If you’re starting out on a new website development or revamping the old one then read on, this one’s for you…

Can you guess which one thing on your website which has the power to convert a visitor into a customer? Is it…

1. The design?

2. The technology?

3. The content?

4. The mild mannered janitor? (Now I’m showing my age.)

A) The Design?

Many businesses spend countless hours perfecting their design; choosing exactly the right pantone colour of green, picking the right font or spending days ‘adjusting’ the design.  They often get completely hung up on the design and worry that if it doesn’t look amazing their business will suffer.  This is not true:  Admiring a snazzy looking website is great but design is never the only reason why your visitors become customers – the suit does not make the salesperson.

The design sets the scene (like the background music to a film).  It tells the visitor that they are on the right type of site.  For example, you would never see an Argos style design on the Harrods website – or vice versa.  Design is important but if you’ve had your website professionally designed then trust the designer and don’t pick at the design.  In my experience businesses focus 80% of their efforts on design when it will probably only contribute to about 20% of their website’s success.

Remember this simple maxim: no one ever buys from a website solely on how well it’s designed.

RECOMMENDATION: When building your website spend no more than 20% of your time on design.

B) The Technology?

Technology is the facilitator of your website.  It enables the interaction between visitor and website it does not, in itself, sell.  It can, however, give you the tools to sell, such as, Live Chat, forms to fill in, social media connections, etc.  But it should never be the driving force in your web project.  You shouldn’t choose your website’s functionality based solely on how cool some piece of functionality is or because a competitor has it.  You should, however, base your technology on what will help you sell more effectively.

For example, any budding ecommerce website may feel it needs to emulate every bit of functionality that Amazon uses.  This logic is often based on a false assumption that Amazon uses amazing technology and is successful, therefore, the route to success is to develop similar technology.  This is, of course, dangerously expensive and wrong.  Technology should only ever be implemented if you can see a clear path to how it will make you money.

RECOMMENDATION: Pick your website’s technology and functionality based on how it will make and increase sales.

C) The Content?

Content is the correct answer.  Content is the ONLY thing that has the power to convert a visitor into a customer.

Content is, and always will be, king.  Content ‘speaks’ to your visitor.  It expresses who and what you are whilst simultaneously influencing your visitor to become as customer.  After all neither design nor technology really have the ability to convey to your visitor the value of your products or services.

But content is often relegated to the bottom of the pile when developing or maintaining a website.  Very few companies really focus on it, in fact most only spend 20% of the time they spent on design on developing their content.  (So they end up with a well-dressed but utterly inarticulate sales person.)

But why does this happen when it’s obviously the most important out of the three?  I think perhaps because developing content isn’t regarded as sexy, fun or interesting but that’s just a mindset and an easy one to shake –If I were to say to you that if you spend the next hour writing some sales copy for your website it could earn you upwards of a four-figure sum over the next year then I bet you’d do it.

And that’s how to view your content – as the keys to your online bank vault.

RECOMMENDATION: Spend 80% of your development time writing your website’s content.

But what about the mild mannered janitor?  Well, it was me all along!  (What a lot of Phooey.)  

Jed Wylie is the author of Make Your Website Sell and works for Morgan Wylie a web design and digital marketing agency in the Midlands.

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There certainly should be more to attending a trade show than just the bits of paper and plastic you collect, but it will only work if you do your homework and prepare properly and fully before the event, so plan ahead. It doesn’t stop at just attending the event – before or after!

Here’s our six top tips to making your attendance at any event – trade show, exhibition, conference, open-day, etc – more effective and easier to justify as worthy of a day out of the office.

1. Plan before your leave

In fact plan a week or so in advance. Maybe to some it may sound obvious but you will be surprised how few people actually do it.  Of course, it means justifying another afternoon ‘off’ of normal commitments but in the long-term it actually justifies itself and the day attending the conference.  Most events will have a pretty comprehensive website nowadays, make sure you trawl every page. It may sound laborious but it should be inspiring. Have a look at who is exhibiting. Is there any angle you may want to talk to them about? Do you want to know more about what they offer? Check the speakers and seminars lists. Which of these would you be interest in attending?

2. Open your Mind

Whilst planning is essential, don’t miss out on experiencing things you may never have heard of before. Business expos are often where the future of business and technology is first unveiled and many slip under the radar. It was over a decade from the first digital music player being shown and Apple making it a commercial success with the iPod. You may just see something that sparks something off in your own mind too. Also if you have time, if you have heard bad reviews about a certain seminar speaker try and take the opportunity to make your own mind up by watching them in action. At most it will likely only be 30 minutes of your time and even from bad public speakers you can learn a lot.

3. Network, Network, Network

Face-to-face has so many advantages so grab the opportunity while you can. People visit exhibitions, expos, trade shows, whatever name they go by for very different reasons. Most however, will be looking to network to promote their business so you will find people friendly to strike up a conversation with – whether that is on their stand, sat alongside you in a seminar room or even in the queue for a coffee. Don’t miss out. Don’t under-estimate the power of the business card in the modern world either. It pays to have a stack to share even if they just point to your online presence in the social sphere where more networking is done.

4. Get social

While networking face to face is still strong, much of the buzz around events is online before, during and after the event. Make sure you get involved there too. As part of your preparation make sure your Twitter and Linked-In Profiles are up to date. Not got one? Then these events are the perfect place to start and begin building your networks. Review your online profiles. Is there a photograph of you? Do all the links work? Are the profile words accurate. You can probably find out the official hashtag in advance too off the event’s website so maybe set up a search that follows that hashtag so you can keep up to date with others at the event and maybe jump in.

5. Make sure you do Business

Remember exhibitors are there to sell their products so if there is something you like the look of this is a great opportunity to get a bargain. If you know before the event what you may be interested in then make sure you have figures clear in your head before you go. How much can you get this product elsewhere? That’s your benchmark now at the event. The sales people on the stand may well be on a commission bonus especially for the event so  are very likely to be willing to spark a deal. Don’t jump into something you haven’t seen before though. Many a person has walked away from an event carrying an essential tool they will never ever use. If the deal is too good to miss, walk away and do some research online and then come back and try and knock some more off the price before you seal the deal.

6. Don’t stop when you leave the event

Making connections at the event or learning new information is only half of it. You now need to put that in action, and quickly. On the way home from the event list all the positives (and negatives) you gained from the event. Make a note of what you need to follow-up and how you can put things into action for your own business. If you networked don’t let those new connections go cold. They will have met countless others so its worth networking on social as soon as possible to remind them. Don’t crowd people out though. Make sure you give them space so they don’t fear you are a stalker. Equally make sure you do a formal follow-up within the next week. Set follow-up meetings or other events you might both be attending to link-up again.

Want to see the 123-reg team at a trade show? We’ll be attending The Business Show at London’s Excel at the start of June. Come and say hello.

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One of my favourite people that ever lived was the majestic Frank Sidebottom. A bumbling 35 year old failure who was self delusional enough to believe he actually had a showbiz career, which he had to keep secret from his mum . Oh yeah, he also had a big head, that some people thought may have been made of papier mache. How rude. I’ve been a huge Frank fan since I was 15 and a few years ago I was lucky enough to appear on his TV show, easily the highlight of my professional life.

Well, at last someone is making a documentary about Mr.Sidebottom and his friend Chris Sievey. It’s being funded, as everything is these days, by the mighty Kickstarter. Director Steve Sullivan has reached his initial target of £20,000, so the film is definitely happening. But to make it as good as it can be, he needs more cash. If you’re feeling generous, then do pop a few sheckles in his metaphorical electronic pocket.

Ross Kemp is everyone’s favourite East End hard man. Well, after Danny Dyer. Of course. But you can’t fold Dyer’s face as easily as perhaps you’d like. The reluctant Mitchell brother, on the other hand, is far more malleable and looks wonderful when he’s all scrunched up. Just take a look at some of the wonderful examples on Kempfolds.

www.kempfolds.blogspot.co.uk

Like most people, I always leave my online Christmas shopping until the last possible minute, occasionally missing the postage deadline meaning my children don’t get any presents and we have to pretend we are Sikh and don’t celebrate it. If only there was a handy way of keeping an eye on exactly when Christmas was that I could check any time I was sat at a computer. Hang on a second, you mean THERE IS? Thank you Berners-Lee. THIS is what the internet was made for. Idiots like me.

www.xmasclock.com

Christmas is fine. That’s covered. We know when it is, sometime towards the end of December, and thanks to the previous site, we can accurately predict it. But the thing that makes me wasn’t to gouge my stomach out with a spork, is coming into work on a Wednesday only to be asked if I enjoyed pancakes the night before. ‘No, why would I’ is my usual response. ‘Because it was Pancake Day you massive has been loser, didn’t you know?’ I have missed Pancake Day every day for the last 32 years. And as we all know, these delicious flat cakes of the pan can only be eaten on this special day when we celebrate the Baby Jesus hunting in the back of the fridge for a squeezy plastic lemon left over from last year. Well, miss pancakes no more! Simply click on this next link every day until it says ‘Yes’.

www.isitpancakeday.com

I may have mentioned Axe Cop before, but to be honest, I don’t care. It is so good it is definitely worth another look. Basic premise, a young 9 year old boy (although he’s probably a bit older now. In fact, biology and aging would mean he definitely is) makes up stories about a gentleman called Axe Cop. He tells them to his older brother, who happens to be an excellent cartoonist. Older brother then makes one of the best comics based on the younger lads stories. The result is as mad and as brilliant as you’d expect.

www.axecop.com

Don’t click on this next link. This was considered hilariously funny back in the old days of the internet. I remember literally standing in a puddle of my own wee wee in 1999, thinking that we had reached the pinnacle of comedy and that we should stop trying to be funny.

www.findmyhosting.com/web-hamster

Finally, who doesn’t want to look like Kenny Rogers? If at least one of my boys doesn’t end up with silvery hair and a bushy beard just like the Islands in the Stream superstar, then I will have failed as a father. Just imagine how proud the parents of these gentlemen must feel.

www.menwholooklikekennyrogers.com

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

That’s it for now. Do please keep sending me your websites. I don’t have a proper job so I need something to keep me off the streets. Pop along to www.facebook.com/iainleeofficial

You can read Iain Lee’s very own take on the internet here on the 123-reg blog every third Friday of the month.

A familiar face on television since he got his first break landing the job hosting Channel 4’s thrice weekly topical comedy show the 11 O’Clock Show at the age of 25, Iain is also an award winning radio presenter, top podcast creator and a genuinely funny guy with an eye for the bizarre.

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The survey was commissioned to look at whether email users recognised the importance of a business email because those businesses who do not have an email that is associated with their domain name are putting themselves at a major disadvantage.

Despite the rise of social media, email still is the most important channel that a business has to communicate with its customer base. A professional email is vital; however our survey shows that people are not valuing the importance of this. Consumers now expect a professional domain led email address and those businesses who do not offer this will be perceived as unprofessional. In such difficult times, businesses must make their first impressions count.

So what do the stats say?

• 55-64 year olds most understood the important of a business email
• Fewer than 50% of respondents understood that professional email was important
• 62% of respondents saw email as important for businesses
• Email offers the second best ROI behind SEO

Our survey shows that email is the lifeblood of a business. Consumers need to feel assured that the company they are choosing is both professional and trustworthy. Business emails are highly cost effective, and show a business in its best light.

Email has risen to become the most important form of communication for businesses in the UK today. However, despite this rise in the ease of communications, there is no getting away from the fact that times are tough for small businesses and since the global recession in 2008, SMEs have struggled as the demand for goods has decreased along with banks tightening the reins on credit.  This makes a business email for a small business all the more important.

123-reg offers a business email solution, at an affordable cost. As 123-reg is specifically aimed at start-up businesses, it is important to offer a business email solution that can help a business’s productivity but also save time. The professional email service from 123-reg allows users to get everything needed to run a small businesses. To learn more about our packages, head over to: http://www.123-reg.co.uk/email-hosting/professional-email-packages.shtml

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It’s often the little things that make the difference between someone choosing to buy/enquire or bouncing off your website never to return.  This is particularly significant in today’s world in which the customer is becoming ever more careful and critical in their choice of supplier.  Customers are looking for increased value along with proof before they part with their money.  In fact, going the extra mile is now the norm – to really excel we need to go an extra two miles.  So, here are three more ideas to help you prove your value and win more online business.

Profit Fix # 4 – Implement a Call Me Back Form.

This is an incredibly effective mechanism to get your prospects to make contact.  It’s a form you can put on your sales pages with at least two fields on it; First Name and Telephone.  All your visitor has to do is fill in their details, click submit and an email is sent straight to your sales team for them to call your prospect back.  (Plus sales people love to strike whilst the iron’s hot and this is the perfect vehicle to ensure that.)

We tested sites both with and without this form and found that there was a marked increase in enquiries when the form was visible.  It’s a really useful feature to add and a quick marketing win which shouldn’t take your web designers more than an hour to put live.

Profit Fix # 5 – Get Some Testimonials.

Testimonials can be one of the most powerful features of your website.  They do two very important things; first, they create a sense of confidence about what you do and second, in raising your visitor’s confidence they will naturally read your website with more care.

However, one of the drawbacks of a written testimonial is proving its authenticity.  In other words, how do you prove to a sceptical audience that you didn’t just make it up?  Well, there are a couple of techniques you can use that will flatten those concerns.

The first is adding an audio testimonial to the written one.  So, not only can your visitor read it but they also get the chance to listen to your customer discussing it.  The little ‘podcast’ of your customer could provide much more detail on how good they found your service to be – it could even be a full-scale interview or alternatively just the testimonial as it was written.

The second is to video your customer saying it.  Admittedly this takes a little more preparation but the results are incredibly powerful as visual evidence from a customer of your company’s value offers the greatest social proof and can clinch the deal.

Profit Fix #  6 – Offer Your Customers Some Guarantees.

Along with testimonials guarantees are one of the most effective ways of increasing your conversion rate on your website.  A guarantee in marketing language is known as a risk reversal.  In other words, you are taking the risk away from your customer when they buy from you.  Let’s face it, the customer takes the majority of the risk in most business transactions as they often have to part with their cash before receiving the goods.  So, if you can reverse the risk you eliminate one of the major buying objections your potential customer may have.

You could offer a money back guarantee, a lifetime guarantee, a free trial and so on – there are lots of options.  The key thing to remember is that by taking the risk out of the purchase your prospect is far more likely to become a customer.

So, be proud of your guarantee and make it obvious everywhere on your website.  If you’re running an ecommerce site consider putting your guarantees on your basket page.  This adds reassurance to your customer and can tip the balance between them continuing to the checkout or moving on to a competitor’s website.

And finally, take a quick look at your competition’s websites: If they are doing the things I’ve suggested then you definitely need to do them too and if they’re not then you’ve got a huge opportunity and still definitely need to do them!

Jed Wylie is the author of Make Your Website Sell and works for Morgan Wylie a web design and digital marketing agency in the Midlands.

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Whether you enjoy meetings or not, the chances are, your working life sees you having far too many, or at least far too many that fail to really develop anything. Probably in many cases a quick phone call or email could probably cover as much ground and possibly move things on more, but meetings are almost a cultural thing and they do actually have a value in your business success.

We’d probably all agree some meetings are a waste of time, breath and energy but there is one essential meeting you should have: your annual goal-setter.

Whether you are a multi-national or a one-man band with a couple of investors, the goal-setter is the most important meeting you will have, or it should be. It is different from just a reporting meeting, it needs to be a discussion meeting. All those essential to your business should be having an input, bringing new ideas and setting new goals, so make sure diaries are kept clear. Before you meet here’s four things to keep in mind.

There is value in everything everybody says

So make sure it gets documented. It may not be relevant straight away but it may come in handy a few months down the line. This is the meeting new products, new strategies, etc. should be discussed and aired. It should be quite an emotional meeting because you need everybody who has an input to be passionate about what they are talking about. That can mean a few heated discussions but try and make sure it remains as relaxed and informal as possible.

Take inputs from more than one source

Gaining consensus on any decisions made is fairly important as you want everybody to be behind the strategies etc for the coming year, so do take time to discuss things out. To help achieve that, if you are a bigger company then make sure those thought-leaders or senior-managers attending the meeting have taken some feedback from those working below them. Your employees should be your strongest ambassadors to it pays to have them all behind you and leading the praise for any new launches or strategies. Keep them involved and they will be much more likely to respond positively.

Your past can determine your future

Your goals meeting should probably come after your AGM or reporting meeting, although in reality they often overlap. There is an importance in learning from the past year and applying that new goals and plans. Make sure any failures or disappointments from the previous year have been analysed so you don’t make the same mistakes again.

Make sure your goals are achievable and realistic

Know your limits and that includes your budgets. Dreams are wonderful things if you keep them in perspective, but nothing creates failed goals more than being over ambitious. Consider setting staircase goals, whereby you achieve one to help you achieve another. So if you reach so many sales, you can afford to take on an extra employee and take the project to the next stage.

Most importantly, don’t put off the meeting. Without it your business will lack direction and even if you achieve, you won’t do so on a level anywhere near that that you could with better planning. If you’ve not had your goal setting meeting yet, book it in the diaries before the week is out. Whatever pain that brings, the rewards will soon overcome it.

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Did you know that the average website only converts about 1% of the traffic it receives into leads or sales?
Pretty scary isn’t it! So, it probably makes more sense to improve the conversion rate from your website before increasing the traffic to it. Here’s why:

If you wanted to double your online business you may logically start by doubling the traffic to your website. Generally speaking you can do this through any combination of Google AdWords (pay-per-click advertising), Search Engine Optimisation activity or social networking. However, whichever you choose you’ll probably end up spending a fair bit of time and money doing it. BUT, you’ll still only be converting 1 in every 100 visitors into customers.

If you’re already getting any decent volume of traffic to your website it makes more sense to focus on increasing the conversion rate rather than traffic especially as it costs you next to nothing to improve your website (assuming you have a decent Content Management System).

In other words you can double, treble, quadruple your profits simply by making a few tweaks to your website (at next to zero cost).

So, let’s take a look at 3 Profit Fixes that can immediately help you increase your conversion rate.

Profit Fix # 1 – Make a Splash with Your Homepage

Statistics show that you’ve got about 8-15 seconds to impress your visitor before they leave. What’s on your homepage will entice your visitor to stay longer and get them take the action you want them to. Here are 5 things you can do to engage your visitor and compel them to stay:

1. Have a clear, bold headline that makes them stop and think!
2. List the key benefits of using your business
3. Use the power of video to spark their interest
4. Give away some free information to help them (10 Top Tips…, 7 Secrets of…, etc.)
5. Collect their email address in exchange for this free information

Now take a quick look at your homepage and see how many of these 5 things you are already doing.

Profit Fix # 2 – Be Contactable

Make it easy for your customer to make contact with you. Put your telephone number on every single page of your website. (I appreciate that for some businesses not showing their phone number is a policy but it’s a bad one!) Add contact forms, call me back pages and even live chat. Employ every technique you can to get your prospect to make contact with your business so you can begin the sales process directly with them.

Profit Fix # 3 – Be Fresh and Current

What’s out of date on your website?

The biggest offender on most websites is the News page. Having a news, blog, articles section or Twitter/Facebook feed that stopped some months ago sends a message of staleness. However, if your website is updated regularly then your visitor will feel that they are engaging with fresh, useful information. It also delivers the message that you’re a vibrant, active company with something to say about itself and that can only strengthen your prospect’s perception of you.

Another thing to check is that any information with a date against it, is properly maintained. There’s nothing worse than visiting a website only to find that the pricelist is last year’s. The same principle also applies to special offers, sales and vouchers.

Next week I’ll show you three more super-simple techniques you can instantly employ to increase the numbers of visitors who convert to enquiries and sales.

Jed Wylie is the author of Make Your Website Sell and works for Morgan Wylie a web design and digital marketing agency in the Midlands.

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Image courtesy of Carlos Porto | www.freedigitalphotos.net

1. Order your email box

If it takes two hours, so be it. Delete the chaff and file away the rest in logical folders. Consider it a late spring-clean. An ordered email box, means an ordered mind, makes for a more solid platform to build your success.

2. Return those calls

We all have one or two call-backs we dread. Either because of the person we have to call, the length of time since they were expecting a call or because the topics to be discussed aren’t necessarily positive or awe inspiring. The thing is, the longer they get left, the worse the situation becomes. Clear a space on your desk, grab a drink and pick up the phone. They will be over before you know it and the outcome will probably be better than you expected.

3. Speak to your colleagues

The sun is out so make the most of it. Convene a meeting in the sunshine. It could be a walk in the park, a coffee in a nearby park, or just standing on a terrace outside the door. A change of surroundings can have a big positive impact on your thought process, especially creatively and sharing that with a colleague and sharing their thoughts will be a ‘nice’ thing to do but also have a positive impact on your business. Finding out what others think, feel or observe is an important barometer to working out how your business is running. Communication is key and that needs to begin internally first.

4. Listen to music

Just like changing your location boosts the mind so does changing the sound in your ears. Vary it up too. Uptempo may not be what you need. Soothing the soul can often boost adrenaline and energy as much as a thrash metal big sound. Tuning out of your surroundings and into ‘another place’ even for a mater of minutes will freshen your thinking and help re-focus when you may have hit a block. Don’t be afraid to move to the music either. Movement is another great mind-cleanser. So whether it is moshing Give it a try.

5. Review your work so far this year

If you are in a creative industry this may be easier. Have a look at what you have created, think about how you may have done it differently. Even a couple of weeks on we often look at things in a different frame of mind and consider a different approach.  Even if you are not creative, looking back even just over the books or sale orders will help you focus your mind and attention

6. Prioritise the rest of your week

Bank Holidays are great for BBQ equipment sellers, ice-cream vendors and pretty much most physical retail outlets and entertainment venues. They are not however great for the majority of businesses. Your workload won’t  have remembered you only have a four-day working week, which no doubt means a whole host of things to get through before the weekend. With the five must dos already above, today may also have been a bit off the usual planed path and so number is six is all about making sure you reach the weekend with some sanity and your business intact. List everything you need to get done – even if you know you won’t achieve it all. Then prioritise them all into urgent, very urgent, important etc. If you don’t get the all the important stuff done this week make sure they become the very urgent next week so they do eventually get addressed.

Common-sense? Probably, but if that’s the case why do we so often dread them, put them off or forget them. If you learn anything this week let it be that non of us are perfect and a little bit of help here and there, the odd re-focus etc is normal and healthy if you are achieve long-term success.

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If you fancy writing a guest blog for us why not check out our 123-reg Blog Contributors Guide 

We look forward to hearing from you.

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