Design KILLER Business Websites | Built in Webflow

what's going on guys today we're talking about everything that you need to know to build powerful business websites on web flow let's get started what's going on guys this is Peyton Smith and welcome to another video if this is your first time here and you want to learn how to grow your freelance business or just get paid to do the things that you love make sure to click below and subscribe we've got a lot of new videos coming at you soon so today we're going to be talking about how to build business websites on a platform called web flow now this is the platform that I use exclusively for my business and I'm building 5 to 10 websites per month on web flow and it truly is the most powerful way for you to build not only websites that look great but they can perform really well and can generate business for your clients and when you boil it down there are five specific things that make or break a business website and we're going to be talking about each and every one of these throughout this video but first I want to touch base on really the biggest reason why I as a freelance web designer target small to medium size businesses to build websites for I truly believe that this is the ideal client and the first reason for this is that most small businesses either have no website or their website is absolute garbage and so this gives us an opportunity as freelancers to provide a lot of value and show them what they're missing and show them that a new website can literally make or break a smaller medium-sized business and so there's a huge need within these types of businesses the second thing is these small businesses they almost all of them have a marketing budget right and one thing that I've seen over years of doing this is that these small businesses spend their marketing budget each and every month and more often than not they spend on things that just don't work and they've almost just accepted the fact that yes I need to do marketing but normally I don't get anything back from it right so it's almost like a lost cause for them it's just like the sunk cost that they assume that they have to make every month to make themselves feel better right so for us as freelancers we know that they have this budget and we know that we have something that can literally change their business and generate more business for them and really affect their bottom lines so all we have to do is step in and show them really the value that we can provide and it's going to be a no brainer for them to spend their money on a new website the third reason is there's literally no shortage of these businesses it doesn't matter if you're living a super busy city or you know a suburban area or even a small town like me there literally is an endless supply of businesses around you right and even if you have a lot of competition other freelancers or other web design businesses that doesn't matter because there's literally enough to go around and there's even enough for you to really niche down on a specific type of business that you like to work with so the big question you have is how exactly do I build a good business website and when the client is going to love and then it's gonna produce results for them right and so like I said I boiled this down to five basic elements that literally make or break a business website and the first one of these is each business website must have a strong header okay now when I'm talking about the header this is the main headline it's the first thing that people see when they open a website and if you can't catch their attention with this header you're gonna lose them they're gonna leave the site before they ever have a chance to go through the site and appreciate the you know the visual and the content and everything that you've poured your your heart and soul into they're not even gonna have a chance to see that because you've lost their attention too quickly okay and so I want to pull up a couple examples here of websites that I fill in you look at these headings you want to keep in mind that you've got a lot of information to convey in these headings right you want them to not only know what exactly you do but you also want to have a value proposition and show them what you're willing to give or the value that you can provide for them because otherwise they're not going to be incentivized to click through or to to contact you or to purchase you your services or your products right so you need to think about all these different things as you're building your main headline and so the couple examples that I want to pull up and actually I want to pull my own website first if you go to paint digital comm you can see my personal freelance website and my heading which is something that took me a really long time to craft that's getting great results for me as is simply get online and grow fast and then my subheading is make more money feel less stress enjoy more free time and so again this is about as brief as you can get with a headline but it conveys a lot of information in it first off get online and grow fast shows my potential clients exactly what it is that I'm gonna do for them right they know that I'm gonna help them get their business online which means you know get them more customers build the revenue whatever that is to them they know that I'm going to be able to help them succeed online and then my subheading which is a really powerful way to convey more information without overwhelming them with too much content it says make more money feel less stress enjoy more free time and so I found that more often than not these small businesses want to see those benefits even more so than making more money and they want to feel less stress they want to enjoy more free time with their families and so not only have we show them exactly what it is that I do but we've also highlighted the benefits that they will get by working with me next I want to talk about a website that is for business that I worked without in Missouri and this websites generated a lot of new customers for this pest control business and I truly believe it's because the the head that we built was clear and powerful and concise and it really persuaded people to click through and to sign up for service and so you can see here the biggest heading is pest control Springfield Missouri right so that is pretty bland but that is used for SEO purposes but at the same time it tells people exactly what it is that we do and so when they pulp this website they know hey I'm in Springfield Missouri any pest control what else is there to know but the subheading which is it's a little bit smaller text but we've used green to make it pop more it says get a free inspection plus 50% off your first service and so right there is the value proposition we're telling them hey if you sign up today you're going to get a free inspection plus half off of your first service and then we've got our calls to action right so they know exactly what we do they know exactly what they're getting out of it the benefits and it entices them to click through and to sign up or to hire us right and so again another example of a simple but powerful heading that can make all the difference so that brings us to the second element that our business websites must have in order to succeed which is a powerful call to action now if you don't know what a call to action is this is essentially the invitation or the commitment for the site visitor to act ok and it almost always is in the form of a button okay now a lot of times we see calls to action on shopping websites by now is a call to action another common one that we see is get a free quote or schedule a consultation and while some of these may be bland or generic without a call to action people aren't going to take any action they're just going to end up leaving your website and so we really need to think a lot about what is it that that person needs to be invited to do in order to make it to the next step in the buying cycle and so I'm gonna pull up another website here that I built recently for a car detailing service called discover everlasting okay now this website again that the main purpose was to get people to schedule a service online detailing service online and so our call to action was really simple we just wanted people to click to schedule an appointment now whether we want to throw in a seasonal discount on this that's great but at the end of the day when people pull this up they see our call to action in a big red button that says schedule now and this this makes it super clear what it is that they're expected to do on this website now the next example that I want to pull up is a little bit different than the typical website that I built it's it's more of a landing page or a funnel but I love the call to action in this website and that's generated a lot of leads for this company this company's name is active and they are a door-to-door sales company that recruits college students to go and sell pest control door-to-door and with this website we wanted to make a really clear and powerful call to action that wasn't so abrupt or in-your-face that would scare people off right so we came to the decision that a call to action that said you know apply now or even you know sign up to become a sales rep that was just a little bit too strong and so we wanted a way to ease them into it and so the call to action that we use here is they're able to put their name and email in and request a pay scale and so this again is a powerful but soft call to action where we are able to generate the information or capture the information of these potential leads with you know with a simple download where they can see exactly how much money they would make if they worked with us and so oftentimes we need to get creative with our calls to action whether it's a really powerful and strong call to action or whether it's something soft like this just to collect some basic info we need to make sure that it's clear the action that we want them to take otherwise they will take no action the next essential element to your business website is you need to have social proof now social proof comes in a number of different forms right oftentimes we think of social proof as testimonies and reviews which they certainly are but there are a lot of other ways that we can show social proof on our website that can build trust with our traffic those site visitors which will make them more inclined to contact us or to hire us now obviously we've got our testimonials and our reviews but some other ways that we can show this social proof is displaying any awards or certificates or even if we have any specific licenses or or anything that pertains to our specific business those are the types of things that are going to build a lot of rapport and build a lot of trust when people are on the fence about hiring us and so as we dive into a couple of these websites I want you to take note about how I'm displaying some of the social proof because really there are no rules or parameters on how you can do this the only thing that I would say is make sure that you do it early and often so I'm going to jump back and brag a little bit more about my own website again because obviously you need to practice what you preach but if you go to the homepage of my website and scroll down you're gonna see social proof all through this page one of the first things that you're going to come to is my verified reviews section where I've got about fifteen or twenty different reviews that people can funnel through which is a great great way to make this potential client or the site visitor feel like other of their peers are using my services right so that's going to build that social proof as they scroll down they're immediately gonna see video testimonials again a powerful way to get them to trust you and to want to hire you but as I scroll down you can see that I've got a lot of different awards and certifications and licenses that help people see that I am a professional and what I do you can see that I've got my Google reviews here posted but also any time that I've been featured or you know I'm a certified SEO specialist anything like that that you can use to really bolster your reputation is great and obviously you want to be straightforward and truthful in these things but if you think about it you know I think every business can can find one or two things that sets them apart maybe you've gone through a lengthy licensing process to to be I'm an expert in your field or maybe you've just been in business for 15 plus years those are all great ways to puts you know somewhat of a badger in the war and I like those things because no matter what it is it's gonna make people trust you more and it's going to increase the effectiveness of your website I also love to strategically place this social proof in places where your site visitor might be feeling doubtful of taking action right and so another example of this is a website for a gym that I built within the last couple months and we've got a page where they can set up a consultation to come check out the gym and see if it it feels comfortable to them right and oftentimes when we present somebody with a forum or again a call to action they might have doubt so they might question whether this is something that they want to do and so you can see here right below this I have a title that says why apex and this is a great place again to show all of the the recent reviews this is gonna help people feel comfortable and see that other people like me in this area are using this gym and they're leaving five-star reviews that must mean that they love it and that's gonna make them feel more comfortable to take that leap of faith and to sign up or to schedule a consultation the fourth element that your business website must have in order to succeed is a reason for your site visitors to purchase or to take action and oftentimes this is something that we forget and we get caught up in trying to show them all of the features and the things that we can do in our business or our specialties and we forget to really highlight the the true reasons why they should hire us and the fact of the matter is is the reason that they should hire us is the benefits that they're gonna receive by working with us and so you're going to want to make sure that throughout this business website you dial back you know wanting to brag about our features and you're gonna want to focus on the benefits that people will receive in my instance on my web design a website rather than focus on media a web designer and me building a website for them I'm gonna want to focus more on the fact that the website that I built for them is going to generate more business more customers and more revenue and with that simple tweak in your website you're gonna turn this thing from just an information website into a selling machine so let's dive into another website that I did recently now this website winter steam com it's interesting because I was redesigning an old website and so we wanted to keep a couple of the design elements from that old site whether I liked it or not but at the end we were able to come up with a website that truly was powerful and really showed him and highlighted the benefits and the reason to want to work with with mr. winter steam and so on this website it's a its health care practice experts and so these are consultants that will go into your dental practice or your health care practice and help you revamp things and change the the productivity of your business right and so here even in the heading we're highlighting the reason we've got more more production more patients more profits and so right here we could easily say we are healthcare consultants hire us now but that doesn't really give people a reason it just tells people you know what you are which at the end of the day they don't care as much about what you are as what you can do for them and so throughout your website make sure that you're highlighting what these people's hopes and dreams are rather than what you think you're great at you can see here in the very next heading let us help you create the practice that you want again it's about the site visitors not about me it's not about us it's not about our business but it's specifically about you and the reason that you're gonna want to hire us another website that I really like that does this well is for a company called Falls pest services that's right here in my own town and we really wanted to give these potential customers a reason to hire this pest control company and sometimes it can be hard to really give them a reason things like pest control can often just seemed like an expense and it's not really something glamorous or exciting but right here with a couple of powerful check points right here we've been able to highlight that they're family-friendly that they're licensed and insured and that they're trained technicians okay now this is kind of an interesting mixture of highlighting your benefits right and getting some social proof but also giving them a reason to really think that you are different than all the rest and this also does a good job of maybe highlighting some objections or some concerns that the potential client might have and then overcoming those in just a few words a lot of times people want to know that the the products that these pest control companies are using our family friendly right so we've highlighted that right there they're gonna want to know that you're licensed and insured and know exactly what it is that you're doing but also they want to know that your trained technicians which means that they can feel comfortable having you around their home as you're doing the treatments right and so a couple things like this really brief really simple but they can really give people a reason to say yeah I want to hire this company now the last element that I want to talk about that's kind of a given but I really want to spend some good time talking about this number five is company info okay now the reason that I've made this a necessary element is obviously you need to have the basic and general information about that business on the website right people come with a website to do their research and so we want to be really transparent with who that business is what they do but the reason I've got company info and number five is oftentimes this is the first thing and the highest priority for web designers and I think it's the biggest mistake honestly that you can make when building a business website is we don't want to build this website around basic and boring information we truly want to build this website around a powerful heading and a value proposition and a powerful call-to-action and we're going to support those things with social proof right and then all of the other space all the other pages we can kind of fill it in with our infants so for you as a web designer if you're selling a business website to a local business you really want to let them know that you're not just a designer that's going to make the information about their business will look pretty right you truly want them to know that you're gonna build a website that is focused on their ideal client or customer and that you know exactly how to build this website in a way that is going to convert those into paying customers for them and that truly is what separates a you know a web designer that designs web sites in their free time or someone who can truly charge a good amount of money with confidence because they know that those are gonna bring great results for their client the last thing that I would say is if you are a web designer that's trying to grow your business and land more of these small or medium size businesses as clients don't get frustrated you might start out slow it might be difficult at first to land these clients and to convince them to pay you a good amount for these websites I feel exactly the same way when I started my business but things truly grow exponentially and as you do better work you're gonna get more referrals which is the in turn gonna give you more opportunities to do great work and to produce awesome websites and that really is gonna grow unlike a wildfire you're gonna be able to build your business to any size that you want however much effort and time you you want to put into it there's really gonna be no ceiling for you I have been fortunate enough that in just the past two years I've been able to build this to over a six-figure business with literally no overhead and it is because if you do good work people will find you and people will refer you to their friends and their family and other businesses and it truly is a great business to be in and so if you have any other questions please comment below I'd be happy to answer them whether that's questions about business websites or questions about building your freelance business I would be happy to help in any way I can but that's everything for this video please stay tuned for the next one and catch it in [Music]

Channel: Payton Clark Smith

Views: 8,032

Keywords: webflow, business websites, web design tutorial, webflow tutorial, business website design, website design, freelancer, freelance web design

Id: S4e3N0EEO1o

Length: 21min 37sec (1297 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 23 2020