Coaching websites come in many shapes and forms
BUT in spite of how varied they look

There is only ONE way to build a successful website right
I promise you it isn’t that hard when you follow the formula below…

The 7 Steps to Creating A Successful Coaching Website:

1. Your website’s success starts with your offers

I bet you didn’t expect this one. A nice website starts with layout designs – A great website starts from your web copy. The first thing you need to do is decide which offers you will be selling online...

Not More than 3!

Reserve only 3 pages for this, or it will make your navigation hard to follow. Next, pick the main offer. You need to select your main offer because you can’t promote 3 things at once. So pick your most popular package or a foot-in-the-door package if you’re just starting out.

A foot-in-the-door package is a cheap package that has 3 goals: it gives new people in your orbit something cheap to try you out, it creates a positive relationship with new clients and it educates them and creates the need for the next step to work with you. A great foot-in-the-door product is a 1-hour strategy call or analysis related to what you teach.Once you’ve made these decisions. Start by writing the sales copy for these pages and creating a calendar to take bookings.

2. List-building Tools for your coaching website

I wish that when I was starting out somebody took me aside and explained how important list-building is to get your online coaching business off the ground. So I’m saying this to you now. Forget blogging, podcasting, Facebook lives, Facebook ads or social media posting before you have your list-building funnels in place.

These tools need to be on your coaching website from DAY ONE!
So here’s what you need to do
Register for a free email marketing tool like Mailerlite it’s free, to begin with, and when you want to go pro and add your own subdomain or after you hit 1,000 subscribers it’s just $10 per month. But its winning feature is not the price. This tool allows you to create all the parts you need for your first list-building funnel…

        a. Form Creator

– you will need to create a landing page that has a form in it to collect names and emails. Some people collect email addresses only, but I don’t recommend this. In a world where everyone is looking for more personal relationships, addressing people by their name is the least you can do.

       b. Plugin to embed the forms

You will need to embed your registration form into your blog posts or side-bars on your coaching website. This is easily done, especially if you’re creating a WordPress site because it can be integrated very easily using Mailerlite’s official WordPress plugin.

       c. Freestanding landing pages

Even if you’re not using WordPress for your site, you can create free-standing landing pages like this one ->https://www.subscribepage.com/Freebie-10-Steps-to-More-Leads  and link to it using an image or a call-to-action.

       d. Email automation

You will also need to send an automated  email sequence after people register to deliver a freebie aka lead magnet

 

3. You must add a blog to your website

In spite of all the other formats around, the written word is still the only language search engines truly understand. So if you’re creating any form of content: Facebook live videos, podcasts, youtube videos, animated videos… you still need to transform into written content and place them into your blog.

Nowadays blogs are more like content hubs. Your blog’s main purpose is to create consistent search engine signals by posting new pages on your site every week. If you optimise the content for your main keywords and provide it in a format search engines understand, your content will bring free search engine traffic to your coaching website and act as a filter to keep those people that are part of your target audience.

In fact, whether you sell online or not, you need to be creating content and posting weekly on your coaching website. The harvest the most interested people that visit your site with a lead magnet to place them on your list.

4. Website Self-Hosting and Domain Management

Your coaching website is the main marketing asset your business has.
Other forms of marketing like PPC, Magazine Ads etc are fleeting.

BUT your website will stay with you for as long as your business will – treat it with due importance.

In order to build security into your site make sure you own your own domain and hosting. This means that you need to create an account with a provider and buy it yourself, not through an IT professional or web developer. If you need to share these credentials you can use a tool like Onepass

Host your emails separately to your website. Web servers get blacklisted often, so you want to use a service like G-Suite  or the Microsoft Cloud to host your emails separately – any qualified freelance IT manager should be able to set this up for you.

5. Photography

Last but not least, you cannot build trust if you look unprofessional. By ‘unprofessional’ I don’t mean that you need to wear a suit. I mean that you need to have professional-looking, high-quality photography that shows the real you, under a slightly upgraded light. It needs to be honest but not look cheap, highly finished professional photographs are very important for the overall look of your coaching website.

If you can’t afford a professional yet, try going to your local photography school and offer to model for a student. You can also try to take some pictures yourself. Make sure you’re wearing nice natural make-up, have your hair done (but not overdone) and wear your best comfy clothes – your favourites.

You can then upgrade the shots by getting them professionally edited online on sites like Fiverr or Upwork.

6. Your Logo

You don’t necessarily need a logo, but you do need a visual way to present your name and what you do. Here’s what I’ve done with mine…

 

You also need to pick a colour scheme. It’s very important to get an experienced designer to do this. Do not use your VA that has been doing it a couple of years. It takes years to become great at this. These colours will be used on your social media, website, landing pages – anything that you do needs to consistently use them so make sure that…

a) you use an experienced professional (10 years + experience)

b) you love the colours (you’ll be using them a long time)

c) you ask for the specific web colours. These look like this #000FFF – you get exactly the same colour each time you use this colour number in your Canva or another design tool. So it’s key for consistency. You don’t want to be guessing your colours.

7. Your website layout

If you’re creating a self-hosted WordPress site, you have the advantage of picking your theme. Pick a theme that is mobile compatible and also very simple. The simpler the template the easier it is to use. Also make sure that:

a) the theme comes with sample content (this saves you building the structure from zero – avoids a lot of confusion and save you a lot of time)

b) the creator has sold many of the same theme (this assures you he will offer support in the long term)

c) it is SEO friendly (which in WordPress sites is pretty standard that is why I often recommend it over Wix or Squarespace though these platforms have come a long way too)