Hidey ho Reader,

I'm running a workshop for The Content Club this week about building a website that makes you money.

I love doing stuff like this, cause the process of turning a lot of "instinctive" experience into a clear framework or process forces me to go deeper into my own understanding of WHY I do stuff and what drives my decision making.

Something I've been harping on about for years is how there's only really 3 kinds of marketing websites.

This concept is based off something my former business partner mentioned to me once, and it's one of the few good things I've ever gotten out of that relationship (may his coffees forever taste like shit).

If you google this, you find crazy lists with pretty big numbers.

But those lists are dumb, because in reality -> there's only 3.

What's the job of a website

For this to make sense, you need to understand what your website is even for.

People will say it's to generate leads, or make them look good, or whatever other idea they have. And that's cool, but the real answer is:

Which part? Well, that depends on how you market your business.

Leads vs Sales, Online vs Offline

If we go super broad, the way you get leads typically falls into one of two buckets (or could be a mix).

• Networking. Outreach. Referrals. This are strategies where you're usually generating leads outside of your website. I'll call it "offline" even though a lot of the time it's happening online.
• SEO. Ads. Content. These are strategies where visitors usually end up on your site, and they become leads by engaging with your site. You (or your network) didn't personally get them.

If we look at sales with a similar lens, sales can happen in one of two ways too.

• You have a sales call and close them. Most people selling a service do it this way.
• They "buy" directly via your website without a sales call. This is more the e-commerce route, OR for highly productised services.

How you handle leads, and how you sell your services, influences the kind of site you need.

Type 1: The Lead Gen site

This is almost every service provider out there: they want enquiries so they can have a sales call and close that lead.

The site's job is to generate leads online, while the actual "close" happens offline.

That means you need give enough information to make your visitor think you're worth talking to, but not so much information that they don't need to talk to you to make a decision.

Finding the balance is tricky, and will depend heavily on what your process is in taking a lead/enquiry through to a closed deal. When you know what that is, you then need a strong "call to action" that makes that next step easy.

Type 2: The Sales Site

If people buy your stuff online without a sales call, you need a sales site.

It might be that you sell digital products or consulting hours, or you might have a highly productised service.

The job of a sales site is to give your visitor everything they need to make their purchasing decision. You aren't really part of the process to close the deal.

I've seen this happen for coaches and consultants that take off on Instagram or YouTube. They end up sending people straight to an offer where they can buy, no sales call necessary.

That means your site needs to handle a lot more than a lead gen site. It needs to answer more questions, give more info, as well as handling the transaction.

What if I don't get leads online?

And this is where the third type of site comes in.

I used to hear it a lot early in my career: "I get my leads from networking, I don't even need a website really." or "I get my leads from referrals, my site doesn't matter."

On one hand, sure. If that works, great.

On the other hand, when have you ever NOT researched someone who's about to offer you a service?

Imagine this: you meet with someone, they tell you how high quality their service is, how great they would be for you, all the good stuff. They care. They show attention to detail.

And also: their fees are kinda high.

Then you go check out their website and it's.... bad. Like, broken. Looks cheap and amateur. Typos. You know what I'm talking about. The kind of website that looks like someone was picking random shit in the menu to test options and then left it.

Isn't that a bit of a contradiction? Doesn't that make you wonder?

Sure you can still land clients this way, but it makes your job much harder and can really limit where you can take things because the more discerning clients won't trust that you can deliver on your promises.

And this is where the third type of site comes in.

Type 3: The Sales Support Site

Sometimes your site's job isn't to generate leads or close deals.

But that doesn't make it unimportant. And it doesn't mean it won't impact the journey from random stranger to buyer of your stuff.

It's a source of credibility. It's proof. It's there to support all the fancy bullshit you've said to try justify the money you want to charge people.

In this situation, the wrong site makes your job harder. It doesn't mean it's impossible, but you're going uphill trying to convince people you're legit.

When the site is done right, they're already half convinced and it's just your job not to mess up.

The trick here is making sure that it's all cohesive and consistent. The vibe you want to portray in person and the claims you make need to match the vibe and claims your website shows too.

Your site needs to prove and support what you're saying to your leads.

You can claim you're premium all you want, but if you cut corners in one place, where else do you cut corners? And "trust me, I'm actually amazing" isn't a very strong sales strategy.

Want me to check your site?

If you're not sure what your site is doing (or what it should be doing), I'm happy to have a look for FREEEEEEEEE.

I offer free website teardowns. No pitching or anything, I'll just walk through the site on video and point out some stuff that you could improve yourself.

Anyway, have an awesome week!

Cowabunga,
Nick Gulic