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Join Amber and Anthony Tran as they share how to work with a website designer to get the maximum value out of your professional relationship. Learn how to successfully create expectations on both ends so that the project stays on schedule and everyone stays on the same page, resulting only in a website that makes you proud.
Anthony is a Digital Marketing Coach and the Co-Founder of MarketingAccessPass.com, a web design company that offers solutions for busy entrepreneurs who want to build website visitors into subscribers. He has been featured in the Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Podcast Movement, and more.
You can internet stalk Anthony at the links below or keep scrolling to the read the full transcript of this episode!
Learn More About Anthony Tran
Connect with Anthony on Social Media:
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/marketingaccesspass
Twitter https://twitter.com/anthonytranmap
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonytranmba
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/marketingaccesspass1
Check out Anthony’s website: http://marketingaccesspass.com
Episode 16: How to Work with a Website Designer for Your Small Business with Anthony Tran Transcription
*This episode was transcribed for your reading convenience, based on a verbal conversation. Please forgive grammatical errors.
Amber: Welcome to the Bombshell Business Podcast, where driven fempreneurs learn how to become more bold, brave and unwaveringly confident. Turn your dreams into actionable, marketable and profitable plans and make your business irresistible. Here’s your host, Amber Hurdle.
Thank you so much for coming and listening in; I know your time is extremely limited and valuable, and it means everything in the world to me that you are slowing down to come hang out with me and my special guest today, Mr. Anthony Tran for episode number fifteen, where we’re going to be talking about websites and preparing to work with a web designer. Welcome, Anthony Tran, one of my friends; I love him so much. Thanks for being on the show.
Anthony: Oh, my goodness, Amber! I’m so happy to be here and to be number fifteen on your podcast. This is like totally unreal because I interviewed you on my show and I told you from the get-go you’d be an awesome podcaster, and here you are, and everyone gets to benefit from all the awesomeness of Amber,
Amber: Well, I have to say, so, we are in the month of gratitude, so that’s kind of the theme for this series of interviews. I have never done interviews before and I just thought, you know, I want to bring people in on this gratitude series who played a major role in me getting to this whole Bombshell space that I ended up in, and to your point, you pushed me. First he had me as a guest on his show. Behind the scenes he was saying, “You should be podcasting, you should be podcasting,” and then I kind of hemmed and hawed about it, and then he actually invited me back on his show, only I interviewed him, and that was so much fun!
Anthony: It was. It was, and I was like, “Dude, Amber, you’re a total natural. You should totally do this.”
Amber: And so I waited some more. I did launch the Bombshell Business Bootcamp and did live events and the online self-study version and all that good stuff, but then I put it on my 2016 list, like, “This was going to happen.” So, I believe, if my notes are correct the way that I have—I was your third interview on your show and by happenstance, you’re the third interview on my show, so I think there’s some luck there. What do you think?
Anthony: No, I think the universe is putting us all together, right?
Amber: I love it, yes. Yes, yes, yes. So, let me tell you a little bit about Anthony so you know, besides the fact that I’m just a huge fan of his as a friend and more, Anthony Tran is a digital marketing coach and the co-founder of marketingaccesspass.com a web design company that offers solutions for busy entrepreneurs who want to build a website that converts visitors into subscribers. So, like, people will actually get on your email list so you can sell to them. Otherwise you just have an online brochure, right? So, he’s been featured in the Huffington Post; Entrepreneur Podcast Movement, and he’s being humble because, I mean, he’s been everywhere and done everything. My relationship with Anthony, and then we’ll start talking to you since you’re the guest, is we were in a Mastermind together. We continued to connect in a smaller Mastermind that we kind of formed. It’s very casual. But the reason why I have Anthony on this show is because, beyond pushing me to podcast, when I got to the point with my website where I was just like, “I’m just not feeling it” – I mean it was professional, it looked fine, it operated – but it just wasn’t what I wanted, and I didn’t know how to communicate what it was that I wanted, and I’ve been in a creative director role for a large part of my career. So, in our pre-conversation, I was telling Anthony I trust him so much, and I trust his opinion, and he’s an amazing teacher. And so I went to him and said, “Okay, I want you to handle my website,” and so—I love my website. You should go to it: amberhurdle.com I love my website, and it works and it does convert, and it does all the things that I need it to do, and I’m proud of it. I’m proud to show it, and that’s all because of Anthony. I will get into the story of where I had a little resistance, but let’s just jump in. Tell us about you: Anthony Tran the man, not necessarily your business.
Anthony: Wow, myself? I guess for me, like a quick background: I was prior military; I was in the air force. Worked in the corporate world. Found the entrepreneur bug and started my own business, which was a podcast at first; Marking Access Pass was a podcast and then evolved into a web design business because I just had so many people reach out to me asking for help about the website, and it just—yeah, I guess I just listened to my audience. My wife and I both work on the web design business. I would say she’s a better web designer than me now, too, so I can’t take all the credit for that. Yeah, it’s been fun. Like you said on the intro, I’ve known you for – gosh, how many years now? – three or four years, and it’s been awesome to support you and help you in every way, and it’s just great to see your growing community and your business growing, so… Yeah, we can dive into any topic that you would like or your audience would like to listen to, and I would love to help out in any way.
Amber: Well, let’s talk about your web design business, because one thing when I am working with women, like I’ve got two that I’m working with right now, and their website does not represent their personality; their depth and breadth of experience; their level of clientele. I work a lot with women who have a higher end clientele, and so you go to their websites and it’s like whoa, that doesn’t say anything about you at all. Or maybe they’re fine, but it just doesn’t give them a fair—you know, if you met them in person and if you saw what they really were and who they really were and what they really did, you’d be like, “Oh, I wouldn’t have got that from their website.” So, with that in mind, tell us what’s the biggest struggle that people come to you? Because they—when they come to me, as a coach, they know nothing about websites and so having a you is great because then I can just turn them over to you and know that you’re going to take care of them. But once those people come to you, whether either from a coach or somebody’s attracted to your website, what’s going on with them? What are they struggling with?
Anthony: Well, I think when people first come to us, they originally think it’s the technology that they struggle with. Like, “I just don’t know how to put up a website,” “I don’t know how to link it up to my email autoresponder,” “I don’t know how to set up my hosting…” It’s all the technology stuff, but what I help educate them in is: we can handle the technology. That’s what you’re hiring us for, but what we need from them to make them, like you said, represent who they are and position themselves as the experts as they are in real life, but how do they push that into the online space on the website? So the main thing that I would say people need to focus on – and this works really perfect with you, Amber – is the mental clarity of what their business is and who they are and how they’re helping people. Right? So, before I even start on any web design project, I go through a series of questionnaires and I also go through a phone consultation, because I really want to understand what is their business about? And the three main questions that I always want people to have absolute clarity in what they do is a) who do they serve? You know, who is their target market? Who are they trying to help? What do they specialise in? And how can they help that person with whatever particular problem there is? And if they can answer those three questions – who, what, and how – the website part evolves from that because I—you know, people think that I build websites based off of, you know, you design first and you put in the content later. It’s actually the reverse. When we get the content, we read the content and we try to understand what they’re trying to say and then we build the design and use images and graphics and videos to better tell the story, so to speak.
Amber: Right.
Anthony: So, yeah, it’s super important to have that clarity, as far as what you’re trying to accomplish and who you’re trying to serve, before we even get into all the design stuff because—you know, I’ve worked with people who didn’t have that clarity and it’s a struggle because they’re in a constant mode of changing their mind. Like, “Oh, I wanna go in this direction,” “I wanna go in this direction,” and so we can’t ever complete the project because they’re in this constant, you know, change.
Amber: Yeah. I want to tag on two things there. The first: you can work with web designers who are all about the technology, and the words and the pictures are like an afterthought, and you do not want to work with those type of people, because you are not going to get the end product that you are dreaming of and you’re not going to have that warm—or it doesn’t have to be a warm connection, but whatever type of connection you need with your audience, you will not get if you build it on a framework of technology. So, you said that’s how it’s done. That’s how you do it and it’s the right way! This is why I love Anthony so much. And the second thing is, you are – and I’ve said this to you a gazillion times, but – you are a very masculine male. Former military, which, thank you for your service, again. But you have such an intuition that a lot of men don’t have, and so that was a big, big reason why, when I got to the point of, “Okay, I’ve got to redo my website,” it just wasn’t even a question because I knew, first of all, that you knew me. But you didn’t just know me because we were friends; you just see things at a different level. So, tell me about how you apply that intuition when somebody comes to you and maybe they’re not as clear. Because it’s hard. You can do it for other people, but when it’s you it’s a lot harder to get clear on how you want to present a multi-[unintelligible, 11:14] personality into one single persona that you can sell. So, what are your secret superpowers?
Anthony: Secret superpowers! Well, I mean, thank you. I think I just look at people, you know, like, I try to look at people not only from face value, but have a deeper connection as to who they are. Especially when I’m building personal brand websites, like your amberhurdle.com I really want to portray the personality of the person. A lot of the times personal brands struggle with this because they have multiple personalities: who they are as a businessperson and who they are with their family and who they are with their friends. Maybe three different personalities. And how do you—you know, people are like, “Yes, I am this way with business, but I don’t want to be too business-like. I want to show people the real me; the emotional side or the more open-ended.” So, I think one of the things that really helped me when I was working with your project was you took a lot of these really professional, vulnerable pictures of you and your family. And yes, there’s this business side of Amber, but there’s this whole other dynamic aspect of her life, which is she’s a mother; she’s a wife. You have this great family life, and I wanted to bring that out, too, because at the end of the day people want to work with people that they can connect with; that they feel that the people are real. I wanted to show that on your website. So, I wanted to portray the pictures – of course, I have your professional headshots – but then there’s pictures of you having dinner with your family; there’s pictures of you sitting by the campfire, or you hiking or you doing these adventurous things, and I felt like if I can display, people will naturally get this picture of who Amber Hurdle is. And so, when I go and build a website, I want to be able to capture all of that as much as possible, so I’ll definitely ask them if they can share with me what their hobbies are. What are their interests? What do they do for fun? What do they do outside of business? You know, we’ll get to the business stuff, but to the mean core who is this person? So, like I said, by asking questions; by just talking, I try to be able to pull some of that stuff out and display that onto their website.
Amber: Yeah, but then you do an amazing job with personal brands. I mean, if you go to marketingaccesspass.com you can see the various websites that they’ve built, but then when we were working on Roselie, which is a high-end restaurant in Inlet Beach, which is like the 30A Walton Beach [unintelligible, 14:!5] really high-end area of Florida, between Destin and Panama City Beach, we did a lot of the branding work ahead of time and then when I passed the baton off to you, here you’re dealing with—first you’re dealing with a chef, because that’s what draws people, right? Is that Kevin Korman is a well-known chef in the area. He’s a celebrated chef, and then you’re dealing with the dynamic that Kevin and Angie rally wanted this to be a high-end experience, but the name alone is a combination of their two daughters’ names, and they wanted people to be able to bring their kids to this restaurant. They wanted it to be approachable but still nice. I mean, there were a lot of things going on with who they were trying to attract to this restaurant and why, and what they wanted it to be about. And even though it wasn’t a personal brand, you put that website up and with, what? Within two weeks it was nominated as best website in the 30A or the Walton County Beach areas. Tell us a little bit about that journey.
Anthony: Yeah, that was a fun project. Yeah, so there was a lot of dynamics with that one, right? You have a restaurant, you have a chef, you have a family. That was one of the neat things about working with the Roselie dining project was they served high-end—you know, he’s a professional chef, so he went to culinary school and he was professionally trained, and so his dishes were like the kind where you see where it’s on this nice plate and it’s perfectly displayed like a piece of artwork, and we really wanted to showcase that front and center, because that was what makes his restaurant so unique: his cuisine and how he displays it. But what makes his restaurant different is they wanted the high-end food and the experience, but they wanted to make it family-friendly because of course they had a family themselves.
Amber: And all the vacationers.
Anthony: And the vacationers, and they didn’t want it to be super stuffy where people come in in suits and dress – I mean, you could if you wanted to – but it was a more casual dining experience with high-end food. So, it was like, “Okay, so how do I make this high-end but friendly and comfortable for families?” So, we looked at making the food the front and center. We wanted to make sure it was very clean and simple, which gave that high-end experience, so a lot of white spaces. Really focused on the food; not over-cluttered with words or other things that would be distractions to it. But then the About page was really all about them and the family and their story of how they got to building the restaurant that they have today. So, to be able to tell that story, which was a lot of fun, and showing their pictures of their family opens up that vulnerability. Like, “Hey, welcome to us. This is our home business—or not our home business, but our family business, and we welcome your family, too!” So, by using photos and just using simple, clean lines and knowing what we need to focus on, I think that was huge. So, yeah, it was kind of like what we talked about before: you know, who are they serving? So we knew that we were serving the Florida area, which was high-end, but casual, so we wanted to give it that elegant look and clean look, but also make it family-friendly. So, knowing the fact that their target audience was families and how they support those families with that nice, fine cuisine. So, yeah, just a combination of those things and knowing those three answers to those three critical questions, we were able to put that all together. So, yeah, we were very happy to hear that they were nominated for the best website in the area, and their business is doing really well. I mean, I think they had –
Amber: They were on Chef Emeril’s show –
Anthony: Oh, yeah, Emeril! Emeril Lagasse! Oh, my gosh, that was amazing. So, yeah, they’re doing really well.
Amber: And they have some exciting things coming up for 2017 which I’m uncertain are public yet or not, but they’re pretty mind-blowing things, so, yeah, that was huge. I know Chef Kevin has always been – even when he was at Alys Beach – he was very into and proud of the whole story. So, the story of where did this food come from? What’s the story of the famer or the fisherman? And then where did this recipe come from and how did it come to be? And why do I enjoy serving it to you? And so they wanted people to be a part of the story, and you did that beautifully with that website, so, super cool. Good segue, too, because we’ve talked about the three questions that people need to be able to answer before they start working with you, but what other action steps should somebody take when they’re trying to decide—maybe I should say it this way: what other action steps could someone take before they even get started working with a website designer so they can have their ducks more in a row?
Anthony: Yeah, so, I would definitely say if they can have their content. So, some of the most critical pages on your site are your Home page; your About page, and then if you have additional stuff like if you’re providing services or if you’re a coach, you know, you want to have those main pages at least written with some kind of content. You can always change the content later, but you need to have something to start with. I mean, I’ve had work with some people where they’re like, “Hey, you know, can you just put dummy content?” Dummy content is like – they call them Lorem Ipsum for web designers – it’s just filler content that just looks like a bunch of gibberish, but you can change the words later. Yeah, you could do it that way, but, like I said, if you’re working with a designer who wants to be able to pull that story out from your content, you need to be able to provide them the content first so that they can figure out what you’re trying to say and help pull that all together. So, yeah, definitely have the content. If you can have professional photos, that really helps because since we’re such a visual media these days, having professional photos can really help people connect with you and Amber’s done a great job with that.
Amber: I’m actually interviewing Jessica McIntosh, who is my photographer, so she’s in this month of gratitude as well, so we can get behind the scenes on that.
Anthony: Excellent. Yeah, so, having a professional photographer really helps. If you can take professional headshots…but take different types of photos. So, full body shots and not just you looking into the camera, but maybe you looking to the right or looking to the left or…
Amber: Kind of more of an editorial type.
Anthony: Yeah, you know, like some candid shots. You know, you just hanging out with your family or doing different things. Wear different outfits when you take photos. I think that’s one of the mistakes that people do: they’ll take the same photo with the same outfit, and when you’re putting it in the website, it just doesn’t give it more variety. Right? So, have professional photos. Then I would say another thing to have is, if you have any blog content or if you’re a podcaster, have just a few ready to go. So that way we can integrate it into your initial design, and then so you can see it like, “Oh, wow, this is what my content will look like,” “These are what my podcast pages will look like,” or, “My blog will look like…” So, yeah, I would start with those to work with. And trust me, your web designer or whoever you’re working with will be so thankful that you have all of those things ready to go.
Amber: Well, we love our gold stars in the Bombshell world, so we’ll do that. Another thing that I get my Bombshells to do is I have them create a secret Pinterest board – so nobody sees what they’re working on; they just share it with me – but they will pin other websites that they like. I’m very careful to tell them, “You do not want to copy another website; you want your website to be yours, but if you can speak with a designer about ‘I like this because of this’…” Maybe you don’t want the same colors or even the same structure of the website, but it might be how the website feels to you and how you respond to that website that I think helps people who maybe aren’t as good talking about design or anything technical. They can have conversations about how it makes them feel and hopefully shine a little light that you can interpret given that that’s your world.
Anthony: Oh, man, that’s such a huge help. That was one of the things that really made working with you really a lot easier, too. You had these Pinterest boards that you pinned pictures that you liked; you pinned foods that you liked; colors; font… Those are huge, because you can go in so many different directions. I mean, font can change the look and feel of a website completely. Color can change the look and feel of a website completely. You know, images – all the stuff. So, yeah, people can go in so many different directions, so if you can’t explain it in words what you are looking for by showing someone an example via Pinterest or just images, that’s huge. My wife always likes to give the example: it’s like going to a hair stylist and trying to explain to them, “Well, I want the Jennifer Anniston look, but my hair’s more like Katy Perry’s,” or something like that. But instead if you go, “Here’s a picture of a hair style that I really like, what do you think? Can you make this work?” Then the hair stylist says, “Okay, I totally get what you’re trying to go for now.” You know what I mean?
Amber: Yes! Your wife’s so smart.
Anthony: It’s funny because I don’t normally use that example, but I hear her when she’s talking to clients; she’ll say, “Just think of it like you’re going to a hairdresser,” you know? It works, though. People get it. They’re like, “Oh, yeah, I totally get it now!” So, if you can use Pinterest or things like that to kind of like brainstorm your brand – what you’re trying to go for as far as your look and feel – that’s super, super helpful.
Amber: Yeah. So, I’m going to throw myself under the bus real quick, because most Bombshells are type A driven females. I mean, that is who I attract. So, they like control. They tend to be – and it’s not from an ugly place – but they’ve been depended on in all areas of their life, and so it’s very, very hard for them to take a step back and actually turn something over. So, you created my—I don’t know what you call it, but the draft that I look at before you make it a real live website, and then I overanalyzed everything and I sent you this page of, “What about this?” and “What about that?” and then you were like, “We need to hop on a call!” So we got on a phone call and Anthony explained either the psychology or the functional reason, and he explained his decision making, and everything that he decided on was brilliant; it made sense. I didn’t look at it that way because I had something in my head that I thought it was supposed to be, and when we got off that phone call I was like, “Man! He thought about every little detail!” And then I had a hang-up – at some point I think I didn’t get you what you needed or whatever – and Anthony just said—or I said, “Okay, well, when will this launch?” because of course everybody knows that I’m a total driver, so I’m like deadlines, plans, and all that. You very gently – and I’m going to say it way harsher – but you were like, “Well, you’re the one that’s holding it up.” [Laughs] So, but you did it in a way that was honest and you managed up with me, and I didn’t feel—in that moment, I gained – I respected you before, but I gained even more respect for you because you didn’t let me go down a rabbit trail. You kept me on task and you managed the project, and we got it done. Then, at the end—I haven’t changed a single thing about it. Not a single thing, because I just love it so much. So, tell me about how you—I mean, what’s going on in your mind, on your end, when you get somebody that’s – you wouldn’t work with somebody that was like a jerk; you would never accept that kind of client – but like someone like me who is sincere and I want it to be a great thing, but maybe I get in the way of myself. Somebody like that.
Amber: Well, I mean, you definitely had this very—you knew what you wanted, which was great because someone who knows what they want, they have a lot of clarity, and you knew where you wanted your brand to go. But like you said, when we build websites, there’s a thought process for everything. We’re looking at it from an SCO perspective: Is the page going to load quickly with the amount of content and images that’s there? We’re looking at conversion and optimization. I’m throwing in some technical stuff, but basically, if someone looks at this website, are they going to take the right action that you want them to take? Are they going to subscribe to your newsletter? Are they going to purchase your product? Do you want them to click on this link to fill out a questionnaire? Like, we think about all of those things when we’re designing your site. Then, on top of that, is this portraying the message that we want people to get? Is this telling the story? Is this an easy user navigation experience? There’s a lot that comes into play when designing a site. We like to think that we’re unique in that sense because we’re not just designers; we are marketers, too, and we take all of that online marketing strategy into consideration on all of our designs. I do consulting, too; I do coaching, and so I tell my clients working with them is like—we’re not just order-takers. We’re not just going to go here and you tell me what you want and I just do exactly what you want. We’re consultants. We’re here to advise you; to help you understand there’s certain strategies and reasons why we do what we do. So, by jumping on a consultation call with you and I just explained to you, “Hey, Amber, here’s the reasons why we did this on the Home page and here’s why we laid out the site on the About page like this,” and I think when we do come into a crossroad with a client that is just trying to seek to understand, or get clarification, I think when we go through that process and we explain to them, like you said, they feel more confident and comfortable. Like, “Okay, they know what they’re talking about; there’s a reason why they’re doing this; it makes sense, so, yeah, let’s go for it.” I mean, I think you were very open to that feedback and you trusted us, and so I really appreciate that. Like you said, we really work to vet out our clients before we work with them; just make sure that they’re the kind of people that are willing to accept feedback and willing to let us run with it. I mean, yeah, we definitely take what they want and their wish list and everything, but we like to work together with people and figure out, you know, what’s that happy blend? Get them what they want, but then make sure that the website works for them, you know? If I get a client that says, “I definitely want this,” and I’m like, “Gosh, well, I know you want that but it doesn’t make sense or it doesn’t convert well,” or wherever it goes against the marketing strategy, I will advise them. I will say, “Hey, you know what? I understand where you’re trying to go with this, but if you’re asking for my professional opinion I’m going to tell you this, and this is what I would recommend,” but if you’re super adamant about going that way, I will do it for you because you are the client and at the end of the day it’s your website and however you want to do it—but then I’ll give them a choice. I’ll say, “You can either go this way, which is the reason why I think you should go this way, or b) we could go down this road and if you’re super adamant, then we’ll do it,” but nine times out of ten, luckily they take my advice as consideration. They’ll be like, “You know what? You’re right. Let’s go with what you’re saying.”
Amber: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I teach that in my bootcamp because when we talk about expanding your team without having to hire anybody, we talk about vender relationships and having a mutual understanding and respect, and working with people. When you are a real driven type A female, you’re so accustomed to just dictating, and my encouragement is to find people who are educators, like you, who are going to teach you how to work with them so that you don’t have to have that in your backpack with everything else. With your payroll and your kids, and their activities, and your marriage and your house, and taxes that are coming up. Like, you don’t need another brick in that backpack, so if you can find people like you, where you can work together and then let go and then step back up when it’s time for you to make decisions again, that’s a game-changer just for any business owner. It just doesn’t have to be as hard as I think some people make it out to be, only because they don’t find the right type of people to work with. So, we’ve talked a lot about what you can expect working with a good web designer – because, again, I want to emphasize: this is not the always experience. You have to find somebody—and whether that’s marketingaccesspass or somebody, don’t just go with the person that your brother knows. You know? You really need to understand what it is that they offer and how they work with you, and what is included in the price, and what is the project timeline? You need to know what to expect. But let’s talk real quick about what should you not expect a web designer to do?
Anthony: Well, a web designer—I guess sometimes people come to us and they’re like, “What should I do with my business?” and I can advise people on where they currently are in their business or how they should lay out their website, but I don’t necessarily feel comfortable giving them direct business advice. Like, “Who should my target market be?” or, “What product should I sell?” I mean, that’s a business decision that I think as the owner of a business – as a Bombshell or the CO or the founder – you’ve got to be able to make that decision. I can give advice and tell them where I want to go, but I don’t feel like that’s ownership on the person. They have to feel confident on what they’re trying to produce and live with those decisions, because when it comes to that type of business decision I might not have the right answer, and I want them to know that for themselves, so I would say, yes, we’re not going to tell you how to run your business. We can give you some advice when it comes to marketing. So, I think that would be one mistake. The other thing I would say is the old saying, “You get what you pay for” is huge because, you know, I’ll get people and I’ll give a proposal, and I feel like our prices are very reasonable in comparison to what’s out there, but some people will still do price shopping, and I get it – if you’re working on a budget, I totally get it – but here’s the thing: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to someone, consulted with them, and then they decided to go somewhere else because of price. And then a couple of months later they’ll come back and be like, “Oh, my gosh, I’m working with this new person. I went cheaper and it’s been a nightmare experience. Can you help me? Can you fix what they did?” or, “Can you work with me now because I made a mistake?” and now they end up spending more money and wasting a lot of time because they tried to go cheaper and they ended up getting something they didn’t like. So, whoever you work with, if they’re charging premium prices, there might be a reason why they do it because of a) maybe their experience; what else do they bring to the table? Like I said, you can work with some of the less expensive designers, but they might just be quarter takers. Like, they’re just completely waiting for you to tell them you want this, this, this and this. And they’ll do exactly as you tell them, but—kind of like Amber says, sometimes you want people to give you their expert opinion. For us, we look at websites all day and we’re constantly keeping up with the trends. What’s the latest trends? You know, mobile responsiveness; what’s going on with Google? You know, all these other things that come into play. You want people that are going to be on top of their game that are constantly giving you things that are the most—you know, Web 5.0 trends that are going on.
Amber: Yeah. I’m no web expert, but sometimes I’ll go to people’s websites and it’s just very clear to me with my knowledge of what a website should do functionally that the person that they hired to do it is not staying up on what’s going on with SCO. They don’t even utilize – I won’t get into all the terms, but – kind of just the backend stuff that is behind a website that a client shouldn’t be worrying about. Like, that should all be filled out and everything by the designer – at least in my opinion, based on the people I’ve worked with – and there’s just a lot of missed opportunity. And that’s frustrating for me because then you have to say, “Maybe you want to have somebody else look at it,” “Oh, but that’s my—I went to high school with that person!” or they’ve just taken a template and they’re like, “Okay, this is where the picture’s supposed to go, that’s where your picture is going to go,” and they don’t have any thought process into the bigger picture or the why of the website, or what they want people to do once they get to the website. So, the other thing, too, let me ask you about real quick on what to not expect a web designer to do: do people ever want you to write their About page or just create the content that – like, the body copy? Is that something that somebody should expect?
Anthony: I mean, I know that there are designers out there that may offer content writing as a service and either outsource it or do it themselves, and I guess that’s okay. I mean, it’s something we don’t personally do because we feel like, you know, there’s no better person that can portray your business or personality of your business or yourself than you. You know? And I think that’s one of the things that people need to definitely understand and accept: when you’re writing copy for your site, you’re writing to that particular person target market that you’re trying to cater to, or you’re talking about yourself and your personal brand, and it doesn’t have to be perfect grammar; proper English or spelling and all that stuff—I mean, yeah, you want to have spelling, but you can add some personality into it, is what I’m trying to say. Definitely add some personality that will connect with your audience, and so there’s no better person to write it than you or your business partner because you know your business better than anybody else. You know your audience better than anybody else, and there’s nobody else that could say it how you say it. That’s one of the things that’s cool about Amber’s site: you get her personality from reading her content, and you get a deeper connection that way. If I were to write it, I won’t sound like Amber. You know? So, yeah.
Amber: So, yeah, I think it is important whether—no matter what, that you find your voice. I mean, even if it’s not for the webinar. I mean, for your marketing material, it’s the voice of your company. Or if you’re like me and you have a personal brand, just write like you talk. Write like you talk, and then everybody will understand who you are. Jenny Burton, for example, she’s a Bombshell and a nutrition coach – or a wellness coach, rather – and she writes like she talks. Sometimes she says “ain’t” and sometimes she throws things in there, and Jenny is an educated, very professional woman, but when you talk with her in person, she is fun. Like, you just have to love her, and she writes that way, too. So, I would encourage you – just to back up what Anthony said – to not get all hung up on, “Does this sound professional?” If you’re not corporate, then don’t be corporate. The end. So, let’s see here! Is there anything else that if somebody was agonizing over their website – or maybe they haven’t even launched their business yet and they’re getting started with looking for a website designer – what final words of wisdom would you like to share with these fabulous Bombshells listening in today?
Anthony: I would say get started. It’s a lot of fun. Building an online business is a lot of fun and, you know, things can evolve and it’s okay if you evolve. I can tell you that my business has evolved through time. Lots of my clients, you know, they started with a certain style of business and then eventually it evolves, and that’s okay. So, don’t feel like you have to have all the right answers when you first start. I think it’s better to launch than to not launch and agonize over perfection. Just launch, and then as things grow; as you grow; your business grows, you can always change it up, but the worst thing you could do is just continue to beat yourself up and then never launch anything.
Amber: Yeah. I can attest to that, for sure. Very sage advice. So, we are going to put on amberhurdle.com/podcasts, with an ‘s’ – you’ll just look for episode number fifteen, and you can find every way to get a hold of Marketing Access Pass. It’s marketingaccesspass.com and then we will also have all of their social links: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube. All that good stuff. He is a good person to follow, because he is – whether you’re ready to or not – I would encourage you to get on his email list, or just stay connected because you will learn a lot and when you are ready to pull the trigger, it will be a much easier process. You certainly want to keep him top of mind if you are thinking about creating or doing like what I did and improving upon your website, or just completely redoing it like I did. So, Anthony, thank you so much for slowing down – I know you’re super busy – and being on the show.
Anthony: Absolutely. It’s been a real honor, Amber. I’m just so happy for you, and thank you for always being a great supporter in our business as well.
Amber: Absolutely. All right, Bombshells, I do expect to see you over at amberhurdle.com Give Anthony some love in the comments, or if you are, like so many of you are – I know you like to email me behind the scenes – it’s amber@amberhurdle.com I do try to answer every single email that I get. Or you can show a little love by going over to iTunes and giving a five star, if you find it worthy, rating and review, and that just helps us share this information with more Bombshells just like you so that you can have an irresistible business and feel bold, brave and unwaveringly confident every single day. We will see you next week!
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