the bossbabe podcast - 238. BBS: 5 Ways To Make Sales On Your Website

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

You know you need a website, but how do you know if it’s effective? There’s a lot to get yourself familiar with – should you go with a mobile version or desktop? Photography or video? In the past, you could get by without spending much time on questions like this.  Now, they are critical to the success of your business online. Join Danielle for this episode of bossbabe business school as she reveals the top tricks for making a high-converting website that retains visitors, and more importantly – makes sales. Highlights: Do these 5 things if you want to see results on your website.  Should you optimize for desktop or mobile? We’re ending the debate – for good.  The ONE piece of content can increase your sales by 144%! Links: Get Anna’s Website Masterclass— Get Anna Nassery’s Masterclass on How To Build A Website That Converts + join the #1 community for ambitious women who are serious about building profitable online businesses. Follow: bossbabe: @bossbabe.inc Danielle Canty: @daniellecanty

A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast and to another, if I may say so myself, epic Boss Babe business school episode. I'm Danielle Canty and really excited to lead and dive into this next episode where we are talking about the no fluff, no BS tips on how to grow your business every single week. And I'm talking like actionable advice, things that are actually going to help you move the needle because what matters most to me is helping women build wealth.

You don't want to miss any of these episodes because they are loaded with a ton of free actionable advice. So to prove my point in today's episode, we are talking about websites. Whether you're brand new to websites and you don't know where to start, or if you have an existing brand and website and feel like it could do with a little bit of refresh, you are going to be in the right place. And like I said, this is going to be very, very actionable. So if you're on your phone, grab out a note section. If you've got a paper and pen in front of you, grab that because you are going to make a ton of notes. I'll be sharing the key elements of a website that you absolutely need to get right now, the hack that you are

likely missing on your websites and how to increase your conversion rates by 7%. Yes, I'm going to teach you all of that by 7%. Yes, I'm going to teach you all of that in this very short. I'm going to try and keep it to 10 minutes. It may go over, but it's going to be a really quick episode. First, I want to preface this episode by sharing I was not a website pro until I met Anna Nasseri. She is founder and CEO of BrandUp, a creative agency. You've probably seen her in my stories. She's known as at Anna doing things. And she has a creative agency that specializes in building websites and sales pages for online entrepreneurs. And she taught me so much of what I know and what I'm actually relaying to you is actually a lot of what she teaches and has personally taught me.

Okay. So we're going to dive right into the nitty-gritty because you only have between nought and eight seconds to capture someone's attention on your website. That's why this episode is really, really important because we want you to make every single second count. And that's what I'm going to be sharing. You may or may not need to be convinced why you need a website. So first of all, websites increase credibility, they convert your customers and they support your customers. Yes, you can technically start a business without a website. Maybe you're signing the DMs, maybe you just have a landing page that assigns something directly. It's not a full blown out website, but functionally this will actually benefit you as you start growing and scaling. So in the long run, you have to start thinking about a website. And like I said, if you have had a website for over 18 months, you're going to be

wanting to think of a refresh. A website is something you want to be continually refreshing, changing copy on, giving a little lift to make sure it's always performing. So these are things that are going to make sure your website really converts. I'm going to give you the behind the scene hacks that others are gatekeeping from you, but we don't do that at Boss Babe. We are anti-gatekeeping and give all of that to you. So one thing I want to share is Anna always says this to me. She's like, cohesiveness is really important, Danielle, because consistency breeds legitimacy and it breeds trust, credibility, and professionalism. Let me say that again. Cohesiveness is so important when building a website because it breeds trust, credibility,

and professionalism. So before you start thinking about your website or when you are starting a rebrand, you want to start with the brand. Is your brand cohesive? Are you utilizing the same colors all the time? Are you utilizing the same fonts? Are the tones of voice being utilized throughout the copy in line with how you currently sound and making sure that's not just on your website, but across other platforms. I'm going to give you a rundown, the five things that you need to be doing to support conversion of your website. So number one, make your website easy to skim. So use bolds, italics, highlight words and phrases and do line breaks in between to make sure that your page is easy to skim read. Lots of people are like me. I don't like to look at a block of writing. I like it broken up on the left and the right and the

center with words underlined, maybe even different colors. You really want to make sure your website is broken into block chunks. Also, you want to avoid big blocks of copy. This is not a blog post. So a long page of writing is not going to work. You are going to be wanting to create white space that actually speaks louder than words quite often. So what do I mean by white space? It's not actually white. It is like gaps of no words, borderlines. After a picture, a gap under that. After a headline, a gap under that. It's the borders. It's the colors. It's the breaks in the flow that allows that website to easily scroll.

It's not overwhelmed with one color and a long block of writing. You're allowing things to capture the attention of the reader, which may be then solving the problems that they are seeking by coming to your website in the first place. You're also going to utilize vertical design elements. I actually saw Anna introduce this with her clients as one of the first people I saw that utilizing this really, really well. And that's like little nudges to get them to scroll down. So maybe an arrow here or there, or giving something a button or a piece of wording or a block of color that crosses into the next section and really encourages people to keep

scrolling down. It can also be something like an image where someone is pointing down to something or pointing across to something and really taking your eyes to that next section. The other piece within ensuring the website is really easy to skim is utilizing sliders and carousels for testimonials and areas where you actually have a lot to say. So rather than having pages and pages and having the person having to scroll several times to read every single testimonial, a slider that automatically slides really condenses that for the individual and allows them to either stop on this section or to skim past it and really find that next part. The second way to really increase the conversion of your website is making sure your hero shot and your hook statement are spot on. This is one of the most crucial areas of your website because the goal here is to create intrigue for them, enough to get them to stay on your site. Remember,

you've only got naught to eight seconds to capture that attention. So that hero shot should be bright. It should say something. It should be of your product or you, depending on what you're selling. And that statement should hook them in. It tells them something about the problem that you are there to solve. And brownie points, if you can get that arrow that we mentioned earlier on that hero page to draw them and lure them into the next section of the page where you're going to be telling them a little bit more about your business. Don't think that every single detail about your business needs to be in that hero shot and that hook statement. No, it's going to give them enough intrigue and enough to know that you could potentially

solve their problem. The third part to really ensuring good conversion is actually photography. It's part of the design of a website. Don't use stock images. Capture your own unique branding and imagery. When you use stock images, your website will blend into everybody else's. And you want to be really thinking about what is your USP? What is your unique selling point? And imagery will really help you stand out. Everyone can see when, like I said, you've taken

a stock image, it's just bland. So think about your photography. And the key thing to getting good photographs isn't necessarily how you look on the day or how your product is. It's actually about the preparation and ensuring that you get the right shots that are going to suit your website. So don't just book a photography session and turn up unprepared and see what happens. Talk to your website designer or even think through where your pictures are going to go on your website so that you can be prepared to have photos in certain situations that you know are going to help tell the story of the brand and help that cohesiveness that we spoke about at the beginning of this podcast. The fourth way to help with conversion is mobile first. A huge mistake that people make

is actually designing for desktop and then doing mobile as an afterthought. Yeah, 70% of us are coming to websites from our mobile. So this actually makes no sense. So please don't be that person. I want you to prioritize mobile over everything. What I see a lot of people doing is all designing website and then making mobile friendly versions. That is not the same thing. Mobile friendly version just basically means your desktop then compressed and put into your mobile version. You don't want that. It doesn't work the same. It isn't actually the most easy experience. So I want you to make sure when you're crafting it, you're actually going in with a mindset of mobile first. Most people are going to be hitting your website from the mobile. So think about that.

And if you're working with an agency, make sure that you're clarifying with them, hey, how do you prioritize a mobile first experience? Do you give me a mobile specialized site or are you just turning the desktop into a mobile friendly version? The last most important thing. So we've covered so far mobile first, photography, the hero shot and hook statement, and making your website easy to skim. But the fundamental thing that you have to get right for your website above anything else is the ATF. So you might be like, Danielle, what the hell is the ATF? Well, this means above the fold. This is what you land on straight away on desktop or mobile. You are going to click on someone's

website and this is exactly what you're seeing. And this is why you win or lose that person in the first few seconds. It is going to encompass your hero shot and hook statement that we spoke about earlier, but that is not the only thing that they need to see to increase the conversion of them chances of them staying longer than eight seconds. So I'm going to give you the four key things that you have to have on the above the fold area. First of all, your logo or your icon. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know, I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity which I love. Not to mention our team

couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial.

Go to kajabi.com slash Boss Babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash Boss Babe. Second of all, your navigation bar. Maximum of six things. That's what Anna always says to me. This can be things like you're about, your contact us, maybe programs or shop, whatever that's right for you, but a maximum of six things. Don't feel like you have to have six either, but a maximum of six. That should be very easy for them to get to on that mobile section as well. The hook statement, like I said, powerful. It's the tagline. It's going to hook them in exactly telling them exactly how you are solving their problem. You know, I have done podcasts before and I always talk about this. You don't sell a product. You sell a solution to a problem.

So really think through that when you are creating and crafting your hook statement. The fourth thing that should be on there, social proof. If you've been featured in magazines, if you've been featured in awards, think about that customer journey and that customer is coming to research you. It might be finding your website for the first time, might have stumbled across your Instagram previously, then found themselves on the website. They want to know that they are legitimate and that they can trust you. And that's why it's really, really powerful to have social proof in there. And like I said, less is actually more. So there's four things that is all you should have on your ATF. No more, no less. And Anna and her team have actually really narrowed this down after working with hundreds of companies and really understanding the key components that help

their conversion. And she's letting you know, these are the four things that fundamentally you need. As you can see, there is a lot of proven science of what work and what doesn't work. People in the industry are comparing their A-B testing, they're creating and looking at conversions consistently. And what I've just shared with you, those five things are the five things that you absolutely need to dial in, whether you're creating a new website from scratch, or you are refining yours as we all need to do over and over again. Like I said, you have naught to eight seconds to make a compelling headline and landing page to capture the majority of those visitors. Approximately 96% of visitors that come to your website are not actually ready to buy those. So bear that in mind. So if you're more at the advanced stage and you are finding your website, make sure you have

a way that you're gathering email addresses with a free opt-in. I've spoken about this on other podcasts and I also speak about this in the society. Or you have a pixel on there so that you can retarget them specifically with ads. Like I say, that's for the more advanced of you. If you're a beginner, don't worry about that section yet. Also, those of you who have product companies, adding a product-based video will increase your purchase by 144%. So really think about that. Yes, there's photography, but there's also the video element, which is going to be really, really important. And you know, I'm always going to deliver with the actionable things. And I'm always looking at what is the low-hanging fruit? How can you get the most bang for your buck? I like to say,

if you do not get the speed to your website correct, you are risking a 7% reduction in conversions. And that is huge given the average website only converts between 1% and 3%. Or actually, it's not 0.2% and 3%, but we really want to be aiming towards that 3%, okay? So I want you to make sure that you have tested the speed of your website. So one second delay. Let me say that again, a one second delay in your site speed can result in a 7% reduction in the conversions. So even if you're leaving this today with no other action points, I want you to go and check the speed straight away if you have a website already. Okay. So I'm going to round it out for this episode. I want you to recognize,

first of all, before we close, how you're feeling right now. Just tune in with yourself. Okay. Are you feeling anywhere between motivated or maybe slightly intimidated, or maybe you're feeling really excited. You're like, yes, I've got this. Or you might be thinking, oh no, I'm kind of overwhelmed. Well, I just want to share with you the next steps that you can take to find out more information. Anna has very kindly come into the Boss Baby membership. She too cares about women building wealth and she wants to see more of you with highly converting sales pages. And so she has come in to the Boss Babe membership to actually teach within the society. Okay. So she has done a full masterclass on this, breaking down how to build and refine your website and your sales pages. She's taught a full masterclass with slides on this. So it's

much easier to understand than me just talking into a mic. And she's also created templates, including a full website copy template, literally what you need to write for your website. She's given examples of really great refined copy. She's also going to give you guys a website sales page copy template. So if you are writing a sales page for the first time or the zillionth time, she is sharing some really key fundamentals that you have to have in there and copy that she knows converts. Like I said, she's helped businesses do seven figures, eight figures, nine figures. She works with the creme de la creme of business leaders, helping them create converting websites and sales pages. And she is teaching you guys absolutely everything in there. We are not gatekeeping anything.

I know you're probably thinking, okay, Danielle, is this going to cost me like $2,000 at this point? No. The great news is you can get access to all of this, including those templates for just $48 a month. You can sign up right now as well. You don't have to wait. You can literally go to bossbabe.com forward slash membership. I'm going to put the link in here for you as well in the show notes that you can actually sign up here and now join that membership for $48 a month. That is it. And you can get access to Anna's masterclass. So you understand exactly how to build a website. Okay. We always talk about what a needle moving activities in the business. And you can be like, have all these to-do lists

and one of the to-do sites building your website. If you don't build your website well, it won't convert. And so it won't move the needle as much if you spend this extra time learning and educating yourself so that you can move to that next stage. I learn stuff from Anna all the time and I really want you guys to have that opportunity too as well. So don't miss this opportunity to grab those templates, to grab this training, understand the photography, understand how people navigate through websites, understand how the sales page is different from a website as well so that you can actually get more people to buy. Whether you are a solopreneur, whether you have a product-based business, whether you are selling as a coach or whatever it is. She works with a multitude of

businesses and she's teaching everything she knows. Also, there are some special discounts that she's put in there available. So as soon as you join the society, it's literally even going to pay for itself anyway. So $48 a month, you can join. I'm going to put the link in there as well. And brownie points if you share your takeaways in this episode, because I know a lot of you are going to be like, oh, that makes so much sense. And I have a few things that I can change to my website to make it even better. So tag myself at Danielle Canty and tag Anna at Anna doing things underscore. And you're also going to find her on my stories most of the time too. Okay. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm going to see you next Friday for another Boss Babe business tips. And I will also see you on Tuesday for an epic interview coming up. You are

going to love this next one. Thank you so much for listening. And if you enjoyed this episode on the Boss Babe podcast, then I'd absolutely love it if you leave us a review. As a thank you, we'll send you our side hustle success kit, your simple no BS guide to keeping track of everything that you need to do to start and grow your business. To access this freebie, all you need to do is leave us a review, then share a screenshot of your review with contact at bossbabe.com and we'll send this must-have kit straight to your inbox. Bye.