How do we avoid a busy Website?

• Understand the most important needs of your Website users.
• Focus on only those items.
• It takes courage and smart marketing strategies to make this work.
• The best Websites implement these strategies.

Here are the Websites reviewed in this podcast:

• Apple.com
• Google.com
• HayNeedle.com
• Amazon.com
• TechforLess.com
• oWot.com
• QVC.com
• BestBuy.com
• Netflix.com
• Blockbuster.com
• Snow.com
• CopperColorado.com
• ArapahoeBasin.com
• MerylRunion.com
• SpeakStrong.com

We end each podcast with an action item plan. What are the key action items for the listener?

• Go back to your business marketing or strategic plan and determine three things you do really well.
• Develop a tagline that works.
• Simplify the design around your brand tagline.
• Fight the urge to add more stuff on your site!

This has been the Intuitive Websites Internet Marketing Podcast. For more information and to see all the available podcasts and much more, visit IntuitiveWebsites.com.

Visit www.MastersDegree.com and review the site as you listen to the podcast. Here is an outline of their discussion.

There are several questions to consider for this Website:

• What is the strategy of this Website?
• Do taglines describe the benefits of the company?
• How does the Website generate revenue?
• Who is the target market?
• How does the design meet the needs of the target market?
• Is the navigation easy to use and intuitive?
• How should content be structured on the Website?
• Is the Website SEO friendly?
• What are conversion points on the site?
• Much of the hard work on this site is done!

We end each podcast with an action item plan. What are the key action items for the listener?

• Start with a Web marketing plan and clear strategy
• Define how the site will produce revenue
• Develop traffic generation strategies
• Drive traffic to schools from the site
• Use intuitive search functions based on Web stats
• Develop an interactive questionnaire and degree profile
• Establish clearly defined conversion points
• Research AdSense, ShareASale, or other affiliate networks that may be an option

This has been the Intuitive Websites Internet Marketing Podcast. For more information and to see all the available podcasts and much more, visit IntuitiveWebsites.com.

First have a great product or service, good marketing strategy, strong brand and a fair budget or plenty of time for Web marketing, including development, design and driving traffic.

1. Start by getting inside the head of the Web Visitor

• Why do users buy your product?
• How do they use the product?
• What do they tell their friends and family about your product?
• Look at what they do, more than what they say.
• Help the Web visitor meet their needs on your eCommerce site.

2. Navigation and Search

• Starts with the user connection with and branding on the home page.
• Communicate that the site is easy to use.
• Use a clear tagline and product photos on the home page.
• Develop consistent navigation menus and overall search capabilities.

3. Product Presentation

• Simple and clear product presentations.
• Great photos with bullet point details and lots of back-up copy.
• Clear pricing, including shipping options.
• Easy to see “Buy Now” buttons.
• Multiple contact methods.

What about the actual buying experience?

This is where conversion rates and sales can really be improved.

• One click to BUY and send shopper to the shopping cart.
• Give the option of registration or purchase without registration.
• Don’t force the pre-selection of menu items prior to purchase.
• Keep shipping fair and free as much as possible.
• Follow the expected standards for Web eCommerce.
• Drive repeat visits to your Website and use email to spark a purchase.
• Many people research thoroughly and consider more options.

Key action items

• Set a thorough process for tracking stats and usability on your eCommerce site.
• Don’t copy another site because you like it, do what helps users and drives conversions
• Realize that an eCommerce Web store is always under construction and being improved upon and set-up systems to do that.
• When in doubt, make things more simple.

This has been the Intuitive Websites Internet Marketing Podcast. For more information and to see all the available podcasts and much more, visit IntuitiveWebsites.com.

College and university Websites are unique in many ways and we have much to learn from these complex sites.   They have a diverse set of objectives, multiple stakeholders and many messages to relay. College/university Website design and management is challenging and time consuming.

Start by identifying the target markets (students, parents, faculty etc.) and identifying their needs.  Then develop a plan and strategy for the Website based on those needs. The three key areas to focus on are 1) navigation, 2) conversion points and 3) contents/images. 

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Website has complicated navigation.   They are using graphics for navigation, many users will not know that these are navigation points.  Below are some recommendations for this site:

• Simplify navigation and focus toward the target markets
• Keep the site design and menus consistent on all pages
• Financial aid and registration areas need to be easier to find.
• Buttons for "Apply Now" can be very effective.  These should be clear conversion points throughout the site. 
• Use real UCCS students and faculty in photos to better personalize the site. 

Let's look at a few other colleges Websites:

• Stanford University: Using image and graphics that are true to the institution and their homepage navigation is easy to follow.
• Massachussettes Institute of Technology: Integrated the experience of being at MIT into their homepage
• Harvard School of Business: Clean homepage design, consistent design throughout.
• Colorado College: Strong photography with a focus on graduation, the first initial benefit from going to college.

Social Networking will have a big impact on future college students.  Social media is central to this target market of college bound high school students.  This is an area of marketing for colleges and universities that is just waiting to be tapped. 

Action Plan for UCCS:

1. Do the research and homework to develop a new site map.
2. Develop conversion points to meet the needs of the users and the college/university.
3. Look at other sites, what are they doing well and not so well.
4. Conduct user testing in key target markets.

Let's take a look at www.PlusMoreMedia.com

Website Audits Review Each of the Four Steps :  When looking at a site we review all four of the steps to a successful Website. 

1. Strategy:  
2. Design and Development
3. Driving Traffic
4. Website Performance

Strategy and Design

• Message is not direct enough to tell us what the site is about in 5-10 seconds.      Perhaps choose a tag-line that follows the navigation.  Focus on  Web graphic design and video production and show differentiation -what makes your company different. 
• Professional design, clear navigation and layout. 
• Suggested a rotator image to get across your message : a "big" image to communicate quickly what your business is offering.
• Simplify the home page and tell the rest of the story within the site.    Scale back on homepage content.
• Focus on conversion point- they are using "Deal of the Month" , this is a good offer and shows a good impression.    The offer should be duplicated throughout the site. 
• Banners are often hidden to a users.   Many graphics are often not seen. 

Driving Traffic:

• The site is using very competitive and generic keywords. They are missing 'where you live' in the title tag to narrow focus.   Use niche words. 
• Resource tab is missing – place for free stuff and more content.
• Blog link difficult to find, on the New navigation.    Did a good job putting the articles on separate pages.  Long scrolling page, it would be helpful to make all links blue and underline.     Brief description then lead to complete article. 
• There is a lot of good content on the site, work on the organization and accessibility of it. 

Performance:

• How many leads are coming to the site and how many are converted to customers?  Difficult to find the Contact information.    Recommend phone and Email on every page with prominent placement.    
• Form on contact page is great but could add area to find out what the potential client really needs or present them an offer for completing the form.      Add information when customer what time frame they will be contact. 
• An About Us page with photos and information about the people that make up the company/service is what users want to see.  People also want to see the client list and what you have done for them.   Present credibility as well as the people/personal side of your business.
• Avoid blocks of text.  Use bullets or at least headlines over the blocks of text. 

 Action plan

• Simplify and make content more direct.
• Make conversion points more visible and easily found. 
• Focus the graphic images.
• More local focus and niche categories/keywords/strategy to drive traffic – use stats to help make these decisions
• Change conversion points  to an "offer of the month" and reinforce that you have  service to offer.

If you'd like your site audited go to IntuitiveWebsites.com.

The good news is that we will soon be launching Webinars and an interactive slide presentation to educate Web marketing professionals on the four steps to success on the Internet.

In the meantime, keep listening to our Podcasts and look for a lot of new content coming soon about the four steps to online success.

Tom

While it was easy to find a “day pass” to get online at Starbucks, actually paying took forever! Everytime there was an error in the form, all credit card information and security information had to be retyped “for security reasons.” First, there was a problem with my not reading the fine print on the number of characters needed in the username. Retype all my information. I’ll take the blame on this one. Second, someone had already used the name I chose. Retype all my information. Third, don’t use the same username as password (ok, that was a dumb try on my part, but I was trying to take the easy way out….not). Retype all my information. Fourth, someone had already used the name I chose again (I did not think lisalisa would be that popular…). Retype all my information.

The moral of the story…don’t make your users WORK to pay you. Most of them are not as desperate as me.

While I was there, I took a brief look around and thought I could make a few comments on their site for this newly launched weekly review.

• While there was a Sitemap, there was no link that said Sitemap, which users have come to expect.  Instead the sitemap was found under Help.
• From the shopping page for a pair of pants I was interested in, I was unable to find the return policy or shipping information.  I could not find prominent links to these critical visitor considerations on their home page either.  Guess where it was?  Under Help…as part of the site map.  At least as far as I could tell from my quick assessment (which is the length of any users’ assessment on the Internet).  Returns and shipping are critical considerations during the buying process and should be easy to find within the purchasing steps.
• Users must register and create an account to buy anything.  The more steps you require users to go through, the less likely they are to complete the transaction. Think simplicity here!

On the flip side, their search function worked well when I searched for "return."  They have integrated some nice photos to explain the fit of their pants.  They also offer several ways to shop–directions that users can take once on the site: by outfit, by trend, by category, and sales.  And while the font on some of the navigation can seem a bit small, the overall site design reinforces the classic style that Ann Taylor clothes are known for.