Help : Creating a website... : Getting ready for your new website

We’re excited to build your new website; we’ll take your pictures and text and create an attractive, professional site you can be proud of. We’ll work with you to fine tune it, and at any stage you are able to edit it yourself.

The primary goal for your website is to provide a smooth, easy path for your new customers to see your list of classes and book in; your unique style and voice will give your customers confidence.

Remember that your website is a tool – its job is to convert visitors into paying customers! You can add as much content as you want but make sure that the experience for booking into a class is as simple as possible!

 

Before our first chat

There are two things you need before we meet to discuss your website – an activate Stripe account and a domain name. Please make sure both of these are completed. Most booking providers require Stripe so even if you do not decide to come with us, it will be a good use of time! Stripe registration is required for trial periods too.

 

  • Please go to stripe.com and register. This is free; you need to have an activated Stripe account before you can accept any payments. Please contact us if  you need any help. (Once you have a site – Read about linking your stripe account to Makesweat.)
  • Need a domain name? We recommend namecheap.com (other domain registrars are fine too). We recommend a country specific domain if you intend to practice in your home country, such as .co.uk. .com is more appropriate for international practices. You can change this in the future. Don’t worry about any technical questions during the process; we’ll set up this for you.
  • Already got a website? Make sure you know the login details and can share with us if you would like us to embed the booking system.

 

How to get ready!

You make most of the decisions about your business and website; in order to make it a quick process, please make sure you have written down answers to the following…

 

1. What do I want to sell?

Your new website and booking system will allow you to sell passes to your customers. For your first couple of months of operation, think about what you want to offer. For example…

  • A single pass – maybe just for a group mat class? How much?
  • A single pass – for a one to one session?
  • A pass that lets a customer attend ten mat classes, online? How much cheaper will it be than the single version?
  • Another pass that lets a customer attend ten mat classes, in person? Is it the same price as the online pass?

 

2. When do I want to offer classes?

Please create a schedule for a perfect week – your one to ones, mat & online classes. Make sure you know which passes a customer could buy to get into each class. Your one to one sessions will have different passes allowed than your group mat classes.

 

3. What’s the focus of each class?

We’ve seen that customers get a good experience when they know what to expect from the class. Is it meant to be relaxing or very difficult? What equipment should they bring? Make sure to write some nice text (three sentences or so) to explain why your customers might sign up to this class and how they’ll feel afterwards!

 

Content for your website

In order of importance; none of this is essential, it just helps us to get going. You site will evolve and improve over time; we aim to get you up and running as quickly as possible knowing that things can change in the future – “Don’t Let the Perfect Be the Enemy of the Good”

  • A little bit of text about you; this isn’t the final version – it just helps us to get an ‘About me’ page set up for you. This is typically what attracted you to your style of teaching, your professional history, and maybe something about what you like to do when not teaching. We like this from Movement Studio (movementstudioboa.co.uk)
  • 3-5 pictures of you or your practice if available; these will be used to make the main landing page (Ideally at least 1000 pixels across. We do not need them to be more than 2MB / 2 megabytes in size). We can use stock photos to get you going. We like these atmospheric photos from Bhumi Yoga (thebhumiyoga.com). Read about images for your website.
  • Do you have a logo? Please include this (Ideally at least 250 pixels wide and high. Don’t worry if you don’t know what this means; we just need a clear looking logo.) We like Emma’s example here; simple, clear and we’ve matched the highlight colour on her site to her logo (moveswithemma.com)

 

Please send to nick@makesweat.com. Thank you!