The Secret to a Great Website That Brings You Clients

If you’re a small business owner your website can be the most frustrating part of your business, especially if you are a service provider. It never feels quite right or completely done. There are always moving pieces and things that need to be updated or edited and while you know you need a website you aren’t really seeing any increase in sales by having one. You might be wondering what you’re missing or you might’ve given up completely on having a website you really love.

Don’t give up yet! Today, I am going to share with you one simple thing you can do that will turn your website from blah to omg that’s it!

And no I am not going to share designer tips on how to make your website more pretty or how to nail down your visual branding or even how to structure your website layout because all of those things are great but they mean nothing without this ONE PIECE. If you don’t have what I am going to share with you in this post then no amount of structure, layout, images or colors will make one bit of difference on how your website performs.

The #1 secret to a great website

drumroll please…

Know your target audience. That’s it. And I know, I know - you’ve probably heard this before. Everyone is always saying to create an ideal client avatar or telling you that if you don’t know your audience your website won’t convert.

First things first, ideal client avatars don’t work and I will die on that hill. They are filled with a bunch of nonsense that has nothing to do with your business or who you really want to serve. Demographics and creating some fictional extremely detailed person that you are talking to is pointless because it never really gives you the full picture and it fills your head with details that don’t matter and actually confuses you more than it helps.

What does work is defining your target audience, and I feel like everyone gatekeeps this information so I am going to share with you in this blog post exactly how you can define your target audience and why it’s the #1 thing that will change your website and your marketing forever.

Why you need to know your target audience

First, let’s talk about the WHY. Why is this important and why would it make any difference at all in how your website looks, feels or converts?

It’s a little bit magical to be honest. When you know who you are speaking to, what they struggle with, the emotions they are dealing with (as it pertains to what you offer), and the desires they have - everything changes. It changes how you show up, it changes what you write. And once that happens suddenly you know what colors you want to use, you know how you want your offers to look, you know what you want to say.

You also develop a platform. The message that is fully your opinion based on your experience and who you serve. This gives you confidence, it helps you stand out of the crowd and it draws your people in.

how to do define your target audience

How do you start defining your target audience? Let me preface this by saying that your target audience will evolve and change as your business grows - so nothing is ever set in stone. This is the starting place and from there it will evolve with you as you gain more experience and work with more people.

To start you want to answer these questions. I recommend doing this in journaling mode. Really connect with your inner self, your business, who you want to help and the reasons you started this business in the first place.

Also note any fears that come up - these are often blocks that stop you from fully connecting with who you want to work with and they contain important information. As business owners we are often scared because this is not an easy path and sometimes we are both equally afraid of failure as we are success. Fear is information so make note of it as it comes up.

Question 1: What clients have I worked with in the past that I loved working with?

If you’re just starting out and you’ve only had 1 or 2 clients (or none at all) use your imagination to start. What was this client like, what did they struggle with? Why did you enjoy working with them? What did you help them achieve? What advice did you give them that they thanked you for?

Now flip this question on its head and think about a client you worked with that was not ideal. What did they teach you? What were they struggling with? What made that interaction not so great? Use this information to set boundaries in your business of who you are not willing to engage with and red flags to look out for. This is just as important as knowing who you want to work with because it helps you get clear, set boundaries and release any fear you might have about attracting the wrong clients.

Question 2: What are my clients struggling with?

Start with the face value struggles. Maybe they need more time to do the things they love, maybe they are struggling to lose weight, maybe they are struggling in their relationships. Start broad and on the surface so you know the pain points that are upfront and then dive deeper.

Once you have their face value struggles (that pertain to your business and how you help them), dive into the emotional side - the deeper issues.

What are they feeling because of these struggles or what feelings are they experiencing that are actually causing these struggles to happen? This is how you emotionally connect with them and this is imperative to understand.

Again, if you are just starting out use yourself as an example. Most service providers created their businesses because they were struggling with something and once they figured it out they wanted to help others do the same. So if you don’t have much experience let your experience be the example and refine as you work with more clients.

Question 3: What desires do my clients want to achieve?

This is the results they are looking for. The reasons they will hire you. It’s probably also the results you got and the reasons you started your business. Again start with the face value results, i.e. they want to lose weight, they want a better marriage, they want to get organized.

Then move into the feeling - if they achieved these goals as a result of working with you what feelings would that give them?

If you have clients that you’ve worked with look over reviews or past calls and see what results you helped them achieve. Note these including the emotions they experienced as a result of getting what they wanted.

Question 4: What is your opinion?

Once you feel pretty clear on what your clients are struggling with and what they actually want, it’s time to find your messaging, the opinion you have that will set you apart. What hill will you die on? What opinion do you have that is set in stone for you and you KNOW it’s what will help your clients get what they want?

For example, let’s say you are a therapist who specializes in both talk therapy and somatics. You are convinced that talk therapy alone does not work and that’s why you also use movement and somatic therapy in your practice to help your clients. That’s your platform. That’s what you talk about and that’s how you help your clients.

HOT TIP: Think about what skills you have that you might be leaving on the table. This happened to me, I spent the better part of a decade helping clients with marketing and operations management. Once I decided to move fully into website design I left those skills out of the picture because I didn’t want to offer them as a standalone, it just didn’t make sense to my business model. However, once I got clear on my target audience I realized my clients need more than a website - they need a WHOLE SYSTEM that helps them stay organized while their business grows. So I created a website design package that includes a system and a marketing plan that not only helps them grow it greatly reduces the time they would normally spend building all that out as they grow. This became my platform and what sets me apart from other designers and speaks directly to my target audience and their needs.

What skills could you include in your offers that speak directly to who you serve?

Question 5: What questions are they asking before they hire someone?

This is important - before anyone hires a coach, a consultant, a therapist or a service provider of any kind they are asking questions. If you are clear enough on who you are serving you can write blog posts, social media posts, etc. that answer these specific questions and ultimately lead to them booking with you.

So what questions are they asking Google or Chat? What do they want to know about their situation? What advice are they looking for?

You can even brainstorm with Chat or Claude on this and get a list of questions together that you can answer. These questions become your content for blogs, social media or your podcast (however you decide to market yourself).