Marketing Tom - Internet Marketing

First Impressions On the Web Do Count

I was in a meeting yesterday with a client and prospective Web developer and we were discussing how the way that people searched for information had changed. The client was convinced that the Internet was the way forward for their high-value purchase, B2B products. They also said something very interesting and relevant, “first impressions count as much today as they have always done”.

We were sat in a room where the key, "traditional" tools for competitor and/or B2B search/research could be found – Yellow Pages and Kelly’s. Even though these are increasingly being seen as tools of the past, along with local libraries, I still speak to clients who view the Internet with reluctance/cynicism and still use these methods (if I don't have my machine in front of me, I use them as a last resort). Common phrases from these clients include: “that’s not the way that people in my industry find out about companies”, “people haven’t got time to use the Internet” or “our clients tend to speak to others in the industry for recommendations”.

All of these are perfectly good arguments but, let’s not beat about the bush, the Internet has changed everything – and especially so if you’re living in the UK, USA and other countries that have fully embraced the technology. When people are looking for company information they tend to use the Internet, when they receive a business card from you they check out your Web address and when someone recommends your business they will check out your company on-line. So many B2B companies develop websites which so badly reflect their product and service offerings and often leave potential clients bewildered, underwhelmed and convinced they will not work with that organization.

The bottom line is this – your clients are going to check you out on the Internet, Google is the favoured tool for doing background and market research  and first impressions do count.

When Web Developers Should Get Back To Basics

I have two objectives in writing this article: the first is to have a small rant about web developers and the second is to prove that by writing relevant content this article will leapfrog ahead of at least one of the sites that these web developers created.

Earlier this week I was trying to find information about two events: the first I will be attending in Swansea and the second was an event where one of my client's had one a prize. Let's take a look at both events.

Lead On 2007 - Liberty Stadium, Swansea
This is an event that is being held in Swansea's Liberty Stadium. It is being organised by the Institute of Directors, Chartered Management Institute, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Wales Management Council and the Chartered Institute of Marketing company called Cazbah. According to the website (more later) the event is geared towards leaders and managers. Speakers include Richard Scase, David Magliano, Dina Matta and Ian Williams, amongst others. It is billed to be one of Wales' top business events of 2007.

Showcase Wales and National Tourism Awards 2007
This Visit Wales (Wales Tourist Board) event was held at Bodelwyddan Castle, North Wales between the 2nd-4th October and according to their website:

The National Tourism Awards for Wales are all about showcasing the very best that Wales has to offer. Turning the spotlight on the stars of Welsh tourism and showing what can be achieved through, hard work, ingenuity and commitment.

At the 3-day event the Showcase Wales and National Tourism Awards 2007 website said that around 250 international travel agents and buyers would be there to do business with Wales' tourism companies.The Awards Ceremony was hosted by the BBC's Huw Edwards and Rob Brydon supplied the comedy.

What are the problems with these site?

Lead On 2007 - the website for this event is almost entirely made up of Jpeg images. We are not talking about standard images here but graphic images of text. The only part of the Lead On 2007 site which is not made up of images is the navigation. Further SEO faux pas include not using keywords like "Swansea" or "Liberty Stadium" in the page titles and no meta descriptions.

I am sure that there will be many people like myself will use Google to get information about the Lead On event in the coming weeks and will be unable to find the site. If you're reading this the web address is: www.leadon2007.com. Good SEO practice would  dictate that  I include a link to their site but this would probably give them a small boost on Google - forget that!

Showcase Wales and National Tourism Awards 2007 - I must admit that over the past week the SEO ranking for this event has climbed up and the site does feature number 1 on Google for the search terms "Showcase Wales" and "tourism awards wales". However, I would say that this has more to do with links from those sites who won awards, press releases and news sites than good SEO on their part.

The big problem I had with this site had to do with its design and content. I felt that for a major Wales Tourism event the Showcase Wales website was, and is, a major disappointment. It had no WOW! factor, lack of good images and information was generally very old. Let's take an example - I was interested to find out who the finalists for awards were and instead of the names was offered an application form (entires closed in June!).  I won't discuss some of the issues that potential buyers may have had.

As for trying to find press releases on the site I have given up and now am relying on my client's own.

One of the problems with sites such as this is that PR and Marketing companies try to create web sites either in-house or get graphic designers to design sites for them. And invariably, these people are usually ill-equipped to do projects like this - they don't have the necessary web design, usability or SEO skills to do projects much justice.

The Solution

If you're looking for ways to create good event sites, take a peek at the Future of Web Apps site. The Le Web 3 website and the Search Marketing Expo site offer straightforward, easy-to-use examples of how to build event sites. The French site was actually built using the same technology as this site and aside from design the cost of the site (except booking) was probably under £79 per year!

Update
For the terms "Lead on 2007 Swansea" this site is number 1.

Of Web Developers and Men

Over the past month I have been working on a couple of interesting client projects with a subtle mix of Site Design Architecture, SEO and PPC built into most. These projects have meant that I have had to deal with web developers and clearly state to them what elements of SEO should be included in the overall development. Here are some of the elements which should be givens:

• Individual Page Titles for each page
• Customisable Meta Tags
• H1 Tags
• SEO-friendly URLs
• Sitemap

Up until last week I was asking for URLs to be created in not just a search friendly way but also asking for them to be created with hyphens. Well, recently Google changed this policy and was now treating underscores as  word separators - the same applies to MSN and Yahoo! Another given should be Google Analytics - this is a free tool and integrates easily with static and dynamic web pages and offers great reporting results.

The latest web developer I have dealt with, in all fairness to them, has been very much aware of the need to include the key elements of SEO. In fact the web development proposal actually highlights the work they will do with regards SEO - and I don't mean registration with all the major search engines, as some muppets who I come regularly across often talk about!

I must admit that it is quite amazing that a high number of web developers are selling solutions to clients, with no consideration of how people will find the site (e.g. search engines) and what they will do when they are there. It would appear that their business model is built on making a quick buck from a client with no consideration of future relationships. And the staggering thing is that they keep churning clients out using the same business model. On a slightly different tack, and as a good rule of thumb, I would recommend that companies try and identify what type of web developer they are dealing with:

1. Graphic designer turned web developer
2. Web developer come web designer
3. Web designer come web developer
4. Muppets

I would always try to make sure that you deal with a web design firm that has a good blend of web design and development skills and which has a dedicated SEO specialist. Always be wary of graphic designers turned developers, invariably they come up with 'pretty' designs which are almost always search and visitor unfriendly.

I would also recommend that you do not believe web design firms when they tell you that client sites have been successful - always telephone the client yourself, explain you're thinking of going with this web design firm and ask how much money they have generated or enquiries received.

Sorting Out Design Issues

Ben Hunt has put together a superb guide to Web Site Architecture on his website Web Design from Scratch. There are great tips on helping you through the Design Process, Site Architecture, Graphic Design, Usability, Copy writing and much, much more. It's a pity that web developers don't follow some of the simple rules when building client sites. Here's a sample from the "Basics" section:

How designers look at web pages

• We appreciate balance, depth, richness, and surprises
• We enjoy looking at designs
• We stare long and hard at the complete screen

How real people use web pages

• They move quickly because they don't like looking at the screen
• They're impatient - they tend to click the first promising link, and often don't wait for pages to finish loading
• They don't like to read, scanning text quickly for clues
• They're looking for things to help them do what they want to do

Site Architecture is another section that caught my eye and in it he explores the different ways that sites can be strcutured, such as the Multi-Dimensional Hieracrchy:

There are some great pieces of advice on this website, which should be of interest to both those developing a web presence and those who just want to make their site, and the visitor experience, better.

Church Marketing That Sucks

I just came across a really neat website (via Kathy Sierra's Creating Passionate Users weblog), called Church Marketing that Sucks. Whatever your thoughts on the website name, it's aim is the following:

"...frustrate, educate and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ."

Christian or not; believer or not; I think that there is some real value in this site. Aside from the Christian articles and observations, there are some good reviews of websites, promos, fliers and even radio commercials. Each one is  accompanied with a brief overview of the ogranisation, the promotional tool they're using and some questions for readers on how to improve the site. It's these question prompts that really deliver the value.

Each article does seem to have some pretty good advice from readers, who are both from the 'community' and have expereince in marketing, web design or similar. I love the idea of opening up a website to a comunity which is both passionate (read: Christian in this case) and knowledgeable (read: experienced in their industry) and inviting them to offer their honest opinions.

Just check these out to see what I mean:
Two Rivers E-Marketing
EKG Easter Poster
Easter Art Installation Promo
Church Commercial on Rock Radio
Church Plant Mailer

Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005

Jakob Nielsen has just published his Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005. It is based on the results of a survey he conducted with readers of his Alertbox newsletter. As you will see most of the issues are perennial favourites (baddies!).
1. Legibility Problems – Number one spot reflects the issues that people have with fonts.
2. Non-Standard Links – Jakob includes 5 guidelines for getting hypertext links correct. He says:

Links are the Web's number one interaction element. Violating common expectations for how links work is a sure way to confuse and delay users, and might prevent them from being able to use your site.

3. Flash – Surprisingly, he says that web developers still don’t get how to use Flash correctly on a web page.

Flash is a programming environment and should be used to offer users additional power and features that are unavailable from a static page. Flash should not be used to jazz up a page. If your content is boring, rewrite text to make it more compelling and hire a professional photographer to shoot better photos. Don't make your pages move. It doesn't increase users' attention, it drives them away; most people equate animated content with useless content.

4. Content That's Not Written for the Web – He advises that writing for the web means making content:

·    short,
·    scannable, and
·    to the point (rather than full of fluffy marketese).

From both a visitor and search engine perspective, he says that Web content should:

·    answer users' questions and
·    use common language rather than made-up terms (this also improves search engine visibility, since users search using their own words, not yours).

5. Bad Search – this is one area that Jakob concedes will take investment (on software) and time to get right
6. Browser Incompatibility - with the rise of Firefox, Opera and Safari it is worth paying attention to get this right.
7. Cumbersome Forms – often too long and asking too many unnecessary questions. Jakob offers  five basic guidelines to this end.
8. No Contact Information or Other Company Info – The number of times I have to advise clients to address this basic principle is unbelievable. As Jakob says,

Even though phone numbers and email addresses are the most requested forms of contact info, having a physical mailing address on the site might be more important because it's one of the key credibility markers. A company with no address is not one you want to give money to.

9. Frozen Layouts with Fixed Page Widths – 2 complaints here: relating to monitor resizing and printing.
10. Inadequate Photo Enlargement

One of the long-standing guidelines for e-commerce usability is to offer users the ability to enlarge product photos for a close-up view. Seeing a tiny detail or assessing a texture can give shoppers the confidence they need to place an order online.

Are Web Designers Really Evil, Lazy and Stupid?

Guardian Unlimited has an interesting article by Jack Schofield in which he asks Jakob Nielsen, Usability Expert, to cite the three things which he believes are holding up progress on the web. Jakob Nielsen believes that they come down to: lazy, stupid and evil design.

"Evil design is where they stop you from doing what you are trying to do, like putting an advert over the top of the page. That's the wrong way to do it. Google has made billions by putting the ads where people do want them, rather than where they don't want them."

Evil design is perpetrated by people who are deliberately doing the wrong thing, and this harms everyone. Nielsen cites pop-up windows as an example. Users now expect pop-ups to be unwanted ads, and close them without looking at them. As a result, good designers can no longer use pop-up windows even when they would be a good solution.

"We now have to say: 'Don't put your help text in a pop-up window.' It's ruined it for everybody," he adds.

"Stupid design is where companies are doing things that are known not to work. We now have 12 years documented experience that certain things work and certain things do not work," says Nielsen, "and companies are still doing things that do not work."

One example is the Flash intro. "Almost everybody knows that doesn't work, but every so often, a new website comes along and makes that mistake. That's stupid."

The solution is education. "We have to make it even more well known," he grins.

"Lazy design is where people just don't bother," says Nielsen. "That's actually quite common."

One example is the search facilities found on websites: "it's amazing how often they barely work," he says. Search is complicated, and even if sites buy search software, it has to be installed and tweaked to work correctly. Many companies just can't be bothered.

It's also well worth reading an article on Confusability - Is Jakob Nielsen evil, stupid or just plain lazy? - for the flipside of this argument.

Technorati Tags: usability

Some of the Web's Silliest (Unwritten) Rules

Bryan Eisenberg demonstrates in an article on Clickz - Unwritten Internet Rules - how silly (unwritten) laws are starting to find their ways into the online world. Bryan says that:

Solid rules and best practices are great for managing well-established systems and keep social order. Online, following unwritten rules can be a recipe for rotten conversion.

Here are some of his favourite unwritten Internet rules:

Unwritten Rule 1: When in doubt, create a link that reads "click here."
Unwritten Rule 2: Use lots of "more info" links.
Unwritten Rule 3: Use as many vague hyperlinks as possible, such as "read more," "continue reading," and "next."
Unwritten Rule 4: Write for search engines.
Unwritten Rule 5: Short copy is better online. Or: Long copy is better online.

Why are they such silly rules? Check out Bryan's article to find out.

 

Technorati Tags: permission marketing |web content

Does Your Website Lack Personality?

The other day I was reviewing a site that had been developed for one of my clients (previous to engaging me!). This B2B site had a few thousand products, was relatively easy to navigate around and offered clients the ability to pay through a variety of means – their terms and conditions were spot on, too.

However, one glaring omission was the fact that the site didn’t tell the visitors who they were, what their experience was or even how their service was different. This was not a start-up company either. These people had many years of industry experience, knew the industry and their clients intimately, knew their products and their applications inside out and had clients across the length and breadth of the UK, from small sole traders to large multinationals.

With this sort of background you would have thought that they would be SHOUTING it from the rooftops, or at least their Web site!

But not one single page, paragraph or sentence mentioned the company’s pedigree.

This is not an isolated case, either – I have probably dealt with around 3 companies in the last month who have developed sites which lack, what I would call, personality. 

105 Real-life Marketing Lessons from Marketing Sherpa

For another year running Marketing Sherpa has compiled a list of real-life marketing stories in a FREE downloadble PDF, called Marketing Wisdom 2005. As the marketing blurb says, "[Marketing Wisdom 2005] Includes 105 real-life marketing lessons learned from MarketingSherpa readers including the folks at Timberland, Pacific Shaving, and ING Direct:

• Email tests that worked
• Search marketing tactics
• Site design to raise conversions
• Direct mail, radio, & telemarketing stories"

Haven't read it yet but if it's like last year's, it will make very good reading.

Online Advertising and the User Experience

Jakob Nilesen's Useit.com website has an interesting Alertbox entry entitled The Most Hated Advertising Techniques. In it he discusses the findings of a study by John Boyd from Yahoo! and Christian Rohrer from eBay, which looked at how people perceive online advertising.

If you're planning to place pop-ups in front of the window or if the ad blinks on and off, then you may be interested to know that 95% and 87% of correspondents answered either negatively or very negatively to these.

Users were particularly pleased with ads that clearly:

• indicate what will happen if people click on them,
• relate to what people are doing online,
• identify themselves as advertisements,
• present information about what they are advertising, and
• provide additional information without having to leave the page.

Even Big Companies Make Usability Mistakes

Here is an interesting article that I came across on Sitepoint from Trenton Moss, an usability expert:

Top 10 Usability Blunders of the Big Players

Like most usability articles it does make some interesting points and it's always nice to read stories about big guys making basic mistakes. When optimizing a website it is easy to take your eye of the ball and forget that visitors need to be able to use the site effectively in order to make the right call to action. That's why it is always a good idea to understand how a site should look and function from a user's perspective and why email newsletters from Jakob Nielsen are always welcome in my inbox. Here is a list of Trenton's Top 10.

1. No Search Function
2. Massive Download Time
3. Non-scannable Text
4. Unclear Link Text
5. Poor 404 Error Page
6. Visited Links Not Shown
7. Frames Used
8. Links Point to the Current Page
9. Important information contained in images
10. Unique Scrolling System

B2B websites - help your fans help you!

This is a great article to help companies focus their attention on what B2B websites should be aiming to achieve. In short, Jakob Nielsen in B2B: Help Your Fans Convince Their Bosses has identified three 'big' goals and they include:

Survive the screening process - help your target audience get through the search engines, be attracted to the home page and offer the right content.
Support your advocates - give them the tools they require to convince their peers and superiors
Build a reputation for being easy to do business with - this includes post-sales support.

The logic behind the approach that he advocates is this: if you do the homework for your target market, they can win over their peers and bosses and hopefully select your company from the others.

As Jakob Nielsen says,

Advocacy kits are rare on current B2B sites, but they're a great way to leverage the Internet's one-to-one ability to reach directly inside a customer company and connect with people who are eager to help you close the deal.

Survey Monkey - Allowing you to get closer to your customers

Today, I received an email from Six Apart, the people who provide the technology for this TypePad blog, inviting me to take part in an on-line survey. The email took me to the website of Survey Monkey, the people who provide the on-line survey technology. The survey took a very short time, had a nice look and feel and was easy to use. The objective of the survey was to ask me questions on how I found the TypePad service, what improvements I would like to see and what new features I would like to see to the service.

One of the keys to a successful website is the ability to collect timely information on your website's performance. For all those with websites, this is a neat tool to help you work out what users think about your site, whether you are addressing their needs, identifying issues with functionality and asking them how you can improve the service. The pricing appears to be very good, too:

Professional Subscription - $19.95/month for up to 1,000 responses.
Basic - maximum of 10 questions and 100 responses per survey.

Search Engine Optimisation - Don't Forget Design!

It's a given that the main goal of Internet Marketing is to drive traffic to your website. However, so many people neglect a critical element in the whole process, namely making sure that those who arrive at your website make the right call to action: be it buy, learn or contact. In order for them to do this the site must be stuctured in the right way, with ease of use and content being essential pre-requisites. Shari Thurow has written an interesting article on this subject, entitled Design Matters, which discusses the importance of making sure that you optimise your site not just for search engines but also for visitors. As Shari says:

Optimization is not only a marketing process. It's also a design and usability process.

Related Article
The Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines

The Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines

Just had an interesting email newsletter from Jakob Nielsen's Useit.com site. It certainly makes interesting reading. Though the top 10 appear to be logical, even simple, most of us in the Web Marketing/Design/Development business forget to use some or all of them most of the time.

The Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines