The main reason I need a website for my coaching practice is for generating leads. It is also an inexpensive marketing tool which offers good return on investment as it will be available 24 hours a day *globally*. I say it is inexpensive as I work for an e-commerce company (and have been there since startup) so have much knowledge in this area as well as the ability to build a website myself to a professional standard. Other benefits of having a website for my coaching practice include:

• providing a client with information to decide if my practice is likely to met their needs
• freeing up time to spend with more clients by answering most questions on the site; some important questions to answer are who the practice serves and exactly what it does
• describe the niche of the practice; although a coach does not necessarily need to have any background knowledge on the area they are coaching in (after all, the coach is the facilitator - the client has the answers!) it can make a client more at ease if they recognise my practice as an expert in a certain field.

Interaction is an important part of a website. In a coaching class it was quoted that a potential client has some sort of contact with a company 7-12 times before they decide to use the product/service being offered. A few ideas for creating more interaction on a website are:

• Offer free online assessments or quizzes which should have the effect of engaging the visitor to the site (a potential client). A name and email address for sending the results can be asked for which will subscribe them to the practice’s mailing list (creating more chances for contact). It is important to make it easy to unsubscribe from the mailing list at any time and not bombard subscribers with emails as this is likely to annoy rather than engage. in the UK it is important to make sure that practices compy with the Data Protection Act 1998.
• Using an auto sequential mailer can send certain parts of a serious of emails each week to create regular contact and a call to action. A serious of articles on goal setting can be written then split into sections, sending out one a week to people who have signed up for the free series (or even offer as a free “e-course”) where the final email explains how our practice can help with the achievement of their goals and include a link to our site to apply to be a client. This can also improve the quality of a lead as someone who reads all the articles and responds to the call to take action is a good potential candidate for coaching as they have already taken the first steps to achieving their goals (requesting information and making an inquiry).

The site should contain information such as: What we do, Why make changes , What the change would look like (the benefits), What packages we offer and - very important - *client testimonials*.

Payment can be taken online and this page should contain no other links, banners etc. and give all our guarantees. This should be a secure page taking payment by credit card (international) and look at the costs of Paypal as this faciltates the ability for bank transfers for customer who do not have credit cards.