I know what you're thinking.
'Narrow my audience? Are you crazy? I read this blog to get more customers, not less!'
Just hear me out. There is a common misconception that more visitors = more subscribers = more sales.
In most cases this just isn’t true.
In today’s website review video you’ll learn how to embrace your point of difference. When it’s done right, this allows you to attract more of your ideal customers, and get the most out of each new lead.
(But wait, there's more!) To give you a better idea of what this advice looks like in practice, we’ve done something a little different. We’re not just reviewing this homepage. We’ve completely remade it.
More...
Let's take a look at a general overview of the original site, and then get into the main points of improvement so you can apply the same principles to your business.
Bodamaestra is a wedding planning service that caters to a very specific audience. Can you guess who that audience is from the homepage alone?
The Power of Embracing Your Niche
BodaMaestra is the site for wedding planner Esme Krahn. She offers something a little different from other wedding planners. Here's an exert from her About Page:
She is a bilingual wedding planner that specializes in authentic Latino weddings.
This is a powerful Unique Selling Proposition if I ever did see one. But does she mention it anywhere on her homepage?
Unless you're sifting through the sidebar with a magnifying glass, not really, no.
It's hard to go against the urge to please everyone when making a website. You don't want to turn any visitors off by targeting your message too specifically. This leads to the curse of generality; catering to many, but resonating with none.
Attracting the Right Visitors
Now it is true that by calling out your point of difference and targeting your audience more specifically, you'll be alienating some of you visitors.
At the start this might pinch a little, but in the long run it's far better for your business.
Why?
- The more you acknowledge and publicize your niche, the easier it is for your target audience to find you. General traffic may decrease but quality traffic will increase.
- Quality traffic is much more likely to convert, since you specialize in exactly what they're looking for.
- If you have a speciality and don't call this out at the start, the more a visitor finds out about your product or service, the more they’ll realize it’s not quite for them. The earlier they find this out the better. It saves you time and resources trying to convert unsuited visitors into customers.
In Esme's case, her homepage attracts those who are seeking a general wedding planner, but the more you read into her services and the further you delve into her about page, the more you realize her main focus is creating Latino weddings.
By omitting her niche from the main page of her website, she's losing her chance to connect with her target audience. By focusing on this niche elsewhere in her website, she's losing unsuited visitors who thought she was a general wedding planner. This creates a lose/lose for her lead generation.
Key Takeaway
Don't be afraid to commit to your niche. This helps generate quality leads that resonate with your brand and are far more likely to buy from you. By staying too general you miss out on attracting true fans, those who completely align with your product or service.
Turning Quality Traffic into Quality Leads
Now that your traffic is more targeted to suit your niche, you want to convert as many of those highly suited visitors into leads as possible.
Esme has a great Call to Action on her site. If you're interested in her services you can book a free consultation. This is a great next step in the sales funnel.
But what if a visitor isn't ready to take the next step? What if they've just started looking around, or they're not even sure if they want a wedding planner yet?
For these visitors booking a consultation, even if it's free, can seem like too much of a commitment.
Since this is the only Call to Action on the homepage, Esme could be losing countless qualified visitors because they're not quite ready to commit to the next step.
As part of our remake we included a Multi-Step Lightbox that gives new visitors a chance to show their interest, without having to sign up to a full consultation.
Made with Thrive Leads
If a visitor clicks on the 'I'm just looking for some ideas' option, they're offered a free guide on a wedding planners top tips for planning a wedding. This opt in was already on Esme's site, hidden deep within the About Pages.
Getting those visitors who don't want to book a consultation onto an email list gives Esme the chance to:
- Build relationships with visitors who are undecided or just aren't ready to commit yet, by sending out regular valuable content.
- Stay at top of mind of those couples who are planning their own wedding, incase they decide they need a wedding planner after all. This is perfect for Esme's Partial Wedding Planning and Day Of Wedding Services.
- Direct traffic to, and offer promotions on, the products she currently has in the sidebar on her homepage, allowing her to take them off the homepage and add them to a separate dedicated 'Shop' page.
- Collect out of area leads if she decides to branch into online consulting or information products.
Key Takeaway
Generally, the more expensive the product or service, the longer the decision is to buy. With bigger ticket items it's helpful to give your visitors a chance to get to know you better before committing to anything.
A Thrive Leads Multi-Step Lightbox is a great way to identify what stage your visitor is at. Ask them a self segmenting question to identify whether to offer them the next step in your sales process, or just a non-committal opt-in to your mailing list so you can provide value and build up trust.
BONUS: Want to know how to create the exact Multiple Choice, Multi-Step Lightbox I showed you in the video? Scroll down to the bottom of this post for a full video tutorial.
Increasing the Value of Each New Lead
To ensure your niche is as profitable as it can be, make sure those who are picking up what you're putting down have as many chances to buy from you as possible.
In Esme's case, once she starts making a name for herself as a Latino wedding planning expert, she'll start attracting Latin-American couples in all situations and locations (through Google searches, directories, blog articles about traditional Latin weddings in the United States etc).
In order to make full use of all that targeted traffic we recommend she consider expanding her services to accommodate Latin-American couples who want a traditional wedding but don't live in the area, as well as those who cant afford a wedding planner but still want some advice.
Adding online consulting to her services or creating a paid information product about planning your own traditional hispanic wedding in the States would help her serve more people within her niche.
Key Takeaway
Create scalable products or services that allow you to take full advantage of the traffic from the niche you're targeting. If your product or service isn't as once off as a wedding, create multiple or recurring products or services that will give your true fans a chance to buy from you again and again.
Theory into Practice - The Remake
So what would Esme's homepage look like if she put all this audience sifting, niche juicing theory into practice? Let's take a look.
This is our remake of Esme's site, created with our very own (you guessed it) Thrive Architect.
Killing Two Birds With One Stone Through Personal Branding
If you run a service or consulting business, a handy reputation building shortcut is to promote yourself as the personal brand, instead of having a separate business name.
Using your own name as the business name means you only need to build traction, reputation and SEO behind one title, rather than your own name as the provider of the service and your company's name. This is especially helpful in reviews and industry directories.
Using Translation to Boost Convenience and SEO
One of Esme's main strengths is that she's bilingual. This is perfect for couples who may not be fluent in English, or who have family that only speak Spanish.
Adding a translation plugin to the website not only gives Esme a chance to make her site more accessible to Spanish speaking couples and their families, it also ensures her content shows up in search results for both languages. This feature, available in certain translation plugins, allows translated pages to be indexed by search engines. This can be a powerful way of generating traffic for your niche.
Update
Take a look at the BodaMeastra site now. After reading this post they made a lot of the suggested changes to the site and it looks great!
We'd Love to Hear From You
I hope you got some value out of today's website review and remake.
Do you have a service or consulting business with a certain speciality? How has your experience been niching down?
If you have questions or comments, let us know below.
What an absolutely valuable review and editorial. There are concepts here that “consultants” and skilled experts or professionals can use on their sites. I know I will!
Thanks for the great feedback Vlad 🙂
Great post. I have a vacation rental/wedding business. I use the Rise theme which looks too corporate. Which theme did you use for her site? Or can you suggest a thrive theme that would work well for the wedding business, please?
Thanks
Hi Sherry,
We just released Thrive Theme Builder to all our Members. The first theme called Shapeshift is extremly versatile and you can make it fit any business you want. Have a look 🙂
Hi Stephanie, thanks for this beautiful video/post! I have a question about languages. I am considering of changing my Dutch blog into an English blog, because then my possible reach is like 1000 times more. What should be my best approach? Starting all over on a new website and writing English? Or is a translating plugin also a solution? If so: can you recommend which plugin to use? Thanks a lot for your help!
Hi Harry, I wouldn’t recommend creating an entirely new site, purely for the extra workload this would create (having to double up on every task, such as posting and SEO work etc). There are a few other options, but without knowing your exact circumstances, in most situations a translation plugin is the most cost effective, easy to implement solution. A lot of them allow you to just click a button to translate a new post and other content on your site.
As for recommendations, I would not be able to recommend a specific plugin. However there are a lot of great reviews and comparisons online.
Awesome insight!
Do you know someone that would analyze my thrivethemes website?
Hi Dave, I can add you to our list of possible sites to review if you’d like?
Fantastic rework. Can you share the landing page for those of us TCB members that are less technologically adept? I spent a couple hours last night in the first section of a simple landing page!
Hi Nick, I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble. We have a great range of pre-built landing pages templates within Thrive Landing Pages, and some in depth tutorials that take you through how to build a landing page from scratch on our blog, and we have a Thrive University course on it too.
Usually we would share the page but since we’re recreating a someone’s specific business rather than just a generic page for an industry it’s not appropriate this time.
I hope the above information helps, and if you’re still having trouble please let me know. We’re always looking for ways to make it easier for the ‘less technologically adept’ to use our products 🙂
Great post and beautiful remake! Lots of great takeaways here, thank you!
Thanks Anne, glad you found it useful.
That was awesomely helpful….Got some ideas for my site!
Great to hear Steven.
This is exceptionally valuable! I enjoyed seeing the before & after views– and hearing your ideas behind the adjustments! I am looking forward to learning more as the videos are released.
Hi Brittany, thanks for the feedback. It’s always helpful knowing which points are the most useful so we can do more of that next time!
Wow! I’d love to have the same analysis! Great ideas!
Hi David, I’ll add you to our list of possible website review candidates. You could be next 🙂
Thanks for this valuable video and post. I would also like to learn more about the translated option you inserted here. Do you also have to translate the content? Or is there a plugin that you can use?
Hi Miriam, I haven’t personally tested any of the plugins so I don’t feel comfortable recommending any. The are a lot of great reviews and comparisons on the web.
It depends on the plugin, but most do have an option to make the content available in other languages when posting a blog post or other content.
This is an excellent post! I’m still designing my website and I can’t wait to include the other tips you mentioned that I had not done. Again, thank you for the fantastic post. Much appreciated!
Thanks LaTosha 🙂
Hi Stephanie,
I am using a Pressive Theme. How were able to move the logo to the header area right above the main featured image? I’m not sure how . Thanks!
I used a the full width landing page template in Thrive Landing Pages. Shane goes through how to do it in this video at about 1m 30.
Hi Stephanie,
Great post. I just read a post from Shane. The post focused on the need for a landing page. I’m planning a new site. How does his landing page suggestion mesh with your home page focus? Thank you.
Hi HJ, ahh the old landing page vs. homepage question! A Landing Page can often be used for your homepage, especially if you only sell one product or service. Landing pages have more of a focus on a single conversion goal, like getting someone to sign up for a webinar or an e-course, while a homepage is more of a front page to your website that introduces your brand and what you do.
They often have a lot of the same elements. If you’re just starting out it’s usually best to get a simple landing page up straight away, and build out a fully fledged homepage from there (if your business even requires a homepage).
amazing, what a great review, love it how you guys made over the persons site!
Thanks Nick 🙂
Hi Stephanie,
Wonderful analysis post and great video. I’ll surely follow your tips to attract more visitors and leads. Clear site design, building relationship with readers will increase the chances of more traffic.
Thanks for sharing insightful post.
Thanks Bashir, glad to hear you got use from it.
Loved this thank you so much. I am getting traffic to my site but I am not getting signups so it is back to the drawing board after your blog
Hi Helena, Yeah definitely make sure those opt-ins are right for your audience. Another post that may be helpful is crafting great opt-in offers.
Hi Stephanie, Thank you very much for giving a valuable, insightful evaluation on how we can improve our website
Happy to help Rosemarie
Really helpful information (again). Especially love the Multi-Step Lightbox idea. Gold!
Thanks Stephanie.
Thanks Greg. Yeah the Multi-Step is really powerful, and a lot nicer for your visitor. They get given exactly what they want (and who doesn’t like that?!)
could you send and attach the zipfiles for the whole site from TCB. Thnks
Hi Darwood, Usually we would provide a template but since this is a remake of someone’s specific business site unfortunately it’s not appropriate. But keep an eye out, there will be plenty of templates to come 🙂
This is a fantastic tutorial. Many thanks. I have to make some changes to my rise theme! I was also very interested in the use of the language switcher. I’m using WPML and to be honest it has been a real headache. Now I’m at the point of creating two sites for each language because it will be simpler and also I’m catering to two different groups. But I’m not sure whether to create the site in the other language as a subdomain or as another domain altogether. could I ask which you would recommend?
Hi Gareth, that is a whole kettle of fish that I wouldn’t be able to get into here. There are quite a few options, and the best option for your site depends on a lot of factors. It really is a case by case basis unfortunately, sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
How do I create that two-button opt-in? I’d love to offer my free checklist PDF to those getting started (I do Pinterest marketing) with another button for those LOOKING to hire a Pinterest marketing specialist, could offer a consult or audit to them in the other button! Do you have a help article for how to do this? Thank!
Hi Louise, Shane has a great blog post about how to do it here
Thanks Stephanie for a very clear and organised commentary on the remake of a website. Lots of good take aways. You documentary experience showed in the video.
Thanks Colin!
Hey Stephanie, that’s a very refreshing video case study. With case studies like this, my confidence will be through the roof when it comes to critiquing my sites, and that of other people.
Hi Donald, It’s definitely a lot easier when it’s not your own site, that for sure. That’s why I always recommend the friend of a friend test, so you get an idea of how other people see your site. To be honest a lot of people know these elements need to be improved on their sites, but it’s a matter of finding the time to fix them. It is helpful to know all the theory behind it though, so when they do get a chance to improve it they know exactly how.
So many great tips in such a short video. Thank you Stephanie, you have given me some great ideas for my personal site. 😉
All the best,
Helen
Glad it was useful Helen!
An excellent and very inspiring walk-through Stephanie. Love what you all are doing at Thrive Themes.
Thanks Geoff
This is my website! Thanks so much for the review, very eye-opening. I am actually revising the fact I want to target Latinos…and this is why I left it very generic. I had other versions where it was so clear I was targeting Latinos only. It is a scary proposition to narrow down your niche and I am re-thinking my approach and re-embracing my niche! Thanks again for the review; I have lots of changes in the making thanks to your review.
Hi Esme, Thank you for being such a great subject! Yeah niching down is always a scary proposition, but I think adding some sort of out of area consulting or information product for creating a authentic Latino wedding in the United States would be the key. That way you really get to make the most of that niche. Writing targeted blog post and generating SEO for the Latino wedding niche it will really help pull in the right traffic.
Glad to hear you got something from it 🙂
Thanks Stefanie for this great post ! A multilingual site is for me to hard to manage …but you did great on switching to personal branding
Hi Johan,
You’re right about the multilingual site being difficult, I was looking into it when I started doing this review and it can be quite a hassle to get the right solution and implement it. There are a lot of options and from what I’ve read not one of them is 100% perfect. But if you can get it working for your site, it really is a great way of pulling in that extra (nicely targeted) traffic.
Hi Stefanie, and thank you for this excellent post!
In a few days I’ll become one of Thrive Themes members, as I’m thinking to start a blog. Will I face any problems using another language on Lead Pages, Lightboxes, etc.? (as text). Thank you in advance.
Hi Dimitra, you shouldn’t have any issues in using our products in other languages, as we have many other members doing this without any issues. Our products also come with a 30 day refund policy, so if you do find it incompatible with your needs, you can ask for a refund.
Hope that helps!
Hey Stephanie – cool to hear a fellow Aussie reporting on Thrive! Really great article and conversion optimisation breakdown here. Have you had any feedback/results on the new page yet?
Hi Ben, we made the page as a quick mockup to show the changes in action. Esme is making pages to her original pages based on the review, but not taking the exact template we made here. Although, great idea for future reviews!
Great video – concise, short, clear, and valuable. A time saver. Who could ask for more?
Thanks Beat!
Thank you for this marketing class. I will apply this concept right away in my new site. Now, my new site will be int both leaguages Spanish ( my first language) and English, but both with the same weight. I will not use a translation plugin because some of them make terrible translation when you don’t write a perfect sentence. I started the project this way already- two different sites but I have very extra workload now. Next time, I will reconsider about using a translation plugin, personal branding and thrive light box to get more quality leads. Thank you again! Question: my niche will be Latinos so will I have to work more on (SEO)in my Spanish version website?what will it happen with my English version speaking about SEO?
Hi Juan, This is the benefit of using a translation plugin, all the SEO build up goes towards one site, rather than having to build up SEO rankings on two different sites. But as you said, most people find translation plugins to be a bit finicky. Unfortunately I can’t offer a particular solution without going into a whole lot of detail. This could be a good blog post for us to do in future though.
Wow… this is an amazing and cool case study. Really learned a lot from these “before” and “after” examples.
Glad it was helpful Philipp. I agree, it’s a lot easier when you see it all in action.
As a relative newcomer to Thrive Themes family, I now see why everyone raves about you guys. This is an invaluable service, sharing the before & after views and explaining the rationale. Keeps us on our game. Thank you!
I wear several hats and manage my own site, my new company site, the site of my wife’s Pilates studio, and more – and I’m not a web designer, it’s a sideline/hobby. I fully expect and indeed plan to move everything across to TT.
Great Ryan. Make sure you check our Hanne’s video on building a Yoga Homepage, could be useful to adapt to your wife’s Pilates site!
Hi Stephanie! BEAUTIFUL work of really evaluating the branding, niche and message. Do you work with individual brands on evaluating brand sites?
Hi Ashley, we don’t do personal consulting work but I can submit your site into the possible website review pool if you’d like?
Thanks Stephanie. That was fantastic! I would love to watch more videos like this and also have my site analysed. I had a site built back in 2012 and never really had a niche audience. Over the past year I’ve realised the importance of having a niche, and am planning my new site with a new template to finally make the site responsive and targeted towards a ‘niche’. I would love to chat about this to you further about my business if you are happy to add me to your list of sites to analyse. I’m also keen to maxmise my use of ThriveTheme’s capabilities during the re-building process. By the way, it’s hard to come across a company like ThriveThemes where the video tutorials are consistently of great value!
Hi Arpana, I’m glad you’ve been finding it all useful. I’ll add the site linked to your avatar to our website review pool 🙂
I love your website reviews ! They always give me cool new ideas that I can do with the websites I run with your editor 🙂
Great to hear David!
how do I make same kind of blog below on my frontpage like in this example?
Hi Malene,
You just need to add the ‘Post Grid’ element to your page with Thrive Content Builder.
Hi Stephanie, like many others, I found your review very helpful. Would you please add my site to the list of potential makeover sites?
Hi Bryan, if you’re a Thrive Themes member you can apply here to have your site reviewed by us!
Hello, do you know if Thrive company offers web page creation service for blogs or online stores? I like how you work and I would like to hire you for the creation of my website. Where can I contact you?
Thanks you
Hi Manel,
We do not offer that type of service. Sorry.
Finding a niche is always been my issue from the day I step into the blogging field. There are several niches that I want to write and that keep interested me but they have low volume and low CPC.
On another side, there are many niches that I do want to write but have high volume and CPC so I realize that I think of extreme niches and then I select the niche which has a mixture of both aspects( favorite niche and average to good volume).
So my current niches are digital marketing, website designer, and SEO niche which I think is the perfect choice for me.
Your blog is really helpful for me as I want to create a new blog and thinking for an amazing niche. I have a doubt, which one is best according to you, Food or Traveling? I do not want to mix these two so please select one.