How to better your website based on your goals | Right on Time Podcast

Get ready, because everything is about to change. There's a new way of living life and doing business that will blow your mind. This is a podcast all about the timing of life and the timing of success. It's what we call the Right on Time life. And you are listening to the Right on Time podcast with Amber McHugh. Hey. Hey. Welcome to the Write On Time podcast. I am so pumped for our guest today, Sammy, who we're going to dive into a little bit of marketing strategy. You know, the conversation started with the intent to discuss website updates, which we absolutely do. What are changes? What do you need to think about if you're looking to make updates to your website to align with current messaging or where your clients currently are in their lives? But we're having a marketing strategy conversation here, and you are not going to want to miss this. Grab a pen and paper. You're going to want to make some notes. Check the show notes for some of the resources we're sharing and let me know what you think. In addition, Sami mentions the Plan A Thon in this episode. The Plan A Thon is the planning event of the year for entrepreneurs, and it is coming up on October 3rd of this year, the week of October 3rd, we're going to get together. We're going to get your plans together for growth and success and joy in your life in the year ahead. So check it out. Join us@theplanathon.com and because this is our 10th year, we have some incredible gifts for you for this 10th anniversary celebration when you join us for the Plan A Thon early. So hop on over to www.theplanathon.com and we cannot wait to get your plans for the new year ready to go well in advance. You're going to be so ahead of the crowd. You're going to be so impressed with yourself and the results that get all of next year. So see you@the planathon.com and let's dive into this killer conversation with Sammy. Sammy, welcome to the podcast.

I'm so excited to be here.

I'm so pumped to be here with you, too. It's been a long time coming and we're going to dish today on something that every business owner needs, may need in their future if they don't have it right now. Your website.

Yes. Everybody must have a website.

Yeah. And the same like, everybody's got a website. It's like on the list. Even though, Sammy, I do not find myself well. Where do you go first? Do you go to websites first or do you go to social media first when you're looking someone to learn more about someone?

I mean both, but I usually go to Google first. And so it's kind of a double edged sword. Right. Because when you are looking for a business, all the social media platforms that they're on will pop up usually at the top on search results because those websites are more trustworthy. But I want to know that they have a website because that shows me that they are an existing company, that it's a real thing. Right. Especially because now we get so many emails that are like, I can do this and I can do that and I can save you on this and I can help you do all that. Like you go to their websites to make sure they're a legit company.

Yeah. So good. And the reality is if you are listening to this podcast, you likely have a website if you are a business owner at this point. But so many people I've talked to recently are going through rebrands, want to change things up with the changing landscape, you know, we want to upgrade our messaging and all the things around websites. So this is going to be a fun topic today as we think about making sure your website matches the goals of your organization. How do you even begin to start to tackle this?

Yeah, so probably at some point when you started your business, you popped up a website and then as your business has grown, evolved and changed, you've just like let that website be while you're doing all this other stuff. Right. Like you're revamping your social media marketing, you're changing the way you talk to people in your emails, but you don't go back to your website to make sure that everything is aligned. And so then we find that our websites are kind of, you know, dis engaged with kind of what it is that we're doing everywhere else. The one on one conversations, the network that we're having. So not to say that you need to be changing your website every week or spending time on it all the time, but I think like what I love to do is when I go through the plan a thon every year, I like to set my goals. I've done this with you for years. I'm obsessed. I like to set my goals and I like to go back to my website at the same time and say, okay, what have I changed? What are my priorities? And when I look at my homepage, are they aligned? Do they make sense? Because if I'm going to then have these are my goals, this is what I'm going towards. Then I want when people land on my website to say, okay, I get what she's trying to sell or he's trying to sell. I get what they're looking for, I get what they're going for, this is what I need. And that we're not then having like kind of those misaligned conversations at the get go.

So good. I love that you integrate this into an annual planning and review process. What a great place and time to do a checkpoint on your website every year.

I just went through all of my pages, I'm cleaning up my website and so I just went through all of my pages and found all these amazing opt ins and freebies that I had built two or three years ago that I forgot about because like you do something maybe works, it doesn't work and you move on and you keep doing new things, you try new things, you keep adding things. So it's almost just like going back to the basics and saying, okay, this is what I'm doing now. My website's going to reflect it. It doesn't have to have all the bells and whistles, it doesn't have to be the fanciest website on the planet, but it just needs to clearly convey what you're doing everywhere else.

I love this emphasis that you're putting on clear communication and messaging being aligned versus all the bells and whistles. This is something that plays through my head often is. Okay, it's time for me to refresh the look and the feel of my website. I'm ready for something current. I've. It's been a while since I've updated our branding and our website, but there was a period of time where I was like, oh, gotta update, gotta update. Like all the time wanting to refresh and update. But how much do our esthetics matter in what you've seen?

Well, let me ask you this question. So are you still getting sales off your website?

Actually not directly off. Well, on one website, yes. One website is not designed for direct sales. One website is designed for direct sales. So it's a little bit of a coin toss. My core website is more for connection relationship building. @amber McHugh.com you're still getting people signing.

Up for your wait list. You're still getting people to sign up for your plan. A thon you're still like, right. Like you may have tweaked the messaging, you're not doing a full rebrand. Right. So whatever the goals are of your business, your website is still serving as a conduit for those goals. Yeah, So I think, you know, the biggest mistake that I see is that we make our websites about us and not about the customer that we're trying to attract.

Yeah.

So having people land on the website and seeing imagery that looks like them or that feels like them, having language on the website that addresses the pain point that they have, that they want to fit, feel like, oh, my gosh, you know, Amber gets it. She knows that this is where I'm struggling in my business. She has the solution to help me get there. Like, that's more important than being like, hey, this is me. This is all of the credentials I have. This is how amazing I have or amazing I am. This is why I can help you. You want to make it about them. And that doesn't have to be fancy or refreshed or rebranded. Yes, absolutely. Go get pictures taken, get headshots. Have some fun with it. But we've seen amazing websites that use incredible illustration and fun kind of explainer videos. So it doesn't have to be all this pressure to make it this. This crazy branded thing.

Love this. One of my favorite websites right now from someone we both know. Oh, my gosh. I gotta make sure I have the right link. I'm gonna look it up right now to make sure I say it all in the right order so anybody can go check it out. But a great example, you know exactly what I'm talking about, of illustration and fun and really speaking to the customer voice is pink Pigs fly dot com. Karen was recently on the Right On Time podcast. And I just. Her website, it's so different. It's unique, it's personal. I don't even know where her photo is on this website. I'm sure it's in there somewhere, but it's not predominant because it's close. Clearly not about her. It's about her clients, what she does, who she serves, the results they're gonna get. So that's a really good example of that.

And they're so easy to do. They're really not hard to do. And the way that she did it specifically is like, all of those videos are on brand. All of her illustrations are branded the same. So if you don't wanna be a personal brand and you don't wanna go out there and have your face everywhere, it's a great way to do it. And I would argue that if you aren't somebody that people already know, like trust, then it doesn't help you at all to have your face be the first thing that's there because they don't Know you. They just want to know that you can solve the problem that they have.

What a great point. As we think about the funnel, like, I, if you know someone, and we've actually even tested this in our marketing for our warmer audiences, because they already know me. I'm already connected to those individuals, to you. Oh, okay. I, I recognize and see, see Amber. But for someone like, no, they don't care. Like, this means nothing to me. And I think about the same thing in the funnel from a marketing perspective related to my migraines. Right. The example that I give so regularly is if someone was coming to me saying, I have an answer for your migraines. But I didn't know they were migraines yet at the time when I felt like I just got a bad headache, I first need to be aware that, oh, this thing that I'm feeling might be a migraine. So depending on where your client is in that marketing conversation and their problem awareness, you want to make sure you're speaking to, hey, your headache might be a migraine. If this is how you feel or okay, you know, you've got a migraine. I got a solution that you haven't heard of yet. Right. It's a very different conversation.

Well, that's such a good point. And I think also just bringing in the niche, like, who are you speaking to and where are they at in the in solution are looking for the solution. So if you've got a migraine medication or maybe, okay, it's like there's all these ads out there right now about like the cold cap, right. And so they're doing a lot of marketing around just headaches and not even talking about migraines. But then maybe you have a, you're a pharmaceutical company and you're going to people who know that they are migraines. So I think we tend to overcomplicate our solution. And I think it goes back also to we are scanning websites. We are not landing on a website and deep diving into all of the information that's there. So I like to say, right, at a fifth grade level. And people will be like, well, I don't want to talk down to my audience and I don't want to like, you know, make them feel stupid. And it's not about that at all, but it's about when we're scanning copy on a website, when it's written at a fifth grade level, right. Then I can scan it and like, read it a lot faster than if it's written. Now if you're in an Academia kind of situation. Of course there's always a space for that. But for most of us, that's a great way to think about how we write the copy on our website. And the Hemingway app is a great app to use for that because when you put in all your copy it's going to say, well, this sentence is too long. It has too many smart words in it. Like, you know, think about how you're, how you're writing those things. So that mixed with imagery and icons and stuff will really help people skim the website and figure out if you're the right fit for. So the three things that we like to say on your homepage specifically is you start with what is the problem that you solve? And that's what's in your header. So it's not, I'm Amber McHugh, I help business owners. It's build the business of your dreams with the lifestyle that you want to achieve or something like that. Right. So you're hitting kind of their core problem that you solve. So what's the problem I solved? Then it's how do I solve that problem? So then you're going into, well, we have a free plan a thon or it's we have this membership where we guide you, whatever that is. And then it's why am I qualified to solve that problem? And that's where you talk about who you are, your qualifications, your affiliations, testimonials, whatever that might be. So that's farther down. So by the time they get to you, they're already super engaged, like, okay, yeah, I care. And that's how you're going to get people to convert into whatever it is that you're selling a lot faster.

Oh, this is so good. There was so much packed in there. The. When you were talking about the writing at like the fifth grade level, I was researching, just doing some light research yesterday on learning and the impacts of change and learning on your brain and neuroplasticity. So this is a topic that could get a little bit deep and complex. And I went to, I had like three different articles up in front of me and one was written at the collegiate, like upper graduate level. And then the other one was written like explaining it for kids and the other was like in between. And I was like, oh, thank you for the kids version. Like this is what I need right now. Because. And if we're going through our day to day lives just popping in, popping out, things are happening, we're busy. Like this was light research. I wasn't doing a Deep dive here. I would go collegiate level if this was like in depth something, but in day to day life, like, hey, I need this problem solved. So depending again on your audience, where they are day to day, when they're finding you, these are great things to think about in terms of how you phrase position. So I'm loving this and it's so related for me. I love that you threw out the Hemingway app. Gonna restate that so people can get that test. Like, what level am I writing at? Am I making this easier on my readers and my prospects and clients? Or harder, like my example yesterday? And I want people to think about what you said about images scanning, thinking through. There's an old book called Cash Vertizing. And in that book I always point back to and remember the text under images is some of the most read text in any media. In a magazine, on a website, in a brochure. So anywhere if you've got an image or a video that someone can hit play on, that's very much imagery. But I may not be in a position to hit play. Use that space under the image. So number one, to Sammy's point, have images. Number two, use that real estate wisely because it could positively, like pull people through. Where are people showing up? What do people most read? So Sammy, unlocking so much there. And these are little, little hacks, little pivots that people can make.

Absolutely. And I think there's so many great free stock photography programs out there. And paid stock photography is not expensive. So I think the biggest key here is when you think about your ideal customer, making sure that the imagery reflects. So if your target market is women that are in their 30s to 45 that have kids that are, you know, working from home, like, make sure your imagery is like a messy laundry room with kids running all over. Like whatever it is, that pain point, like it needs to really resonate with them. So they look at the imagery that matches up with your language that says they get me. Like, I need this person in my life because they are the perfect person to solve my problem. And that is more important than. Than all the tech and all of the integration and all of the things that happen on your. I mean, we've seen terribly ugly websites that make millions of dollars.

Yeah.

Because they're messaging in their imagery is on point.

Oh my gosh. There is a company. I don't. I wish I had a discount code for everyone because you're. You might want to check this out, but me's Meals, M E E Z Meals. I in the last two years, during the whole global pandemic situation, we tested a few different meal delivery service companies or like, you know, the pre made, pre cut. There are a lot of incredible ones. Right. Blue Apron. We could go on and on. And the meals was one of the ones we tested recently. And my working moms group in my local area was raving about them. Raving, raving, raving. And one of the things they said was like, it's all pre cut. It's all pre chopped. The sauces, like, it's all already made. You might have to cook a little, but then you mix and. Right. Or you mix and you bake. Like it's very easy. And when we got a lot going on, business owners don't want to eat healthy.

Yes.

You got the kids, like, feed your family well. I don't always do it so well, but my husband's much better at that. But they. Everything's pre cut, pre chopped, pre prepped. So it's so easy and it's kind of healthy. So I'm like, all right, all right. I've got to check this out. I'd heard them talking about it for a while. I was really hearing great, wonderful things. I went to the website. It's bad. If you go look, go look. You are gonna be like, wait, what is this? Am I at the right place? You're at the right place. They deliver great food, but they're focused. Right? So this is a great example of how I have no idea what their revenue is. I have no inside information. I am just an observer and as a business owner and someone who has a marketing background watching this, thinking, wow, you're right. You're right, Sam. Right? Ugly can sell. But what sold me is like word of mouth awareness. I'm like, all right, if I went to that website, I would have clicked away. In fact, I think I did go to that website before I heard all of these great things. So that's an example of like, I don't know about you guys, but the word of mouth was so incredible. Like, I have to try this.

But that goes back to the beginning of our conversation where we're talking about aligning your goals. And so they might have a, like, their marketing plan might be, let's get kits and menus in front of as many people as possible because we know that the mom circle is going to be that engine. So we're going to spend our money on maybe influencer marketing and things like that. But then when you come to the website, everything. See there, Even though it's not the prettiest is still aligned with what you heard from those moms. Right. So it all goes back to the goal. So let's say your website and content creation and SEO and Google Ads is your main priority. Then your website better be banging. Right. But if that's not necessarily where you're targeting, like make sure your funds are there. But the website does need to exist. Exist. Otherwise people don't think you exist.

Sam, me. So good.

That's my sandbox.

That was so good. Because you're right. I don't think they're running ads like I would have gotten retargeting something if they were or targeted straight up. Because I've been on, I'd been on many sites for meal planning over the years and this is incredible. Go back to the like, what is your strategy? It also reminds me of a conversation we had actually this morning inside the Modern Cell CEO, do what you're good at. Design your strategy. Yeah, I'm saying the Muse Mills website is terrible, but I would not even recommend. I actually said this to my husband, like it's working for them. That is not their focus, their strategy right now, to your point, focus on those referrals. What is working for you in marketing right now? What is your zone of genius? What is your strategic priority? Focus there. And layer in a website update when you hit a certain milestone. Layer in a website update right down the road when you've got all this data already collected. There's so many ways to pull through strategy and it doesn't have to look and feel like everyone else's. That was my soapbox.

Yeah. No, and we say that all the time too. You know, we say everybody gets stressed out about what platform should I have my website on, how many words should be on my homepage? How am I going to rank number one on Google right away? And yes, all of those things are important and as we grow in scale, those are strategies that we can layer in. But I think if you can nail the messaging on your website, if that's the one thing, if you can nail the messaging on your website, then you'll be able to nail it everywhere else. You'll have easier communication on social media, you'll have easier communication at networking events, you'll have easier communication on, you know, in your emails. So I really think if you can go through the activity of setting up your website and really being hyper focused on how it attaches to your goals, it will make the rest of your marketing a whole lot easier for you and your team.

So stinking good. I love how what I see sometimes is a very tactical operational activity, like updating your website engages and pulls in so much business strategy, marketing strategy. Creative, like, it's a fun place to play. And I am so grateful for your time and diving through this conversation today. This was so much fun.

Anytime.

So, Sammy, if people are thinking like, okay, wait, I just might want to make a couple tweaks to my website. Do I have what I need? Where you have an audit, right, that people can go through to sort of check and do some maintenance on their website.

Have a maintenance checklist that you can check out. And we do have a bunch of other free resources, so you can check those out at the first click.net free resources. Not the prettiest of URLs, but it works. It works. And that's updated freebies as we go. And then, yeah, lots of other free resources and website trainings. On our podcast, Digital Marketing Therapy.

Oh my gosh, you're incredible. Digital Marketing Therapy. Love the name of your podcast. Check that out. We'll also link up the first click.net/forward/free hyphen resources. We'll link that up in the show notes as well. For anyone who's looking for that, get your monthly web maintenance checklist. Make your updates, but don't dwell. There are so many incredible things you can be doing for your marketing. Check out everything Sammy's got for you. Sam, thank you again. Love you.

Thank you so much for having me. It's been awesome.

Yay.