It is a fact of modern life that if anyone hears of you from a friend and wants to know more, they will almost certainly search on the internet. Even if you are just starting out, what do you want them to discover?
This depends very much on who your ideal clients are and what stage they are at in the buying journey.
Here are the buying stages:
Curious
If you, your friends or your happy clients are networking, then you will be heard about. If something sparks someone's curiosity enough to look further then they may be a long way away from wanting to buy a product or service. As a casual encounter your best outcome is if they go away more convinced that you are likeable, trustworthy and ' their kind of people'. Your best way to achieve this is to have integrity - be honest, be professional, be yourself. Yes you're nice, yes you live or work where you do, yes you're affordable, yes you're open to questions, yes you provide a valuable service with a valuable outcome and yes you are qualified, insured, and professional in your duty of care. no, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to find your name and no, as the wonderful self employed individual they came to see, you are not hiding behind the pretence of being a huge organisation or calling yourself 'we'.
If people are curious then now may not be the best moment to try and sell them something that costs actual money - that's too much of an energy exchange. Its like the difference between wandering past Harrods because you heard it was fancy, and being accosted by a saleswoman insisting you need ten pounds of halibut from the food hall when you haven't even gone in yet. On the other hand if someone was offering more information in a takeaway format, that would be jolly useful, yes?
These kinds of visitors may not know it, but they are intrigued enough to actually come looking, and they'll get a buzz out of proving their friend right about you and by extension themselves right too, for having such great choice in friends.
This is called confirmation bias, one of at least 35 distinct unconscious biases that together demonstrate how we all:
In many ways, a simple, understated page can be ideal if people are searching out of mere curiosity. This is because of the customer journey (aka where their head is at) and the next step that they are hoping to take, which is to prove their friend right about you and by extension to prove themselves right for having such great choice in friends and for a first swing past, they'll want to manage that as quickly and easily as possible. 'Right about you' in our line of work is going to include you being trustworthy, approachable, a safe pair of hands, qualified, good at what you do, easy to chat with.
Life is full of micro-wins. in fact:
We are full of unconscious bias
This depends very much on who your ideal clients are and what stage they are at in the buying journey.
Here are the buying stages:
- Unaware - not going to happen in this situation. If you build it they will not just come, for free and by accident, as the internet is too crowded.
- Curious - looking for specific information about you, or about a topic you have covered, although the latter takes work and time on your part.
- Shopping - these people are almost ready, aware they want something and asking to be convinced why they should get it from you instead of someone else
- Buying - ready to commit and to get what they came for, and looking for you to make that easy
- Onboard - they've bought, or bought once and want to keep tapping in to that sense of your tremendous value.
Curious
If you, your friends or your happy clients are networking, then you will be heard about. If something sparks someone's curiosity enough to look further then they may be a long way away from wanting to buy a product or service. As a casual encounter your best outcome is if they go away more convinced that you are likeable, trustworthy and ' their kind of people'. Your best way to achieve this is to have integrity - be honest, be professional, be yourself. Yes you're nice, yes you live or work where you do, yes you're affordable, yes you're open to questions, yes you provide a valuable service with a valuable outcome and yes you are qualified, insured, and professional in your duty of care. no, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to find your name and no, as the wonderful self employed individual they came to see, you are not hiding behind the pretence of being a huge organisation or calling yourself 'we'.
If people are curious then now may not be the best moment to try and sell them something that costs actual money - that's too much of an energy exchange. Its like the difference between wandering past Harrods because you heard it was fancy, and being accosted by a saleswoman insisting you need ten pounds of halibut from the food hall when you haven't even gone in yet. On the other hand if someone was offering more information in a takeaway format, that would be jolly useful, yes?
These kinds of visitors may not know it, but they are intrigued enough to actually come looking, and they'll get a buzz out of proving their friend right about you and by extension themselves right too, for having such great choice in friends.
This is called confirmation bias, one of at least 35 distinct unconscious biases that together demonstrate how we all:
- are drawn to details that confirm our own existing beliefs,
- tend to stick with the things we've already invested time and energy in, and
- imagine things and people we're familiar with as somehow better.
In many ways, a simple, understated page can be ideal if people are searching out of mere curiosity. This is because of the customer journey (aka where their head is at) and the next step that they are hoping to take, which is to prove their friend right about you and by extension to prove themselves right for having such great choice in friends and for a first swing past, they'll want to manage that as quickly and easily as possible. 'Right about you' in our line of work is going to include you being trustworthy, approachable, a safe pair of hands, qualified, good at what you do, easy to chat with.
Life is full of micro-wins. in fact:
- People like to feel good. (the three big markets are sex & relationships, health, and wealth & abundance - see also Maslow's hierarchy of human needs)
- So we like solutions, results, positive achievements and wins, tiny or huge, that help us feel good.
- So we celebrate tiny wins and feel more relaxed and good about ourselves when we get them.
- So when we desire a bigger win we go looking for a way to get that, that we can know, like and trust and that, as far as possible, we already know, like and trust.
We are full of unconscious bias