Coaching Website Mistake: No Big Benefit

Visitors need to see that there’s some BIG value to be gained from your site. If they don’t, they won’t explore your site and they won’t discover how great your coaching can be.

Just think about the times you’ve landed on others websites. Which ones did you spend time on? Which ones did you just bounce off? You probably quickly left websites that didn’t show some possibility of usefulness to you.

Promising the possibility of big benefits is especially important for coaches because people don’t really “get” coaching. The concept of coaching is vague. It’s hard for people to see its value.

In this article, I will give you three of my favorite tips for highlighting big benefits on your site so that people will say, “Ahhh! I need to spend some time at this site!”

Tip 1 – Hit up your about page for hidden gems.

In reviewing hundreds of coaching websites, I’ve noticed that coaches love to “hide the bennies.” When they create content for their site, they tend to put the real benefits clients want to see somewhere deep in the site.

Often, on the “About Me” page, you’ll find benefit-rich lines of text like:

• I do this to help you create a new amazing life!
• I can help you stop feeling sick and weak, and instead wake up every day brimming with energy!
• I can help you boost your business income and reduce your work hours, so that you can take an extra four weeks of much needed family vacation.

These are the things that should be at the top of your home page!

Try looking at the bottom of your “About Me” page for blocks of text where you relax the subject of “how coaching works” and start to think more about the visitor and how coaching translates to specific, real life value.

Tip 2 – Put a big prominent tagline at the top of the home page, in the banner.

Also referred to as a strapline, motto or slogan, the tagline is a MAGNIFICENT invention! It’s a great place for you to highlight the benefits your clients want very prominently on your website.

I recommend making your tagline bigger than your logo! AND, make it the most prominent block of text in the header. I also recommend that you put benefits into that tagline.

If you have a tagline already like “career coaching” or “revolutionary success methods” or “take a little step every day”, then I recommend you rework it to have more benefits in it. The next tip will help with that.

Yes, your benefits are VERY important. Important enough to be the biggest thing on the home page at the top. Remember, without a big reason to stick around on your site, people won’t stick around and then it matters not what else is on your site.

Tip 3 – Ask “So what?” to arrive at big benefits.

If you aren’t sure what your benefits are or have a hard time putting them into words, then try the “So what?” trick.

Grab a piece of paper and fold it into three columns. Or, just draw two lines down the page, making three columns.

Head the first column with “Features and Benefits” and in that column, list out 10 to 20 things you think are the benefits of coaching.

You can include things like “stay accountable”, “get support”, “find happiness”, “earn more income”, “spiritual coaching”, and “achieving goals”.

Then, in columns two and three, put “So what?” at the top.

For each item in the first column, ask yourself “So what?”, or “So what’s so great about that?”, or “So what’s the benefit of that?”, and write two answers into each of columns two and three.

So, for example, if you’re a career coach and you have “stay accountable” in the first column, then you may find yourself writing the following in columns two and three:

• “start taking important action steps for my career that I’ve been avoiding”
•  “find a new fulfilling career faster”

As you can seek, these answers to the “So what?” question are really the things your visitors want to know about.

In summary, remember that people won’t spend time on your site if they don’t feel there’s something to be gained. You need to point out big benefits right away on your site to get them to stick around and discover how great a coach you are.

Is your website lacking benefit luster? How about taking a few minutes now to apply any of the tips above and create a tagline with benefits? Post as a comment and let’s see if we can improve it.