On Friday, a frustrated friend reached out. She recently opened a brick-and-mortar location for her new health-focused business and she’s not getting customers. She explained that she and a friend put together her website, she signed a lease on a prime downtown location… and waited.
Crickets.
She asked me what’s wrong with her website. Shouldn’t people be flocking to me? Well, marketing requires more than a website.
Q: I did the training, set up a website using ChatGPT and I don’t have any customers booking appointments. Do I need to fix my website? Why aren’t people finding me? Help!
Here’s my answer.
A: I love that she has a website. Many small business folks these days tend to trust putting all of their details and success stories on social media. Of course, social media should be part of a marketing plan, but not the only marketing.
She told me she used ChatGPT and a small business friend’s knowledge to get her site up and running, but she’s not getting calls or appointments scheduled. Before I go take a look at her website, let me share these quick tips.
Disclosure: This blog is reader-supported, which means this post contains affiliate links and advertisements. I earn a small commission if you shop through them, which helps fund this website so I can continue to bring you amazing content. Thank you! ~Angela
Marketing is a Long-Game with Lots of Players
Sure, an initial “I’m open for business” announcement may get friends, family and neighbors in the door, but after the newness wears off, you need a solid plan for reaching people in your area who need your services, preferably on an ongoing basis.
The players in this outreach do include a consistent, helpful social media presence, a website with language that converts visitors to customers and friends on speed dial to support you.
But, you also need to:
- Engage in networking opportunities to softly promote your business. This might look like teaching classes, joining online business/niche chats, having a table at an event, or sponsoring the local children’s baseball team.
- Write a weekly or monthly column for a local publication. Sometimes this is in the form of a paid advertorial. You write the article, and it gets published in exchange for an ad fee. It’s less salesy than a standard display ad, but lets people know about your services in an expanded, informative way.
- Pen a blog on your website to educate potential consumers. Search engines love to place sites with regular content updates at the tops of results pages.
- Join professional organizations and connect with like-minded people. These folks can become friends, supporters and customers.
And when I mentioned long-game earlier, this means the best marketing accumulates over time. Having your name out in the community consistently creates credibility, reputation and value. Then, customers.
Most businesses aren’t flooded with inquiries at the onset. Results build over time.
A Quick Website Content Audit
I am not a website designer or content auditor. I am a content marketing writer and journalist who has read many, many style guides from my clients with deep detailing about audience demographics, calls to action, tone of voice and more parameters to make their content unique and dedicated to them.
In personalized, authentic content, you shouldn’t be able to substitute a competitor’s name for yours and have all the information still make sense.
Ok, let’s get into it. Here’s a high-level 10-minute observation from me, a potential client (I like her services!) and marketing professional.
- I opened her website, and on the top half of the page, before needing to scroll, she doesn’t state what she does. However, she does have three separate lines about how to book with her. But, for what service? My initial feeling is confusion.
- I scroll down and see a lovely bio. I’m happy she shares her certifications and background. She also tells you how these services will make you feel. Great! But, again… what is it exactly that she does? The picture reminds me of a massage. Is there hands-on work being done? Or, is this talk therapy? The term “healing” can be interpreted in lots of ways. Always explain what you do in layman’s terms without industry lingo so people new to your world “get it”.
- At the bottom of the homepage, she shares a list of specific services, by name, with pricing. I know what these services are about, but people new to energy healing modalities won’t have a clue. I wish there were a few descriptive sentences for each service.
At the very bottom of the homepage in the footer area are some AI-generated graphics. - Finally, I see descriptions for the services; however, they are cut off and overlapping each other, making them difficult to read. I’d love to see this information higher up on the page—before asking readers to book a session.
- The bottom of the page has a contact form. Perfect! I love when small business owners make it easy to reach out to them with questions.
The entire website is a homepage with clickable links for booking. I think a dedicated Services page with a minimum one-paragraph description of each of her offerings would be helpful. I’d also love to see a blog with informative posts about the services she offers, client success stories and education around the types of conditions or situations where you might benefit from her services. A dedicated About page to learn more about the practitioner and why she does what she does and who she does it for would also build confidence in potential customers.
Also, adding these pages would organically ramp up the keywords on her website, helping her to get found in search engines by her ideal clientele.
Ok, my ten minutes are up. That’s some quick insight that might be helpful for others in a similar business situation. This friend is already being mentored by a trusted colleague and declined my assistance. So, I thought I’d share my thoughts here so these ideas can reach those who may need it.
If you’re a business owner who wants to be more intentional about your marketing and needs new or revised website copy, send me a note. I’d love to chat about your content and see if we might be in alignment. My calendar fills quickly with content marketing and journalism work, so reach out with your questions early in your project planning to start a conversation.
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