Last week, one of my clients, a business consultant, told me he was this close to closing his biggest deal yet. The only problem? He doesn’t have a website.
“They don’t think I’m the real deal because they can’t find me online,” he said. “I need my site finished already!”
We’ve been working on his new site for a few weeks now and it will be launched next month – “two years too late!” according to my client.
But he does bring up a valid point: If you’re a consultant or coach and don’t have a website, does your business exist? Or are you just a person with a phone?
It’s 2017 and using the internet is more than just a part of everyday life – it’s the medium we use to access every piece of information we need to go about our day, from checking our emails to reading the news and shopping online. Our social lives and careers rely on the connections we make online.
So having an online presence for your consulting or coaching business is crucial since everyone who might want your services will turn to Google when they need help.
But before you go and get yourself a new website, here are a few key site features to keep in mind when choosing a WordPress theme.
What to Look for in a Coaching / Consulting WordPress Theme
When you search for “consulting” in our theme marketplace, 322 results are returned. That’s a lot of themes. So where do you start?
Well, the kind of theme you choose all depends on the kind of work you do. For example, if you’re a life coach you should look out for themes that match your niche, so steer clear of business themes.
No matter what kind of consulting or coaching you do, it’s also important to consider the services you offer and what functionality your website will need to provide them online. For instance:
- Do you offer courses? You’ll need a learning management system
- Do you run events? You’ll need an events plugin
- Do you want to accept appointments? You’ll need a bookings plugin
Let’s take a look at some of the website features to look out for when choosing a theme as well as some great examples you’ll find in our theme marketplace.
1. Contact Form
Let’s start with one of the most important element your website absolutely can’t do without: a contact form.
The reason you want to get your business online in the first place is so people can get in touch with you. Whatever types of contact information you choose to share, make sure it’s really, really easy for people to contact you by providing lots of different options, such as:
- Email address
- Contact form
- Phone number
- Links to social media accounts, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn
- Physical address
A fantastic example of a theme that has nailed its contact page is Business Consulting – Coaching, Business Training & Consulting WordPress Theme. This theme has it all – an eye-catching Google Map of the business’s physical address, as well as multiple other different ways to get in touch. There’s also space for a FAQ so you can answer any common queries and quell any concerns.
For more on creating a killer contact page, check out The Essentials of Crafting a Killer ”Contact” Page on WordPress.
2. Testimonials
The success of many businesses hinges heavily on word of mouth. When potential clients are researching you online, they’re getting to know you by way of the content on your site. If they’ve never heard of your business before, no doubt they’ll be skeptical and hesitant to trust you.
Testimonials serve as a way to put site visitors at ease by showing how others have benefited from your services. Positive quotes that affirm the quality work you have completed and how easy you are to work with provide a powerful social cue, establishing trust and eliciting action.
Take Advice – Consulting & Business WordPress Theme by ThemesChannel | ThemeForest for instance. This business consulting theme displays testimonials in a slider that site visitors can scroll through. It can also automatically rotate between a number of quotes of your choosing. The large font size is eye-catching and the photo puts a face to the words, helping to humanize the message.
Tribe Coach – Feminine Coaching Business WordPress Theme also displays testimonials really well, as you can see here:
The quotes are easy to read, and like the Advice theme above, each testimonial displays the person’s name, role and business so you know the quote is legit.
3. Case Studies
Well-written case studies take testimonials a step further. Plus, here’s a stat for you: 88% of consumers trust online product reviews and posts on social networks as much as personal recommendations before making a purchase online.
So leverage your testimonials as much as you can and turn them into in-depth case studies that detail how you’ve helped your clients, further establishing proof that what you’re offering is valuable and of good quality.
LifeGuide – Personal and Life Coach WordPress theme is an excellent example of case studies displayed really well. The homepage demo points to a case studies landing page where you can display a number of different case studies.
4. Bookings and Appointments
If you would like potential clients to make appointments directly through your site, you can do this by installing a bookings plugin with your WordPress website.
You’ll need to install a bookings and appointments plugin separately to your theme, though many themes will tell you which plugins they are compatible with.
A great example of this is (again) LifeGuide – Personal and Life Coach WordPress theme. The latest version of the theme integrates nicely with the free Booked Appointments plugin so site visitors can make appointments and you can easily manage any bookings made through your site.
It offers calendar or list view, the ability to customize the confirmation email, a powerful appointments management calendar, and a responsive design so you can view upcoming bookings right from your phone.
An example of the bookings calendar in LifeGuide – Personal and Life Coach WordPress theme.
5. Events
For many consultants and coaches, events plan an important role of their business – my own business consulting client included, he runs seminars for business leaders. So whether you plan to organize tax forums or run health and wellness workshops, ensuring your theme is compatible with an events plugin is essential.
Life Coach and Psychologist Personal Theme by AncoraThemes | ThemeForest provides integration with the Events Calendar plugin for its stunning events calendar. Its events calendar offers functionality for browsing months and you can also search dates and keywords.
Check out our plugin marketplace for more events plugins.
6. Online Learning
If you run workshops for your clients IRL, why not offer them online? Not only will you open your business up to a wider audience, but many potential clients will also find it convenient being able to access your materials from the comfort of their own home.
What you need to look out for are themes that include integration with a Learning Management System (LMS). LMS plugins for WordPress allow you to create and manage courses.
Take Speaker and Life Coach WordPress Theme | Coaching WP by ThimPress | ThemeForest, for example. This theme is compatible with the free LearnPress plugin so you can create lessons and quizzes, communicate with students, and sell access to courses.
What’s great about how this theme integrates LearnPress is that you can customize how your courses are displayed right down to how many students have signed up for a course.=
Conclusion
Whether you’re a career or skills coach, help businesses or executives, or simply want a website for your life coaching, you’re bound to find a design with the functionality you need in our theme marketplace.
If you find a theme you love that reflects your business but it doesn’t include all the features you need, don’t stress! There are hundreds of plugins in our marketplace that can add just about any functionality you need to your site.
