Marketing as a service provider can sometimes feel like driving a car blindfolded. Other than surefire networking and referral strategies, you aren’t exactly sure where you should be heading next in order to land more clients. We see many business owners focus on their social media strategy, and while that’s great if it works for you, we’ve realized that the opportunity for growth constantly goes unnoticed when it comes to your website. Many service providers have a website just to have a sort of front for their business, but more often than not it sits collecting dust.

We want to help you grab the reins on your website by knowing exactly what areas to focus on. Keep reading as we break down critical aspects to focus on that are going to turn your website into a lead engine. (Spoiler alert: Stick around till the end for a free website audit!)

The goal of every website is to find harmony between form and function. Businesses want (and need) a website that is both beautiful and ranks well on Google.

Good site design will immediately form a positive impression for the visitor. It will help guide the users’ eyes and easily tell them where you want for them to look. A site that is well designed will build trust and will encourage conversions.

A site that ranks well on Google will consistently drive targeted traffic to the site. An SEO optimized site will increase brand visibility and will build trust with users.

When creating a new website for your business, you don’t have to choose one over the other, good design or SEO. By focusing on design and content you will create a site that seamlessly integrates form and function.

When you’re finally ready to dive into revamping your website there are a few things you’ll want to keep top of mind. Sometimes the project can feel overwhelming just thinking about all the tiny details can make you wonder if the project is actually going to be worth it (spoiler alert: with the right designers it definitely will be). So we’ve rounded up the top elements of great web design to be mindful of as you explore your options.

Having your website redesigned is no easy decision, and we don’t typically encourage it if there’s no reason for it. You have to consider the process of transferring content, how this could impact your SEO, etc., but some cases are a definite yes. Take our case, for instance– we went years with our old website that had outdated content, wasn’t clear about what we did especially after we switched gears with our offers, and didn’t aesthetically align with the direction we were heading.

Now that we’ve gone through with the redesign, we’ve never been happier. We feel our website does a great job in conveying what we do, our personalities, our mission, and funneling in prospects. If you aren’t sure if a new website design is the next move for you, here are 5 signs that it’s time for a change.

Heck, we’ve even landed a high 5-figure client, because our website confirmed for them that we were the ones they wanted to work with.

A kind of shift happens to most people when they become busy business owners. We tend to start putting our own health and happiness on the back burner and pouring all of our energy into the business. We’re guilty of doing this in the past, but we quickly realized the importance of prioritizing those things for the sake of our own sanity. Hustle culture is overrated, and we want more business owners to start working in smarter and healthier ways, consequently maximizing your productivity and well-being.

Here are our top strategies for working smarter, not harder this year and for years to come!

Something we’ve noticed is overlooked by many new or growing business owners is creating brand values. You may think since your business is small or because you may not have a team, that means they aren’t important at the moment, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you want to ensure you’re developing a clear and concise brand, creating consistent brand awareness, and attracting the right kinds of clients and audience to your business, then you need to identify and define your brand values.

Being a lone service provider is fine in the beginning, but to really scale and grow your marketing business to the next level that will allow you to hit big financial goals and actually spend less time in the weeds, you have to scale to an agency. This means you outsource many of the services through your team that you were previously doing yourself. As you hire team members who specialize in certain services, you can even expand your business offering to market to a larger audience.

But first, there are critical action steps to take before growing to that next level. Keep reading as we dive into how to scale your marketing business to go from service provider to agency!

We’re fresh into the new year, which comes the usual phase of absorbing as much information as there is available to help you better your business over the next year. To many service providers, this is actually a pretty fun time! Learning new tips and strategies is so exciting and motivates you to tackle them head-on and reach your goals.

As two gals with lots to share and talk about, we’ve released a massive amount of content about marketing, lead generation, relationship building, pricing and packaging your offers, getting referrals, building teams, the list goes on. So to make it easier on you without having to dig around, here’s a roundup of our top podcast episodes and blog posts on these topics!

The end of the year is possibly our most favorite season of business! It’s the time where you get to reflect on your year in business, assess your analytics and results, and plan for the year ahead. Because this is such a fun time for us, we love making sure our audience is equipped with the resources to help them make these things happen. In The Creative Template Shop, we drop so many helpful templates for reflection and new year planning.

With hundreds of templates to choose from, we wanted to do a quick round-up of our top 5 must-have templates to review your year in business and plan for 2023!