by nottmarketing | Mar 27, 2022 | Planning Your Website
Have a clear Call to Action ~ What Action Would You Like Your Reader to Take?
When planning your website, have a clear call to action distributed evenly on your website. Have a button on the header, on your home page slide, in your sidebar, in the footer. Leaving a visitor to figure out the objective of your website may cost you a sale. It would be folly to pay a website developer to construct a presentation without having a conversation about a purposeful and clear “call to action”. The purpose of your website should NOT be left up to the imagination of the prospective customer.
Your home page should be clear about what action is expected – “call today” – “go to our clearance page”- “ use this coupon code today to save 35% on your purchase” – “join our mailing list and receive a free ebook”- etc. When selling from your website, steer the visitor in the direction he should take to shop your catalog.
Prominent offers, coupons, sales and policies
Online stores would benefit from a display of new merchandise or special sales right on the home page with a hotlink to the product. Offering a coupon? Put it right in front of the visitor’s nose from the start. Contact information should be found on all pages. Publishing the city and state of your company location legitimizes you to the new visitor, a ‘frequently asked questions’ or ‘policies’ page for new users offers instant self-help, and email forms you provide should be easy to use.
Would you prefer to close a sale over the telephone? Give the visitor the incentive to call while he has your webpage in front of him. Install a “click to call” button in a prominent place on all your pages for your mobile visitors. Providing a prominently displayed menu of your products/specialties/services and rates may give the visitor the valuable information needed to decide if your company is the right one to call.
Pop up ads
Many websites liberally use pop ups for offers, special sales, news updates, or newsletter subscriptions. Should you use pop up ads on your home page? Learn more about pop ups and how to use them.
A word about sending visitors off your website : don’t. Unless you have an upsell to offer your visitor, do not give him a reason to leave before closing a sale. And, unless you have a very dynamic and professional business ‘facebook’ page, don’t send people there either. Having a page you have not updated in 3 years with pictures of former employees is as sad as my own FB page, which I don’t use at all!
by nottmarketing | Aug 20, 2021 | Planning Your Website, Website Upgrade
We’d like to offer some important guidelines for planning your Connecticut small business website. Nott Marketing Services begins the consultation process during the first conversation or email. We know that every client will have different reasons for establishing a company website. Before proceeding with an in-depth consultation, it will be important that we speak to the company spokesperson or decision-maker for the project. Consult our checklist to prepare.
Checklist
Your website will require the same planning as any marketing project prepared for your company. The advantage of website production over a printed brochure, besides the expense, is that new ideas and information can be published at will, at any time, for very little expense. So, what will you want to say about your company?
These are things we will need for your project:
have you budgeted for an internet advertising project?
have you budgeted for an ongoing marketing or maintenance plan?
do you have a deadline to meet?
is this a new company or service?
do you have an existing website?
a prepared brief company history or introduction of staff
description of your target market or typical customer
have you collected recent testimonials from your clientele?
name two of your local competitors
do you intend to collect leads from the site?
will you sell or collect donations from the site?
do you have a logo, a design scheme, or preferred color palette?
will a photo gallery or short video be helpful in this production?
give us 2 or 3 domain names (dot-com names) you would like, in order of preference
what online and offline advertising campaigns are currently in use?
HOW MANY PAGES DO YOU NEED? Determine the website’s objective before outlining your project. It is easy to underestimate the number of pages needed for a portfolio, product catalog or store. Main pages include the home, contact, about the company, and a main product or services page. However, a cost-conscious new company with very little material in those pages can get away with a one or two page site. A website is a process which can and should have pages and material added into it later on.
CAN YOU AFFORD WHAT YOU DESIRE? The product catalog a client sees in his/her mind may be cost-prohibitive until the business becomes firmly established. Software installation, programming, photo manipulation and graphic design are time consuming services that require attention to detail. From my perspective, a client commonly requests a project with high expectations of professional results from the web design team, regardless of their ability to pay for the service. Unlike other service providers, we commonly wait months or years to be paid for some projects. If you cannot set aside several thousands of dollars to create and maintain your website, start small and build the site over time.
WRITING COPY FOR NATURAL SEARCH There are rules and guidelines in use on the web for search engine robots, and they change frequently. The code behind the designed page should tell the ‘searchbots’ what the site is all about. Providing complete descriptions of every product you sell is of crucial importance. I have written a few articles to give you a little information about planning your website, the role of social networking in your plan, and the science of search.
PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY FOR YOUR ONLINE STORE Quality photos of your products will help you sell yourself as a reputable merchant! Poorly lit or out-of-focus photos do not belong on your professional product catalog. If you cannot hire a product photographer, buy a new digital camera and tripod – and if possible, take a photography class. In the long run, you will save thousands of dollars doing this yourself.
When you’re ready to get the boll rolling, please review our Pricing guidelines.
Now, let’s talk about your home page….
