According to a report published by the International Coach Federation (ICF), there are currently around 47,500 professional coaches worldwide. That means there is the same amount (or even more) of coaching websites online.
How can you stand out in the middle of the competition?
By creating a unique coaching website that reflects your identity and personality.
5 tips to show personality on your coaching website:
1. Respect the basic rules
The dos
- Write in 1st person
This creates a proximity with the visitor - Spread authenticity – open to people and show who you are
Your website has to be a mirror of yourself and your work. People gravitate toward authenticity and personal power.
The don’ts
- No judging
As a coach you want to bring help and expertise to a problem, showing that you understand their situation, without making your potential client feel bad about his or her actual struggle. - Don’t copy
In this competitive and noisy world, it’s more important than ever to not just blend in with the crowd, so avoid trying to imitate someone else’s style and content
2. Care about your visual design
How your coaching website looks at first glance is important. It’s a reflection of your brand and personality. First impressions matter and a poor visual design generally creates a negative impression. You want to inspire confidence, and a professional visual design is a great start to building trust with a visitor.
I know the visual design of a website is challenging. You’re a coach and unless you have design and/or coding experience, planning the visual for your coaching website might not be your strongest point. Everybody has their abilities. Would you build your own house? Definitely not! So, consider hiring a professional for that. You will save a lot of money, time and energy. You might wanna check out these blog posts before making up your mind:
3. Show your face
The third advice I will give you is to show your face! Your coaching website needs photos of you, not just stock images. People want to see you! They want to know WHO is the person behind the coaching business. A picture of you that looks professional is the ideal for the homepage, but some less formal ones are ok too (for example for your About page).
4. Tell your story
Video can be a great tool to show personality. You can put a video of you on your home page. It doesn’t need to be long, you can just present yourself in a few minutes (people tend to look at videos for no more than 30 seconds). Tell your story as it relates to what you do now and show why you’re an expert.
The other option is a short video that shows potential clients how they may benefit from your coaching and whether they’ll mesh with your personality. In a real-life encounter, it’s common to tell a story about yourself. Storytelling can go a long way to help you connect with your audience and showcase your identity. You can even include a funny anecdote.
Your About Page is another way to connect with your visitors. Check my blog post on this subject for more info. You can also have a look at my About Page to get an example.
5. Share your client testimonials
Take advantage of your client testimonials to show who you are. What other people say about your coaching may convince prospective clients that you are the coach for them. Positive reviews help to establish your credibility and reliability as a business.
Share them as a text or as a video, just remember to keep them short or add a pause to get the full essence of your client’s experience. Video testimonials can be a very powerful tool.
You can also build Case studies. Tell the story of how one of your customers benefited from working with your company. It provides a lot of information for new people, including details about who you are and how you work.
Final Step
Once you have applied all these recommendations to reveal your personality in your coaching website, remember to ask around you for feedback about your website.
What do you think?
Are you ready to ask for feedback? Can you relate to the above? Leave a comment! I would love to know I’m not the only who doesn’t always feel too comfortable asking for feedback 🙂
Remember you can join my community of business ladies who are also starting or working on their website. We can give feedback in a safe environment, and get free techy tips. Come visit our good-vibe group here: Biz Ladies.
Hello this is great! I love the article. I love your website name too. This is so classy and chic. I look forward to reading more of what you have written. Thanks.