Best of the Blog in February 2016

Whilst our Prime Minister has been busy negotiating with the powers-that-be in Europe this month, we’ve all been continuing I’m sure, with our own ‘battles’ – to attract/convert prospects, retain existing clients, and ensure an effective online presence is maintained (and enhanced!), improving our ROI.

If you’re only really interested in doing business in the UK (or just English speaking countries, Europe, EMEA, etc) and only want to monitor those visitors to your website, you can easily set-up a permanent filter in your Google Analytics.

Of course, your website needs to have the visitor in mind – and in this article I’m asking “Who is going to be visiting this website, and what do we want them to do?”  Stand back – and brainstorm, yes, even review your ‘About Us’ page, is it all about ‘me’? Or does it realistically provide the visitor with substance about your company – not just how good you are (or think you are) at customer service.

Then, once you’ve people to your site, they ‘discover’ your White Papers – are they really useful? Do they provide informed insights, address a burning issue? Or have you just cobbled together a list of features (with a smattering of benefits) in the vain hope that the visitor will ask for more/contact you? Here, I remind you that you should never take anything for granted – always assume cynicism.

Most importantly, do your visitors actually know what to do next? Is your call to action strong? What exactly is your value proposition? –  it’s “….obvious when it comes to products (give us £50 and we’ll give you a blue widget), but it exists for every transaction, including calls to action. So we need to make it quite clear what we’re offering. ‘Find out more’ isn’t nearly clear enough…”

And finally, yes, your website is just like the Forth Bridge, in that it should be a continuous project – enhancing the look and feel should be ongoing, and it need not cost the earth. However, if you’re not in charge of your own destiny, why not discuss with your HQ webmaster the option of having local pages for specific projects, they may just agree.