Catharine O’Leary, the host of Kickstart the Conversation, welcomes her colleague Lori Lyons to the show whose area of expertise in in marketing and website design. Catharine and Lori talk about the need for a website vs. a series of landing pages that customers can opt-in to for more information on a specific topic or offer.

Lori walks us through the importance of having a website for any business owner. A website provides a space for potential clients to learn more about the business and its services. It is a comprehensive representation of the business, and it is important to make it easy for potential clients to find and connect with the business through the website.

On the other hand a landing page is a web page that is specifically designed to capture a visitor's attention and encourage them to take a specific action, such as filling out a form or making a purchase. Landing pages are usually created for a specific marketing or advertising campaign and are often used in conjunction with email marketing, social media advertising, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

Landing pages are important to a business because they allow you to focus on a specific goal or objective, which can help to increase conversions and generate more leads. By directing visitors to a dedicated landing page, you can provide them with a clear and concise message that is tailored to their needs, which can increase the likelihood that they will take the desired action.

Where landing pages focus on a specific purpose or action, a website provides a full picture of the business and its offerings. It is crucial for a business to have a clear call to action on its website to encourage potential clients to take action and connect with the business.

Overall, both a business websits and landing pages can be a powerful tool in a business's marketing toolkit, helping to increase conversions and generate more leads.

Lastly, owning the website and domain is essential to avoid being on rented space that can be shut down by third-party entities. This means that the business should purchase and register its own domain name, rather than relying on a third-party platform that may change its policies or shut down at any time. By owning the website and domain, the business has full control over its online presence and can make changes and updates as needed.

Thanks Lori for talking us through this important distinction!

About the Guest:

Lori is the CEO of Igniting Your Business, a marketing strategist, website designer and coach that shows entrepreneurs how to get more leads, more clients and make more money with a captivating digital and website presence. Lori teaches business owners to “Make Their marketing Simple” through her individual coaching, group programs and intimate cohorts. She is a sought-after speaker, media guest, and host of the podcast The Encore Entrepreneur where she translates the complicated side of “marketing speak” into simple everyday language for her audiences.

You can grab Lori’s free gift at https://FUNbizchecklist.com

You can email Lori at llyons@ignitingyourbusiness.com. Make sure to tell her that Catharine sent you!

What is the Best Quiz for Your Biz?

Take this FREE 60-second Quiz to Find Out: quizformybiz.com.

About the Host:

Catharine O'Leary is a dynamic speaker, author, and entrepreneur with a wealth of experience in market research, consumer insights, and innovative marketing strategies. She's known as the "quiz queen" and is an expert at asking the right questions to connect with ideal clients and boost business growth. With over three decades of corporate experience, Catharine is passionate about helping entrepreneurs have better conversations with their ideal clients and grow their business with cutting-edge marketing strategies.

https://catharineoleary.com/

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Hey everyone and welcome back to kick start the conversation where we delve into all things leads, lists, and leveraging relationships, all to build your business around your ideal clients. And today I am so happy to have my my marketing crews compatriot on the on the podcast today, Lori Lyons and Lori, welcome to kickstart conversation. I would love for you just to tell us a little bit more about who you serve and what you do. Sure, and

it's good to see you on dry land, although it was much more fun on the marketing cruise.

It was it was like y'all if you need if you want like just put it in the like comments that you want, you know, the the download on the marketers cruise because that everyone should go to it. Like if you're an entrepreneur and marketing, you should go on the cruise, you

should go. You don't have to be in marketing to do it. But you've got to be an interested in marketing, which everybody should be if you own a business, okay. Yeah, that's because Catharine can invite you. ls, you have to be invited. Yeah, I own make your marketing simple and igniting your business, igniting your business as the website design agency, arm of my business and make your marketing simple is the marketing strategy work one on one consult part of my business. So my philosophy and who I serve are business owners who are overwhelmed and confused and come Bobby elated by all the stuff that's out there. And my My thing is, you can have a really good business by keeping it simple. Not easy, because easy and simple are two different things. But it can be a very simple process. And most of my small business owners, I work with a lot of solopreneurs, consultants, coaches, that type of thing. And for a lot of them it is it is very confusing, and we kind of cut through the cut through the clutter.

I love that because like there are and there always have been to be honest, 100 million different ways to market your business. I think right now where people get overwhelmed is that technology has been thrown into the into the loop too. So now you got all these platforms, and you've got all this like, should you do reels or should you do this or you know, but at the end of the day, and I'll say this all day long up one side. Now the other is you need to pick your lane in a way that lights you up. And then in a way that is fun. And that energizes you because marketing that doesn't energize you, or that drains you is not only going to drain you, but it's going to drain your bank account. Right? So you need to you need to get into that lane that that that lights you up. But I think another struggle right now Lori and you and I talked about this briefly is you work with people on their website designs. And and then there's like this kind of same thing, but different but not sure that these funnels or these like solo landing pages or, you know, your lead page goes into this opt in and is that part of your website? Or isn't it and I think there's a lot of confusion around that. And, and if you are confused and 100% your ideal client is going to get confused. So maybe you can shed some light on kind of the website versus the landing pages.

Sure, sure. And you know, it's kind of funny when when I hear marketing professionals use the terms wrong, it's like to me it's like fingernails on a chalkboard, because there they are to their, their kissing cousins. Let's put it that way. Okay, so and I have I have clients call me all the time and say I need a landing page. I'm like, Okay, let's talk about what you need it for. And basically, they're looking for an online presence, which is a website. Now the distinct difference between the two of them because they are both technically websites, if you have and we're going to talk specifically about one pagers because that's the closest relation. If you're just looking for an online presence, you want to get who you are out there and you want to talk about how you serve your clients. And you want to talk about you know, the problems and the solutions and all that stuff that we we want to do today. Then you do it you can do it on very simply on a one page website. You want to have Brandon photos, you want to make sure it's very well done and very professional. A landing page on the other hand is someone when you go and you have Katherine and her and her team build you an amazing quiz, and it generates a lead magnet. That lead magnet will drive you to a landing page and the purpose of a landing page and there's a couple of different ways to do there's a couple of different variations on a landing page. But the landing pages purpose is to drive you to one action only, it doesn't have a header, it doesn't have a footer, there are no distractions on the page. So if I'm going to do a very simple one, which is known as a squeeze page, then it's going to drive you to a one page website with no footer and no header. And it's going to have a form on it, that the only choice you have, or two choices is to fill up the form, you might can watch a video or read a little bit of content or something like that. But your choice is either you leave, you fill out the form or you leave the page, that's it, there is no other, there's no other distraction, no other information. You can also have longer sales pages, the virtual sales page, they can have some, you know, some some information. And there's a format that you use and, you know, in a foundational system that you use, but ultimately, they experience with the journey that you're taking them on. As they come to the they've come to this page, they've landed on it from a quiz, an ad, a Google ad, it's or conversation, you know, at the end of a lot of podcasts, you say, Here's my gift to you, and you go and here's your top three things, blah, blah, blah, and here's the link that you go to it. When you lay it, you're going to land on the landing page, and it can walk you through there again, you have two choices, you read the content, and then you either sign up, or you leave. That's it. So so it the difference is they're both because they're both hosted, they're both websites, I prefer if you have a website, that the landing page, be part of your website, for a couple of reasons it drives, it drives traffic to your website, it drives, you know, for Google, it's still traffic coming to your site, even though it's a, here's what it you know, here's here's the action you can take. Now, when you land on the landing page, and you fill out the form, a good funnel will often have you come back to the website with a thank you page, hey, thanks for signing up, or they send you an email that says thanks for signing up in some way shape or form, it directs us to the to another page on your website, that is the full page. It has the header, the footer. So if you want to find out a little bit more about about Catherine or about Laura, you can you can do it because then you have access to the rest of the site. So it's a little bit of a maneuvering and a little bit of a, you know, a flow and a customer journey that that directs that long, very long, hopefully simple answer to your question.

No, I think I think it's important because I mean, some people are going out there and saying you don't need a website anymore. Right. And I think I think what they need to be saying is that you don't need a complicated, really fancy shmancy with all the like, you know, the bells and the whistles and the, you know, the the test while testimonies are good, but has a bazillion pages.

Yeah, because here's the thing, a confused mind will not make a decision. Right? If you give people more the choices, then they know what to do with, they'll just leave. Right? So if you're like, you know, put up all your options of you know, we can work you know, do it yourself, you can take my course or we can work done with you. And that's like we're you and I do this and that or I can do it for you. And it's more consulting baggage. And, you know, you just have to choose one of the three. No one's gonna choose like it's too it's too much a website if I can please correct me if I'm wrong. The way that I was seeing a website is that's where people go to get information about you and your products and services for sure. Testimonials, that kind of thing, but it's more of a brochure more like you know, your information. Landing Pages. Oh, you have this problem. You know, your three steps to understanding your your ideal client. Blueprint is here. Take it or don't is that?

Yeah, yeah. And I'm gonna tweak the website part of it just because you nailed the landing page. But the website, yes, you want information on it. And then back in the day when they were brochures and you know, here's who I am. Here's my bio. Here's all my credentials, you know, here, blah, blah, blah. Wow, nowadays it is there's, there's there's more multipurpose we don't want to oversell. We don't want to over give we don't want to give too much information. Yes, I want to address your pain. And yes, I want to tell you how I solve your problem. And there's an I have a couple of different ways to do it. But I want I want you to call me or I want you to contact me because I want to talk to you one on one. I don't want my website to sell you. I do however, with all the social media out there and with all All of the different things that are out there, the website should be the foundational piece of your marketing. So that if you're doing if you're very active on social media, you should have a call to action, you should be driving them back to the website, either through a lead magnet or through whatever method you use, so that you can capture their email address, and you can make him a client and you can talk to him directly. Because then you own them. Otherwise, you're on rented real estate, you're you don't own them on web on social media.

By own we don't mean Oh, no, we mean that you have control of the information on your clients in the sense that you can recontact them, you can

contact them, yes, it is. Yes, you and, and let's let's expand on own. Because if all your clients are on social media, and Facebook disappears tomorrow, which some people hope it does, it has its purpose. But if they go away, you have no way to contact people. By owning them, I mean, that you have access to them at anytime you want, provided that you're you've got them on an email

system. And folks, I don't, not gonna go on a rant. But Facebook can also put you in jail forever, and not let you do a whole bunch of stuff. I'm speaking from experience here. And suddenly your hands are tied. Yeah, don't give anyone that power over your business, like anyone, like any, like, I don't care what social media platform, I don't care what networking platform, I like the matter. That's why That's why it's so important that, first of all, that every communication point has a call to action, because you're missing something, if it doesn't, even if it's just check out my website, you know, which, which is a great call to action, especially if you have on your website somewhere where they can put in their email so that they can connect or get the lead magnet or you know, get whatever it needs to be. Or maybe, you know, sometimes depending on your marketing calendar, sometimes you might have them go to a specific, you know, landing page that's, you know, maybe you're doing a webinar or a masterclass that you're, you know, you're filling up and that's, you know, that's a, you know, you do it or you don't and you get registered and you kind of move on, it doesn't need to be part of your website, necessarily. Is that correct? Yes, no. You know, and I'm so glad we're talking about this, because it like, it's like, folks, I've been in this business for a while, and it's still confusing to me.

Well, and it, there are so many options out there that are that are actually good options, that it becomes very easy for, for business owner to, to get their message out there. So I understand if if you and I have to think about some of this, then it can be very confusing for someone who doesn't know. So, you know, and I was talking, I want to go back to social media for just a second before I totally forget and lose the point. And then we'll come back was, you know, I was in a meeting the other day, and there was a social media person in there. And she was talking about, she was talking about what she does, and talking about how she had a video just go viral for one of her clients that got 6 million views. That's all wonderful. If that's the client's goal, which I knew her client, and that wasn't going to do or any good and it wasn't appropriate for me to go. So how much money did she make up of that? How many clients did she get from that? Because it was at the time or the place or? But I'm thinking this I'm going. So how much money they make? Huh? 6 million views? That's pretty good. Did she get any clients from it? Did they drive for late night? Emails from

exactly did they

eat? Exactly, exactly, because you can do all of this stuff on social media. But if you don't have a call to action, as you said earlier, driving to somewhere where you can take their information and continue to talk them one on one, then or one to many one on one for an email, then it doesn't do any good. Alright, so to go back to we're covering Call to Action check. Got it. Going back. Yeah, so go back. So if you've got I think the question was the all the different places you can put landing pages and is there a difference in them is that that's what we were talking about. Right?

Well, so if you're going like if you have a webinar, right you have it so you have what we call a squeeze page to say you know, like maybe there's a little video to talk about what the webinar is going to be or the masterclass a master class or event and, you know, register here, sign up here or click here to go off to zoom and register. That can be like you register you don't it doesn't necessarily like other than going to a thank you page say thank you for registering

Right, right. Well and it all So depends on the platform that you have this masterclass or your webinars set up. Because there's a really good programs out there that will will handle all of the information that you need for your masterclass or your webinar. And that's a little bit of a different scenario. Because yes, when you do those, typically you do get the emails and you do get access to all of that, because that's, you're paying for it that becomes yours. And what I like to do, or what I tell my clients to do with this is, they're going to have the webinar or they're going to have something and put something on their website to talk about it or drive, you know, to send them to that. Because I don't know of of that many websites unless you are Coca Cola, or Nabisco that have the capability to run a webinar or a masterclass right on your website. They're probably some, you know, if you do them through some of the Kajabi use of the Click Funnels, or the cartridges or some of those, I think you could do them through Oh, we

keep it simple. Yeah. And you say, no. That's just about ready to make my head explode. And I know, right to explode. And I worked for Pepsi, and we never did that. Like we didn't touch the Pepsi site.

Yeah, no, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there's so to keep it simple there. If you're looking to do that, find a platform that does that. That has it all set up for you. And all you got to do is fill in the blanks, because that will keep it simple.

Yeah, yeah. That's, that's perfect. Okay, so your web page. And so if you're thinking, if you're sitting down with a new client, and you're kind of going through the like roadmap, your business plan roadmap, your web page serves what versus landing pages serve what, like, walk me through that conversation, just to kind of tie a bow on it? Yeah, yeah, your, your website.

Alright, your website is the full story of who you are. Your website gives a little taste of what your services are, they give a little taste of who you are. But everything that you do, talks about the problem, and the solution that you serve for your client, even your about page talks about the how you serve your client, I understand because I've been there I understand because, you know, I know what you're going through, because that's, that's very popular language today. And it been it shows empathy, and it shows support, and it shows that you know, what you're talking about. So that is, that is the overall goal of the website is it's a little fuller, it's a little fuller, whereas the landing page is just simply for one purpose and one action

and one, either product, or signup or right you are it's not it's not for your bundle is not like if you're at this stage, pick this or if you're at this stage is not an ala carte

option. Right, right. And and you know, and here we're gonna get a little more complicated, because not every answer is yes or no cut or dry. But there are you know, once you drive them to something, and they are taking the action that you want them to take, there could be another landing page that

that upsells up. Yeah, yep. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

We've all seen that where you get Okay, quit. Quit upselling me?

Yeah. Oh, if you've ever been in a Click Funnels funnel, I mean, Brunson has upsells down cells, but like, to the side was like honest to God, it takes an hour to get through one of the pages because he's got so many of the dams Oh, right. Right. Brilliant. But, like, asked me, So, so your, your website as a place where people can go just to check you out, just to learn a little bit and just to get a taste of you. Versus like, you know, having you know, like,

I mean, it's just another tool in the toolkit is not it is it is it's a tool in your marketing toolkit. It is you know, I, I consider it because I'm a little a little biased. I consider it the foundation of your marketing if you have a good base, that you can drive things to social media quizzes, which quizzes by the way, I'm sure you've said this many times quizzes are one of the best, best converting lead magnets. So if you're considering a quiz call Katherine. But, but they do you know, you go there and you take the quiz, you do the thing. And that's there, and then you can find a little bit more. So yes,

yeah. And I'll slip you that 20 bucks. I owe you for that endorsement there. Oh, I thought it was 200 I'm sorry. Oh, what happens what's goes on the cruise people's days on the cruise. You can

buy me a drink at the next screen. Some of those drinks

were $200

What were you drinking honey?

Yeah, All right, well, this, I think this helps out. I'm glad that we talked about this because it is something because a lot, there are people out there, there are branding, personal branding specialists that I know that are going out and saying you don't need website anymore. And I would caution, I would caution, anyone saying that you don't need something like, I would caution whether you do or don't need something to make sure that you go back to your plan to make sure that you like it's based on strategy, and it's based on the strategy that you're moving forward with. Because what is good for one person is not going to be necessarily needed for the other person, that's fine. But don't like it. I don't think that anything just gets switched on or switched off without looking at your strategy first, which means that you have to have a strategy to begin with folks. Yes. And I

was gonna say it's kind of like for, you know, for businesses, it's kind of like, you know, one of the, you know, Maslow's hierarchy or whatever it is hierarchy of needs. Yeah, basic needs is, we all need shelter, in some way, shape, or form. Now, my shelter may look different from your shelter, and you it may look different from somebody else's shelter, and there's all kinds there's apartments, there's houses, there's tents, there's, I mean, there's all kinds of you know, there's nice, there's not, there's glamping, I mean, like who knew? Yes, exactly, exactly. So, but for a business owner, some type of online presence is required in its online presence that you own, which is a website? Yes. So you know, in in it, when we think of when we're looking to work with somebody, what's the first thing we usually do is we google them, and several things come up. So if you haven't Googled yourself, make sure you're Googling yourself to see what's coming up. So and your website will come up one of the one of the close to the top things, you know, it's it's just really bad. But you know, that's so I will, you know, if I wanted to see about Catherine Alarie, I go, I go Googler, I'd look for a website to come up. I go with says, okay, she has a real business. She has a website. Let me go look at our website. Okay, look at Oh, okay, here's the problems. It's your sub, oh, I need a quiz. She can help me with my quiz. Oh, let me contact her because it's easy, because it's right on the website. So I fill out the little form. And it comes right to you. So it makes it very easy for clients, where as if maybe I'd heard of you, and you didn't have a website. Now I've got to take my time. And now I've got to go to Facebook, I gotta, you're not going to do I got it. No, I'm not going to do it. It's just too much. And folks,

again, not to go on a rant, but your Facebook business page is not a substitute. Because Facebook can shut that crap down like they can, they can just turn it off and you cannot find anyone to talk to, to get it turned back on. So like you're done and dusted. And you can do about it. LinkedIn, LinkedIn can do the same thing. So like, again, you're on rented, you're on rented space in those platforms.

Yeah, and these are all, you know, social platforms are all all owned by an entity or a person. And you know, in some cases, one of the big social media platforms was purchased by an individual, a lot of people left because they didn't like the policies. So you never know what's going to happen. And a lot of businesses were built on Twitter. So you just never know what's gonna happen. Where it's true. You if you have your site, you own it,

Phil, and it's still rented, like, even, like, you know, like all of that. So,

yeah, and let me let me throw one more thing in there that if you're gonna have a website, do make sure you own it, because there are websites, you know, those workspaces and the Weebly is in and the, you know, the, the Wix is GoDaddy builders. Those are, those are rented websites, you don't want your sights. So if you can, if you can work it into your budget, or as soon as you can work it into a budget, have one that you can build on that you own and make sure if you talk to a website design company, that you get it in writing that you own the site, and never give up your domain. always control your domain, so that you own your content happening. Yes,

yes. Because yeah, that that is also important. Oh, yeah, perfect. So I'm glad that we actually did have this conversation because I think it was needed. Basically, at the end of the day, folks, you just you want to make sure that your ideal clients can give you their information in a way that you capture it, make it as easy for them as possible, right? So have you know on on your, you know, like have call to actions and if that happens to go to your website to collect their information because you have a lead magnet or a pop up or something great, you know, done like if you have a quiz better done. If you know if you're doing a masterclass you know when you got the webinar register striations and so on great, but have that call to action because without a call to action, you're actually leaving people wondering, and and they can't connect with you. And they can't learn what what great things that you have coming up. And they're not like it's not the it's not your clients duty to try and find you and play hide and go seek. They're not they don't have time that you don't have time. So just make sure that it's easy for them to find you. And again, the website is just another tool in the toolkit. That is a really good tool if you you know, if you set it up and use use it in the most efficient way. I think that's fair. Absolutely. Yeah. So much, Laurie, for being on with us today. If we if you had kind of one last final kind of send off thoughts for my folks here, what would that be

reiterating, just make sure you own everything. It's so easy today to be on rental space. And you know, there's so many flexible options out there that you can own. So make sure you do and make sure if you're online. You have a gift for

us. I do. I did. So I wanted to talk about that. And I was like, wait a minute, I've forgotten something. I've forgotten the most important thing. I forgot to like this, you know the gift, I forgot the call to action. Laurie, I forgot the call to action. Oh my god, I have to fire myself and rehire myself. So I'm going to do that. Well, you talked about the gift. That's okay.

That's okay. And I have a couple of them. But the biggest one we'll do is if you want to go to Lori Lyons, it's L o r i l y o n s, three, six o.com. There's a section on there that has free gifts and you can get any number you can, you can choose. And they all go back to my website, but you can choose. I've got five mistakes that you can make on your website since we've been talking about your website. And that's an easy one to go to.