we're gonna look at how to pitch your website as a website
designer or a developer.
Two people
who are actually gonna buy from you
Do you ever do that thing where you go and look at another website designers, or
particularly developer's website, and you go there and you can't actually find out
anything about the designer or developer.
You can't find out what they look like.
You can't really find out much
about them.
You don't even know their prices.
The only thing
that you can kind of see are these images of code on a screen or some developers
will do this code that
can interact with and it might seem really clever,
but it's just weird.
.So hi, and welcome to Websites Made
Simple.
I am Holly Christie.
I'm a website designer.
I'm a mentor to website designers,
and I have this podcast to help
have an
amazing web design
career without making all the mistakes I did along the way.
So,
Ready?
Let's get started.
So, yeah, have a hard time representing ourselves online, don't we?
we?
And a lot of that can be because
website designers can often want to be all things to all people.
It
is a really saturated industry.
In
I've been looking
some of the figures in the UK of, you know,
How many web designers there are,
how many website designers there are in certain price
brackets and what they're earning
and stuff
like that.
And if you are
finding that,
it is tough to
stand out and cut through that noise and have people choose you is because
it is.
But I am here
to help you, give you some
hints, some tips, some tricks
really get in front of your audience.
And
the first thing that
are going to talk about is
anonymity.
Because so many website designers and developers make the mistake
of thinking
that what they are offering
to the client
is all about
the end result.
And of
we want our clients to love the websites we build.
We want them to have a really good experience working with us,
and we want them to really, you know, be championing us along
the way and be like,
oh yeah.
Business friends, you need a new website.
I have the designer for you.
Now, trust me,
if
they land on your website and they can't find a picture of you, they
don't really know much about you.
you.
They can just see this really
anonymous website that uses stock photography of
what websites
look like on a
phone and
tablet and a desktop, but there's nothing about you in there.
They're not gonna buy it, I promise you.
They're not gonna buy from that.
The ones that they are gonna buy from are gonna be the website
designers who have photos of them.
who talk directly to them and who allow their clients into
their lives a little bit.
And that's not to say, oh, you've gotta write about your.
your family situation or where you went on holiday, or anything like that.
It's not, you know,
I'm all about business
things on business
sites, You need to
have your values on there.
What
kind of drives
you?
you know, what really drives me with this podcast and with working and creating
resources and everything for you is that
I think the web design's
a really great career.
You get
be creative.
You
get to work
for yourself.
You get to meet loads of other people in the
industry.
There's always something fresh and new, and
you
to be really good at what you do as well.
there's
really great stuff about it, but
So many website
designers burn out
and trust me, I've been one of
the burnt out ones.
So many of us burn
out because they dunno how to run the business.
they've just pieced it all together as they've gone along
and they feel like they're, you know, at the end of this really
rapidly fraying route.
And we all hit that point in our businesses.
My purpose of
this for you guys.
is so that you don't reach that burnout.
So you carry on loving the career
in the industry the way that I do,
do, and so that you are properly resourced so that when a
client comes and says to you,
oh, you haven't done this properly, and say, actually I have, I've stuck
to my contract.
This is what's in the contract.
If you
don't have contracts, I have a, uh, website designers contract pack on
the websites made simple co uk and you can go and grab them from there.
having, being able
to help you guys to have an amazing career is really what
drives me.
And I make that really
clear throughout my whole website
and it works
because, you know, I have people buying my contracts.
I have people buying my courses, I have people in mentoring sessions.
I have people working one-to-one with me
People want that, they want that support.
And in the same way that when people are coming to look at your website, they're
doing so because they want a website and they want it with a web designer who
can build a good relationship with
a web
designer who can support them in achieving this online goal for them.
they aren't going
to really be able to get that if they can't see who that designer is.
have a look at your website and think about people buy from people.
And
if
is not enough of you on your website, then go and fix that
and put more of you on your site.
and an ity just doesn't connect with your audience, you know, a load of code.
I've
seen some coders websites and it
kind of looks
what they do.
You
go onto the website and they have it all like
you know, the black box and the code writing as you are
looking
at it And yeah, I can look
at that and I can appreciate that.
And yeah, they, yeah, that looks fun.
But someone
who is looking to get their website built or designed,
they're not gonna find that fun.
They're gonna find that really intimidating because the years
and years that I have been.
building and
working in website design.
The one thing that has connected a lot of the people that I have built websites
for, I would say probably 90% of the people that I've built websites for,
is.
They're actually quite afraid
of the tech.
websites can make people feel quite stupid and they're not stupid at all.
It's
just they're not meant to
know this tech for years, people didn't really have websites or
didn't need to worry about it or think about it, or the
website may have been handled by
company that they were working
for at the times.
Yeah, this is all new software and it's all new stuff and
people aren't gonna know it.
And if they're just hit by a wall of code or a wall of
images or something like that,
it's
gonna make them feel like, oh, I'm gonna be looked after here, or This is
someone who's gonna understand where I'm
from or whatever else it is.
And trust me, people do feel like this.
Like I have my Simply Sites is you probably know, they are my starter
websites for people who are only looking for something very small
or they're on the start of their journey I'm known for my handholding,
and
so I would've handheld them through the process.
They get their website manual at the end
of the experience as well.
Everything is all good and I always say to them,
you wanna add another page, if you want to do something, just jump
on a call with me and you know, I will happily walk you through it.
And
sometimes my lovely virtual assistant, Sharon,
she will go on
the call with the people.
I can't tell you how many times people say.
Oh, I'm so
pleased it's you, Sharon, and I just feel intimidated like,
asking the web designer to
actually be the one to do this . and these are people who
I've worked with for years and
I'm always saying
to them, I mean, they come to me.
So just because.
someone may have, you know, engaged at one point, people still feel intimidated.
Often when it comes to websites and website tech.
And so your job within getting new clients is to make them feel really comfortable.
And the way that we make people feel comfortable, the way we make
them feel aspirational
as well, is
by showing them who we are, what we can do, what our
values are, but really
coming across in that user friendly way as well.
as I'm saying this, I'm racking my brains now and say, well, if
you are the type of web designer who does this or that, but no.
If
you are trying to connect directly with people who want websites built for them,
then there aren't any exceptions to
this.
Be brave.
Put yourself out there.
there
And do not anonymize yourself on your website because
if anything, I mean, even
coders have to have websites which have a good website user journey.
people need pricing on websites.
I've got a whole podcast episode on this about pricing.
People need to see how much he costs, and I know that
People can often
and I actually think it's quite an old fashioned thing now,
but people
can often think, oh, well, what if my competitors see what I'm
charging and then they go and undercut me or something like that.
it just doesn't really
happen like that, especially because it is a saturated industry.
People will know
generally
how much they want to spend on a website build,
people will pay to work with the people they want to work with.
even if it means paying.
more.
And the reason
that they will pay more to work with that person is because they have gotta know
them and whether they've gotta know them through their website, whether they've
gotta know them through social channels
they followed them for a while.
Whatever
it is.
It's them
that they are trying to buy from.
It's like, if you see through my testimonials and things
like that with people who.
Have
website bills, they say I
a new website and Holly was the only person I wanted to work with.
I mean, you'll see with my websites, I'm really accessible to people
and it's very consistent with my social media feeds as well.
As much as your website needs to be your, like
shiniest, best version of you.
you.
It doesn't
have to be stayed, it doesn't have to be, here is a corporate
photo of me, or, you know, here is me in a suit jacket or whatever.
I mean, you can say on my website, I'm not wearing suits in any of them.
I spend most of my time in jeans and shirts and stuff like that.
to
to.
build trust.
It has to be well lit. It can't be images of you that have just been
cropped out of photos from your friend's wedding or on the holiday or
family picture or something like that.
You really do need to invest in your own website presence to get
people to invest in theirs with you.
if
you have your website currently anonymous, I would like to
challenge you to changing that.
I would like to challenge you
to looking at
how you
get some photos
of you that you'd be happy to have on the website.
and if it is.
Kind of anonymized by the website copy as well.
where it's
we build custom build websites for these people, da, da da, source of thing.
Really go through your website, have a look at it, see how
you can update the copy.
set it so that you are identifying
your client's needs without sounding like a robot.
I
have a course called Understanding Your User's Journey, and
it's all about UX design.
And it's a webinar which talks you through all the best practices
of UX design,
but
it also has a workbook with it, and it says, you know, what's
your client's pain point?
What's your story about how you sort that pain point?
And there's lots and lots of opportunities within these workbooks to really
nail your website design for clients.
It does work.
It's all of the practice I have done on my own websites, on my
client's websites, as you know.
know, I've won awards for the websites
I build.
So if you are struggling with this, then
please do go over to websites made simple.co uk.
Go and download the course.
It'll be one of the best investments that you have made.
So until then.
If
you do update your website, if
do think, oh, I'm gonna take it yeah, I'm gonna do what Hall says, do drop me
a line, come to Hello at websites, made simple co uk share your wins with me.
I would love to hear from you and until
then,
happy website.