Website design to secure businessor

Yes – I’ve got a website!(but is it any good

and does it actually work?)A lightning fast ride with David Terrar

(40 slides in 20 minutes!) – D2C & Agile Elephant

Wandsworth Enterprise Workshops and ICAEW 17 September 2014

Agenda• First we have to set the scene• Do you understand Marketing in 2014?• This website - what’s it for?• What does your audience actually do?• What is good web design?• What about SEO – do I trust these gurus?• Blogs & social media – any use?• Do you have a decent CMS?

Hugh MacLeod – gapingvoid.com

20042005 2006

2007 20102010

2011

2007

2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXV-yaFmQNk

http://www.gapingvoidart.com/gallery/all-roads-lead-to-mobile/

Recommended reading

Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? & Tribes – Seth Godin

The Cluetrain Manifesto

There's a new conversation

between and among your market and your workers. It's making them smarter and it's enabling them to discover their human

voices.

You have two choices.

You can continue to lock yourself behind facile corporate words and happytalk brochures.

Or you can join the conversation.

Still valid 15 years on!

http://cluetrain.com/

Old Marketing New MarketingLimited number of media outlets Countless media outlets

Limited physical retail outlets Countless online retail outlets

Emphasis on horizontal success (hits) Emphasis on vertical success (niches)

Marketing-to-consumer communication Consumer-to-consumer communication

Barrier between consumers and makers Permeability between consumers and makers

Spam Permission

Product line limited by factory Product line limited by imagination

Long product cycles Fads

Market share Fashion

Features Stories

Advertising a major expense Innovation a major expense

Large overhead = stability Small overhead = low risk

Customer support Community support

Focus groups Launch and learn

Social Media is Counter-intuitive

Space defined by Media

Owner

Brand in control

One way / Delivering a

message

Repeating the message

Focused on the brand

Entertaining

Company created content

Space defined by Consumer

Consumer in control

Two way / Being a part of a

conversation

Adapting the message/ beta

Focused on the consumer / Adding

value

Influencing, involving

User created content / Co-creation

Communications Media

Social Media

think Business first• What are your business goals?• How can a website help you reach those business

goals?• Who is your audience?• What are they looking for?• Who's going to write the content?• How will the site be kept up to date?• How do you drive more traffic to the site?• How do you get people to take action once they've

visited your site?

"If web pages are going to be effective they have to work most of their magic at a glance" - Steve Krug

How long to judge your website?

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060109/full/news060109-13.html

50 Milliseconds!

F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html

They don’t read it the way you want!

• Users won't read your text thoroughly• The first two paragraphs must state the most

important information• Start subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points

with information-carrying words• Make headings/language obvious!

They don’t make optimal choices

• They don’t consider all the available options• They blunder on with the first reasonable

option

They don’t bother to figure out how things work

• They don’t read instructions• They muddle through

http://sensible.com/dmmt.html

Responsive Design

Design ingredients• Simple layout• Centered orientation • Design the content, not the page• 3D effects, used sparingly• Soft, neutral background colours• Strong colour, used sparingly• Cute icons, used sparingly• Plenty of whitespace• Nice big text

Design tips

• Recognise every page is a home page• Faster is always better• Simple navigation, never let them get lost• Use rich media, but host it on YouTube, Vimeo• Use social media sharing• Make search easy• Use SEO techniques with care

Mistakes you can make

• Believing people care about you and your site• Overcomplicating or obscuring your point• Making it too different – style over substance• Too many moving parts, distractions or irritations• Flash or graphics which should be text (SEO)• Thinking your website is your marketing strategy• Not enough brilliant content

Search Engine Optimization

“Make your site useful and tell people about it”

SEO tips

• Content is King (and start a blog)• Keywords, keywords, keywords• Create great page titles• Use meta descriptions• Use meta keywords• Use H1 titles in your pages• Create SEO (and user) friendly URLs• Bullets, link anchor text and image titles

SEO tips• Link to others (and get them to link to you)• Get your content syndicated by others• Don't forget to link back to yourself• Use Social Media as part of your publishing and

distribution• Create a site map• Avoid Flash• Analyse how you are doing• Use a Content Management System

The business of blogging

Blogs work when they are based on:1. Candor2. Urgency3. Timeliness4. Pithiness and5. Controversy

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/whos_there.pdf

http://www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/2011/11/18/business-blogging/

Social Media Channels

Where does your target audience hang out?Go there and join the conversation!

Why use a CMS?• You are no longer dependent on the web designers making changes for

you.• Changes can be made any time they are needed, day or night. This is

increasingly important as your business comes to rely on the website as a communications channel.

• All the technical details are simply handled by the CMS, allowing anyone to manage and update the site.

• Multiple staff can keep the site up to date, instead of being restricted to just one person. The CMS will track who is doing what, avoiding potential confusion.

• You can even ensure that each staff person can only update the sections of the site they are responsible for.

• The CMS ensures that all the pages are consistent in design, and will build all the menus and other

• navigation for you.• The many other powerful features of the CMS allows the site to grow in

sync with your business.

http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_needcms/index.html

CMS options

…but there are 100s!

Summary• Start with why?• Put your customer first• Don’t make me think!• Does it work on a smartphone?• Content, content, content• Start a blog• Use social media• Find an agency who’ll teach you to fish!

Referenceshttp://gapingvoid.com/2009/09/13/the-nobody-cares-print-for-sale-individually/http://www.gapingvoidart.com/gallery/all-roads-lead-to-mobile/ http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2013/11/5/mobile-is-eating-the-world-autumn-2013-edition http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/http://www.amazon.co.uk/Meatball-Sundae-marketing-transforming-business/dp/0749929480/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346395001&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tribes-We-need-you-lead/dp/0749939753/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346395254&sr=1-1http://www.sensible.com/dmmt.html http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758 http://www.diliaranasirova.com/assets/PSYC579/pdfs/05.2-Marcus.pdf http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/whos_there.pdf http://www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/2011/11/18/business-blogging http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_needcms/index.html

These links for reference onlyNot for reading

Contact details

David TerrarD2C & Agile Elephant

p: +44 (0)1727 866309 m: +44 (0)7715 159423

e: dt@d2c.org.uk or david@theagileelephant.com w: www.d2c.org.uk and theagileelephant.comskype: david_terrartwitter: http://twittter.com/DT @DT linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidterrar blog: http://biztwozero.com