Imagine if your homepage could capture attention and convert visitors into loyal clients.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:12]:
Hello. Hello. And welcome to Amplify Your Authority podcast recorded live on LinkedIn. I’m Marisa ShadrIcK. I’m an online marketing strategist and also a certified copywriter. And today, once a month, I have the lovely Kathy Farah with me. She is a ConvertKit strategist. Welcome, Kathy.

Kathy Farah [00:00:34]:
Hello. How is everyone?

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:50]:
I hope everyone is doing well. Cause we’re in the summer, right? Summer is a lot fun. Activity and kinds of things going on. What’s your favorite thing to do before we kick off here.

Kathy Farah [00:00:50]:
I wish I could be more outside more. I don’t get the opportunity as much. Outside more. I don’t get the opportunity as much.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:55]:
Well, you know I’m in Tennessee now. Right? Yes. So Yes. 4th July. Did you

Kathy Farah [00:01:00]:
experience a different type of summer? Yeah.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:04]:
It’s a different summer. Yeah. We’re already, we’re gonna go to the Grand Ole Opry and we’re gonna go there. We got tickets for that. My granddaughter’s gonna come visit. July. We’re going to Dollywood. Alright.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:18]:
I feel like I need to get a cowboy hat and boots or something, you know, living here, but it’s just

Kathy Farah [00:01:24]:
To truly fit in. And now you’re probably dealing with humidity and some of

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:29]:
the other one. It’s funny because people say it’s humid and it feels like it did when I was living in Nevada in the desert. That’s what it feels like. So it just feels like, oh, it’s hot just like it was in in Vegas. So it really I’m used to the heat, so it doesn’t really bother me. And in fact, I like the heat. I like the heat. So, so it’s pretty good, but I’m just kind of enjoying everything.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:52]:
And I know I don’t know depending on when this broadcast, the replay is, for those of you listening live, 4th July is going to be a big 3 day party around here. There’s all kinds of things going on, concerts and stuff, you know, park activities because it is music capital, man. They got lots of music everywhere. So anyway, I hope everybody else is having a great summer and enjoying a little bit of work and play at the same time, that work life balance. Today we’re gonna be talking about websites, specifically homepage. And so I thought it would be a good idea to talk about it because they’re very similar to our lead magnet, aren’t they, Kathy?

Kathy Farah [00:02:36]:
Yeah. I would definitely agree. You want something that’s very clear. Right?

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:41]:
So

Kathy Farah [00:02:41]:
and and concise as to what you’re doing. And both of those, your lead magnet and your home page kind of act in that same way of kind of quickly telling someone what you’re about.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:54]:
Exactly. And so the same principles because it’s all copywriting, right? It’s all about audience. It’s all about being direct and clear. So there’s a lot of similarities. And hopefully, after today, you’ll begin to see how similar they are. In that way, when you’re working either on the lead magnet or you’re tweaking your homepage, you’ll understand that you don’t have to really wear a different hat. One thing I will say is don’t stress about building out a huge website because when I first started, and I’ll see if this this was the same for you Kathy, I didn’t have a whole lot to put on there. It was like I’m scratching my head thinking, what do I put on here? So if you if you’re not sure that’s okay, it will evolve, it will grow, you will have more types of products that you offer once you engage with your clients.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:50]:
You will have more clarity as far as where you’re dialing in in your niche. All of that will evolve. So as long as you start with who you serve and what you do, and you have some basic things, really, the homepage is all you really need a way for them to contact you. If you have a homepage, and about page and a contact page, that’s that’s good. That’s enough. And then later on, you know, if you have a blog, or if you have a podcast, or if you have a lot of testimonials, or you have maybe a real maybe some kind of, video clip about your origin story. You can add all that later, but please don’t stress about trying to build out this whole website. What do you think, Kathy? Did you have the same issue I had?

Kathy Farah [00:04:36]:
Yes. Absolutely. You know, trying to dial in who you really are gonna work with, exactly what you’re going to offer. For me, it evolved. Like, I started off in one direction, and it was as I was working with clients that I started to think, oh, this is a better direction for me. And so everything changed. And I so I didn’t start off with an elaborate website. It was very basic.

Kathy Farah [00:05:02]:
And, really, at first, it was a lot of word-of-mouth before I even got to the stage of having a website. So it yeah. As you’re trying to figure out and fine tune all the details, that’s the last place you wanna put so much pressure on yourself is having the website put up immediately when you’re still trying to identify who you’re working with and what you’re gonna offer.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:25]:
If you don’t have time to work on the website, granted, we’re gonna talk about why website’s important. But if you don’t have time, at least have a landing page for your resource, your lead magnet. Start growing your email list as quickly and as quickly as you can before the website, before the logo, before everything else, start doing that. So if you don’t have anything else, have that first and offer some type of free resource. And don’t

Kathy Farah [00:05:54]:
put so much pressure on yourself for it to all be perfect. Like, I think that’s a lot of times when I work with clients, it’s that fear, like, just having a landing page and building your email list is like, what am I gonna say to them? You know, it’s they start to stress about it, and so they avoid it. And then you end up wasting perfectionism mode. And once I started realizing, like, oh, wait, I need to perfectionism mode. And once I started realizing, like, oh, wait, I need to hurry up. I need to start building an email list. It’s time.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:28]:
Yeah. I I would say out of all the priorities, all the things we could possibly do is start growing that email list first thing. And then as you do that and you start getting some clients, you might even be able to hire somebody to do your website, and then you won’t have to do it yourself. Right? Wouldn’t that be great?

Kathy Farah [00:06:47]:
Yes. Yes. Exactly.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:49]:
I’m I’m so picky and I I put my fingers in the website all the time, so I’m always, like, tweaking things. And my my web guy, he he does all that, and he goes, you’re the only client I allow to go in there and do all that stuff. And it’s because, I don’t know, I’m a control freak or something. I don’t know, but I have to just tweak it so because I’ve got this picture in my head of what I want, and and I it’s just harder to explain to him. I know it’s wrong. You’re supposed to be able to outsource and pass things on, but there’s certain things that I like a certain way. So anyway, it’s just the way it is.

Kathy Farah [00:07:25]:
I think we all have clients like you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:29]:
Well, if you have clients like me, I am sorry. I apologize. You know, ahead of time. I apologize. But, but I understand when I have clients that way too. So I can understand and empathize with them and meet them where they are because I understand that. So, so anyway, website. Why it matters? Some people would say, Kathy, but, Kathy, I have a following on Instagram.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:57]:
And I have a following on Facebook. I even have a Facebook group, and it’s going pretty well. Why do I need a website? What would you say to them?

Kathy Farah [00:08:05]:
I would say you want to be able to own what’s happening with your audience. The and I think we’ve heard this often is that social media, you don’t know if they’re going to see what you’ve put out there. I mean, that the whether you’ll have an audience, whether you end up losing it for some reason, the algorithm changes. There’s so many variables that are out of your control. Whereas with a website, you’re controlling what content is being put out. And as you evolve and maybe add a blog post and things like that, that information, you know, will be seen versus social media where it’s it’s not a guarantee.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:48]:
You wanna try to get them off of social media as quickly as possible, wink, wink your lead magnet, to bring them into your ecosystem. Because, again, like Kathy said, we just don’t know what’s gonna happen on those platforms. They’re great and they’re free, but because they’re free, we we just don’t have any control over it. You know, the the algorithms change, everything changes.

Kathy Farah [00:09:15]:
Yeah. And something else that I think about too is think about how you handle social media. Like, oftentimes, when I’m looking at social media, it’s fly by different things. I might pause for a moment and scan a post, you know, but unless I’m being intentional, which isn’t always the case, you’re just going by. But when you go to a website, your intent is to read whatever may be there. Hopefully, if it’s great content, you’re going to be pulled into that and continue reading. But just how we handle our behavior and going into those different places should tell you a lot about how your ideal audience is probably interacting as well with your social media versus your website.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:01]:
And the organic reach too. Why would we wanna promote other platforms and not promote our own Yeah. And get that organic reach to our website. So, you know, I think it’s really important to realize we can we can work with both those other outside platforms strategically. But to keep in mind, once we have our lead magnet and once we have the funnel built, work on at least having a home page, and you could you could kinda cheat and put a little bit about you and your resource and maybe how to contact you on the home page. If you really don’t have time to build out tabs and other pages, you could get away with it with 1 page. It’ll kinda look like a like a sales page almost, but it could be very informative, very succinct, very simple. You know, everyone does websites a little differently.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:53]:
So you can as long as you have the essentials, which is what we’re gonna talk about, you’re okay. You’re okay. So don’t feel like it’s wrong or you have to. It’s it’s an ongoing thing. We’re always tweaking. Yes. I wish you could say it’s done. I had to copy.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:10]:
I don’t know if I told you this, but I had to update the buttons for the podcast on my website. Because some of those some of those platforms aren’t there anymore. You know? And so I had to update to, I think to Pandora, and I had to update and have a button for, what was it? Iheartmedia and things like that. Because when I started, there were some others that were predominant. And so I went, oh, man. It’s outdated. I gotta update that. So we’re always tweaking.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:37]:
So Yes. Anyway. But ownership is the key. We own it. It’s our own. And, seeing that you have your own business, it’s good to own your platform. And also, to be able to get them off of the social platforms into your ecosystem, which does something magical. They go from being cold to now.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:05]:
Yeah, they start joining our email list. Right? And that’s that’s your area. Right? Yes. There’s nothing like a nice warm lead. And then what can you do with them, Kathy? Since this is your area, once they’re in, what happens?

Kathy Farah [00:12:21]:
Now you can actually build a more authentic relationship with that person, and you can talk more about, you know, providing them value, kind of really understanding more about that, that person and what their struggles are, and then really being able to show them how your solution can help them solve those problems.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:45]:
Mhmm. Yep. And now you can share a little bit about your personality. You can have a video for your email list. You could do all kinds of things on your website. You can direct them to content that you have on your website. You can do all kinds of things once they’re in your ecosystem, And the frequency, you can decide that as well. And it’s just so much better because they’re no longer cold, just kinda spectators looking at things on social.

Marisa Shadrick [00:13:11]:
They have raised their hand and said, yes, I’m interested in what you have. And now they are part of your community, your responsibility, and they are more than an email address. They’re real people with real dreams and struggles and goals and ambitions. They’re real people. So when you write to them, and Kathy, I’m sure you agree because we have similar philosophies on this. You write like you’re writing to a friend. Conversational. Conversational.

Marisa Shadrick [00:13:39]:
Yeah. It’s so important. So that

Kathy Farah [00:13:41]:
That’s something to keep in mind. Just on the side note for people that don’t feel like they’re copywriters or writers, just writing the way you would write to a friend would take a lot of pressure off. And then maybe you’re tweaking a little bit. But being able to talk to one person on one topic and kind of keeping things simple.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:01]:
I just wrote something for, my commute my email list, on finding your voice, you know, and it was exactly this. Just the way you you talk, you wanna be able to communicate that way. Obviously, you’re gonna clean it up a little bit because the way we talk and the written word, sometimes it that’s really needs a little bit of cleanup, especially in my case. But, when you do clean it up, Grammarly will hate you, but your readers will love you because Grammarly will try to correct everything and have it more formal. So just know that if you see a lot of little red from Grammarly or something, look at it and decide, wait, this is the way I talk and this is the way I wanna evoke my personality. So it’s okay. Grammarly, thank you but no thank you. So I find that that I’m always fighting with Grammarly and those correction tools because they don’t like the way I talk.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:55]:
Yes,

Kathy Farah [00:14:56]:
it’s a teacher, it’s an English teacher in the background telling you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:59]:
I know, I know, I feel like I would tapping on the ruler or something. I go stop it. So for sure. So okay. Ownership was the first one. Why we want a web home page at least. The audience shift, now they’re not cold. Now they’re warm.

Marisa Shadrick [00:15:14]:
They’re in our ecosystem. And then again, we touched on it earlier. We have an organic advantage. Using those keywords and content that we put on our website, making sure those keywords are on each page of our website, that’s gonna help us with organic reach. So what does organic reach do? Kathy?

Kathy Farah [00:15:38]:
It helps to draw them in in a unpaid way. So you’re not having to pay for ads. They’re coming they’re finding you based off of the the problem that you solve.

Marisa Shadrick [00:15:50]:
Yeah. For free, man. We’re keeping that for free, And it helps us get rank on on Google too when we use keywords because, you know, Google dishes out all that keyword information for us, and so when we align our content that way and our pages that way using keywords, then it helps us rank. And who doesn’t want free traffic? That’s awesome. And that’s something that and I noticed that that LinkedIn, I I don’t know what they do on the back end, but it ranks really well. A lot of times I see LinkedIn stuff come up first before their actual website. So which is really weird, but it does. A lot of the newsletters, articles, and things like that will rank in Google.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:33]:
So whatever they’re doing, they’re

Kathy Farah [00:16:37]:
I heard someone tell me I asked about the same thing because I I marveled at the, the fact that my LinkedIn post really kinda showed up more. And someone said they’re not in direct, you know, competition with Google, as far as Google’s concerned, LinkedIn versus, like, say, Instagram or Facebook or some of those other social media.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:59]:
Yeah. It’s interesting, Because Yeah. I’ll see it. Well, well, today, I actually I put in my name. Today, my website is actually ranking first when I type my name.

Kathy Farah [00:17:08]:
That’s good.

Marisa Shadrick [00:17:09]:
So I finally beat LinkedIn because I have been updating my website. This has been a saga. This has been the thing for the last 2, 3 months. I’ve been updating my website, cleaning up my keywords, trying to rank certain pages, doing all that geeky, techy stuff. And, I noticed that now my website comes up first and then LinkedIn. So

Kathy Farah [00:17:33]:
And something about that too that it takes time. It takes time for those SEO rankings to kinda inch its way up further to page 1 of the Google search results. So Yeah. Don’t stress if you’re not seeing it immediately after making those updates. It takes time for the system to kind of Yeah.

Marisa Shadrick [00:17:53]:
See you. It does. But you could see a difference, like, within 30 days sometimes. I mean, that quickly. So, when you think of it, 30 days is nothing. I mean, we’re already actually fly practically. Like, June, for instance.

Kathy Farah [00:18:04]:
Yeah. I was gonna say

Marisa Shadrick [00:18:06]:
I know. The months are flying. I’m gonna be Christmas shopping pretty soon. But in any event so those are the three things that are really important, about website, why it matters. Ownership is the one audience shift. You no longer are working with cold but warm leads and the organic advantage. Right? Being able to direct people to your website. So as far as some insights, there’s some things that you probably need on your website and I’m gonna actually use Kathy’s website as a nice handle.

Marisa Shadrick [00:18:39]:
But definitely, you want a header and you guys know what a header is, you know, it’s the very top of the website. It’s what they call above the fold before you scroll down. And so it’s very similar to lead magnets, right? Very similar to that. So Mhmm. You wanna walk us through, Kathy, some just don’t I mean, we don’t even overthink this. I mean, just think of the things that you would have on a lead magnet, and you would wanna have something like that at the top of the fold. And so let’s walk them through that.

Kathy Farah [00:19:13]:
So I would say a clear, concise headline that makes it clear what you’re trying to how you’re trying to grab their attention, a sub headline. So it’s something that kind of helps to build it out the headline a little bit more, give a little bit more information, and then some type of call to action to where it’s very clear what is the next step that you want them to take.

Marisa Shadrick [00:19:41]:
Are

Kathy Farah [00:19:41]:
you wanting them to book a discovery call with you? Do you want them to, you know, register for something free? So you want to kind of have all of that and then possibly even a picture of yourself potentially. So that varies on what people do, but just kind of something that’s very clear the above fold that just allows someone to be able to make within a split second to understand what you’re providing now.

Marisa Shadrick [00:20:06]:
Right. Because I know everyone, the listeners and you and I have both probably experienced this. We go to a website and we can’t tell right away what is it that they do. What do they offer? I’m not sure. It has a title, has a title and a subtitle, but I’m still not sure what do you sell. And so this is the question we’re trying to answer. So it it definitely the homepage has a purpose, and we have to be very intentional to explain to them what it is that we offer. And so that way, they go, oh, okay.

Marisa Shadrick [00:20:39]:
I see what this is about. This is about email marketing. Oh, I see what this is about. You know, this is about, you know, online traffic strategies. Or I see what this is about. This is about creating videos. And so they need to know at a glance exactly what it is. And just like Kathy said, sometimes we can’t squeeze all that in in a headline, so a subhead allows us a little bit more text to unpack it and give them a little bit more details.

Marisa Shadrick [00:21:05]:
And then, yeah, you can have an image. You can have an image of your freebie. You can have an image of you. You could have a video on top, as long as it’s short. Don’t make it too long. As long as it’s short, I would keep it about a a minute. Just say hello to them. Keep it real short.

Marisa Shadrick [00:21:21]:
And, typically, like, either you could have benefits. It depends on what you have at the top and obviously a call to action, but you keep it very succinct and very short. I don’t even know if mine even has benefits on it. What I have is, short little, sentences that could look like bullets, but I just didn’t put a bullet in front of it, short little sentences. But, it needs to just be able to explain why you’re there, what you sell, so they know and they can identify. And then what people sometimes do, they kind of elaborate in the next section of a website and they’ll probably they can explain, like, what some of the the problems are with that topic and why people struggle with it. There could be a section about that. Donald Miller calls it, the stakes, what’s at stake.

Marisa Shadrick [00:22:14]:
And so you could have something like that, but if you if you don’t have that all built out, I would just go to your menu of services, which, Kathy, you did a great job with that on yours. You wanna explain what that is?

Kathy Farah [00:22:28]:
You’re outlining the way you work with people and the types of services that that are available that you can offer, kind of addressing the problems. Again, you’re you’re wanting to be the solution, and that’s kind of the reason why people are looking at websites is to seek out a solution to a problem, a challenge. And so just listing out kind of what you do.

Marisa Shadrick [00:22:52]:
Yeah. And this is especially true for for like Cathy because she provides services. She’s a service provider. So having that there for people that want that type of service is really helpful. So they can see, okay, she does this, this, and this because she’ll do it for you. Right? And so that’s really important. And then another area that would be really helpful if you have it is proof of some sort, social proof, which you have also. It doesn’t hurt.

Marisa Shadrick [00:23:21]:
Now, if you don’t have any testimonials yet or anything, don’t worry. You could kind of work through if you’re just starting out and do some pro bono. Do some, exchange of some sort. And do some freebie stuff for someone that maybe they’ll they’ll share what they do with you, and you share what you do with them and exchange for some feedback. And that if that feedback is positive, then yes,

Kathy Farah [00:23:50]:
it’s on

Marisa Shadrick [00:23:51]:
your website. Don’t put it in there if it’s negative. But if it’s positive, you could put it on there. Right? Because it’s not a lie. It’s just you didn’t get paid for it yet because you haven’t built your clientele. So it’s more like an endorsement, right, than a testimonial. It’s more like

Kathy Farah [00:24:06]:
an endorsement. Even having a few questions be, one, don’t be afraid to ask because people, when you really have helped somebody, people are more than happy. You know, seize the moment. As soon as that project’s over or that experience is over, ask if they’re willing to do a testimonial. And then even having a couple of questions to guide it towards as far as, like, what you want to highlight of that working experience, paid or not, at least kinda shows, you know, what you’re able to do for somebody else.

Marisa Shadrick [00:24:37]:
Yeah. And when I first started, I didn’t have I was doing some clients, but I was doing them for agencies. I didn’t have my own. So I leveraged some of my mentors and so on my website, I had a wonderful endorsement from Ray Edwards and then I had a wonderful endorsement from my Kim and then I had a great endorsement who I did do some work for. Well, I did work for all of them actually, but that was later down the road. In the beginning, I hadn’t yet, for Jonathan Milligan, and I used those as endorsements because I wanted people when they came to my page to know that I wasn’t some crazy lady. But even if I was, I was a nice crazy lady. Right? So so I thought and I that’s what I asked them.

Marisa Shadrick [00:25:22]:
I said, could you give me an endorsement so people just know I’m not a crazy lady. And they gave me some endorsements. So you could do something like that and get an endorsement and a backing so that people don’t think that you’re a crazy person either. So anyway, so it’s pretty simple. You can build on this, but I would say that is key. The header that’s real clear, menu of services or how you help people, some social proof of some endorsements. If you just have that, that would be enough in the beginning and make sure that there’s a way that they can either download a free resource or schedule a call with you. You can always use pop ups to to do that.

Marisa Shadrick [00:26:04]:
So, there’s more, but I I think we’ll keep it to the basics. And I’m gonna I’m gonna share with you, Kathy’s so you can see hers because I think hers is really good because it is to the point. Is that okay if I do that, Kathy? Yes. Just wanted to double check. I thought you said yes. It was okay. So Yeah. Yeah.

Marisa Shadrick [00:26:25]:
So let me let me find where I can share my, my screen and go here. Alright. Can you see that, Kathy? Yes, I can. So right from the beginning, when you look at it, are you sending emails to a cold audience? Question mark. Discover how to revive your email list using AI. Boom. Is that clear or what? That is like super clear. You know exactly, and that’s what we’re talking about.

Marisa Shadrick [00:26:58]:
She’s got a little box, first name, and another little box next to it, email, and a nice beautiful kind of a, what color is that? It’s kind of like a orange, a soft muted orange. Mhmm. Get your free scripts now. There you go. That’s all you really need. I know exactly what it is she does. Now as I go further down, now that’s above the fold, as I go further down, I see a lovely picture of her, beautiful picture, And she says, hi. I’m Cathy Vera, your ConvertKit email marketing strategist.

Marisa Shadrick [00:27:33]:
Very friendly, and she’s got a little paragraph there. And then as you go further down, we see what I can do for you. Or what can I do? What can I do for you? And then it shows here different. And I love the layout of this because it’s got, it’s horizontal, has 3 images going across, and then there’s another row with 3 images below it. And it’s very it’s not busy, it just has reengagement emails, welcome sequences, reusable promotional emails, ConvertKit integration, ConvertKit automation, and email system audit. Boom. You know exactly what it is. And then she’s got endorsements down at the bottom.

Marisa Shadrick [00:28:24]:
I love it Because you can exactly know what it is she does. Now if people wanna go beyond this, they can go in the her she’s got pricing and she’s got about and work with me, and all contact, and all those other things. And she’s got her little LinkedIn logo up on top. But this is what we’re talking about, making it super clear and super simple and lots of white space so that people know exactly what you do. And if that’s what they’re looking for, they’re gonna contact you. So yeah. So how long did it take you to get it to dialed in, Kathy? Let’s hear the backstory of this.

Kathy Farah [00:29:01]:
It has taken me a while. I mean, this was definitely this was the second version of my website, and I was I did not like the previous version. But as I’ve worked with you and other coaches, I’ve started to dial in, like, here are the services, and I started realizing go simple. So this time around, when I built this website, I did I had a plan. It was going to be done in a week because I could go down the rabbit hole just like you, wanting it to be all perfect. And my key objective was to make it very clear as to what I offered and, you know, for me, I like being able to have a lot of white space and easy just to kind of go from one thing to the next. So I sort of changed everything just to give a cleaner look.

Marisa Shadrick [00:29:52]:
I I love that right at the top. It’s the lead magnet. Right? It’s Yes. Right there. She’s not really saying a lot about it, but she’s saying discover how to revive your email list using AI. I kinda like that sense of mystery. I won’t know until I download the darn thing. All I know is that it’s gonna help revive my email list and I’m gonna use AI, which I know is gonna make it simple.

Marisa Shadrick [00:30:17]:
So and it’s right there on top. So that is beautiful. That’s great. Now in contrast, my website, I’m not showing my website. I’m showing my lead magnet. My website is a little different because I’m trying to build out more of the coaching. I still do done for you copywriting and I do copywriting for agencies off and on. But, so it’s a little different.

Marisa Shadrick [00:30:41]:
Mine is more monetize your expertise with simple marketing strategies because it’s a different thing and it’s schedule a discovery call. And then, this one too is if I refresh my page, it, triggers a a pop up. So I have that in it. But, but oops. But here, the 52 lead magnet ideas, this is very similar to what we’re talking about with our website, the lead magnet, discover 52 lead magnet ideas to build an email list for free. Now why did I use for free? Keyword search. Keyword search. Everything that I saw in the area that I wanted to rank in that wasn’t too competitive, but had some reach to it, had build an email list for free.

Marisa Shadrick [00:31:31]:
So that’s what I used. So, again, we write simple, but then we also take in consideration keywords, and if there’s a place where we could swap it out with keywords, swap it out.

Kathy Farah [00:31:44]:
And that’s where you go. You tweak as time goes on as you spot another keyword doing Google searches and things like that. That that was I went back to my website a couple of times and made some changes, like spelling out email marketing. Yep. You know, versus email strategist, your email marketing because

Marisa Shadrick [00:32:04]:
of the keyword. And sometimes it’s not the word choice we would pick, but because the keywords are so perfect, and it does have a good reach and there’s not high competition, then we need to consider that phrase, right, if it makes sense. So would I put would I have done that and put for free? I wouldn’t have until I did my research and realized I should probably put it in there because it’s the headline. And then it just explains under the headline of 52 lead magnet ideas, a checklist will help you grow your email list by choosing the ideal resource that attracts and converts browsers into engaged targeted subscribers. Pretty simple, pretty plain, but has to be clear. So it’s nothing it’s not rocket science. But believe it or not, just keeping it simple is not easy. Right? It’s not easy.

Marisa Shadrick [00:33:01]:
So but you see here in this case, I decided to add bullets because as many of you know I love bullets. And so I have the bullets in there about this free resource. I’m probably gonna test because this one’s fairly new. I may condense the bullets or I may remove the bullets, and then I have also down here who I am. Now I may test later on and take this out and see how it performs based on the one that’s a little longer and the one that’s a shorter version. So, basically, what I’m saying is this is the longer version. I may test it against a shorter version. Does that make sense?

Kathy Farah [00:33:39]:
Yes. And that’s that’s what I do as well. That’s why this time around, I did it just very simple without giving a lot of extra information just to see if that changed things. Yeah. So For sure. For sure. Testing makes a huge difference. You just never know.

Kathy Farah [00:33:55]:
Yeah.

Marisa Shadrick [00:33:55]:
And it’s not like we’re doing this all the time. You know, we we get it done. We put it up. And then as we check things I don’t know about you, Kathy. I check things maybe about once a month. I start looking at numbers and so, otherwise, I’ll go crazy.

Kathy Farah [00:34:09]:
Yeah. I

Marisa Shadrick [00:34:09]:
would not see if I’m looking at it anymore. But about a month at a time, but really, the longer you go, as Kathy kinda touched on earlier, the more you’ll be able to see how it’s going up and maybe it plateaus and maybe it goes up again and maybe down a little bit and up again. You wanna see overall how the thing is performing. You wanna see where it’s getting bottlenecked. Are they are you getting reach, but you’re getting no clicks? You know, all of those things to see. If it’s an email, you would look at different things, you know, in the analytics to just give you an idea where should I tweak and really the analytics is going to give you a hint of what needs to be tweaked. Does that make sense?

Kathy Farah [00:34:55]:
Yes. Yes. For sure. And I think, and how often do you typically try to do that, like, quarterly to see whether or not, like, if a lead magnet’s converting or your opt ins converting to actual?

Marisa Shadrick [00:35:08]:
I I check about a month, like, within a month. I give it a glance, and then I I try to see how it’s performing because I don’t wanna go too long because I may need to tweak something. Like you said in I don’t know if this podcast I just edited one of the podcasts where we were we were doing a a segment together, but I don’t know if it was that one or this one. But sometimes just doing the headline helps, tweaking the headline. Or maybe you don’t have keywords, and maybe it’d be good to add keywords to give it a little bit more organic boost. Right? So, just little tiny things like that, just one change at a time to see. Sometimes stock photos might, not perform as well as just a candid shot of you or maybe holding the resource or whatever it might be. Interesting how those candid shots seems like just a everyday post.

Marisa Shadrick [00:36:03]:
I just happen to have my phone, and I just posted something as opposed to I looked up for a stock photo because I’m gonna promote something to you, and people go, stranger danger. Right?

Kathy Farah [00:36:14]:
Yeah. You’re right.

Marisa Shadrick [00:36:15]:
Yeah. It’s it’s not the easiest game, but it’s not super difficult once we know what it is that we need to focus on, if that makes sense. So it sounds like a lot, but really, we’re focusing on clarity. We’re focusing on making sure that we have a free resource that people can get to. The free resource, I would do the same thing, look for keyword search, and, really trying to help them take that next step, reach that milestone, remove that irritation, whatever it is that’s causing them to, you know, not have a smooth day, let’s put it that way. I wouldn’t say they’re losing sleep over it because I don’t lose sleep over anything. I sleep like a rock. But anyway, but they it may be an irritation.

Marisa Shadrick [00:37:01]:
You know, let’s put it that way. It’s an irritation that’s just bugging them that they they have this thing lingering that they need to get done and get finished. So, so the clarity of your website really help. And so, hopefully, that will encourage you to do that and be able to make sure that your website is super, super clear, because that’s the most important piece of it. So anything else, Kathy, that you wanna share as far as website?

Kathy Farah [00:37:31]:
I was gonna say, I think this covered everything really well and simple.

Marisa Shadrick [00:37:37]:
Mhmm. And it should be simple. Yeah. If it’s simple and you think, oh, that’s just too simple. I don’t know. Maybe I should say more. Chances are it’s probably good. And, you know, it doesn’t hurt to have somebody maybe even in your household read it and see if

Kathy Farah [00:37:52]:
they understand it. Not familiar with what you’re doing.

Marisa Shadrick [00:37:55]:
Mhmm.

Kathy Farah [00:37:56]:
Like, I think if you get somebody that’s kind of a beginner to what you do and see if it makes sense to them, because if it’s only you can only it’s something that you’re not clearly explaining that and it only could be someone that’s in your ideal audience that would get it. It’s probably a little too complicated if you’re just, you know, starting out. Like, I want someone to look at it and go, I don’t know exactly what you do, but I’m clear on what you have here.

Marisa Shadrick [00:38:23]:
Right. I use my husband a lot because he’s his mind works differently. I don’t know if it’s because he’s a man or what, but he’s he’s very analytical, but he he sees things differently than I do. I’m very visual. And so I’ll show him something because I respect his opinion. And if it doesn’t make sense or he’s reads reads it twice, I go, okay. Give it back to me. I’m I’m gonna look at this again because I want it to make sense to him, and he doesn’t know a lot about what I do.

Marisa Shadrick [00:38:51]:
He understands sales, and he understands marketing, but the digital space is a little different because he does something different. So I always use him kind of as a test to see, does this make sense to you? Or he’ll say, what do you mean by this? Or and then I just go back to the drawing board because we’re all a work in progress. Right? We’re not saying that. And I

Kathy Farah [00:39:11]:
would say even reading it out loud, Sometimes you can catch things that if you start stumbling over something when you’re trying to read it is a good indicator that maybe that sentence or phrasing is a little too confusing.

Marisa Shadrick [00:39:25]:
That’s such a great point. I use Speechify and have it read it to me. Yes. Speechify is an extension and I have it read, especially if I have a lot of copy. Read the copy to me. And that way, as I’m listening to it, I’ll do a double take. What? Did I write that? Or, you know, all these little tricks that we do to kind of find those places that, you know, people stumble on but all of that helps, because we’re we’re all a work in progress and just because we showed, the website and our my lead magnet doesn’t mean that this is perfect. We’re not perfect by any means.

Marisa Shadrick [00:40:00]:
We’re giving it the best shot like I said, I may be testing because it’s new testing against others that are similar with a few tweaks. So, we’re not saying do it this way because this is perfect, because it’s it’s a work in progress. We’re always improving and perfecting things. That’s why we’re constantly tweaking. Exactly. So anyway, Kathy, this was wonderful. Thank you so much for being on the podcast again and sharing your insights. I really appreciate it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:40:29]:
And thank you for letting me share your website. It looks beautiful. Well done on that as well. Any, farewell words to everyone?

Kathy Farah [00:40:37]:
No. I think everyone have a great summer.

Marisa Shadrick [00:40:40]:
Yeah. Have a great summer. If you’re in Tennessee, connect with me because maybe I’ll see you in some of the, you know, outdoor concert festivities or something. Who knows? Alright, everyone. Until next time. You take care, and we’ll talk to you soon. Bye bye.