Your website therefore needs to engage with them, and be focused upon their needs. And the words you use on your website will make all the difference.

Are [...]]]> While you are proud of your company and think its products and services are great, most customers only care about how well you can help them with their wants and needs.

Your website therefore needs to engage with them, and be focused upon their needs. And the words you use on your website will make all the difference.

Are you talking mostly about them and their needs or are you talking mostly about yourself?

I came across a great free tool which analyses the words on a web page and determines whether they are focused on the customer…….or you!

Give it a try at http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm . You may be surprised by the results.

For help and advice on refocusing the content and structure of your website to improve the results you receive, call (01928 787026) or contact WSI today.

Google recently posted a great case study about the charity Marie Curie who increased their online donation rate by 14%.

They [...]]]> Every company would like to improve the performance of their website in converting visitor interest into real actions. For many companies, this is often the bottleneck limiting the return on investment from their overall internet marketing strategies.

Google recently posted a great case study about the charity Marie Curie who increased their online donation rate by 14%.

They tested alternative versions of their Home page using the Google Website Optimiser and measured the results. Within a few weeks, performance had improved by 14%.

The Google Website Optimiser toolkit enables you to test multiple variations of a page in parallel and monitor the results. As it gathers results, it will provide statistical feedback on the relative performance of the variations so that the most effective page can be implemented.

If you would like to improve the conversion rate of your website, call Andy on 01928 787026 or contact us through this site.

As a worldwide organisation active in 80+ countries, WSI has experience of almost every type of website and from probably most industry sectors.

We have therefore created on online reference source for interested parties called the WSI Wisdom Book - it is an e-book with case studies [...]]]> We are often asked for website examples and client case studies.

As a worldwide organisation active in 80+ countries, WSI has experience of almost every type of website and from probably most industry sectors.

We have therefore created on online reference source for interested parties called the WSI Wisdom Book - it is an e-book with case studies from a broad range of clients, industries and countries.

In addition, we have included a selection of WSI White Papers on internet marketing topics which have featured in WSI public webinars during this year.

The Wisdom Book of WSI Excellence can be viewed here where it can also be downloaded as a PDF.

To learn more about how WSI can help your business to get a better return on its investment, call us on 01928 787026.

Seth Godin in a blog post a few days ago came up with a great list of “Things to ask before you redo your website” :-

These often include:

1. Undefined website objectives – Every site should have a defined purpose with clear measurable objectives and ‘call to actions’.

2. Unspecified target audience – You need your message to be seen by the right people – prospects, not just anyone. Your site should be designed [...]]]> There are many reasons why business websites fail to perform

These often include:

1. Undefined website objectives – Every site should have a defined purpose with clear measurable objectives and ‘call to actions’.

2. Unspecified target audience – You need your message to be seen by the right people – prospects, not just anyone. Your site should be designed to appeal to that target audience.

3. Lack of visibility – if your target audience can’t find you when they search online….

4. Competition – Are they doing things better and so attracting your target audience?

5. Poor site design – Visitors are lazy. If it is hard work for visitors to navigate your site and locate relevant information, they’ll leave quickly.

6. Irrelevant content – Visitors are only interested in content which helps them with their quest. An effective site answers the questions in a visitor’s mind.

7. Out of date information – When the content never changes, why will visitors want to return to your site? You need to give them a reason to return.

So how do you start improving things?

Option 1 – Register to be emailed WSI’s Tip Sheets on getting the Internet to work for your business. You’ll find the form here

- These cover areas such as improving conversion, client retention, site optimisation and use of Social Media.

Option 2 – Call 01928 787026 for a free WebScan analysis of your website

- Providing a health check for your site, we run over 30 tests on each page to present a quantitive report on your site. Plus, for a fee, we can also run reports on your competitors’  sites.

Option 3 – Book a free ‘no-obligation meeting’ to review your Internet Strategy by calling us  or completing the form.

- This is the ‘fast-track’ approach applying WSI’s skills and industry knowledge to your business. Within a 90 minute meeting, we will review your business strategy and the current role of internet within that, and produce a suggested change agenda.

Why wait? Call or email us today!

Marketing tells a story that spreads. Sales overcomes the natural resistance to say yes.

Seth then posed the interesting question – how do you overcome that resistance where you don’t have a salesforce?

For companies that use their website to generate [...]]]> There’s a great post today from Seth Godin which concisely summarises the difference between marketing and sales. In summary:

Marketing tells a story that spreads.
Sales overcomes the natural resistance to say yes.

Seth then posed the interesting question – how do you overcome that resistance where you don’t have a salesforce?

For companies that use their website to generate leads or direct sales, the answer can be very simple – your website has to do that work. It has to help the site visitor to overcome their natural resistance.

However the ability of a website to persuade a prospect, to convert their interest into action doesn’t happen by accident. It must be designed into the structure and content of the site,  to steer visitors through the sales process and overcome their objections .

A lack of attention to this vital  ’sales role’ is the primary reason why most business websites fail to deliver a real return on investment for their owners.

If you would like a free review of your website and a discussion about improving its performance, please call us today.

On a well-performing website designed for ‘conversion’, the content will talk to those individuals and the structure will guide them down a path to [...]]]> Whenever I’m discussing the effective use of the internet with a company, I always start by learning about their business, profiling their target visitors for the website and the action they want them to take.

On a well-performing website designed for ‘conversion’, the content will talk to those individuals and the structure will guide them down a path to taking that action. The graphic design of a site can help that process or hinder it, but it cannot compensate for poorly thought-out structure and content.

In a recent blog entitiled “The first question every web site designer must ask“, Seth Godin poses a related but different question which takes the external view – “Do you want the people visiting this site to notice it?”

And the answer is ‘It depends’. ….

It depends upon the answers to those first questions I ask people about their business!

So to answer the post title – ‘appropriate’ website design is important, but an effective website structure is essential if a website is to deliver a strong results and significant return on investment.

If you would like to impove the performance of your website, please contact me.

I didn’t until I read Matt Cutt’s blog post this morning on linking into a YouTube video.

As his post explains with an example, you can add a [...]]]> Lots of people are now linking to video content on YouTube from their website and blog. But did you know you can link to a specific point within the video?

I didn’t until I read Matt Cutt’s blog post this morning on linking into a YouTube video.

As his post explains with an example, you can add a time parameter to the end of the YouTube video url E.g.  adding “#t=21m02s” to the end of the url would take you 21 minutes and 2 seconds into that video.

Very useful if you want to provide links to specific topics within longer videos, which could be a training video, conference proceedings, interview, concert or perhaps a wedding video!

Here’s a really neat web site which will ‘vacuum’ all the words off a web site to leave just the graphics – www.netdisaster.com  Just enter a URL and then [...]]]> They say a picture tells a thousand words. And we all know that the search engines love text and largely ignore the graphics. But what about us humans?

Here’s a really neat web site which will ‘vacuum’ all the words off a web site to leave just the graphics – www.netdisaster.com  Just enter a URL and then select the ‘Text Sucker’ option – no permanent damage is done, but it really demonstrate how much we rely upon the text on even the most graphic rich site. The site will also throw all manner of other very graphical plagues over your site as well.

So good web design balances the power of graphics and words to attract and persuade the visitor to explore the site and take the action we desire.