6 Secrets From a Website Agency CEO: How to Get More Clients From Your Website Today with Jason Gracia

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. The only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down the six secrets from a website agency CEO, how to get more clients from your website today. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought Jason Gracia in the EO Fire Studios. For 25 years, Jason has helped coaches make a difference and a living with their expertise. He's an author, coach, and creator of Swift Sites, a leading agency in the coaching website space. And today, Foundation, we'll talk about art versus machine.

0:35Are websites dead? The two things every coaching website must do opt-in funnel magic, contact funnel magic, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Jason and our sponsors. Be ready to sell wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling, on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between. Upgrade your business today. Sign up for your$1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash on fire. Jason, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What is up, Fire Nation?

1:17So excited to be here. And I would say the thing that I think most people disagree with is probably 90 % of the preparation people do in business is useless. I think it's a waste of time because I'm a believer in messy action. So when people come to me and they say, what are we going to plan? How are we going to lay everything out? I throw it all to the side and I tell them essentially, walk out your front door and pitch your service because that's how you actually learn. So all the prep, all the courses and the reading and the learning, I think it's misplaced. It comes later in the beginning.

1:49You just got to get out there and do it. So most of what people are told about getting ready doesn't work. I love it. I love that Reid Hoffman quote is that if you waited until something was ready, you waited way, way too long. Not just too long, way, way too long. And in fact, I now launch everything, Jason, before I even do any of the work behind a program. Like literally, because I just want to know, hey, are people interested in this? Is this something that people will want to be a part of? I have conversations with them. I have them sign up an interest list. I jump on calls with them. And then I talk about it.

2:21And the program is still not done. I haven't even started most of the time. And then if I get people really buying into it, then I'll say, okay, hey, we're starting in a month or a month and a half. And then I build that thing because now I know that there's product market fit. So we're talking today about six secrets from a website agency CEO, how to get more clients from your website today. Jason, I want to talk about art versus machine. This is a brand new way to think about our website. Tell us more. I couldn't agree more with what you said before too. I love that. Like that's the whole purpose is efficiency of your time, right?

2:56Don't waste it in things you don't even know work. So I just love that. But yeah, so I've run a website agency in the coaching space, one of the leading agencies for about 10 years now. Worked with hundreds and hundreds of clients. And so I learned a thing or two about how to make a website that works. And it all starts with reframing how we think about websites. So many people think of it as a work of art. This is my heart and soul put into pixels and shared with the world. but actually as much as we want to believe that it's a machine it should be a business machine yes it can be beautiful but if the machine doesn't work i don't care how much you spent on that work of art or how much your neighbors and your mom and dad love it it's not art the website is a machine and and if we think about it that way everything else to come makes sense So that's number one.

3:48We have to get our brains out of this. This is my work of art to share. And instead, this is a finely tuned machine to help me generate business. Now, I want to talk more about websites because I think a lot of people think that websites are dead or should they become a hub and spoke wheel of our business? What are your thoughts on that? The website as we knew it, I, you know, Russell Brunson with ClickFunnels, one of their taglines was the website was dead. And it just killed me because I ran a website agency, but he's right. The website as we knew it is dead. The old brochure style website that says, hey, here's who I am and here's what I've got.

4:24It just doesn't work anymore. And so because we're building a machine, what we want to think of that machine is as a wheel and a hub and spoke wheel. And the way I describe it is your website is a house of many doors. But no matter what door people go through, we want to get them in the kitchen. And what that means is every page of your website should almost be designed as a homepage because not everyone comes through that front door. They might come through the back door, the side door, and you want to make sure your website's ready and prepped to guide that person to the ultimate outcome. In our world, it's getting a call booked, a discovery call booked.

5:02In your world, it's whatever your main call to action is. But every page of your website should be treated like a homepage, leading people to the hub, the middle part of the wheel, which is your primary call to action. Let's get specific on two things that every coaching website must do. When it comes to what they should do, people have a million ideas. I want my website whenever I get on a prospect call. Okay, so here are the 53 things that I really want my website to do. Like, okay, this will be fun. In the end, a coaching website should do two things. Aside from the basics, which is educate, yes, of course you want to share who you are and what you do.

5:41But if that person, if you have a million visitors and then a million leave, it's as if you had zero. So what that website needs to do is either book a call or get them on your list. Those are the two things we should be driving at on every page. How do we get this person to book a call? And if they're not there yet, how do we at least get them on our list so that we can nurture them until they do book a call? And that's it. Everything else is secondary to those two primary objectives. Book a call, join my list. So I want to talk about opt-in funnel magic because this is something that you've perfected over the years.

6:19And I want to share with Fire Nation how we can automatically turn email subscribers into discovery calls. Because here you have the situation you just talked about where somebody comes to your website and they're not ready to book a call right now, but you do a good job and you get them on your email list, how does that opt-in funnel magic work? How can we get those email subscribers onto a discovery call? I love it. This is one of my favorite things and it's changed my life, I can tell you that. And it can do the same for your listeners. It's so simple. So the principle here is if we shake hands, we're more willing to hug.

6:57Meaning, if you give me a small step to take, I'm willing to take the next bigger one. So OptinFunnel magic is when you get a visitor, and they're just not ready for that call, right? For whatever reason, they're not ready to take the big step forward, which is booking and discovery call. So what we do is we offer them a lead generator or a lead magnet on the website. So we have a free giveaway, which is pretty typical. Most people know, and they've seen these. So you want a really juicy giveaway. But what a lot of people do is someone will put in their name and email to get the giveaway and then they say, here it is.

7:30See you later. What you need to do is three simple steps. First, when someone puts their name and email into that opt-in form to get your gift, the very next page should invite them to book a call. So I put in my name and email. I click submit. The page reloads and it should be a calendar. right there embedded in your website, inviting them to book a call. Now, of course, you don't want to throw people off, confuse them, irritate them. They're going to be wondering, where's my free thing? Why is there a calendar here? So all you do is you put a big banner at the top that says, thanks for your request.

8:04My guide is on its way to your inbox. But while you're here, I'd love to invite you to book a call. And you'd be shocked at the number of people who, because they took that first initial step and they built some know, like, and trust, they're willing to take the next, which is book a call. But that's only step one because now we follow them because now they have your guide. And so in that free guide, you want to make sure that the final page, we call it your pitch page, but it talks about taking the next step, which is getting on a discovery call with a live link. So a button that they can click that links right back to your call booking page.

8:41So step one, the thank you page should be a calendar inviting them to book. Step two, in the freebie you give away, make sure there's a page that invites them to book with a link. Make it easy, just that they can click and then go right back to that page to book. And then the third step, you want to make sure that you have a series of emails that follow up. Now, of course, you delivered your freebie by email, so they got one. But we always recommend that first week, you should have at least three to five emails ready to go. And in each of those emails, you should make it as easy as possible for them to click and book.

9:15So for us and our clients, we do a series of emails that follow you after you opt in. And then every email says, if you're ready to book a call, click here. If you're ready to book a call, click here. We put it in front of them over and over and over again to remind them this is the next step, book a call. So your thank you page should be a calendar. In your free giveaway, you should have a button that they can click to go to your calendar. And then every follow-up email, those first three to five days should all have a link to your calendar. Fire Nation, we have a lot to talk about around this topic.

9:47In fact, I'm going to have Jason share a specific example of what this could look like. Maybe it's what he does with this opt-in funnel magic or one of his clients. We're going to get that specific use case as soon as we get back from thinking our sponsors. EO Fire turns 13 years old this year, and I'm still loving every minute, interviewing amazing guests, having complete location independence. What's not to love? If you're doing what you love, there's nothing better than being surrounded by people who love it as much as you. And if you own your own business, you want to hire employees who love what they do to boost the overall success of your business.

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11:32They also offer ShopPay, which boosts conversions up to 50%. So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Mattel uses. Sign up for your$1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash onfire. All lowercase, go to shopify.com slash onfire to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com slash onfire. Jason, we're back. And before the break, we talked about opt-in funnel magic, how to automatically turn email subscribers into discovery calls.

12:18You gave some great steps, some great feedback on how to make that happen, how to make sure that they're happy, how to make sure they know to book a call and to remind them of that. Give us a real world use case of this. I do it every day. So I love that you asked because yeah, every business I start, we have to have this implemented. It is just the basics. Because if you think about it, if you go on a podcast, like your podcast right here. So if anyone goes to swift sites.com backslash EO fire, right? So this is a, this is a live example. So Swift Sites with a Y, so S-W-Y-F-T, you will see we have a giveaway.

12:57So our giveaway is five must-haves for a coaching website. So in your case, whoever's listening, you want to think of something simple, checklist or a cheat sheet that speaks directly to a problem that your market is struggling with or a strong desire. You put together a simple PDF. What you want to do is any time, for instance, with our website, anytime someone comes to SwiftSites.com and they put in their name and email to get our free guide, we reload the page automatically and we send them to my calendar page to book a discovery call with me. So that's it's live on our site now. And that's how it works.

13:36Anyone opts in giving that free five tips away. The next page is a calendar. Then I made sure when I built that PDF of those five tips, I put a final page in that talked about the service we do and how they can easily book a call to learn more. And there's a button that brings them right back to my website. So those step one and two. Step one was five must-haves for a coaching website. When people get it, they automatically see an invite to book. And then that PDF they actually open has an invitation for them to book and learn more. And then, of course, I've got follow-up emails. So for the next several days, they're going to get an email with content, with tips, best practices.

14:20But in every one of those emails, I end with an invitation to click here and book a discovery call. So I run this right now. Everyone can see it. You can even just test it out. Go to swiftsites.com backslash EOfire. You're going to see it live. And this has made me hundreds of thousands of dollars because it turns every opt-in. They know for sure this is the next step. A lot of marketers, I mean, you know, a lot of marketers, they leave people guessing. You can never leave them guessing. You've got to make it so clear what's next. And so if you come through my world, I'm going to hit you over the head with it.

14:54This is the next step. Click right here. So that's a real world case running right now. And it works like magic. I love it. And I'm actually doing it right now, real time as you're speaking. And another factor that you didn't even mention, but I love about this process is you have dozens and dozens of testimonials on that page as well. Just like a pictures of people with their testimonial to just have that further validation of like, hey, this is working in the real world. Now, I want to talk contact funnel magic. how can we automatically turn contact submissions into discovery calls? This is so simple and so overlooked.

15:36But if you and I go to a thousand websites and we fill out, we go to their contact page, we fill out their little form, 999 of them are going to say, thanks for stopping by. And what you and I know is that is not a cold lead. That's not someone who's not interested. They want to know more. For whatever reason, they didn't book, but they could be almost to the top of that ladder ready to book. But if we don't give them that option and put it right in front of them, they won't. And so unlike most people out there with websites who, when you fill out their contact form, it says, thanks for stopping by.

16:13We'll be in touch. What we do at Swift is the page reloads and it's a booking page. Now, of course, we don't want to, again, just like before, we don't want to confuse or annoy them. And so we let them know with a big banner. Thank you for reaching out. we'll be in touch within 24 hours. But while you're here, that's the key. Getting to that page is so hard. Like you worked so hard to get someone there. But what we say is while you're here, I'd love to invite you to book a discovery call. Again, it's like clockwork. We'll see in our company a contact form message come in and then we just wait, tick, tick, tick, book to call.

16:50And so everyone here, if you have a website and you have a contact form, In the settings, typically, you can tell the contact form after people click submit what to do. What you want to do is send them to a booking page. Thank them for reaching out. Tell them you'll be in touch, but then give them the option to book a call. It's so simple. You could set it up in five minutes, but it can add tens of thousands to the bottom line. I want to talk about blogs because I think a lot of people, when they think of blogs, potentially say, you know, that was the knots. Like that was early 2000s. Did that really make sense?

17:24But you believe that blogs can come to the rescue. So what's the real reason we need to add blog posts specifically to our site? Not tomorrow, but as soon as possible. Yeah, it hurts my heart. You and I have been in this game a long time. When I talk to these younger whiffer snappers and they're like, wait, what is a blog? It's like, oh, don't remind me. I'm old. But they're so powerful. And here's how we use them. Not your typical way, right? Which is people think create content, feed the search engines, things like that. But what we have found and what we use the blog for is to overcome sales objections.

18:05So what you do is think of the reasons why people say no to your offer. So to your coaching, your consulting, or whatever your offer is. What are your common objections? What are they saying that talks them out of the sale? Then you create a blog post that overcomes that objection. the thought there is your website then is almost a prep for the sale. Now, everyone doesn't come from the blog, through the blog to a call, but many will check out the blog. And if they can read an article that says, here are the three top reasons to invest in yourself, here is why getting XYZ, which is your service, was the best decision I ever made, client case studies of before and after, you're going to help shift their beliefs and their thoughts and their feelings as they come onto that call.

18:55And so what we use blogs for is let's prep that prospect before they get on the discovery call, helping you overcome objections. And it makes the call so much easier when they already have read stories and shifted their thinking about investing in you. You don't have to battle those on the call. A lot of times the content on your website can take care of it in advance. Jason, we've talked art versus machine. The two things every coaching website must do, opt-in funnel magic, contact funnel magic. Bring this home for us. What is the one thing you really want to make sure our listeners get from our conversation today?

19:32I would think the number one thing that we have to understand is that your website is a business tool and we have to separate our personal preferences, thoughts, and feelings from that. That can be hard. I see it every day when I work with our clients. They want it to say this. They want it to look and feel like this. But what matters in the end is that that machine works. And so there's a story from the old days of IBM where they found the blue tie on their sales reps converted more. And so everyone wore a blue tie. It wasn't because every sales rep loved blue. It's because they found out what It worked and they did it.

20:12And that's how we have to approach our website. We have to separate our own preferences and feelings and realize our market should determine how this machine works. And if we want certain colors, fonts, pictures, words, pages that don't work, we have to be smart enough and savvy enough to know, I've got to try something else and I got to find out what the market wants. So much in coaching, they're wearing the coach hat and they just think like a coach and everything is about their coaching. But what we have to realize is we're here for the market. And the market gets to determine a lot of what we do and how we do it.

20:48And so your website is a machine. It's not a personal work of art. And if you can think of it that way, I even tell some of my clients, create another website and you can do whatever you want on that. Just don't let anyone see it. But hey, play with colors, play with fonts. It's your playground. But for your business, you got to separate and you have to make sure you have a machine designed to convert. Jason, if Fire Nation wants to connect with you, wants to learn more, give us your call to action today. You can see OptinFotoMagic in play by going to swiftsites.com. That's S-W-Y-F-T, sites.com, backslash E-O fire.

21:28I have my free guide there for you. It's the five must-haves of a coaching website. So if you already have a website or if you're thinking about getting one, you have to have these five elements. I've learned this over building websites for 25 years. You just learn a thing or two about what works and what doesn't. Those are the five things that make the difference. So swiftsites.com backslash EO fire. And fire nation, I went through this already and I'll tell you it's quite a learning process. Meaning I've been learning throughout this entire thing with the emails that come from that, the nurture sequence with the testimonials, the video that Jason has there.

22:06So definitely take action on that. And you're the average Fire Nation. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with JG and JLD today. So keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Jason in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And Jason, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. My pleasure. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Jason for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you ready to rock your very own podcast?

22:40Check out our free podcasting course where I will teach you how to both create and launch your podcast for free. Freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Shopify is home of the number one checkout on the planet. It's simple. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business today. Sign up for your$1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash on fire.