Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Casual Articles - Is Your Site Guilty Of These? (Common Website Blunders That Stop Sales)
Networking is a term that didn't exist (academically) until almost 40 years ago. It's a word uttered in and around the business world every day, yet is unclear to most as to how it actually works. Still, it's a fundamental tool to the success of any business.By definition, the term networking is the development and maintenance of mutually valuable relationships. It's not schmoozing; it's not just handing out business cards, selling, marketing or small talk. Those activities are part of networking, but unfortunately, many people's misunderstanding of the term causes them network ineffectively.The following are The 7 Habits of Highly Horrible Networkers™, and they can stand in the in your way of developing mutually valuable relationships. So, next time you attend your Chamber or Association meeting, keep these ideas in mind so you can offer the most value to your fellow networkers.Habit #1: Attitude Much like the development of any skill, netwo
10. Size matters – Don’t underestimate visitors and think they won’t bother to read a long page, or a website with plenty of content. Most people come to a website looking for quality information. Note the emphasis on quality. We’ve all seen those web pages that just go on and on, but don’t really say anything. So give your readers plenty of information that is specific to them (why have they come to your site? How do they benefit?). Besides, they’re not the only ones who love content-rich sites; search engines rank sites according to their content.
11. Individuality counts – All web copy isn’t the same. For instance, a landing page is different to a home page, and a sales letter pages is different to an online order page, and so on. I’ve seen web sales letters written as if they are home pages, and the end result is confusion. When a reader is conf
Depending upon how much you enjoy writing, writing sales proposals can be a joy, purgatory, or something in between. However, if you sell a complex product or one that involves the delivery of professional services, learning how to write effective sales proposals can be critical to your success.Some proposals are written in response to an RFP (Request for Proposal) or RFI (Request for Information). Organizations that go to the trouble of writing RFP's want to receive highly structured proposals, as this makes it easier for them to compare responses from various bidders.Some proposals are "Boilerplate Bombs". These proposals tend to be long, boring, and tedious to read. Often these proposals are written under the assumption that "bounce factor" (how high objects on a desk bounce when the proposal is dropped on the desk) is what makes a proposal effective.The proposal category that is the focus of this article is
But web visitors are becoming increasingly more savvy, and very few websites today live up to their potential.
Sure, you can be very successful in attracting web traffic to your site, but inspiring visitors to order from your site or to come back for more is something else.
The quality of your website can either results in a thriving e- business – or nose-dive as quickly as a burst bubble.
If you are doing business on the Web, you can’t afford to ignore these 15 mistakes:
1. Gone in a flash – Some web developers think that adding a flash intro will give a site more credibility. Instead, Flash (a Macromedia program that shows mini- movies) merely delays the site’s loading, and visitors are likely to get irritated and leave in seconds. You have but a matter of seconds to grab your visitors’ attention before they decide whether or not to stay – Flash doesn’t add anything positive to their experience and if they don’t have Flash installed on their website, they won’t see any fancy graphics.
2. Mixing up the media – Writing for the web is an entirely different ball game to writing for the web. So if you just upload your brochure to the web, it won’t work. When people read copy on a screen they do so a lot slower than if they were reading the same text in print. They read differently, too. Web visitors prefer to scan text as opposed to reading word for word, because the information is harder to digest. So you need to make good use of ‘scannable’ text, such as bulleted lists, emboldened key concepts and so on. Using hyperlinks will enable you to provide additional information to accommodate visitors who want to read more.
3. Mission impossible – It never ceases to amaze me how difficult it can be to find out the ‘face’ behind websites. Some sites make it impossible to figure out who or what the host organisation is – others simply leave it out. Remember, there has to be an element of credibility and trust if web visitors are going to feel comfortable enough to make a purchase. Don’t make it hard to find out who you are, what you do and how to contact you – regardless of which page they are on. Make it as easy as possible for visitors to contact you – and reassure them that they can do business with you.
4. Not so vital statistics – Prospective customers won’t stay and buy just because they have landed on your site. You must grab their attention – fast – and then keep them interested enough to make the sale. They want to know what’s in it for them. Don’t start writing about where your business is based, its size and how long it’s been operating. This is telling your visitors nothing about the benefits of buying what you offer. And it is likely to lose you sales, customers and hot leads. Web visitors are usually busy and impatient. They want to be fed the main point – and quickly. They don’t care about your company; they’d sooner find out how your offering can help them. So put your main marketing message at the top of your screen, and leave boring vital statistics such as company background details on other pages, not your first screen.
5. Gone in the blink of an eye – Once upon a time, at the dawn of the internet age, web designers littered their sites with eye candy such as scrolling marquees, blinking text, spinning text and counters. People thought they were novel. Today they are considered to be distracting to the eye, and pretty annoying, actually. Besides, visitors really don’t care on jot about how many supposed hits your site has secured.
6. Design of the times – More and more websites are concentrating on putty pretty graphics before good content. I’ve been reading Nielsen's book Prioritizing Web Usability and he points out that we are finally getting over our lust for pretty sites and returning to the web's initial purpose – to gather information, rather than simply to be impressed or entertained by image. Don’t get me wrong, a site’s aesthetics is important – but not to the detriment of what people visit sites for in the first place: information. Research shows that online readers look at content (scanning for relevant words and phrases) before design (the opposite to print), and if that content is pointless or boring, they promptly leave for another site. What makes quality copy invaluable is its ability to build relationships with your readers. So use images and graphics to add to your message, not overshadow it.
7. Search me – Far too many websites are geared towards outdated SEO (search-engine optimisation) techniques. Their pages are littered with irrelevant or repetitive search key words and phrases, interfering with the readability of the content. Poor copy flow and disorganised chaos that sends visitors away is often the result. Your readers are more important than any search engine – so focus on them with your content. By all means, use search terms, but be sure to build your copy around them, not the other way around.
8. It’s official! Web copy that sounds as if it's been penned by a bureaucrat will turn off most users. The Internet is a place for informality – so write to your readers as if you were talking to them. Use a personal, upbeat one of voice in your web writing. Use words and phrases that create emotion. Use the active voice, rather than the passive – eg, “We will you help banish the blues,” not “The blues will be banished.” Remove jargon and big, fancy words and convoluted phraseology. Above all, write in plain English.
9. It’s in the details – One of the quickest ways for anyone to destroy their credibility is to appear illiterate. It might seem evident, but watch out for errors. Many, and I really do emphasise the word 'many', web pages contain countless and obvious spelling and grammatical errors and confusing phrases. Sloppy copy will only make your visitors doubt the professionalism of your outfit and the quality of your offerings. Before you know it, they’ll be off to your competitors’ sites. So make sure your spelling, grammar and overall style usage is clean and consistent.
10. Size matters – Don’t underestimate visitors and think they won’t bother to read a long page, or a website with plenty of content. Most people come to a website looking for quality information. Note the emphasis on quality. We’ve all seen those web pages that just go on and on, but don’t really say anything. So give your readers plenty of information that is specific to them (why have they come to your site? How do they benefit?). Besides, they’re not the only ones who love content-rich sites; search engines rank sites according to their content.
11. Individuality counts – All web copy isn’t the same. For instance, a landing page is different to a home page, and a sales letter pages is different to an online order page, and so on. I’ve seen web sales letters written as if they are home pages, and the end result is confusion. When a reader is confu
I want to tell you a little story that could make a wonderful difference in your life. You may already know about everything I'm going to tell you. If you do, you're a remarkable person, and according to the latest statistics you belong to the top 5% of all the working people in the world. You're to be congratulated. If you don't know about the things I'm going to say, you've been holding yourself back, not only on the job but you're also missing a big percentage of the greatest joy in life. I want to talk about your boss and your relationship with him. How you handle this relationship will determine your success or failure. It will determine how much money you make or do not make, and it will determine whether you're a happy person or an unhappy person.So let's talk about you and your boss. Who is your boss? You have only one and every working person, from the president of the largest corporation to the shoeshine boy, has the same boss. He is simply the customer. Ther
3. Mission impossible – It never ceases to amaze me how difficult it can be to find out the ‘face’ behind websites. Some sites make it impossible to figure out who or what the host organisation is – others simply leave it out. Remember, there has to be an element of credibility and trust if web visitors are going to feel comfortable enough to make a purchase. Don’t make it hard to find out who you are, what you do and how to contact you – regardless of which page they are on. Make it as easy as possible for visitors to contact you – and reassure them that they can do business with you.
4. Not so vital statistics – Prospective customers won’t stay and buy just because they have landed on your site. You must grab their attention – fast – and then keep them interested enough to make the sale. They want to know what’s in it for them. Don’t start writing about where your business is based, its size and how long it’s been operating. This is telling your visitors nothing about the benefits of buying what you offer. And it is likely to lose you sales, customers and hot leads. Web visitors are usually busy and impatient. They want to be fed the main point – and quickly. They don’t care about your company; they’d sooner find out how your offering can help them. So put your main marketing message at the top of your screen, and leave boring vital statistics such as company background details on other pages, not your first screen.
5. Gone in the blink of an eye – Once upon a time, at the dawn of the internet age, web designers littered their sites with eye candy such as scrolling marquees, blinking text, spinning text and counters. People thought they were novel. Today they are considered to be distracting to the eye, and pretty annoying, actually. Besides, visitors really don’t care on jot about how many supposed hits your site has secured.
6. Design of the times – More and more websites are concentrating on putty pretty graphics before good content. I’ve been reading Nielsen's book Prioritizing Web Usability and he points out that we are finally getting over our lust for pretty sites and returning to the web's initial purpose – to gather information, rather than simply to be impressed or entertained by image. Don’t get me wrong, a site’s aesthetics is important – but not to the detriment of what people visit sites for in the first place: information. Research shows that online readers look at content (scanning for relevant words and phrases) before design (the opposite to print), and if that content is pointless or boring, they promptly leave for another site. What makes quality copy invaluable is its ability to build relationships with your readers. So use images and graphics to add to your message, not overshadow it.
7. Search me – Far too many websites are geared towards outdated SEO (search-engine optimisation) techniques. Their pages are littered with irrelevant or repetitive search key words and phrases, interfering with the readability of the content. Poor copy flow and disorganised chaos that sends visitors away is often the result. Your readers are more important than any search engine – so focus on them with your content. By all means, use search terms, but be sure to build your copy around them, not the other way around.
8. It’s official! Web copy that sounds as if it's been penned by a bureaucrat will turn off most users. The Internet is a place for informality – so write to your readers as if you were talking to them. Use a personal, upbeat one of voice in your web writing. Use words and phrases that create emotion. Use the active voice, rather than the passive – eg, “We will you help banish the blues,” not “The blues will be banished.” Remove jargon and big, fancy words and convoluted phraseology. Above all, write in plain English.
9. It’s in the details – One of the quickest ways for anyone to destroy their credibility is to appear illiterate. It might seem evident, but watch out for errors. Many, and I really do emphasise the word 'many', web pages contain countless and obvious spelling and grammatical errors and confusing phrases. Sloppy copy will only make your visitors doubt the professionalism of your outfit and the quality of your offerings. Before you know it, they’ll be off to your competitors’ sites. So make sure your spelling, grammar and overall style usage is clean and consistent.
10. Size matters – Don’t underestimate visitors and think they won’t bother to read a long page, or a website with plenty of content. Most people come to a website looking for quality information. Note the emphasis on quality. We’ve all seen those web pages that just go on and on, but don’t really say anything. So give your readers plenty of information that is specific to them (why have they come to your site? How do they benefit?). Besides, they’re not the only ones who love content-rich sites; search engines rank sites according to their content.
11. Individuality counts – All web copy isn’t the same. For instance, a landing page is different to a home page, and a sales letter pages is different to an online order page, and so on. I’ve seen web sales letters written as if they are home pages, and the end result is confusion. When a reader is conf
CREATE A CULTUREThe 2005 “Best Places to Work” program study showed that, contrary to popular opinion, employee satisfaction didn’t depend on salary. The most given answer as to what makes a company a great place to work is employee empowerment.And what constitutes employee empowerment? I believe it comes down to a few basic principles, the second of which is the corporate culture.In the book "Guts!: Companies That Blow the Doors Off Business As Usual," authors Kevin and Vickie Freiberg discuss businesses that replaced traditional corporate cultures with those where fun and creativity dominate. The book examines 15 successful companies and the leaders who not only operate their companies "in an unusual way," but who have also defined their businesses "in terms of a cause." What companies do they highlight? Southwest Airlines, SAS Institute, and Cisco Systems, Inc., to name a few."Most companies are built on a model of control," Freiberg ex
5. Gone in the blink of an eye – Once upon a time, at the dawn of the internet age, web designers littered their sites with eye candy such as scrolling marquees, blinking text, spinning text and counters. People thought they were novel. Today they are considered to be distracting to the eye, and pretty annoying, actually. Besides, visitors really don’t care on jot about how many supposed hits your site has secured.
6. Design of the times – More and more websites are concentrating on putty pretty graphics before good content. I’ve been reading Nielsen's book Prioritizing Web Usability and he points out that we are finally getting over our lust for pretty sites and returning to the web's initial purpose – to gather information, rather than simply to be impressed or entertained by image. Don’t get me wrong, a site’s aesthetics is important – but not to the detriment of what people visit sites for in the first place: information. Research shows that online readers look at content (scanning for relevant words and phrases) before design (the opposite to print), and if that content is pointless or boring, they promptly leave for another site. What makes quality copy invaluable is its ability to build relationships with your readers. So use images and graphics to add to your message, not overshadow it.
7. Search me – Far too many websites are geared towards outdated SEO (search-engine optimisation) techniques. Their pages are littered with irrelevant or repetitive search key words and phrases, interfering with the readability of the content. Poor copy flow and disorganised chaos that sends visitors away is often the result. Your readers are more important than any search engine – so focus on them with your content. By all means, use search terms, but be sure to build your copy around them, not the other way around.
8. It’s official! Web copy that sounds as if it's been penned by a bureaucrat will turn off most users. The Internet is a place for informality – so write to your readers as if you were talking to them. Use a personal, upbeat one of voice in your web writing. Use words and phrases that create emotion. Use the active voice, rather than the passive – eg, “We will you help banish the blues,” not “The blues will be banished.” Remove jargon and big, fancy words and convoluted phraseology. Above all, write in plain English.
9. It’s in the details – One of the quickest ways for anyone to destroy their credibility is to appear illiterate. It might seem evident, but watch out for errors. Many, and I really do emphasise the word 'many', web pages contain countless and obvious spelling and grammatical errors and confusing phrases. Sloppy copy will only make your visitors doubt the professionalism of your outfit and the quality of your offerings. Before you know it, they’ll be off to your competitors’ sites. So make sure your spelling, grammar and overall style usage is clean and consistent.
10. Size matters – Don’t underestimate visitors and think they won’t bother to read a long page, or a website with plenty of content. Most people come to a website looking for quality information. Note the emphasis on quality. We’ve all seen those web pages that just go on and on, but don’t really say anything. So give your readers plenty of information that is specific to them (why have they come to your site? How do they benefit?). Besides, they’re not the only ones who love content-rich sites; search engines rank sites according to their content.
11. Individuality counts – All web copy isn’t the same. For instance, a landing page is different to a home page, and a sales letter pages is different to an online order page, and so on. I’ve seen web sales letters written as if they are home pages, and the end result is confusion. When a reader is conf
Expense report forms are the formats to be filled out by an employee for claiming reimbursement of expenses of official or personal visit. Every organization will have its own format. It is advisable to use an expense report form rather than simply listing out all the expenses in an Excel sheet and submit that. Through the form, both the employee and the employer are in a position to have a clear-cut idea as to how much money is involved in the form of expenses so that reimbursement will be quickened. Thus, the process of expense reporting starts with filling out the expense report form. Some organizations have online versions of these expense reports in which the employees need to enter all the data and send it to the Accounting Department.However, while completing the report form online, the employee should be very careful in choosing the report starting and ending dates. Moreover, the employee has to state clearly the local currency out of the list of currencies for
7. Search me – Far too many websites are geared towards outdated SEO (search-engine optimisation) techniques. Their pages are littered with irrelevant or repetitive search key words and phrases, interfering with the readability of the content. Poor copy flow and disorganised chaos that sends visitors away is often the result. Your readers are more important than any search engine – so focus on them with your content. By all means, use search terms, but be sure to build your copy around them, not the other way around.
8. It’s official! Web copy that sounds as if it's been penned by a bureaucrat will turn off most users. The Internet is a place for informality – so write to your readers as if you were talking to them. Use a personal, upbeat one of voice in your web writing. Use words and phrases that create emotion. Use the active voice, rather than the passive – eg, “We will you help banish the blues,” not “The blues will be banished.” Remove jargon and big, fancy words and convoluted phraseology. Above all, write in plain English.
9. It’s in the details – One of the quickest ways for anyone to destroy their credibility is to appear illiterate. It might seem evident, but watch out for errors. Many, and I really do emphasise the word 'many', web pages contain countless and obvious spelling and grammatical errors and confusing phrases. Sloppy copy will only make your visitors doubt the professionalism of your outfit and the quality of your offerings. Before you know it, they’ll be off to your competitors’ sites. So make sure your spelling, grammar and overall style usage is clean and consistent.
10. Size matters – Don’t underestimate visitors and think they won’t bother to read a long page, or a website with plenty of content. Most people come to a website looking for quality information. Note the emphasis on quality. We’ve all seen those web pages that just go on and on, but don’t really say anything. So give your readers plenty of information that is specific to them (why have they come to your site? How do they benefit?). Besides, they’re not the only ones who love content-rich sites; search engines rank sites according to their content.
11. Individuality counts – All web copy isn’t the same. For instance, a landing page is different to a home page, and a sales letter pages is different to an online order page, and so on. I’ve seen web sales letters written as if they are home pages, and the end result is confusion. When a reader is conf
It is amazing the amount of fight a community or city might put up to keep a large box store out of their city these days. And yet most of these communities and areas need the sales tax revenue, which will be generated and the 100s of jobs, which go along with them. You see, a Wal-Mart may come up against resistance when trying to put up a new store and so they move to the area just out side the city limits.Once the store is open everyone shops there, but being outside the city limits the city gets no sales tax revenue percentages on all the purchases. People in the city will often work there and have jobs too. The city is impacted a bit by the loss of small businesses in some sectors and yet they would have been impacted anyway. Realize it does not matter what type of Box Store it is it could very well be a Borders Books, Pet Smart, Kmart, Circuit City as well.Box Stores need to do more in the way of pre-Opening Public Relations in order to help the citizens un
10. Size matters – Don’t underestimate visitors and think they won’t bother to read a long page, or a website with plenty of content. Most people come to a website looking for quality information. Note the emphasis on quality. We’ve all seen those web pages that just go on and on, but don’t really say anything. So give your readers plenty of information that is specific to them (why have they come to your site? How do they benefit?). Besides, they’re not the only ones who love content-rich sites; search engines rank sites according to their content.
11. Individuality counts – All web copy isn’t the same. For instance, a landing page is different to a home page, and a sales letter pages is different to an online order page, and so on. I’ve seen web sales letters written as if they are home pages, and the end result is confusion. When a reader is confused, she will likely move on to another site. Take into account each page’s special considerations before writing a word of web copy.
12. Do you want a receipt with that? Another huge error is making it difficult for people to place an order. There’s no point expecting people to go to individual product pages and search for the ‘add to basket’ link to make an order. You have to make it obvious, and easy for them to buy products or services. So place order links on every page, and make them stand out.
By looking for and fixing these 12 website sins, you should add instant credibility to your site – and make way for more online sales opportunities.
Copyright, 2007 T Dooley, Creative Consultant - PR Guru - Marketing Diva
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.casualarticles.com/article/47840/casualarticles-Is-Your-Site-Guilty-Of-These-Common-Website-Blunders-That-Stop-Sales.html">Is Your Site Guilty Of These? (Common Website Blunders That Stop Sales)</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.casualarticles.com/article/47840/casualarticles-Is-Your-Site-Guilty-Of-These-Common-Website-Blunders-That-Stop-Sales.html]Is Your Site Guilty Of These? (Common Website Blunders That Stop Sales)[/url]
Related Articles:
The Seven Keys to Creating Power Partnerships to Exponentially Grow Your Business
Build a Successful Team - Goal Setting
Bookmark it:
|