Redesigning Your Website – Making It An Optimal Experience For Your Visitors

While ongoing maintenance is always part of maintaining a website, you will discover new technologies or new design trends will be the primary driver to overhauling your website.

Last spring Google began penalizing anyone whose website was not responsive. And who can blame them? With the majority of searches conducted using mobile, and we all know how frustrating it is to land on a website that does not work with mobile. Hard to see what is on the page, hard to navigate and sometimes just flat out doesn’t work. Once upon a time, filling a page with as much information as possible (clutter mania) was how many constructed their website. The pendulum has swung and now websites are designed with a clean – easy to read design, grabbing a visitor’s attention with carefully crafted value propositions.

In 2016, the focus will be on user experience.

User Experience Design (UXD or UED or XD) is the process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the user and the product.

According to Content Designer Clark Wimberly, “It’s my job to be inside a user’s brain. I need to look at design from the mindspace of a user (actually, lots of users) and squash potential problems or confusion.”

His recommendations include keeping your design simple, include easy-to-read copy, straightforward organized hierarchy, clear value proposition, intuitive, responsive and always looking at it with the perspective of the user.

To minimize costs, and increase the likelihood of completing this product in a timely fashion, start with a plan – what is your primary goal with a newly redesigned website? Think about ease of use – the ability to understand the value your product provides and the ability to provide quick access to desired information by visitors – the goal is to captivate and engage visitors. Once you have attracted their interest, make it easy, make them want to stay and learn more. Also, if you are completely overhauling your website, now is the perfect opportunity to look at everything from integrating new technologies, defining new forms of content, to navigation. The more detailed your plan is defined upfront, the easier implementation of a website redesign will be.

Your company may have products designed for multiple markets. If so, look to design your website to serve different types of audiences without alienating one from the other. Segment your home page with a brief message for each audience that will then send them to a web page with information created specifically for that market. This enables your visitor – no matter which segment they represent, to quickly locate the set of products that are most relevant to them.

Consider your use of colors for your audience. Different colors will illicit different responses from your audience. Pick and choose carefully. Men and women each rank blue as a favorite color. Blue is associated with calmness, trust, and tranquility. No wonder so many popular social sites use blue as their primary color. Additional color meanings:

• Yellow - Childish, optimism, education
• Green - Wealth, generosity, environmental
• Red - Leadership, power, passion
• Purple - Mysterious, elegance, sophistication

95% of the world’s top brands only use 1 or 2 colors. Minimizing your use of color makes a greater impact upon the first encounter and thereby will increase brand recognition by up to 80%. Use the colors most appropriate for the your company and your audience.

When it comes to imagery, clear communication of value will be the most effective. Generally, use imagery that enhances your message – rather than the image taking over your web pages will prove to be most effective. Utilize icons and other graphics in limited colors to easily demonstrate a point. Photos are best displayed in jpeg format, animation in gif, and logos in png. Use the appropriate image format with the goal o minimal file size so that your image displays correctly but also loads quickly.

Remember, many users will be viewing your website through mobile. Colors that don’t compliment each other, imagery that is too large to load, and a navigation that is too difficult to use will lose their interest – and you won’t get them back. So spend a little time, planning for the best experience for your visitor.

How To Help A Company Get Started With Online Marketing

A New Year brings with it the possibilities of a fresh start, or starting something new. For businesses that have not ventured into the world of social media, now is the time. And while some may be interested in using social media to reach customers, learning how to do so effectively takes time. Time they typically don’t have – here is how you can help.

Start by making sure they understand the difference between inbound and outbound marketing. One doesn’t necessarily replace the other; inbound marketing is simply a new way of reaching and attracting customers online.

Inbound Marketing

Definition: Inbound marketing where a company develops content and programs designed to attract the attention of customers, makes the company easy to be found, and draws customers to the website.

Outbound Marketing

Definition: The traditional form of marketing where a company initiates the conversation and sends its message out to an audience through media advertising or direct person contact.

According to Digital Trends, consumers in the U.S. spend an average of 4.7 hours a day on their phones.

“While social networking may have started as a viral craze for U.S. teenagers, it’s steadily matured into an everyday lifestyle for many adults around the world who are now eclipsing teens and young adults as most-frequent users,” – Informate CEO Will Hodgman

Its clear the best way to get noticed is to have a presence online.

To help you get started, begin with an audit of what they are currently doing online, including examining any current content available.

Begin by asking questions to understand the company’s online goals. Essentially what you are doing is conducting an online audit - identifying what they are currently doing and what is missing:

The Business

• What are their business goals and challenges?

• Who are their current customers?

• Who are their competitors?

• Ask them about their industry and where they fit in.

• Why make the push to social media now?

Once you have the business fundamentals, take a look at what online efforts are already in place.

Tactics

• Do they have a website?

• Is it responsive?

• Have they established any social media accounts – if so, where and are they active?

• What types of content do they already have that can be leveraged into a blog, slideshare, infographics, etc.?

• What type of customer information do they already have?

• Do they run any types of promotions or campaigns throughout the year? If so, through what media distribution outlets?

• Are they using any market automation tools to help with content distribution or measurement?

• And of course, budget for website development or modifications, market automation tools (minimal cost, but necessary!), and marketing – content development and delivery

Now that you have an understanding of their business and goals, have evaluated their current online efforts, you can now begin to put together a plan. If a website redesign leads the list, make sure the new product is responsive for mobile, uses a popular platform, and is easy to navigate. Look to integrate market automation tools for the social media platforms that will work best for their industry. And start putting together an editorial calendar to ensure there is a continuous effort made creating and distributing content to their targeted audience.

Never Underestimate the Importance of Website Usability

It is easy to get caught up on the look and feel of your new website design. Big, bold images and fun icons, with words written to emphasize the awesomeness of what you have to offer. Best website EVER.

However, if you were to test it, would it be easy to use, and easy to navigate? If you didn’t know anything about your company or product, would you get a good first impression from your home page?

55% of visitors spend fewer than 15 second on your website. And as many as one in three visitors will leave your site after their very first visit.

Now that you have them, how do you keep visitors on your website?

Usability.

What is Usability as it relates to website design?

Making sure that visitors can easily navigate your site, understand what you have to offer, and it loads easily no matter the platform.

From Great Web Design Tips, here are the most common reasons why new visitors to a site leave without exploring the site further:

1. The visitor doesn't understand what the site is about, or simply decides that it doesn't have what they were looking for;
2. The home page takes too long to download, and they give up waiting;
3. The visitor doesn't find what the link to your site promised; and
4.  Your site requires an plug-in, such as Flash, to use, and they don't have, or dislike, that plugin.

Since that first impression is critical, make sure your website loads quickly and easily. Your website should:

-       Load within 3 seconds or else you risk losing them, possibly to a competitor

-       Be responsive – more and more people are researching and shopping via mobile. Make it easy for them to see what you have to offer.

-       Be well-organized, simple, and a clean design, free from clutter. No one wants to spend time staring at a page trying to figure out where they need to go to get the information they are looking for. Besides, simpler designs are scientifically proven to be more appealing to buyers. If visitors can’t find it easily, they will leave.

-       Quickly and clearly community who you are and what you have to offer – your main message - using words and phrases that are common among your industry. Words and phrases familiar to your visitors.  

-       Provide simple navigation. To many menu items, and dropdowns makes it confusing and hard to figure out where to go. If you have a number of items to navigate, look to use Group Items, then use Hidden menus to provide additional navigation. Make it easy for visitors to know where they are through page headers or breadcrumbs. For every page, a primary course of action needs to be clear and obvious using CTA’s to help guide your visitor.

-       Use forms that are smart. Using smart forms enables you to incrementally capture the details per contact that you are interested for each time they visit and interact with your site. Plus, asking a few simple questions each time, rather than 25 the first time, will increase the success rate of your submissions.

Attention to a few simple details, will make your website easy to understand and easy to navigate, increasing the time a visitors stays on your site. Good for you, good for your prospective customer. To see how user friendly your website is, check out this blog from Hallam, “How to perform a fast Usability Check on your website”.

Make A New Year’s Resolution To Get Better Results From Your Website

With the New Year quickly approaching, many will be making New Year’s Resolutions as a way to kick-start a change. That new goal may be to lose weight, read more, or get more sleep. For businesses, it is a great time to set a goal to review your website. Make sure your website is accessible – easy to load, read, and navigate.

2015 brought to light the sheer number of people – 4 out of 5 consumers, are using smartphones to shop. And while shopping, 40% will consult 3 or more channels while shopping. For those websites that are not responsive, or have a mobile design, now is the time to remedy that issue. Many of those mobile shoppers will quickly leave your site and others will not have the patience to search for what they need.

Take a critical look at your website. Make notes and prioritize the items that need to be fixed or revised. Anything that isn’t working correctly, fix immediately. Look for areas that could be modified to make the search process for new customers quicker and easier. For those of you using market automation tools, begin by taking a look what sections of your site are getting the most visits, and what areas are not. Use this as a way to determine if you need to boost different sections of your site with promotion or through navigation.

Below are 5 key categories to consider when reviewing your website:

1.     Responsive

When was the last time you took a look at your website using a mobile device? Doing so is a great way to see what your new customers see. Check to make sure your website downloads quickly. If it doesn’t take a look at the number and size of the images on your website. With regard to functionality, your website needs to support all major browsers – you don’t want to lose someone simply due to the fact they can’t see your website properly since you don’t support their browser.

2.     Ease of navigating

Whether you are perusing your website through the use of a mobile device or a laptop, your website should be easy to get around. Anyone should be able to quickly find the answer to their question. Consider relocating or consolidating any unnecessary top-line navigation categories. If it is a challenge to find items when using a laptop, check out the difficulty when using mobile. Top traffic categories ought to have top-line visibility. You have less than 8 seconds to capture the attention of a user before moving on, so make it easy for them to find what they want and buy. Consistent navigation throughout your site helps, as it provides predictability to those new to your site.

3.     Design

Provide a clean and consistent format. Use plenty of white space so that it is easy for users to see what you are highlighting, whether that is a new promotion, press release or even new messaging. Your focus is to capture their attention so they stay on your site long enough to see what you have to offer.

4.     Quality content

For new buyers who land on your website for the first time, will they be able to quickly understand what you have to offer and the benefits of your offering? Is your message clear and concise and not wordy? Is the style conversational – not using too many industry terms for those who may be novices? Your blog is one of the key ways to attract new buyers, address their problem (why they are on your site) and solutions that lead them to a resolution. If you don’t have a blog, consider adding one. It is one of many tools in the bag that can help you to make connections with new buyers.

5.     Easy to contact

Make it easy for a prospective customer to locate contact information from your website, whether that is through online chat, email, or phone call. When you don’t make this information accessible, new buyers or current customers have no way to contact you for help or answer questions. Your website is your brand. And your contact information is often the first step to customer service. While providing an FAQ will help some, make sure you are available and accessible to help. Otherwise you might be on the ugly end of a social media rant.

Striving to provide a positive experience for users on your website is an ongoing endeavor. As technologies and use on the Internet continues to evolve, look for ways to make your website easier to use, easier to comprehend, easier to get around, easier to capture new and current customer’s attention and connect. Your time, effort, and patience will pay off in terms of extended user visits, higher conversions, and positive customer experiences.

How To Write Your Company Story So That It Will Resonate With Your Customers

Do you have a company story?

I’m not referring to the About paragraph noting the date when your company was started, nor a promotion highlighting how amazing your products are; but a story about the purpose of your company why you make your products. A story that shares why you make the products you have, addressing the problem you are trying to solve. This is your company value. It allows you to differentiate yourself from the competition.

In order to write you story, you will need to:

1.     Identify the value you provide to others – what is the pain you are solving – how are you making their lives better?

2.     What emotion resonates when you tell prospective customers what you do and how you can solve their problem?

3.     What benefits makes your company different from others?

4.     What is your company personality?

Understand your value, and then write your story. Here’s how to begin:

Value proposition

For many, you can begin with your value proposition. It will serve as the foundation to your story.

“Unique Value Proposition: A single, clear compelling message that states why you are different and worth buying.” – Steve Blank

Address the problem/situation

Use your value proposition to begin writing your story. Explain how you fully understand your prospective customer’s situation. Oftentimes, the founder of a company experienced the exact problem and was in search of a better solution than what was currently available. As a result of that event, a company was formed, with a mission to fix that problem in a different way.

Communicate your understanding of the problem

When you start with your experience in solving the problem with others, you will begin to build trust and credibility with prospective customers. From Amy Harrison, “How to Write Killer Landing Page Copy” is a formula for incorporating symptoms naturally into your communications:

• Here’s what you may have recognized (symptoms)

• Here’s what causing them (problem)

• Here’s what you need to do (cure)

• Here’s what’s possible if you do (results – happy ending

Identify the symptoms first, then describe how you can resolve the issue. For example:

“Are you struggling to resolve XYZ, save money (and/or) save time? If so, click here to see how we can fix your problem.”

“Use symptoms in your copy to show that you feel prospects’ pain and are uniquely qualified to help.” - Amanda Durepos

Differentiate yourself from the competition

When you approach the situation by focusing on the symptoms of the problem first, addressing the emotional pain point you are solving, you will make your prospective customers feel like you are talking directly to them, solving their problem. From that point on, you can share the benefits of your product as they relate to each symptom. Most companies will always start with their solution and how it fixes a problem. They miss the opportunity to make that emotional connection with a prospective customer. By making that personal connection with the customer, you will have differentiated yourself from the competition.

Add personality

Even if your product is sold to a highly educated audience, there is no reason for your copy to be dry and boring. Keep it simple. Keep it concise. Use conversational words – understandable words – makes it easy to read and understand. Many are scanning information in search of a quick fix. Using conversational words makes it easy for them to see your solution as answer to their problems. Adding personality to your content will make it more enjoyable to read, encouraging them to learn more, and as a result, spend more time on your website.

Some companies will not see the importance of having a company story. Now that you know the significance of having one to serve as your foundation for communications, you can write one and gain the upper hand connecting with customers, and differentiating yourself from the competition.