If you want to create a brand that will remain relevant for the long-term (and one that converts site visitors into loyal raving fans), there's one strategy you need to build into every message, every content, and into every marketing effort you make: building trust.

But how do you do this effectively?

Enter Joe Polish…

Joe Polish is one of the most sought after marketers alive today. An exceptional “connector”, he leverages his networking prowess through his highly renowned Genius Network, and GeniusX masterminds with household guests like Peter Diamandis, Tony Robbins, Sir Richard Branson, Steve Forbes, and John Mackay coming in to share their wisdom with the groups.

Before we started working together, Joe already had a functional personal brand site. But Joe wanted us to rethink his site. He wanted one that would invite people to come into his world  — and then strongly inspire them to take purposeful, meaningful action towards living a grander, more abundant, more fulfilling life. 

Here we share the key principles we used to guide our redesign strategy for Joe…

1) Get Clear on Who You Want to Attract

First, we made sure we had a clear, super detailed profile of Joe's target audience. We discussed this in great depth during our onboarding process (we call this part of our unique, proven process the “Influencer Intensive”).

Joe wanted to attract givers, not takers. He wanted to appeal to real entrepreneurs, not those who say they want to build businesses, but don’t take consistent action.

Joe wanted them to feel motivated and inspired when they land on his site, but he also wanted them to feel disturbed by their own inaction and to feel they will be missing out on great opportunities if they don't subscribe and actively learn from Joe's knowledge.

We also made sure we understood why he thought his old site was no longer effective. Here's a shot of his old homepage:

Now compare his homepage to what we came up with… (click on the image to experience his site yourself)

 

2) Keep It Real

In order to build trust, we designed Joe's site so that it doesn't look “salesy”.

“What?!” I hear other designers say.

“You mean no over the top flashing red arrows or big glaring headlines with multiple exclamation points? (Double gasp!)”

I know, right? What a travesty.  😉

Jokes aside, Joe himself even said he “didn't want to look too polished” (hrhrhr got the joke? An endearingly punny man, Joe is.)

He cared more about being real, being authentic.

That's why we used doodle-ish fonts and hand-drawn graphics for his brand. That way, it exuded his relaxed, friendly, fun, light-hearted attitude.

 

One thing Joe is famous for is his proven framework on how to build ELF businesses – (Easy, Lucrative, Fun) vs. HALF ones (Hard, Annoying, Lame, Frustrating).

So when visitors see the site, Joe wanted them to feel more “woooooh!” (excitement, curiosity to dig deeper) and less aaahh (angst, frustrations).

So we (in collaboration with Joe's team) created the site so that it invites people into a world that shows them they can become better and overcome their problems, as well as connect with themselves and with others.

We wanted visitors to experience the possibility of a solution to their marketing problem.
Joe wanted people to feel motivated and inspired, but also disturbed by their own inaction (you know that “sh*@t – I really need to change now or else” kind of feeling? Yep.)

So how can you do this effectively?

 

3) Share Your Struggles When You Tell Your Story… But Don't Make it Exclusively About You.

Joe's About Page is a fine example of how to hook people into your world when you tell your story.

 

Here are just some of the reasons that made Joe's About Page effective:

• It revealed Joe's struggles as a person and as an entrepreneur.
• He shared his aspirations as well as his flaws.
• He displayed the right balance of vulnerability as he described the obstacles he encountered as he fought his way to achieve his goals.
• He prevented his About Page from becoming a narcissistic yawn-fest by telling his story by giving clues as to how others too could figure out the same struggles that he had wrestled with.  He featured real people he had helped and the results they gained by applying Joe's teachings.
• The page mentioned his other offshoot projects and passion-based businesses that continue to fulfill his sense of Purpose.

 

4) Let Others Build You Up

While it may work well to persuade people when you talk about your own accomplishments, it works much better when you let others do the talking for you.

And let's face it – it makes you sound less of a douche, too 😉

So if you want to win over your prospects' trust, include a page in your personal brand site that builds your social proof. Showcase your clients' case studies and/or testimonials.

We made sure to feature well-known people in a wide range of industries. It's a very clever way of conveying that Joe's marketing know-how do not just work in the carpet cleaning industry – without us actually saying the words. Whenever you can, employ that subtlety in your messaging. It works better to persuade your readers: because they arrive at the conclusion themselves, they have more buy-in.

Of course, the fact that Joe is known to multi-million dollar bestselling authors and world-renowned speakers makes out job way easier…

When featuring video testimonials, be mindful of the fact that some people would prefer to just read the text on the page and not play the video.

To anticipate this tendency, we included the snippets of the most important (i.e., trust-inducing) part of the testimonial on the page. That way, the goal of the page is likely to be met regardless of the readers' behavior patterns.

 

Does Your Personal Brand Site Need a Makeover?

Are you an influencer who wants to create an omnipresent brand online?

If you feel your personal brand site is not built to boost your credibility and perceived authority, schedule a strategy call with us.  We'll identify the ways we can help you create an online presence that builds your authority, gets you more inquiries, and attracts more of your ideal clients.

You might also want to download our free Photography and Storytelling Guides here.

And if there's nothing else that you take away from this featured post, let it be this (we found this inspiring quote inside the Genius Network HQ):

“Be willing to destroy anything in your life that isn’t excellent”
~ Joe Polish