10 elements of a high-conversion website
If you have a website, then most likely you are trying, in some way to get your visitors to do something. With professional service firms, typically, that action is to contact the firm, or fork over contact information (lead-gen). To be effective, all websites need to have a conversion strategy in place. Otherwise they have a good chance of simply taking up space on a server and draining your account of money.
A website should make you money, and conversions is how that money is made.
Here are 10 elements of a high converting website.
Calls to action
Number one on the list is the absolute most important element: Calls to action. Without calls to action the user will have little opportunity to know what you would like them to do. People need and want to know what to do next. By nature, most people aren’t too aggressive, even the ones who seem to be so. They also don’t want to think to hard and have to dig to find out what you would like them to do. Have a clear call to action saying exactly what it is that you would like them to do. Just take out the guesswork and you will be on your way to higher conversions.
Effective headlines
Your headlines need to be succinct and compelling. The homepage headline should sum up what the site is about and why it would benefit the user. Always think “what’s in it for them (the user)” when writing headlines.
We would all like to think that everyone cares deeply about our firm’s standards, procedures and awards, but the don’t. All they really care about is their problem and how you are going to solve it. It’s a hard truth but if you embrace it, you will have a lot more success creating effective headlines (and entire websites).
Clear, on-message design
This one is a biggie. Too many times firms settle for sub-par design that is off-message, cluttered and/or has no strategy behind it. While Tommy down the street may have a copy of dreamweaver and only charge $3/hr. you’re most likely missing out on business that could be generated via a well thought out and designed website.
Clear, on-message web design means that the entire site has a defined message that is being delivered throughout the layout, color, typography and imagery. The design should help to not only build trust, but guide the eye, and increase conversions. Invest in design and it will pay you back several times over.
Eliminate guesswork
People do not want to think too much. It’s unfortunate, but you have to meet them where they are at. Let’s face it, people are busy, they don’t have time to hunt around your site for an hour to find what they are looking for. Make sure that your site is designed to take the guesswork out of the equation. This goes along with having clear calls to action.
Incentive
Having an incentive is critical. You need to have some sort of free valuable resource to give people. Simply asking for their information is not only pushy, but a little rude. Put yourself in the user’s shoes. If someone were to ask you for your contact info, you would want something of value in exchange. That’s what I mean by incentive. Give them a no-brainer reason to become a lead.
Create a free report, video, audio seminar or any other kind of digital resource and give it away for free. You will see your conversions start to go up quickly.
Unique Value Proposition
How are you different from your competitors? What makes you unique? These are really tough marketing questions that many firms wrestle with. Answering them and then forming a value proposition is key to high conversion.
Visitors need to know why you are different from the bazillions of other firms out there, and they need to know quickly. Give them what they want. Create your unique value proposition.
Balance of information
This one is tough and has a lot to do with what industry you are in or what your market expects. Finding the balance between too much and too little information is tricky. Having too much content can lead to overwhelm. When a user is faced with too much information and choice it can be, well, too much. They can shut down and simply leave out of confusion.
Having to little information can have an adverse affect as well. It can lead to confusion on the part of the user and they can leave as quickly as they showed up.
The key is to know your audience and to keep it simple. Run some user tests and see how your balance of information works. Then, add or remove as necessary. Try to err on to little info on the homepage. You want to limit the amount of options that the user has as this can lead to inaction and frustration.
Intuitive navigation
Making it easy for your visitors to navigate your site is critical. An assumption that’s often made when it comes to navigation is that the user needs to see every possible option. Giving your users to many options can have an adverse effect and actually make navigating your website harder.
Keep your navigation simple and easy to find. Use a good amount of whitespace, or frame it in so that it stands out from the rest of the layout. It’s also a good idea to stick to conventions with a navigation system. You can be creative, but don’t overdo it. Getting to creative can create confusion.
User flow
Think about how your users are going to use your site. What are they looking for and how do you perceive that they are going to get there. Create user paths on a white board, scratch paper or with 3×5 index cards. These user paths help you to visualize the user flow of your site. This exercise can help you structure your site in a way that helps your users find what they need as well as meet your goals.
Personality
Finally, a site with no personality will not convert well. Unless you’ve hired the absolute best copywriter on the planet, you’re probably going to benefit from having some personality woven into your website.
Use images of people within your organization or images of happy clients. Breathe some life into your website through color and typography to engage your users. Doing so will build trust and aid in conversions.
Conclusion
Conversions are the name of the game on the web. If you’re looking to increase them on your website think about these 10 points and try to integrate them. Be sure to test after you’ve implemented your changes and measure your results. Keep adjusting until you get the results you’re looking for. Happy converting!
Tags: Conversions, Web Design, Web Strategy
Posted in Best Practices, Marketing, Web Design ·
Uncovering the importance of a strong brand identity
In our world, we are constantly bombarded with choices. On the one hand, this is truly an amazing thing. No longer are we left searching for a solution to many of the problems that we face. Often, we have 1, 2, 3, or 10 different choices, all with their own slight twist on the solution. It’s great, if you are the consumer, and a huge challenge if you are a business.
The modern prospect has learned to tune out much of the advertising and marketing that is constantly vying for their attention. Can you blame them? You probably do it to.
So, with that said, what is the value or importance of a strong brand identity?
A strong brand identity helps you cut through the clutter
First and foremost, a strong visual identity helps your firm stand out from all of the noise in your industry and the marketplace at large. Without a unique identity, you are almost guaranteed have no perceivable difference to your prospects. Note that I said, “Perceivable”. You are most likely VERY different from most of your competitors, but many potential clients will not even notice you without a strong visual identify. You run a serious risk of just being one of many—and you know, that you are not.
Your identity acts as a gentle salesman
Being nagged is no fun. But we don’t like being reminded of things that we enjoy in a gentle way. Your identity is that gentle reminder. I’ll use my addiction to Starbucks as an example. Every time I see the Starbucks logo, I think about how nice it would be to get an Americano and sit out in the sun and read a great book. These positive feelings come to me and I am compelled to go in and purchase a drink.
Now, I have enough self control to not act on those feelings all the time, but I do many times. Essentially, the Starbucks identity is acting as a subtle salesman gently reminding me that if I want to have a great experience in my day, I can. All I have to do is go in and buy a drink!
I should warn you, however, people are reminded of whatever experience that they have by your identity. If you are making your clients angry, frustrated or leaving them feeling undervalued, then your brand identity will remind them of all those feelings. So, make sure that your business is creating real value for people, then enhance it with a powerful identity.
Your brand identity keeps you relevant
Many times having an identity refresh is an effective way to stay relevant to your marketplace. Especially if a cooler competitor is gaining market share. It can send a clear signal to the market that your firm is still alive, active and really wants to serve the market’s needs.
Don’t ever copy a competitor’s identity or style. It’s one thing to re-brand to stay relevant, but another to emulate your competition. Offer up a solid choice for your market and you will be head and shoulders above much of your competitors.
Conclusion
Cutting through the clutter of today’s over-stimulated culture is no easy task. A unique, well planned and executed brand identity can help you gain the attention of your prospects and keep the attention of your current clientele.
Looking to convert more visitors into leads on your website? Get the free report here.
Tags: brand identity, branding, logo design, logos marketing, Marketing
Posted in Branding, Marketing ·
How to measure the success of your website
Having a website for your business is critical in today’s world. But, how do you know if your website is doing what it should? The key is to measure your success. Doing so will allow you to tangibly see the results and adjust your strategy along the way.
Install analytics
If you aren’t getting visitor data via analytics go and get some set up on your site today. It’s cheap or free and will give you the data that you need. You can see how many visitors you get each day, where they are coming from and what keywords they used to get to your site. This is all valuable information that will help you determine what is working with your site and what is not.
You can get really technical with analytics and set up all kinds of custom reporting, but at the beginning, stick to the basics and get your head around what’s going on with your site.
Set Goals
If you don’t have any goals for the website, it’s hard to measure anything. So, get some concrete goals down on paper and see how your site is performing.
For example, if you are a financial advisor your goal could be to get 2 leads from your website via an email newsletter sign up per month. This would be your initial goal. Then you would track your progress via your newsletter software and analytics. You would see whether people are hitting your landing page with your form enough or if you need to adjust the design to get more conversions.
Re-align constantly
In the past companies would redesign their website every 3-5 years. This can be costly and many people are not sure why they are doing it other than to “stay current”. That’s all well and good, and sometimes you really need to engage in a top to bottom redesign. However, a good practice for most businesses is to measure and adjust or re-align the website’s design on a continual basis. Doing so will give you better results, simply because you are basing your decisions on data and not just personal preference.
Get your analytics installed and start measuring your success. Evolve your website over time to help you achieve your goals faster. This way you can know that you are getting a solid return on investment.
Posted in Web Design ·
How to Build Unshakeable Trust Online
Building trust online is one of the most important activities that any business owner can be engaged in. Without trust, no one will buy your stuff. It’s that simple.
The challenge is that in the online world, trust does not come easy. While people are generally trusting online sources more and more, there is still a good deal of apprehension when people engage with businesses online.
Here are a few things that can help you build trust online. No one item will instantly build trust between you and your users, but a combination, over time, will position your business as a trustworthy source.
Look Your Best
Invest in the design of all aspects of your web presence. Having a branded, well-designed and cohesive message across all platforms gives people a sense of stability and trustworthiness. If your brand messaging looks disjointed, confusing or just plain tacky, people will tend to trust you less. You may be the most trustworthy business on the planet, but if people don’t perceive you in this way, then they won’t believe it. So, invest in the design of your website, blog and social media sites.
Give Proof
Testimonials are a key ingredient to building trust online. Your website should have testimonials throughout. Having names and organizations of the testimonial giver is critical. Take it a step further and include a photo. You can go even further and include a video testimonial. There’s really nothing more powerful in building trust than hearing a real customer/client sing your praises.
Keep Your Content Fresh
Let people know you’re alive! Having a website that has 3 year old content on it is going to do nothing for your business. Keeping your content fresh will let people know that you are still in business and ready to help them. A stale, old website or twitter feed with month old tweets says that you are either a) disorganized b) don’t care or c) out of business. Activity and updates are what attract new visitors and build trust in your organization.
The best way to keep your content fresh is to schedule time to work on your online presence. Have one day for blogging, one day to add content to your main website, and spend a half hour a day updating your social media outlets. This manageable system will keep your content fresh and not take up too much time.
Be Human
People don’t want to do business with websites, they want to do business with humans. The more you can ad a human touch to your site, the better. Add photos of you and your staff. Real images let people into your organization. Your users can get an inside look as to who you are and what you’re all about. Don’t underestimate the power of this simple strategy.
Be Accessible
Reply to any comments on your blog. Get back to people who contact you through your website in a timely manner. Don’t use an auto-responder for your contact form. Have a real person respond. Start and engage in conversations on social media without selling. Just be involved with the people that you serve.
Conclusion
Building trust is a good amount of work, but it is not too complicated. With a little persistence you can create an online presence that brings in new business that already trust and like you. And, it can do it while you sleep.
What do you think?
Posted in Best Practices, Web Strategy ·
How Often Should You Redesign Your Website?
Many website owners wonder how often they should redesign their site to stay current. There’s no hard and fast answer. Although many have tried to convince people that there is.
With the rapid changes in the technology space, you may be feeling a bit paralyzed when it comes to deciding whether or not to redesign your website. Should you do it now, in three years, maybe five? Don’t worry, you are not alone. Most business owners don’t know and even many designers simply pull a number out of a hat, unfortunately.
So, exactly how often do you need to redesign—it depends.
How often you redesign depends on your users’ expectations
If you have a site that is geared towards the elderly, the frequency of redesign would be rather minimal. The reason is that this particular demographic is just now getting used to being online. Their expectations are quite low.
In fact, if you redesign too often you may alienate users in the older demographic as they tend to value consistency and predicability more than other demographics.
If your site is geared towards a younger, more web-savvy demographic you may want to consider redesigning your site more often. How often? A good rule of thumb is 3-5 years.
However, there are some other considerations you should take into account.
Low conversion rate
If you are not tracking your conversions on your website, get started today! This is key information that will give you insight to how well your website is performing. Without trackable conversions, you really don’t have any idea about your site’s performance.
If you are tracking your conversions and see that you could use some (or a lot of) improvement, plan on redesigning soon. And here is a tip: don’t look at your competitor’s websites for inspiration, they’re probably not getting any better conversion rate than you! Hire a web design studio that understands conversion optimization and lead generation. That way, you not only will have an attractive site, but one that builds your business while you sleep!
Outdated design
This is a tricky one, because many people view design as a subjective discipline. But, go with your gut and the reactions of others. Get together with some people who you know will be brutally honest with you. Ask them what they think of your website. Hopefully they won’t just flatter you and say that your animated gifs and comic sans font are great. Get them to tell the truth.
A better way, however, is to benchmark your site with a more successful company (not nessesarily in your industry).
Look and see if there site is:
- Easier to use than yours
- More aesthetically pleasing
- More professional
- Mobile friendly
- Constant with other marketing messages and materials
If the answer is ‘yes’ to one or more of these attributes, then you may want to consider a redesign.
Get a website evaluation
Having your site evaluated by a professional is probably the best way to know wether or not you need to redesign your site. They can go over key points including: design, usability, brand messaging, mobile optimization and conversion optimization.
If you’re not sure if you need to redesign, but feel that you might, get in touch and we’ll give you a free 15 point website evaluation.
Tags: Web Design, website design, Website Redesign, when to redesign
Posted in Web Design, Website Redesign ·
How To Annoy Your Website Users, Guaranteed!
In a recent statistic around 75% of small businesses do not have a website. On the one hand, this is a tragedy. These small businesses could be missing out on a substantial amount of leads and new business.
On the other hand, this is a good opportunity for those small businesses to get online the right way. If you are thinking of getting your first website up, or if you already have one, here are some things to avoid when designing your website. Unless you want to annoy your users and lower your conversion rate!
Have a “Splash” or “Intro” Page
Ok, so you’ve got this amazing flash video presentation that you paid thousands for showing your products and services saving the world. It’s stunning, it’s entertaining, it’s dynamic and it’s going to annoy the pants off your users. Literally, the only people who care about this are YOU (and maybe your mother).
Your website users don’t want to see a fancy video presentation, usually. If they do, they want to have the control to start and stop it. Waiting 2 minutes for your splash page intro to finish is just making people angry and they will most likely leave your site. You may think it’s cool, but just don’t do it!
Have Auto-play Music or Video
It’s tempting, I know. You want to “set the mood” when people arrive. But, think about it. Many people listen to their own music while online. Now, when they visit your site, they hear your song clashing with their music causing a super-annoying soup of sound—not what you were going for.
What about the user who has their speakers or headphones up REALLY LOUD and forgot that they were on. All of a sudden your awesome music comes on and scares the daylights out of them! Again, probably not the impression you were going for.
Music is great to have on a website, just let your users control how and when they listen to it!
Have An All-Flash Website
Sorry to all the flash developers out there, but, flash is simply unnecessary these days. It adds no value to a website, and the few instances that flash would be semi-appropriate (like content sliders and image galleries), jQuery does a fine job.
If you are thinking of having your whole website built-in flash, just don’t do it. No one will be able to see anything on your site using an iPhone or iPad, your site will load slower, and Goggle won’t index your content. Just not a good idea and a great way to annoy your users.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, it’s best to stick with conventions. Don’t try and reinvent the wheel. Give your users control over their experience and you will have much more success online.
What else annoys you when visiting a website?
Tags: best practices, usability, Web Design, website design
Posted in Best Practices, Web Design, Website Redesign ·
How To Blog For Your Business
Many business owners know about blogging. They know that it can help their business. However, there is an apprehension to actually getting down to business and writing out a post.
This is completely understandable. Not everyone is excited about writing. Especially for business! It can be difficult to know what to write about and what content would be useful to users.
Here are a few things to help you get started
Write Posts That Help
Before you start a post, think, “How is this going to add value to my readers?”. This will prevent you from writing just about your business and your accomplishments. Not that it’s bad to write about those things, just keep those posts in moderation.
Try and write helpful posts that give some sort of value to your readers.
Break Up The Content
People scan web pages, and rarely read long paragraphs. Break up your content with headings and/or images. Write short, easily digestible paragraphs that deliver quick information. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: blogging for business, internet marketing, Marketing
Posted in Best Practices, Web Strategy ·
How To Not Get Burned by Your Web Designer
Taking up a website redesign project can be a daunting task for a business owner or marketing manager. There is a lot of complexity and discussions that have to be made in order to have a successful outcome. I’ve recently come across a few business people who have told me how they have been burned by their web designer when redesigning their website.
Weather it’s unmet expectations, poor quality work or unmet deadlines, too often people are left disappointed by the end result of their redesign project.
Here’s how not to get burned by your web designer.
Educate Yourself
You don’t need to be an expert, but having a grasp on where the web, social media and the internet in general is going is a good idea. Before you hire someone, give yourself a good 3-4 hours of study. Do this by reading top technology blogs like Mashable, and design blogs like Smashing Magazine. This will help you become prepared for hiring the right designer or firm.
Expect Good Communication
In any project, on the web or off, good communication is key to success. Be sure that when you are talking with your web designer that you have a good chemistry and communicate easily. This can save you from a ton of huge headaches in the future.
Expect A Thorough Quote
When getting quotes, expect a detailed one—not an email. There are some designers who, when asked for a quote, simply shoot off an email saying something like, “That would be around $xx,xxx”. This is a red flag, in my opinion. A designer who isn’t willing to put in the time to have a chat with you and write out a detailed quote on exactly what you are asking for, is more than likely not a professional. The communication will probably be poor and your expectations not met. Be sure to get a detailed quote that breaks dow exactly what you are getting, why you are getting it and the total investment involved.
Don’t Assume, Ask
If you are not sure if a certain feature is included in the quote, don’t just assume that it is. Ask your designer if that feature is going to end up in the final project. A good designer will gather the majority of the details of your project in the pre-bid discussions. Look over the features that are listed in the proposal/quote that is sent to you and ask questions if you are not sure if something is included. By default, extra features are not included, so be upfront and ask. This way you will get an accurate quote and wont be burned in the end.
Check The Portfolio
Look at previous work of the designer/studio to make sure that they have the experience necessary to bring your project from concept to reality. I’ve seen too many businesses hire “designers” with no portfolio or experience and regret it in the end. Even though the inexperienced designer may cost less, you need to see that they can deliver up-to or beyond your expectations. Many times, unfortunately, they cannot.
Overall, Expect Professionalism
Let’s face it, there is no shortage of people who can build a website for you. The question is, how are they going to do it, and how is the process going to be? Will you be pleased with the results? Are you going to enjoy the experience? If you do your due diligence and expect a friendly, professional experience, you will most likely get it and save yourself from getting burned.
Tags: hiring a web designer, Web Design, website design
Posted in Web Design, Website Planning, Website Redesign ·
6.5 Tangible Business Benefits Of Responsive Design
As we all know by now, mobile is the new black, pink and whatever other color you can think of. Mobile is not going away anytime soon and it is increasingly becoming integrated into our lives. In fact, studies show that mobile web browsing will outpace traditional desktop browsing within 2-3 years. Some studies say even sooner.
For business owners and marketers, this shift can seem daunting as it ads in a huge layer of complexity and perceived cost. What approach do you take? Where do you start, and when?
The when part is really up to you, but for the how piece of the puzzle, I would look no further than Responsive Design.
Here are 6.5 reasons why you should consider updating your company site to utilize Responsive Design.
1. You Will Save Money
Before the practice of Responsive Design was widely adopted (it still isn’t, really), if companies wanted to have an optimal mobile experience of their website a separate set of templates or a device-specific app had to be designed and developed.
As you might guess, this can get quite costly. One site for iPhone, one site for iPad, another for Android etc. Then, what happens when a new device comes out? Make another website or app specific to that device? I’m guessing most business owners don’t want to spend that kind of cash just to keep up.
The beauty of Responsive Design is in the fact that it enables your site to fit perfectly in any screen size. One website, all devices. That means that your website only has to be developed once, significantly reducing the cost. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: business website design, responsive design, Web Design, website design, Website Redesign
Posted in Best Practices, Development, Web Design, Web Strategy, Website Redesign ·
5 Essential Pages Your Business Website Needs
When I meet with clients for the first time, they are often very excited about starting or revamping their web presence. Many times, in the excitement, they haven’t given thought to what types of content/pages they want to have on their site.
While every business is different, these five pages are essential to a business website. The titles could change a little and maybe one or two top-level pages could be added, but generally, users want to see this info about your business. This list is a good starting point for most businesses out there.
Homepage
Ok, pretty obvious, I know. But it’s worth mentioning. Your homepage should be unique to all your other pages. It should be simple, clear and provide essential information to the user in a short amount of time.
Here’s a list of effective homepage elements:
- Unique Value Proposition
- Attention grabbing images/graphics
- Clear Call to Actioin Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: business website design, Content, Web Design, Web Strategy, website design
Posted in Best Practices, Web Design, Web Strategy ·