Archive for: December 2008

Web usability – the ease with which users can find information on a web site – is one of the most often overlooked elements of building a small business web site. What may be surprising, though, is that web usability often determines whether visitors actually make purchases, follow your call to action (like call your 800 number or sign up for your mailing list), or stick around on your site long enough to learn what you have to offer (i.e., web site “stickiness”).

Here is what Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D., a user advocate and highly respected expert in the field of web site usability, has to say about web site usability:

“If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the home page fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave. If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website’s information is hard to read or doesn’t answer users’ key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here?”

But when a business takes the time to redesign its web site, no matter what business metric is used to evaluate it (increase in traffic, improved sales, better conversion rates, etc.), the average improvement has now been shown to be 83%. (Nielsen, 2008).

So if you’d like to improve your web site conversions, increase traffic from search and referral visitors, and enjoy that 83% improvement for your own site, try these 10 tips for improving your web site’s usability:

1. Follow standard web conventions – Don’t waste your visitors’ time or attention by making them guess where they should click or figure out how your site works. Stick with established standards like blue, underlined text for links and clear consistent navigation on every page.
2. Pay attention to page load times – If your web pages take too long to download, especially your home page, visitors will quickly become frustrated and simply click away rather than wait for your page to finish loading.
3. Eliminate complicated Flash designs – If you have Flash animation on your page that is merely serving as decoration, get rid of it. Every element on your page should focus on meeting user needs and should not distract them from your message.
4. Abolish splash screens – Splash screens do not serve any purpose for users and typically send them searching for the “skip intro” button. Splash screens give visitors the impression that you care more about your own company’s image than you care about your users or their time. Skip the pretentious splash screen and give your users what they really want – information in a clear, easy-to-use web site.
5. Use headings, sub-headings, and white space – On the web, people don’t automatically read the text on a page; instead, they scan the headings to find the information they’re looking for. Use plenty of headings and sub-headings to clearly label information, and use lots of white space to visually break up large amounts of content.
6. Keep page length short – Don’t make your users scroll through too much content on a page – break it up into smaller, more manageable pieces and create separate pages instead. Better to have several smaller pages rather than one huge, overwhelming page that requires users to scroll (and possibly tune out or lose interest).
7. Provide interactive content – At the very least, your site should have a Blog where visitors can access updated content about your business and post comments if they’d like. Consumer ratings, feedback forms, web video, web widgets, and social networking applications are also interesting forms of content that can be used on your web site as well.
8. Add a site search – One of the most useful features you can provide is a site search feature that allows users to search for the specific information they are looking for. Even better, offer a search feature that allows them to search just your web site or to search the entire web.
9. Be careful with colors – Always make sure that the colors you use provide enough contrast to be readable on a computer monitor. For instance, black text on a white background is easiest for people to read, especially those with disabilities or color blindness. Also be careful about using colors that can be too stark or jarring – the idea is to make your visitors feel at ease, not uneasy.
10. Be Easy to Reach – Users today expect to see a Contact Us page that gives them multiple ways to contact your company. In addition to listing your physical mailing address, provide your toll free number, cell phone numbers, email address, and any other methods you commonly use for communication. If you use social media, consider providing that information as well (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instant messenger, Facebook, etc.).

How do your customers recognize your company? Do they know what makes you different from your competition? Do they have a good impression of your small business?

The thing that triggers your customers to identify your company and distinguish you from competitors is actually your brand. And whether you are intentional about it or not, your brand is often determined by the experiences your customers have with your company. Building your brand is more than just creating a company logo or selecting corporate colors, although those things are part of it. Successful small businesses add value by shaping customer experiences into a strong, recognizable brand that creates customer loyalty, attracts new clients, and builds up business over time. Building your brand is an ongoing process, so here are five things you can do right now to further develop, strengthen, and add more value to your company’s brand:

1. Spell Out What You Stand For
   What is the one single thing that your company stands for? Low prices? Outstanding service? Unique products? Of course, it’s tempting to say “our company stands for all of those things!” And maybe that’s true; but defining your position requires you to narrow your focus further and identify what makes you different and better than your competitors.

   Marketing Playbook has a good exercise for helping you pinpoint what your company stands for, called Positioning XYZs. Answer the question “we are the only X that solves Y problem in Z unique way.” Just substitute X with your company, product, or service; use Y for the problem that you solve for your customers, and make Z the key advantage or differentiator you have over your competitors.

2. Share Your “Story”
   You need to make your company interesting and accessible, and the best way to do that is by telling the story of your company. Not just the history (“we were founded in 1974, when our president did such and such…”), but more importantly, why you do what you do. Give examples of the insights that led you to start your business, examples of customer success stories describing how you uniquely solved a problem for a client, or what led you to develop your products or services. Customers want to know what motivates you as a company, and why they should believe in you and trust you with their business.
3. Enhance Your Brand Experience
   Sure, you want your customers and prospects to think of you the next time they’re ready to buy, but they can do that only if you’ve created a brand experience for them along the way. A brand experience can be any encounter that a consumer has with your company, whether it’s seeing your logo on a community event sponsorship, seeing your name come up at the top of the search engine results, or receiving your company’s e-newsletter in their inbox each month. Get your name out there, be visible, and be associated with activities and events that create a positive impression of your company. For instance, if your company consistently shows up at the top of the search results, that leaves a positive impression on customers – even if they are not ready to buy.
4. Monitor the Conversation
   There are several simple, no-cost ways to monitor what’s being said about your company, and you can do this yourself using the web. Google Alerts can help monitor when your business or products are mentioned somewhere on the web. Just go to Google.com and set up alerts for the words you want to track. For example, you could track your company name, the names of key personnel, or the names of your products or services. You can also track key names and phrases of your competitors to see where they are showing up on the web as well. Other ways to watch your brand include monitoring Blogs, Twitter, and social networking web sites like Technorati and LinkedIn.
5. Pay Attention to Your Search Engine Positions
   How can you possibly know how your business is faring if you don’t check your search engine rankings regularly? It’s critical that you keep an eye on your positions and watch out for the changes that most likely occur each month. You must also be ready to take whatever action is necessary to make sure your company stays visible in the search engine results. Research shows that about 80% of consumers turn to the search engines FIRST – before they make decisions, go shopping, or buy anything. If your company is not showing up in the first few search results, it means that your competitors are showing up instead. That does nothing to help build your brand, drive traffic to your web site, or bring in new customers and sales.

The Value of a Brand for Small Businesses

The value of your brand is something that is built over time, and small businesses that do this successfully are often rewarded with not only name recognition and consumer mindshare, but also customer loyalty and word-of-mouth recommendations among colleagues and friends. But in order to add value to your company’s brand, you must be clear about who you are as a company, be intentional about the customer experience, and carefully monitor how your brand is being presented and talked about in the marketplace. By trying these five tips, you can help establish a brand that represents your company, strengthens your connection with consumers, and adds value to your brand everyday.

With so many social networking platforms available today for marketing your small business, it may be tempting to jump in and try them all. Unfortunately, that would probably end up being difficult for most small businesses to manage going forward, mostly due to limited time and resources. Although services such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are all becoming popular marketing options for small businesses, the one platform that seems to be generating the most buzz for business use is Twitter.

Twitter is basically a free micro-blogging platform that allows people to keep in touch via mobile texting, instant messages, or on the web using quick, 140-character messages called “Tweets.” For businesses, these short messages are the perfect vehicle for announcing relevant news, broadcasting special offers, reporting on live events, or providing your followers with tips or useful information. (What is not a good use of tweets, however, is sending blatant advertisements or other unwelcome intrusions to your followers!) So how could your business use Twitter to connect with customers?

• Announce new offers, sales, or special deals instantly – people love to be among the “first to know”
• Tweet about your business successes such as new client wins or new press coverage, then provide URLs for followers to read more
• Offer exclusive tips or information to followers only (Five Sparrows does this for its Twitter followers)
• Share valuable resources or tools; for instance, a financial planning company could share the URL of an online retirement calculator
• Report on live events – If you attend industry events, tweet about the keynote speakers or cool new products that you see
• Ask for referrals, suggestions, or feedback – and your followers will respond
• Take a survey – find out what followers think about a particular issue, or get opinions about new initiatives or programs

The point of using Twitter to connect with your customers is to continually provide them with something useful, valuable, or interesting that they look forward to receiving. Consumers are not only starting to rely on services like Twitter to keep them informed about the things they are interested in and care about, they are also becoming comfortable with this type of connection to the companies they do business with.

Many consumers have become accustomed to using text messaging (such as Twitter tweets) as part of their normal routine; but very few businesses – especially small businesses – have followed suit. It’s becoming clear that the companies who continue to avoid or ignore this new trend may be at a significant disadvantage as competitors catch on and benefit from what’s happening with consumers and their desire to be connected in new and different ways.

Most small businesses today realize that it would be unwise to run a business without a web site – even a small presence on the web is vital to business success and credibility today. But as social networking continues to gain acceptance with consumers, businesses will eventually need to offer basic text-messaging connections to their customers in order to be competitive and believable.

By adding a Twitter component to your small business marketing mix, you can give consumers the valuable information they want to receive, and also stay “top of mind” by sending Twitter tweets on a regular basis. After all, the more contact that you have with your customers and potential customers, the more likely you are to win their business. Twitter is another tool in your marketing toolbox that can help you stay connected, build credibility and loyalty, and grow your business.