Show your industry expertise and make it easy to find familiar names.
Your website displays a list of clients demonstrating your experience in a specific industry or situation.
Think about the reader who arrives at your website and reviews the list.
She wants to make sure you can solve her problem because you have worked with others in the same field or have managed a similar issue recently.
Make it easy for the reader to confirm you are the professional she seeks.
List your clients in a way that showcases your successes in the industry.
Prove that you can satisfy that nagging need.
For example, an accountant in a beach resort community highlights her small retail business clients; they serve the same market and experience the same seasonality of revenue:
- amusement parks
- hotels
- restaurants
- souvenir shops.
In contrast, a graphic designer focuses on types of projects:
- brochures
- business cards and stationery
- logos
- website designs.
Within each category, the accountant and designer cite the actual clients, in alphabetical order, so the reader can easily find a name that is familiar.
Don’t simply assemble the entire list of names by alphabetical order or the chronological order in which you began working together.
This Month’s Tip
Take the reader by the hand and guide them through the list by using categories. Don’t make them scour the list in search of a name that aligns with their business or problem.
Now, imagine you are a pediatric dentist looking for a marketing consultant to promote your newly opened practice. Two marketers post their client lists on their websites. Review these lists, alphabetical and categorized, and see which one appeals to you:
| Brown Heart Institute | Natural and Organic |
| City Historical Museum | Natural Health Consultants |
| City Hotel | Neighborhood News Magazine |
| Dad’s Wine Cellar | Okinawa Sushi |
| Dynamic Dance Troupe | Parent Monthly |
| Eastern Brewery | Pediatric Center |
| Kevin’s Kitchen | Pierogis and Pasta |
| Local Wine Bar | Robertson Resort |
| Metropolitan Magazine | State Film Festival |
| Mountain Inn | Tony’s Hideaway |
| - - - - - - - - - - | - - - - - - - - - - |
| ARTS AND CULTURE | HEALTH AND WELLNESS |
| City Historical Museum | Brown Heart Institute |
| Dynamic Dance Troupe | Natural Health Consultant |
| State Film Festival | Pediatric Center |
| BAR | LODGING |
| Dad's Wine Cellar | City Hotel |
| Eastern Brewery | Mountain Inn |
| Local Wine Bar | Robertson Resort |
| DINING | Tony’s Hideaway |
| Kevin’s Kitchen | MEDIA |
| Natural and Organic | Metropolitan Magazine |
| Okinawa Sushi | Neighborhood News Magazine |
| Pierogis and Pasta | Parent Monthly |
As a pediatric dentist, which marketing consultant displaying these clients has the experience you seek?
I would contact the person with the categorized list. It shows she has worked in health and wellness, including children’s health, plus she is connected to a parent magazine.
Sadly, that relevant experience is obscured by the bars, restaurants and hotels in the alphabetical list.
Contact
Which of the two examples does your client list resemble: alphabetical or categorized? When a reader scans your list for a certain industry or problem in their business, will they find it right away? Let’s review your client list and find the best way to display your experience. Contact me at Janet@JanetLFalk.com , set an appointment here or call me at 212.677.5770. Together we’ll re-organize the names or projects of your clients, making the list scannable for website visitors, and, perhaps, viewers of your LinkedIn profile.
Click here to read prior issues of this newsletter.
Click here to subscribe to this monthly newsletter and make sure you don’t miss the next issue.
This discussion was prompted by the client list on the website of a networking contact. I wrote a LinkedIn post about it in January 2021, without naming the site. The website owner thanked me and promised to update it soon. Sadly, there is no change as of September 2021. Take note of that example.