3 Key Ingredients To Design A Client-Converting Website for an RTT Practice
Picture this: you are a starving, picky eater, and in front of you, there are two options:
The first place is for a lack of better words - generic. There is nothing particularly memorable about it. What’s more there is no menu in sight!
Right next door, you see a well-lit library café which has two separate scroll-like displays on the walls: one for beverages and the other for food items.
Where would you go? It is obvious choice, right?
Most RTT websites- they're the bland place with no menu.
As an RTT graduate and a specialised web designer, I assure you that just ‘having a website’ is not enough. It would be like having a phone in the Middle Ages. A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.
What you TRULY need is to establish trust and optimise for client conversion.
Here’s how.
The secret to any dish is having the right ingredients AND proper instructions.
Before providing you with actionable instructions to build your website, there are essential ingredients you need to prepare: a clear understanding of your ideal client, your primary goal, a success roadmap, and - the equivalent to your grandma’s secret sauce - branding and copywriting.
The first element is the most underrated yet the most crucial.
Before you even think of building your website, you MUST be clear on who you want to attract.
Be as detailed as possible.
This is the most overlooked step because, as RTT practitioners, we fall into the trap of identifying the issues we want to work with, but not the individual behind them.
The problem with being all over the place is, as they say, when you are a jack of all trades, you effectively are a master of none.
First-time visitors don’t know who you are, what you do or why you do it.
They don’t care about you as a person or a business.
They care about what you can do for them.
The second they feel confused or unsure, they will leave without booking a consultation - which is the last thing you want.
Therefore, the best thing you can do is to be extremely descriptive when describing your ideal client.
You want your words, your mission, to directly speak to them, to resonate with them and make them feel seen, heard and safe.
It will build the credibility and trustworthiness you ABSOLUTELY need to book a client.
For the sake of this post, here’s the client avatar we will be working with moving forward: a young person in their mid teens to mid twenties who is still in school and wants to succeed academically. Their problem? They are shy, socially anxious and get terrible nerves before exams. They’re the type to study consistently but blank whenever they have to take a test.
Would you be interested in an in-depth article to help you identify your ideal client? Please leave a comment if that is something you would like.
Once you know who you want to work with, the next step is to answer the following questions.
Where do your clients find you?
What do you want from them?
It is crucial to answer these questions because they will dictate your client-conversion strategy.
Now, depending on your practice and your offers, this may greatly vary, so for the sake of this post, I will take the example of a fresh RTT grad. They promote themselves on Facebook, and their goal is to get potential clients on a consultation call. Pretty basic.
If I were to translate this into website terms, they would only really need a single-page website, which, frankly, is both time and cost-effective.
These are the sections they would need:
A header:
navigation bar with a CTA (Call To Action) like a ‘Book Now’ Button
a tagline summing up who they are, what they do, how they do it, where they do it and for whom they are doing it
A service presentation tailored for their ideal client
In-depth description of their ideal client’s challenges (thoughts/behaviors/feelings)
Concise explanation of RTT being the perfect solution (define RTT, explain the process and its benefits)
Testimonials
Past clients/RTT grad experiences
CTA like a ‘Book Now’ Button
About me/in-depth RTT section
personal credentials
personal RTT journey
RTT, the method’s credentials
A footer with extra info
Social media
Terms and Conditions/Privacy Policy
Unfortunately, it is impossible for me to deconstruct what sections/pages are necessary for every scenario out there. If you would like to check if you have all the features you need for your practice, check out the website audits offers.
Now this phase is, in a way, a follow-up of the previous step.
Imagine this: You are at a restaurant, and two items on the menu catch your eye.
One of them is a delicious apple pie served with vanilla ice cream and a cup of cinnamon herbal tea.
The other is a drool-worthy, well-seasoned A-grade steak with grilled potatoes and a gratin of tomatoes and courgettes.
That certainly sounds heavenly, does it not?
However, if I were to ask you to eat it in that precise order - apple pie first, steak second - would you find it enjoyable?
Most people wouldn’t find it palatable - the same goes for your website navigation.
You need to lead your potential client in a way that makes for an easy and smooth journey.
Your website must be structured to keep your clients hooked while urging them to take action - which is to book a call - every step of the way.
The sections I mentioned earlier were already aligned for client conversion.
Here’s why:
A header is a must for every website, regardless of domain.
But, having a thorough tagline is the first step in reassuring your visitors that they are in the right place.
Yes, you are an RTT practitioner.
Yes, you work online, internationally.
Yes, your mission is to help young people perform at a higher level.
Yes, to do so, you work on elevating their confidence, improving their self-esteem, boost their memory and information retention so that they get achieve the results they deserve.
Adding a ‘Free Consultation’ button incites your visitor to take action immediately without high stakes - it is safe because it is free.
A service presentation tailored for your ideal client is when you establish trust and rapport.
You know your ideal client’s struggles, their deepest desires, and you tap into them.
Your client will feel like ‘this person gets me’ and will be much more open to you offering them a solution - RTT.
Repeating the CTA increases the chance of booking while increasing FOMO.
This is why you must add one to every following section.
Testimonials are a must-have section now that your services have been established, because they are proof of you successfully helping clients, similar to your potential client.
They will think, ‘well if it worked for that person, why not give it a try?’
About me/in-depth RTT section is for when a visitor needs extra convincing.
The about me section is made to pull at their heartstrings and make them relate to you, on a human level. This part needs to be honest and heartfelt.
If you don’t have a personal experience you are willing to share, I’d rather you skip this and focus on diving deeper into RTT’s accolades.
Because, at this point, if they are still unconvinced, this is the last push you can give them.
A footer is a classic element on a website.
You can put anything which isn’t quite relevant to your main goal: booking a consultation.
You can put your contact information to answer questions, if they have any and even link your booking page again for good measure.
Is this the order you have your sections in? Or, if you don’t have a website yet - does it make sense? Comment your thoughts, I am curious as to what your websites are like.
The next keys to convert visitors into clients, we will talk about together.
Branding is the sum of all the visual and auditory elements that make your website unique to you and your practice.
Colours, Pictures, Fonts, and Logo all give your website a bit of ‘je ne sais quoi’.
Essentially, branding is your practice’s vibe.
For example, we have already established that our ideal client is interested in performing better academically and vanquish their timidity.
We have to use that on our website to appeal to them.
Similarly, for copywriting, which is the text on a website, we need to keep at the forefront of our minds who we are writing it for.
Imagine using words like dream boat, swell or ankle-biter in a conversation with a Gen Z.
Chances are, these words won’t speak to them like they would their grandparents’ generation.
The same principle applies to copywriting.
You want to use words your ideal client knows and resonates with, words that hold meaning to them.
In this case, words like slay, lit, bias…
Branding and copywriting are fascinating topics. I will likely dive deeper into them at some point. In the meantime, if you want clarity on your branding or need some help with your copy, I offer them as add-ons services.
To sum it all up, before launching yourself into the last phase of actually building your website, you need to have thought through and prepared;
your Ideal Client
your Main Goal
your Success Roadmap
your Branding and Copywriting
before launching yourself into the last phase: actually building your website.
