Creating a personal brand website is something that a lot of our web design clients have come to us for over the years. And we’ve noticed that business owners with more ‘traditional’ types of business (like freelancers or service-based entrepreneurs) can worry about this transition.

So in this post, we cover some of the benefits and risks of having a personal brand and share 7 tips to help you when transitioning into a personal brand website.

What are the benefits of transitioning to a personal brand? 

A personal brand helps you become more memorable

Building a personal brand (and a website to go with it) is really powerful because it helps you stand out.

So many businesses out there still hide behind a logo. And if you’re brave enough to show up as the person behind your business, you give yourself a better chance of getting noticed. 

When you think about it, we’re built to connect with people – it’s what we do as human beings!

And as consumers, when we land on a personal brand website (which is more approachable and personable), we immediately feel we can build rapport with someone. It’s easier to create a deeper connection with a person than it is to connect with a business as an entity.

A personal brand helps you establish yourself as an expert

Let’s say, as an example, that you’re looking to move from done-for-you services into coaching and consulting. If that’s the case, having a personal brand can help people see you in a new light – as an expert in your field.

Clients will start to perceive you as being ‘in demand’ and ‘exclusive’. And of course, with that, comes the ability to charge higher fees!

A personal brand allows you to change direction without losing your audience

Unless you change industry completely, being a personal brand means your name is attached to your business. It follows you wherever you go.

So if you want to slightly change direction, all the contacts you’ve made, and everything you’ve built up through your content marketing, for example, follows you. Your audience knows who you are – you have a reputation.

What are the risks associated with transitioning to a personal brand? 

As a personal brand business owner, your business becomes synonym with your name. And that’s great for many reasons (some of which we covered above).

But there are also some risks.

You might lose some of your audience

If you’re planning on changing your business name (or business model) completely and without warning your clients, you might cause confusion and a lack of trust with your audience.

And that never ends well.

When you think about it, if someone’s been Googling your business name for years, and now all of a sudden it disappears from the face of the internet with no warning or notice, it might raise a red flag with some of your audience.

But that’s only going to happen if you don’t tell them in advance and are secretive about your move! 

In reality, most people (be it your existing or prospective customers) won’t mind if you are becoming more of an expert, putting your face on your website, and offering different types of services. They just care if you don’t tell them!

You might lose credibility with big, corporate clients

A lot of service-based business owners worry about losing credibility with their prospective clients, especially if they work with bigger companies.

• Will they think I’m too small to work with them?
• Will they think I can no longer offer the services I’ve been offering them?

These are valid questions to have. But transitioning to a personal brand doesn’t mean you’re going to lose credibility with bigger clients. 

As long as you manage this correctly and give them the confidence and the evidence they need to believe that you can still handle the work and provide value, they’re not going to worry about what you call yourself.

You’re still the same person who’s been doing all the work!

You might confuse people if you change your domain name

If you’ve been using your business name as your domain name for years, and now you’re switching to using your own name, people are bound to get confused.

We talk more about domain names in our blog post: How to Choose a Domain Name for your Personal Brand Website. But there are definitely measures you can put in place for this too (see point 5 below).

You might struggle to sell your business

If you’re a personal brand, selling your business can be harder. So if you started your business with a view of selling it in the future, becoming a personal brand might not be the right move for you. 

However, for most of our clients, their business is their own. If you’re not planning to sell your business on down the line (even though you never know what opportunities life might bring!), transitioning to a personal brand can make a lot of sense.

So how do you manage the transition to a personal brand?

All in all, the benefits of transitioning to a personal brand far outweigh the downsides. If you already have a business behind you and a steady stream of customers, becoming a personal brand can only benefit you.

But you’re right in wanting to think carefully and strategically about how you’re going to manage the transition and minimise the risks we mentioned above!

The good news is that it’s nothing a bit of planning and careful communication can’t fix! 

So here are our top tips for you.

1. Tell your audience

We touched on this earlier. Not telling your clients about the move hoping they won’t notice is not a good strategy!

The key is to be open and upfront about your transition and the reasons behind changing your services.

You might feel nervous about doing it, but your audience will understand – they might even be interested and intrigued by the new direction you’re taking!

In fact, people tend to appreciate the thought process that goes behind making important business decisions. Some of them might be business owners themselves, and you might be giving them food for thought, which they’ll definitely appreciate!

And don’t be surprised if you get some new enquiries as a result!

So always be transparent and explain what you’re doing.

We use our blog content to do this. And whenever we’ve made changes in our business in the past, we’ve taken to our blog to let our audience know exactly why, how, and when.

We did this when we stopped selling SEO (Why We Stopped Selling SEO), and we did it more recently when we decided to increase our web design prices (Why We’re Increasing Our Web Design Prices).

2. If possible, don’t discontinue all your services at once

Moving to a consulting or speaking-on-stage model, for example, might mean you no longer offer some of your done-for-you services.

And that’s fine, but if you have existing clients on a retainer, you’re going to have to let them know and manage the situation! So you either continue to offer the service (but only to existing clients) or get ready to have some difficult conversations with them!

It’s generally easier to slowly build your new services up and phase the old ones out gradually, rather than completely switching overnight. This makes it more convenient for your existing clients but also helps you to protect your income.

Take us, for example. Although we are a personal brand business, we very much stand behind Jammy Digital as our agency. And as an agency, we used to offer SEO services, which we no longer sell. When we discontinued our SEO service, we decided to continue to provide it to our existing clients.

So if you’re making changes to your website, instead of completely scrapping your existing one and starting from scratch, think about where you can make room for your new services.

If you want to become a speaker, add a new page to your website, rather than getting rid of everything you’ve ever had in one go.

3. Be proud of your experience

So you’ve been helping clients in your industry for 10 years?

Great. Own it. Be proud of where you come from and use it to your advantage.

Show your new ideal customers how you help them. 

When you transition into a personal brand, don’t be afraid of talking about your past experience.

• Tell people that you’ve been helping companies do exactly what you’re now coaching or consulting about for x years.
• Tell them that you have a proven track record of doing this thing. And that’s why you know how to get them results!

Of course, this only applies if you’re transitioning within the same industry or niche.

If you’re changing business entirely and going from banking to health and fitness, then you’ll probably have to build a brand new audience.

4. Use your website to communicate the changes to your audience 

Use your website in the same way you’d speak to someone over the phone.

You might need to tweak the wording here, but what you want to communicate is something along the lines of:

“Hi, Mr. Customer. Up until now we’ve been offering services to help you with X. But now we’re also offering Y. And I just wanted to make you aware we are having a change around with our website.”

It’s this simple.

And if you’re concerned about the impact this might have on your existing and prospective clients, then have a real conversation with them. If you have a few key clients that are the bread and butter of your business, pick up the phone and speak to them!

Show them how your transition benefits them, ask them for their feedback or opinion. After all, they’re not going to stop working with you just because you’re establishing yourself as more of an expert!

So listen to their worries and objections (if any), and reassure them. Then use that content for your website – let it do the talking for you. You’ll see how this can work wonders in building trust with your visitors.

5. If you’re switching domains, redirect your traffic

If you change your domain name when transitioning into a personal brand website, speak to your web designer or your SEO company to make sure that if somebody types in your old website, it redirects to your new personal brand website.

This is important because you don’t want to lose any traffic. And also, you don’t want your customers to reach a dead end when they’re looking for you online!

6. Show images of yourself

We’ve got news for you.

If you are becoming a personal brand business owner, you’re going to have to show images of yourself on your website!

Up until now, you might not have done that. And that’s fine. But a big part of becoming a personal brand is people knowing what you look like! So show us your face, please!

And this still applies even if you have a team of people behind you – be it permanent staff or a team of freelancers, because people connect with people. And don’t worry – people don’t mind that you have a crew behind you, as long as you’re prepared to stand up tall as the captain of the ship (or the expert and the authority in your field).

Showing your prospective clients what you look like helps you build trust and authority. Because consumers want to know that there are real people behind a business – it makes it more trustworthy and easier to connect to. And if you want to find out more about how that works, head over to our blog post The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Personal Brand Website.

7. Show your personality

Having a clear tone of voice is harder to do when you’re a corporate business. But when you transition into a personal brand, that’s when you can start to be yourself and have fun by showing your personality within your business.

And the beauty of it is that people start to get to know who you are and what you’re like!

Stepping out as the person behind the business, allows you to connect with your audience a lot more. You get to publish content you may have not published before and to write it all in the first person too!

As a personal brand business owner, you get to put your own unique stamp, spin, and personality onto your content. And if you want to learn more about this, head over to our blog post, How to Master Your Tone of Voice.

Have you made the leap to a personal brand? 

Or are you thinking about it? We’d love to know your thoughts. Just comment below!

Martin & Lyndsay

The post 7 Tips for Transitioning into a Personal Brand Website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

You do that with a Big, Bold Statement.

Often called your ‘Value Proposition’ or ‘You statement’, the Big, Bold Statement is what it says on the tin. It’s the big, bold message you publish on your website for your visitors to see. It defines exactly what you do so your users know they’re in the right place.

Why is it important to have a Big, Bold Statement on your website?

We review a lot of websites in our FREE Facebook group. And one of the main issues we come across is that business owners find it really difficult to explain what they do.

It’s important to remember that your visitors (i.e. your potential customers and clients) won’t initially be spending a lot of time on your website. You only have 3 to 4 seconds to make an impression!

So you need a clear, defining Big, Bold Statement that helps them work out:

• where they are,
• what services you offer,
• whether you have the solution to their problem,
• and whether they should stay or hit the back button!

So your job is to make who you are and what you do abundantly clear to your website visitors. Explain it so clearly that a 5-year-old would get it.

Seriously.

Don’t make your web visitors spend any brain calories trying to work out what you do. It’s not a puzzle. And they don’t win a prize. So don’t be vague or fluffy with your Big, Bold Statement!

Where should the Big, Bold Statement go on your website and how long should it be? 

Your Big, Bold Statement only needs to be a few words long – 10-15 words at the most. That’s because people need to immediately, at a glance, be able to understand what you do.

And it should sit in the top third of your website.

This section of your website is also referred to as:

• ‘above the fold’,
• ‘the top third’ or ‘the first third’,
• the ‘slider section’,
• or the ‘feature area’.

We call it the hero section. And it’s the first thing you see when you get onto any website before you have to scroll down the page to see the rest.

That’s where you want your Big, Bold Statement to go.

So how do you put together a Big, Bold Statement?

Here are 9 ways to help you do just that.

1) Ask a Question

This method works no matter what industry or business you’re in, but let’s use an example to explain what we mean.

Let’s say you’re a speaking coach – you help people with their presentations and with speaking on stage.

If you use the question method, your Big, Bold Statement could be something like:

Does the thought of public speaking make you want to cry?

Your question immediately draws your website visitors in. By asking it, you’re telling your audience you understand the issue they’re facing, and at the same time, you’re illustrating what you do.

When coming up with the question to ask, speak directly to your visitors – remember that it’s about them.

Ask the question you know your ideal customers have been asking themselves. You want them to nod in agreement as they read it.

2) State a Promise

Can you make your ideal customers or clients a promise? Going back to our speaking coach example, you could use:

Feel more confident on stage in five weeks or less.

or even,

The only speaking course you’ll ever need.

Now, that is a promise.

It’s Big, and it’s Bold.

It allows you to explain what you do by promising something to your visitors. It’s your way of standing your ground as the expert you are.

Just be mindful of not falling into the trap of using fluffy marketing lingo though! One of the biggest mistakes we see people make with their Big, Bold Statement is that the language is too vague.

“I can make you prosper.”

is a promise. But it doesn’t tell your readers the first thing about what it is you help them with!

3) Use your Unique Identifier

What makes you unique? Do you have a niche? A Unique Selling Point, or USP? Something that allows you to differentiate yourself from your competitors and specifically describes your products and services?

Then find that ‘thing’ and feature it in your Big, Bold Statement.

Say, for example, that you have your own methods of teaching people. Your Big, Bold Statement could be something along the lines of:

I am the creator of the seven-minute speaking formula.

This doesn’t just tell your visitors what you do. It also gives you a valuable edge that makes your people perk up and listen.

4) Create a Power Statement

This is the type of Big, Bold Statement we use on our own website.

Make your mark online.

This is our Power Statement, and (in case you hadn’t noticed) it’s also the name of our podcast and our membership!

Underneath that, we’ve added a ‘supporting statement’ that reads:

a website you can be proud of.

Let’s break it down for a second.

With our Power Statement, we aim to appeal to our ideal clients (people who want to make their mark online) by triggering emotion in them. The supporting statement helps us clarify how we do this – by helping them build websites.

Our Big, Bold Statement speaks directly to our ideal clients by evoking emotion. And at the same time, it provides the clarity our ideal clients need to understand what we do.

That’s why this method is so powerful.

However, out of all the methods we teach, we find this is the one people struggle with the most, as it’s easy to fall into the trap of being too vague.

So our speaking coach may want to say something like:

Make them believe. 

It’s powerful, it’s emotional, and it’s likely to stop you in your tracks. But without a supporting statement, it doesn’t really say what our coach does.

So they might want to add:

 turning mediocre presentations into magnificent ones.

or even,

public speaking training for CEOs.

That’s how you get the perfect combination of emotion and clarity. When you get this right, a Big, Bold Statement that’s based on a Powerful + Supporting Statement can be extremely effective.

5) Use a Customer Testimonial

Did a client give you an amazing testimonial that perfectly sums up what you do? Then why not use that, word-by-word, as your Big, Bold Statement?

For us, this could be something like:

The best website I could have ever dreamed of.

Our speaking coach could use:

I’ve never felt so happy after leaving the stage.

or,

Public speaking has never felt so achievable.

As long as the testimonial is clear and specific enough (and tells people what you do), this emotive approach can work really well.

Up until recently, Chris Marr of Content Marketing Academy used a testimonial on his website, CMA Live, and it was this:

The best marketing conference I’ve been to in 25 years.

Isn’t that perfect? It tells you immediately what you’re getting but also gives you enough social proof to help you make an informed buying decision.

6) The Exact Statement

Just say exactly what it is that you do – it’s as simple as that.

Using our speaking coach as an example again, they could say:

Public speaking, training, and workshops.

It’s obvious. It’s simple. And it’s effective.

But it also makes it abundantly clear what it is you do.

Just stating the facts is much better than going for something too complicated that could potentially end up confusing people. It may not be the fanciest of approaches, so if you’re pressed for time, just do this first, and then go back and refine your Big, Bold Statement later when you have a better idea.

7) Who You Help

The original idea for this particular method of coming up with a Big, Bold Statement came from Michael Port and his book Book Yourself Solid. And it’s as simple as answering this question – who do you help and what do you help them do?

The speaking coach in our example would say:

We help CEOs master public speaking.

or,

Helping academics to deliver memorable presentations.

This is a particularly great way of illustrating what you do if you have a niche. When your ideal customer or client lands on your website and sees this, they’re going to feel really special. And that’s all you can ask for!

8) Who You Help+

With this method, you’re combining the Power Statement with the Who You Help statement to enhance it and clarify it.

Our speaking coach could use:

We help CEOs deliver outstanding presentations that inspire action.

So with this Big, Bold Statement, you’re telling someone what you’re helping them with (‘deliver outstanding presentations’), but you’re also letting them know how helping them will affect them (they will be able to ‘inspire action’).

That additional bit at the end (the ‘plus statement’) is impactful. It adds that extra punch which gets people in the heart (in a totally good way!).

9) The Guarantee

Do you offer a guarantee with your services? Not every business does, but if you have the right kind of product, this can be a good way for you to come up with your Big, Bold Statement.

Here’s what our speaking coach might say:

Deliver outstanding presentations or your money back.

This works because it gives your visitors confidence. If you’re prepared to stand behind your product in such a big way that you’ll give money back if they don’t get results, whatever you sell must be pretty good!

So which method is right for you?

There’s no right and wrong here. Jot down a few ideas, try a few methods, and test your Big, Bold Statement out.

Ask your friends and family, check with your followers on social media, or ask your email subscribers what resonates with them the most.

Remember that your Big, Bold Statement isn’t set in stone – you can always change it when you come up with a better one.

Would you like our help? 

You may have got your big, bold statement sorted, but what about the rest of your homepage? Download our homepage blueprint for personal brands, which tells you EXACTLY what to put on your homepage.

Better still, if you want our help, week in and week out, as you build your personal brand website, check out our membership, Make Your Mark Online (or MYMO, as our members call it!). You’ll get access to our best advice and to our thriving community as well. What’s there not to like?!

And if you’d like to hear us talk about how to come up with your Big, Bold Statement in more details, go and check out our podcast episode Why You Need a Big, Bold Statement and How to Create One.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post 9 Ways to Create a Big, Bold Statement for Your Personal Brand Website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Our B.R.A.N.D. framework for Personal Brands

We’ve come up with a simple way to explain what a perfect personal brand website should look like. It’s a framework we use to create every single website we build. And we call it the B.R.A.N.D. framework.

You do not have to be a techie to follow this framework, in fact, we created it with non-techies in mind.

B.R.A.N.D. is an acronym and is based on 5 core areas that each website should have:

1. B for Build trust.
2. R for Relevancy.
3. A for Authority.
4. N for Noteworthy.
5. D for Direction.

So let’s break down every single area in more details.

1. Build trust using your website

Building trust is the first and most important aspect of the entire framework. We need to trust the people we buy from. If your visitors don’t trust you, they’re not going to stick around long enough to buy from you.

It’s as simple as that.

So when someone lands on your website for the first time, they’re probably going to ask themselves a few questions. Things like:

• Do these people know what they’re talking about?
• Will they try to sell me something?
• Does this website look secure?

Your job is to reassure your visitors. And you do that by building trust.

So how do you actually build trust with your audience through your website?

1.1 Building Trust: Branding 

Does your website look and feel like a nice place to be? Does it ‘look the part’? In other words, is your website ‘aesthetically pleasing’?

Now, when you’re building a website yourself this can be difficult. After all, you’re not a designer, right? How can you design a beautiful website if you don’t have the skills?

The likelihood is, you’re website is not going to look the same as a website designed by a professional agency BUT this does not mean your website won’t be successful.

In this case, we recommend you find a good WordPress theme that you like (there are thousands out there) and stick within the parameters of the theme. I.e. don’t change too much! What you want is something clean and professional.

You can edit fonts and colours to match your branding. You can add your logo. And, most importantly, you’ll be able to add your images and text which will really help you stand out.

Ultimately, this is about avoiding a crappy looking website that looks like the 90s threw up on the page. No one trusts those websites! So, keep it simple, stick to a theme and use other methods to stand out!

Example of Good Website Branding

It’s no secret that we love Col Grey’s work. His website is a great example of good branding – bold, memorable colours, consistency of fonts and text, plenty of white space, great use of shapes and consistent use of images.

You instantly feel at ease on Col’s website. You know you’re in the hands of a professional. 

1.2 Building Trust: Images

One of the best ways of making your reader feel at ease is by using images of yourself on your website.

But a lot of people feel nervous about using their face on their website. Will it make you look egotistical? Or self-absorbed? 

Hell no!

The purpose of having your image on your website is so your reader can see who they’re potentially going to work with/invest in. It’s for their benefit, not yours. You’re not self-centred for putting your images on your website. Far from it.

Using images of yourself and your team throughout your website gives the reader a sense of who you are. We actually recommend business owners invest in professional photography BEFORE they invest thousands and thousands on a website. It’s amazing what you can do with a half decent theme and some good photographs.

We’ve written an article with some tips on how to get some amazing photographs for your website.

Example of Good Website Imagery

We love Teresa’s images on her website. As soon as you land on her homepage you feel at ease and welcomed by Teresa. It automatically builds trust and a connection.

1.3 Building Trust: Testimonials and Case Studies

Do you have any testimonials or case studies that tell a story? Testimonials and case studies can be a great tool to help you build trust with your audience. Remember though, your visitors know that testimonials can be manufactured. So don’t share testimonials that simply say how good you are! (We know you are!)

Instead, feature examples of customers or clients who came with you with a problem and experienced a transformation as a direct result of buying your products or services.

If you want to find out more about how to get great testimonials from your clients, head over to our blog post How to get client testimonials for your website. Or you can listen to episode 17 of the Make Your Mark Online podcast.

Example of Good Website Testimonials

Chris Marr, at Content Marketing Academy, features fantastic testimonials on his website. They aren’t just the standard ‘Love it’ testimonials, they are real stories and experiences that give detailed results.

1.4 Building Trust: Security 

And last but not least, in order to build that trust with your visitors, make your website is fast and secure. If your website takes over 3 seconds to load, your visitors may get impatient or suspicious. They’ll be wondering whether they’re being re-directed elsewhere and asking themselves why it’s taking so long. More often than not, they won’t wait for your page to load.

They’ll click the back button.

So get yourself a nice speedy website. If you’d like to buy a speed up service, we recommend TechCrunch.

Also, get an SSL certificate to make sure your website is secure. And by all means, always comply with any applicable mandatory requirements, including GDPR or privacy policy, for example. Tell people what you’re going to do with their data (i.e. you won’t sell it the highest bidder!)

2. Relevancy and why it’s so important for your website

When someone visits your website,

• are they clear on what you do?
• Can they see how relevant you are to them?
• Can they see how you can help them get from A to B? Solve a problem they have?
• And can they immediately tell whether you’ve helped people like them in the past?

If your visitors don’t understand how you can help them, they won’t stay on your website long enough to listen to what you have to say.

People don’t want to waste their time.

And you don’t want to waste yours, so get to the point quickly and show your ideal customers and clients exactly what it is that you do.

Show them that you’re relevant to them.

Here’s how.

2.1 Relevancy: Your Big Bold Statement

A big, bold statement is the first sentence or phrase someone will see when they land on your website. It’s usually situated in the first third of your homepage, and it’s where you should clearly state what it is that you do. If you don’t do this right, your visitors won’t know whether they’re in the right place.

Your big, bold statement doesn’t have to be overly creative or clever. In fact, sometimes it’s best to avoid this and just clearly state what it is you do.

If you want to find out more about what Big Bold Statement, you can listen to episode 5 of the Make Your Mark Online podcast – Why You Need a Big Bold Statement and How to Create One.

Example of Good Big, Bold Statement 

Mike and Callie at Membership Guys are so clear about what they offer and who they help. Take this big, bold statement you see as soon as you land on their website ‘Proven Practical advice for successful memberships’ – couldn’t be more clear!

2.2 Relevancy: Images and photos

We already mentioned photos and images in the context of building trust with your audience. But photos can also go a long way to show your readers that they’re in the right place and allow them to connect with you.

Take us, for example. Some people might want to work with a huge agency with a big team. They can clearly see from the get-go that there are two of us. They’ll know straight away that we’re not right for them.

A lot of people use stock photos to try to hide who they are, but using images makes it clear whether you’re the right fit for your end-user.

Example of good images and photos

We love Sara’s images on her website. She shows herself in her home office at her laptop and drinking coffee, looking very relaxed and so approachable! These images show the reader immediately shows the reader who Sara is and what she does.

2.3 Relevancy: Testimonials and Case Studies 

Testimonials and case studies might help you build trust, but they also show the reader the type of clients you work with. So if you’re targetting well-known speakers, make sure you only feature them in your testimonials and case studies! It’s also a good idea to cull old testimonials that might not be a reflection of who you work with anymore.

Example of a good case study/testimonial

We love Lauren Pearman’s case studies such as this one. Lauren puts the focus on her client, not herself. She talks about what they want to achieve and how she helps them do this through photography. But best of all, Lauren shows exactly who her ideal clients are through her case studies. It’s very clear to see the types of people that she works with.

2.4 Relevancy: Website Copy 

One of the best and most obvious ways to convey to reader what it is you do and how you help is through your website copy. But it’s amazing how many people get this wrong. They focus on ‘fluff’ – when they were established, the entire work history to date, or they use generic terms like ‘we’re professional and friendly’.

Your copy should focus on the reader, not you. It should show them who you work with (and who you don’t work with), and it should people how you help and why it’s beneficial for them to hire you.

Example of good website copy 

John Espirian is the king of good website copy and making the complex, simple. In the example above, you can see how John helps solve a problem for his clients with the phrase, ‘Let’s help your clients go from “umm, what?” to “ahh, I get it now”. There’s no ‘extra fat’ in John’s copy, it’s concise and most importantly, it demonstrates to the reader who he is, what he does and how he helps.

3. Authority building for your personal brand

Being seen as an authority in your field or niche is fundamental because, in order to buy from you, people need to see you as an expert.

People want to know things like:

• Are you qualified to help them?
• Can you be trusted?
• Have you got any proof of things you’ve done in the past?
• Is working with you a safe investment of their money?

So how do you build authority on your website?

3.1 Authority: Big Hero image

We talked about images before. They can help with trust and relevancy, but also with authority.

If you’re a speaker, use images of yourself speaking on stage, for example. If you’re an author, have a photo of yourself signing books.

Use that Big Hero image on the home page of your website wisely – it’s a great opportunity to tell your website visitors that you’re an authority.

Example of a good authority image

Love him or hate him Gary V does showcase his authority in this image on his website. His back is turned away from the reader, which gives us a full view of an engaged audience. It speaks to his authority.

3.2 Authority: Media badges and social proof

Have you been featured on The Guardian, the BBC, or the Huffington Post? Have you appeared in a well-known podcast?

Then add those media badges to your website.

This tells your audience that you’ve received ‘the stamp of approval’ from well-recognised sources, and it will help you build trust with your website visitors more easily.

Similarly, if you have a good number of subscribers on your email list, you could add a section on your website that includes something along the lines of: “Join another 500 like-minded business owners who are already on our list”.

This boosts your social proof and makes you come across as trustworthy.

Example of good social proof

Amy Landino is an international speaker and YouTube expert. Her website does a great job at reflecting her level of expertise and authority. Amy uses the logos above subtly on her website, but it works to show what an authority she is. We also like how she’s worded it ‘Brands Who Trust Amy’. Nicely done!

3.3 Authority: Signature Programmes 

If you offer any sort of coaching or consulting, then having your own ‘signature programmes’ can really help you be seen as an authority. These programmes are your proven steps to success. They’re based around your experience and what’s worked for you and what hasn’t. And they’re usually given a name that’s unique to you.

Example of good signature programmes

Janet Murray delivers her own signature programmes that help people build their audience and grow their business. She named the above programme ‘The build your audience’ programme. Only Janet offers this unique programme and with it all the training and resources. Having your own proven programme such as this one helps show your authority in your industry.

4. Noteworthy

• Are you noticeable and memorable?
• Interesting and entertaining?
• When people land on your website, how will you make sure they stay long enough to listen to what you’re saying?
• Can people relate to you?

Because that’s all we all look for – human connection. And if your visitors can’t connect with you, they’ll just find someone else to connect with.

Truth is, you’re not going to be loved by everybody.

But that’s fine because you don’t want everybody to be your customer. You just want a selected few.

So how are you going to use your website to relate to your ideal customers and clients on a one-to-one level? How are you going to show people that you’re noteworthy?

4.1 Noteworthy: Your Tone of Voice

What’s your personality?

One of the biggest mistakes people make with their website copy is making it boring and stuffy. A lot of people get their personalities across on social media, but when it comes to web copy they go formal.

Make sure you show people who you are. Yes, not everyone will love you, but it doesn’t matter about the people that don’t like you. They aren’t your customers.

If you’re still struggling with this, check out our article on how to create your tone of voice.

Example of Good Tone of Voice

We love Amy’s site from Joy Junkie. You can immediately get a sense of who she is from her copy. Her personality just shines through and you will remember her! She writes very much like she might talk and it feels like you’re having a real conversation with her when you read her words.

4.2 Noteworthy: Your story 

Do you have an interesting story to tell? One that your readers will connect with? If so, then your story is definitely going to help you to stand out and make you memorable.

So make sure you tell your story well – don’t be scared of adding a bit of character and personality to it.

But make sure it’s a genuine story too. A lot of people feel the pressure to tell something amazing. But keep it simple and real. None of this I had $1 in my pocket and now I’m a millionaire with a Lambo crap.

Example of a Good Story

Patt Flynn tells his story of how he started Smart Passive Income. What we love about this story is that it’s humble, simple and something we can all relate to. Patt talks about how he struggled in his career after the 2008 economic crash. He talks about how he set up his business so he could be closer to his family and work around them. There’s no ego in his story. And no Lamborghinis!

4.3 Noteworthy: Images and videos

By now, you’ll have noticed that images come up a lot when talking about the features a great website should have. That’s because they are a key element for creating a great personal brand website. Use them to be memorable and stand out and create a sense of who you are.

Think about your brand values – are you fun, cheeky, humourous, serious? Let this show through your photography and use props if you want to help you.

Example of a Good Personal Brand Photography

Andrew and Pete nail their brand. Everything they are is reflected across their website, and in particular in their photography. Their photos are fun, relaxed and relatable, just like Andrew and Pete themselves!

4.4 Noteworthy: Colours 

Your brand colours are often what will make you memorable. There are many things to consider before choosing your brand colours…

• Who you are and what you stand for – for example if innovation is your thing you wouldn’t pick something super traditional looking like maroon
• What your competition does – sometimes, it’s good to go against the grain of your competition (think someone with expertise in plants going pink rather than green!) But this is a risk. It will make you memorable but sometimes it works and sometimes not!
• Colour psychology – red symbolises passion or danger, pink symbolises femininity or happiness. Think about what the colours could mean to your audience before you choose them.

Example of a Good Personal Brand Colours

When I go to conferences and say I’m from Jammy Digital, I often hear people reply, ‘You’re the guys with that green and pink website, right?’ Yup! Our weird combo of bright colours does make us memorable to a lot of people. They’re also very much a reflection of us and our brand.

4.5 Noteworthy: Your Opinions 

We all have our own opinions about industry, right? We work in it every day and we live and breathe what we do. Sometimes, you might go against the grain of your industry or work in a unique way with your clients. Part of you brand values might be honest and transparancy. In which case, stating clearly how you work or what makes you different can work well. It makes you memourable and unique.

A Good Example of Sharing Your Opinions

I always remember this website from A Little Bit of Something. They really do get their feelings across on their website (and we can certainly relate!) Again, some people might hate this, but it doesn’t matter, because their target audience will love it. It creates strong emotions either way. Remember, it’s better to be loved and hated rather than forgotten.

5. Direction

Direction is the last piece of the puzzle and the fifth component of the B.R.A.N.D. framework.

If you want your website to perform well, you need to consider how you’re directing people from page to page. Because if your visitors don’t know what to do next, they’re going to do nothing.

Or click that dreaded back button.

When people land on your website, they want to know things like:

• What do I do next?
• Where do I start?
• How do I get in touch?
• What services do you offer?

We’ve written more about how you can use your Home page as the ‘reception area’ of your website, directing people to where they need to go, especially if you have more than one audience. Check out our blog post How to Appeal to More Than One Audience Using Your Website.

So here’s what you can do to help people navigate your website easily.

5.1 Direction: Menu items 

Use obvious phrases on your menu items to help your readers go where they need to go. Don’t call your menu items something vague or obscure that people aren’t familiar with like ‘my journey’ for ‘blog’ – you’ll just end up confusing them!

Example of Good Menu Structure

Amy’s website is so easy to use and follow. Amy has clearly thought about the pathway her end-user will follow. Amy has a simple and clean menu structure, no obscure names or complicated dropdowns.

5:2 Direction: Buttons and Calls To Action (CTAs)

Use colourful buttons and clear Calls To Action or CTAs. Make sure your CTAs are prominent and enticing and include them in the body of your content as well. If you’re going to ask your readers for their email address in exchange for some in-depth content, for example, the best time to ask them is while they’re consuming your content.

But also use language and tone of voice that helps you direct people to where you want them to go in a non-intrusive way. Use words like ‘get’ and ‘grab’, for example, when you’re asking people to download a free resource. Or ‘click here’ to help hop onto the next page on your website.

Example of Good Buttons and Calls to Action (CTAs)

Ann Handley makes it really clear what you need to here. There are four clear pathways to her services, each with a bold-coloured button to click. This may seem obvious, but it’s amazing how many websites get this wrong!

5.3 Direction: Promo Area on Your Homepage

The ‘promo area’ of your homepage is usually under the big hero section. It features 3 or 4 different options for your end-user to choose. This could be your services, blog, about page etc. You’re the best person to decide what goes here, but it’s a great way of directing people from your home page to the next page.

As we’ve said before, think of your home page as the ‘reception area’ of your website. People will visit the home page looking for more info about your services, your blog, your contact page – and your job is to direct people there.

Example of a Good Promo Area

When we worked with Janet Murray, she did a great job of streamlining what she offered and coming up with three key areas for her audience to visit on her website. We created this within the promo area. It creates a clear path of where to go.

5.4 Direction: A Learning Centre 

For those with a lot of content or content on different formats – such as blog posts, video and a podcast, a learning centre can prove helpful to your visitor. Instead of trailing through all of your content or only seeing your most recent content, a learning centre allows you to search through content easily. You can break down content via the format, the topic, the date published, your most popular pieces etc.

We wrote a more in-depth article about how to create a learning centre here.

Example of a Good Learning Centre

Pete at Meaningful Money has had over a million downloads of his podcast which has spanned over 14 seasons! He really did need a learning centre for the amount of amazing content he produces. Now, it’s much easier for his readers to find what they are looking for.

5.5 Direction: Contact information

And last (but certainly not least!) have visible contact information for your business. If you rely on people getting in touch with you over the phone, have your phone number at the top of the page and a button that says, ‘Get in touch with us’. Make sure it’s mobile friendly too, so people can just click on the number and call you straight from mobile.

Would you like some help to build your own personal brand website? 

So this is our B.R.A.N.D. website framework. We use religiously to build personal brand websites for our clients. But we also share this framework inside our signature membership, Make Your Mark Online, where we help personal brands build and grow a successful business website. All the videos in our membership library are based on these 5 key components. And this framework can work for any website, not just personal brands.

So if you want to find out more about each individual area of the B.R.A.N.D. framework and understand how it can apply to you, check out our membership community. The doors are currently open, and it’s been amazing to see so many of our members get great results with their websites since they joined in October last year.

If you enjoyed this post, you can also listen to our podcast episode How to create the Perfect Personal Brand Website (ep 30).

Martin & Lyndsay

The post The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Personal Brand Website (with examples) appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Good photography can make or break a website.

If you have bad photos or you rely heavily on crappy stock images, it can really turn off your end-users.

We’re pretty terrible at the art photography, but, we’ve learnt a lot about the best way to present your photographs on your website.

In this episode, we’ll tell you how to prepare for your website photoshoot.

It doesn’t matter if you’re paying for a professional or getting a friend to help, by following these tips you’ll get the most out of your photography.

In this episode, we’ll cover…

• • Do you really need a photoshoot for your website?
  • Our tricks to make website photography easier
  • Why you should avoid the ‘suited and booted’ look
  • How to make your own stock photos that look cool
  • The need for different locations and outfits

Resources

Make Your Mark Online Membership 

Facebook Group

Time Stamps: In a rush? Get to the section you need to below!

4.49 – What kind of images do you need on your website?
7.10 – Showing your personality through photographs
8.53- Think about your surroundings
5.15 – What kind of testimonial should you be looking for?
10.32 – Creating your own stock photographs
11.15 – Think about your location
12.03 – Think about your outfits

Useful Resources and Links

Membership Community 

Free Facebook Community

World Class Communication

What To Do Next

Thanks for listening to our episode. If you found this episode useful, please feel free to share it via social media using the links above.

If you want to know about search engine optimisation (SEO), website conversions, content marketing and website copy, then join our FREE Facebook Group.

We would love it if you subscribed to our podcast and left us an honest review. This helps us reach more people and produce more podcast episodes.

If you have any questions about this episode or you want us to cover something new, then contact us on hello@jammydigital.com or leave a comment at the bottom of the page!

• • Join Our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe and review
  • Contact Us

Episode Transcript Below

Welcome to episode 18 of the Make Your Mark Online podcast. Today, we’re going to be talking about personal brand photography for your website, but before we get into the show, this podcast is sponsored by the Make Your Mark Online Membership. This is our signature membership community where we help personal brands build and grow a successful business website. The doors for the membership are currently closed, but you can check out the details at makeyourmarkonline.net where you can sign up to the wait list, and we’ll let you know as soon as the doors open again in January. So let’s get into the show. So Lyndsay, I’ve had a bit of break last week. I was traveling, wasn’t I?

You were, yeah. You left me all on my own.

Left you all alone.

It was great. No, I’m joking.

Yeah I was traveling up and down the country, up to Edinburgh and then down to London.

I was very jealous but I did have the remote and that’s always good.

Yeah, you’ve always got the remote, I don’t know what you’re talking about. But yeah so we’re back on with it this week and we’ve got some great episodes ahead. And yeah we can’t wait to get into it.

Yeah.

So today we’re talking about photography but Lyndsey …

Yes.

… Let’s be honest, you’re a terrible photographer.

That’s horrible.

There’s no nice way of putting it.

That hurts my feelings, Martin.

I know but you say it yourself. I mean it’s yeah … it’s an interesting topic for you is what I would say.

It definitely is, yeah. I did see your face when I said, “I’m going to talk about photography.”

Yep.

Yeah if you remember like in the olden days whenever I went on holiday and you get those wind up cameras. You’d have to like go get printed after your holiday. Mine would just be 108 pictures of my thumb. That’s what I would end up printing. Yeah I am a terrible photographer, definitely but …

You’re the kind of person to take a picture of the sun. And like this is going to work out phenomenally well.

I just chop peoples heads off.

Yeah.

Yeah, no everyone was headless in a photograph of mine. But I do know the value of good photography.

You do, I’ll give you that.

Especially for your website, yeah. We’ve done a few photo shoots ourselves and I think we’ve picked up on some tips along the way. So this is definitely sort of a beginners guide to photography from the point of view of someone who’s terrible at photography.

Yeah that’s great. Okay but is it always necessary … do we all need to kind of have a professional photo shoot for our website? I mean we’re not all models.

Shocking.

Yep.

Believe it or not, me and Martin are not models.

You could be though.

Aww.

Cheesy.

I know, cheesy as ever. And I get that and we’re quite a few years into our business before we actually had a photo shoot ourselves. I’m not saying that you have to have a photo shoot straight away but you do need photographs of yourself on your website. And the best way to guarantee good phots is to book a professional photographer.

Makes sense.

We actually used our wedding photographer, didn’t we?

Yeah.

For our business photos. We’d already had that kind of relationship, they knew us quite well, they knew we’re quite weird so we didn’t have to reveal that to them. And it cost about £500 for half a day. Now some listeners might think that’s quite a lot but that was as I said, about 18 months ago and we used those photographs all the time, don’t we?

Yeah.

Not just on our website and our social media, in everything that we do we use those photographs. It’s just a really handy bank of photographs that we can always refer to. So it is, if you can, worth the investment because you will continually use them in your business.

Okay, so now that we know that we all need photographs, what do we need to get the best photographs for our website? Because that’s really what we’re talking about, it’s not photography in general, but it’s how to get great photos for your website.

Exactly, exactly yeah so it’s really important that you actually invest some time and energy thinking about the photography on your website so it really doesn’t matter actually if you’re hiring a photographer or maybe you can’t afford a photographer. So you get a friend with a half decent camera to come and take photographs of you, we’ll just be running through our advice to get the most out of your photography. So this is really from a web designers point of view on what they kind of want to see and what would work well on your website.

Yeah okay so might you say that it’s about … if you hire a photographer or even if you hire a friend or a family member, you still … the list that you’re going to give us today is actually beneficial for all circumstances …

Exactly, exactly.

… No matter what your budget. Okay, perfect.

Exactly.

So what’s the first thing that you can recommend?

Well I think one really handy thing we did before we met our photographers was actually to think about the kind of images we needed on the website. So a web designer will love it if you send them a really good selection of both portrait and landscape images for your website. So it’s good to have a good mixture of both because then you can use them in different places and you’ll find that they’ll slot in in different places much better. But think about specific images too so we always talk about the hero banner which is essentially the first third of your home page. Normally that’s quite a wide image and people sometimes really struggle to fill that gap. They often want a picture of themselves and maybe some text to the left or right. So have a think about how that would work when you’re coming to your photography. So obviously you need a landscape image but it needs to be quite wide. So think about where that would be and what you want in the background and things like that. But it’s just good to have these things in mind so you’re aware of what photographs you actually need.

Okay so have a look around at other websites, see how they’ve done it. Have a kind of mental note of the kind of size of the images. If you are talking about the hero image, then understandably you kind of have to be … there’d have to be a lot space in the picture for you to place text over the top, so if you do have an image that stretches like the full 1500 pixels of your webpage, if that’s the size you’re looking at it on, then you have to think, okay well do I want to be in the middle, where’s the text going to go. Do I want to be on the left, then is the text on the right going to fit, is there enough space in the image. If it’s a picture of you next to a wall, then have you got enough image of the wall in the background, that’s really what you’re talking about.

And Martin has this thing when he comes to design because he does a lot of the design of the website and I know that when people send you pictures, if they’re next to a wall you sometimes have to make more wall on Photoshop, don’t you?

Don’t reveal my secrets.

I revealed his secret.

What are you doing?

He makes more wall but yes, so you do have to …

I literally did this yesterday.

He did do this yesterday where he has to …

I’m practically a builder, aren’t I?

Yes, where you have to cut sort of … magic cut these things but particularly if you’re doing it yourself. If you’re designing your website yourself, you might not have those skills like Martin to magic up a wall. SO yeah it’s good to actually have a think about that before you go into it.

Okay that’s great. So we always recommend that people act like themselves in photographs as well and this is quite important especially because I stumbled across someone on Twitter the other day who had this great image of themself and they had a great bio. And I clicked onto the website and it looked like a completely different person. It looked like a completely different business altogether. And I think sometimes we get a little bit more personal on social media and then we link to our website it’s like okay we have to be formal again. So is this kind of what we’re talking about?

Exactly yeah it’s just about showing your personality and that’s so true. People feel freer on social media I think, particularly with photographs of themselves.

Which is great. It’s nice to see the business world be more personal.

Exactly yes but then when you get on the websites, all of a sudden this person’s wearing a suit and they’re kind of looking very, very serious in these photographs. And I think it just doesn’t work for your brand if that’s not how you are in real life and with your clients and in your business. So if you’re quite relaxed on a day to day basis then make sure your photography reflects that. Don’t get all suited and booted if that’s not what you look like on a day to day basis, wear the kind of things that you’d normally wear and just look how you’d normally look. I’m not saying go all pajamas or anything like that but just be comfortable and be true to yourself really, definitely.

If it was you, you’d be in your dressing gown on all of your images.

That’s because it’s winter.

Yeah. And pregnant.

Yes, exactly I’ve got an excuse. I don’t think anyone would buy from us if it was just a picture of me in a dressing gown.

I think it’s probably worth testing out.

No.

I’m going to wear my pajamas, my Star Wars pajamas all day, see what happens when we go on a Skype call.

So this actually also applies to your surroundings too. And you shouldn’t have to worry about a really professional looking set up. So we all had out our Star Wars crap, didn’t we?

Mm-hmm (affirmative) yeah. I don’t know about crap. Star Wars collectibles actually. Correction.

Sorry, Star Wars collection, we had out our Star Wars collection out and Harry Potter, important Harry Potter stuff as well.

Unapologetically out for everyone to see.

And our desks, they weren’t super tidy, were they?

No.

Or anything like that.

Although we did have to kind of tidy your desk. I was a bit more worried about health and safety than anything else because …

That’s mean.

Lyndsey is the messy one, she absolutely is. Honest to God, you kind of have to walk on tip toes around her desk just in case you crunch something on the floor, yeah.

I’m really not that bad, I’m not but yeah we did have to tidy my desk for the health of the photographers. It was important to us to do that.

Yeah you don’t want to come in here and go, “What’s that smell?” That sandwich has been there three days.

No, it really isn’t that bad. I’m going to make him edit this out. He’s not going to let me edit it.

I’m joking, I’m joking.

But the point is you do want it to be natural and give people an insight into who you are and how you work so don’t worry about hiding your Star Wars crap.

No.

Or your Harry Potter stuff or pictures of family on your desk or the drawings that your kids have done for you, whatever it is you don’t have to sort of make it really pristine if that’s not how you work in real life. I think just make …

No it’s nice to have a bit of personality isn’t it?

Exactly, yeah exactly.

Okay, so what else should we be thinking about when it comes to photography for our websites?

Well one thing actually accidentally happened and I can’t take credit for it because it was a complete accident was we kind of made our own stock photos when we had our photographer come visit us. So we had a lot of stuff out, our notes, our website’s frameworks, our laptops and plants.

And sketches of mock ups and websites that we …

Exactly, exactly and they made great photographs on their own. So what we ended up with was kind of like a bank of personalized stock images. Yeah so where you’d normally buy perhaps an image of a laptop on a desk, we already had that but it kind of had our twist on it because you could see all our stuff as well. And we’ve used those loads actually in all sorts of things.

We’ve used them in slides and for webinars and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah exactly, exactly. They are actually really, really handy. So it’s actually good to think about that in advance because you do get your own bank of stock photos which will save you money but it also makes it personalized as well, looks really professional and good. And I think another thing to think about is your location. So if you can try and think about three or four different locations of where you’d like your photographs to be taken. SO we had our photographs taken in different rooms in the house because we actually use different rooms within our house anyway for our business. But we also went to the beach, which was fun. We got a few weird looks.

I was freezing.

Yeah it was freezing and we got some strange looks. Yeah it was …

You have to be careful on Blackpool beach, there’s some questionable fol out there.

There are some questionable … including us actually. I think we were the most questionable folk on Blackpool beach which says more about us than anything I think. But try and think about different locations where you live that you like. There might be a nice park or next to a nice building or whatever it is, try and get some different shots so it creates something interesting on your website. And that’s another point actually because we actually also had outfit changes …

True.

… throughout the four hours. We kept getting changed and that really worked as well as the different locations. That worked really well because it kind of made it look like we had this photography going on over months of time.

We had our photographer living with us like everybody does.

Yeah, totally normal. And yeah so we had different outfit changes. So it looked like different days and then on your website it doesn’t get as boring, you’re always looking different. You’re in a different location wearing something different, looking different and it doesn’t get the same … kind of the photography isn’t the same all the time throughout your website so it’s always kind of interesting. And that did actually work really, really well.

Yeah I think so. And I mean from my point of view, there are a few things that I would probably change next time we have a photo shoot. I don’t think we really got enough head shot type photos. I think when it came to it and we got our photos back, we’re like, I can’t believe we didn’t get any normal, regular head shots. And I know the term head shot is kind of used in different contexts sometimes but just pictures that I can use for LinkedIn, Twitter, when I’m appearing on a podcast episode by myself for instance. We had plenty of images together and we had plenty of images of me working in the office looking at my computer or on the phone and you were on a Skype call and stuff like that, which is all great but actually remember you have to think about where your images are going to go. So that’s something I probably would change.

Another thing we did is we had a lot of photographs taken, we kind of wanted a lot so that we had lots to chose from. Partly because we’re not experts in photography so when we’re planning all of the different ideas that we have, some of them are not going to be great ideas, some of them are going to be really bad.

Some of them really didn’t work.

Yeah I think …

I remember getting some balloons at some point.

Yeah what was that about?

I don’t know.

I’m just like, “Yeah, you want some balloons? Yeah we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know, we’ll give it a go.” And we had some umbrellas at some point.

We did yeah. I just wanted to make you look as stupid as possible really on Blackpool beach.

I think that was your goal really. Yeah you don’t embarrass easily, let’s test that. So yeah we had a lot to choose from. That meant that the ones that didn’t work didn’t matter as much. We had a lot of them that we could pick from. So yeah it was a fun day and we …

Yeah definitely.

… do kind of look back on it and I think that’s what it has to be. It has to be a bit of an experience and if you’ve got a great photographer or a great friend who makes you laugh, makes you smile, makes you feel comfortable, then that’s going to come across in the photographs as well so yeah we had a great time.

Yeah absolutely.

I’m looking forward to the next one. I kind of want to book another one now that we’re talking it.

I know, I do as well. I do.

Not now, let’s wait until you’ve had the baby, shall we?

Yeah definitely.

I mean there’s no judgment, I’m just assuming that’s how you think.

Did you hear that listeners? You heard it here.

You look great.

I am slightly humongous right now.

Next photo shoot we might actually have a little boy in the photographs.

Yeah we might have him in the photographs.

That’ll be interesting.

Definitely.

Dressed up as Darth Vader, absolutely. And that’s it on that note.

Yes.

So yeah great tips there. I think you’re going to find this pretty helpful. I wish that we’d had something like this to listen to when we were preparing for our photo shoot. So yeah let us know if you have a photo shoot, send us your images. We want to see what you’ve done and yeah don’t take any balloons.

Balloons definitely don’t work.

So I hope you found this episode useful. I know lots of our listeners are looking to have a photo shoot so hopefully this should help. If you didn’t already know we have a free Facebook group. If you go to jammydigital.com/facebook and we will let you join the group. We do training, we do free website critiques and we’d love to help you get better results from your website as well so feel free to join and say hello. So that’s it for today’s episode, we’ll see you next time on the Make Your Mark Online Podcast.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post Ep 18 – How to prepare for a photo shoot for your website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

[bctt tweet=”Personal Brand websites are different to service-based websites. It’s a mistake to treat them the same.” username=”@Jammy_Digital”]

Personal Brand sites should include a number of key elements in order to make them a success. In this episode, we whizz through the eight top things you should include on your personal brand website.

In this episode, we’ll be covering…

• What is a big bold statement and how do you come up with one?
• What kind of images should you include on your website as a personal brand?
• Does including images of yourself on your website make you egotistical?
• How to show you’re an authority through your website
• What is a brand story and why your audience might be bored of the ‘rags to riches’ story
• Why showing your vulnerability helps you connect with your audience
• Why you need to have an opinion, even if you get some haters!
• Why you should avoid the phrase ‘sign up to my newsletter’

Time Stamps: In a rush? Get to the section you need to below!

1.11 – What is a Big Bold Statement?
3.06 – Being clear about your services
4.00 – What images should you include?
6.17 – Is content marketing important for personal brands?
9.12 – What is social proof and how should you use it on your website?
10.43 – What is a brand story?
13.00 – Why you have to have an opinion
15.02 – How to grow your email list on your personal brand website

Useful Resources and Links

Marcus Sheridan: You Ask, They Answer 

The Sales Lion

Content Marketing Academy (Chris Marr is a genius. That is all.)

What To Do Next

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Episode Transcript Below

Martin: Hey guys, welcome to episode two of the Make Your Mark Online podcast. In today’s episode we’re going to be giving you eight essential elements of a personal brand website. So, this is a really interesting topic obviously because we’ve all got website or we all need websites, but far too often people actually get them wrong a lot of the times.

Lyndsay: They do, Yes, Yes.

Martin: I suppose that’s why, that’s what gave us the, especially with the website critiques that we do in our free Facebook group, we see a lot of personal brands in there and certain elements that their missing to their websites. That’s why we suggest you to do this episode.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely, and I think, people actually don’t think there’s any difference between a personal brand website and a normal service based website, but there’s actually quite a few differences between them. There’s definitely certain aspects of a personal brand website that should be there, that a lot of personal brands do miss.
Martin: Exactly, and that’s what we’re going to be going over today. So, let’s get started shall we? The first thing that a personal brand website needs is a big, bold statement. Talk to us a little bit, what’s a big, bold statement Lyndsay?

What is a Big, Bold Statement?

Lyndsay: Well, essentially a big, bold statement is a kind of a summary of what you do, what you offer, and how you can help people. It sounds really obvious when I say it, but we know from the website critiques that we’ve done and the web design that we’ve done over the past I don’t know how many years, that people often miss this. It’s something that should be quite prominent as soon as you land on a website.

Lyndsay: We always recommend that this big, bold statement should go on the first third of your homepage. So, we say above the fold. As soon as you land on a homepage you can see exactly what it is that someone does. A good example of this is actually from Pat Flynn. So he says, “Let me help you build a passive income driven online business.”

Lyndsay: That’s really clear what he’s offering.

Martin: Really obvious, isn’t it.

Lyndsay: Yes, exactly. I think it’s very, very important that all personal brands do this, because you need to tell your audience that they’re in the right place.

Martin: Yes. Isn’t it obvious though sometimes?

Lyndsay: No.

Martin: Okay.

Lyndsay: Definitely not, definitely not obvious. If you’ve got like for example Lyndsaycambridge.com, and someone lands on my website, how is that obvious?

Martin: Yes.

Lyndsay: You know, if you’ve just got your name or whatever. Plus, you can be a bit more specific. If you’re, I don’t know, a business coach, who is it that you coach?

Martin: True, specificity.

Lyndsay: Exactly. Yes, Yes. No one can say that word.

Martin: No one can say, I nailed it though.

Lyndsay: You did, I was impressed.

Martin: Mic drop. I’m not going to drop my mic, it will ruin their ears.
Lyndsay: Exactly, so Yes, think about how you can really hone it in and be very specific to your audience, definitely.

How Should You Display Your Services On Your Website?

Martin: Okay, so big, bold statement, perfect. So, in terms of your actual services then, surely that’s important as well.
I think that’s probably the next big important aspect to it, is what do you actually offer?

Lyndsay: Yes again, and I think people will be going, “Well Yes, duh.” But, we see this all the time, and especially with personal brands. They kind of say, “Okay, well this is all about me and this is all about what I do.” They kind of forget to say, “Okay, this is what I’m selling.” Because, you know, your purpose of your website is to sell your products or services.

Martin: Yes, otherwise what’s the point.

Lyndsay: Exactly, it’s to make you money, so you need to be kind of clear about what services you offer and make that very clear on your website. As soon as someone lands on your homepage you need to be directing them to these particular services. So, if you’re a personal brand that could be say coaching, and then you have that as a service quite prominently on there. Another one could be speaking. You know, those are two very different audiences and you need to make sure you’re very clear with your services and where you want those audiences to go.

What Images Should Personal Brands Use on Their Website?

Martin: Yes, definitely. Okay, so let’s move onto number three, images. Are images of yourself more important and why is that so important?

Lyndsay: Yes I think, well it’s incredibly important for personal brands, and I know that a lot of people do find this quite scary. They don’t like to put images of themselves on their website. It’s really important that you do because if you’re a personal brand, people aren’t just buying your product or service, they’re actually investing in you. They’re wanting to trust you, and they need you to be able to actually see you to trust you.

Martin: Okay, so is it not a little bit egotistical though to put ourselves on our website and make it all big and bold around us?

Lyndsay: I think that’s the biggest roadblock we hit with people isn’t it, they do feel a little bit shy and they feel like they’re being egotistical when they put their images on their website. But, it’s kind of expected. People are used to it and I don’t think anyone would judge you for having a picture of yourself on your website. They need to be able to actually see you in order to trust you, so I don’t think there’s a problem with it at all. I think that’s more peoples own shyness or reluctance to put their own pictures on their website, rather than …

Martin: I think you’re right, because I mean when we’re meeting people in face-to-face meetings, like business networking, it’s so much easier to build up a connection with them because we’ve seen them face-to-face.

Lyndsay: Exactly, Yes.

Martin: I suppose online we don’t always meet people face-to-face, and it’s nice to actually see what they look like so that I know that if we ever did speak I know who they are. I know that weird personality quirks and, do you know what I mean? It’s just one of those things, isn’t it.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely, definitely. I’m not saying have every part of your website with a picture of your face on it, but it certainly is important for personal brands. Again, I would say that the first thing that someone when they land on your homepage should see is an image of you. There’s different kinds of images that you can do. Obviously the normal head shot photo, or you can have an action shot. So, if you work normally in a café with your laptop, then have that action shot picture and have it on your website. But, there’s lot of different things that you can do.

Martin: Yes, it’s a nice easy way to build up some trust, isn’t it?

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely.

Why Content Marketing is Important for Personal Brands?

Martin: I think that leads us on nicely to the next point, which is content. So, how can you build up a little bit more trust to wave your content efforts on your website, what’s that about?

Lyndsay: Yes, I think again for personal brands, content is to important. Because again, people are buying from you, they want to trust you, you need to be an authority. The best way to do that is producing content that proves to people that you know what you’re talking about. You know, having content on your website is important. Don’t hide your content away on a block page, which can only be accessed in the footer or whatever of your website. Actually make your website very interactive with your content.

Lyndsay: So, every personal brand website that we build, we ensure that they’re content whatever that might be, it might be blog posts, it might be your podcast episodes, are actually pulled through to the homepage so people can click directly on your most recent content and go through to that. It’s very important I think that personal brand websites are quite content focused.

Martin: Yes, good point.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely.

Martin: But, I think as well it’s not just about having a lot of people think, when they think content or blog they think oh news, like just news, I’ve got to keep my latest news updated, that’s another job. But, we’re not actually talking about that, are we?

Lyndsay: No, no. We don’t kind of recommend we do the latest news blog post, or add-

Martin: Yes, we’ve been nominated for an award.

Lyndsay: Yay, no one cares.

Martin: No.

Lyndsay: No, I think the main thing with content marketing, and we could spend about a million hours talking about content marketing and what to do, but you know it’s about educating your readers. It’s also about answering questions that they might have about your products and services. Try and think about, okay, well what would by audience kind of object to? What would make them think I actually, I’m not sure about investing in this guy, and actually answer those questions.

Lyndsay: In our our Jammy Digital website we have, “Why are you so expensive?” Another one is, “Why are you so cheap?” “How long will it take to build a website?” You know, those kind of questions that people genuinely have.

Martin: But, nobody else answers.

Lyndsay: Exactly.

Martin: That’s what’s great. We do, we can’t take the credit for this, this wasn’t our idea. We actually got this information from a book They Ask, You Answer, which is by Marcus Sheridan.

Lyndsay: The guru himself.

Martin: Yes. We wouldn’t know about Marcus without Chris Mar, so big shout out to him, because he helped us really hone our craft when it comes to content. Definitely if you want to see how they do it, then check out those resources there. We will leave links in the notes, in the show notes section as well.

Lyndsay: Yes, absolutely. Because it’s absolutely changed our business and we help our clients now with it don’t we as well.

How to Use Social Proof on Your Website

Martin: Definitely. Yes. Great stuff, so Yes, content obviously helps with building trust and educating. Another great way to build trust is with social proof, which is our next point. This is number five, social proof. What is social proof?

Lyndsay: Yes, it’s a bit of a strange phrase actually, social proof.

Martin: Yes, confusing.

Lyndsay: It’s essentially about proving to your audience that you know your stuff and you can be trustworthy. The best way of proving that to your audience is not by saying it yourself but getting other people to say it about you. Lots of examples with social proof would be testimonials, you’ve got reviews, case studies. Even things like, “Join 5000 of your peers on our mailing list.” That’s kind of social proof. It’s saying 5000 other people just like you have joined us, so you should, too.

Martin: Exactly.

Lyndsay: There’s lots of ways of incorporating this into your website, but I think it’s very important, again, to have this on your homepage.

Martin: Yes, it kind of shows, it builds the trust, but it also says, “Other people have been in your situation too, and this is how they’ve benefited.”

Lyndsay: Yes, exactly, exactly. I think that we’ve seen a lot of websites actually forget this. I think we’ve done some critiques recently where personal brands have been featured on the BBC and The Guardian, and we’ve only found that out when we’ve gone done like a deep dive into their website. We’re like, “Why isn’t this on your homepage?” Now, I’m not saying that you have to have the whole article on your homepage, but just a logo of you know these kind of corporations that you’ve worked with.
Martin: Can have a big impact.

Think About Your Brand Story

Lyndsay: Exactly, exactly. So, have a think about how you can incorporate that into your website, but make it prominent.

Martin: Yes, Yes, great idea. Okay, so number six, have a brand story. What’s a brand story? Sounds like one of those like kind of fluffy marketing things that we talk here about.

Lyndsay: Yes, I mean I can understand why someone would think that, definitely. Again, I think this is one of those things where we could spend 10 hours talking about it. But, essentially, people want to know why is you do what you do. What is it that drives you. What is it that made you get started with whatever it is that you’re doing, and how has your product or service helped you?

Lyndsay: I’m talking about, so we do see a lot of these brand stories that start with, “I started on my mums couch and then I worked my way up and now I’m a millionaire.”

Martin: Yes, exactly, “I had four dollars in my bank account and I was broke and out on the street.” Yes, don’t do that. It’s been done to death.

Lyndsay: No, don’t do that, it has been done to death. It’s very much like ’90s marketing.

Martin: Exactly, and nobody believes it anyway, so.

Lyndsay: No, no. I think the thing is with a brand story you have to make it believable, and you have to make it realistic, Yes. I think stating that you had four dollars in your bank account and now you’re a millionaire, people are just board with it. Just be honest.

Martin: Exactly, we’re all, we’ve been on our own journey’s, haven’t we. We’ve all got two different places based on the decisions that we made in the past. You’re saying it’s about actually displaying that kind of story on our website.

Lyndsay: Exactly. I mean, with us, we started out because we actually started a business, we got a website. The website as totally rubbish, we invested loads of money, and it was crap. That’s actually how we started, and then we started looking into webdesign and SEO, didn’t we?

Martin: Yes, exactly.

Lyndsay: There’s no magic at the end, we’re not millionaires now, but we work from home with our cats and we love it. You know, it just has to be kind of realistic and normal, and you don’t have to go kind of overboard with it. But, people do like to know these things.

Martin: They do.

Lyndsay: They do find it interesting.

Martin: It’s about being vulnerable as well to a certain extent, because that does literally just allow people to say, “Oh, they’re not just trying to sell me something, they’re actually being honest about it.” It cuts out a lot of that friction that you might have if you’re trying to sell your products and services.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely.

Martin: Okay, so we’re talking about putting that maybe on the about page?
Lyndsay: Yes, I mean we always say don’t talk about yourself too much on the about page, but certainly reserve a section for your story, definitely.

Why Personal Brands Should have an Opinion

Martin: Yes, no good idea, okay. That leads us on nicely to the next point, which is to have an opinion. Have something that you can stand behind.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely. I think this kind of scares people, because we don’t want to offend anyone do we when we’re in business. When we don’t want to offend people, sometimes we end up sitting on the fence and we end up being a little bit boring. We’ve all done it. You know, there’s times where I’ve thought, “Oh, I don’t really want to say what I think, because you know, it might polarize things.” But, as a personal brand, you need to have an opinion. It sets you out from your competitors and it also helps strengthen your following.

Lyndsay: Now, if you put other the people off, that’s fine, because hopefully they’re not your target market so why would it bother you anyway? So, with us, I mean we’ve had some instances because we don’t, we say we refuse to wear a suit and we refuse to meet the clients face-to-face. Now, that’s actually annoyed quite a few people because they’ve said, “Well, that’s not how I work.” We’ve gone, “Well.”

Martin: We want you to come to us.

Lyndsay: Yes, exactly. But, they’re not our target audience, so it doesn’t matter to us that they’re offended by that, because they’re not people that we would work with. And them, you know, on their point of view, we wouldn’t be a good fit for them anyway.

Martin: No, they want an agency that will just be yes men and turn up in suits and wine and dine them. That’s not what we-

Lyndsay: We’re not good at wining and dining.

Martin: No.

Lyndsay: Not unless you just want pizza.

Martin: Yes, or a kebab.

Lyndsay: Yes.

Martin: Well, it’s true. It’s a great way for you to say, to connect with people you actually want to connect with, and repel the people you don’t want to work with. It’s quite a simple way for you to do it. You can do that just by saying, “I don’t wear suits, and if you do that’s fine, but I hate wearing suits.” You know what I mean, it’s just one of those things.
Lyndsay: Yes, exactly. Exactly, Yes, Yes. It’s a good way of, as Martin said, strengthening your followers and repelling those that you don’t really care about anyway.
Martin: No, exactly. So, once we’ve got the people to our website. We’ve got all this amazing traffic and we’ve got a brand story and we’ve got an opinion, what do we need to do then?

Building an Email List Through Your Website

Lyndsay: Well, we always say to personal brands it’s so important, it’s actually important to every business but particularly personal brands that they build an email list. Now, a lot of people come back to us and say, “Well, I’ve got a Facebook group, or you know, I’ve got a really great Twitter following, I’m really great on Linkedin. Why do I need an email list, I’m fine.” The reason being is an email list is in your control. You decide how you communicate with your subscribers, as long as they’re within GDPR rules.

Martin: Oh, god, she said it. Two episodes in and she’s mentioned GDPR. Boo.

Lyndsay: As long as it’s in those rules, but with social media you’re at the whim of Mark Zuckerberg or whoever, and they may change their rules. You might find that you’re not hitting as many of your followers as you were the day before. With your email list it’s completely yours, and it’s your way of communicating with your followers whenever you want, with whatever offer you want, too. You don’t have to boost your post or anything like that to your email subscribers. So, it’s very, very important that you put an effort into building that list.

Martin: Because, it is important in general for all businesses to have a pipeline. A list of potential customers, or people you’ve worked with in the past, and having an email list and actually focusing on building an email list is a great way for you to have some level of control. I mean, we go on websites all the time and you never go on them again. You click on for whatever reason and then you click back and you never really go back to it again. But, if you’re giving something away for instance, or you’ve got like a special offer and you want to get people on your email list, then again, that’s a great thing to do to keep people to come back to your website.

Lyndsay: Yup, exactly, exactly. There’s a good point that you’ve actually touched on there, is that you should give away something for, in exchange for an email. We have a hatred of the words … Martin knows I’m going to say this, that’s why he’s laughing. We have a hatred of the words, “Subscribe to my newsletter.” This is me having an opinion right now, like I said in number seven.

Martin: I can’t wait, I mean subscribe, I’ve never heard that before, let’s join this newsletter and subscribe to see all the gloriousness.

Lyndsay: It’s just Yes, it’s just not appealing enough to get people onto your email list.

Martin: No, but we’ve all done it.

Lyndsay: Yes, we have.

Martin: We even started, well we’re seeing this on this website, maybe we should have it, too. So, it’s understandable and we’re not poking fun but it is something you definitely want to fix.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely, definitely. It’s much better to give something away in exchange. It might be a video, it might be an email series where you walk through a course with your email subscribers.

Martin: Yes, or a website buyers guide, like what we’ve got on our website.

Lyndsay: Exactly, yes, a website good plug.

Martin: A bit of a push there.

Lyndsay: A website buyers guide, exactly, Yes. So, you need to do that on your website, and don’t forget to actually do that through your content marketing as well. We drop a normally a call to action in the middle of a blog post just to say, “We’ve got this website buyers guide, it might be interesting to you, but pop your email in here.” That’s in the middle of a blog post, so don’t forget to do it not just on your homepage and other pages but also through your content as well.

Martin: Yes, makes a lot of sense. Okay, sounds like a great list. I mean, now we have eight essential elements of a personal brand website, and it doesn’t actually matter whether or not you’re building the website yourself or you’re paying a webdesign agency. Just by making sure that you include these essential elements, you’re going to be onto a real winner, really. Just by including these elements and making sure you’re doing it for the right reasons, like what we discussed, and you’re doing it the right way like what we’ve been through in the episodes. So Yes, you should be able to generate more customers and more traffic to your website.

Summary

Martin: I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you’d like more advice on anything to do with webdesign or even SEO or content marketing, then please join our free Facebook group at jammydigital.com/facebook. As we mentioned in the previous episode, we are at the minute doing free website critiques. Every Wednesday we will spend an hour on a video call and we’ll review your websites live.

Martin: Usually we review six within that hour, and then if we decide to go on longer, which-

Lyndsay: We generally do.

Martin: … has been known to happen.

Martin: Yup, we love the sound of our own voice. So, by all means drop your name in the Facebook feed and we will happily review that for you, no problems at all. Another thing we really, really would love you to do, is please subscribe to this podcast episode and leave us a review based on what you think about the episode as well. It really helps us reach out ideal customers, and we’d be very, very grateful for it. So, that’s it, we’ll see you next time on Make Your Mark Online.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post Ep 2 – What Should You Include on a Personal Brand Website? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Are you a personal brand struggling to build and grow your website?

This is the introductory episode of the Make Your Mark Online Podcast with husband and wife team, Martin & Lyndsay.

In this episode, we’ll be talking about:

• What topics we’ll be covering in future episodes
• Who the show is for (so you know you’re in the right place)
• A little about us and our background
• How you can get your website reviewed for FREE
• How you can find more relevant content

If you want to grow your online presence, drive more visitors to your website and make more sales. SUBSCRIBE and download the first 4 episodes right away.

The Make Your Mark Online Podcast

The Make Your Mark Online Podcast tells you how to create an online presence you can be proud of. We’ll be going through all sorts of juicy topics like conversion rate optimisation (CRO), copywriting for the web, search engine optimisation (SEO) and content marketing.

We’ll be breaking these topics down, making it easy-peasy for non-techies like you to understand and implement in your business straight away. Head on over to episode one of the podcast where we delve into whether you should DIY your website or pay an agency to do it for you.

Meet Your Podcast Hosts

The Make Your Mark Online Podcast is hosted by Martin and Lyndsay, a husband and wife team who have spent the last seven years designing websites through their digital agency, Jammy Digital. You’ll hear lots of laughter, some disagreements and a few interruptions from our unruly cats.

We’re honest and upfront, and won’t shy away from telling you where to save money and where you should invest it. This isn’t about us getting you to spend thousands on a website, in fact, often it can be quite the opposite!

How To Get In Touch With Us

Most of all, we want to make this podcast as actionable as possible, so you can start implementing exciting new things that will grow your business. If there’s a particular topic you want us to cover or you have any questions then don’t be weird! Just drop us an email at hello@jammydigital.com

Feel free to also check out our resources on our blog and join our FREE Facebook group by visiting jammydigital.com/facebook

As of recording this episode, we’re offering free website critiques in the group, where we tell you EXACTLY how to improve your website. So join a thriving community and put your website forward.

Bye for now!

Episode Transcript Below

Martin: Hey, guys. Welcome to Episode 0, or the intro for the Make Your Mark Online Podcast.

Lyndsay: So we’re gonna be covering a lot in this podcast, aren’t we?

Martin: Yes.

What Will We Cover in Our Podcast?

Lyndsay: And we’re really excited to actually start it. We’re going to be talking about personal brand website design. We’re gonna be talking about search engine optimization, copywriting, content marketing, pretty much anything that will help build your online presence as a personal brand.

About Jammy Digital

Martin: Yes. And we’ve been building websites for years. We’ve got the agency, Jammy Digital, and we’ve just realized that there’s so many business owners out there who are making the same mistakes with the website. Maybe they want to generate more traffic, maybe they want to convert their customers to be able to hire them. Whether they’re coaches, they’re speakers, they’re authors, ultimately, we want take all of our knowledge from all of our years of helping business owners like you, and tell you what to do with your website to make it more successful.

Lyndsay: Exactly, yes. I mean, we’ve essentially had years of practice, haven’t we?
At seeing what works, and what doesn’t work. And so we’re bottling all that information up into this podcast.

Martin: This is our opportunity to actually just teach more.

Lyndsay: Exactly, yes. Which we really love to do.

Join Our FREE Facebook Group

Martin: And another thing before we let you get your teeth into the content is we wanted to invite you to our free Facebook group. This is at jammydigital.com/facebook

Martin: Now this is our Facebook group where we answer sort of questions, and we give tips, and lots of tools away. But we’re also doing free website critiques at the minute. Now I’m not sure how long we’re going be doing it for, but if you head over to jammydigital.com/facebook every Wednesday we are reviewing websites completely 100% free. So we spend around an hour on a Skype call, and we actually review up to five or six websites an hour, don’t we?

Lyndsay: Yes. We really love it, don’t we?

Martin: Yes.

Lyndsay: Every week, we get so excited for Wednesday afternoons-

Martin: Exactly.

Lyndsay: … because then we can start reviewing some websites, and giving people pointers of how they can improve.

Martin: Definitely.

Lyndsay: And it’s great to see, actually, of the time that people have made these changes, and start seeing improvements. And that’s really nice to see-

Martin: Exactly.

Lyndsay: … isn’t it?

Martin: And we’d love to see your website make those improvements as well. And one last thing we’d be really, really grateful for is if you subscribe to our iTunes podcast, and maybe leave us a review? We would love to hear what you think of the podcast, and it will help us reach more of our ideal listeners like you.

Martin: So I’ll see you in Episode 1.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post EP 0 – Introduction to the Make Your Mark Online Podcast appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.