- The
best designs are ones that are not noticed and do
not detract from
the message of the site. Most
successful sites use a white background and black text
or a background color that doesn't obscure any text.
- Many
of the best sites on the Internet are content laden
- useful information which is freely distributed. Include
information relevant to your audience (i.e. how-to articles,
tips and tricks, industry related news, etc.).
- Your
site should be periodically updated and maintained
to retain repeat visitors. Also, reduce the number of outside
links to prevent broken links.
- Surfers
will generally wait no more than 20 seconds for a page to
load and usually will only remain for 20 to 60 seconds.
Home pages must load quickly.
- Know
your intended target audience. Studies show that
visitors want fast loading pages and useful information.
The least important features are "bleeding edge" technologies,
flashy animations and non-functional eye-candy (unless
that is what you are selling and what your buyers
are looking for).
- Never
play music files the user has no control over; Music
tastes vary, and most surfers will hit the back button rather
than the volume. This may count in your log as a hit but
you will have lost the surfer forever.
- Flashy
animations and eye-candy usually are only interesting
once. You must rely on fast loading useful content. Allow
visitors to bypass your Flash animations and splash screens.
Slow loading, flashy eye candy, animations and music are
usually not impressive to visitors unless you are selling
tools to create these effects. If you must use them, make
them optional. This gives visitors the choice of using these
options. The surest way to lose visitors is to force them
to wait or listen to your musical preferences.
- Do
not use frames unless you are an expert. Frames cause
more problems than they solve. Be careful of using frames
to frame other sites pages or content within your site.
It can be construed as a copyright violation. Even linking
into some sites interior pages has been known to get the
linking site in trouble.
- Each
page of the site must be consistent and intuitive to navigate.
More and more web surfers are computer illiterate. Make
your site easy for anyone to understand and use. If you
are selling something, remove all obstacles to the sales
process to make it easy for customers to want to do business
with you (prices and order forms must be easy to find and
use).
- Your
most qualified leads will most likely come from non-web
advertising and/or highly targeted on-line advertising first,
links from related websites second and search engines will
be the third source of leads. You must take advantage of
all these marketing methods and keep up with trends in the
industry.
- Website
traffic starts slowly at a new site, builds, plateaus
and then declines. To get the best results from your website,
you must market constantly and update regularly to build
traffic and prevent it from declining. Encourage return
visitors.
- Customer
service is imperative to your success. Gather opt-in e-mail
contacts with customer permission whenever you can and follow-up.
- Your
site must be designed with your visitor's needs and capabilities
in mind. Pages must be fast loading and content must
be useful and relevant. Products must include full disclosure
of information and provide a quick, convenient method of
purchasing without requiring the visitor to call or mail
the company.
- Make
links in your web site informative. Let your visitors
know what to expect and give them a compelling reason to
want to follow hyperlinks on the site. List the download
time and size of large photographs or other files.
- Design
the website to allow for future growth without requiring
major changes to the navigation systems.
- Study
and emulate other successful techniques and tactics.
Do not copy other people's work, but be unique, stand out
and do it better. Study catalog design. Printed catalogs
allow easy perusal of multiple product choices, and are
invaluable as examples of short ad copy, photographic layouts
with bullet points, ways to list prices, special offers,
etc. Did you ever notice how catalogs tend to have a special
deal or closeout price on almost every page to entice people
to order?
- Do
not add visitor or customer contact information (names,
e-mail addresses, etc.) to your contact lists without their
express permission. Do not grab visitor's e-mails from their
browser since this is commonly considered a violation of
privacy.
- Non-web
advertising
using the domain name may be the most important way to market
a business. This is usually the client's responsibility.
The tips and guidelines given here can be used at the client's
discretion. Each site is unique and marketing strategies
which work for one site, may not be suitable for another.
- Encourage
other sites to link to your website without having to
link to theirs when possible. Making graphic and link information
available to other sites will encourage and facilitate a
partnership. Make it the client's responsibility to cultivate
linkage with other sites since this is a time consuming
task.
- No
matter how good a website might be, it must be visible,
accessible and readily available. You must get the people
there. A site which only has links in a search engine, will
probably fail to generate significant traffic.
- Remember
that the Internet is a new interactive communications medium.
Businesses on the Internet are still bound by the laws
of supply and demand. It still takes marketing strategies
to be seen and salesmanship to sell. Concentrate on customer
service and personal service. Use the Internet as a tool
to communicate rather than a tool which isolates you from
your customers.
- Use
advertorials and endorsements to market affiliate
programs for other sites that you personally endorse.
Make
sure these sites fit within the context of your own website
rather than simply trying to cultivate a "banner farm".
- Busy
web pages are a common problem. Use photos and graphics
in moderation, as they may detract from the subject matter
of the page.
- Eliminate
hype and concentrate on useful content and information.
- Follow
tried and true basic marketing techniques (benefits,
features, solving problems, using the right words and images
to invoke desired feelings, calls to actions, etc.) Give
your audience what they are looking for and information
to help them.
- Think
in terms of end results and simple goals. Guide visitors
to the desired goal. Regardless of where a visitor first
enters your site, you can still redirect them to pages you
want them to view first, such as product information. Then
you will be able to lead them through the ordering process
while allowing immediate links to other pages. For example,
if someone enters the site through your newsletter signup
page, will you be able to guide them to the main information
page, and ordering page? From any of these pages, can they
immediately navigate to your contact information page?
- A
business site should be designed from a customer or audience
perspective. Topics should be tailored to them, not
to you. For example, a major telecommunications company
made the mistake of dividing its major website topics around
the divisions of its company, which was not customer oriented.
It subsequently was redesigned based on how their customers
viewed their business.
- Use
powerful words in your copy such as: "you, your,
money, save, free, now, how-to, quick, new, exciting, love,
secret, reveal, discover, improved, guarantee, latest, amazing,
offer, important, revolutionary, powerful." Read catalogs
and study the copy on every-day products. Notice how they
use calls to action, buzz words and power words to effectively
communicate. Just as animation and red highlights use power
words one at a time and sparingly, they loose effectiveness
when used excessively.
- Avoid
using words and phrases with negative connotation such
as: "but, try, could have, would have, should have,
cannot, not". This puts the reader in the wrong frame
of mind. The mind is much better at resolving concepts
if
there are fewer choices. Give your visitors a mental picture
of a clear, reachable and present goal. Speaking in the
past tense can sound old and outdated. Speaking in the
future
tense may evoke feelings that are not yet attainable. Read
your copy carefully to ensure it evokes feelings you intended.
Over the course of several days or weeks, read through
your
site multiple times.
- Use
a common frame of reference to introduce a new concept.
It is easier for someone to understand a new idea or concept
if it relates to the familiar. For example, when trying
to explain generational residual income using an affiliate
marketing program, use a familiar parallel. Elvis's family
will always be wealthy because every time one of his songs
is played, the family gets paid. With the emergence of each
new media, his songs will be reproduced and resold again
and again and the estate will continue to amass royalties/residual
income. The same holds true if you rent a house, you have
nothing to show for it except a stack of receipts. You've
built wealth for the owner because he holds all the assets.
But if you own the house, you have an appreciable asset
that generates income. If you own the business and/or affiliate
program, it can increase in value creating residual income
for you and future generations.
|
|
