‘Winning Websites for Small Businesses’ - a new handbook for New Zealand businesses

I have just finished writing a brand-new handbook for New Zealand businesses, called “Winning Websites for Small Businesses”.

I don’t believe there’s any other publication in New Zealand quite like this handbook because it’s aimed specifically at the unique needs of the New Zealand marketplace.

If you have a website for your business and it’s not getting you the amount of visitors, leads, or sales that you wish it was - this handbook has been written for you!

I’ve basically tried to summarise everything I know about website design and selling on the Internet, in a user-friendly way that is easy for the ordinary business person to understand.

This handbook is not about website design in the ordinary sense. It is about how to build a website that SELLS - and there’s a big difference

If you are keen to find out more about this handbook (and if you’re a New Zealand business that has a website, then you should be) then go to www.winningwebsites.co.nz.

Win customers by giving away FREE information

By Harvey Segal

What is the best way to attract visitors to your website? Everyone agrees on this point - it is by providing Free Information.

Let’s see how to do this and why it works so well. Suppose you are a supplier of video recorders. Hopefully you will be the owner of a professional sounding domain name, such as VCRworld.com.

You write an informative article entitled “How to Choose a Video Recorder” which explains:
* the key features of video recorders
* a guide to prices
* handy tips for using video recorders
* useful accessories
* potential problems
* future developments

Put this article on your website or have it available by mail (on an autoresponder if you expect a big response). While your competitors are all posting similar ads which say “Buy, buy, buy our cheap video recorders” or sending unsolicited bulk email to thousands, you will be posting short ads which say:

Our Free Guide: “How to Choose a Video Recorder” explains the key features to look for, prices and handy tips. Visit www.VCRworld.com. And whenever you contribute to any group where there are potential customers you include your signature:

“How to Choose a Video Recorder”
FREE guide - www.VCRworld.com

Your visitors will be impressed by the quality of free information you are providing and your well chosen domain name: they will regard you as an authority on the subject.

They will be easily influenced to buy from your site while your competitors’ unoriginal ads are consigned to the email waste bin.

Free website assessment - special offer during May 2009

During May, I am offering a FREE website assessment to anyone who has a website but it’s not bring in the amount of leads or sales you were hoping for.

I will look at your website and give you a brief report about how I think it could be improved. I’ll be looking particularly at factors such as the headline on the site, the sales copy, the offer you are making to your prospective customers … dthe overall “selling power” of the site.

I’ll also look at some basic search engine optimisation factors, such the title tag and other meta tags, and the use of keywords throughout your site. If you have a website and it’s not working as well as you hoped to bring in new business, this is an opportunity for you to get your site assessed, at no cost.

This offer lasts until May 31. If you want to take advantage of it, click here to get a free website assessment.

New direct sales website for UK client, shows the awesome power of the Internet

I’ve just launched a new website for a client in the UK and early results look very encouraging.

The company is selling a range of services to help people who are in debt. This is (unfortunately) a growth industry at the moment in the UK and most of the developed world. So there is a strong demand for such debt consultancy services.

The client is driving traffic to the site using Google Adwords. The aim of the site is ultimately to get people to fill in the enquiry form either on the home page or a more detailed assessment form on an inside page. The site takes a direct selling approach, which is proven to work best on the Internet for this type of person-to-person selling.

I’m delighted with the early response to this site, and so is my client. It’s bringing in a good number of leads for him, and that means he will quickly make back the money he paid for the site (probably within a few days) and then he’ll be in profit.

Already, the same client has asked me to build him two more sites, taking a similar direct selling approach in slightly different but related markets. The power of direct sales websites is enormous, when they’re designed and written correctly.

This client is a smart businessman in his own right and I’m looking forward to helping to build his business (and my own in the process) over the coming months.
(The site is www.debt-trust.co.uk)

Meanwhile, I’ve recently launched another site for a UK client, in a very different market. He is a chartered surveyor in Cambridge, looking to grow his business by marketing online. So far, the results of this site are also very encouraging.

A website like this will work enormously to boost this company’s credibility and is sure to bring in a lot of new business. The site is sharp and modern looking, and is clearly written. (It’s www.alstonsurveyors.co.uk)

It’s very satisfying to work with clients like these two, who truly appreciate the power of the Internet to grow their respective businesses. There must be thousands of other businesses out there who could see the same kind of results, with a properly designed and written website. 

Most small businesses haven’t really grasped how powerful the Internet is as a form of marketing. They are still focusing on the Yellow Pages, the local newspaper and maybe getting bigger and brighter signs etc. The Internet really is an untapped goldmine for local businesses! I’ll write more on this in my next post.

P.S. If you’re interested in organic food, or organics in general, you will be interested in visiting this new website we have built for the NZ Organic Expo and Green Living Show, to be held in Auckland in April 2011.

It’s still two years away but this going to be a big show and we’re starting publicity early. So visit the Organic Expo site and have a look.

Why Susan Boyle is like a good landing page

By Amanda MacArthur from Mequoda Daily

Test your landing pages, because 9 times out of 10, snap judgments will prove you wrong

In case you haven’t heard, Susan Boyle is the unlikely star of Britain’s Got Talent, a televised talent show over in the UK .

On April 11th, Susan Boyle’s audition was aired, a beautiful rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables”.

Since then, the video has been uploaded to YouTube and has been viewed over 42 million times.

The charm of Susan Boyle, next to her incredible voice, is her appearance. When Susan first walked on that stage, she was a little goofy, the judges didn’t take her seriously, and neither did the audience. But when she started singing, the laughter stopped. That’s what you call results.

Now, there’s been all kind of jabber in the blogs and on TV about Susan changing her look. As it turns out, her fans don’t want her to change. Susan has started getting her eyebrows done, and shopping for new outfits.

Not to say Susan is losing that special charm, but put simply, the audience liked the underdog.

This is what inspired me to write a post that compared the lovely Susan Boyle to—yes, a landing page.

Why? Because the underdog landing page surprises people too. You need to test a landing page in order to discover what results it will bring. You can’t give it to your best designer and say “make this look pretty”.

When we A/B split our landing pages, the “less pretty” version tends to win, almost every time.

Here’s where my Susan Boyle comparison to a landing page comes in.

1. Good landing pages captivate readers with a story

Great products seldom stand on their own or sell themselves without someone creating a story. A great landing page is a sales letter that begins with a story that heightens desire for the product and prompts a purchase decision.

Read more …

To business owners who want to sell more on the Internet

Since 2004 I have been helping people to sell online. I specialise in writing hype-free sales copy that works powerfully to build trust. And because my low-key style of sales copy is believeable, it causes customers to respond.

In fact, one of my clients tells me his website is on track to turn over more than $12m during 2009. And he expects to be selling $100m worth of products online within three years.

These kind of results make me feel both excited and humble. On the one hand, it’s immensely satisfying to see that my hard work has paid off so well for my clients. But I also realise that I am working alongside some amazingly talented entrepreneurs and marketers, and it’s their marketing brains, in combination with mine, which have achieved such results.

Hardly anybody is paying enough attention to the WORDS on their websites

This week, a business owner contacted me because he was spending a large amount on Google advertising and getting virutally no response from his website. He wanted me to redesign his site.

I had a look at his website and immediately told him not to waste his money getting it redesigned. The site looked fine as it was. The main reason for his poor response was very clear to me.

At the top of his home page, the ‘headline’ read:

Welcome to (company name)

Yawn … click away. The truth is, unless your website headline grabs your visitor’s attention, 80% of them won’t read any further.

I suggested the first thing he should try is a new headline. We came up with a few headlines and decided to test them for a couple of days each, while continuing to run the same Google ads.

We put the first new headline up, and he emailed me excitedly the next day to say he had got 7 leads off the site that day. (That might not seem like a huge number but he had previously been lucky to get 1 lead per day - and each lead in his industry is potentially worth quite a bit of money).

The second day, we added an exclamation mark after the headline, to test it. This resulted in 8 leads the next day!

This is a classic example of the power of WORDS in selling online. Most business owners don’t understand this. As a result, the number of inquiries and sales coming in off their websites is abysmal. Read more …

People scan web pages in an F-shaped pattern

Web marketing experts have done some fascinating research into how people read web pages.

Using eye tracking studies, they’ve found people tend to scan pages in an F-shaped pattern. It’s worth bearing this in mind when you are writing the content for your website. Unless your content is very compelling, most of it won’t get read. It’s sad … but true.

One study, by useit.com, recorded how 232 users looked at thousands of web pages. It confirmed the dominant reading pattern looks somewhat like an F and has the following three components:

1. People first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This forms the top bar of the F.

2. Next, they move down the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. This additional element forms the F’s lower bar.

3. Finally, people scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement. Sometimes this is a fairly slow and systematic scan. Other times, people move faster.

The ‘heat map’ above shows how readers’ eyes scan web pages in a F-shaped pattern. The red areas of the page get the most attention.

So, what does the F Pattern mean?

Firstly, it means the way people scan web pages is different to the way they read printed pages. So you shouldn’t simply duplicate your print materials on your website.

People will not read your text thoroughly, word-by-word. They will very rarely read everything on a web page, especially when they are doing their initial research into which product or service to buy.

This means, the first two paragraphs on your web page must state the most important information. Then there’s some hope that your visitors will actually read this material. They will probably read more of the first paragraph than the second.

So put a compelling headline on your page, which spells out the main benefits of your product or service.

You should also use sub-headings and bullet points, so people will notice them as they scan down the left side of your content in the final stem of their F. 

The ‘heat map’ of this e-commerce site also shows people scan the page in an F-shape pattern.

Is this the “best” website in the world?

Each month, Nielsen Online puts out a list of the world’s “top converting” websites. They base the results on the number of people who buy something from a particular website, versus the total number of visitors to the site.

One website consistently comes out on top - ProFlowers.com, an American site selling flowers. ProFlowers.com consistently has a conversion rate of between 30% and 40%, and occasionally goes above 40%. This means for every 100 people who visit ProFlowers.com, 30 to 40 of them buy something.

When you consider the average e-commerce website struggles to achieve a 1% conversion rate, you’ll appreciate ProFlowers.com is achieving something quite remarkable. It is a simple site, with no cool effects. It just gets straight down to business. There’s a special offer featured prominently on the home page, plus a menu across the top with various occasions and types of flowers.

If you’re planning an e-commerce site, it would make sense to model the layout on ProFlowers.com.

For more ideas on what makes a successful website, here is Nielsen’s list of the Top 10 converting websites for December 2008*.

1. ProFlowers 31.1%
2. LL Bean 25.7%
3. Amazon 23.7%
4. VitaCost 23.0%
5. Coldwater Creek 22.4%
6. QVC 21.1%
7. Roamans 20.4%
8. Office Depot 20.2%
9. LandsEnd 19.3%
10. Victoria’s Secret 19.2%

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing

Here’s the No. 2 converting site, LL Bean, to give you more ideas of what works in the real world (as opposed to what web designers “think” might work).

It’s well worth studying these top-converting sites and using their proven models as the basis for your own.

Why try and reinvent the wheel?

How to make blogging work for your business

I recently worked with a client who has developed a hugely successful business selling nutritional supplements and skincare products to the US, Asia and Europe, from a small office in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Virtually all his products are sold via the Internet and he gets about 30,000 visitors a month to his website. Furthermore, he doesn’t spend a fortune on Google Adwords or other online advertising.

The secret, he told me, was due largely to his blog. He posts to his blog two or three times a week (although I just checked his blog today and I see he’s travelling and hasn’t posted for 10 days).

Virtually every one of his blog posts has comments beneath it. He often makes controversial statements about the nutritional supplement industry, which guarantees him a lively readership.

This is a classic example of how powerful blogging can be for your business …. if you do it right. That’s a big IF. A lot of people start a blog and have a spurt of enthusiasm and then give up. Or they try to make their blog posts too overtly sales-oriented.

Your blog needs to be informative, interesting and ideally a bit controversial. For people (like me) who don’t like going out selling face to face but are more introverted, blogging can be an ideal way to build up your credibility and attract new customers. You don’t have to do any sales or ever have to pitch; people will call you after reading your blog.

You can imagine how much more receptive people will be to buying if they have approached you, rather than you approaching them. You’re already half way to the sale before you even start talking to them.

The downside of blogging is that it does take time to build up traffic. You will feel as though you are writing away in a vaccuum for a while and wonder if it’s worth it. Then, after a few weeks, you’ll start to see visitors who have found your blog posts in the search engines.

Google seems to love blogs, much more than regular websites. I’ve seen this with my own websites. I’ve had a site for about four years selling my website design services and have got a steady trickle of traffic to it. At the beginning of 2009 (about 30 days ago) I built a new website using Wordpress, which is a blogging software that can also be used to create full websites.

The amazing thing is, this new website, built with Wordpress, is already getting more traffic than my four-year-old conventional site! Furthermore, it is already ranked on page two of Google for the term ‘website designers Christchurch’ - after just 30 days.

So this is good news if you’re serious about blogging.  If you post consistently and offer something of genuine value to to readers, you’ll gradually build up a following and your business will take off more than you dreamed possible. 

If you’re not a writer, or simply don’t have time to write a blog, you could do what more and more businesses are doing - hire a freelance writer to share some (or all) of the load.

To conclude, I’d like to share another example of a truly successful blog, which I learned about today. It is written by a tailor working in upmarket Saville Row in London. You’d hardly expect a tailor aiming at the upper end of the market to be a blogger. But Thomas Mahon sells bespoke suits using mainly his blog, and word of mouth, as marketing. He is constantly booked and his customers include Prince Charles.

A good business blog is like the best kind of salesperson. It offers information and advice but is not pushy. It makes you want to come back again and again and also spread the word to your friends. It’s well worth the effort!

How to create your own ‘unique selling proposition’

Most business people have heard of the term ‘unique selling proposition’ (USP). It’s something every marketing expert talks about. But the reality is, 95% of businesses have never developed a strong USP!

That’s incredible. In fact, if you have a clear idea of your USP, you’ll be streets ahead of most of your competition.

The main reason businesses don’t develop a clear USP is because it involves serious thought. Most of us don’t like to think too hard. We’d rather get on with the job of “working”. So we keep putting off the need to think about a USP.

A simple question to help develop your USP

“Why should someone do business with me rather than any other company in the same market?”

When you have a great answer to that question, you can really push sales through the roof.

To demonstrate how powerful a USP can be, consider the story of Dominos Pizzas. Tom Monaghan, the founder of Dominos, came up with 10-word USP, which turned the entire pizza industry upside down and had everyone else chasing him for 10 years trying to catch up.

His magical USP was this:

“Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free.”

On the strength of that unique selling proposition, Tom Monaghan took a run-down pizza joint and built the Dominos Pizza empire.

Other great USP examples

“When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” (Federal Express)

“Best Range. Lowest Prices. End of Story.” (The Mitre 10 DIY chain in New Zealand)

These USPs are clear and easy to remember. Think about what makes your business different from your competitors and why people should buy from you instead of them. Refine this down to a simple phrase that people can remember.

Some ideas for developing your USP

If you are stuck for ideas, here are some suggestions that you can build your USP around.

1. Do you provide an exceptionally high level of customer service?

2. Is your product of superior quality than your competitors?

3. Do you use the latest (or best) technology in your industry?

4. Is there something convenient about your product that makes it unique?

5. Can you give your customers a quick response? (Like Dominos’ 30 minutes or les).ing?

6. Can you offer more personalised service?  (by being a small company, for example)

7. Do you have a long track record of success in your industry? (specify the number of years)

8. Can you offer a 100% money back guarantee? Does this make you unique?

These are just a few ideas to get you thinking.

Do some brainstorming and write down every idea that you come up with. Don’t worry about how silly they might seem. No thought is too far fetched at this point. Sometimes those “silly ideas” that you laugh about are actually things your competitors don’t offer and can sometimes be incorporated into a USP.

The next step is to nail down your list. Be creative and really think here.

Ultimately, only you can come up with a USP and, like anything worthwhile, it will take some serious effort.

Are you willing to put in the effort? Or will you keep putting it off, like most businesses do?

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