Question

Topic: Website Critique

Brand New Biz, No Clients. New Website Input

Posted by Anonymous on 8/5/2007 at 1:37 AM ET 250 Points
I'm working with a brand new small co. in sales. Have only 1 client as pro bono for first go round. B2B, great concept but owner did website herself. Need website critique to help us get clients to set appts. I made alot of suggestions which have been updated, one being the contact page. Someone mentioned beginning line on page 1 needed to be re-written. We will add testimonials and video as we get business. Additional ideas and opinions welcome! www.internalcheck.com

Thanks!
Cynthia
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 8/5/2007 at 7:44 AM Member
    Who is the target audience and what's the benefit?

    The thing that's missing from the home page is the "What's in it for me?" statement and any indication of what I'm supposed to do if I figure out that I'm in your target audience.

    Remember, people buy benefits. You go to great lengths to not give any.

    You may want to get a copy of Seth Godin's book, The Big Red Fez: How to make any website better. There's no banana on the home page for the monkeys. (Read the book.)

    Separate subject: There's a lot of research that says people read and remember pictures and short captions more than dense body copy. You might consider reformatting the copy to include fewer words, more bullet points, etc. And more/larger pictures and some color wouldn't hurt ... though that will depend on who your prime target audience is and what it takes to grab their attention.

    Final thought: How were you planning to get your target audience to find the site? What's the marketing strategy? Without a way to get people to the site, tweaking and refining is a waste of time.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 8/5/2007 at 10:41 AM Member
    The business model is tricky. You website offers anonymous employee interviews for management assessment. The stated goal is to improve morale/retention. However, if management gets the interview report and does nothing with it, then morale actually gets worse, not better. There needs to be a commitment to action, and employee (measured) reaction.

    That said, it seems that you want to highlight some key facts:
    - cost of training an new employee vs. cost of your services
    - efficiency is tied with employee happiness
    - a happy workplace means more time/energy to make money

    Given your market, you want to stress return-on-investment: spend money with us and you save $ in the following ways...

    Still, once you have a website, it doesn't mean that people will find you. You'll need white papers (even if it isn't your company's results). You'll need to identify your target market, and contact the HR departments (since they care about all these issues).
  • Posted on 8/5/2007 at 6:50 PM Member
    FWIW, ROI is not the right way to express the benefit. It reminds clients that they have to "invest" before they can see the benefits.

    Better to talk about how this will deliver more productive employees and more net profit on the bottom line [or it costs you nothing].

    And if you're not willing to guarantee results, then why would anyone spend money for the service? Maybe I'm not getting it.
  • Posted on 8/6/2007 at 7:20 PM Member
    This website offers an interesting business model. Here's my quick observation about how to increase conversion:

    1) Longer home page copy that carries links to lead people to explore the other pages. Currently the existing copy is too short for SEO. It should be closer to 400 to 500 words. Don't be afraid of long copy, but make it interesting and scannable using sub-heads and bullet points.

    2) You are missing a Privacy Policy page, which helps to build trust.

    3) You may consider adding audio to help increase your web conversion by 300%.

    4) A testimonials page is also essential and help build credibility.

    5) Consider a more vibrant template. The current one is too bleak in tone. You should also puntuate the layout with inspiring photos that communicate the benefits of your service.

    6) A blog that carries meaning ful keyword optimized articles that revolve around related issues with help push up your search engine rankings. But don't do this unless you are willing to feed it once a week.

    I hope this helps.

    Regards,
    Sharon
  • Posted on 8/7/2007 at 8:44 PM Author
    The business is new. It is not a web based business, we have a physical location. We are currently doing direct mail, talk radio shows, network meetings, cold calling and all the usual sales methods. Just about everyone has a website these days and it is simply to support the business when people choose to look up more info should they hear about it or get a postcard in the mail to generate leads. My inquiry here was because I know the site needs improvement and my experience is limited. For me to succeed in my venture with her, I'd like to contribute helpful suggestions and input as much as possible. I appreciate the shared responses here. It's now become much more helpful. Oh, and for the person who asked who the target market was. It's any business who has employees and MY specific target group that we are trying to reach is the decision maker. Who would be HR Directors, Exec mgmt, Owners, etc. Our testimonial page will go up as soon as there are some. =) Right now, we only have a pro bono client as the first deal. When I said it was brand new, I meant brand spankin'!

    Thanks!
  • Posted by jpoyer on 8/8/2007 at 11:32 AM Accepted
    Hi Cynthia,

    some good feedback above. ... As a member of your target audience, I can see the value in your service, but if my first impression is of your current site, you have an uphill battle in getting me onboard.

    Let me start by saying – for someone who doesn’t make web sites for a living, this is a great effort – and a lot better than many I have seen. However, there are several aspects in which I can see your site needs some tweaking.

    Look, feel. I don't believe the color scheme is good for your product; it's almost oppressive. The last thing you want for this kind of service is to make it feel heavy or weighted. It's that extra strategic plan-related stuff that we all NEED to do, but for smaller businesses, actually getting to it is a chore. If you're taking something off my plate (which is always a good thing for an unbelievably busy business owner!), it should be a more bright, uplifting sort of feel. Today's corporate does not have to be gray suit, closed toed shoes and stockings in 90 degree weather (kill me now and get it over with, ay?). Even if you don't change the color scheme -- pulling the text off the vertical dividers on the sidebars, and in the main content area of your site on other pages (let it breathe), and using more photos will help a little. The black and gray is just ... well ... dreary. Just more HR stuff I don't wannnnnna deal with.


    Technical. Definitely fix the scrolling aspect -- you really shouldn't make the page wider than about 900 or 1000px (yours is 1124). If I have to scroll to see the right side of the page... well ... I don't. It's irritating at best. The most common screen resolution you're should design for is 1024 x 768 (sits on AT LEAST 55% of internet users). Still represented in the mix is 800x600, which is now your lowest common denominator (between 5 and 12% of your site users will be using 800x600 screen resolution; still a big enough group to contend with, in my opinion). Sorry if this is getting a little technical. Stay with me here! :)

    Second part of technical is to make sure your pages are cross platform compatible. IE = 78% FireFox = 12% (ish). There are some quirks in Firefox -- be sure to check your pages in "The Big Three" (IE, FF, Safari).

    Consider not using front page if possible. But if you don't have a budget to hire a web-maintainer; front page may be a viable option. There are many reasons why – it would make a great top-ten list; but that’s a different post for a different time. Dreamweaver is so wonderful and not too hard to learn; consider switching.

    Content /SEO. Ok -- there is a fine line between lots of text and SEO-ing your page. When I first looked at your pages, I was thinking -- man -- this is a lot of text. To be totally honest, I didn't really want to read it. I don't know if it was the dreary colors, or the HR aspect or the wordy words -- maybe a combination of all three ... use bullets, bold to highlight important keywords and phrases, and break up that copy.

    Also, you're missing out on an opportunity to use one of the the best analytics tools on the market -- and it is totally free -- Google Analytics. (I see you have a hit counter, but a hit counter by itself is like having a garden and only growing carrots. Use that garden to grow green beans, potatoes, lettuce, raspberries, squash, watermelon, etc etc. they are all yummy and quite good for you as well). You can use your analytics results to test your content to see where people are going, how long they are staying, what they are looking at, where they are coming from, and how many times they come back etc. etc.

    Make sure you have descriptive page titles, good META description and keyword tags and pair that with good content. I don't know that you need to add a whole bunch more text -- I would start with "breaking up" what you have (bullets, subheads, spacing), see how it affects your site stats and go from there.

    Also, use an external style sheet so the search engines don't have to wade through: span style="letter-spacing: -1px;" font color="#ffffff" face="Verdana" size="5" color="#ffffff" face="Tahoma" size="5" to get to "What do your employees know ..."

    Without going into a novel about the basics Web design and upkeep, I can tell you that things that come second nature to webbies don't for someone who doesn't do it for a living ... so some research about how to put together the pages might be in order if you don't have the budget or inclination to hire a web designer to take care of all the details. There are SO many free resources available online, it's just a matter of finding / making the time to get that research done, and to continue to sharpen your saw to make sure you are up-to-date on current web trends and technologies.

    Testimonials is a great idea -- and videos too. Consider a blog / newsletter that you can use to maintain contact with leads and track ROI for marketing efforts. Tracking your e-mail open rates and click-through rates is a great thing to watch for as well.

    Branding. What does your logo look like? You're doing printed materials -- make sure everything fits together with the same look (though I would not recommend the black/gray, ay?). Include your logo and your tagline on everything -- including your website. Make sure that every piece of visual anything coming from your company is consistent with the image you portray with your words, your logo, your tagline, your look, your feel ... all of it. If you separate these things, it waters down your marketing efforts, and you are really shooting yourself in the foot in regards to marketing effectiveness. I also think you should really give thought to what mgoodman had to say. Good stuff.

    Overall, you have a good start, but still a ways to go. Also, I know you mentioned this was not a web-based business, but don't underestimate the power of what good design, content and online positioning can do for your business (as far as the web goes). (But also keep in mind, the web is just a piece of a bigger puzzle, and on it's own, a company site is less useful. Since your posting in the web critique category, I attempted to stick with the web stuff, but everything is so tied together, it's hard to separate.)

    I think your business could totally be a virtual business, because this service translates across the board -- anytime you're dealing with people problems, there is definitely unlimited growth potential.

    Long story short? Adjust your look and content, dot your i's and cross your t's. Good service, site needs work.

    I hope you find this helpful. ...

    Best Wishes,

    Jennifer Poyer
    XPRT Creative
  • Posted on 8/9/2007 at 11:41 PM Author
    Thanks everyone, for your input. I appreciate the feedback! I apologize for the delay in accepting responses...my daughter just had twins yesterday so I've been away from the computer to help her recover from her C-section. It's been a long 48 hours! =) I'll share this info with the owner of this company and hope for success.

    Regards,

    Cynthia
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