13 Signals Your Website Might Send

Not having a great website is sort of like having a lousy lobby in a great hotel. But rather than focus on the negative, which would be easy to do given our industry, let’s flip this around and talk about the thirteen powerful signals your website can send. There are probably more, but this is what I came up with at the moment.

The Signals

1. Insights. If I see articulated insight pieces on your website, it tells me that you have a POV. Even more, it tells me that your firm is run sufficiently well to afford you the time to produce them.
2. Good Imagery. This tells me that you care about images and not just words. Stock images and clip art scream someone who just got a Mac in 1984.
3. Primary CTA. Insight Emails. This tells me that you’re content to start building a relationship with me and that you don’t need someone to buy right away. It screams, “give me some of your time and you’ll want more of what we offer.” In other words, make “Contact” us less prominent.
4. Speaking Page. We are in demand. Groups and associations and podcast hosts seek us out and want to invite us on their platforms because of the value of the public interaction. (Include typical topics, bio, usable portraits, etc.)
5. City/State/Country. This screams that you’re real, even if your team is remote. Prospects want to “put a pin in the map,” and listing a specific locale (Des Moines, Porto, San José) builds trust and credibility. It was a mistake to remove your location when you moved out of the office. There’s tons of research around this.
6. Staff Photos. We are real humans. You’ll like us. We’re relatable.
7. People-Only Staff Photos. Okay, I can’t resist, here, but dogs and cats with cute names? Really? What other category of professional service firm does this? There, I said it.
8. Tight Focus. We know who we are and what we do well. We’re not a fit for everybody, but wow are we a fit for this narrow slice.
9. Description of your ICP. This is different than the previous point, which might say “Multi-Location Retail” or a thousand other options. This is where you talk about minimum spend, the level of access you need, how you’ll start, etc.
10. Diagnostic | Roadmap. Speaking of how you’ll start, describing that and scoping the rough time and cost tells people that you’ve done this a lot and that you’ll lead the relationship. Remember that the only deliverable early in a relationship is communication, and this is chock full of it.
11. Award Not-Winning. When you don’t mention awards, you step out of the crowd. Every firm is award winning, just like every firm is led by people with two legs. You don’t need to mention it. Let people assume you’re good. You don’t need to put “will always be freshly showered” in your dating app profile, and you don’t need to talk about awards. Nobody cares unless it’s one of the real ones.
12. Real Testimonials. A quote from Tim Cook at Apple is worth including, but a quote from Tim C at a notable tech firm doesn’t mean squat.
13. Productization. We’re experts. We want to make it easier to buy. We’ve done this a lot. We’ll start with one of these and modify it, always.

Now, how do you make this happen?

Git-R-Done

So you’re motivated to simplify and clarify your website presence. The answer is not to involve a lot of people at your firm or do a lot of research. Most of the websites you’re going to find are not worthy of copying.

No, just grab two or three other people and hole yourselves up for two days, use a simple template, and build these features into it. Don’t worry about perfection but rather execution. Which reminds me of something about that word.

After a tough loss, a reporter asked this question of John McKay, coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs at the time, “What do you think of your team’s execution?” McKay replied, “I’m in favor of it.”

I’d posit that the same applies to the team that typically overthinks your own website and takes 19 months to build it!