By: Sabrina Schleicher, PhD, PCC, BCC

Help, Sabrina! I’m working on my website, but I’m spinning my wheels. It’s taking me forever and I’m not even sure what I should say.

If you’re at all like I was when I started out as a coach, I just wanted clients, and I hoped my website would help me get clients. I spent hours and hours trying to come up with just the right thing to say that would lead someone to call me up and hire me. I wanted my website to speak to anyone and everyone who might be interested in coaching.

I wish I could show you the first version of my website. It was beautiful. I even had a flowing waterfall on it. (Never mind that it took a long time to load the webpage and I probably lost a lot of visitors because of that!)

As pretty as my website was, it was HIGHLY INEFFECTIVE for attracting paying coaching clients. Don’t get me wrong—it was a good, helpful resource. I had people visiting my website and telling me they appreciated the information I shared. But, I can only identify 1 paying client who found me on-line and called me up to hire me after visiting my site. Yes, that’s right—just 1 paying client.

When I consider the time and effort I put into my website, one paying client does not constitute a good return on that investment! If only I had known then what I know now. At least you can learn from my mistakes.

Let’s start with what NOT to put on your website:

Are you needing balance in your life?

Are you trying to find your life purpose?

Are you facing a major transition?

Are you wondering how you work better with others?

As a Life Coach I can help you!

This is what the initial version of my website sounded like. If you have something similar to this on your website, you may be wondering what’s wrong with this.

The problem is if I’m a potential client who finds your website, I won’t feel like you are talking to me. I won’t feel a warm welcome. I won’t feel like “Ah finally, I’ve found the person who gets what I am going through. She gets me. I want to reach out to her because she gets me.” That’s the feeling you want people to have when they come to your website.

When we write broad general statements like the ones above, it’s usually because we want to speak to anyone and everyone who might land on our sites. You don’t want to turn away a potential client. So, you’re sitting on the fence, trying to talk to everyone. Yet, what you actually end up doing is not getting anyone’s attention and LOSING potential clients because of it. Potential clients aren’t connecting with you because they aren’t even sure you are talking to them.

To create an effective website, you must do 2 things:

1) Have an Ideal Client in mind

AND

2) Know your Ideal Client from the inside out

If you don’t have a clear and specific Ideal Client in mind, you end up writing too generally, speaking too broadly and too academically about what you do. You talk about what you do from an intellectual place—from your head—not from your heart.

Our potential clients need to feel a connection with us. They need to feel that we GET them on a deep level. Until we communicate that effectively, they are not going to hear us and be interested in how we might help them.

If you’re unclear about who your Ideal Client is, and even more uncertain about what you should be saying to attract your Ideal Clients, I have a powerful exercise I can share with you to zero-in on your Ideal Clients and identify exactly what to say to attract your Ideal Clients. Once you do this, you’ll know exactly what to put on your website!

HINT: The messaging will be different for every coach, so looking at what other coaches are saying on their websites won’t help YOU attract YOUR Ideal Clients.

Do you have a burning question about marketing or growing your coaching practice? Send it to me at admin@tapthepotential.comwith “ILCT Blog” in the Subject Line and I may answer it in an upcoming blog post.

Dr. Sabrina Schleicher specializes in training coaches and therapists to double their Ideal Clients so they can build thriving, lucrative practices working part-time. Get her free audio training, "3 Secrets to Doubling Your Ideal Clients in 90 Days," plus script to discover exactly what your Ideal Clients want from you at www.tapthepotentialcoaching.com