Pivoting? Niching? 3 Website Must-Haves!
Let’s say you want to narrow in on more sustainable work as a florist. You want to establish your brand as a hotel florist, doing rotating installations and centerpieces in lobbies. If you don’t niche your brand, all the wedding floral work traffic in the world might look nice in your analytics, but it won’t do anything for your bottom line if it’s not your business.
Or, if you’re a lawyer, let’s say instead of just ranking for various types of law, you want to focus your practice on disability advocacy law for federal workers. Your website needs to reflect this and not create confusion about if you can help someone trademark their business name or get a divorce.
If you’re in the process of pivoting your business or niching down, there are some important steps to make sure you take on your website.
1. Show work that represents the type of niche you want to grow.
Basic, right? But so many people don’t do this! Often, websites create confusion over how to work with a service provider. If your website has images that don’t represent what you really do (and maybe even imply you offer something you don’t), has bland headshots, or has generic stock photography, it’s not positioning you as an expert within your niche.
For example — if you have a Medspa and you’re pivoting your services away from facials and want to do more botox and injectables, make sure the images on your site reflect that and do not just fall into a generic “spa” industry category.
Hiring a brand photographer and stylist can help you set the scene and tell the story of the value you create. A photographer can help you capture the process you go through within your niche as a service provider, and pick a location that reflects the area of emphasis you are taking in your business.
If you’re just starting out, you may not be able to invest in a full-blown shoot, but you could get a few key images that represent the portfolio or type of work you want to do more of. At a minimum, make sure the main three large-scale images on your site align with the type of work you’ve honed in on. Showcase client before and afters if relevant to your field, and weave in natural feeling stock from websites like Unsplash that have authentic feeling imagery that can be used commercially with credit.
2. Showcase credibility within your new niche.
If you haven't worked within your new niche much yet or at all, you can still use reviews from past clients in other related areas. To make the most of reviews on your site follow these tips:
Go through your reviews. Pick the three top testimonials you have, whether they're niche related or not.
If you have a review that mentions your niche, use that one first and foremost.
Be concise! Pick about five to 10 words max for each review for your site. Even though people gush about you because you're wonderful, keep in mind people aren't going to read that on your website. Save that for your personal business keepsake box instead.
The goal of reviews is for people to be able to see you as an area authority, without even pausing their scroll.
3. Make it easy to express interest in your niche.
You’re probably thinking, “I have a contact form already. I'm good.” But, there are a few more steps you need to take if you really want people to be able to convert into leads for you as a niche service provider.
Make your contact form really easy to fill out. Less is more. Don't create barriers to entry to work with you. That might come later on as you become more exclusive and sought after and you're trying to field business. That's a whole other ballgame.
Make sure you have a dropdown that clearly states the niche services you offer. That way, you’re not getting inquiries for areas outside of your focus.
Have a call to action to contact you, meaning a text hyperlink or a button leading to your contract page on every page of your website and in the footer too. Ideally, this should be in the navigation of your site with prominent wording like “get a quote” or “apply to be a client” or “book a consult.”
Niching down doesn’t happen on its own. Your website should put out the area of expertise you want to create. By showing imagery and credibility that aligns with your niche and making it easy to request to hire you for these niche services, you can start to pivot your business. By establishing yourself as an expert within a specific area, you can get a leg up on the general competition and help the people who are looking for you, find you.