Transcripts
1. Introduction: your home page is the most important page on your website. It's the front door to your business and personal brand. It's also the most visited page on your site, and that's why it's so important. You get it right if you want to turn your website visitors into a warm leads. Customers and clients. Unfortunately, most people have no idea what to include on their home page, and so they just copy everyone else in the industry until everyone's website looks exactly the same and nobody stands out. So how do you stand out from the crowd and get more customers by making your home page? Communicate your personal brand, your unique value proposition. That's exactly what I'm gonna teach you in this class. I'm gonna teach you how to create a personal branding home page that will help you position yourself as an authority in your field. Turn mawr of your website, visitors into Leeds customers and clients and help you grow your audience. An email database. Hi, I'm Jesse Forest. I'm a Web copywriter and founder of start copyrighting dot com, my very own personal branding website. For the last 14 years, I've been hired to write copy. Some of the world's leading online marketers and 100 knows have also been invited to share my copyrighting tips conferences around the world and companies like Chanel, Disney and Sony. After writing hundreds of businesses and brands, I've discovered that there is an 11 step formula for writing and designing an effective personal branding home page. And in this practical step by step class, I'll be giving you a home page template and walking you through the process affiliate in step by step, You don't need any copyrighting designing or programming experience to participate in this class. So if you're ready to build a personal branding home page that turns your visitors into Leeds customers and clients, then go ahead and enrolled in this class. Look forward to seeing you inside the class dashboard.
2. Class Project: So for this class project, I want you to download the personal branding home page template, because what we'll be doing is going through this template during the class. So for each video will be focusing on one of the sections off that home page template. So it's important that you download it and as you watch the video, then spend some time at the end of the video filling in the template. Now remember, these are guidelines, not rules, so you don't have to feel in every section off the template. For example, you may not have any testimonials right now to include on your home page, and that's fine. You can simply delete that section of the template. You don't have to fill that in, so the same goes with any of the sections of the template. You don't have that information, or you don't want to include it. Feel free to just delete that section of the template, but be sure to fill in those other sections where you do have information. Then, when you're finished filling in the template, I'd love you to share it with us by uploading it inside the class project section. When you've done that that way, myself and other students will be our to review your template and provide you with any feedback or advice on how to make it even better. So please download the template and follow along Philly it in as you go through this class .
3. How To Write An Attention Getting Headline and Sub-headline: so your headline is really important on your personal branding home page. That's the first thing that people are going to read when they arrive on your home page. It's important that we get the headline right now. David Ogilvy, the grandfather of advertising, had this to say about the importance off headlines. He said, On average, five times as many people read the headline as they read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar, and that's how important it is. Not in the old days, off print advertising, but certainly nowadays online with attention spans, are shorter than ever before. So the purpose of the headline really has one purpose. And that's to grab your ideal clients attention, you know, grabbing everyone's attention because not everyone is your ideal client or target audience . So you want to write a headline I've given you to templates inside the home page template. It's gonna help you write your headlines. Now the sub headline further explains a headline and clarifies what your home page is all about. So I'm gonna show to some examples now from some great personal branding websites that I found and love. So the 1st 1 here is from the rise to the top dot com, and the rights of the top is a website, a personal branding website off David Simon Garland. We're looking they his his headline and his sub headline in this example. So his headline says, Hi, I'm David Simon Garland. I help experts create and sell online courses so that see headline, the sub headline reads, Sign up for my free training. And then he mentions What is free training is Okay, so that's his headline and his sub headline. Let's move on to the second example here. This is another personal branding home page for personal excellence Dot Co, and this one is similar to the previous one. Her headline reads, Hi, I'm Celeste Ng Choo are I'm Here to help You Live Your Best Life. So that's her headline in the sub headline says, Subscribe to My Free New Center and Get my free Weekly tips on personal growth and course offers. All right, so you might notice that those are quite similar. All right, so that actually relates to the first headline template that you could use if you want something similar for your own personal branding home page, I'm going to show you a very different style. The old version off my website, my personal branding home page and this one reads, attract more sales and customers with effective, clear and compelling website copyrighting. Okay, so that one's more direct can a different style of headline. The sub headline is quite different to is just a list off what my websites about but also mentions my competitive advantages things like world class copyrighting at affordable prices and so on and so on. You can read that for yourself, but all of these examples, you're gonna be out a look inside of the class project as the downloads. You can look at those websites in your own time as well. So what I love you to do now is go ahead and let's fill in the home page on and also the sub headline section off that template
4. Call To Action Button Copy: what is a call to action bottom with a call to action button is that button you've probably seen in those previous examples? It said Bright contrast ing college button and the purpose of it is to inform your visitors what will happen or what they will get if they quick on that button. Right? So it's really important that we get this right. I'm going to teach you how to do it in this video. But before you write your call to Action Button copy and I've got that for you inside of the template, you need to decide what action step you want people to take on your home page. So what is the primary action step that you want them to take? The last couple examples. It's they want them to subscribe to the new center, and my example was work with me, but for you it could be filling out an enquiry form. You might want them to buy a product or inquire about a service, or even subscribe to your new set up. But whatever it is, decide now what action? What prime reaction step do you want people to take? As I've already mentioned you want to include. You want your button to be a bright contrast in color to the background color. So that way the button stands out. You also want to include action words, things like get claim or book or higher. I'm going to give you in just a moment a whole bunch of examples of what you could include . These examples here are requests. A call to learn Mawr might be sign up for my free training. Could be work with me, get started here or even don't be shy. Don't be shy is kind of a clever one that I don't 100% recommend, but the other ones again used action words or action phrases to get people to take action and click on that button. So it's important you do that. Here's some examples of good call to action button words and also bad call to action button words. We've already kind of mentioned some of the good ones in those examples, but some of the bad ones are things like Submit. You never want to say submit unless you're a dominatrix joke of made in previous classes. Some it doesn't really mean too much and We did say that in Celestine is example, she could have improved on that. You also don't want to say click here, download or apply. Those things only tell us much, not really action in action orientated words. So try to use some of those. Better see to a words in your call to action button copy. So now I want you to go ahead. Let's go ahead and fill in the call to Action button copy inside the home page template.
5. Choosing Your Featured Section: What is your fated section? Well, I want you to ask yourself one of the three most important destinations on your website, one of the three pages that you want people to visit the most. Remember, your home page is kind of like the lobby off your business. When people arrive at the lobby of a business, you want to give them some options of where they're most want to go, but they're the options that you choose. So what are the three most important pages you want people to visit in your website? There might be your products. Page your services page that might be your contact page or even your podcast or blawg page . Okay, so we want to select three off the most important pages or destinations on your website. We want position those like we see in these examples here. So the 1st 1 here is from the rise to the top dot com. He's got a heading or we want to write a heading. The kind of explains what's below it and what's below this. Those three are different pages, and he he has programs or products and programs, which we can assume that's what they are. If I cook on that, he also has seven steps of creating Prodi, um, promoting and profiting from online courses, and that's a free training. Then he has his podcast. So they're the three destinations or Web pages within his website that he wants people to click on, and he's put those in the featured section. This one is from one of my good friend, Sean Dalton, and for his featured section, he's got his featured products. As you can see here on if you got a short dot dot com, we have three different products or templates that he's offering and the things you can click on that he has featured on his I on his website. Another one here is from KK writes copy dot com. This is from a copywriters website, Catherine's website, and she's she's This is a whole bunch of different services that she was offered for her featured section, so she actually wants people to click on those and explored you know, some of the services that she is offering, so you could also do that if you want to offer your services on your personal branding website, so it's just three different examples of what you could include in your featured section. So go ahead and make sure you fill in the featured section off your personal branding time page.
6. Hook Them With A Lead Magnet: So what is the lead magnet? Well, you may be aware that 90% of first time website visitors will leave and never return. You want to offer something valuable, and that way you can something valuable for free and that we can capture these first time visitors, contact information and then follow, not by sending them emails with with value and content that's going to entice them to come back to your website, come back to you personal branding website and then hopefully, you know, buy a product in rolling one of your programs or, you know, even sign up for one of your service. So let's look at some lead magnet ideas. So if you haven't created a league magnet yet, I want to share with you 12 lead magnet ideas that are may inspire you to create something , and I want to remind you your lead magnet doesn't have to be a 400 page e booked or, you know, a 14 part video series. Your lead man. It could literally be a phone call. It could be a well, that's just going to some of the examples here. It could be a discovery or a strategy call or even an assessment call. Let's say you're a website designer. Your lead magnet might be offering them a 15 or 20 minute strategy session or assessment of their website. Doesn't have to be something physical. Could be a video. Siri's a checklist or a cheat shape. It might be a template. Could be a resource. Is list a tutorial and a book and email course, even an infographic and audio interview case studies or a pre recorded webinar. So that's just 12 lead magnet ideas to inspire you to create your rhyme. You could also have your lead magnet as a pop up, so I'm going to show examples now off websites using lead magnet pop ups. Believe it or not, pop ups, they're incredibly effective for getting people to give you their name and email. Very effective. If you look at the stats on those, here's one from again. My friend Sean Dalton over it. Sean dot dot com and he's offering a free portrait guide download so that something you could offer. Here's one for my own website er my agency website copyrighting crew dot com, and this is where I'm offering a free discovery call you know again doesn't have to be a physical download, and people can book in a time to talk with me. Then we can talk about their business. Here's some embedded examples. These are not. Pop up these examples that you know for a section inside the home page template where you can offer that if you don't want to have a pop up on your website. So the 1st 1 here again is from the rise to the top dot com, and he's offering a free cheat sheet again that's embedded inside his home page. Here's another one here from KK writes copy dot com, and this one she's offering a a blawg idea worksheet again in exchange for their first name and email address. So now that you've seen those examples, let's go ahead and fill in the lead magnet copy. That's really gonna enticing. Encourage people to offer or to give you their first name in their email address. Let's go ahead and fill in that now
7. How To Explain Who You Are: This is an important section of your personal branding home page because it is the first time visitor that probably never heard of you. So it's a good idea to explain who we are. And in this section you want to answer the two most important questions that all first time visitors are thinking. That is, Who are you and why should I care? Now? I don't mean to be rude by thinking by saying, Why should I care? It really is really asking you. You know, What are your achievements? How you an authority in your field of expertise? Why should I listen to you? And we want to answer those questions. When we write and fill in that section off, Who are you? So let's look at some examples here for some really successful personal branding home pages . This example here is from a really successful personal branding home page. Someone called Neil Patel someone I follow. And if you look at this example here, you'll notice he's a very accomplished person, right? Most of us won't be able to write a you know, a section like this because, you know, he has a lot of credibility in the market place. Here's one from my own website. Start cooperating dot com and I have a heading. He should have a heading. It could be you know who is and then have your name or might be something more creative, like who in the world is Jesse Forest? And again I just introduce myself, explained my expertise and give a little bit of story about you know, how I started this personal branding website. Then we have again my buddy Sean Dalton and his one he just says about. Then again, it explains who he is and his expertise was. Have a photo of Sean like you see in mind and also Shawn's examples. Here's another one from our Friends at K. K writes dot K K writes copy dot com again, you can have a casual photo. It's one of her of her drinking coffee. And then she says, first and foremost, I'm a storyteller, which is a great heading toe have for this section. Then it explains a bit of her story and background as well. So there's some great examples off how to fill in that section off. You know who are you and you want to give first time visitors on impression of who you are and why they should listen to you. So now let's go ahead and fill in that section off. Who are you? Are section for your personal branding home page.
8. List Your Blog Posts: Now, if you have a personal branding home page and website, then we want to show that where a thought leader and that we have expertise, you know, on the topics that we're talking about and a great way to do that. It's a showcase your blood post some of your more recent blood posts. So if you've already published a few block posts, then you might wanna showcase some of those. There's two ways to do it. You could show off, Let's say the three most popular blood posts on your blawg, maybe your three most important blood posts. Or you might just want to show the three most recent ones, and I have those They're listed in the blood post section off your personal branding home page. So quite simple to do that, we usually have a heading in this example here from Personal Excellent Stock Co. She has my latest posts, pretty straightforward and easy in this example. Here's one from start Corporan dot com. I have a heading here that says free copyrighting videos and block posts, and then I've got the three most recent blood post that I published, and that's just another way you could display those on your template or on your personal branding homepage, I should say so. This isn't really a section you can fill in unless you already have published on blogger posts. But, you know, if you haven't just removed this section, But if you have, make sure you write that heading could be something based on some of these examples I've listed here on. Then just fill in and you might want to important your feed so you can list your blood post inside your personal branding home page.
9. How To Display Great Testimonials: testimony was a super important, really, because people don't always trust what we say about ourselves and how great we are more likely to trust another person who says we're great, right? So test modes air really important and I have an interesting statistic here about testimonials. Not only is a powerful way to increase credibility and trust, but that 97% of baby bias feel that user generated content like consumer reviews are more credible than other types of content to really reviews fade back and customer testimonials away, more effective at building credibility and trust. That's why I'm including this section for our personal branding home page. Okay, so you want to include some great testimonials, and there really is a difference between great testimonials and kind of poor or bad testimonials to show you an example of that in just a moment. But to be effective, your testimonials should really include the full name and info about who the testimonial give her is, so that's opposing giving you the testimonial. You wanna include their information. The worst you can do is include just their initials or no initials at all, because people are naturally skeptical and think that's a made up testimonial. He also include, if you can, our quality photo of the person that shows their face so that people can say That's a really person give You knew that tested Mineau and mentioning the results or benefits achieved, or that they received as a result off working with you. You know, whether it's buying your products or, you know, working with you in any capacity. So one include testimonies. Actually mention a benefit or results of that person received or achieved. Here's some examples. This is from stock corporation dot com. This is our just two testimonials from one of the courses that I was running. So again we have all of those elements. We've got the person's photos. These are two different testimonies. We got the photos we've gotta heading heading off. The testimonial really summarizes what that testimonials about. So someone scanning and scrawling the page, they just read the heading the get an idea of what the testimonials about. Now these ones don't really include results, because this was just a one day course I was offering, but again, they're pretty descriptive. And again we have the person's full name. Also the companies they work for. So that again, further legitimate legitimises that person giving the testimonial. Here's another one from the rise to the top dot com. In fact, these are three again. It has all of those elements of the previously mentioned. These ones are really results focused, so they're really, really quite compelling testimonials, as opposed to ones that just say, Oh, I love this person right to there some examples off testimonials. Here's another one. This one's from KK writes copy dot com. And again, she's raving about her experience of working with her, working with her copyrighting services. And again, we have that person's full name. We've got where they're from, you know, we've got their photo as well. So real legitimises that testimonial. So this really isn't something you can fill in unless you have testimonials already. If you don't encourage you to contact some of your past customers, clients people have worked with, so you can gather those testimonials. And when you do have those, you know, fill them in. And if you already have testimonials, make sure you format them to be similar to those examples, so they really pop and stand out on the page. That's all about, uh, this video has been all about creating great testimonials
10. Your Final Call To Action: What is the final call to action? Well, most people, when they land on your page, you're going to read the top section of your page the above the fold section, and then people tend to skin, skin and scroll pages. I'm sure you've done it too well schooled on the page until you can't scroll anymore. And that's when you reach the bottom off the page, right? And that is a great place to insert what I call your final C T. A. Your final call to action. That really is the same call to action. Your primary call to action that you had in the top of the page where we had your call to action button. Right? But this is gonna be a little bit different where we have the same call to action button. Then we have a heading the recalls out to the visitor and tells them what we want them to do. OK, so the final call to action eyes you're about to see in these examples is where you repeat your initial call to action and you also have a heading. That kind of summarizes what you want people to do. So here's an example from personal excellence dot co. Remember, her primary call to action was getting people to subscribe to her free news center and free course. And so she repeated again at the bottom of the page. She has a heading here that entices them. It reads, Ready to live your best life. They got a bit more copy her court action button and formed there. He's one. If you're selling a service, this is from my own website copyrighting crew dot com. At the bottom, I say, Ready to get started? Question Mark got a bit of texts were implanting them to click on the button. The call to action bund, it says, Get in touch so that they can get in touch with us and booking for that discovery call. Right? So that's a little bit different if you're selling services like AM on cooperating crew dot com. So those are just two examples of what you might include on your final call to action section. So what I love you to do now is our Let's go ahead and fill in your final CT, a section of your personal branding home page
11. How To Build Trust With Social Proof Indicators: you know, social proof is really important, as I mentioned before in the Testimonials video. You know, people that always believe what we say about ourselves, but they're more willing to believe what other people, what third parties say about us. So if you don't have any testimonials yet that you can include on your home page, then you might look at using some social proof visual elements. They're going to demonstrate that other people recommend you and other people think you're great. So the way to do this is you might want to include some of your client logos. You know, people you've worked with in the past in previous careers or in your existing Korea you might want include logos off some of those companies or individuals that you've worked for . Now, if you're certified or qualified in your career, you might want include some of those. Let's say you're an accountant. Might want include your C P, a logo or some of the different qualifications or certifications that you've achieved in your career. You might win, included visually, if you have appeared in the media or if you've been in mentioned in, Let's say so, certain blog's like the Huffington Post or Business insider or any blog's that your tile DeLoreans have probably familiar with. If you've had any type of media mention, you might want to include those, and we see a lot of personal brands included examples that I've showed already they've got as featured in. Then they've got a bar there with all the logos from different media websites that they might have appeared in already. So that's examples you could include. Now, If you already have a huge number of followers on Instagram or Facebook or YouTube, you might well include those numbers are or, you know, the number of followers that you have from this different social media as well. Again, it just shows that other people follow you. They like you and they trust you, and that's really helpful for demonstrating your credibility and your expertise. So again, look at some of your qualifications. Some of your awards, some of your certification to you might want include those there inside your social um, proof section on your personal branding kind page
Jesse Forrest, Copywriting Veteran
