How Do Your Customers FEEL About Your Website?

Does Your Web Site Answer These 4 Critical Questions?
In creating a great website, it is important to make sure every page answers these critical questions. A web site is not just pretty pictures and cool technical twists. It must have content that creates trust and shows benefits to the potential customer. If not, they won’t buy and they won’t come back!
 
Question 1: WHAT’S THIS ABOUT?
Ask yourself if it is immediately clear to the reader what is being offered? Any confusion, or question marks in their minds, even for a second, and they will move on. Don’t be cute or clever. Make it simple and clear. There are web sites out there that are so confusing, you can’t tell what they are actually about until 3 pages deep into the site!

Question 2: WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?
The big benefits should be very clear and direct – not implied – the reader shouldn’t have to guess. You should never have to guess what your customers want – you should KNOW! Do the market research – ask your customers, and never stop asking.

Question 3: CAN I TRUST YOU?
How do I know you are safe and credible?  This is a really big issue for me – I won’t buy from a website that I don’t trust. Is your photo and contact info displayed so I can build a relationship with you? Put your photo on every web page. It doesn’t matter if they are different pictures. Make them real pictures (glamour shots shout phoniness).

People won’t trust any more – if all your contact information isn’t on your web site. Put your phone number and address on every page. It says you are credible. Put them in every e-newsletter, in fact, add them twice — beginning and end.

Create a safe place for them to be — a comfort zone. If your site looks cheezy and unprofessional, the reader won’t be comfortable giving you their hard-earned money.

Question 4: DO I FEEL GOOD ABOUT THIS?
Do I WANT to hire you? Do I feel COMPELLED to click or pick up the phone (or whatever the call to action is)? Do I feel good about myself in deciding to hire you? Can I trust that I’m making the right decision? What’s my motivation? Am I being motivated by fear or shame, or am I empowered to make a good choice? Am I so excited that I want to tell all my friends?
These critical questions need to be answered before people will buy from you. Make sure your web site has the answers.

Outsourcing? Try the U.S. First!

I’ve heard a lot of talk about solo-preneurs using outsourcing to get some of their many projects done. I agree! It is a great way to get help for your business without hiring a new employee. BUT – don’t outsource a Virtual Assistant from Pakistan or Timbuktu – try the U.S. first.

A Virtual Assistant is surprisingly affordable when compared to hiring an employee.  And true, hiring someone from Pakistan will probably be cheaper, but you will also have to contend with language difficulties – this can actually add to the cost – misunderstandings in instructions and the time you spend instructing them. And because English is their second language, they probably won’t be very good at writing, proofreading or editing.

Try hiring a Virtual Assistant from the U.S. first. Keep our economy going, keep the work in the U.S.

Here are some of the benefits of using a Virtual Assistant:

• Business owners can concentrate on generating revenue instead of being bogged down with administrative tasks.
• Home-based businesses don’t have to “share their home” with a new employee.
• No temp agency commission
• No employee taxes
• No “down” time
• No paid vacations
• No sick leave
• No benefits
• No office space
• No office furniture
• No office equipment or supplies
• Only pay for the work done
• No training or supervision of inexperienced employees

 If you are a busy entrepreneur, and need some help with the “administrivia” of doing business, a Virtual Assistant is a great way to go – just don’t go to Timbuktu to hire one. Try Pouncy Designs! Yes, I have a full repertoire of administrative skills. Give me a call and ask how I can help!

Find Your Focus and Your Clients will Find You

Last week, I was asked to evaluate a web site (something I do for free and quite frequently). At first glance, they had a fairly nice site. Good graphics, all the links worked, etc. but then I started to see the problem.

The site was confusing because there was no focus. Were they trying to sell something (in this case t-shirts with logos) or were they trying to promote an ideology?

If they were trying to sell t-shirts, they needed to answer the consumer’s most important question – what’s in it for me?

If they were trying to promote an ideology, they needed CONTENT! They needed to describe, persuade and promote their ideology.

If they wanted to sell t-shirts with logos, they were failing because they had photos of old, fat guys wearing a t-shirt that anyone could buy at WalMart. You couldn’t see the logo! So actually, it looked like a scam – selling t-shirts for $25 that you could buy at WalMart for $5.

And if you could see the logo – why would anyone want to buy that logo unless it had an important message – but since the site had no CONTENT about their ideology or message, no one could be persuaded to buy their t-shirts and logos!

So the lesson here is – FOCUS! Find the focus of your web site. What do you want to accomplish? And for every design choice, ask yourself, “What am I trying to accomplish? And will it tighten the focus of my web site?”

If You Build It – They Will Come, Won’t They?

I recently had a client who already had a website, but was puzzled, and wanted my help, because she rarely got any hits, let alone sales from it.

Which explains the title this month – just because you have built a website, doesn’t mean customers will come pouring in. You MUST be proactive and market your website!

There are lots of great ways to market your site.

Newsletters – send out a newsletter to your old clients, new prospects and friends and family – make sure you have their permission and give them an option to unsubscribe from your mailing list (and that you follow through and delete them if they ask) and it is perfectly legal. And whenever you ask someone for their telephone number so you can contact them later, get their email address, too.

Print media – all of your signs, business cards, brochures, postcards, letters, letterhead, billboards, direct mail, and any other print media has your website address on it.
Blog – your blog (if you’ve kept one up) is a great way to get your website address out there and in front of people.
Your email signature – you can set up your email program to automatically add your signature at the bottom of every email you send out. Include your name, phone number and website address on that signature.
Write articles and post them in article banks with your website prominently displayed.
Guerilla marketing techniques. If you’ve never read Guerrilla Marketing, by Jay Conrad Levinson, you should. He says that you shouldn’t have to spend tons of money to get your name out there – what you really need to spend is time, energy and imagination to make potential customers aware of your service or product.
These are just some ways to market your web site – but the most important thing to remember is that just because you have spent a lot of time, money and effort on building a website – doesn’t mean they will come. Ya gotta let ‘em know you’re there!
 
Give me a call if you have any email or SPAM questions – I just received the Constant Contact All Star Award for excellence in email marketing. I can help you with a custom template to match your website or show you how to get articles that you don’t have to write. Give me a call if you need help with your website cleanup. Ask for a FREE evaluation.

Don’t Forget the Basics

As I surf the web, I constantly come across great looking and technically cool web sites that have all the bells and whistles and totally FORGET the basics! Look at your website with your customer’s eyes. See if there is any important information missing!

Little things like:

Contact information, phone number, mailing address, email address.

What it is that you are selling! It is amazing to me that sometimes you literally have to dig for this basic information! It is so buried in “say nothing” rhetoric, that it is literally impossible to tell what is for sale! Don’t be afraid, say it up front!

Navigation. Believe it or not, this is really common. The navigation bar should include access to all the main sections of the website. Not just the home page, and NEVER expect them to “just use the back button.”

Company name. Sometimes, this is also difficult to find. I like to see some kind of company branding/logo on every page.

Go back to your web site and look carefully. If you don’t see these basics on EVERY PAGE, it is time to go back to the drawing board.

Giving Thanks for a Difficult Year

What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger!

It has been a very difficult year, but I’m starting to pull out of it and I’m really counting my blessings!

I was out sick for about 3 months this summer and because I’m a sole proprietor, I’ve had to just about rebuild my business from scratch. At least I knew what I needed to do to start getting clients again. And I was healthy enough to go out and do it.

My blessings – my husband, a saint in disguise. My family – my sister was a rock, although I think she was more worried than I was. My friends – Harriott – thanks for the Friday night wine – sometimes I really needed to talk, and Jackie – your garden is almost as big as your heart. The Graham community – everyone who asked how I was doing and sent me referrals – you are all great!

And while I still have a ways to go, things are looking up. I also have some new things to try and new directions to go. Pouncy Designs is stronger than ever! What a Blessing!

Pick Three Things

I’m working hard and things are happening. I’m going to a lot of networking events. If you see me there, say hi – and tell me you’ve read my blog… I’m having a hard time keeping up with it, so I need some encouragement!

I’ve got so many things going on that I’m running in circles a bit. My husband reminds me to always take a deep breath and “pick three things you can do right now”. Which always works. I sometimes get in these “log jams” when I’m overwhelmed with tasks and they all seem to interconnect. In other words, I can’t do task A because it is waiting on task B, which is waiting on task C and D… and on and on.

So my brilliant and very calm husband (who says he can tell how overwhelmed I am by how loud I yell) just says “Pick three things, Kim”. And it always works. I do those three things and all of a sudden the log jam breaks and things fall in line.

So I have – and the blog is one of the three! And now, I’m off to do the other two…

It’s Been A While

It’s been a while since I last posted. I always have the best intentions, but it never seems to work out that way.

I’ve been working very hard at figuring out a new product. I’d like to offer a very inexpensive web site package (trying to get it to $99) and still make a profit. Not easy! My thinking is that even in this economy, people still need to advertise their businesses – they still need a web presence, but I need to pitch to what they can afford at this time. So anyway, that’s the goal.

I am also working on some online classes I’m taking. Learning more about what’s out there for my customers. Another goal.

Graham Business Association “Blog School” Great Success!

Tuesday night’s Blog School was a great success for the GBA members who attended. About 20 people attended, several brought their laptops and we all worked on setting up our blogs right there. Kieran Murry, www.kieranslist.com, who led the class, was  clear, patient and easy to follow.

Dennis Endres of Keller Williams was there to talk about his blog, Puyallup Undressed, how successful it was and what it has done for his business. He does it all with photos!

Amici’s donated wonderful appetizers (enough for dinner!) and Pat and Kim talked about how their blog saved them when their website crashed.

All in all, the Blog School was a great success – we’re even talking about doing it again!

Rock On, Patrick!

This week I had coffee with a charming gentleman and sales and marketing wizard, Patrick Williams. He is the owner and head guru of You Rock Communications and writer of the Selling Sherpa Blog. Although slightly obsessed with rock music, he had some great insights and I learned a lot. He is from our area and I really look forward to working with him, what an education!

Patrick is amazingly knowledgeable about blogging. He is very proud, and rightfully so, to be awarded the 2008 Top Ten Sales Blog just last week. I learned some very important stuff that I will pass on to many of my clients. He said, “to get your blog to really work for you, that is, drive traffic to your web site and people to your business, you need three things – Activity, Connectivity and Volume.”

Well Patrick, I’m working on it. I’m learning to enjoy writing these little entries, and remembering to add them to my to do list every day. Thanks, and ROCK ON!