Do I Really Need a Website? What Your Website Can (and Can't) Do For You

This question has come up A LOT in conversation recently, so I figured it's worth exploring in detail here. So many people ask, “Do I Really Need a Website?”. There also are questions on when is the best time to launch a website for your craft, as well as a host of follow up questions (and to be frank, concerns) on how to best integrate a personal website into your marketing ecosystem. So let’s dive in!

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When is the right time to launch a website?

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First, I’d like to address the when question, because if you move far enough along your business growth timeline, then yes - you absolutely will need a website. More on that coming up…

So, what time is the right time? In my opinion, you can launch a personal website for your craft as soon as you are crystal clear on what you’re offering, who you’re serving, and what your brand’s ethos is. Basically, if you have a coherent idea about what you’re here to share, how you’ll communicate this to the world, AND are regularly engaging with your craft, go for it! 

Note that actively practicing your craft isn’t just “I’m thinking a lot about reiki and it sounds really cool, so I’ll launch a website this month!” Let it simmer - for at least 6 months. Make sure you’re engaging with your craft on a regular basis, so that you’re clear this is something you’d like to pursue on a deeper level over at least the next 2-3 years.

Also note that engaging with your craft does not have to mean already having paying clients. Maybe you’ve got a growing network and regularly ARE getting paid through apps, in-person sales, etc. If so, that’s great - do give me a call! But I know a lot of us are still finding the most equitable ways to monetize. That’s fine. Engaging with your craft can be as simple as regularly doing sessions on friends and family, or working a day job that utilizes your craft. Some examples of this would be a therapist who works for a non-profit, but seeks to launch their private practice, or a yoga teacher who currently works at a few studios, but seeks to offer private sessions in their unique niche. If you’ve been  continuously cultivating your craft for at least six months, and have a strong sense of who you’ll serve when you take the leap to launch your own practice, then you’re in a good place to start seriously thinking about launching your website.

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And without further ado…

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Five Things Your Website Can Do for You

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Because yes, if you’re serious about your craft, you do need a website for your practice. 

1. Enhance Trust and Professionalism

This is number one guys… A polished, artfully designed and functional website does SO MUCH to level up your professionalism. A cohesive website shows that you take your craft seriously, and are willing to put in the effort to provide information in an user-friendly and aesthetically-pleasing way. A professional website builds trust. Logical site organization, functional apps to facilitate booking, and ease of finding important information all communicate that you care about the experience people have when engaging with your brand. It sets the tone that you care about providing the best experience for your clients, and are willing to put in the work to make that happen. And of course, if your website is a joy to experience, then your customers are much more likely to reach out and initiate further contact! Not only will potential clients get to learn more about your unique craft, but they’ll have an enjoyable time doing it. 

We have all experienced dysfunctional websites, and know the feeling of frustration that comes when we’re having trouble making a booking or finding critical information. Websites are dysfunctional when they lack coherent organization needed to facilitate intuitive information seeking, or utilize poor design choices that interfere with the ability to retain information. Dysfunctional websites just make people want to click away. In turn, they isolate themselves from prospective clients, who don’t have the patience to put up with a poor site experience.

Personally, if a business doesn’t take the time to make sure they have a functional website, I’m led to think they don’t take staying on top of other aspects of running their business seriously. When the business in question involves work that occurs in the physical body or in intimate spaces such as the psyche or spirit realms, this becomes a very big deal, and will absolutely make or break me reaching out for further services. I know this all sounds harsh. But note your own user experience on various websites this coming week, and think about all the assumptions that surface in these experiences.

To sum up: a professional website communicates that you mean business, and signals that you’ve done your due diligence to make sure your clients have a straightforward experience doing business with you.

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2. Stand Out in a Sea of Competitors

Many practitioners start with a name and a short bio on directory listings. Whether it’s your listing on Psychology Today, or on your yoga studio’s teacher bio page, chances are, you’re working with very limited space to communicate the full nuance of your craft. A website is truly your online home base: the floor is 100% yours to communicate your values and share your story. Your website is a space where your future clients can learn more about what you offer, free from the distractions of listings for other practitioners in the same space, or from their DMs on social channels. Creating a distraction-free zone is really important: it’s a space where your clients will have an adequate amount of mental quiet to really absorb what you’re offering. 

Your website can also serve as a phenomenal extension of your resume. This is one of the big reasons why a personal website is still important, even if you’re not 100% paying your bills through a private practice just yet. Your website serves as a way for both employers and collaborators to better get to know you. This increases your opportunities! So be the standout that you are, and get that website planning going. 

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3. Warm Up Future Clients

At The Craft, I like to call the websites I make the Digital Hearth: because marketing websites of this sort are primarily a way to warm up future clients. Entering your website should feel like entering your studio, or private office. It should exude the feeling you want your clients to have when they work with you. This is so incredibly important for their vibe check on you, in order to feel out if working with you is a good fit. Your website should absolutely emanate your brand’s vibe, and serve as a pleasant place for a curious client to metaphorically kick off their shoes, have a seat, and get to know you better over a cup of tea. 

I just don’t think this sense of calm and connection is possible from a purely social media-based approach, nor by advertising on directory sites alone. The 5 - 10 minute “conversation” someone has with you by exploring your website should ideally provide enough info to make the call on taking things further. And by the way, the average time on a website is 52-54 seconds (source)! If your site is comfortable enough to get past the five minute mark for a new visitor, that’s phenomenal. All the more reason why cohesive and functional websites are so important. 

4. Share your Story: Communicating your Brand Ethos and Personal Values

Inadvertently, we’ve already covered this point within each of the preceding items, because this one is so incredibly important! Your website is your space to communicate your vision and values to the world. Your values are the core of your unique craft: it's the spark that makes you you, and your craft unlike anything else that’s being offered in similar spaces. In marketing, this principle is called your unique value proposition, or differentiator. What makes you stand out from all others? All discomfort around creepy marketing tactics aside, when you clearly communicate who you are and what you offer, you attract your dream clients. 

We all know how awkward miscommunications can feel in friendships and dating. It's totally the same in business. Eventually we learn that not all people are our people, and sometimes it's just really not worthwhile to work with people who don’t respect or appreciate our values. And this is not to say that anyone who’s not about our vibe is bad, or unethical… it just might not be the best fit for an equitable and fulfilling working relationship. This is why communicating one’s values is key. It establishes a real connection with a future client. They say that lasting relationships are built on shared values (source). This is absolutely true in client relationships as well. Attract the customer who shares your values, and has been searching for what you have to offer, and it could just be the start of a beautiful and long-lasting client relationship.

I must also mention that your website provides adequate space to share a more detailed version of your story. This is incredibly important when you’re approaching sharing your gifts from a heart-centered place. So many of us have walked through incredibly diverse life experiences to gain the wisdom we have to share today. Our unique journey and blend of both chosen and inherited cultures is exactly what sets us apart from the competition. There is no one quite like us. Usually you need more space than just a paragraph on a listing site to give someone the full picture.

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5. Provide a Positive and Functional User Experience

Now that your website has kindled a connection with your dream client, it's time for them to take the next step. But how do they accomplish this? 

Now we have to talk about the CTA: the Call To Action. Your dream client has been wooed by your brave sharing of the heart and soul of your practice. They are intrigued, and want to get to know you further. Let’s make it easy for them to move from potential client to real lead, and then to current happy client. 

Your website’s functionality really comes into play as far as getting clients to reach out for bookings, a private session, etc. Not only should your website copy (the words on your site) clearly tell them how to take things further, but functionally this process should be intuitive and easy for a user. User experience is one of those things that directly impacts how likely it is for someone to successfully reach out to engage in your services.

Functionality is in the best interest for both your client and yourself. When they fill out a form, they should have clear confirmation that their message went through, and that a followup response is on the way. You should get these details right to your inbox. If they’re scheduling a booking, both of you should see this reflected on your calendar immediately, and get a notification email to confirm.

There is an endless range of functionality that can be built into one’s website, but typically the most popular in therapeutic and holistic health spaces include scheduling / booking, payment processing, direct email through contact forms, embedded social media feeds, and email list sign up forms. As your website is just one node in your business ecosystem, it will need to connect to your other marketing and payment processing platforms in some capacity.*

Whew! That was a lot! To recap, the things that your website can do for you include:

1. Enhance Trust & Professionalism

2. Stand our in a Sea of Competition

3. Warm Up your Future Clients

4. Share your Story (and Values)

5. Provide a Positive and Functional User Experience

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But we’re not done yet - I’d be remiss to not share a bit about what your website can’t do for you. Yes, even us web designers acknowledge there are limits to what a website can do within the context of your wider business ecosystem. 

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Three Things Your Website Can’t Do for You

1. Your website cannot be your sole marketing apparatus

I really, REALLY, wish that it could, but that is just not the case. As mentioned before, your marketing website is part of a larger ecosystem of all the ways your business communicates with the world. It's just one node in the network that should be set up to strategically achieve a certain purpose. 

It can be extremely helpful to think about your goals for your website before you start any site build process, in order to make sure the structure and design are effectively accomplishing their intended purpose. And like all things in life, each aspect of your business ecosystem will be better at accomplishing some goals over others. 

For instance, I would not say that a website is great at achieving reach: the wide net that you create to draw in as many potential leads as possible. Things like social media, or listings on directory websites may be more effective at getting your name and association with your space in front of more eyeballs. Reach from a website doesn’t really happen until the site moves up in search engine rankings, and just to be transparent, SEO is a long game! Potentially a worthwhile avenue for increasing your exposure and advertising your expertise in your space, but it’s not something that happens overnight. 

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Conversely, a well-designed website that authentically resonates with your dream customer is actually an incredible filter. By effectively communicating what you’re all about, it resonates with the right people, and the uninterested click away. Therefore, the leads that come in from your on-site contact form will likely be fewer in quantity than your social likes, but higher in quality. These potential clients have seen what you’re offering, and are now motivated to learn more. 

It's common to hear disappointment from practitioners who pour their heart and soul into making a stunning, functional website, only to receive little traffic. It's kind of like throwing the party of your dreams, and no one shows up. Such a bummer! 

But the thing is, did you get the word out? Did you make flyers? Share some social posts? Tell all your friends you saw this week? No matter how amazing a website is, it will never negate the leg-work needed to get people in the door. 

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To sum up this point, a website is a great way to share your offerings at a greater level of depth to people who have already had their interest piqued. Your website is a bit like a first date: a potential client is interested enough to want to learn more, and now time on your site is a make-or-break moment for establishing a continued relationship. And as one who believes we should be forthcoming with our vision and values right from the start, a website designed to align with your brand will capture the attention of the ones who are worth working with, and will clearly signal to all the rest that their search isn’t over. 

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2. Your website can’t be a one-and-done thing

Yes, I know you just put in a TON of work to get this gem of a website up and running within a rapid-fire timeline. And yes, I know you’re full tilt doing a ton of other business things, from marketing strategy, to accounting, to actually practicing your craft. Oh yeah, and all the regular life human-in-the-world-things too. So I know you might not be thrilled to know that your website will continue to need your TLC for as long as you have it up and running. 

But it’s true: a website is not a one-and-done thing. All sites will need to have their content refreshed periodically, at least every 3 months or so on your home page. You also will naturally want to make changes as your craft evolves, tweaking your copy to resonate more deeply with your target audience, or updating images after a kick-ass photo shoot. Sometimes a rebrand is warranted, and that’s an even bigger update that will need to be reflected on your website as well. There’s also regular additions to your blog or portfolio, if you go that route.

It’s an extremely good practice to visit your site periodically, to make sure everything remains functional. Technical glitches do happen, especially when using cloud-based tools or embedded apps. You’ll want to make sure that all apps function as intended, in order to maintain that positive user experience we talked to death about above. Broken links are something else to watch out for, whether it be from third party sites or posts that no longer exist, or changes in your own internal URL structure. Your web designer may include followup support to resolve these technical issues, but they aren’t going to know there’s a problem unless you tell them! So do make sure you’re ready to invest in the continued maintenance that your site will require in the coming seasons.  

3. Your website cannot replace your humanity

This one is important. No matter how amazing the tool, or how many robot friends you have working with you, they’ll never replace the unique spirit you bring into the work you do. All our very best marketing tools can only bring people to our door or into our living room. Only you can keep them coming back again. 

The positive is that you’re irreplaceable. The more sober side is that it is your responsibility to deliver: ethically and in-alignment with what you’re putting out there with your marketing. It's a lot of power, and also a great responsibility. Your website doesn’t take away your onus to responsibly wield your craft. That’s all you, baby.

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But I trust that if you’ve actually read this post all the way to this point, you’ve got it in you to follow through. You’re doing your research, taking responsibility, and engaging in the process of discovery and professional development. You’re already well on your way to sharing your craft with the world, and I would be thrilled to assist further as a creative, collaborative partner. 

And if you’re serious about going all in, then yes, you really do need a website. 

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*Note: Certain licensed professions such as therapists, who practice under HIPAA cannot take bookings through their marketing website. Typically booking and collection client intake info is considered protected health information, which needs to be handled in a secure system, such as a separate client portal. The Craft does not create HIPAA-compliant websites at this time.

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