Jun
09
2010

Want a Sale? Make the Next Step Obvious

You have traffic coming to your blog or website.  You’re using social media to network and build relationships.  A person comes to your landing page on your site, ready to purchase — credit card in hand — but there are too many choices.  They’re not sure what to do next.  So they give up and leave.

Think this isn’t happening to you? Take a look at your analytics and see how many people are getting to your landing page (they’re interested) and how many people are actually going through with the sale (sales or thank you page).
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Apr
13
2010

Is it Possible to Write Good Titles for People, Search Engines & Social Networks?

Titles are the first thing many readers see of your blog posts, videos or other content.  They’re used for search engine optimization (SEO), show up in search results, and are the only thing visible on many social networks and content sharing sites.  So how should you write your titles? For people? For search engines? Or for Social Networks? Is it possible to write a good title for all of them?
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Apr
09
2010

Are You Standing in the Way of Your Customers?

You’re in business to sell something.  You have some sort of action you’d like customers to take while on your website.  Are you making that action and how to take it clear?  Or are you setting up roadblocks that make the process frustrating which leads to lost business?
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Mar
26
2010

Balancing Good Design with Needed Functionality

When designing a website or online service, companies often have a whole slew of great ideas for functionality.  When is enough enough?  Can a simple design suffice?  How do you make choices about what features to incorporate?

Even the simplest of interfaces, Twitter, has begun to add more complexity with new retweet features, lists, trending topics, and more. Aesthetically, “good design” means design that is appealing to the eye, and is easily navigated visually. With this idea, it is important that complex interfaces are well designed so that the users who prefer simplicity do not feel overwhelmed. – Finding the Balance of Design and Functionality (ReadWriteStart)

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Oct
08
2009

Why Don’t You Want Customers to Contact You?

customersEllievanhoutteEver done a bunch of research, finally decided to get a product, gone to the website and found the only way to contact them is through a contact form?  While eCommerce websites are usually pretty savvy about letting their customers contact them through multiple ways, normal businesses sometimes give off the “go away” vibe unintentionally.

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Aug
26
2009

Navigation Isn’t a Feature of Your Website, It IS Your Website

compassPSD

Discussions about navigation on a website usually revolve around where to put them and what items should be in them.  But without navigation on a website, there is no website, just the one page where a visitor entered your site.

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Jul
13
2009

When They Can't Figure Out Your Site, People Turn to Search – Have One?

searchledoojacheretriennalesoonUsually when people come to a website, they’re looking for something.  And they hope they can find it on the first page, but if not, most are willing to scan the page to see if there’s a link that may lead them there.  This behavior really points out the importance both of properly organizing the information on your website, as well as having a navigation/menu system that people can quickly and easily understand.

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Jul
07
2009

Your Website is Your Business Card

sazbeanbizcardWhat does your paper business card look like? It probably has your name, your company logo, some contact information and maybe a quick tagline summarizing what your company does.  People can find all the information they need to contact you just by glancing at your card.

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Jul
01
2009

What Your Website Visitors Initially See – The 5 Second Glimpse Test

The first time visitors come to a site they usually spend less than 5 seconds figuring out if they’re in the right place.  Right place being, of course, where they can get whatever information it is that they’re looking for.  During those 5 seconds you need to communicate what your site is about, what information you have to offer, and how they’ll be able to navigate the site, so it touches on design, usability, content and marketing…

What do visitors see during those 5 seconds?  Try The 5 Second Glimpse Test:

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Jun
26
2009

The Value of a Website's Tagline

uniqueDelphineThere’s nothing new about taglines.  They’ve been used in different types of media for quite some time as a way to summarize the entire company/product/organization in a short bit of space/time.  On a website, the tagline is usually a short bit of a text near the logo to describe what that site is. They’re the first glimpse into exactly what it is you do.  If the tagline isn’t clear, visitors will have to spend more time figuring that out (which they may not).  Often visitors enter your site somewhere other than the homepage and the tagline may be the only real description on the page where they do enter.

A good tagline should:

  • Be clear & informative
  • Be short & concise (six to eight words)
  • Differentiate your business
  • Offer at least one clear benefit
  • Be personable and catchy (hopefully a bit clever)
  • Be unique
  • Stand on its own

This may seem like a lot of weight on just a short phrase, but good taglines are invaluable for differentiating yourself and quickly describing what it is you do.  Once you have a good one you’ll be able to use it on all your marketing materials and advertising.  If you don’t know how well your tagline works, try showing someone (or telling) your tagline and see what it is they think you do.

How do you use your tagline?

(photo by Delphine – Very very busy :/ @ Flickr CC)

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