. What is your client looking for? How did she come to visit your site? What search words did she use? What are her individual needs? What does she want you to do for her? Knowing the answer to these and similar questions, then providing the answers in your website content, will almost guarantee a greater measure of success for your site.
While your content should be focused on your client or prospect, letting your personality show through is a big plus. Let your visitors get a feel for who you are... not just on your About page either! Use your own "voice" when writing the copy-or having it written. Ensure that what your visitors read sounds as if you were speaking to them.
If you speak in contractions, include contractions in your content rather than using "proper" English. If you have a southern drawl and say "ya'll" don't use northern idioms such as "you guys." If you laugh and joke around a lot, your content should be light and fun, not heavy, dull and dry. Let the content on your website clearly portray your personality. It will help your prospective clients better decide if you're the person they want to do business with and eliminate a lot of wasted time.
You could spend a fortune on creating a successful website for your consulting business, but the money spent isn't the issue. Quality content that clearly speaks to your client and his needs, along with a sense of who you are and what you can offer is a better goal for which to aim when designing your offline consultant's site.
