by Christi on April 16, 2012
Website design is an important part of internet marketing, but it is just a part. How often, in website design circles, do you think a discussion with a client starts out with questions centered around how the website should “look” or “feel?” Probably, more than you may think. How often do you think that is the wrong place to start? What is your guess? My answer isn’t a guess, it is a statement that how the website “looks” and “feels” is ALWAYS the wrong place to start. Don’t get me wrong, you will need to get to those issues at some point, but it is certainly never the first issue.
Let’s look at what is important to your customers when they visit your website:
From: HubSpot
76% of people think that finding what they want is the most important factor of design, while only 10% think beauty is most important. Having an attractive website is important, but making sure that people can find what they are looking for is most important. Possibly, the first questions for clients should be centered around things such as:
- What is the goal of your website?
- What do you want people to do once they are on your website?
- What calls to action do you need on your website?
- Who is your target audience?
Once you have answered some of these basic questions, the design can fall into place around that. Remember, every element of your website should have a purpose. Making it easy for visitors to discover the information they are looking for in an easy to navigate, simple way is most important. It is what will convert visitors into leads and customers for your business which is, generally, the ultimate purpose of your site.
The actual “design” as in the layout, colors and fonts on your website are the easiest part to put together. Your site should be aesthetically pleasing, but just make sure it does not distract from the information and calls to action that you present. Pretty, elegant and simple are good goals to reach for as far as looks. Just keep it simple. Think about your own experience with websites. Have you ever done business with someone you found online because of the font they used on their website? What about the background color or layout? Has that ever gotten you to pick up the phone? Most likely not. Those are just elements that should contribute to the overall goal of your website.
What do you think?
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by Christi on March 1, 2012
Make sure that your website is always improving. You should always be reviewing your metrics to see what offers are most successful and improving on them to convert even more visitors into qualified leads for your business.
Focus on these three metrics:
- Visitors
- How many people are coming to my website?
- Where are they coming from?
- Leads.
- How many visitors converted to leads?
- What did they convert on?
- Sales.
- How many leads converted to sales?
These metrics will help you determine what parts of your website need revision. Metrics are pivotal for pinpointing the exact pain points of your website. By doing small, but constant adjustments to your website, you will be able to maximize the utility of your website so it becomes a platform for generating visitors, leads, and ultimately, sales.
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by Christi on February 29, 2012
It is important to have a system in place that tracks your conversion performance. Wharton Marketing can provide you with ways to analyze the effectiveness of each individual landing page and offer to make sure you are getting the most out of your marketing efforts.
- Your offers should be living, breathing documents that are constantly changing.
- They need to help educate your prospects on the buying process.
- If your landing pages and offerings do not seem to be reaching their full potential, you should try to:
- Attach their links in your email newsletters.
- Have your pay-per click ads go right to the landing page.
- Use them as the next step after a trade show or event.
Website design is not a one and done deal. Your web pages should evolve and improve over time. This is especially important for your landing pages since they help convert your faceless website visitors into opportunities that you have collected vital information about.
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by Joe B on February 28, 2012
Donʼt make the mistake of underestimating the importance of a compelling landing page. This is where you can see real results of your website redesign.
An effective landing page:
- Leaves out any website navigation.
- Keeps the description of the offer clear, simple, and concise.
- One company found that they had a 32% conversion rate with a longer description and form field. They cut it down, which brought their conversion rate to 53%.
- Keep the form above the fold.
To maximize efficiency, consider these questions:
- How fast can you launch a new landing page?
- Can one person do it in 15 minutes?
- What is the cost of experimentation?
Landing pages are where the magic happens. They are the gateway to your conversion offers that create engaged and interested leads. Make sure you can grab their attention with an interesting offer, but also coherently explain what you are offering through the landing page!
Download the free eBook: 7 Steps to Website Redesign Success to see some other vehicles for original content.
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by Christi on February 27, 2012
It is important to understand that original content is what will generate more traffic. Content creation is a continuous process that must be given priority. A blog is a great way to deliver fresh, new content.
Consider this:
• Blogging results in a 55% increase in website visitors.
• Search engines like fresh content, which will increase your number of indexed pages.
• People like fresh content:
• Companies that blog have 2x as many twitter followers than those that donʼt.
• Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links than those that donʼt.
Original content is your websiteʼs messenger: it will inform your prospects on what you do, and how passionately you do it. With a vast array of formats to create content on, you should always be continuously contributing original content to keep your prospects engaged and constantly interacting with your website.
Download the free eBook: 7 Steps to Website Redesign Success to see some other vehicles for original content.
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by Christi on February 24, 2012
You many want an interactive and flashy homepage that entices your user; however, it is important to understand that fundamentals need to be addressed first. Always keep in mind what is most important to your visitors!
Source: HubSpot, The Science of Website Redesign, June 2011
What is most important to your visitors is that they are able to find what they want. That makes sense. Remember, inbound marketing is all about being there when your customer is looking for you, giving them what they want and converting them into leads/customers for your business.
Your homepage is the face of your services or products. You only get one chance to impress that visitor, so make sure you carefully place the essentials you want them to know on your homepage. It should also act as a launching platform to places where they can contact you in the future (i.e. blog, social media, etc.)
In order to really get the most out of a website redesign, companies need to construct their website in the context of a greater Internet marketing strategy.You can get our checklist of the key issues to address on your homepage from our free eBook: 7 Steps to Website Redesign Success.
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by Joe B on February 23, 2012
Insure that your Websiteʼs Assets are In Order and Safe
You can actually do more damage than good by trying to undertake a website redesign on your own without understanding how you must protect the existing assets of your current site.
- Website assets such as content, inbound links, keyword rankings, and conversion tools are critical to a strong web presence.
- To preserve your web presence, you must keep track these assets to insure that they are all transferred in the redesign process.
It is important to do an asset assessment before you embark on a website redesign.
If you do not fully understand the importance and practice of proper SEO, doing a website redesign can be more damaging than helpful. If you do not feel comfortable around SEO work, it may be best to hire specialists to perform the redesign so all the hard work you have put into making a web presence does not disappear. Be sure to ask your website designer if s/he understands the importance of maintaining your current website’s assets and of using 301 redirects in a website redesign. If not, find another website designer.
Don’t guess when doing a website redesign – find out how to do it right! Download our free ebook: 7 Steps to Successful Website Redesign today!
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by Christi on February 22, 2012
The 1st step to a successful website redesign is to determine why you need a redesign at all. Actually, website redesign is a continuous process that is just as much about functionality as it is design. There are definitely good reasons for a website redesign. To be successful you must think it through and set your redesign goals.
Wrong Reasons For Redesign
“We have a new corporate look and feel.”
“Itʼs been 12 months since our last redesign.”
“The CEO wants to do it.”
Right Reasons for Redesign
“Want to get found by more prospects.”
“Want to convert more prospects into leads and eventually, customers.”
“We want to improve branding.” (Only appropriate if oriented around one of the previous reasons.)
Misguided reasons for redesigning your website are driven by the thought that the freshness and “wow factor” of a new website will increase excitement over your brand. The main motivations behind website renovations should be to improve the performance of your website. A beautiful website, although intriguing and aesthetically pleasing, is secondary to a functional traffic and lead generating website.
Don’t guess – find out how to do it right! Download our free ebook: 7 Steps to Successful Website Redesign today!
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by Christi on February 17, 2012
Internet Marketing Improvement Steps
While you should try to reach long-term internet marketing goals, there are some short-term steps you should take to get there. The following are some elements of your website you can refine so you can reach your broader goals:
Keywords: Try new keywords or variations of keywords to see if they help you get found better. Since each page on your site can incorporate different keywords, there are tons of ways to do this.
On-Page SEO: See if changing a simple on-page factor can help boost visits. Examples of on-page factors are page title, meta description, and headings. As a simple test, try changing the page title of one of your web pages to see if you generate more traffic.
Conversions: Try new things with your conversion forms or landing pages. For example, try making the conversion form more prominently located on your web page.
Content Strategy: Determine which content is generating the most traffic. This could be an opportunity to either focus more on that kind of content, or refine your delivery of other content.
Social Media Promotions: Evaluate which social media channels are generating the most site visitors and leads. Again, you can either focus on your successful social media platforms, or try improving your performance in your less successful ones.
Lead Nurturing: Maybe you’re sending emails too frequently — or not frequently enough. Maybe the calls-to-action in your email are not appropriate for your audience. Always keep experimenting and testing.
Internet marketing may seem a bit daunting in the beginning. However, if you break it down into steps and tackle one at at time, it makes the process easier and you can more quickly start seeing results. Download the Essential Internet Marketing Guide today to see more information about all of the steps and to start seeing great results in your internet marketing today.
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by Joe B on February 16, 2012
Once you have your internet marketing strategies in place, you need to find the best way to use all the techniques to get found online and generate new customers.
5 Steps for Analyzing & Refining Internet Marketing Strategies
- Implement an Analytics Program: In order to analyze, you need to have an analytics program in place.
- Identify Opportunities: Figure out what you want to improve. Get in the mindset of constantly looking for new opportunities.
- Set a Metric for Success: Your metric should be quantifiable and involve a set time frame.
- Refine: Analyze how your programs performed and make changes.
- Evaluate: Determine if you’ve met your success metric. Continue to monitor it to make sure the improvement has a long-term effect.
Metrics to Analyze
Before diving into how to improve them, let’s first discuss what the relevant metrics are. This is just a minimal list of what you should be monitoring.
- Website Grade: How well optimized is your website overall?
- Traffic: Overall, how many people are coming to your website?
- Leads: How much of this traffic are you converting into leads (e.g. potential customers)?
- Customers: How many sales did you close this month?
- Customer Acquisition Cost: How much are you investing to draw in each new customer?
- New vs. Repeat Visitors: Of your overall traffic, how many visitors are returning to your site, and how many new people are finding you?
- Effectiveness by Channel: What promotional channels or referring sources are sending you the most traffic?
- Traffic by Keywords: Which keywords are drawing in the most visitors to your site?
Steps for Improvement
The following are some elements of your website you can refine so you can reach your broader goals:
- Keywords: Try new keywords or variations of keywords to see if they help you get found better.
- On-Page SEO: See if changing a simple on-page factor can help boost visits.
- Conversions: Try new things with your conversion forms or landing pages.
- Content Strategy: Determine which content is generating the most traffic.
- Social Media Promotions: Evaluate which social media channels are generating the most site visitors and leads.
- Lead Nurturing: Maybe you’re sending emails too frequently — or not frequently enough.
The key is to alway keep experimenting and testing.
Get more information on Analyzing & Refining Internet Marketing Strategies as part of a successful internet marketing strategy from the Free ebook: Essential Guide to Internet Marketing. Download it today!
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