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Using Your Website to Demonstrate Expertise

Marketing is trust-building. For your website to serve as a valuable marketing hub, it must demonstrate your trustworthiness. We shop at grocers whom we know carry quality food, buy cars that we don’t expect to break down, invest in companies we believe will succeed, etc. You wouldn’t be in business if you weren’t an expert in your field. However, it can be a challenge to demonstrate the full breadth of your knowledge. How do you prove trustworthiness to a new prospect, especially if you’re new to your target market? Spoilers–your website is the place to start. They say if you’re truly an expert in something that you can explain it to a child. (We’ll circle back here when we get into content design.) In the digital age, we ask whether you can explain what you do to a computer–and whether you can do so in such a manner that the computer will then guide your audience into your sales pipeline.

At Classic City, we have gone back and forth on whether to add an estimation tool to our website. If you’ve looked, we don’t have one–so you’ll have to reach out. Our reasoning is that there are so many unique elements to every project that boxing our potential clients into a box feels like a rough first impression and we’d rather have a conversation. However, we realized we do ask the same questions of every client once we sign them. Embracing the notion that self-reporting is more accurate than a Q&A session with a new colleague, we developed this tool instead of an estimator. (We hope it gives your project more value than an impersonal dollar figure!)

Below, we’ll offer some tips for you to consider while turning your website into a marketing hub that starts converting prospects before you’ve even learned their names.

Can your website’s tech stack handle your workflow?

Stacking the right tools together

Your website is the basis for external messaging and internal request handling. There should be as few steps as possible for the prospect and automating the back end of your website can help ensure their minimum effort yields big results for your and your team’s time. Using API connections for thoughtful integration unifies workflows and saves time for all stakeholders.

Collecting the right information

User behavior can be a great resource for information, no matter what they do on your site. Making the most of data resources like Google Analytics can create opportunities for your sales and marketing teams. Impressively researched follow-up calls and data-driven marketing materials prove to your prospects that you have solutions for them.

Does your user experience demonstrate your understanding of your audience?

Providing a tailored user experience (UX) for your audience

There are standards for web design, like accessibility, for example. Beyond that, creatively target your primary audience. What do they want to see? Are they viewing the internet on a phone most of the time or on a laptop? What appeals to your user? Thinking through the practical applications of your website will help elevate it from simply acting as a brochure.

Using custom-designed elements

A huge limit to templates is that they group your brand in with others that are entirely unrelated just because you share a structure and aesthetic. As often as possible, use a custom design to ensure you’re unique in the eyes of potential buyers. When choosing a template be sure that it fits your image and sends the right message.

Consistency and intentionality

Brand fonts and colors (and their consistent use across all media) set the tone for how your audience can expect to interact with you. Establishing branding guidelines ensures clarity, intentionality, and repeatability for all of your channels. Consistent messaging implies stability, which helps establish you as a valuable partner.

How quickly does your messaging bring everyone up to speed on your solutions?

Ensuring clarity of content while retaining authority

Terms of art are challenging to work around, especially in technical fields where precise language is necessary. However, think about who’s likely to be reading through your site’s content and speak to them.

Attract attention and guide it where it is best served

Let your core content be simple and direct niche audience members toward content catered to them. Spread a broad net with your homepage content and ensure your primary, secondary and tertiary audiences are all addressed. Then, use additional landing pages to capture those demographics

Using Strategic Keywords

Use keywords that your audience would use to find solutions to the problems you solve. For example, say you work in real estate and focus on high-dollar commercial properties within a specific sales district. Your copy (from your headings to your exposition) should emphasize your niche rather than your general real estate experience.

Headshot of Chris LaFay

Chris LaFay

Chris's goal in life is to conduct connection and bring heart to every interaction in life. He puts humans above to-dos. He consistently brings the band back together, leveraging long-term relationships across a swathe of experience to empower career transitions, life event pivots, and, ultimately, an incredibly versatile, flexible, and creative team for his clients.