10 things I wished I’d mentioned to my web ‘designer’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having a few website projects under my belt I thought I’d put together a list of things that I will always talk over with the “techies” who are building websites for me in the future to save myself a whole lot of pain and suffering (there has been too much!)  Recently I saved money by not getting the site designed by a professional graphic designer but I’m not sure all the pain was worth it. I greatly hope that you can learn from this and these design tips will hopefully make your project run a lot more smoothly (and your website look alot better!)

Maybe you are looking at what is coming back from the web ‘designers’ and not happy with it but can’t quite put your finger on it. It’s another good time to go through this checklist. This checklist is to check the layout and typography of your website not the content or SEO elements. Unfortunately many website creators are not trained in graphic design and so may overlook the following things which might seem obvious to others. If you need inspiration and want to look at websites that use this and other “best practice design” visit the Webby Awards homepage.  

Top 10 Website Design Checklist 

(If you want a website with credibility and style)

1.         Agree which font is used throughout the site.
            Use one font or family of fonts.

2.         Use equal amounts of space between each paragraph

3.         Use colour and shape and type consistantly

4.         Ensure things are lined up as much as possible – horizontally and vertically

5.         Check navigation is clear and consistent from one page to the next

6.         Use a nice amount of space between pictures and text.
             Say at least .5 cm (half centimetre) of blank space all around

7.         Only use coloured text as a heading not a full paragraph or whole sentence

8.         Ensure images used should always be at least 72dpi and appear clearly
             with good resolution

9.         Check all headings are in the same consistent case,
             for example, lower case, UPPER CASE or Title Case

10.       Never use an underline, double line or “!” – this is always (ok! usually) tacky

           any others to add?

What to do with your Yellow Pages

I live near the second largest football stadiums in Europe – Wembley in London. Last week I observed the local train station littered with cut up Yellow Pages and this made me ponder the current use of this fast becoming outmoded and expensive form of advertising. I’m glad some people are finding new uses for it and I picture small business owners such as electricians finally feeing themselves from an advertising dinosaur whilst also displaying their joy of their team score a goal. There it all goes for the station janitor to clean up.

wembley park station

Some schools in the area are also getting into the new uses for Yellow Pages act by building a dinosaur (whoops sorry it’s a Gecko!)  in order to…not sure actually but it looks like they had fun!  

the yellow geck

If you want to know you can read it on the Braintree website  Meanwhile to all small business who have been spending their marketing dollar on the Yellow Pages my advice is to save you money and learn to run your own campaigns on something like Google AdWords. You can learn to do an AdWords course at if you want help getting up and running.

doing business in Oz

ol’ melbourne town

 I have made some new friends at the australian Business Resource Centre who have been very helpful in encouraging the growth of Searchlab from my home town of Melbourne.  It’s great to keep business links going from your home town even if you are not based there anymore. I really enjoy chatting to these guys and using those ol’ melbourne expressions like “grouse” and “carn the pies” and actually being understood.  Who knows what opportunities could arise. Maybe I can help small business in Oz expand their horizons to London somehow. Aussies tend to do very well here and there is an incredible amount of opportunity in London.  All very exciting.  So if you want to make some friends with some of the most entreprenuerial aussies I know check this out www.mybrc.com.au

The 80/20 rule

This item shows how you can use a technique known as the 80/20 rule to analyse your business sales and profits from customers, products and service and channels to market. This information helps you to make decisions about allocating scarce business resources to achieve the best available returns and deciding how the business should grow.

STEP ONE

Calculate the values (sales or profit) contributed by each of these activities (customers, products/services or channels) over a given period and add to give a total. 

The period of analysis may be a year, but could equally be a quarter or even a month. What is important is that the customer activity in this period is representative of the norm, e.g. it is not biased by seasonal fluctuations in ordering patterns.

STEP TWO

Arrange the values for each activity in descending order.

STEP THREE 

Calculate the value of each activity as a percentage of the total for the period.

STEP FOUR

Calculate the cumulative percentage in descending order.

STEP FIVE

Find the row in your data where the cumulative percentage is approximately 80%. Sometimes you may only be able to get 70% or 85% rather than 80% but this is not that important. Then look across to see what proportion of the activities account for the 80%. For example, if 5 out of 24 customers account for 80% of sales, 5/24 = 21%. The ratio in this case is 80/21: 80% of sales come from 21% of customers.

STEP SIX

If possible, compare this information with results from other periods (say a previous year) or with an average for the industry. You should be able to obtain statistics for your industry from a trade association or market research companies like Mintel and Keynote. These can be found for free use in your local library or the Business Centre at the British Library, London.

STEP SEVEN

Analyse and interpret your results. What distinguishes the high contributors from the low contributors?

> What do the results tell you about groups that your customers might fall into? For example, what are the common characteristics of your current key customers (e.g. size, local depot, central purchasing)? Which other customer base have similar characteristics? Can these customers then be developed into higher contributors?

> What can you do to find more high contributors?

> What can you do to convert low contributors into high contributors? If you cannot convert the low contributors, do you need to replace them? What do the results tell you about your business strengths and weaknesses?

For a full explanation on how to apply this business rule go to the Chartered Institute of Marketing site

http://www.cim.co.uk/MediaStore/10_minute_guides/10_min_80-20_Rule.pdf

Google AdWords easy guide

To set up your Google AdWords is very simple but to fully understand how it all works and make the most of your money takes a bit longer.  To make it really pay you need a small amount of time each week and to learn a bit more about how AdWords works. 

To download a OnePageAdwordsMananger -  one single page that will help drive traffic to your website and generate profits click here OnePageAdwordsManager.doc (78.50 kb) Print it out weekly, fill it in and keep it on your desk. By following the simple task list on the sheet you can be sure to stay focused on improving your website traffic and Google AdWords account.

Learning how AdWords works could take months, or, you could attend a live Google Adwords training session at Searchlab. Run by a fully qualified Google Adwords Professional (me!), the courses are designed to take the complexity out of running your own AdWords account. The session will offer you all the latest tools and techniques for AdWords success. To register your interest email me at angie@search-lab.co.uk  

Here is a short and simple guide to get you started.

Three most important elements.

1. Relevancy

All aspects of your Google Adwords campaign must be relevant to what you are selling because these are the words people will type into Google to search for information about your products or services. If you give them irrelevant information you will be wasting their time and well as your Google Adwords budget.

Relevant keywords 
There is no point including keywords that are not relevant to your product. It will just cost you money on wasted clicks.

Relevant ad
Top headline is most important as this is bold. Put your product benefit in here.
Line 1 & 2: More detail on your product features.
 
Relevant landing pages
This is displayed in green. Don’t send all your traffic to your home page. Send them to the most relevant page on your website. 

Relevant offer 
Make sure your offer is of interest to those people searching under those keywords. It’s sounds obvious but your offer should be compelling enough to make people want to click on it.

         
2. A killer headline

Something quite compelling that includes the keyword in the headline. This is very important. If you have more than one keyword, set up different ad groups so that you can tailor each ad to those keywords.

3. Clarity

Make your add clear. Use plain English. Avoid clichés and never use ALL CAPITALS. 

Include a “call to action” (for example, “click here”, “buy now”). Make your offer clear and if you are selling tell people what you want them to do. Do not send poeple to irrelevant landing pages. Searching on Google for something then ending up on a website which does not have what you were looking for sucks. It’s just makes your company look bad and it’s a waste of people’s time. Spelling mistakes are also a big turnoff. Get help proofing your ads before they go live if like me you have become Spell Check dependant.

Some other selling strategies

Other than selling the features and benefits of your product. Here are a number of other techniques you can do to get people clicking on your ad.

• Negative Ads – Set yourself against the competitors and create empathy with the searcher. For example:  Don’t do this… do this first…

• Make it sound fast, simple, cheap. Usually too good to be true but could be compelling for you to achieve lots of clicks. For example:  Drive millions to your website.

• Ask a question. For example:   Need Retail Software? Looking for a soul mate?

• Narrative ads. Start a story which compels people to click so that they can hear the rest of the story. For example:   I tried all the hair removal products and only found one that really worked… 

• Controversy. Make a controversial statement in your ad that may create interest. For example:   For example:  Diet pills are a scam – remove this, too specific and could get us into trouble, Dating Sites don’t work, Healthy baby food is a lie. 

• Giveaways and free stuff. This is a good way to get people to your site. Think of something that could offer real benefit or value to your target market and make a Google Ad Campaign around it. For example:   Click here to win a romantic beach holiday.

Good luck with setting up your Google Adwords.  To register your interest in attending a DIY Google Adwords training day email angie@search-lab.co.uk

To download a OnePageAdwordsMananger -  one single page that will help drive traffic to your website and generate profits click here OnePageAdwordsManager.doc (78.50 kb)

TV star of your own business

Well its only a matter of time before TV and the Internet become full blood brothers and the lines of distinction are already blurring with all the TV stations streaming their content via the internet and internet providers making big plans for their own video content e.g Google Video.  Its quite easy and low cost to make and edit your own video which could have some viral potential to promote your business.  After all business and marketing is all about relationships and dating agencies have been using this method for years. Ok so you might say that some of us should not be in front of a camera. I disagree. Check out this amazingly effective promotional video   made on a low budget which increased sales by %400.

Its really funny too! Not saying video will suit all businesses but it is a great cheap way to create some potentially interesting content which will put you in front of new customers without your having to be there! I am setting up a coaching business and have no doubt offering someone an “experience” of your style and approach via video is a great way for a potential client  to decide if your are the right match for them.