The Number 1 Thing You Must Get Right With your Tennis Website
TRANSCRIPT
Hello and welcome to episode number 15 of the Tennis Business Academy Podcast.
And today I want to talk about websites.
In fact, this episode is the first of a 3 part series on websites. The other 2 parts will come in the next couple of weeks.
And right off the bat, the fact that I want to record 3 episodes on websites should give you some indication of how important I think it is to get your website right.
Think of your website as your home online.
It’s where many people get their first impression of you and your coaching programme or club.
And if their first impression isn’t great, well then they might decide to leave and never come back.
In fact, they will leave and probably never come back.
And if that happens you’ve basically failed at the first hurdle, which isn’t great!
And the problem is that there are lots of terrible tennis websites out there.
I’m sorry, but it’s just true!
I know because I’ve spent countless hours looking through hundreds and hundreds of them in the past few years.
And I think this is a shame.
Not only because of what I already mentioned, which is the fact that people that don’t know you will absolutely 100% judge you, your business and your club based on the quality and usability of your website.
(You know that this is true because you judge other people’s websites too!)
And if your website isn’t good enough, then that might be that.
But the other reason why I think it’s a shame that there are so many terrible tennis websites out there, is because in this day and age it’s actually relatively easy to get an effective website up and running.
You no longer have to be a technical wizard, or need to spend thousands on hiring said technical wizard, to be able to build a good website.
There are lots of tools out there that make website building easy and affordable.
But what you do need is to be clear about the purpose of your website and what it actually needs to do - and most importantly what it DOESN’T NEED TO DO.
And this is exactly what I want to cover in this 3 part series.
So, let’s do this!
And here’s the first, most important concept you need to get right if you want to have any chance at building a website that will do a good job for your business or club:
Your website should be built with 1 and only 1 goal in mind.
Let me say that again in a slightly different way so we’re 100% clear on this:
Your website should have only 1 goal. That’s it! 1 thing that it’s trying to achieve. 1 thing that it’s trying to get people to do.
But let me backtrack here for a second, so I can explain where this idea comes from.
When it comes to your website, there are, broadly speaking, 2 types of people in the world that could visit it:
Your customers - the people that have already signed up to your coaching programme, or are members at the club, etc.
The people that aren’t your customer - but who obviously have some interest in you and what you’re doing, or else they wouldn’t have found themselves on your website.
This is obvious and hopefully makes sense.
So, let me ask you a question here: which of these 2 types of people should you have in mind when you design your website?
Your customers or your “non-customers”?
I’ll give you 2 seconds to think about the answer to this one.
Feel free to even press pause/or to stop reading the transcript if you’d like a bit more time to answer it!
…
Ok, so the answer is that you should design your website with “non-customers” in mind first.
Well done if that was your answer and don’t worry if it wasn’t - most people get it wrong.
But that’s it! This is the first key concept that you have to get right when you design your website.
I’ve seen so many tennis websites that are clearly designed for customers first.
They list every possible little thing that a club or coaching programme member could ever possibly need, even though I can guarantee that 99% of customers will not read 99% of the content on those pages.
They just won’t!
Because that’s not the way people use websites. People go on websites for very specific reasons and leave as quickly as they’ve found the information they were looking for
They don’t sit on their sofa at home calmly reading through website pages like they’re reading a nice novel.
And yet that’s how a lot of websites are designed - like books.
Where every possible bit of information is put on there, like if someone doesn’t read it, they somehow won’t be able to understand the full story, or something.
And at this point you might be thinking, well ok, perhaps most people won’t read most of the pages, but it’s also not hurting them, right?
The pages are just there for the people who might one day want to read them and they don’t hurt anyone else.
So, what’s the problem, David?
Well, the problem is that the non-customers, the people that are trying to make a decision about potentially signing-up to what you have to offer, won’t have the patience to trawl through all of this info to try and find what matters to them.
It’s well documented through research that people - and this includes all of us - make a decision on whether it’s worth staying on a website or not in 15 seconds or less.
That’s how long you have to show people who aren’t familiar with you that you provide what they’re looking for.
15 seconds. That’s all.
So, if your website has been designed like a ‘book’ and has got all the information that customers might one day, maybe, perhaps, some time in the future need, and you’ve put this information front and centre, then what you’re really doing is making it almost impossible for potential customers to find what they need in that 15 second time window.
At this point I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I’ll say it anyway: this is bad!
This isn’t the outcome we want!
Your website is a sales and marketing tool.
If it’s not helping you sell what you do, it’s not doing its job.
Full stop.
Everything else is way less important.
Sure, your customers will also need to access information and take certain actions on your website, like booking a court or paying for a course, for example, but those people are already familiar with you and your website.
Not to mention that they have other channels to access you - like phone calls and text messages.
So, while that info still needs to be there, it doesn’t need to be, and shouldn’t be, front and center.
I call the way I think about this the 80% rule.
80% of your website should be designed for potential customers.
Which means that whatever you think is important for a potential customer to see and read - and we’ll talk about this in the next 2 episodes - should take the spotlight.
Everything else that perhaps needs to be there for your current customers, can be part of the 20% and, most importantly, moved away from the spotlight.
You can use a members area, or the footer, as 2 examples of places where you can put this information.
Because the people that are familiar with you will learn where that key info for them is on the website.
They don’t need it to be the first thing they see.
They’ll be willing to scroll down or input a password to see it. Because they’re already sold on what you do!
In fact, they’ll probably enjoy having a little member’s area just for them. It’ll make them feel special.
Ok, so that’s the first idea: design your website with your potential customers in mind.
But there’s a follow-up question to this, which is, what should the goal be for that 80% of the website?
What’s the aim? What should you be trying to accomplish?
And the answer is that you should be trying to get the website visitor - in this case someone who is interested in you and your coaching programme or club, but isn’t a paying customer yet - you should be trying to get that person to take a very specific action.
Usually this action is for them to provide you their contact details by filling in a form with their name, email address, phone number and perhaps even a bit more information about their age group - in case it’s a parent trying to sign-up their child - and level of ability.
That’s it.
You want to design a website with your potential customers in mind, and you want to design it in a way that hopefully compels people to fill in a form with their contact details.
Now, most people won’t just give you their contact details in exchange for nothing.
So you should have something very specific that you’re offering in exchange for the contact details.
The most common option here for a coaching programme is to offer a free lesson trial.
But you could also offer a discounted 30-day trial, or a discounted course, etc.
For a club you could also offer a free membership for a short period of time, or offer some sort of discount for new starters.
The options here are endless regarding what you can put in front of people to encourage them to fill in the form, or to take any other action that you’d like them to take.
Now, it’s also important to note that the offer alone will probably not be enough.
You’ll still need to prove that you’re the right person for the job, so to speak.
You’ll need to show the website visitor that what you’re offering matches what they’re looking for.
But like I said, we’ll talk about this in more detail in the next 2 episodes of this 3 part series.
Ok, I’ve already gone through quite a bit of information, so let’s try to summarise and recap it before we finish.
It’s easier than ever to create an effective website, so you really have no excuse to not have one in place.
It’s 2021, so if you know that your website really isn’t up to the right standard, just put it on your to-do list and commit to doing something about it now!
Because having a bad website will cost you new business. That’s just a fact.
And when you do come to designing your website, you should do it with your potential customers in mind, NOT your current customers.
And you should also have one clear goal that you’re trying to get people to do. Usually this is to get people to fill in a form with their contact details.
It takes people 15 seconds to decide whether they want to stay on your website, or not.
So, if you want to have a chance of grabbing your non-customers, you must put the information that matters to them front and center.
And you need to use that information to try and get them to take action and fill in the form to sign-up for that free trial, or the discounted club membership, or whatever else you’re offering them.
And that’s it!
If you follow these simple guidelines I can guarantee that you’ll build a website that’s better than 90% of tennis websites out there.
Trust me, I’ve seen enough to know!
Alright, that’s it for today’s episode. As always I’ll be back next week with another instalment of the Tennis Business Academy Podcast, where we’ll continue on this website journey.
Until then and thanks for tuning in.