 Do you know what every website design needs to start with? So whether you are starting a brand new website or you're redesigning one This interview is going to be fascinating for you because we're going to talk about Things like your brand identity your content strategy, etc so today I am with Lee Drozak. She is a WordPress designer and strategist and We're going to be talking about this stuff Whether you use WordPress or you use a different kind of platform I think you'll get a lot out of this interview. Let me first read you Lee's bio and then I'll bring her on So Lee Drozak is a web strategist who knows WordPress design and development And she loves to share her knowledge with other savvy small business owners and service providers Using her knowledge of design development and content optimization She gives her clients a different perspective on creating a website that is both user friendly and client attractive Welcome Lee to this interview. Hi George. Thanks for having me Yeah, so just want to be clear You are you've been working on work prep WordPress for for years So you are definitely WordPress expert, but we're going to talk about today is going to apply to people whether or not They use WordPress. Yeah, correct. Yes. Okay, awesome So I'll let you I'll let you get started with whatever you want to share and I'm sure I'll pop in with some questions Okay, perfect So I want to start by saying that a website design people think that it is it starts with picking a theme or even before that picking a framework like I prefer WordPress but you have Squarespace and Wix and Weebly and then picking a theme so that everything is pretty and a Kind of preset up for you But the reality is the first step in planning or designing a website is the strategy and planning Because without that you really it's hard to create a user-friendly website and Gone are the days of brochure sites and brochure sites are kind of like have a design Put the content in set it and forget it because everything moves really quickly We want interaction and engagement and I mean that's Really relevant with how popular social media is so your website has to kind of keep up and play that game And in order to do that you need to really think about where you want to take your customer from beginning to end and that starts with the strategy because website design isn't Just about the aesthetics. It's about usability and being user-friendly and functionality So for my planning I have a three-step process that kind of encompasses that whole phase of strategic planning for web design and it's brand identity and then pathway solutions and Content strategy and so I'm going to touch a little on each of those So brand identity when we think brand identity we think the aesthetics logos colors font But really brand identity is your cohesiveness of your brand across the board So whether it's on your website or you're promoting and on social media or even at a networking event You need to be consistent so that you remain authentic So instead of just when you hear brand identity thinking what colors am I going to use or oh my gosh But you know what fonts there's so many fonts to pick from we need to back it up and start with your message and your vibe so There's a lot on the internet about picking your ideal client and picking your brand message But it's really geared towards marketing in the past So you have all your prompts, you know, what's the age group? What's the demographic? Where do they shop? What do they like to read and then it's even more confusing if your business to business Because then you're like I don't know where they shop and that's not even relevant so I'm going to take you through one of the exercises that I take my clients through and then this Exercise will be relevant through the whole three-step process And it's think of you think of it of a party that you would like to plan or an event that you want to plan And so this party we're going to think about a couple things We're going to think about the actual party itself. How do you want it to be? Do you want it to be fun and exciting? Do you want it to be laid back and more subdued? Do you want it to be huge? You know a 200-person so array or you know a three-person intimate gathering And that's where you want to start because this is going to allow you to really drill down on the details without kind of getting you stuck And so in this party we need to think about what are you going to serve? What kind of music are you going to have? Where is the venue going to be and that is pretty much the pieces of your website and So when you start to think of it like that It's much easier to define your ideal client because you're going to invite someone to your party that you want in your space And that's the same thing with your ideal client You need to attract people and so you want to attract people that you like and by thinking of it in that terms You're really going to think about do I want someone who has these Qualities or do I want someone who has these qualities? Because you want your people to feel comfortable and so you're going to kind of think about it in a different realm And so that will allow you to to pick the vibe You know, what's the vibe of your of your tone the tone and the vibe of your website? Is it exciting then you want to you know if it's going to be exciting and really out there and bold you're going to need big bold colors imagery that you know is really bold and Exciting and energetic Whereas if it's going to be an intimate tea or a one-on-one setting Then your vibe is going to be completely different so that's going to allow you to really set the stage for What's going to come down the road for aesthetics and Lee can I jump in is this something that you work with clients on if clients are saying I'm not sure what my vibe should be. I don't know what the what the vibe of the party should be Maybe I have a sense of who I want to work with Obviously the kinds of people that my ideal clients have the kinds of issues that I help with or the kinds of dreams That I help people achieve But what's the vibe do you have any guidance on that or you're just that's something you work with people on? This is something that I work with people on because every business is unique and different and so it what we do is you kind of You we walk through the exercise you tell me what you want to do What kind of people you're trying to attract what you're trying to achieve and then we really come up with some great usually like five to six Words that you can use across the board and then we take that and we keep rolling that over and we roll it over until you have a good sense of who it is that you want to work with and kind of the message and the vibe that you want it to be because the other thing I think we get stuck on is We think once we have this set it will never change and it always changes because as you grow things are going to change It might just be slight variations where you know you think oh, I really thought I wanted to attract this person But I need to tweak that a little or it might be I really thought that that's what I wanted to go for But after working with people I find that I'm better with x y and z and so you kind of rework everything But the whole idea is to give you this base and this framework to start So the second thing is you need what I call pathway solutions People know this as a funnel But here's the thing about a funnel a funnel has a beginning and then a center and then a bottom and the beginning is getting everybody in There and then the center obviously is the consideration and then the bottom is the purchase But like with any of your marketing everybody does not come in the same way and everybody does not come in at the same level So what we do is we work together to figure out where are they coming from and How well do they know you? How comfortable do they feel when they're coming there? What are they looking for and then how do I get them to the bottom line of Working with me in a manner that it's going to feel good to them because it's all about the person on the other end of the screen Everything and you do in your business is about how you serve that person So keeping with the party analogy you have to think about how are people getting to your party? one person might be coming from the north and another person from the south or One person may may know you intimately know you And another person might be someone that you just met who really isn't familiar with you So you kind of have to map out all those different scenarios It's like directions to get someone to a restaurant, you know Everybody is coming from a different place and some people might be familiar and some people not So we go over the whole pathway solutions because you need to do two things on your website You need to inform and then you need to tell someone what to do next because it's not enough just to give them the information You don't want to have to make them think so here is where we say, okay Where are they coming from? Is it Facebook? Is it referrals? Is it from an event and how well do they know you? Where can they find information at X Y and Z and really the biggest thing that I say and I think I I'm always surprised that people really Don't have a quick answer to what is your primary call to action and what is your secondary call to action? So quick tip primary call to action It's the one thing that you want a person to do on your website do one thing not You know, is it sell a product? Is it create an appointment with you? Is it fill out a form to get on your list just one thing and then the secondary is if they don't take that one action What is the one thing that you want them to do next so that you can continue to engage with them? and it could be if they're not if your primary action is to set an appointment and They don't want to set the appointment then maybe it is to either give them a free Something that gives them information on how to continue to connect with you Or maybe it's to sign up for a list or to join your Facebook group or to connect with you somewhere else and Then you can the other calls to action are all irrelevant Not irrelevant like you don't put them on your website meaning irrelevant to if they're if you're not gonna have a primary and a Secondary it doesn't matter what else you tell them to do you want them to do what is going to help you further? Engage with them and provide them solutions So the second part of your strategy and your planning is to figure out what your product But your pathway solutions are going to be and what the calls to action for that are that makes sense Yeah, and I like that you're reframing instead of using the funnel Metaphor that we're using pathways and we're using the party because it's about human beings and funnel can be very Manipulative because we're just seeing them as numbers or little dots that are just going through this thing and some leak out and some But pathways party. Okay, great. It's like hey you come to my party It's like hey, you know, we don't know each other super. Wow Maybe Instead of like this room like there's a lot of friends who already know each other So like let's come over here and let me introduce you to a couple people and it's like oh you might enjoy this This dish or whatever. It's like it's like you're you're you're you're really helping them get comfortable at the party So that they can they can really engage and become one of your circle, right? Right, and I think it allows us to visualize in a different way Instead of being on that straight narrow path it allows us to Visualize the possibilities and it might not be something that you you're gonna include in the first iteration But maybe the second or the third as you continue to grow your party I always laugh because I say, you know, when you have a party or when you have it get together What's like the one thing that you want people to do and it's talk about it for days months years You want them to have so much fun feels so comfortable that they talk about it to their friends And that's the same thing that you want with your website is it's Only one piece of your marketing tool So the idea is for people to it be so useful and so engaging that people will become brand Ambassadors for you and refer other people to you based on the information that you provide So if you kind of keep that in the back of your mind, it's another way to easily craft a great strategy And that leads into the third part, which is the content strategy So without content, it's very very hard to create and design an effective user friendly website Not that it is you you can create a website without content But it's we kind of put the cart before the horse thinking let's do the design and then oh, let's do the content and make it fit And so you might have thought about a few things beforehand, but if you don't have the content, it's going to be very hard for that to be cohesive because the words Or what evokes the emotion and the emotion is what allows the connection and the connection is what helps someone to build that relationship with you and want to do business with you But a content strategy isn't just creating your content for your website. It's how you take it further from here, how you build on it, how you continue to engage We can't just throw a website up and just say, okay, I'm done. It's there. Let me tell everybody it's there and then go about my day. We need to continue to add to it so that when people come back, there's fresh stuff. There's different stuff. There's more targeted information. You know, whether it's a new blog post or a revamped blog post that you maybe put up a year ago and you can tweak it. So that's all part of the content strategy. And if you don't know where you're going to go. It's really hard to start to get there. So you want to remember with your content strategy. It's not just about the words on the page. It's how you're going to continue to build it What you're going to offer. And if you think of it in terms of actions and solutions with benefits and features instead of me and I and what I give to you and what I offer. It's going to be much easier for you to continue that group. So let's look at your about page. Everybody writes the about page about themselves. But the about page really needs to be about the ideal client as well because you need to address their needs and then in telling them how you offer the solutions. That's where you work in about yourself is what you bring to the table. Same thing with the party. You know, I am I'm fun and energetic and I like to bring that to the party and I'm going to do this by providing you with like my favorite playlist And my favorite foods and then you can kind of go into your story from there. Same with your services. You don't want to just give them the I do this. I do that. I provide one on one coaching. You want to tell them what they're going to get out of it. You're going to get these results. Or I found that working with my clients. They've increased conversions by X amount of dollars or they've got more peace of mind in their life. Or they've lost, you know, 50 pounds by doing simple techniques that I have learned in my journey to weight loss, whatever it is, you need to frame it so that it's a benefit to them. And so by by putting all these pieces together. It really creates not only a cohesive marketing tool, but it also creates cohesion across the board. Whether you're on your website on your social media at an event so that you come across is authentic energetic and someone can build a relationship with you. And so if you use that party analogy. I found that that's the most well rounded way to plan because you start to think about everything. You think about the little details. You think about when it's over. What can I do the next time to make it even better. And so you start to really think differently. But you think more easily about the decisions that you have to make. So that's my strategy. I've come up with that strategy because for me. Just trying to put old pieces into do techniques was really difficult and I was I always seem to be getting stuck on choosing the ideal client. And then I got stuck in changing that to be like my brand at one point was all over the board until I was sitting there thinking How can I make this work for me. I'm going to plan a party because I'm really good at planning parties. And then I realized oh my gosh I was telling someone about that and then I took client through that and I thought it's so easy to do this that when you start to think differently. And who can't plan an event. Then you find that designing your website planning your website whether you're doing it yourself or working with someone else becomes much easier and less stress. Yeah. Wow. I love this. I love this. I love that you you have this kind of big picture strategy and at the same time you also are able to help clients with the details. The tech that the technology part of it which a lot of people of course are intimidated by but you have you know all the tech stuff within WordPress as well. So how those who are watching that are listening to this like how can they work with you. What's the next step to to engage with you. So the next step is you can book a consulting session with me and you can do that on my website lead Drosak.com Or you can just go ahead and schedule a chat and that would be lead Drosak.com forward slash let's chat all one more L E T S C H A T and that gets the party rolling because whether you Are ready to design or you just have a few questions. We can talk about that in the chat session or I can even give you some of these techniques to at least get you starting so that you can make The determination. Is this something that I'm ready for or do I need to do something else because I don't believe that Everyone may be ready for a website design. Sometimes you might need to work with a coach first or a copywriter first or even a brand strategist. So we have the consulting sessions to get you ready for that to say here's what you need to do for the next step or here's how you pick a framework that will work for your work style, your budget and where you want to take your business. That's great. Well, thank you so much Lee for sharing your strategy with us. I hope that those watching have gotten some idea of where where they are on this journey and what what's needed next. So I hope folks if you connected resonated with what Lee was sharing in her presence. Please go out and reach out to her and I'm sure I'll have the links mentioned in the notes of this video somewhere above or below depending where you're watching this and thank you so much Lee for doing this interview. Thanks for having me George.