Launching a Killer Website

Your website should serve many functions and will probably have many parts. A website can mean so much to your business, it should be a serious undertaking – have a dream, plan, design and develop, and debug. While your website can be and do many things, it should have one primary goal. That goal might be to generate leads, sell products, educate visitors, establish your company as a solid leader in your industry – whatever it is, that goal should be the focus through the design and development of every part of the site. Below are four guiding principles that can assure you have a killer website!

(1) Create Pages that Engage Readers Quickly

According to a study by Entrepreneur.com, the average first-time visitor to your site will judge your website in about two-tenths of a second! Within the next 2.5 seconds they will confirm that judgment. If it's negative, they're gone.

For many potential clients/customers, your website will be their first impression of your business. They should see a clean, organized site. Navigation should be easy to find and follow. And your site should be unique – a reflection of your brand. These strategies will help keep visitors on your site, retaining readers and possibly turning them into clients/customers.

• Grab Attention with Large Images - It's no secret that images grab attention. A large, quality images will grab attention and quickly convey your message and your site's purpose. More companies are using large photographs or even page wide videos as homepage backgrounds.

• Keep Text Short and to the Point - If Entrepreneur.com is right, you have less than three seconds to grab your visitor's attention. Long paragraphs will only discourage them from reading further. Keep your message short and clear. Use bullet points if necessary, but don't have long lists. Have a clear call-to-action link or button - “get the demo,” “buy now,” “request a quote” “get our newsletter.” Your call-to-action will depend on the goal of your site or page. But, there should be one on every page and it should be prominent.

 

• Be Smart with Colors - Color can increase brand recognition. Think about a Coke can. You probably will recognize the red can as Coke even without seeing the logo. And in the store you quickly recognize the difference between Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max just be the color of the cans/bottles. Large companies spend a lot of money on research before changing colors associated with their products. You should put some serious time and thought into your colors – what colors will be complementary and work well together? What colors will appeal to your target audience? Which colors complement the emotion you are trying to associate with your brand?

• Use Flat Design – Specifically Flat Design 2.0 - Even if you don't know what 'flat design' is, you probably know what it looks like. Since the introduction of iOS 7, iPhones and iPads have been using a flat design. And Windows 8 through 10 all use a flat design. It is the absence of drop shadows, textures and gradients. and the use of easy to read fonts. The 2.0 version of flat design uses light shadows, highlights and layers to give elements a little bit of depth. Also, you might find some elements (buttons for example) that will use a slight gradient.

(2) Be Responsive

While I have heard (pretty good) arguments that some business types do not need mobile ready sites, the fact is that mobile use is rising every year. In 2014, mobile internet usage overtook desktop usage. A Yahoo study showed that consumers spent 47% more time on mobile devices in 2015 than in 2014. Facebook reports that more users access their site from mobile devices than from desktops.

 

This all means that potential clients/customers will likely browse your company website from a smartphone or tablet and your site should be ready. Visitors who encounter sites that are not mobile friendly will likely get frustrated and form a negative opinion of your company. When visitors leave your site quickly it can increase what is know as the 'bounce rate.' And this can effect your ranking with search engines.

Fortunately, there is something called Responsive Design which allows your site to adapt to the different screen sizes of different devices. Responsive design means one site can work for the desktop, tablet and smartphone. Make sure your new or revamped site uses responsive design.

(3) Your Website Should be the Center of Attention

It is a good idea to have a business account and page with the major social media sites – Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. But your posts and status updates on these sites are just little pieces of your business – tiny morsels to wet the appetite of your potential clients/customers. Your social media posts should always point visitors to your website. This is where you will make the biggest impression.

Use your website to engage your visitors. Use blogs, photo galleries, videos, and forums to showcase projects, show your knowledge in your field, and provide customer service. Engage in real conversations with your visitors. Encourage clients/customers to share reviews or testimonials – consumers are more likely to shop on sites with personal recommendations.

All of this content and engagement will also improve SEO. Content provided by you and your clients is likely to contain keyword phrases that will help your search engine ranking. And search engines rank visitor-generated content high. Use forums, Q&A sessions, and service conversations to keep visitors on our site longer. Share links to other areas of your site as often as possible to get visitors to explore.

Your website is the most valuable piece of real estate your business has. You have full control over everything about it – use it wisely!

(4) Make It Flow

Easy site navigation was mentioned in (1) above. But, it's important enough to get its own number! If visitors can't find the information they need easily, they will leave your site. And the bad news is, they won't have the patients to look for long. You and your developer should put

serious thought into the flow of your site – which pages should get prime menu space? Which pages should be placed in dropdown or slideout menus? Which pages should be placed in secondary menus in sidebars or in the footer?

When considering how to best set up your site's navigation, consider your business type and your audience. Is there a structure that is standard for your business type – something your visitors will expect? Again, if your first-time visitors cannot find things where they expect, they won't look for long. There are other businesses that have the same products / services. If their sites are easier to navigate, they will likely capture the business. It is always important to remember, even if your site looks great, if the visitor can't find the info they are looking for, you've missed the bulls-eye.

Your website plays a significant role in building your business and your brand. Whether this is your first website or you are re-launching a site, you must spend the time and (yes) money to do it right. If not, you are missing out on the most influential marketing tool you have.

For more information on building great websites and mobile apps, visit our website at freelanceitsolutions.com.  Or contact us here.

2016 Trends in e-Commerce

As each year draws to an end, we look to the New Year for new chances, new opportunities, fresh starts. We hope that the New Year will bring us more then the closing year. And this is no different for business owners and entrepreneurs.

But, to increase your good fortune for the New Year, it's best to make plans. And to make the best, most accurate plans, it's good to know what trends are in store for the upcoming year.

After a little research, I've put together some trends in e-commerce that you should be aware of for 2016.

Start Off Right – Design Trends

A well designed site is essential to ensuring your visitors and customers enjoy shopping on

your site. Sites must:

• be modern and have a look and feel that is attractive – the 'flat design' is very common and even expected today.
• be easy to navigate – studies show visitors leave after only 12 seconds if they can't find what they are looking for!
• be trusted – if you are selling, you should have an SSL certificate or use a secure checkout portal (like PayPal).
• have a common pattern – this may be one reason WordPress sites are so common. While there are many different themes, their layout follows a typical pattern that users have become used to. Using common patterns may make 'all websites look the same.' But, studies show that they also increase customer comfort and comfortable customers are more likely to buy or follow through to requesting information or services. (I'm not saying WordPress is necessary. Any site can be made to follow the flat design that most WordPress themes use).

Pop-Up Ads – What?

Yes, pop-up ads are coming back. The once hated (well, still hated) marketing technique is making a resurgence. But wait, the pop-ups that are getting results are not the usual, annoying ads that are pushing products. Instead they are the offers of information, free downloads, discounts, and even free products when the user agrees to join a membership program or a rewards program, agrees to receive email offers, or agrees to like/share the company's social media pages/posts. Having the email address or membership information of potential buyers is a huge step towards more sales!

Mobile Will Soon be King

About 4.9 billion people worldwide own smartphones. And web browsing on mobile devices has already overtaken browsing on desktop computers. And mobile shopping is not far behind.

Nearly every kind of business-to-consumer company should have a mobile friendly (responsive) website!

Shoppers will continue to move toward the convenience of mobile shopping. Can you afford to miss out on this trend? If your competition has a mobile friendly site and you don't – you are missing out on sales! And if you are the only business in your market with a mobile friendly site, congratulations. You are winning business away from you competition!

Your Audience is Growing

Forrester Research has predicted that online consumers will spend $327 billion in 2016! And the trend for larger order size is also increasing. Trends are showing that December order size is increasing by about 10% each year ('larger order size' means dollars spent per order, not necessarily more products purchased).

Knowing that this trend for online sales is only going to increase, you really do need to make sure you are a part of it. A new, modern website is essential in converting visitors to customers. And a responsive mobile website will add to the conversion rate.

Finally, just a little about the numbers – the analytics. It is important to know how your online presence is working. Analytics can help you understand the trends for YOUR audience. With analytics you can track time spent on your site by visitors, how well your social media campaigns are doing, track the results of other marketing campaigns by tracking hits to special landing pages, and even figure out what time of the day, week or year your marketing is giving you the best ROI.

There are several analytic applications that are free, such as Google Analytics. And most have a pretty good tutorial and documentation. But, if you don't have the time, your web developer, host provider or third-party marketing expert can help you to understand just what all the acronyms and cryptic phrases mean when it comes to analytics. Believe me, it is worth looking into.

Happy New Year!

Landing Pages - The Successful Formula

You've probably heard the term – 'landing pages.' They're very big among marketers and your web programmer may have referred to them as well. But, what are they?

A landing page is a page on your website that you send visitors directly to for a specific reason / action. You might want them to,

• Sign up for a newsletter.
• Enter a contest.
• Purchase your product or service (usually through some kind of sale or promotion).
• Highlight a product or service.
• Register for some 'free-be.'

The goal of all landing pages is to get the visitor to interact with your business somehow and eventually to make a sale.

Your landing page is your opportunity to showoff your products and services. You should pay very close attention to the design and content of these special pages.

Design First, Content Second and Always Optimize

A professional design MATTERS. In a recent study by Standford University, participants where asked to comment on what made a website credible to them. Nearly half (46%) of participants commented that the design was most important. Following design was information structure (29%), information usefulness (15%), information accuracy (14%) which tied with name recognition (14%), site functionality (9%), and customer service (6%). 

First impressions are important. And what the visitor sees first is the design. If your landing page is poorly designed, you loose half your visitors before you've even had a chance to give them your message. (That goes for your website as well).

So, use/create an outstanding design, then write informative and accurate copy, then optimize it for your audience.

Design and Content Fundamentals

Images – Spend Time and Choose Carefully

A picture is worth a thousand words. Studies have shown that visitors to websites look at pictures before they begin reading – even before they look at page headlines. We gravitate to pictures. Images are the best way to show your product or the results of your service. And although they are very important, they should also be used sparingly. It's not easy – the balancing act is to include enough images to keep your visitor interested without clutter. If you have more than one or two images that you would like to present, consider using an automatic slide show. This will allow the visitor to focus on one image at a time.

For landing pages, make sure you don't clutter up your page with images. Remember, the main reason you're bringing them to this page is to get them active.

Also, images take longer to download than text. The longer it takes for your page to load, the fewer visitors will stick around to see your message. Studies show that after five seconds, you start losing visitors. For every one second after five, you lose 7-10% of your visitors. So, if your page isn't loading material that will keep visitors interested, you're basically losing all your visitors in about 15 seconds!

Example Landing Page

Keep it Clean – The Minimalist Approach

The goal of your landing page is to keep your reader focused on the product/service. So keep the content – copy, links and images focused on the product/service. If it doesn't get the visitor emotionally involved, leave it out.

Most visitors are not going to spend a lot of time reading. So, keep your copy short. If you have a lot of information to convey, try using bullet points. If possible, let a picture 'do the talking.'

Links should only be included if they are absolutely necessary. For example, if you feel the visitor may need more info about the product/service, include a link. If you have a tutorial, include a link. The thing to remember here is that you do not want to give the visitor an 'escape route.'

There really should be only three ways to leave the page – get more info, buy or sign up, click the browser's back button.

Finally, leave plenty of white space. A cluttered landing page is confusing. White space give a sense of freedom... the visitor has time to think, he/she is not being pressured. You want to give them the feeling of comfort and easy. Visually show that your product/service is going to make their life easier.

Be Responsive

In non-work situations, more people now access the Internet with mobile devices, gaming consoles and TV interfaces than with computers. In 2013 about 15% of non-gaming, online sales will be made with mobile devices. Your landing page must be able to display on devices with different screen sizes and still look appealing and professional.

Use a professional web developer who understands and implements Responsive Web Design or you risk losing sales.

Keep it Familiar

If you have a 'standard layout' used with printed material or other online media, keep that layout. If there is an industry standard, try to stick to it. Unless these things horribly violate the standards above, you want to use them and keep things familiar for your visitors. Familiar is comfortable and you want to keep your visitors comfortable.

Call to Action

The call to action is the essential element of a landing page. As important as everything above is to a successful landing page, without a well thought out, attention grabbing call to action, you've wasted the change to gain a customer.

Stand Out

Action buttons like 'buy' or 'enter' should stand out. Studies show that these links and buttons should be of a contrasting color to the rest of the landing page. Also pay attention to the wording of action buttons. 'Enter to Win' will get more responses than simply 'Enter' or 'Submit.' Adding a short phrase to clarify the call to action can help convert visitors to customers as well.

Urgent

Don't let the visitor think this is going to be available forever (even if it is). Add a time limit for the offer and make it stand out. You may want to use a countdown timer that displays the days, hours, and minutes until the offer expires. Or include a calendar image with a big, red “X” over past (missed) days.

The key here is to include something to keep the visitor from thinking, “I'll come back to this later.” Studies have shown that more than 50% of visitors do not come back, even if they've indicated they plan to.

Keep it Simple...

Many times you will want to collect information from/about your visitor. Forms are a necessary part of many landing pages. The rule of thumb here is keep it simple. If your visitors feel it is too difficult or will take too long, they're not going to fill out the form. Collect the essential information you need and nothing more. Remember, even if you are getting minimal info here, you are getting info and can request more later. If they leave now, they're lost.

Your Call to Action

Now it's your turn. You can probably think of a product or service you would like to spotlight. Or perhaps a contest that will draw in potential customers. Jot down your ideas, give some thought to images and copy, contact a professional web developer and create your landing page(s)!

Comments Welcome

Leave comments below – let my blog readers know what's worked for you. Have you had a spectacularly successful landing page? How about a disaster? Share your experience.

Russ Thompson is the owner and lead developer at Freelance I.T. Solutions.