5 ways to STOP your website working

I write lots of web content and work with clients and web designers on making websites user-friendly.  That may seem obvious, but sadly the surveys reveal that, offered the option of a glitzy, pretty website and one that has fantastic usability for the website visitor, the looks win out over the user experience.

What's this got to do with written material?  Surely that’s a problem for the web developer or designer or both?  Yes, it should be – but at the end of the day few developers conduct user tests and almost none get training in how people use websites.

Here are some common mistakes that people make when constructing their website:

1. Too much going on at once
With scrolling or sliding banners, moving headlines, flashing icons you are actively discouraging the reader to leave.  Anything that moves should move ONCE and then stay still.  If you have changing images ask your web designer to slow the transition down to a very, very gentle dissolve so that the reader barely notices and can focus on what THEY want to see.

2. Creative menu tabs
Navigation should be a no-brainer – as in you shouldn’t have to have to think twice about what the menu tab says.  So – About us (or About) not Company Profile or Who we are or Meet the Team. Visitors should be able to take one look and know what to expect if they click the tab.

3. Too many options on the menu
Most people are short of time and don’t want to spend any more minutes than necessary reading a long menu.  As most menus today run across the page it doesn’t limit how many tabs you can have, but some designers simply pull out some of the tabs and create a second menu above the main banner or elsewhere.  Some people also put another menu in the footer.  The record I’ve found so far were SIX slightly different menus on one page!

4. No calls to action
Before you construct your site map you should know what you want people to do before they leave your site.  Then, as you construct the site map ask yourself how easy it is for them to do that.  When you write the content (or brief someone else to write it for you) every page should ask the reader to take action – whether that’s to move to another page, visit the blog, download a free item or call you to discuss their needs.  If you don’t ask, you don’t get!

5. Making your visitor work too hard
Many websites feature a Testimonials page and others have a comprehensive FAQs section. Testimonials should be on the page where the service being discussed is featured.  Third party validation is powerful – but don’t make your reader have to work that out and go and read a long list of testimonials (which may or may not be about the product or service they’re particularly interested in).
FAQs are lazy – if you think that people will want to know the answer to a question that means the copy on the site isn’t doing its job properly. The answers should be part of the main copy.  Also – if you are giving people all the answers, they don’t need to get in touch – and you miss the opportunity to open a conversation.  There is such a thing as too much information.

These are just a few things that will send people away from your website – but get these right and your website will work harder for you.

How to get people to read your newsletter

If you’re like most of us your inbox is full of stuff you don’t read – and don’t have time to read.  So, do you send your newsletter out and wonder why the open rate is barely in single figures?

Just because it’s your newsletter doesn’t mean that all those people on your list have any burning reason to read it, no matter how much they like you!

Here are my tips to improve the open rate of your newsletter:

1. Give it an interesting subject line.  ‘Acme Newsletter March 2017’ doesn’t cut it as an ‘interesting’ subject line!  However, there are plenty of good subject lines that might get people’s interest or ignite their curiosity.
Don’t read this unless ...
Discover the secret of ...
Does [issue] give you a headache?
You see where I’m going here – something that people want to know more about or find out what comes next.  Think of your subject line as the headline in a newspaper, it’s what makes people want to read the article that follows.

2. Put the email in the body of the newsletter.  Don’t create an attachment, people don’t open them unless they have to.  It may be tempting to create a glitzy pdf, but it takes effort to open an attachment (yes, I know it sounds crazy, but it’s a good reason to ‘do it later’ – and then completely forget about it.

3. Always deliver value.  This won’t make people open it the first time – but it will encourage them to open the next one if they like the last one!  The first item should always offer something of value that shows off an area of your expertise.  This might be a summary of one of your recent blogs with a link to the full item or some tips or a ‘how to’ item.

4. Talk to people directly.  Develop a writing style that talks directly to the reader – as though you have them in front of you as you’re writing.  Make it conversational not corporate.  One of the reason people find newsletters boring because they’re written in pompous corporate-speak.  Engagement comes from a direct chatty style.  People buy people and they will start to think they actually know you.

5. Have a structure that you follow for each newsletter.  Your reader will get to know what’s coming and see it as comfortable and familiar, they’ll be more likely to open it when they know what they’re getting.

Remember a newsletter doesn’t have to be long – in fact, sometimes short is best – but it does have to deliver something that your reader will value.

Social media – does it work?

Most switched on businesses today use social media – for a variety of reasons.  The question is does it work?

That depends on what your expectations are of your social media activity.  If you think that you’ll find your next big client in the next week, you’re going to be disappointed.  Yes, it happens that a social media post can get you connected to someone who is looking for what you offer right now, but it’s rare.

You may be thinking ‘Why does everyone make such a big deal out of social media?’  If you’re a small business it can be challenging to do everything the business needs you to do to achieve the success you want – AND spend time posting on social media.  Bigger organisations have a communications and marketing team that don’t have 101 other things claiming their attention.

So – it all sounds very negative so far, doesn’t it?

Look beyond the time consuming sales pitch and explore what else social media could do for you.

It keeps you visible.  With the right tools you can have posts going into your chosen social media even on days when you’re too busy to think of looking at your feeds, let alone post anything.  People don’t forget you – and when one of your connections sees something a request for something you could do they remember to recommend or connect you.

It allows you to see what’s going in around your industry.  Again with the right tools you can run a stream around your key words.  This means you can keep right up-to-date with what’s happening in your industry.

It lets you interact with customers.  Some bigger organisations use it to lead their customers service function.  If you set up your social media so that you get pinged if your company name is mentioned you can respond quickly to mentions.  Either with a thank you for positive feedback or to address a problem and turn people with problems into the most loyal customer you’ve ever had.

It acts as a funnel for your website:  If you post links to your blog or key pages on your website with the right kind of post it brings people to your website.  If you have something to give away (a free ‘how to’ download, or tips sheet) you can build your marketing list.

So – will it deliver big paying customers daily? No, but it is a valuable means of marketing and developing your business.

Blogging for business

When I mention blogging many people groan; “I don’t have time,” they tell me.  Some of these people send a monthly newsletter out, most of them post material on social media – in my book that’s reinventing the wheel!

I’m lazy and they do say that if you want to find the most efficient way to do something ask a lazy person.  I’m also a bit of a systems geek – I like having a step-by-step process to make things easy.

What has this got to do with blogging?

Firstly, I believe you should write once and then use many times.

Secondly, if you have a plan to follow everything gets much easier.

Let’s look at the second one first.

Faced with a blank sheet of paper, most of us find our creative mind is equally blank.  What we need are ideas to get started.

Here are a few things that might give you some ideas:

1. Questions people ask:  Most businesses get asked questions by clients or prospective clients.  If you get asked the same question several times that means it’s something people want to know about.  There’s a subject for a blog.
2. Topical subjects:  Search Google (other search engines are available) for your key words and look at any news items about the subject.  Don’t just copy the article, reference it and give your spin on it.  How does it affect your business?  How will it impact on your customers?
3. Tips:  Choose one area of your expertise and create a set of tips – anything from 5 tips upwards are good.
4. Warnings:  There are almost always things people get wrong – and that you know better.  Explain the mistake and what a solution is – this can either be one mistake or three or more common errors people make.
5. Testimonials/case studies:  There’s nothing wrong with blowing your own trumpet!  If you have an interesting case study, especially if you’ve got some feedback from the client to go with it, outline it for your readers.  If the situation is recognisable or you want to identify your client, always check with them first. Often people are pleased to get a bit of extra visibility.

One of the things that I find useful is to have a list of all my services and then work through them one by one, writing useful information about each that will help the reader (just like this blog post about blogging!) This is also a useful exercise to develop your magic matrix.

Now about that lazy strategy of writing once and using many times. Here are my steps to make this work:

1. When you’ve written a blog post it with a suitable picture 
2. You can also post it on your LinkedIn profile as an article.  
3. Read through it and extract single sentence quotes or soundbites and put these into a csv file to use on social media – not just once, but several times (this only works if the blog subject is generic, if it’s related to a date, event or news it will go out-of-date).
4. Use the blog to lead your newsletter with added value.  The best ones to use here are the ones that give advice/information to help people.
5. Over time you can gather several blogs around one subject area and create an ebook to give away (or sell) in exchange for people’s email info to build your marketing list.

Now you have a strategy to follow – blogging isn’t such a big mountain to climb.