They don’t know who their customers are
This fatal mistake coaches make in their websites is a nice follow to letting their egos run the show. Much of the time it is quite evident from a website that the owner does not know who their customers are. Their sites are badly organized, or don’t say much of anything at all. Their websites are modeled on the latest design trends, or follow typical corporate formats (most of which are the worst offenders). Or, they are trying to be all things to all people. The best coaching websites know who their customers are, know the problems they are having, and show that they know how to solve those problems. They are customer-specific, and they show it. They exhibit that they have researched and gotten to know their customers, and what they need. They spend the best real estate on their site demonstrating all these factors. Know your customers! Prove that you know them!
Anyone know what this guy is coaching on? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
They don’t know what their customers like and want
Even if coaches know who their customers are, often they don’t know what those same customers like and want to see in a website. When I say this, I mean in terms of design. They choose colors that they like, or that they have read are pleasing to the eye or say certain somethings about themselves. They’ll use blue because they heard it denotes peace, even if their site is about creating more passion in their love lives. They will put stock images on their site that have nothing to do with their target customers, but are cute or sexy. They will put information out there that might have something to do with their subject matter, but has nothing to do with the problems their customers are having. They might put sliders and videos on there because they were told they were the next best thing, but don’t consider if their customers find any value in that sort of thing. They might tell stories that make their visitors laugh, but have no relevance to the kind of coaching they are selling. Or, they won’t say anything on their website at all – they will just put a big picture of themselves out there with a fancy slogan and an email subscription sign up form.
Really? Already I'm bored. I have no idea what she's selling. I might find out, however, if I give her my email. Um... no.
None of these design elements work to engage their customers, unless they know their customers enjoy these things. It is your job as a coach to find out what your target customers like and want to see. Find out what colors appeal to them most. Find out what imagery resonates with them. Find out if your customers appreciate cool animated gifs. But most importantly, appeal to your customers’ problem. Use pictures that shows the pain of the problem and also the joy of having solved it. Use copy that highlights the pain of the problem, that you understand how it feels, and exactly how you intend to solve it with your programs. Being wishy-washy, flowery or too vague with your content will irritate your customers and make them look elsewhere. Know your customers and design to their taste – not necessarily yours.
They aren’t speaking their customers’ language
This is the final fatal flaw that coaches make when building their websites – not speaking their customers’ language. Instead, they have a tendency to speak in their own language, which is generally the language of their business. They speak in industry jargon, they use words they learned during their training, and tell stories using vocabulary that their peers would understand or appreciate… but not necessarily their customers. Here’s an example taken from a fitness coaching website:
You will achieve exceptional levels of health with an integrative and functional approach toward health and comprehensive nutritional counseling. I will teach you how to make healthier lifestyle choices so you can live a vibrant healthy life.
Um…. yeah. Yawn. Those words are not exciting or motivating to me if I want to lose weight and/or get healthy. If I am in misery over having to go to a wedding or class reunion in six weeks, and I want to look uh-mazing, I would not hire this person. What I am saying in my head is:
Oh God, I look like hell. I want to wear that slinky dress and impress my old boyfriend Joe Cool and not have to wear ten layers of Spanx underneath in order to do it. But can I go six weeks without ice cream? Ohhhh... I don't think I can! What can I do? Someone help me!!
I want someone to resonate with that feeling. That emotion of despair and helplessness. This coach above is being too cold and business-like, and I don’t feel like he/she would understand the primordial agony that is going on inside of me. And my underlying belief is that he/she is probably all thin and ripped and totally intimidating. It’s probably been so long since they’ve been fat (if they ever were) that they don’t know what it feels like anymore. Ugh… no thanks. Weight loss and the associated feelings of impotency are extremely personal, and is an area that is very embarrassing for most of the people who deal with it. If I were a weight-loss coach potential customer, I would want to unload my pain on someone who I feel will be understanding, and non-judgmental.
So be very careful when crafting your website copy. Take time with it. Chew on it and roll around with it. Get into your customers’ heads and hearts and speak from there. Talk to them as if they were your brother, sister, cousin, mom, best friend, husband, lover. Think like them and be with them when you are writing. Feel their pain and frustration. Hear their voices. Talk to them like they are… people.
This is a very pretty website, but what do all those words mean?!?! Wah wah waaaaaaahhhhh...
Do you teach people about financial management? Talk about bankruptcy and the shame that goes with it, and how you can help people work through it and make the best of it. Do you help people transition into a new career? Talk about the anguish of being in a line of work that sucks the life out of you. Teach yoga? Talk about how doing the child’s pose feels just soooooo awesome. Regardless of your business niche, you want to make sure your customers know you understand and resonate with their pain. Your website copy must be written in a language that vibrates on their frequency. Leave all the corporate and industry wank to the mega-giants we all know and hate.
So there you have it: the six most grievous mistakes coaches make when designing and developing their websites. Don’t do them! Next, we will cover what you can do RIGHT with your site, and how you can use your coaching skills to make it happen.
What Coaches Can Do Right With Their Websites
Now that you know what not to do when designing and building a website, you can turn those around and do the opposite. And, as an additional bonus, you can use your coaching skills to create powerful content for your website! The coaching skills we have learned with our training and experience can be easily applied to creating a wonderful website that your customers will resonate with, and ultimately inspire them to be motivated to work with you. And that’s the real goal of your website.
Creativity
This one is a bit of a no-brainer. A website is a natural marriage between technology and creativity. Boring websites show no creativity (see any corporate website) and are dull and uninteresting. They rarely excite their visitors, and most likely never inspire anyone to do anything. Here is your chance to show your skills not only in your coaching creativity, but your inspirational creativity. You will do this through your own visual design, or by allowing your website developer to express your creativity through their design skills, and by your scintillating copy. You can do this by revealing yourself and your stories, your experiences and by speaking in your customers’ language. Think about what your customers need and want, what kinds of visuals will resonate and inspire them and what words will delight and touch them.
Just like you have to be creative in your coaching in order to help your clients see different perspectives and think laterally, you can demonstrate the same principles in your website. Don’t just follow other people’s templates – come up with your own. You can do this by thinking about what your clients want to see, hear and feel, in order for them to want to work with you. Mine your creative skills!
Diversity
Demonstrating diversity in your website will be key, especially if you plan on working with international clients. If you do, you will want to use imagery that appeals to many different cultures, as well as language that makes sense to different nationalities. This doesn’t mean you have to have translations on your site (although you can), but you will need to be cognizant of communication styles and the use of humor that may not cross cultural lines well. I am not talking necessarily about being politically correct (unless that is important to you), but being respectful of the way people from other countries may interpret what you are saying.
Other areas of diversity to think about when considering your target clients are gender, age, spirituality, among others. If you are targeting one specific group, then diversity may not be as much of a skill you will need to demonstrate. However, unless your niche is very small, you will want to show that you can and will be able to work with a range of people and value types. Your design and content will want to reflect this skill.
As I have said ad nauseum, think about your target customers and build your website to suit them.
Energizing
In order to inspire your potential customers into the action of hiring you (or at the very least, inquiring about your offerings), you will need to energize them through your website content. Think about how you energize your current customers in your coaching, and then apply that same enthusiasm to your website visuals and copy. Use colors that inspire and graphics that feed them. But most importantly, your words need to motivate them. Your optimism and energy can and should come through in your website, if you are wanting to inspire them into action. Think about what you would say to your clients to get them excited about the changes they want to make in their lives, and translate those words on to the website page. Show your passion and spirit!
Intent
Intent has a lot of play in website development: there is the intent to show your potential clients that you can successfully help them, and the intent to move them to contact you so they can hire you. On the client’s side, their intent is to find someone who can get their problem solved in the most efficient, pleasurable, and cost-effective way possible. Your job in developing an effective website is to align your intent with your potential client’s intent so that you both get what you need out of the website experience. To do this, you will want to design your site so that it reflects that you are aware of your client’s intent first. By doing so, your intent to show that you can help them should flow naturally from that origin. By demonstrating on your site that you recognize your potential client’s intent, your chances of successfully achieving your intent of inspiring a contact to hire are exponentially increased.