Whether you’re DIYing your website or working with a designer, a strategy should play a foundational role in your website design process.

Without a strategy, you’re simply throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping that something will stick. Your prospects aren’t likely to take action and will leave your site quickly unless you have a plan in place.

This is why each one of my client design projects begins with a Creative Strategy Session to kick off the project and start things on the right foot. Today I’m going to share with you exactly how that strategy session goes down.

You’ll learn what happens on that Zoom call with me so that you know exactly what to expect when we work together to craft an amazing website for your wellness business.

Or, if you want to DIY you can use this as a guide on how to create a website strategy for your health and wellness website. Alright, let’s get started!

Give me the Details

And I mean all the details! I want to start our project together by really getting to know you and everything I can about your business. I’ll kick things off by sending you a Website Questionnaire so that I can get some of these key details to create a strategy for your website.

Yes, I want to know how your business started and how it’s evolved over the years. But what I really want to get into is your goals and big picture aspirations. Because I want to create something that’s going to help you reach your current goals and allow you to easily expand your business to accommodate those future goals.

On the questionnaire, I’ll ask you for details about your ideal client, what you want to be known for, and how your signature offer helps your clients. These are all important things to really dive into before we even start talking about the pretty design details.

I’ll gather all the information I need to develop an understanding and create a strategy to convey your value to your audience with messaging and design.

Let’s Talk Creative Strategy

Now that I’ve gotten to know you and your business a little better it’s time for us to meet face to face. We’ll chat 1-on-1 over Zoom to make sure that we’re on the same page, strategy-wise, before I start designing.

Here’s what you can expect to happen on our call together and how to create a website strategy for your health and wellness website:

Homework:

We’ll start by going over your website questionnaire. I’ll ask any follow-up questions that I have based on your answers. Usually, this means that I’ll ask you to clarify things or maybe give me some more details about some of your answers. We’ll also chat about creating copy for your website and go over deadlines.

Sitemap:

We’ll talk about the pages that will be on your website and develop a sitemap while we’re on the call. Creating a simple and easy to use menu is super important to guiding users around in a strategic way. I’ll come prepared with a preliminary sitemap that we can discuss and edit.

Goals:

We’ll talk all about your primary and secondary goals for the website. I’ll help you create goals for the site that tie into your short and long term business goals. Insuring that your launch is a success!

For many of my clients, their primary goal is to build their email list. In this case, we’ll make that a big focal point of the website design so that users are more likely to take that action. We’ll discuss your opt-in incentive and make sure that it’s a good fit for your growth strategy.

A secondary goal is just that, secondary. The primary goal is the most important and the secondary goal is the 2nd most important goal. We’ll make sure that this is included on relevant pages so that users take action when needed.

Design:

Now for the fun part, where we talk all about design! We’ll start by chatting about what you like, don’t like, and overall what you have in mind for the website design.

Some of my clients like to show me websites that they love and some prefer to leave it completely up to me. Either way, I listen and provide input at this point in the process.

Nothing is finalized, design-wise when we get off of our call. But I jump off the call feeling inspired and usually have a good idea of the direction I’d like to go with the design.

With some projects, we may need to follow-up with some more design strategy after our call together. This could be a moodboard, styling tile or even a Pinterest board where we can collaborate together.

Each Creative Strategy Session is a little different but they all follow a similar flow. My goal when I get on the call is to get to know your business, start establishing the foundation of your website strategy, and talk about design before we get into the process.

The strategy is the base that all of the design decisions are made from so these conversations are very important to make sure we’re on the same page.

I hope that this post explained how the strategic part of my design process works. You got a behind the scenes look at my website questionnaire and my creative strategy session call. I hope you now know how to create a website strategy for your health and wellness website.

If you need a little extra help then grab a copy of my Wellness Website Workbook below. It will help you establish a strategy for your website that focuses on who you serve and what you want to be known for.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Wellness Website Method and working together then I’d love to hear from you! Head on over to this page to learn more about the design process and get started today.

Grab Your Copy of the Wellness Website Workbook: