045: 7 questions your home page needs to answer w/ Cassie Paton
7 questions your home page needs to answer.
With guest Cassie Paton
What if your home page copy could make your dream clients a teensy bit obsessed with you?
Today’s guest is Cassie Paton – a copywriter who creates potent stories for gutsy entrepreneurs. She’s the founder of Mettle & Tonic, where she helps service providers whose messaging is bland, out-of-date, or spineless write website and email marketing copy that’s punchy, powerful, and persuasive so they can attract more dream clients and run businesses they love. Using strategy and empathy, she takes a values-first approach to help you unlock the language that makes your dream clients a little bit obsessed with you.
And today, Cassie will be sharing with us the seven questions your home page needs to answer – and how to answer them – and I have to say… I’m a little nervous to hear whether my website measures up… I guess there’s only one way to find out!
TL;DR – If you’re a service provider, there are LOTS of questions your home page website copy needs to answer, but first, your website needs to do three basic things:
Catch your dream client’s attention
Establish a connection
Compel them to take action
The questions most websites don’t answer:
What are the bigger benefits of working with you?
Why should I pick you over anyone else?
Is this right for me?
Why should I do this now?
What about ___?
How can I reduce my risk?
What do I do next?
We have to remember that. Not everybody who comes to our website is our ideal fit. So we want to let them know that right away.
— Cassie Paton
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Disclaimer: The following transcript has been auto-generated and then cleaned up by my wonderful VA – and while the general flow of the conversation is there, it’s probably not 100% accurate.
P: Cassie, Welcome to Brand it with Petchy, I’m so happy to have you here,
C: Thank you, I’m so excited to be here.
P: You actually approached me with a pitch to be on the podcast and your pitch was so clear and so to the point that I couldn’t say no.
I mean it was especially the values first approach that really resonated with me because it fits so well with the way I want to run my business, and with the message that I tried to convey through my podcast. And then if you team that with a very actionable topic for this specific episode, which is something that I know is going to be of use to so many of the listeners and myself, basically. So it was a no brainer to invite you on, really.
C: I’m so glad. Yes, I mean I approached you for the same reason. I think what you talk about and what you have many of your guests on your show talk about. I think there’s this, you know, it’s a trend, but I don’t think it’s just a trend. I think it’s here to stay. There’s this shift rather where more and more business owners are talking about their values and ethical marketing and, you know, things that really just make us not feel icky and gross. And so, I was really excited to come and kind of talk on some of those themes here because what I do is definitely based on all of those things.
P: I think that’s why I love doing this podcasting thing so much. It’s because it puts me into contact with so many other people who have this same mindset, yourself included. So I think, like you, I think it’s not a trend. I don’t think this is going to go anywhere for the time being. I think most people are ready for a change now in a shift, which is so, so exciting. So it’s really nice to be able to invite more and more people onto the show to talk about these things and to normalize it a bit more.
C: Absolutely.
P: So yeah, before we dive in and hear all about, you know, which questions our home pages need to answer and all that- I would love to invite you to just tell us a little bit about yourself and the work that you do and why you are so passionate about helping people ditch what you call “spineless copy” in favour of a more, shall we say “Punchy.”
C: Yes, Yes. So I love meeting other business owners, like you said, other like minded business owners. I love helping people who are passionate about what they do and who typically have a bigger purpose or a why that they have defined for themselves.
You know, most of us get into business not just for the money, it’s for the freedom or the flexibility and that can mean all kinds of things- if have families that you want to be there for or if you want financial freedom, or just the ability to not work for “the man” and you know, kind of live by these outdated, increasingly outdated, corporate kind of norms and expectations. That’s certainly why I got into business for myself and I mean I’ve been a professional writer in so many capacities for over a decade, but I did take a few years in a completely different career. I worked in real estate for five years and that is very much hustle kind of career, but I met a lot of amazing business owners doing that and I learned so much about what running a business requires and then I kind of when I got into it for myself, I kind of had all these examples of things that I was going to ditch.
‘Okay, well we’re going to borrow this from that experience and we’re going to leave all of that.’ And you know, one thing tying it back into writing one thing that I was actually very good at my old job, I kind of became the de-facto HR person, even though that was not my role, but that became part of my job because I was very good at listening, and pausing, and empathizing, and digging deeper. It kind of clicked for me when I was thinking about starting Mettle & Tonic- that wait, these are these are my superpowers! This ties directly back into what I love to do, which is writing, and meeting people, and unearthing their stories, and what makes them tick.
So a lot of people have such a hard time tapping into their voice online. A lot of people really struggle with, even if they’re securing their abilities and all of that, they still feel like, ‘you know, I’m in the saturated market, how do I stand out? You know, I’m a good writer, but I don’t know the words on my web site or in my email marketing, it doesn’t feel like me.’ So that’s what I love to do. I have conversations like this where it’s just one on one- that’s my zone- and we figure out, ‘Okay, well tell me about what you love, what keeps you in business?’ and we go from there.
P: That’s a really good approach. I I think it’s very similar to the approach I take with my branding clients as well, just digging deep in and trying to find where that passion comes from and then trying to bring that out in their brand. What I find is, especially with a lot of the people coming from the corporate world and then they’re setting up their own business, that they’re bringing a lot of the corporate mindset and the corporate “shoulds” into the running of their own businesses. They feel stifled by it and they don’t really know why, and also it’s kind of scary, I guess, to make that leap and to say ‘no, I’m going to do it my way.’
I’m so happy that people like you exist to help people find that voice.
C: Yeah, it’s what I’m all about. It’s why I do what I do. It’s really great to have that moment of like “That! that’s it!” You know, that’s me. That’s what I would say if I could have articulated it on my own.
P: So tell us more about these seven questions of yours, because that’s what this episode is going to be mostly about. So for anyone who is tuning in, let’s just first take a little brief look at what they can expect to take away from this episode after listening to it.
C: So I want to talk about- there are a lot of questions that your website- particularly your home page, right, the front door to your website- needs to answer in order for your ideal client to pay attention, to take action, to read on, to learn more about your services. There are kind of two main audiences you have to keep in mind for that because I think we talk about these seven questions, they cover both. Some people’s websites are really kind of just a fancy business card, right?
Like it’s like ‘here’s who I am, here’s what I do, here’s how you contact me, this is what I sell.’ Very kind of straightforward, but if you’re not anticipating certain questions or objections, you’re potentially leaving connections or even sales on the table. So the two audiences that these questions keep in mind simultaneously is people who have been following you for a little while, who are considering working with you already, that’s why they’re there. They’re like, ‘Let me let me read a little bit more. Let me see if I want to invest in this.’ Then there are people who just randomly stumble across you, they don’t know you from the next service provider. So they really need a lot more kind of context to figure out ‘is this even for me or do I need to move on to the next thing?’ For some people, yes, it’s really not for them. And that’s okay. We have to remember that. Not everybody who comes to our website is our ideal fit. So we want to let them know that right away. Like give them the context, this is where you are and go from there. So these seven questions, they’re not all of the questions that your homepage needs to answer, but they are some of the most important ones that I see most commonly not get answered.
So that’s why I pitched that because some of the other questions might be a little bit more straightforward, like your name and your industry and what you do and all of that, but these are pretty crucial to helping people make an informed next decision. But first, overall, the goal of all of these questions is to accomplish three very basic things. And so the basic, but they’re not necessarily easy to do if you are not a skilled copywriter, but you can do them if you know what the questions are, you have to answer.
So the first thing, of course, is you need to catch your dream client’s attention- and I do mean dream client- that’s who all of these questions are speaking to. So it really, really helps to know very clearly who that person is. If you don’t know who that person is, then all of this becomes a lot more difficult. But if you do, you want to catch their attention because there are so many things vying for their attention, time, and money. So you really need to say something that makes them notice.
You know, that headline, it needs to be compelling enough to inspire your reader to read on because you have about eight seconds to make an impression on your website visitor. According to Copyblogger, about eight out of ten people are going to read your headline. That headline is really important. But because only two out of 10 people are going to read beyond that your headline has a big job to do.
P: It really does.
C: That above the fold section of your website has a big job to do.
P: No pressure.
C: No, no, right, not at all. So that’s the first thing your website needs to do and then, and then it needs to make a connection. So you’ve drawn them in, you’ve got their attention, how do you keep it? You do that by making a connection with the person you are trying to reach and I do that by empathizing your ideal clients, you know, whatever their challenges, may be, their biggest desires, and what do they ultimately want that you can help with? What kind of transformation is possible? What sort of values do you share? You don’t have to explicitly say ‘this is the transformation you’ll receive and these are the values I have,’ but you use all of that information to make that connection and make them feel like, ‘you know, I like this person!’ And hopefully you’re making your dream clients a little bit obsessed with you, that’s my goal. Then lastly, of course you want to compel them to take action. So without a clear and compelling call to action, your website really isn’t much more than a fancy business card.
So that call to action might encourage them to book a call or whip out their credit card, but as service providers, you know, not everyone is going to be immediately ready to work with us right away. So we consider what kinds of micro actions they might take toward working with us and guide them in that direction. So those are the three overarching things that all of these questions kind of help us do.
P: I’m picturing all of the listeners now going, ‘oh hang on a minute, let me think about my own website and it doesn’t do this.’
C: Right.
P: So that would be the goal of the episode, I guess, to have people think about whether their websites actually do the things that you just specified.
C: Definitely, yes. So these questions will definitely give you some homework to evaluate your own website. That’s my goal.
P: Right now. I’m eager for those seven specific questions. Do you want to spill the beans?
C: Yes. Okay, so the first question, ‘what are the bigger benefits of working with you?’ So the bigger benefits- most website copy, you know, you think about your services page or your sales page, they can do this too. But the home page really needs to speak to not just the features of what you sell because there are plenty of other service providers who sell those same features, right? You get this number of phone calls, this kind of deliverable and Voxer support, and all of these things. But that’s not what people really care about. They care about the transformation they’ll get. You need to make them care and show them the bigger picture of working with you. So this kind of factors in like ‘what are the final results? And also answers the question of ‘What’s in it for me?’
The ‘so what’ question? ‘So what’ is such a great question. It’s not one of the seven questions, but I think for each of these it’s kind of a theme like, ‘okay, so what dig deeper?’ So really making sure that you are extracting the benefits from the features of what you sell.
P: That ties in nicely with what you spoke about earlier about knowing who your actual ideal clients are, because if you don’t know what kind of transformation they’re seeking, how can you tell them that you can help them with what they want?
C: Exactly
P: Yeah, that makes sense, totally.
C: So the second question is ‘why should I pick you over anyone else?’ So that’s a tough one, right?
P: That is a tough one because I think a lot of us, we don’t like to brag. A lot of us don’t. I know I don’t.
C: No, it’s very difficult to do. I think a lot of women especially might struggle with that, not across the board, certainly, but that’s a common theme I see a lot and this is where you want to brag. This is where you want to not be too humble and really share what makes you different, what makes you special? What makes you unique? So it’s essentially your unique value proposition, to use a marketing term, but if that’s something that you haven’t yet really defined and spelled out for your business, it’s worth doing because that answers this question. So if what you offer isn’t that different from what your competitors offer. You know, you want to make sure that your unique approach or perspective skills experience are really kind of built into your website copy to let people know like, ‘hey, you know, yes, you could go to another book keeper, another wedding photographer, another web designer.
But here’s, here’s how I’m a little bit different and here’s why that matters to you.’ So always hide back into why that matters for you, why that benefits you.
P: Yeah, exactly. And when it comes to bragging, I just want to point out it’s, it’s totally possible to brag without being a douchebag.
C: Yeah.
P: Yeah. Because most people are afraid of coming across as really cocky and you’re not. If you’re just yourself and like bringing out yourself and what you do then, unless you actually are a bit of a douchebag, then you know, you’re not going to sound braggy I don’t think.
C: No, I agree.
And I think if. it is really something you struggle with, then go to your ideal past clients. Ask them, look at your testimonials. If you have them, that stuff is gold. That’s where you can find the exact language that your clients used to describe what makes you or your process different and enjoyable. That’s part of my process is, you know, voice of customer research. Sometimes it’s looking at testimonials, sometimes it’s actually interviewing people and saying, ‘hey, tell me about your experience, what was it like?’
And business owners are often surprised, like, ‘oh, that’s not even, that’s not even something I talk about in my marketing because it just kind of seems obvious or natural to me, so I just thought that was a given.’ Like, no, that’s what you need to talk about.
P: Yeah, but that is the problem though, isn’t it? We’re so inside our own heads that we can’t see what other people see about us. So that’s a really, really good piece of advice. I think.
C: Exactly. So the third question is, ‘Is this right for me?’
So you want to help your dream clients self-identify. People are just trying to figure out Am I in the right place and like I said before, not everybody will be. So you want to make sure that you’re speaking only to the person who you want to be there. You need to make it absolutely clear who your services are for. So, for example, if you were a business owner who works exclusively with service providers in the healthcare industry, spell it out and speak their language in doing so, I think that’s that’s a really important piece of it.
But even if you have a more broad audience, like I think you and I both are, we work with a lot of other service providers and that could be lots of different types of people. That’s fine. Just don’t leave room for misunderstanding. I think it can be very easy to try to speak to too many people and that waters down your language.
P: Yeah, absolutely. And even though I work with a lot of different types of businesses in different types of industries, they all have some things in common and it’s like maybe their mindset.
So it’s more of the psychographic, more than the demographics that unite my clients. And for someone else, it might be that they have a more, very straightforward demographic target audience. And that’s, that’s okay. I think to find your way of finding your people or defining who they are.
C: That is a great point. I think for a lot of businesses using demographics makes perfect sense. But I think, you know, newer business owners especially are so used to hearing that, that they have to come up with this avatar of Sarah, she is a 27-42 year old woman who lives in this region and it feels kind of arbitrary and it’s because it often is for some people. Like you said, it’s really about those psychographics and what they value and what they fear and what they care about and all of those things.
So I think I’m glad you said that because you really need to know which makes the most sense for you. And it could be a combination as well.
P: It definitely could be. I have a hunch that in the future, shared values are going to be more important than someone’s age or location.
C:100%. I totally agree.
So, the next question is, ‘why should I do this now?’ Keyword being now.
P: Intriguing.
C: Yes. So there needs to be a sense of urgency.
You don’t want to use sleazy tactics to do it, and that can be challenging for some folks who are like, ‘oh, I feel too salesey’ and that’s understandable. It can be a very fine line between like being pushy and really just showing the value of taking action now. Right? So timeliness and urgency of some kind are key to getting folks to take at least some kind of micro action toward working with you today. So rather simply explain the cost of waiting, the downside of waiting. It doesn’t have to be dramatic. We’re not talking about false scarcity or anything like that. You can also frame it in a positive light. What will happen immediately if you take action today? What value or benefit today or long term will happen if you do this now? So if you’re at all worried about getting into that false scarcity or FOMO sort of language, then just frame it positively instead, ‘here’s the benefit of taking action today.’ Because like I said, people are-we’re all squirrels, right? We’re all seeing squirrels left and right.
And so if they’re like, ‘Okay, well this was great. I’ve enjoyed the website experience and I’ll do that later.’ Their chances are they’re not gonna do that later.
P: No because they’ll find someone else’s website right on that and they’ll think, ‘Oh, that’s a nice website as well.’ And then yeah…
C: Right. Exactly. You want to make it just so obvious for them to take the next step.
P: I think it’s important when you talk about the sense of urgency that there is, I don’t know, there’s a difference between actual urgency and fake urgency, you know. So for me -I’m going to use myself as an example, because for me there’s only me and my business. And so there’s only one of me and I only have so many hours available to do client work, which means there’s a chance I’m going to be booked out. For me, just telling people that my next availability is this and this date- that creates that urgency because you know, that probably some other people are on my waitlist as well and you want to just get in there and it’s not me making it up. I would never lie and say, ‘oh, I’m booked out until Mid 2022’ if that wasn’t the case and I think that’s that’s different.
So if you make out that you’re so fully booked and then you’re not, that’s problematic. But doing it in a transparent way,I feel, is much less sleazy somehow.
C: Absolutely. That’s a perfect example that is available to lots of business owners and I often see, you know, people are very transparent about things like pricing and they’ll say like ‘this is not an arbitrary or fake kind of price increase, but just being transparent, you know, my rates are going up next year.’ If that is true, that’s another example that is perfectly valid.
You know, promotions and things like that are also a way to do it. If that’s something that works for your business and if you know, if if you’re not raising your rates or if you’re really not booked out because you’re still relatively new, then again, just go back to ‘here’s what your life or your business will look like if you don’t invest in this right. You can keep operating the way you’ve been operating and if you do decide to take action today, here’s what can start happening for you right away.’ and just making it seem like, ‘well obviously I want that,’ so you can always do that and not feel gross about it.
P: I think to pull in an example of something I do consider to be kind of fake urgency. So many times I see people who are promoting their current offer. They’re starting a program or there’s a big launch and they’re like, ‘Oh the doors are only open until this date’ and then the day after they were supposed to close their cart, they send me an email ‘I was supposed to close cart yesterday, but I’m going to give you an extra day.’ and I’m like..”unsubscribe.”
C: Yeah, you just totally undermined your own marketing.
P: And how does that make the people who did sign up in time because they thought, ‘oh I have to hurry, I have to meet the deadline to get in before she closes her cart and then to find out that someone else signed up a day or two or or even a week after you did. How is that going to make people feel?
Yeah, probably a little bit on the side of what we’re talking about, but it’s just a pet peeve of mine and I just couldn’t help myself.
C: I agree. I agree. Or those countdown timers that aren’t actually real countdown timers they reset? Have you ever seen that? Where ‘Buy now! Oh look, the countdown timer telling me, I only have four hours.’ Then maybe time passes, and you decided not to do it. But you check back later and ‘Wait a second they reset the clock!’
P: Oh and countdown timers to evergreen webinars trying to make out that they’re actually live and they’re very, very clearly recorded. And once you’ve been in the online business world for a little while, you kind of learn to recognize these things.
So yeah, people are going to call you out if you try to do those things. So it’s just nice to talk to you and have someone tell us about some alternative approaches and kind of more gentler ways of doing it.
C: Yes, there’s always a better way. If you feel at all in question about ethics, there’s always a better way.
So the fifth question is not a not a complete question, but ‘what about blank? So blank. The blank is your client’s biggest objection or hesitation.
So you have to be able to anticipate what that might be. Only you or your dream client know that. Or if you work with a copywriter and they do voice of customer research, they can find that out. But it’s important to figure out what that is because there are lots of possible objections.You really kind of want to speak to one primary objection and you can even experiment with that but if you don’t know you’re left with kind of your best guess. And you could be speaking to the wrong hesitation and they’re like ‘Nope that still doesn’t make me feel any better about making a decision today.’ Sometimes the objection, it could be surrounding price, but that’s not always it. Sometimes it’s just they’re not fully understanding again, the benefits, or maybe the time doesn’t feel perfect. So find a way to address whatever that is. Again, not by not by persuading them, like, ‘hey, you’re going to regret this if you don’t do it now,’ but rather here’s something maybe you haven’t considered like, ‘hey, this is a valid concern you might have or question that might be holding you back from deciding now.
Here’s the experience, you know, for example, clients have had.’
P: Yeah, I think that’s a really good way of doing it- using other past clients concerns because like so many other things- this too- there’s a there’s a fine line between being that person whose kind of trying to make decisions on behalf of your client, when really your potential client is the only one who can make that decision, really, and they should be left to make that decision. So it’s more of a reassuring thing, I guess.
C: Exactly, yeah, yeah. Testimonials really can be a great way to address this question. You know, if you’ve got testimonials where people express, ‘I was really… I wasn’t sure I was scared. I was hesitant, but you know, Petchy, really put me at ease. And here’s what I got out of it that I never would have expected.’ Right? So if it feels tricky to answer this question, in a succinct way, go take a look at your testimonials because that might do it for you.
P: That’s a good piece of advice.
C: Yeah, testimonials. They answer a lot of questions, they go a long way.
P: So people, if you aren’t already collecting your testimonials from past clients, start now.
C: Definitely. So the next question is not something that every service provider necessarily might want to include. But if you can, it’s really powerful. And the question is ‘How can I reduce my risk?’ Because as service providers we’re often selling a service that is a significant investment of time or money or both for our clients. And if they’re new to this space, you know, they might just need that extra little sort of guarantee that this is going to work out well for me. Right?
So again, I think testimonials can offer a lot in addressing this question. If you’ve just got really solid testimonials and you’ve got them kind of all over the place, that might be enough for people to feel confident about making a decision. But it could also be something in the form of case studies that kind of give people a peek behind the curtain to see what your process is like, and the types of results you get. It could be a guarantee of some kind if that’s something you’re able to offer. You know, as a copywriter, I can’t necessarily guarantee that your copy is going to increase your sales by 20%. because, let’s be honest. your website also depends on lots of other things like the design and how much your marketing and all of those things. But I can guarantee that I will work with you on your copy until you love it. I could offer that. So anything that you can do to kind of make it easy for people to say ‘Yeah, well, that’s a no-brainer’ than do that. I think being transparent about your pricing as well also goes a long way in helping people feel like it’s not a mystery.
You know, I know that there’s kind of a debate in that area for some people, they’re like, ‘Oh, I want to have the discovery call before I tell them the prices. I’m always in favor of being transparent whenever possible.
P: I agree. And I come across a lot of people who say, ‘But I can’t. I can’t put one specific price on my website because I tailor each quite to each client.’ But I’m like, ‘well you probably have a price that you won’t ever go below. So you could have a starting from, your investment starts from price point.’
C: Exactly.
P: Even if you don’t have like one or two or three very defined packages. That’s one way of doing it. I find for myself that that’s a nice way of repelling the people who don’t have the necessary budget to work with me. So I don’t actually have inquiries and kind of waste both of our times on having a discovery call with someone who’s not going to be able to afford investing in my services after all. So that’s why I like being transparent about it. And, as a consumer, as someone who’s possibly going onto someone else’s website and looking for… I don’t know, it could be if I’m signing up for someone’s program or buying a course or something.. if I have to scroll three meters to get down to see what it’s going to cost me- I’m out of there because I want to know before I spend my time reading about this fantastic thing. I want to know whether it’s actually feasible for me, that’s my point. No, that’s another pet peeve of mine that I think is easily fixed. I’m not saying you should put it like right at the top, but at least, you know, you don’t make me scroll for half an hour to figure out..
C: A thousand word sales page. Yes, absolutely.
P: At least give me some kind of indication whether I’m actually going to be able to do this or not.
C: Right. I agree. If you can kind of weed out some tire kickers, and save everyone some time, then all the better. Kind of a side tangent, but you know, some people might argue ‘Well, but sometimes if you get on a sales call and somebody who might have said that the price is too high, you know, I can convince them on the sales call that it’s actually a worthwhile investment and then they end up buying’ and that’s a valid argument.
And I would counter argue, well if your copy on your website addresses those objections in the first place, you might be able to convince people of the value without having to get on that sales call. So I just kind of volley that one back.
P: Yeah. I mean if you’ve got a 10K service and someone is looking to work with you, but they really only have 3K because hello, we all have our bills that we need to pay and it’s not feasible to be whacking all these things on our credit cards all the time because we’ll be in deep shit.
Sometimes those objections are actually real and valid and it’s just better to let them find someone who is a better fit. So yeah, transparency all the way.
C: Yes. So there is one more question that surprisingly I see skipped over a fair amount and that is ‘What do I do next?’
That’s the all important call to action and now , most sites, I think they’ve got something, but maybe it’s not the right call to action or maybe you scroll all the way down and you’re like, ‘Okay, my option here is to sign up for a newsletter-I don’t want to sign up for your newsletter.’ So that should not be your main call to action. It shouldn’t be your final call to action. That’s instead of a newsletter where I would suggest your lead magnet or freebie of some kind. And it’s perfectly ok for your homepage to have more than one call to action because depending on the stage of awareness your visitors are in, they might, you know, people who are already familiar with you are probably going to just want to go straight to your services or your contact page even, book now.
But you know somebody who’s brand new, might still be skimming around and they want to learn more about you. So I think as few calls to action as possible- you don’t want to give them too many options because on the other end of extremes is like, you know, there are like five different buttons and they all seem to go someplace different. So make sure you’re anticipating what they’re going to want to do next and make sure you know what you want them to do next.
So I talked about before how sure, maybe the next step is for them to whip out that credit card and book now. But as service providers, what we’re selling tends to be a little bit of an investment and so consider what micro actions they might take toward working with you. That could be signing up to get your lead magnet and get on your email list where you can build that. ‘know, like, trust’ factor with them. It might be ‘subscribe, download, read about our services, book a call,’ any of those things, but you want to be really clear on kind of what their journey is.
And by the way, we’re talking about your homepage here, but every single page on your website needs a call to action. I don’t know how many About pages I have seen, where you just get to the end and you’re like, ‘oh where am I, what do I do next?’ So every page needs this.
P: Cool. Right, well I know I’m going to go and go through all of these seven questions to see how my own website measures up. I’m going to be brave and put my head on the block.
So I don’t know whether you’ve been having a little peek and a nosy at my website, but have I missed something out?
C: No, when I read your website, I didn’t grade your website but I can tell you that..
P: Oh, good!
C: I can tell you that my impression overall was ‘oh my goodness, yes, tell me more!’ I very much think I probably fall into maybe your ideal client target market because it really resonated with me. Your values came through very clearly and it was very clear and understandable what you do, who you’re for, what you’re about and what you do next.
So it was all very much like a natural kind of progression for me.
P: That’s a sigh of relief from me there. But I know that there’s always room for improvement, no matter how good something is, there’s always something that can be improved.
C: Oh sure, there’s plenty we can tweak over and over.
P: Oh yeah, I’m not gonna, I’m not going to just shove your seven questions into the corner and forget about them. I will bring them with me and do a little website audit of my own I think.
Before we round off, imagine you could only give our listeners one actionable piece of advice, something that they could potentially go away and do almost immediately. You know, what would that golden nugget be?
C: Yeah, I think, take these seven questions. Go read your home page from the perspective of a newcomer. Try to get as outside of your business as you can. That can be very hard to do but just read it through with fresh eyes and ask yourself these questions: are all these questions answered or addressed in some way?
Again, some of them can be answered with things like testimonials and other elements. But if they’re not answered then spend some time brainstorming and see ‘Where is there room to answer these questions? Have I gotten the right person’s attention? Have I attempted to really make a genuine connection with them, and am I compelling them to take an action toward working with me?’
P: One more thing before we go. If anyone wants to connect with you after listening to this or possibly even work with you, where can they find you?
They can find me at mettleandtonic.com and I’m on Instagram too. So @mettleandtonicco is my handle.
P: I’ll pop the links in the show notes for anyone who wants to connect with you and learn more from you, basically. This has been so great, it’s been really helpful. I’ve had some hard moments during our conversation too, so thank you so much for being my guest today and sharing your zone of genius with us.
C: Thank you so much. This was a lot of fun.
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