Designing a Website For Small Business Owners With The Sales Journey in Mind

Part of being a web and brand designer is creating beautiful, aesthetic websites that represent you as a business owner. The other (arguably more important) part is having a deep understanding of strategy, SEO, and the client sales journey. Your website can’t just be pretty. It needs to be strategic, too. And when you work with a designer who values strategy just as highly as creating gorgeous designs, you get a website that is designed to walk your clients through the sales journey, ensuring they inquire before they click out of your website! 

What is the Sales Journey? 

The sales journey, also called the buyer or customer journey, refers to the stages your client goes through before booking with you. Every business’s sales journey looks a little different, but there are generally five key steps: awareness, consideration, decision, retention, and loyalty. 

My job as your website designer is to keep these stages in mind while building your website. When you understand the sales journey and how each step leads to the next, you can design your website to gently guide your lead from one stage to the next. And this blog is going to show you how! 

Using the Sales Journey to Build Your Website 

As part of the sales funnel, your website needs to be ready to meet your lead at whatever stage they are in. We’re going to walk through the sales journey step by step, highlighting ways you can meet your client in their current stage and guide them to the next. 

Awareness 

Your lead can end up on your website at varying stages of awareness. Maybe they’ve followed you on Instagram for a while and finally decided to click that link in your bio. Or maybe they just did a Google search, and your website or blog popped up. Regardless of what stage they’re in, your website should immediately tell them what you do and who you do it for. Your images, headlines, and overall design should demonstrate your style and show your leads who you are. 

Another big part of awareness is SEO! Search engine optimization of your website allows it to show up in search results, and is often the first way people find out about your website. I have a whole blog about building an SEO strategy for your business, and I offer done-for-you SEO setups to help your website gain traction and land in your ideal client’s awareness.

Consideration 

Once clients know you exist and understand what you do, the next stage of the sales journey is consideration. This is where they, ya know, consider if they want to work with you. At this point, they’re weighing the pros and cons. They’re likely price shopping. They’re reading reviews and trying to decide if you’re worth the investment. 

This is a vital part of the sales journey! If we lose them here, there’s no going back. So we design your website to show them the benefits of working with you. Your copy (the writing on your website) should show them how you solve their problems. Show them that you understand their pain points. And then, wrap it all up with a review that demonstrates how you solved a previous client’s problem! Reviews (aka testimonials) are one of the best ways to show your lead that you’re good at what you do. They help your lead feel safer about choosing you because they know others have had good experiences with you. 

It also helps when all of the information they need to know is clearly laid out. The less your lead has to dig around to find your services, prices, process, etc, the more likely they are to book. Your website design needs to be seamless and easy to navigate. 

Decision

When your clients are ready to inquire, the last thing you want to do is make it confusing for them! Your website should have CTA’s (calls to action) scattered throughout each page, and those CTA’s should be simple. People don’t want to click a button if they don’t know where it leads. Simple phrases like “inquire,” “contact me,” and “book a call” get the job done. 

These should lead to your contact page, where you should outline exactly what they can expect from you. Do you respond via email within 24 hours? Are they going to receive a pricing guide? Do you schedule a call? They’re asking these questions. Your website should answer them.

And then, of course, there’s the contact form itself. Your contact form needs to be easy to find and easy to fill out. It can be tempting to ask for all their information up front, but the truth is, you don’t need very much to set up a call. Their name. Their email address. The date of their event, if you’re in the events industry. Maybe you can add a few follow-up questions about what they’re looking for or how they heard about you. When in doubt, keep it simple. Always. 

Retention & Loyalty 

At this point, it’s up to you! Your client has booked, and now you need to deliver great work. The goal is to make working with you so easy, and the work you do so good, that your clients keep coming back for more. This is the perfect time to ask clients for a review or to join your email list. Now, you can start building a community, not just a clientele. 

Ready to Design A Strategic Website? 

Understanding the sales journey is part of designing a strategic website that books clients and creates lasting relationships. No matter what you do and who you do it for, a strong online presence is the first step (literally, awareness) to connecting with the people you get excited to work with. Explore my website design services and contact me to start yours!