Having a purpose for your website that's aimed at pulling in new prospects is an ideal purpose for your website. 

Having this clarity is deceptively powerful.  It allows you to focus and simplify.  And this in turn means that it will be clearer to your target market what you're offering them.

Prospects don't take action when they are confused.  So being absolutely clear on what you want will help you translate that focus to your website.

You know you want to pull in new prospects via your website.  So now's a good time to double check who your target market are.

The characteristics of your target market will determine how you reach them - and how they will find out about you.

When you're targeting your market, think niche.  Think narrow.  Pick a niche that is both hungry for what you can offer, and is relevant to your knowledge, skills and and experience.

For more detail on selecting your niche, sign up for my free niche course, http://www.nichecourse.co.uk .

Now you've decided to pull in new prospects with your website, consider that the most effective type of site for you is a Direct Response Website.

OK, so you don't have a website yet.

But don't despair, as in many ways you're better off than someone who has invested a great deal in a website that is not serving their purpose.

The first thing to consider is, are the individuals who make up my target market online?  It sounds simplistic, but if the majority your market are not online, there's no point in having a website.  You just won't be able to reach them.

Let's assume for a moment that they are online. 

What is it that you want your website to do?

There are a number of possibilities. 

Do you want it to grow the number of clients you have?  Do you want higher paying clients?  Different clients?  A full practice?  Any other aims?  Write them all down - it will help.

Now, have a read of those aims.  Your website must support those aims, not be an entity apart.

So if your new website is to support those aims, what must it do?  Write this purpose down.  Good.

Now check - if it's to support the aims of your coaching practice, will your website:
a) Pull in new prospects or
b) Take orders for your products or services?
c) Interact with them in some other way?

If it's (b), you must already have products or services that you can sell.  And the build and integration of such an ecommerce site is fairly complex and costly.

If it's (a) to pull in new prospects, there are ways to implement a Direct Response Website quickly and easily.

If your answer is still that the purpose of your website is other than (a) or (b), I urge you to think again.  Re-read the aims of your coaching practice.  And refocus your thoughts on what your website must do to support that.

You can only realistically sell to your coaching clients after you've established your credibility and authority in their eyes.  This means developing a relationship with them.

And THAT presupposes you can make online contact with them once, and capture their contact details so that you can keep in touch.

And the best way to do that is via a Direct Response Website.  So you might like to keep that option open for the future.

Many coaches want to "have a web presence."  Unfortunately, being this unspecific usually leads to misunderstanding of the real outcome for the website. 

And this leads to the expenditure of time, effort and money in the delivery of something that does not meet the needs of the coach.

So take a moment now, and take a deep breath.  Let it out slowly.  And repeat.  Now, consider your coaching practice.  What are your aims for it?

Growth in the number of clients?  Higher paying clients?  A full practice?  Any other aims?  Write them all down - it will help.

Now, have a read of those aims.  Your website must support those aims, not be an entity apart.

So if your website is to support those aims, what must it do?  Write this purpose down.  Good.

Now check - if it's to support the aims of your coaching practice, will your website:
a) Pull in new prospects or
b) Take orders for your products or services?

If it's the latter, you must already have products or services that you can sell.  And the build and integration of such an ecommerce site is fairly complex and costly.

If it's to pull in new prospects, there are ways to implement a Direct Response Website quickly and easily.

If your answer is still that the purpose of your website is other than (a) or (b), I urge you to think again.  Re-read the aims of your coaching practice.  And refocus your thoughts on what your website must do to support that.

If you have, or think you want a website that displays what your services are, well, you are in the majority.  The vast majority of coaches' websites are this type - often called a 'brochure website'.

These are the types of website you saw in the early days of the internet.  They often look very smart, with great graphics.  And they often cost a lot of money.

The trouble with having a site which just displays your services, is, well, that's all it does.  Prospects read the text, but are then not compelled to take any action.  Indeed, most brochure websites do not have a mechanism for the prospect to take any action.

So these type of websites do not generally bring in clients.

So consider, do you want to be like the vast majority of coaches, and have a nice-looking, expensive website that does not bring in clients?

Or do you want something different - a website that brings in clients who you can then develop a relationship with?

There are two possibilities here.  Either you are a mature coach who has a number of products and services already available, or you aspire to have this in the future.

If you already have the products and services, and you truly deisre an ecommerce site, then the most realistic way forward for you is to source and engage a webmaster.

We'll talk more about how to go about that in later sections.

If your response is aspirational, that's fine.  You know where you are heading.  But let's get the fundamentals right first. 

You first need a way to get prospects to know about you.  You need to develop a relationship with them.  And to do this you need multiple interactions with your prospects over a period of time.  They need to know, like and trust you.

And you need a mechanism to do this with multiple prospects at once.  So if your response to this question was aspirational, do you already have a Direct Response Website?  If not, you might consider putting one on your shopping list.

Being clear that this is the case is a good first step - congratulations!

So if there's a gap between what you want your website to be, and what it does (or doesn't do) now.

As you're aware of that, it might be useful to get really clear on what you DO want your website to do.  Why not think about it, and write down what your website must do right now.

Once you've done that, you'll be ahead of the 80% of coaches who have not thought this through.

Once you're clear on that, you're in a much better position to benefit from the rest of this questionnaire.

Congratulations!  You are truly amongst a very small percentage of coaches who have a website which matches the needs of your coaching practice.

You have clearly put a deal of thought and effort into getting a website that meets your needs.

Even so, I would continue to investigate what Direct Response Websites can do for you and your coaching practice.  Read on for more details.

If you have no website, believe it or not, you're actually in quite a good position!  You have no legacy website to reconsider and rebuild.

You're in a good position to take action afresh.  You have a greenfield site.

So why not rethink what you want your website to do?

And consider whether a Direct Response Website or a full ecommerce is what you might need.

And don't, whatever you do, commision a brochure website!

OK, it's good that you're being honest with yourself.  Now be a little more honest.  Does your brochure website really bring in customers?

I'm not talking about the occasional phone call or email.  Does it really bring in real clients?

No?  I suspected as much. 

I try to discourage my coaching clients from creating either brochures, which look wonderful in full colour with graphics, and are most often used as a delaying tactic by prospects.

I also discourage them from creating brochure websites, which again do not bring the prospect any closer to a purchase decision.

Now, how would you feel about having a website that consistently brought in prospects who are interested in what you have to offer?

You don't necessarily need to get rid of your existing brochure website.  You could just implement another single-page site that captures your prospects' names and email addresses.

This would give you a stream of new prospects - would that be of interest to you?  Read on for more details!

Great!  You have already implemented a Direct Response Website.  Congratulations!  This is precisely the type of website I recommend for coaches.

It allows you to capture your prospect's names and email addresses.  Then you can market to them at your leisure.

Even though you already have a Direct Response Website, you may be interested in the best way to implement them.  As, of course, you may well have a need for more in the future. 

So have a detailed read of the responses to question 5.

OK, if you have no website at all, then controlling visitor interaction is not going to be an issue for you at present!

But let's think about the future.  Let's imagine, in the future, you have a website.

How will you control the interaction of your visitors?  How will you get your visitors to perform the action you want?

The simplest way is to have only one action you want them to take.  Then build a website that supports only that action.

For example, if you want your prospects to sign up for an online list, have only that option available to them.  Do not present them any other options.

So when you're planning your website and either building it yourself or getting someone else to build it, keep those design guidelines in mind.

OK, so you have a website, but it has loads of built-in distractions. And your visitors are tempted by resources off your pages.  These may be Amazon book recommendations, Google Adsense, or other links off your site.

This means that controlling your visitor interaction is going to be impossible!

You are encouraging your prospects, who have gone to the trouble of finding and clicking on your site, to leave it again!!

Why would you do this?

Consider an ideal future.  Let's imagine, in this future, you have an ideal website.

In this ideal website, how would you control the interaction of your visitors?  Would you not guide your visitors to perform the action you want?

You know what you can offer your clients.  But to become clients they have to be aware of your offerings, be interested in them, desire them in fact, and be guided to take action.

Your ideal website would guide them through this process.  But you have to make the first step easy for your prospects.

The simplest way is to have only one action you want them to take.  Then build a website that supports only that action.

For example, if you want your prospects to sign up for an online list, have only that option available to them.  Do not present them any other options.

So when you're planning your website and either building it yourself or getting someone else to build it, keep those design guidelines in mind.

Fantastic!

You are way ahead of the vast majority of coaches.

You have a single-function website that effectively controls your visitors' interactions.  You make it easy for your prospects to take the action you know is best for them.

As you already know, controlling your visitor interaction is vital.

You guide your visitors to perform the action you want.  Congratulations!

You know what you can offer your clients.  But to become clients they have to be aware of your offerings, be interested in them, desire them in fact, and be guided to take action.

Your website guides them through this process.  You already know you have to make the first step easy for your prospects.

You're aware that the simplest way is to have only one action you want them to take on your website.  You know that your website should support only that action.

For example, if you want your prospects to sign up for an online list, you have only that option available to them.  You do not present them any other options.

So your website implementation is sound.  Now read on for other options for implementing Direct Response Wesbites!

Fantastic!  You are a mature coach with products and services available to your clients.  You currently offer these products for sale via your website.

You are way, way ahead of the vast majority of coaches.

You're aware of the benefits that an ecommerce site brings to a coach.  You benefit from the leverage of time, and the automation of many marketing and sales activities.  You enjoy the ability to put at least part of your business on autopilot.

So how can you benefit from the answers to this questionnaire?

It may be that a recap of the means of delivery of either ecommerce sites, or Direct Response Websites would be useful to you. 

Have a good read of the responses to section 5. 

And congratulations again for getting as far as you have.