How many websites do you own?

A sales person rang me up today to tout his web-hosting company. He began with the usual spiel ‘We’ve looked at your website and we think we can provide some improvements for it’…

Further questioning on my part revealed his company was offering hosting at £49 a month, and my bombshell was that I was receiving perfectly adequate hosting per website for £1.50 a month. Ummm. His offer included hosting all my websites under one roof for his price. ‘How many websites do you think I have?’ I asked. ‘Oh, several, at least 100.’

Imagine my astonishment! I asked him how could I spend the time managing 100 websites: updating, reworking, adding new material, working at the SEO… ‘Oh, we’ll do all of that’ was his cheerful reply.

Excuse me, I’m not letting any old riff-raff near any of my websites. I’ve done enough research to know his company won’t have a clue in how I work, how to promote my new projects, my style and presentation – OK, maybe they will have time for SEO and other areas like that, but I certainly won’t let them do any web-writing.

And how many websites to I have? Two. I’d rather pay £3 a month to look after them myself, thank you. Rash, maybe, but sometimes I like to be in control, and I would rather vet my own SEO expert before commissioning one.

He obviously hadn’t looked at my main website or he would have realised I wasn’t the kind of organisation to have 100 websites. OK, there are some trains of thought that suggest each marketing campaign should have its own URL for the landing page. There are obvious good reasons for this, and this practice could easily result in a large collection of squeeze websites that need to be hosted collectively somewhere.

Unfortunately for him I was not in the market for that service at that time, and having told him he was barking up the wrong tree ‘big time’, the poor man was cruelly sent on his way with a flea in his ear.

Create a call to action on every webpage

I really don’t mind giving my opinion on website design. And it’s always so nice to comment on a really good one for a change.

A photographer friend of mine asked for my reaction to his new website design while it was being renovated. My first reaction was very positive, with its clean, clear, crisp lines providing a very professional layout. It was the grey words and logo on the white background that did it for me – how nice to see an uncluttered presentation with plenty of white space and light!

But I felt compelled to provide some comments to increase his website efficiency:

The index page should work to the three second rule. Three seconds to make up their minds that this is the right website and what they should then do. Getting the visitors to do something is paramount; they should be encouraged to go further into the site to learn more, or sign up to something with a suitable incentive (this is to gather their details for future communications). The last thing you want is for them to leave!

Also, don’t overload other pages with detailed content. My friend’s grey text may have looked elegant and contributed to the spatial atmosphere that was so pleasing, but it did make it very difficult to read in large quantities. Websites are not like books. People don’t find it easy to sit down and read through webpages with a cup of tea. Also if they are surfing they usually do not have the time to plough through densely packed paragraphs.

Your accompanying webpages should act like little landing pages for specific subjects. This means they should contain the same structure and marketing elements as the index page, because spiders direct surfers to the most relevant page to their search, and this may not be the index page of the website. Allow for drop-in visitors for that particular subject, and adapt the page for the three second rule too.

Design your webpages with the initial concept of getting your customers to make contact. Once you’ve got them across your threshold then you can give them all the necessary detail to seal your capture. Your content should be delivered quickly and concisely with poignant and relevant information. Separate each benefit with bullet points or paragraphs. This allows the eye to rapidly choose what it wants to read and then enables the reader to digest and take action.

How to effectively combine on-line and leaflet marketing campaigns

Adapt your marketing campaign to collect customers’ contact details, either to buy from you immediately, or to communicate, educate and persuade towards a purchase in the future. Use forward planning to understand how your customers think in relation to what you are offering them.

Leaflets campaigns use headlines to attract attention, which need to be extremely relevant and empathise with your customers’ problems. The same applies to advertising in magazines and other publications, and also on-line, such as pay per click, banner advertising, article writing, commenting on forums and social networking. Concentrate on your customers’ needs and wants and how you can help them, and do market research to find out suitable keywords for your headlines, or what is being typed into search engines.

Focus on one particular scenario and publicise it: create a perfect customer, give them a troublesome problem and provide a fantastic solution, and then market only that. Your customers will find it much easier to relate and adjust their way of thinking towards your perfect customer, rather than you relating to all of them.  Use the marketing techniques outlined in Parts I to IV.

Once you’ve got your customers’ attention, it’s important to collect their contact details before they disappear. Create a compelling call to action, such as an introductory discount, an explanatory video or audio, a ‘special report’ or an offer of free time or consultancy, and direct your customers to a telephone number allocated for this campaign, or to a special landing page on your website.

Website landing pages should have one function only: to get warm leads to sign up. Only use persuasive text to lead up to the sign up form, and delete any other links as distractions. Collect names, email addresses and other relevant data, but limit the number of fields to encourage a response. Set up an autoresponder behind your landing page to collect these details into a safe and secure database, to immediately deliver your call to action, and to create email messages to act as follow-ups. These will help to reinforce your message, provide necessary additional information, remind customers to act upon your special offer and allow links to other aspects of your business.

Some companies use e-newsletters or e-zines for more leisurely communication with their warm leads once the autoresponder emails have finished. (You could also send out paper newsletters if it’s more suitable for your customer base.) They have the advantage of being more visual, information based and provide long-term persuasion tactics through further education and exploration on the many parts of your business. After all, you may have used only one specific area to capture their interest, but by revealing the remainder of your business it may encourage them and their colleagues to learn more about other products or future offers and be persuaded to buy again.

How to make your clicks more effective

A website owner was moaning to me about how much he had spent on pay per click (PPC) advertising and had got very little in return. This is probably because he had entered into the venture by himself, so obviously there were some concepts he was not using correctly.

To start with I would advise you to go see a Google Adwords expert, because this is the area they work in every day, so they understand how to effectively use this system and will get the best deal for you.

But if you don’t, then here are some things to consider. First, each PPC advert works on the effective use of keywords. You can find these out through sites like Wordtracker.com where you will see which keywords surfers on the net are using the most. But this means the most popular words cost more to use, so it is worth looking further afield or thinking outside the box to find more cost efficient versions.

Second, where are you sending your clickers? You may have produced an effective ad which get lots of clicks at a reasonable cost, but how can you maximise on converting them into paying customers? Consider the subject of your advert, and then look at the landing webpage. Is it relevant?

It’s no good having an advert on one particular subject, let’s say baked beans, and your advert’s URL directs your customers to the index page of Heinz. Your customers are looking only for baked beans, so give them a landing page which is solely about baked beans. Going to a more general page will not only put off your customers, they may get diverted onto another subject or leave through another link. Your landing page needs to be totally focused on the subject at hand.

Third, what is the objective to your PPC advertising? Your landing page should have one aim and that is to get your customers to do something: contact you for more information, sign up for a free gift or special report, fill in a questionnaire or whatever. Don’t expect people to respond to an unfocused or cryptic message, or just the index page of your website which doesn’t have the advert’s subject immediately available.

You need to effectively guide your customers to do what you want them to do, but without being condescending in your approach. Explain concisely and coherently the purpose of the advert, and limit the number of choices to achieve a more positive response.

How to make a postcard campaign work

At a ‘Power Breakfast’ this morning I gave some tips away about how to design a postcard marketing campaign with marketing in mind.

In today’s world it’s not enough to design a pretty postcard and send it out to lots of people to see if any of them will buy from you.  Here are six of various factors that need to come into play:

First, assess your target market. Are you sending your postcard to the right people? Don’t waste your precious marketing material on the wrong kinds of business or individuals.

Second, how are you going to get a return from your campaign? The take-up rate for mail-outs is usually 0.5% – will that be enough? Is it cost effective? Would you like to capture your potential clients’ details so you can communicate with them later?

Third, when putting together a postcard campaign, consider these other elements. Do you have a good call to action your prospective clients will react to? Do you have something of value to offer them that they can’t refuse, but doesn’t quite give them everything? Do you have a method of collecting names and emails into a database for later use?

Fourth, if you have a website, could you set up a ‘landing page’ specifically for this postcard campaign? This is a stand-alone webpage that re-emphasises the information on your postcard, provides a large telephone number for contact, and displays a sign-up form to download a special incentive or free gift as part of your call to action. Its main purpose is to capture their details or get them to call you to find out more.

Fifth, the postcard itself will have to use the AIDA marketing technique, which consists of a catchy yet relevant headline to draw attention to the main message, bullet points of your benefits (not features) that are in the customer’s interest, a call to action by offering a juicy incentive, and clear and large contact details. A bright and colourful picture will help too.

Sixth, once you’ve got their email details, then you can use them to set up a relationship with them through an e-newsletter. It is quite normal to have to contact prospective clients several times in many formats before they come round to buying from you. Keeping regular updates on how your company is doing, any new products/concepts/services/etc on offer, crowing about any successes or achievements, testimonials from satisfied clients, descriptions of how you overcame particular problems and what results it had – the list is endless as long as it’s relevant, readable and entertaining. Make sure your prospective clients will read and look forward to the next issue, and if you include more call to actions within your posts, you will eventually get more sales.

If you want to know more, I will setting up a series of e-books based on combining design with marketing (or marketing with design – take your choice) which will explain this in more detail. Watch this space. Meanwhile, visit my website and join up to my newsletter to find out more about what I do.

Many Layered Word Cake

Last week I ventured into the world of words in business. One aspect to consider is the words used in a website. Your webpages should be relevant to your campaign, so research into your target audience and then produce benefits for them: find the pain and offer a solution.

Dont’ forget to elaborate on your individuality or speciality, and you can make it more important by relating a successful scenario, or provide a series of examples and think up a brilliant call to action they cannot refuse. Gather customer details in return for something of value, to be used to form a relationship. But above all eliminate the complication factor: take your customers by the hand and gently lead them in the right direction: make it obvious but not condescending, enticing and relevant, worth-while but not dull.

Investigate into relevant website keywords by taking a step back and thinking like a potential customer; undertake research into what people type into a search engine to find your business and go to websites like Wordtracker.com to find out what the latest trends are and how surfers think.

If keywords are the building bricks of a website, then the tags in the code (behind the scenes) represent the mortar. These use the keywords to provide the necessary food to please the ‘spiders’ (search engine robots) and give them something varied and interesting to do. Links also contribute to spider happiness and come in the form of anchor, incoming or contextual (internal, external or descriptive), leading to lots of activity rewarded by recognition and eventually a higher search engine position!

Landing pages – how to attract visitors

People search the web for information. They type in either individual words or a question into a search engine such as Google, and this throws up a series of websites whose SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) relates to that request.

Therefore it’s important to make sure the ‘landing page’ your customer visits is relevant to their search.  This is not necessarily your website’s homepage, the ‘spiders’ (robots who roam the net for the search engines) may offer up another of your webpages that contains the information requested.  Don’t assume your homepage will always be the first point of entry, you should treat each webpage as a potential ‘homepage’ for the product it represents; it might be advantageous for you to present one item per page in order to make it easier for the viewer (as well as the ‘spiders’) to read and digest.

Here’s another thought. Once the surfer has ‘landed’ on a webpage, which, of course, contains all the information they are seeking, how easy should it be for them to leave?  If they do, where do they go? To the rest of your website? To a sign-up form for more information, a freebie or a newsletter, leaving their contact details behind them? Or back to the internet, never to be seen again?

How do you keep your visitor once they’ve landed? Research shows you have about three seconds to make an impression before they go elsewhere. Three seconds for them to act, whether it’s to realise this is the correct webpage they want, read the content, click on a link, sign up for something, note down your telephone number, send you an email or decide even to buy from you.

One way to keep your customer’s attention is through the headline on your webpage (this is both at the top of the page and within the head code). Hit them with a catchy, scintillating and, most importantly, relevant first line that says exactly what’s in the tin. Stuff it full of adwords, yet don’t make it too long; it should be clear, concise and uncluttered to entice the visitor to read on.  Try offering a provocative question, make an outrageous statement, provide a solution to a problem, play with the words through alliteration or a popular phrase, but above all, avoid ambiguity.

Be aware of what is immediately visible on your webpage.  If you have a lot of relevant and necessary content (the more you can say, the better chance you have) which results in a long page, position your most important information at the top.  The space ‘above the fold’, ie what can be seen before scrolling down, should contain an enticing summary with links to further material elsewhere on that page. Make sure you include everything that is needed to get your visitor to take action: sign ups for freebies or a newsletter, great graphics, your telephone number or email link, an effective navigation bar, all presented as clearly as possible from the beginning.  Don’t loose anything by placing it too far down to be noticed, you can’t guarantee further exploration.

And one final point – don’t clutter up your webpage.  Avoid unnecessary gimmicks such as Flash and moving images, they only distract, annoy and do absolutely nothing for your SEO. Simplicity is the key, with clear, relevant graphics (you could make them into colourful and noticeable links), suitably enhanced with alt tags; a restrained use of colour, keeping it to maybe just three including the text colour; a white or pale background: using reversed text and graphics on black results in reduced legibility; and carefully constructed text written by an experienced copywriter: the correct use of adwords is vital for SEO, especially if they match your metatags.