Website Advice
I've been getting a number of questions regarding what I look for in evaluating a website's strengths and weaknesses. There are many sites dedicated to tips on design with items like 1) Don't use pop-ups, 2) keep it short 3) go for quality, not quantity of pages 4) Meta tags don't mean anything 5) navigation is key. I'd like to comment on not the structure of a site, but giving thought to it's purpose. For startups, a website should accomplish two objectives: 1) Credibility; 2) Conversion.
Credibility
It surprises me how many sites I evaluate where I have to ask the company: "Do you have any customers?" Many say yes, but the information is buried in a case studies tab under "About Us" or hidden in some other area of the site. The idea is to establish credibility quickly which can immediately impact a prospect's perception of your company. If you have an unestablished brand and you have customers, get customer quotes on the front page so prospects know others have purchased from you.
The other element of credibility is news, established through good public relations. If you've gotten some press, get that fact on your front page as well - don't bury it only in a news section. In psychological terms people inherently link your brand with those of customers and news outlets so the idea is to allow them to establish this link quickly, rather than rely on them to have to plow through case studies and articles on their initial visit. Merely noticing the name of the publications on your front page with a quote may be enough for a prospect to determine that you are credible in nanoseconds, thereby taking the rest of the information on your site more seriously. Of course they can read more if they choose and you should link to the case studies and/or news, but many don't bother as credibility has been instantly established.
Conversion
A conversion goal can be a sale, but for more expensive products or services you should look at a conversion as a lead. Create something on your site that encourages visitors to want to provide you with their contact information even if they are not ready to talk to you about your product. At Entellium we created a booklet with 100 questions that would help a company see the difference between our CRM solution and Salesforce.com's. I named it "100 Questions CRM Consultants Get Paid to Ask". To receive it you had to provide some contact details including your email address and it was emailed to you - The catchy title caused it to be downloaded thousands of times, each one a potential lead. It's great to grow site traffic, but if you aren't capturing who they are then you've lost an opportunity to engage with them.
Need help with Credibility and Conversion for your company? Contact me at Natalee Roan at yahoo dot com.
Credibility
It surprises me how many sites I evaluate where I have to ask the company: "Do you have any customers?" Many say yes, but the information is buried in a case studies tab under "About Us" or hidden in some other area of the site. The idea is to establish credibility quickly which can immediately impact a prospect's perception of your company. If you have an unestablished brand and you have customers, get customer quotes on the front page so prospects know others have purchased from you.
The other element of credibility is news, established through good public relations. If you've gotten some press, get that fact on your front page as well - don't bury it only in a news section. In psychological terms people inherently link your brand with those of customers and news outlets so the idea is to allow them to establish this link quickly, rather than rely on them to have to plow through case studies and articles on their initial visit. Merely noticing the name of the publications on your front page with a quote may be enough for a prospect to determine that you are credible in nanoseconds, thereby taking the rest of the information on your site more seriously. Of course they can read more if they choose and you should link to the case studies and/or news, but many don't bother as credibility has been instantly established.
Conversion
A conversion goal can be a sale, but for more expensive products or services you should look at a conversion as a lead. Create something on your site that encourages visitors to want to provide you with their contact information even if they are not ready to talk to you about your product. At Entellium we created a booklet with 100 questions that would help a company see the difference between our CRM solution and Salesforce.com's. I named it "100 Questions CRM Consultants Get Paid to Ask". To receive it you had to provide some contact details including your email address and it was emailed to you - The catchy title caused it to be downloaded thousands of times, each one a potential lead. It's great to grow site traffic, but if you aren't capturing who they are then you've lost an opportunity to engage with them.
Need help with Credibility and Conversion for your company? Contact me at Natalee Roan at yahoo dot com.
How do you get a customer to agree to a case study?
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Usually I offer them something in exchange for their time, like a small discount on the product they've purchased. Or if I have an active PR team, a free press release oriented towards what they do (so less about my company, more about them.) For larger firms I make it a requirement of any company discounts and stick to my guns.
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What are the "100 Questions CRM Consultants Get Paid to Ask"? What do I need to give to get the 100 questions?
...You're right that strategy does work, I'm hooked. Matt from Michigan
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I think the company changed the name of the document to the 2008 CRM buyer's guide, you can get it from the Entellium website if you're into learning about CRM software.
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