Maximising your website for business - an overview

Presented by Fisse Design - custom wordpress web design and digital strategy for Canberra & South Coast NSW.

MAKE YOUR WEBSITE WORK FOR YOU

https://fissedesign.com.au/



WEBSITE POTENTIALHOW SIMPLE CHANGES CAN MAKE YOUR WEBSITE PERFORM.



WEBSITE POTENTIAL.

• WH Y DO YOU HAVE A WEBSITE?• For most, it’s to create revenue• Outside of your product or service and its price, what can you change on your websiteto increase revenue?

• THE 5 ESSENTIALS FOR WEBSITE REVENUE:

1.Website trafficAn empty store gets no business.

2.A professional designA good image speaks volumes and aids conversions

3.Ease of use & the content your visitor wantsIf they can’t find it, they won’t be buying it

4.Performance reviewsLike an employee, assess regularly if it is performing

5.ImprovementsIf you have a dud employee, do you just accept it?

WEBSITE POTENTIAL.

• JOE’S FISHING CHARTERWEBSITE GETS:

• 1000 website visits a month

• 20 website enquiries a month

• 5 actual sales, $200 profit per sale

• $1000 profit a month.

WEBSITE POTENTIAL.

• JOE’S WEBSITE NOW HAS BETTER MARKETING:

• 2000 website visits a month(2x traffic)

• 40 website enquiries a month(2x enquiries)

• 10 actual sales, $200 profit per sale(2x sales)

• $2000 profit a month.(2x profit exc. marketing cost.)

WEBSITE POTENTIAL.

• JOE’S WEBSITE NOW HAS A BETTER DESIGNFOR SALES CONVERSIONS

• 2000 website visits a month (same traffic)

• 80 website enquiries a month(further 2x enquiries)

• 20 actual sales, $200 profit per sale(further 2x sales)

• $4000 profit a month.(4x original profit)

WEBSITE POTENTIAL.

• JOE INCREASED HIS MARKETING EFFORT AND HE INCREASED HIS PRICES.

• 3000 website visits a month(further 1.5x increase)

• 80 website enquiries a month(same enquiries)

• 20 actual sales, $300 profit per sale(1.5x profit)

• $6000 profit a month.(6x original profit exc. costs.)

WEBSITE POTENTIAL.

• JOE CAPTURES CLIENTS ONLINE & PROMOTES A LOYALTY PROGRAM VIA EMAIL.

• Unchanged website visits

• Unchanged website enquiries

• 10% take-up on email promotionto existing clients

• 22 actual sales, $300 profit per sale (10% increased sales)

• $6600 profit a month.($600 for an email campaign.)

WEBSITE POTENTIAL.

• JOES NOW WORKS WITH FACEBOOK

• Each month, Joe shares positive customer stories / photos / videos on 20 of his client’s Facebook walls.

• His clients then share the amazing video of them catching a fish to 100 friends each.

• There is a large click through rate to Joes website, as it has been shared by a trusted source (a friend).

WEBSITE POTENTIAL.

• JOES NOW WORKS WITH FACEBOOK

• 10% of Joes client’s friends go to the website. (200 more visitors)

• 10% of that 200 convert to actual sales.(20 extra sales)

• 42 actual sales, $300 profit per sale.(Up from 5 a month)

• $12600 profit a month.(Up from $1000 a month)

WEBSITE POTENTIAL.

• JOES CONTINUES WITH HIS CLIENTS ON FACEBOOK

• Instead of 22 clients a month, Joe now has 42 customer stories to share on Facebook...

WEBSITE POTENTIAL.

TONIGHT

• How to put a website strategy in place...

• Effectively use marketing

• Apply user oriented design

• Aid Sales Conversions• And measure success


WEBSITE STRATEGYTHE FUNDAMENTALS TO DEFINING A WEB STRATEGY.



WEBSITE STRATEGY• DO YOU HAVE A WEBSITE STRATEGY?

• All businesses should have procedures in place for sales, services and general administration.

• Most businesses have some kind of marketing strategy in place.

• In the same vein, your website needs a strategy.

WEBSITE STRATEGY• YOUR WEBSITE STRATEGY

• Key items you need to address in a website strategy are...

• What is your website’s job?Like a role description for an employee, your website’s job can be defined.

• Who is your customer?Define your client - age, income, location etc.

WEBSITE STRATEGY• WEBSITE STRATEGY

• What are your customers supposed to do on the site?Do you want them to see your phone number and call? Send an email?Book immediately? Buy online? View examples of your work?

• How will they find your site?

• How will you engage with your customer long term?

• How do you measure the success of your website?Set some goals for your website. Benchmarks, goals and ongoing testingprovide the impetus for improvement.

SUMMARYTOP 5 THINGS TO REMEMBER!

• A website strategy helps define what you do online

• Know it’s job• Know your client

• How are you marketing it?

• With these questions answered, you have a strong basis to build or improve.

From your activity sheets, fill out your name & business type on

Website Strategy Part 1

Describe your website’s job, your customer and what your customer should do on your website.

ACTIVITYWEBSITE STRATEGY - PART 1


DRIVING TRAFFICONLINE AND OFFLINE MARKETING



• WHAT ARE THE KEY DRIVERS OF TRAFFIC?• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)• Pay Per Click Advertising (SEM)• Promotion on Social Media• Email Campaigns• Offline Marketing

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (SEO)

• With great SEO, your website can appear on the 1st page of search engines with the ultimate aim of achieving the #1 position.

• This is important, as searches online now exceed searches performed on printed Yellow Pages as of 2 years ago.

• Approx 70% of searches are performed through Google, and 25% through Bing.

• There are over 5 billion searches performed a day on Google.

• Click through rates and heatmaps show it’s critical to be near the top of the page of Google and Bing.

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• SEO ESSENTIALS - HOW DO I RANK WELL?• Well chosen keywords• Great, fresh content... including video• Links to your site from quality sites• Google Maps, Google+ Local Listings• Links to your site from Social Channels• A site that is coded well for the user & SEO

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• SEO ESSENTIALS - KEYWORDS

• There’s lots of competition, so well thought out keyword phrases are the way to go.

• A proven approach is to use these keyword identifiers:• YOUR LOCALITY (E.G MORUYA)• YOUR SERVICE (E.G PLUMBER)• SPECIALITIES (LEAKY TAPS, BATHROOM REFITS)• OTHER IDENTIFIERS (BEST, CHEAPEST)

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• SEO ESSENTIALS - FRESH CONTENT

• Search engines can be told to review your site. Initially they glance at your site briefly & decides how it ranks based on ever-changing parameters.

• If your site has fresh, keyword rich content on it, in the form of new products, reviews, testimonials, general news or industry articles that are unique - Google will notice... and delve a little deeper into your site.

• Videos are fantastic. Host them on YouTube. Embed them on your site. Ensure your movie file name, title, scripts & captions on YouTube contain your keyword phrases.

• Keep it up. Within weeks, you will notice your articles & videos are starting to rank. After a number of months, you’ll start to notice your articles are ranked within 12 hours.

• CONTENT IS KING. Who here uses a CMS?

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• SEO ESSENTIALS - BACKLINKS

• Backlinks are links from other websites. The more you have, the better.

• Facebook, Google+ and other social channels.

• Also consider getting a link to your site from:

• TrueLocal.com.au

• your local Council site

• your local Chamber of Commerce

• any industry sites & forums

• If you have a blog or news RSS feed, submit it to RSS feed aggregator sites. Free backlinks.

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• SEO ESSENTIALS - GOOGLE+ LOCAL

• Google provides a service for business owners to be listed on local searches

• With a Google account, you can add in your business details, your service, web address

• You can optimise the listing for better results

• Google+ Local listings rank very well - a must for SEO with a local focus.

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• SEO ESSENTIALS - A SITE BUILT FOR SEO

• Page Titles containing your keywords is very important.

• The Page Title on your homepage is the first to master.

• The Page Title should focus on a range of keywords that page actually contains, and be less than 70 characters.

• The Meta Description is the opening paragraph you’ll see in search results. Use this to lure your visitors in!

DRIVING TRAFFIC


• An XML sitemap generated for text and video content is invaluable. This helps search engines locate and rank all content.

• Your domain name and URL structure is important.

• Ideally, you’d have something like: www.moruyaplumbers.com.au (although the requirement keywords is slowly diminishing, with a focus on strong brands instead)

• You can add useful keywords into the URL of pages in your site:www.moruyaplumbers.com.au/best-value-plumbers

DRIVING TRAFFIC

http://www.moruyaplumbers.com.au/

http://www.moruyaplumbers.com.au/best-value-plumbers


• Search engines review whether the content coded in the page is in a logical & navigable hierarchy for the user.

• This includes the use of H1, H2, H3 heading tags.

• And importantly, logical placement of call to action buttons around the content.

• Including keywords in all of the above is great.

• If you have a Content Management System, you may have control over these aspects.

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• PAY PER CLICK ADVERTISING (PPC)

• Very effective!

• Choose your search keywords.

• The more popular the terms are, the more you pay. Set your budget online. Maximum of $5 a day etc.

• Only pay for click throughs. You get the clicks... the conversion part is up to you!

• Your business will be at the top of the page. The best place to be!

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• PAY PER CLICK ADVERTISING (PPC)

• You can link to your own site, or....

• Many businesses link their PPC advertising to landing pages with a specific offer or a service in a specific locality.

• They do this outside of their main website for a number of reasons:

• Provide a very specific offer without the distraction of other content

• Avoiding excessive redevelopment to do this on an existing, effective website

• Easily make ongoing changes to a single page website offer to improve sales conversions.

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION

• Who’s doing it here?

• Stats show people don’t buy (YET) on Social Media, however it can be an incredible traffic driver.

• The ultimate word-of-mouth online.

• If possible, ask to network with / befriend your customers.

• Similarly, Like Pages or Join Circles on Facebook or Google+ that are related to your industry.

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

• With a well designed form, you can easily capture clients and build databases online.

• Using promotions and incentives to return to the site, email campaigns can increase the traffic to your site.

• We’ll go through email & social campaigns in detail later.

DRIVING TRAFFIC

• OFFLINE MARKETING

• Display your website address proudly on:

• Shop Fronts

• Car Signage

• Packaging

• Business Cards

• Flyers, Magazines & Newspaper Ads

• And your email stationery!

DRIVING TRAFFIC


• Link to your site from Social Media & sites

• Try some Search Optimisation, starting with Page Titles and keywords in your content.

• Pay Per Click advertising works!

• Update that website with fresh content, photos and videos

• Advertise your URL in all print media

Don’t be overwhelmed. You don’t need to do it all at once. Learn as you go along and see what works

From your activity sheets, grab

Website Strategy Part 2

Describe how you will get traffic to your site.



SALES CONVERSIONSMAKE THE MOST OF YOUR WEBSITE TRAFFIC



SALES CONVERSIONS

• THE PERFECT USER EXPERIENCE

• There is a reason why people come to your site.They are looking for your product or services, or information about your business.

• Remember who they are, and think how and why they have found your site.

• Make it easy for them to do business with you.Step by step, you can reverse engineer what the user would do on your site.

• COMMON DESIGN MISTAKES

• Too much clutter

• Consider the purpose of the page, and make the content reflect this as simply as possible

• Text that’s hard to read

• Avoid small fonts, or very low contrast colours.

• Avoid text over clashing bright colours or high detail photographs(e.g text is OK over a blue sky... but not over a crowd of people on a beach!)

SALES CONVERSIONS

• COMMON DESIGN MISTAKES

• No clear, call to action buttons

• No Mobile or iPad variations of the site.Stats suggest we are near or have already achieved paritywith Mobile vs Desktop internet usage.

• A homepage that has no purpose.

• Many homepages still feature a large image or splash page, or lengthy “Welcome” messages.

• After a quick glance, if you do not meet the visitors requirements within seconds, they’ll leave.

SALES CONVERSIONS

• DESIGN FOR OPTIMUM CONVERSIONS

• Your website needs to look professional.Here’s some trends:

• Large font sizes, big bold headings

• Large featured photos or slideshows at full width

• Full sized photographic or video backgrounds

• One page sites that continue to load content as you scroll

• App style elements and interfaces (due to familiarity)

• Design around content, not content to fit a design.

SALES CONVERSIONS


• Statistics show original video content keeps visitors on the page longer.

• Videos keep your clients on the page for 2 minutes longer than average.

• Visitors 64% more likely to purchase with video than without.

• People tend to be lazy. If they can watch rather than read, great.

• There are great search ranking benefits if implemented well.

• In your line of business, what kind of video do you think you could use?

SALES CONVERSIONS


• Ensure your key goals are met with Calls to Action on the homepage.

• If you have a number to call, an email or booking form to fill out - bring it up straight away.

• If you want people to look at your products, services or facilities in depth - provide the means to do so.

• Buttons work better than text links.

• Buttons need to be prominent.

SALES CONVERSIONS


• Be Responsive / Mobile ready.

• 40% of consumers will go to a competitor aftera bad mobile experience.

• Mobile searches related to restaurants have a conversion rate of 90% with 64% converting within the hour.

SALES CONVERSIONS

• USER EXPERIENCE: MORUYA PLUMBING

• A potential client has searched for “Moruya Plumbing Services” on Google.

• Well, they clearly need plumbing! So when they come to the site, we can make an assumptionthey will either be after....

• Plumbing Repairs - Sorting Leaks or Unblocking Pipes

• New Plumbing - for Kitchens or Bathrooms

SALES CONVERSIONS


• Earlier, we made a job description for your site.

• What would you think the main job description could be for www.moruyaplumbing.com.au?

• To clearly demonstrate the services they offer

• Provide contact information

• Offer a background of the company

SALES CONVERSIONS


• For the website to do it’s job, and meet what the user is expecting...

• The homepage should clearly list the most popular services near the top

• A list will do. Most people know what plumbing services entail.

• An option to read more about each individual service can be provided.

• The homepage should also clearly offer a call to action near these services

• in this case, Call for a Quote, Email for a Quote or Book Now

SALES CONVERSIONS


• It’s also good to include a quick overview about the business, and testimonials always help.

• These items are a lower priority to the service offering and calls to action, and this should be reflected in the design

SALES CONVERSIONS


• The mobile experience

• Put yourself in the users hands... if you have found Moruya Plumbing on Google on a phone, what is it that you want to do?

• You will not be browsing photo or video galleries of stormwater pipes or toilet plungers!

• Are you going to send them an email, and wait for them to come back to you?

SALES CONVERSIONS


• It is very likely you need to simply need to make a phone call to them, or trying to find their address.

• Phone number at the top of the page with a CALL button is paramount!

• Using the smartphone’s native ability to combine website browsing with the ability to call immediately is a powerful conversion tool.

• Every business will have different requirements here.

• Who here has a mobile site? What is the emphasis for the user?

SALES CONVERSIONS


• Keep the visitor in mind• Does your site make it easy for them?

• Give them what they want with reduced clutter

• Large clear content & giant imagery helps

• Mobile / Responsive sites.

Swap with a neighbour your Website Strategy Pt 1 sheet.

With their top 3 website jobs in mind, sketch up a basic layout of what should be on the homepage.

Just a basic sketch will do! Use the examples as a guide.

ACTIVITYWEBSITE DESIGN SESSION


CAMPAIGNS FOR SALESUSING EMAIL & SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SALES



• EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

• There are two key parts to email campaigns

• Building a Database

• Promoting to the Database

• Both require good design & great ideas!

CAMPAIGNS FOR SALES

• EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

• To build a database, you need to

• Provide a simple, highly visible form

• Offer an incentive to sign up for updates

• Potentially offer something for free

• like an information pack

• bonus information, of value, in your field

CAMPAIGNS FOR SALES

• EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

• With permission, you can then send emails about:

• Promotions and product releases via email (sales)

• Customer service related emails (loyalty)

• Announce social media competitions

• Loyalty programs / tell a friend

• Keep the emails to once a month maximum at the start, and make the offer worthwhile.

CAMPAIGNS FOR SALES

• EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

• MailChimp.com is a fantastic service

• Upload your database

• Create your email online quickly

• Get stats, click throughs, opens etc

• Free up to 2000 emails a send, 6 times a month.

• $10 a month gets you more features, and MC logo removed.

• Start promoting!

CAMPAIGNS FOR SALES


• Using your business social accounts, write material that is genuinely useful or entertaining to your contacts. Occasionally link back to your site.

• Linked-In groups are great for B2B networking.

• Post entertaining photos or videos of client enjoying your product or service for them to share.

• Try sharing funny industry related photos or awkward staff member photos for a caption comp. The mind boggles!

CAMPAIGNS FOR SALES


• “Like” our page, the 100th “Like” wins a free...

• Quizzes - identify this object for the chance to win....

• Invite people on your website to Like your Facebook page, with incentives such as ongoing discounts and offers if they do.

• Show a Facebook feed on your site, if you have an impressive amount of people following you or large amount of activity.

CAMPAIGNS FOR SALES


• Build a database with clear forms & incentives

• Use MailChimp.com & network on social media

• Promote Sales

• Promote Loyalty / Referral programmes

• Distribute industry news for repeat business

Complete the 1st section of Website Strategy Pt 3.

Outline some promotional ideas you could try.



MEASURE YOUR SUCCESSHOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR WEBSITE WORKS?



MEASURE YOUR SUCCESS

• HOW TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE

• To measure success, you need a goalAre happy with your website now? What more do you want from it?

• Track Website visits & interaction with Google AnalyticsStart with a benchmark and work towards your goals.

• A-B testing and performance optimisation

• Offline monitoring

• GOALS

• Many website owners have “set and forget” mentality

• If a website has resulted in some sales and paid itself off, it’s too easy to just let it work in the background.

• The issue is there’s no actual measure of performance.

• If you measure performance, you have a basis for realistic improvements over time.


• NEW GOALS

• Who currently has performance goals for their site?

• How many sales or leads do you get a week?

• Your website is BLUDGING! Set it some challenges.

• I want 20 more phone calls a month

• I want 10 more bookings a month

• I want 50% more of my traffic to convert


• TRACKING ONLINE ACTIVITY

• Who has Google Analytics?

• How do you use it?

• It’s more than just page visits.

• See what keywords are used to access your site

• See what pages visitors go to

• See how long they stay on a page

• See where pages fail (exit points)


• TRACKING ONLINE ACTIVITY

• Have analytics setup before any new work

• Armed with your goals and a benchmark

• See what designs are selling most

• See if SEO is working


• A/B & MULTIVARIATE TESTING FOR PERFORMANCE

• With website tools and analytics configured, you can

• Setup multiple variations of one page

• Each new visitor sees a different variation of the same page

• Analytics shows which variation has

• the longest visit

• the best conversions or click through rates


• OFFLINE MONITORING

• Keep a spreadsheet or database entry

• Ask people in store or on the phone if they’ve found

• your contact details, product or service online

• your location online

• While you’ve got them.... did they like your website?



• Use analytics & establish a benchmark

• Create some goals• See what works and what doesn’t.

• Fresh content! Don’t set and forget!

• A/B Testing is where it’s at.

Complete the remaining Measurement section of the Part 3 worksheet.



LOVE YOUR WEBSITESTAY ON TOP OF IT FOR RESULTS




• Content Management Systems are a must

• There are many CMSs your site can be adapted to. Wordpress is popular.

• Provide fresh material and updates at least weekly

• Give your customers a reason to return

• Search Engine Benefits


Q&A



Maximising your website for business - an overview

Internet

Transcript of Maximising your website for business - an overview