perspecive
Is the content on your website what your target person wants to see or is it instead what you want to have on your website?
It’s so easy to base your website’s content on what you think is interesting, but if your target doesn’t think it’s interesting to them - if it’s not what they want or need at that time - then they are going to click away.
Put your target market’s perspective on when it comes to your website’s content.
Easy to use
So your website looks really cool and does neat stuff … but … can the users of your website easily find what they’re looking for?
Take inventory of your website. If people find it hard to find what they’re looking for, you should probably do some cleanup and restructuring.
Making your website easy to use and accessible is one of the most important aspects of your website.
Break!
This may seem trivial, but it really makes a difference.
When creating content for the web, it’s important to break up large amounts of text with special formatting such as headers and bullet lists. This is important whether it’s copy content on your brochure website, your blog, social networking site, etc.
The web is all about control - the user’s control - and when a user is given a big body of text without any control over where they can start (or finish), they will tend to just click away, because you have not given them control.
Instead, give them control by including headers and such throughout the content so they feel they can read the part they feel is important to them - because it’s all about them.
just think about it
A blog can be one of the most beneficial things you can do to develop your company’s web success. The most important part of having a blog is providing information that a segment of your market will find very valuable (a segment of your market … not everyone has to find it valuable).
So just think about it. What can you offer? Would you be willing to start a blog?
Learn Intentionally
As you visit WebSuccessIndiana.com and subscribe to our blog feed, you’ll see a lot of suggested tools and processes to learn. Sometimes things can sound intimidating or out of your league to learn (although we’ll only suggest tools for people running/directing [small] businesses, not programmers), but why not write down 5 things to learn about, then pick an afternoon or evening each week to dig into one on your list?
Be intentional about learning. In this market, you really can’t afford not to.
WIFM
You’ve probably heard it many times before, but the same goes when marketing with the web. You’ve got to look from the angle of your target and their question of, “What’s In it For Me?”.Why should your target give you the scarce resource of their focus so you can provide value and market to them? This question can’t be asked to many times.
Multiple Domains
Don’t you just love the way the internet has brought so much of the cost of marketing down to a very manageable level!
One such cost that has dropped way down is the ability to target different demographics with different branding.
You may have heard www.WebSuccessIndiana.com referred to as our Indiana branch. That’s exactly what it is, a branch of our company targeting and serving Indiana [small] businesses. You’ll notice we also have www.WebSuccessAgency.com as our global web services brand.
With multiple domains you’re able to have a similar website on each domain, each targeted to a specific demographic … and the costs are virtually just $10/domain and a little web work.
Give them options
I’m completely blown away.
I went to Hulu to watch the latest episode of The Apprentice, and while the video was loading, they gave me an option of how I wanted my experience to be interrupted by commercials:
1. All at once in the beginning: I could choose to watch a full trailer (2-3 minutes) for an upcoming movie
2. Commercials throughout the episode as usual
Now for any tv/net-tv viewer, commercials & advertising is a necessary evil, but Hulu found a way to make that evil a little nicer. They gave me options.
They gave me control … and that’s what the web is all about.
Starbucked?
Have you been Starbucked yet?
Like them, hate them … doesn’t matter … many of us still pay $4.50 for a cup of …coffee.
In his book, Starbucked, Taylor Clark takes us on an exploration of Starbucks and the marketing machine they’ve created.
Learn how Starbucks learned to sell an experience, not just a cup of coffee.
Take a peak inside and buy at Amazon:
What was that web address?
I was just working with a client for his custom home building company. Web Success is developing a website for them and we needed to decide what domain name to use as the primary domain.
For privacy, I’ll just use examples, but the name of the company would be similar to “Theroux Vintage Homes”. Initially, and in the end, we decided to brand the main domain something closer to “MyVintageHome.com”. A friend of the owner suggested, for the sake of sticking with the same brand, that the site be something like “TherouxVinageHomes.com”.
Now I don’t fault the friend, because there are good arguments on both sides when it comes to domain names, but if you saw an add on a truck with the domain or heard it on the radio, which would you be most likely to remember? Which would you be able to spell?
Just something to think about when choosing domains.
