Archive for February, 2008
Here are a few important and growing Internet trends.
- Most people check out products on the Web before they buy from a retail store. The Websites they visit influence their retail buying decisions.
- Cart abandonment rates are still over 50% and are not improving fast enough.
- Almost all businesses use the Web when searching for vendors and business partners. Many more follow-up on business referrals with a visit to their Website.
- An organization’s Website can build or erode trust.
- Website design and development processes are not working well and there continues to be major usability and design problems with most Websites.
- Slowly, Websites are become more simple with fewer links and more white space.
- Blogs, podcasts, webinars and other forms of content distribution are growing very rapidly among consumers, but most businesses have no idea how to use these technologies or what to do with them.
- More companies are beginning to set Website ROI goals and measure their Website’s success. The vast majority of businesses still don’t do this. A lack of understanding in this area leads to no strategic Web plan or smart investing in Web marketing efforts.
These trends provide valuable insight into what is working online, how to get results for your site and where you can get ahead of your competitors.
February 22nd, 2008
Website content can easily be the lost step child of Website development. In working with hundreds of clients over the past 10 years, this is the area most neglected in Web marketing.
There are several reasons for this. Budgets are not developed properly for content development and most people do not have good writing skills. When you combine this with the fact that even good writers do not know how to write content for the Web, you get bad Website content. The content either reads like brochure content, talks too much about the company, is too flowery sounding, is made up of large blocks of text or just poorly written.
For these reasons, most Web content is not read and we see this repeatedly in usability testing. Here are a few tips to get your content read:
1. Use fewer words to say the same thing.
2. Avoid blocks of text.
3. Make use of well-written headers and bullet points.
4. Focus on benefits, not features and learn the difference.
5. Write in a language understood by visitors, not internal speak.
6. Go to Amazon.com and read books on how to write Web content.
If you ask users to read your content and give you feedback, they are likely to say that it looks fine. It is better to have them perform a task on your site or look for something, this will give you a better idea of how users scan your Website.
Content is in many cases the most important part of your Website and deserves a solid budget, proper Web writing and feedback from user testing.
February 11th, 2008
In this podcast we study online branding.
Everything on your Website is branding: Logo, Graphics, Colors, Font, Content, Usability, Navigation, Photographs.
The Web has created a new impression of branding, much more personal and internally focused. How does a business owner know if their Website is branding correctly? Listen to this podcast for timely tips and strategies.
Intuitive Websites Internet Marketing Podcast 29 - Online Branding [16:38m]:
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February 7th, 2008
