Is Your Website Just an Electronic Billboard?

If the majority of your visitors are unique and from direct traffic, it means your present customers and word-of-mouth prospective clients are the majority of your visitors and they don’t have many reasons to return to your site.

I’m inferring that your present customers are only coming to your site once in their entire relationship with you. Maybe a few times later, to get your business phone number or email, but that is the extent of their browsing at your site. They have no reason to come back. They read the brochure in the beginning…and that’s all the website really acts as.

Your Site Should Be a Commerce/Living/ Entertainment/Industry/Business – Workspace!

Looking to the future, you need to incorporate the tools and attractions that can keep customers coming back and drawing in prospective clients.

Offering tools, information, and an open communication portal to your business can increase revenue. Revenue is available from both sides: existing customers and prospective clients, and your site should cater to the needs of both. However, as it is at least half the cost to keep a customer than to sign a new one, it is a better investment to make your existing customers your primary target.

Many of the proposals I suggest in the following sections apply to both, existing customers and prospective clients. Some initiatives are available to both sides and some are available only to existing customers, but will be incentives for prospective clients to join you.

Chat Options

This adds a whole new aspect of communication with existing clients and prospective customers. Questions and inquiries can be answered quickly and easily with multiple users. All of your employees can communicate with existing and prospective clients in real time while completing other projects – in other locations. Minor conversations can be done while you are with a client, on the phone with another client, or on a conference call. This service can easily be turned on or off (Chat available/Chat not available) and usually can be used from any remote location (install software). Many business sites offer some form of chat as most people prefer to not get stuck on the phone or wait days for a return email.

Chat options are available from many sources:

• Every Chat
• ParaChat
• Website Alive
• Help On Click

Quote Calculator

Web users are looking for answers - direct answers, quick answers, customized answers. They want prices, processes, and plans all laid out before they give up any money. If your business is based on quote pricing, a basic quote calculator can give prospective customers a feeling of immediacy and an estimate of their cost with you. Many customers have no idea what the cost of your product/service will be or even what they can or should budget for it. This calculator can help customers figure out what they want to pay and what they have to pay. Giving them this information has them trusting you up front and coming back when they are ready.

Existing customers can use different versions of quote calculators to get quotes for added services. Different versions of quote calculators could be provided to provide customized prices of new services and helping the customer decide whether the extra services are necessary and cost effective on your terms.

A lot of web development companies use quote calculators:

• Pink Link
• Buyer Zone
• Pumpkin Pip
• Bjorn Enki

However, tools for creating quote calculators are sparse:

• MovePoint
• Crystal Myst

Forums and B2B Communications

Turning your site into a hub of communication (and therefore information) for businesses (mostly your clients) can bring existing customers and prospective customers together to discuss the business environment in your industry or geographical location. You can provide questions, have businesses discuss their strategies, and argue problems in your industry or geographical region. If you become the hall where the “business club” meets, you help shape its future. Since you have direct communication with all of our clients, you can inform them about its creation and new topics being discussed. This process could easily gain momentum and expand past your clients quickly into your industry or geographical location.

Forum tools are available:

• Ektron
• Near-Time

Client Directory – Extended Beyond

Along the same lines as the forums, an online business directory of your clients could pool more businesses under your roof. Even if your clients only want backlinks and profiles for Search Engine Optimization purposes, you gain by adding their business to your growing index of businesses. As this gains momentum and you offer it beyond your clients, businesses can become part of a categorized directory which connects them to each other, your business, and beyond.

Directory creation scripts are available:

• CreaScripts
• Big WebMaster

Company Growth, Confirmation, and Security

With the incredible saturation of spammers on the web today, web users’ trust is strained and their skepticism is at its summit. You need to provide users with concrete information instead of the phrase, “…and much, much more!”

Variable tickers of how many clients your business services could be made available on your site easily (I’m not talking about a visitor counter; it’s something you can control and add or subtract from). Maybe a map of your state or country where all your clients are located would work.

Certifications in different technologies and companies can be obtained cheaply and predominantly displayed on the site.

Testimonials from clients should be pasted all over. Right now, there is no proof that your site is not a spamming site with nothing to show other than a few products and an About Us page. Are you hiding your past? Have you pleased no one with your work?

Actual interview ready Résumés should be provided. It’s great to have bios of employees, but people looking to hire you want résumé type information, like what previous experience your staff has had, not necessarily that you’re just good people. This shows professionalism and makes users’ lives easier when they can print a Résumé, show it to their boss, and hire your business.

Client counters and/or maps:

• No examples found of actual client counter (not visitor counter)
• HooYou Client map
• Cindy Collier Client Map

Web Developer Certifications:

• HTML Writer’s Guild
• Certified Internet Web Professional Program

Site/Business Verification:

• Trust Guard
• Trust Seals
• Better Business Bureau
• Truste

Customer testimonials:

• Inventive Designers Customer Quotes
• Step Two Client Testimonials

Résumés provided on site:

• CDC Studios Résumé(s)

Web Tools

Users are constantly looking for tools and sites that make web life easier and provide more information. Offering sites and tools to existing and prospective clients can help open the doors of communication and knowledge. People are becoming more web savvy and willing to try new sites and tools to see if they provide the information and functions they want. A collection of the best sites and tools on the web related to your industry can be provided on your website in a couple hours. This tool also creates a gateway to further collections, articles, and E-Books (possibly) you could offer. If the 1st tool collection is free and they like it, they may buy a collection of articles put into an E-Book for $30. If they’ll buy the book, maybe they’ll join a 3 hour seminar (webinar, etc…) for $100 – the list goes on. If you are either the only or easiest connection to a great site or tool, people will use your site as a portal.

Sites offering great tools and/or further information (articles, E-Books, seminars):

• SEO Book
• Recommended Web Tools
• Web Warrior Tools

Members Login

This obviously applies only to your existing clients. Setting up a database of all your clients and providing them with access to their accounts can save you literally hundreds of hours of work that constantly keep bubbling up (and provide you with a database of your clients).

Each account would include:

Account Info

• Business’s (customer) information (name, address, phone)
• Purchased services or products
• Product/Service info like manuals and warranties

Help Desk (Support Tickets)

• Support ticket system would help make sure all clients’ problems are solved completely and in a timely manner.
• Possibly outsource for 24/7 coverage
• Support ticket software: Helpdesk Pilot, Trouble Ticket Express

Bill Pay – saves time, postage and printing money, and will encourage more businesses to pay on time (automated reminders, remove human element)

• Automated billing, plan out billing periods more easily, no more scrambling on the 30th
• Bill pay companies: PayPal, Authorize
• Printable invoices, view invoices over time, no more arguments over costs or price changes

Client Involvement – Helps Them, Helps You

Just as you involve businesses to interact with each other through your site, you should be getting pieces of them as well (for their and your benefit).

• Have clients write articles about your industry and their business. You can feature an ad by them on your site in exchange.
• Written interviews with your clients about the industry and their business and offer a link to them and Press Release of the article.
• Of course, this would be the perfect avenue for Podcasting for your business. Video can be done with any digital camera or you can just use audio. You could have monthly interviews with one of your clients and what the industry is doing for their business and the problems they face. This could make your customers feel cared for and put their name out (along with yours). Prospective clients can see you care about your clients. Takes only about an hour a month and could get the attention of both sides: existing and prospective customers.

Client articles:

• Leo Morgan

Business podcasts:

• Podcast Alley: Business
• Small Biz Pod
• Podtech

Up To The Minute Homepage

Using a Blog like setup with new info on main page at top and build down will help you look like you’re there everyday. An “updated last: date” can really be added anytime and falsified easily. New info added all the time, whether incredibly relevant or not, could really pull you out of what looks like an old website. Haven’t found any sites presently using this outside of blogs and news sites, but if you can explain your business rather succinctly, there is plenty of room on the homepage for updated information to be front and center.

Billboard v. Workspace

If you use your website more like a workspace with your clients, they’ll starting walking in the front door like you have a store front. They’ll see how you work, what you have to offer, and that you can back it up. People walking by will start peering in the windows and coming in to see what you offer and your qualified past. If your site remains a billboard, existing and prospective clients will just drive on by.

Daly Communications Group offers all of these workspace options and more not included here. Contact us for a consultation to make sure your prospective clients aren’t just driving by and your present clients aren’t just driving by once for the phone number.

Can people move around your site and get the information they need? Or do they get lost and leave as quickly as they arrived?

Everyone knows they need a navigation bar on their web site. They know it forms a structure that allows visitors to move around the site and find that important piece of information they’ve been looking for. But what many people don’t know is that a lot of visitors may be getting lost on their site. The links are not clearly identified, are somewhat hidden, or simply don’t go where the visitor wants to go!

So how do you go about keeping visitors on your site? How can you be assured they are finding the information they need? When do you start to think about your site’s navigation - which comes first - design or the site’s navigation structure?

A common misconception about the website design process is that the starting point for any web project is how the site will look. What colors are going to be used, what typography will be used, what photos and illustrations will be used etc. But any experienced designer will tell you — it’s not.

The real starting point in the overall design process is outlining how visitors are going to move through your website.

The way information is presented, especially in larger sites, must be carefully planned. Anyone coming to your site from a link found in a search engine, a link a friend sent in an email, or a link found in a trade directory must understand where they land on your site and how they can move easily from that point.

We designers who approach design projects from the perspective of the visitor will work with you to help determine your primary navigation’s links and categories. From there, you can determine your secondary navigation’s links and subcategories. Keep your navigation simple and make all information accessible within one or two clicks. This helps ensure that visitors find information quickly without getting frustrated and deciding to search elsewhere for information or products.

Does all web navigation have to look the same?

Another misconception is that all navigation links must be positioned on the left hand side of the web page and no where else.

The real rule is that all navigation must be obvious - all primary navigation must be easy to locate. That doesn’t mean it must be on the left hand side and it must be in 12 point Arial, it must be underlined, and it must be blue.

Your site navigation must be highly visible and accessible. It should not be hidden in confusing graphics or appear in different places on different pages. You want visitors to find information quickly and clicking through as many pages as possible because they are finding the information they need – not lost and looking for a way out!

Linking within your content is also highly recommended and should be utilized not only for visitors but for search engine web crawlers as well. Nevertheless, you need to use these links with care and help visitors find answers to the questions they came to your site asking. Don’t randomly link from the body of your text; use discipline in your selections so you are sure users will know where they are, how they got there, and how to get back to where they were.

Can your site navigation benefit from a web designer’s point of view?

One final misconception is that only sales managers or marketing personnel are able to outline your website’s navigation because they know the product/service and how to best present the information.

From the perspective of your overall business, this is true. Your sales and marketing teams are saturated in your company philosophy, products/services; they live and breath it day in and day out. However, this may work against them when it comes to designing your site’s navigation. They may have a tendency to organize information the way they understand it, not the way customers need to learn it.

An experienced designer can help you understand how visitors will move through your site by offering a “fresh” perspective. From the outside looking in, designers can look at all the information you need to present. They can work with you to be sure that the information people are looking for on your site is well represented and presented in your website’s navigational structure.

Does all this time spent on navigation pay off?

In closing, creating your website’s navigation is the most important first step in the overall design of your site. The process of establishing primary and secondary categories and subcategories can be difficult and time consuming, it can be directly related to the amount of time visitors spend on your site. Once the navigation is set up, then its time to play…I mean work… with your designer on color, typography and don’t forget the amazing pictures that will truly let visitors know who you are!