Does your website make buying easy?

I recently visited the website of a local retail outlet/visitor centre to look for information about Christmas events, opening times and so forth.

Hard to believe it, but I had to hunt around for this information – and even when I found it there was nothing about seasonal offers. And yet this company spends a lot of effort on making its retail outlet vibrant and welcoming.

Websites need to be more like their retail counterparts. With the vast majority of visitors leaving after viewing just one page, it's critical that the landing page (usually the homepage) does the job.

There are four questions people ask when they land on a website, and you need to answer them. Fast!

1. Who are these people?
Transparent contact details, a real address and phone number, photos of actual people who work for the company, or of the premises... all of these help in building trust.

2. What are they selling?
Sounds obvious, but is it? Ask a handful of people who don't know your business to take a look and give you their opinion.

3. Why should I stick around? (or, what's in it for me?)
The big one – how many sites have you seen with 'Welcome to our website! We are the largest provider of X in the country, servicing blue chip clients to the highest standards of blah... our excellent record is second-to-none...' etc. Who cares? I want to know what you're going to do for me, how you're going to solve my problem!

4. What do I do next?
When time is short, we like to be told. Think airport signs and announcements. How annoying is it not to be able to find crucial flight information? Tell us what to do! Clear instructions, calls-to-action, active verbs (shop now, buy now, find out here...)

Putting yourself in the shoes of your customer is good old fashioned marketing. What are they likely to be looking for when they come to your site? What's on their mind? How can you get their attention in those few second before they click away?

Make buying easy

If there's one mantra worth keeping in mind at all times, it's this. As Steve Krug said, 'Don't make me think!'

So many sales are lost because of clunky navigation, too-clever copy, design-gone-mad and 404 errors. Get rid of the splash pages and the broken links, fix the forms, the spelling mistakes and the black backgrounds, upgrade to a decent content management system and make buying easy. And have a happy Christmas!



Robin Houghton of Eggbox Marketing is an online marketing specialist and author of eTips: monthly marketing advice and ideas for small businesses. Sign up at eggboxmarketing.co.uk/etips.

Should you be spending money on marketing during a downturn?

A study showing the long-term benefits of maintaining an advertising presence during a recession.


There's no denying it, small businesses are having to rein in their costs, thanks to the current economic climate. What does that mean for marketing? Should business owners be cutting that too?

The answer partly depends on whether you consider marketing to be an expense or an investment. Related to this is whether or not you're measuring the results of your marketing. If you can measure it, do so. If you can't, how else are you justifying the expenditure? Ask not what will happen if you do spend £XXXX on a new brochure, website, display ad, directory entry, PR event or whatever, but what will happen if you don't. Not just 'are they cost-effective?' but 'are they effective?'

This question of measurability is key, and it's something that marketers traditionally have always hated. Accountants slashing their budgets, stifling innovation and growth. Marketers believe you have to invest in creative marketing in order to create a competitive advantage. I'm a marketer myself, and I do think it's short-sighted to make swingeing cuts in marketing during a downturn, however tempting, because marketing now is an investment for the future. Nevertheless, there's no point fiddling with marketing while the business burns. The idea is to market smarter – DON'T drop all marketing but DO question every pound spent, keep any eye on the results and stay flexible. Then marketing pays its way and nothing is wasted.

For example, a mail order firm used to send out its sixty page brochure twice a year, with smaller versions in between. Instead, they took the decision to send only one brochure a year and in between times send frequent email updates, attracting customers to their web store. The money saved in print, design and distribution costs was significant, even after the business reallocated budget to the email updates and improving website visibility.

It can be the small changes that make all the difference: halve your print advertising and put the money saved into getting your website found in searches, reconsider those annual directory entries – do they actually bring in business or are you just in them because everyone else is? Look at ways of retaining existing customers and cross-selling rather than focusing solely on getting new customers. Measure what you can: conversion rates, click-through rates, cost per acquisition... it's amazing how many businesses know nothing about their website performance except the number of 'hits' it gets. And most importantly, respond to changes and make the most of any opportunities. We all need to stay on our toes.



Robin Houghton of Eggbox Marketing is an online marketing specialist and author of eTips: monthly marketing advice and ideas for small businesses. Sign up at eggboxmarketing.co.uk/etips.

IDEA over RASCIL?

Following on from yesterday's post on the power of RASCIL in print advertising, we present to you an alternative view on writing the perfect persuasive copy for your product or service, nicely wrapped up in the mnemonic 'IDEA'.

Interest
Desire
Enthusiasm
Action

Interest
In the first instance the interest of the reader must be gained before there is the possibility of making a sale. The main methods of gaining the readers interest include:

- Unique selling point: car and van MOT’s just £35
- Self-interest: sale, 20% off with this advert
- Curiosity: something new, something different

Desire
The next stage is to create 'desire' – this is done by imagery and giving details to explain the offer and/or information about the product/services offered.

Enthusiasm
The ad should now encourage the customer to call/visit the business today, not tomorrow. This is done by the use of selling phrases.

- "Buy now whilst stocks last"
- "Yours for only £..."
- "Call now for details"
- "Offer ends in five days"

Action
Now the ad has gained the readers interest, created desire and enthusiasm to buy, the reader then needs to know how they can contact the business.

- Name and address (including map)
- Opening times
- Telephone number
- Web/e-mail address


Whether it's RASCIL or IDEA, Friday-Ad knows its stuff when it comes to print advertising. Why not give us a call on 0844 871 6604, or e-mail our sales team.

If you are a business owner, why not share your experiences (good or bad) with print advertising? Please leave your comments on the blog, or e-mail us at businessblog@friday-ad.co.uk.

RASCIL: improve your print ad response

Despite the rise and rise of online advertising and it's importance for small businesses (more on this to follow in due course), there is still a place for print advertising.

Print advertising - using Friday-Ad and other newspapers, magazines etc - can be a great way of getting customers 'through the door', but only if your adverts are saying the right thing.

The costs of print advertising can be quite high, so you need to make sure you are maximising the response which in turn will help you to analyse the ROI (Return On Investment).

Adverts that contain all of the information required to make the customer decide to respond to you are valuable to you, otherwise it's a wasted opportunity (and a waste of your money).

One way to ensure that you are including the right information in your ad is to follow the rules of R.A.S.C.I.L. Here's a quick summary of what this is and how you can use it to help create the right advert for your business. Please note that some of these things may not apply directly to you, but can be adapted to suit...

Reliability
Authorised products and services
Safety and Protection
Completeness of service
Illustrations
Location

Reliability
People buy from people they trust, so mention how many years you have been established, size of firm, locally owned etc.

Authorised products and service
These are things that give the customer confidence. Use brand names, certificates and qualifications, credit card logos and mention if you are an 'Authorised Dealer'.

Safety and Protection
These help to prove to the customer that they cannot lose out - things like guarantees/insurances, licences/certificates and memberships of trade associations.

Completeness of Service
State what your USP or Unique Selling Point is. List your products and services and show the process the customer can expect from beginning to end - Pre-purchase advice, personal service and after-care advice.

Illustrations
Images can bring adverts to life and make products real. Use product pictures, photos of staff, buildings, vans etc, company and other logos.

Location
This is all about where to find you and how to get in touch. Use maps, landmarks, directions, parking, address, phone number, email, Skype address and website URL.

To find out more about creating great print adverts that work call the Friday-Ad team on 0844 871 6604 or email us. We offer a free advert design service as well, so you give us the content from above and we'll create you an eye-catching ad.

E-mail marketing: top tips to attract click-happy readers

A recent mailout from our sister site UKBike.com

After a long day at the office, coming home to an inbox full of irritating advertising will have you reaching for the delete key quicker than you can say 'spam'. E-mail marketing, therefore, is an exact science. A quick web search will bring up a host of marketing gurus who offer tips for successful mailout campaigns, such as Dave Chaffey; not to mention the abundance of agencies who offer to deliver your message effectively to the right people on your behalf.

That's not to say that e-mail campaigns cannot be created in-house. Done correctly, e-mail marketing is a very cost-effective tool in communicating with customers old and new. The return on investment (ROI) rate for e-mail campaigns remains consistently high, as small businesses discover the most effective techniques in content and layout to convert a humble e-mail address into a paying customer.

Mailouts require skill and intrigue to ensure that your latest campaign isn't one step away from the Deleted Items folder, as these tips demonstrate...

Familiarity breeds contempt
The contempt from the recipient will be particularly venomous if you continually bombard customers with six e-mails a day. It's the old pestering problem, and if you're constantly keeping your client base updated with all sorts of trivial information, it's akin to a kid pestering a parent on the road with "are we there yet?" Bombarding your customers into submission isn't going to work, while a crisp, to-the-point e-mail every once in a while may win them over in the long run.

Creativity isn’t a crime...
Most marketing e-mails are boring, and the majority of recipients will lose interest after the first few lines. Make it stand out from the crowd – a quirky approach that subtly hammers home the point might just be the tonic. Needless to say, a well-crafted subject line that avoids spam keywords such as 'free' and 'money' will go a long way to grabbing the recipient's attention.

...but stay on message
Is your e-mail relevant to the recipient? Is he or she really going to care about the great work your company is doing in the community? Study trends and feedback to discover what it is your recipients want to know. One often-overlooked technique is to apply Google's Analytics tracking tool to the links within your message, as demonstrated here by Dave Chaffey; this provides a thorough report on how the e-mail was handled by the recipient, information that can be vital in planning future mailouts.

Finally, data collection
Put simply, you need to find out how many people subscribe willingly to your mail list. Plenty of people might 'drop in' to enter a competition, but it is more effective to target the more pro-active user base, those who are most likely to be converted into regular customers.

There are plenty of e-mail marketing resources online, and we certainly recommend a look at the walk-through guides provided by Business Link, The Messaging Times and EmailTools.co.uk.

Do you own an SME that has created your own e-mail campaigns? Have you used any particular software or agencies, and if so, how effective were they? As ever, the Friday-Ad Business Blog wants to hear your experiences – please leave your comments below, or e-mail us at businessblog@friday-ad.co.uk.