One of the most important pages on your website is your services page. It’s where you bring your prospective clients from where they are today to where they want to be.
I’ve seen so many badly done services pages so I wanted to discuss 7 elements of an effective services page design with you.
But, before I get to these 7 elements, let’s first discuss your services page in general.
Communicating your offerings should be one of your website’s primary goals. Your services page is so important because before a potential client can decide if they want to hire you, they need to have a clear understanding of what you offer.
Depending on the services you offer, you may have one page or several pages. What will work best for your business really comes down to how different the services are and if they are for different audiences.
For example, a DIY service is for a very different customer than a done for you service. Often times, it’s better for SEO (search engine optimization) to have separate services pages. Also, separate pages allow you to speak to the relevant customers, each in a different way. Click here to see a great example of how services pages are broken down into separate pages to speak to different audiences.
Now, here are the 7 elements of an effective services page design:
1. The Headline
Present your offer above the fold. Your hero section should make a bold statement, in plain English, about the outcomes you offer. This will immediately differentiate you from the majority of other services pages out there that don’t do this. Remember, your offer is the transformation or the results you promise your service will provide. It’s not the deliverables, cost, or timeline.
2. Show you Understand
Here’s where you identify your ideal client and let them know they’re in the right place. It’s a great idea to have a lead-in paragraph that illustrates you understand the pain your ideal client is feeling and the fear they may have around hiring someone like you.
You’ll want to highlight how your services can help your potential client. Remember, your website is all about showing what you can offer your potential client and how you can help them, take away their frustration and/or overwhelm, save them time, save them money. Offer them a clear and concise explanation of why they should hire you.
3. Proof
Nothing shows the value of your work better than proof – make use of testimonials on your services page. Customer testimonials are an important component because they provide credibility. Testimonials work because they aren’t strong sales pitches, but rather an unbiased voice that helps establish trust. When used correctly, testimonials are a fantastic tool to get prospects to trust your brand and commit to you.
4. Your Process
It’s a great idea to have a section on your process. This should come after you’ve shown potential clients that you understand their pain and can deliver the results they want.
Here you can spell out a three or four point plan that shows clients how to do business with you. Keep it simple, and use illustrations, icons or numbers to make it scannable. It takes the confusion out of your client’s journey and shows them easy-to-follow steps.
5. Your Services
When you actually get to the point where you’re writing about your services some things to keep in mind are:
- How will your potential client’s life be better or different thanks to this service?
- What three details are most compelling about this service?
- Who is it for and why would they need it?
- Why should they choose you to provide this service over someone else?
You really want to focus on benefits not features. And, be sure to be specific about the benefits. Also, don’t give more information than they actually need. In fact, after you write about your services, step back and read it over and think what information can you leave out?
6. FAQ
A frequently asked questions section is really helpful for potential clients. It’s a place where you can anticipate and answer their questions. Think back to prior sales calls and the kinds of questions prospects asked you – that’s exactly the kind of information you can include.
7. A Call to Action (CTA)
Have a clear call to action on your services page. What’s the next step? What is it you want a potential client to do? Make sure your CTA is aligned with what a potential client actually wants, and the step they are CURRENTLY ready to take. Generally, the CTA will be for the potential client to contact you or book a call. Make this very simple for them.
As you can see from the above 7 elements, in order to have an effective services page design, you really need to understand your audience first. Here are a few more questions to ask yourself and I’ll use my service, website design, as an example:
What is their awareness level?
How much do they already know about website design and hiring a website designer? Writing to a jaded audience who’s been burned by a website designer in the past is totally different from writing to an audience who doesn’t know anything about website design.
What are their pain points?
Why can’t my ideal client design their website themselves? What are they struggling with? In my case, website design is not only hard to learn, it’s time-consuming and technologically frustrating. Doing it wrong has serious consequences. I need to leverage those fears to sell the benefits of working with me.
What are their desired outcomes?
What do my ideal clients really want? Hint: it’s not a website! They want what websites can do – make them visible, drive business, attract their ideal clients, etc.
What are their anxieties?
What are my ideal clients afraid of? There can be many things such as untrustworthy vendors and wasting their money for no results.
One final item to consider is whether or not you’ll include pricing on your services page. There is no right or wrong here. It comes down to your business and personal preference. In my opinion, if you’re very busy and your pipleline is full, it might be a good idea to have pricing on your website. If you are newer to the industry and don’t have a full client roster, then it may be better for you to leave pricing off your website.
If you found this information about services page design helpful, I hope you’ll share it with others who may benefit from it using the links below.
If you’d like to start the conversation about working together, please fill out the client application form and I will be in touch to schedule a complimentary introductory call.
