Begin setting up your website with B12

Now that you know more about elements that contribute to an eye-catching website that pushes your business goals forward, it’s time to get more acquainted with B12. 

Their website builder can cut out the stress of creating your own website. In this step, we’ll walk you through B12’s onboarding flow. But before we get into that, let’s quickly go over website must-haves:

• Alignment with branding → You want your website to be consistent across the board when it comes to your company’s color, logo, and font. This makes it easier on the eyes to keep clicking through your website and demonstrates consistency.

• Clear call to actions → Remember Alice Lemée’s eight contact buttons just on her landing page alone? It’s not annoying to keep nudging prospective clients to get in touch with your website. It can‌ be helpful. It clearly works for Lemée given her success! 

• Make it easy for clients to book your services, buy your product, or reach out to you → You don’t want clients to have to hunt around your website all to try to figure out how to contact you. They likely will give up halfway through the process and move on to another freelancer. So, make it a no-brainer to hire you with a website that advertises your services and how to contact them.  

Okay, let’s get down to business!

Get started with B12

It’s really easy to get started with B12 and you can build an entire website in less than an hour.

1. Click on this link from B12’s website.

2. Enter your email address.

3. Enter your business name (if you don’t have one right now, that’s okay. You can use your own name and update your business name later).

4. If you have a website already, enter it here. B12’s algorithm can collect relevant text, images, and video and integrate them into your new site.

5. Enter your business address. This is optional. If you don’t have one, or work from home and want to keep that information private, you can skip this.

6. Enter your team size. If it’s just you working for your business, that’s totally fine!

7. Enter your business category. There are categories and then subcategories, as you see below. This way, you can be specific about your offerings.

8. Now is where you choose whether you want the B12 team to create your website for you or if you’d rather design your site yourself. If you want to save time or build a more robust digital presence, the first option is probably a better fit. However, the second option can be a great choice if you find joy in activities like this, have some time set aside to work on this project, or don't have a large budget.

If you opt for B12 to build your site, a B12 representative will call you ~5 minutes after you select that option. 

The call with the rep lasts around 10 to 15 minutes, so make sure you have the time available when you select “Have our experts build your site”. They’ll ask you questions to learn about your business and what your needs are. The representative will then schedule a demo call for you, where you’ll see a full demo of the product, will be provided with a price, and decide if you want to use B12’s support services.  

Reminder, looks matter

It’s not just about the information on your site, but also about how it looks! Here’s a run-down of options when you start the design process of your website with B12:

• Pick a theme.

• Pick your color palette.

• Pick a font.

• Update your logo.

• Select a cover photo. There are sites you can get free images from like Unsplash, Pexels, Adobe Stock, and iStock (limited free photo collection). 

Here are a few examples of all three aspects combined from different B12 websites. As you can see, the themes, colors, and fonts all differ. This gives you a taste of what’s possible with B12!  

Amy enjoys creative projects and decides to create her own website. She sets aside an hour and a half each afternoon for a week to guarantee she has enough time to get the site exactly where she wants it.

She likes the preset color options in B12, but decides to put together her own color palette that she feels better reflects her brand. Making the site takes less time than she expects and this affords her extra time on crafting clear services and offerings.

In the next step, we’ll outline your services and add those to your new website. It’s important to clearly communicate what you have to offer because this can be a turning point in if a client decides to hire you.

Recap 

• Learned the essential elements of a website. 

• Acquainted yourself with B12’s set-up process.