Follow the 7 step blueprint

Plan a website that moves people forward.

A practical guide to understanding your users, sharpening your message and creating a website that is focused on clear outcomes.

Before you start

Make the tension clear.

A strong website makes the gap between where your user is now and where they want to be feel obvious.

Your user arrives with a problem, a frustration, a need or a desire. On the other side is the outcome they are hoping for, the better situation they want to reach.

Your job is to make that tension clear. Help them recognise the problem they have, show them the better outcome that is possible, and then position your offer as the bridge between the two.

That means being very clear about what your offer actually is, who it is for, and how it solves the problem. If the user cannot quickly understand the problem, the outcome and your role in getting them there, the website will struggle to move them forward.

The problem

Where is your user now, and what are they struggling with?

The tension

Why does that problem matter, and what happens if it stays unresolved?

Your offer

How do you bridge the gap and help them reach the better outcome?

Step 1

What does your user want?

Understanding what your ideal visitor is like allows you to tailor the content of your site to their needs.

What are they like? What is their job or role? What is their age, gender and background? Why are they visiting your website? What is their motivation?

These are all good questions to ask, but ultimately we want to understand what they want and how it relates to your brand.

It is important to try and focus on the root of their desire.

Their desire might be

The desire to conserve financial resources
The desire to conserve time
The desire to build community
The desire to accumulate resources or money
The desire to be generous or to do good
The desire for meaning
The desire for learning, self improvement and development

Your answers — step 1

Who is your ideal user? (optional)

What does your user want? (optional)

Step 2

What is their problem?

Users often come to you with a problem. If you are able to identify and categorise these issues it gives you a huge advantage.

A problem often has three levels of conflict that we can also define.

Root problem

What is the root problem? A singular, relatable and real issue.

Example: increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are causing irreversible climate change.

External problem

What is the main external issue that you solve?

Example: we plant trees to offset an individual's carbon footprint.

Internal problem

How does the problem personally relate to the user?

Example: people feel a weight of responsibility for the effect they are having on climate change. They want to be seen as playing their part.

Philosophical problem

What is the wider problem? Is there a philosophical wrong your brand stands for?

Example: users want to look after the planet for future generations or their grandchildren.

Your answers — step 2

What is the root problem? (optional)

What is their external problem? (optional)

What is their internal problem? (optional)

What is their philosophical problem? (optional)

Step 3

How do you position yourself as a trusted guide?

Users are visiting your site because they believe that you might be able to help them.

You need to position yourself as their trusted guide. This can be done through two ways.

Empathy

How do we understand and relate to our users? How do we show we care?

Empathy helps increase trust.

Authority

How do you show you are an authority?

This can be done through testimonials, awards, qualifications and case studies.

You are the guide and the authority who can help your user solve their problem.

Your answers — step 3

How will you show empathy? (optional)

How will you demonstrate authority? (optional)

Step 4

What are their barriers?

Once you have the attention of your user you will then need to convince them to take the action you want.

A key part of that is understanding the barriers that stand in their way. Your website should help bridge these gaps.

This can be done with the use of an agreement plan. In other words, an agreement you make with the user of all the things you are going to do if they trust you.

List all the objections and barriers you think users might have against you and decide on your counter argument.

Argument

Charities waste a large amount of money on admin and marketing.

Counter

100% of your donation goes straight to the front line.

Your answers — step 4

What objections and barriers might users have? (optional)

How will you address their concerns? (optional)

Step 5

What is your plan for them?

A plan should create clarity for the user.

It should do one of two things:

Give clear direction on how a user should do business with you.

Help reduce risk for the user who is considering doing business with you.

This can be achieved with a process plan, a post process plan or a combination of both.

A process plan

A step by step guide of what you want them to do.

A post process plan

What will happen next?

Your answers — step 5

What steps do you want users to take? (optional)

What will happen next? (optional)

Step 6

How do you call them to action?

We need to make it clear what we want our users to do. This is done through clear and bold calls to action. These can be categorised into two types: direct and transitional.

Direct

Examples include: Donate today, book an appointment, buy now, sign up to the course.

Transitional

These are less direct and pose less risk to the user. They are intended as a stepping stone for users who might not be ready to commit.

They often include something for free. For example: download our checklist, download our video, attend our free webinar.

Transitional calls to action are often used to counter the barriers users might have and help build trust in you as the guide and authority.

They also allow you to increase contact opportunities with your user.

Your answers — step 6

What is your direct call to action? (optional)

What transitional calls to action will build trust? (optional)

Step 7

Show them success and failure.

What is at stake for your user? What might be the consequences of their decision?

We can do this by showing them what might happen if they do not buy from you and what good will happen if they do.

Avoid failure

What negative consequences are you helping your users avoid? Do these consequences affect themselves or others?

Achieve success

We need to make it clear what positive effects come about from interacting with your brand.

Before and after interacting with your brand
Your user	Before your brand	After your brand
What do they have?	What do they have before interacting with you? (optional)	What do they have afterwards? (optional)
What are they feeling?	How do they feel before? (optional)	How do they feel afterwards? (optional)
What is their life like?	What is their life like before? (optional)	What is their life like afterwards? (optional)
What is their status?	How do they see themselves before? (optional)	How do they see themselves afterwards? (optional)

Your answers — step 7

What negative consequences will you help users avoid? (optional)

What positive outcomes will you help users achieve? (optional)

Your blueprint

Share your website plan.

Answer the questions relevant to your organisation, then submit your blueprint. Your name and email address are required.

Your name (required)

Email address (required)

Organisation (optional)

Next steps

Turn the thinking into a website plan.

By answering the questions set out in this template you are giving yourself a much better chance of designing and developing a website that has greater impact and is far more focused on your goals.

The next step from here would be to start to write and develop your key marketing messaging and design a site map to show how your website will be structured.

If you have an existing website we would highly recommend running a full website audit.

This would help highlight key areas including your current visitors' behaviour, what pages are currently popular or not, and discover what external websites are currently linking to you.

Find out about our website audit

Need some help?

Book your free Charity Website Consultation.

For help in developing and planning your website project further, why not book a free discovery consultation with us.

Book a consultation

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