Tag Archives: sales

The missing pillar of web design

Posted in Web strategy on by Paul Boag

After listening to the various podcasts coming out the Web Essentials conference this year it has made me think a lot about the nature of web design and the current state of the industry. Although there are some very exciting developments, I am concerned that we may be in danger of loosing some perspective.

Six Pillars of web design

For fear of stretching an analogy, I believe that there are six pillars of web design. Each pillar represents a fundamental part of any website development project and a successful site has an equal balance between all pillars.

These pillars are:

Usability

Usability is a well-recognised sphere of web development with many champions such as Steve Krug and Jacob Nielsen. Sites with bad usability suffer from poor rates of repeat traffic and failure by users to complete calls to action.

Accessibility

For the sake of this article, web accessibility refers to making your site accessible to the widest possible audience whether they are disabled, using old technology or alternative devices. This is a particularly popular area at the moment within the web design community, with a lot of effort being put into developing techniques to improve site accessibility.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics refers to the branded look and feel for a site. Covering colour schemes, styling and interface, aesthetics has a huge impact on how a users perceives a site. For a long time this was my far the most dominant pillar of web design but now it is seen by many as secondary.

Development

This pillar of web design is experiencing phenomenal growth, with ever more powerful "web applications" emerging. It covers web standards and AJAX as well as more traditional server side scripting.

Content

In many ways, this pillar is ignored by many web designers being considered "the clients problem". The reality is that content can make or break a website. Well-written, easy to read content combined with useful applications can go a long way to supporting an otherwise weak site.

Objectives

This is the missing pillar of web design. Often overlooked in the web design process and yet fundamental to any sites success. Why does the site exist? What is it trying to achieve? What returns on investment are required? These are all essential questions that are easy to ignore. Fundermentally this is the "business model" behind the site.

Since initially writing this article Alist Apart have published an excellent article on site objectives and strategies. It is definately worth a read.

Maintaining the balance

Problems arise when these pillars are not in balance. If one pillar is removed, or even if one pillar becomes greater than another does, then the whole structure becomes unstable.

Like in every other area of life, web design goes through "trends". From brochureware to flash, from web standards to AJAX, we are all prone to jumping on the bandwagon. Of course, in once sense this is a good thing. When we see other people’s groundbreaking work, it inspires us to innovate ourselves. We are seeing this with AJAX and Web 2.0. There is a lot of innovation happening around the "development pillar" and that is good to see. It should be applauded. However, we must be careful to ensure that this pillar does not become unbalanced with the others. I am seeing many web 2.0 applications that function wonderfully, degrade nicely, look stunning, but are at the end of the day are pointless, lacking a clear objective!

The sixth pillar

I hear a lot of grumbling in the web design community about clients. Our clients aren’t interested in accessibility or AJAX or web standards. Many see their clients as being ignorant and a barrier to progress. Although I am sure there is the odd ignorant client out there, I think the main problem is that they focus most heavily on the one pillar of web design we largely ignore… objectives.

They are concerned with the sites return on investment, whether that is in sales, leads, or brand awareness. They don’t care about accessibility unless it will help them achieve their objectives. They are not interested in the underlying technology if it won’t solve their business problems.

The holistic approach

So who is right? Are our client’s right to obsess about objectives and goals, or are we right focusing on accessibility and applications? The reality is that we should be taking a holistic approach to web design where we all at least keep an eye on the other pillars. Even if you specialise in accessibility you should not be blind to technology and equally if you specialise in technology it should not be at the expense of all else.

By maintaining an overview of all the pillars of web design, we are sure to keep them in balance and prevent too much bias towards any one area.

Fact: Users take their time purchasing

Posted in Marketing on by Paul Boag

There is nothing like cold hard facts. For years, most of us that work with ecommerce sites have known that users do not always purchase on their first visit. Now we have the facts to back it up… enter clever boffin Dr. Alan Rimm-Kaufman.

Dr. Alan Rimm-Kaufman from the Rimm-Kaufman Group recently tracked one million clicks (boy that must have been fun!) on search ads on Google and Yahoo. His results showed some interesting stuff:

  • 50% of the conversions occurred within 28 minutes
  • 75% of the conversions had occurred within 24 hours
  • 95% of the conversions had occurred within 12 days
  • The remaining 5% took as long as four weeks after the initial click

Unsurprisingly the larger the value of goods being purchased, the greater the delay to conversion. For items costing less than $100, 90% of orders were received within eleven days. For items costing more than $300, it took eighteen days to reach that level.

This is because people needed time to view the competition and consider their choice before purchasing.

Design implications

Jakob Neilsen, who commented on this report, identified a number of design implications worth taking into account:

  • If you use cookies to track users make sure you set an expiry date of at least 90 days otherwise you will loose track of some conversions.
  • Users will often need to visit your site multiple times before making a purchase so make sure you have provided incentives to keep them coming back.
  • Don’t make premature demands on users who aren’t ready to buy. For example, don’t require registration to see a demo.
  • Make sure that a users shopping cart is available across multiple visits.
  • Retain the special landing pages for search ads and other campaigns for at least three months after the campaign ends.

Jakob concludes with this:

In general, the slow tail tells you that not all users are ready to commit on the spot. Don’t rush them. Let users browse your site and gradually learn about your products, while making it easy for them to buy during future visits.

Good advice that I would encourage all to stick with.

Using forms with care

Posted in User experience on by Paul Boag

Marketers, know your limits! Why is it that so many marketing departments seem determined to make it difficult for people to contact them?

The majority of clients I work for come from a marketing background and it is surprising how often I find myself having the same discussion with them time and again.

Unhealthy obsession

Marketing departments often become obsessed with gathering contact and demographic information on potential visitors at the cost of all else. The problem is, we the public know this and that the more personal information we provide the more junk correspondence we will receive. As a result, we hate giving out any information at all and only recognise the need to do so if we can directly relate the information being provided with getting what we want.

This conflict between what marketers want and what the public is willing to give manifests itself in two key ways:

Access all areas

Don’t you just hate it when you have to complete a form before you are given access to certain content on a site? You are often required to do it before you are allowed access to an online demo of a product. Why? The marketer might try to convince you they are doing it to make sure you are not the competition trying to steal their ideas. However, we know the truth; we know they are going to plague us with endless calls and emails if we hand over our contact details. The majority of users understand that their contact information is of value and do not see why they should hand it over in return for you being allowed to sell to them through your online demo. It is the equivalent to paying a used car sales man to sell you a car! It is a one sided deal where the user gets nothing.

From a marketers perspective it is beyond me why any marketer would want to put barriers between potential customers and the opportunity of them seeing what you have to sell!

Putting barriers like this up also sucks from a "quality of lead" perspective. Forcing a user to provide contact information at such an early stage of the sales process (while the user just wants to browse your site) means they are not ready for the final sale. When a user chooses to contact you, it means they are ready to make more of a commitment.

Tell us the name of your dog

The second mistake is the contact us form. When a user arrives at a contact us form they see it as a way to say, "I’m ready to talk now, get in touch with me". With that in mind, they anticipate providing the minimum amount of information to make that possible; name, telephone number, email address and possibly a comments field. Marketers on the other hand see this as an opportunity to find out everything there is to know about the customer from their shoe size to the name of their dog. The user will resent giving information that does not directly relate to their enquiry.

Recently I had a client who wanted seventeen fields on their contact us form! Seventeen! Setting aside the users’ annoyance at having to complete all those fields, I very much doubt they could be bothered to fill them all in. The marketers answer to this problem, make all the fields compulsory! The result is that you cannot contact this company unless you have a mobile, an email address, and a landline. If you do not own a mobile, you are not worthy of their attention.

And the morale of this story

So if you are a marketer, learn these four simple lessons:

  • Users hate forms and providing personal information
  • Do not ask for more than is absolutely necessary to answer the users query
  • Use required fields for good, not evil.
  • Never ask user to complete a form to access your sales information

If you follow these simple steps, you may see a decline in sales leads but you will see a dramatic jump in the quality of those leads and therefore an increase in sales.

Sample site review

Posted in Web strategy on by Paul Boag

A part of my job at Headscape is to provide site reviews for clients. These range from short overview reports to detailed studies on particular aspects of a site. I recently completed a review for a small ecommerce site called TrapAWasp and felt that it neatly tidied together a number of different issues I had been discussing in this blog. The client has been kind enough to allow me to publish it here so hopefully it will be of some use to others. Please bear in mind that this is only a condensed site overview and doesn’t tackle issues in much depth.

Summary

As with all ecommerce sites there are two key factors that dictate its success or failure. These are the number of visitors that are driven to the site and the number of those visitors who are then converted into customers. It is these two factors that Headscape uses to assess the effectiveness of an ecommerce site.

Without looking at the web logs of a site it is hard to tell just how successful the site is at converting users. However, the initial indications for TrapAWasp are good. The site is generally well designed, has few significant usability problems, and addresses most of the major questions raised by users considering purchasing online.

A more important problem exists with regard to driving traffic to the site in the first place. Although good use is being made of Google Adwords the organic listing on search engines (in particular Google) is very poor. We believe there is significant opportunity here as a cursory analysis of the competition makes us believe it would not take much to push TrapAWasp to the top of Google’s ranking.

Visitor conversion

In many ways TrapAWasp is an example of good design. It is clean, simple and focused on enabling users to complete a purchase in the minimum number of steps. However, as with all sites there is always room for improvement and so below we outline several issues which should be addressed.

Design

The site has a strong visual identity. It is well branded: the site name, use of imagery and introduction leaves the user in no doubt as to what the site is about. However, two issues are of concern and should be addressed.

Screen resolution

28% of users are still viewing their computers at 800×600. Unfortunately TrapAWasp has not been optimised for this resolution and therefore requires limited horizontal scrolling in order to be able to read the product descriptions. This also creates problems with the number of products the user initially sees on page load. At 800×600 it appears TrapAWasp only offers 2 products while at 1024×768 the site offers only 4 products. Although users will scroll they tend to make judgements on whether a site has what they want without scrolling down a page. Jakob Neilsen a leading usability expert suggests that key content and products should be visible without the need for the user to scroll. One possibility would be to move the "view details" link to below the description so compressing the amount of space required for each product. Although this wouldn’t make all of the products visible it would help the situation as well as correcting the visual imbalance of white space next to the last two products.

Click here for more on scrolling and screen resolution

Browser compatibility

Although well over 80% of users’ access the World Wide Web using Internet explorer it is a mistake to ignore other browsers. Due to numerous security scares more and more users are turning to alternative browsers such as Firefox. Firefox has now captured well over 8% of the marketplace and is continuing to grow rapidly. Although not serious, http://www.trapawasp.co.uk/ does have some problems displaying in non-IE browsers. Some examples of the problems encountered include text being rendered with the wrong font and images being incorrectly positioned. Although it could be argued these problems do not affect the usability of the site it can knock consumer confidence leading to the belief that the site is in some way unprofessional.

Usability

Usability is an extremely important area of ecommerce design. If a user finds a site hard to use they will often choose to turn to the competition rather than struggle to overcome the obstacles they are facing. Generally the usability on this site is excellent. However, three issues should be addressed.

Delivery address

One minor but very frustrating issue with the checkout form is the need to enter address information twice. Even if you do not check the box marked "Check if you require goods dispatched to an alternative address" you are still required to enter the delivery address. Small problems like this can prove incredibly frustrating and should be avoided if possible.

Deteracat

Another potential cause of confusion is the sudden appearance of a link back to Deteracat on both the checkout and credit card pages. We have no problem in principle to the advert for Deteracat on the right hand side of these pages as cross selling is a good idea and one that should be encouraged. Our concern rather, revolves around the "continue shopping at Deteracat" button in the main body of the page. This immediately generates doubt in the minds of users at a critical stage in the buying process. The user is left wondering if they have selected the right products or whether they have been transferred to another site. We understand the motivation for this approach and the ability it gives the user to purchase products from both sites at the same time however we believe that the confusion this causes outweighs the benefits.

Addressing user concerns

One final issue with regard to usability is the "how to buy" section. It is good practice to have a section that addresses many of the frequently asked questions users have regarding online purchases, but we feel that there is still room for improvement. More information needs to be provided within this section with regard to security. Users are hesitant to give credit card and personal details unless they know it is secure. Although you do provide this information on the credit card page this is late on in the process and after the user has already given you significant amounts of information. On a similar vein it would also be wise to provide some form of privacy statement here. Again we are aware that this information is available from the footer but we do not believe this gives the information the prominence it deserves. Finally we believe that the how to buy section should include information on delivery times as this is another common question and a significant number of users will be unable to view the flash animation on the homepage. In short there needs to be greater emphasis placed on answering users queries and that this section may need a name change to accommodate this kind of information.

Accessibility

It is easy to dismiss accessibility as being an issue solely about the disabled however the truth is that it is a much broader issue than that. Accessibility refers to ensuring a web site is accessible to the widest possible audience including disabled users, those with poor vision or motor skills such as the elderly, and those working within various technological constraints.

Disabled users

Disabled users in the UK have a spending power of £50 billion annually according to the Disability Rights Commission. What is more this figure does not include the elderly who have poor vision or motor skills. Catering to this audience provides a unique way to separate you from your competition. That is not to say that you ignore your abled-bodied users. Rather, we recommend that you make some modifications to your site to make it more disabled-user friendly. There is not time in this report to catalogue every problem disabled users might encounter with this site, but we can say that the site fails to meet even the most basic level of international standards on
accessibility (WAI Level A or Priority 1).

Click here for more on accessibility and business

Technological barriers

As well as creating barriers to the disabled a site can also create technological barriers which force users to turn to the competition. One example of this is in the use of JavaScript. JavaScript has been used in order to carry out the validation of the checkout form. These scripts check that each field has been correctly completed and informs the user of any potential errors. The problem is that 5% of users do not have JavaScript available so these users simply cannot purchase from the site. This is the equivalent of turning away one in twenty customers who try to enter a shop.

Another technological barrier is download time. Although broadband has exploded over the last year still over 50% of users still access using dial up. http://www.trapawasp.co.uk/ takes approximately 17 seconds to download on a 56k modem compared with say http://www.waspbane.com/ which takes only 7 seconds to download over the same connection. With a 10-second difference per page and a 6-page purchase process that is a minute of unnecessary waiting. It may not sound like a lot but website users are incredibly fickle.

Driving traffic

You can have the best website in the world but if nobody is aware of its existence then it means nothing. Unfortunately TrapAWasp does not have the online profile it should have and this will be having a direct impact on the number of sales being made. The problem is the most pronounced on Google where TrapAWasp does not feature within the top 100 results on valuable keywords such as "wasp traps" (results on google.co.uk were slightly more positive but not by much).

Not that things are entirely doom and gloom. TrapAWasp does appear to be supported by a very effective Google Adwords campaign that goes a long way to redressing the balance of poor organic listings. It also has better ratings on sites such as MSN search (listed 7 th) and Yahoo (listed 8 th). However with Google owning 69% of the British search market it is vital that TrapAWasp receives a good listing there. Pay per click campaigns can prove very effective but they also dramatically reduce profit margins and so should only be seen as a stopgap or compliment to organic listings.

After comparing TrapAWasp against other sites listed under rated keywords it became obvious that the problem laid in the sites link popularity.

Google uses a complex algorithm to calculate your position in the ranking. However, two factors dominate that placement. One is keyword density and the other is link popularity.

Keyword density refers to the number of times a particular keyword/key phrase appears in the content of the site. For example the phrase wasp traps appears 17 times in your homepage giving it a keyword density of about 11%. After comparing this to other web sites we discovered that TrapAWasp is on a par with the competition. It is therefore fair to say that this is not the factor that is limiting your rating. That leaves the factor of link popularity.

Link popularity refers to the number of sites who link to TrapAWasp and the perceived popularity of those sites. The more sites that link to you and that you in turn link back to, the higher your ranking. However, it is not just about numbers. It is also about the perceived quality of the site that links to you as well. For example a link from the BBC website would be worth a lot more than a link from an unknown name. Another important factor is the words used in the link to you. The words "wasp trap specialist" will rank you better on the words "wasp trap" than a link using the words "The Jones family business". Currently not a single site listed on Google link to you and this explains your poor ranking.

There is, however, good news. Even the sites ranked in the top positions on Google have very little in the way of sites linking to them. It would not take many good quality links to move TrapAWasp to the top of Google’s organic listing.

Click here for more on link popularity

Below I outline a few techniques that would significantly help your placement on Google:

Look for link partners

Firstly look for as many sites that will link to you as possible and get them to add your site. One way of doing this is to search on Google for the words "add url" and a related keyword phrase such as "wasp traps". Doing so led me to this site: http://www.backyardgardener.com/ph/gardenproblem/gardenproblem.htm which actually has listed a wasp trap that is no long available! There is an add url link at the bottom of the left hand navigation that will allow you to add your site.

Copy the competition

Go to Google and search on a key phrase that is related to your site. Copy the url of the site listed number one in the list and then search again using the following search phrase "links: <url of competition>". This will show you all of the sites that link to that url. Contact each of those sites in turn and ask them if they will also link to you. Once you have done this return to Google and repeat the process all over again but this time with the next site down on the list.

Message Board seeding

Another very effective approach is to take part in message boards on related subjects such as gardening. When posting on these boards you can add a link back to your site and so improve your link popularity. However, a word of warning on this approach. If you just post adverts on peoples forums they will remove them and probably ban you for good. A more successful approach is to contribute to the forum providing useful advice and insights. Almost all forums allow you to add a signature to your post and it is in this signature that you include a link to your site.

Increasing keywords

Although this approach is not related to link popularity it is a vital component of increasing the traffic levels to your site.

One of the problems with securing high ranking is that short keyword phrases such as "wasp traps" are highly competitive. However, users often use much long search terms and it is sometimes easier to target these. The best way of targeting them is to include a lot of copy on your site that is related to the subject matter. This is normally achieved by adding an articles section on your site. This can prove very effective
. Take for example the Headscape site. Web design is a highly competitive sector and competition for the keyword "web design" is immense. However because we have an extensive archive of articles we gain a lot of traffic through longer phrases. Search on "how do I become number one on search engines" and you will see what we mean.

We would recommend that an article section relating to wasps is added to the site. This could build on the existing content which talks about how to find a wasps nest and general information about wasps.

Conclusions

This review has outlined a number of areas in which TrapAWasp could be improved. However, our recommendation is that increasing the levels of traffic should be the number one priority. Poor ranking on Google is significantly damaging the levels of traffic and with a minimum amount of work we are confident that the site’s ranking could be dramatically improved.

When good shopping sites go bad

Posted in User experience, Web strategy on by Paul Boag

I have just finished reading a fascinating article on the BBC web site about the growth of ecommerce. This comes on the sameday that I have watched one of my clients fail to grasp some of the basics of ecommerce.

Today the BBC posted an article saying that since February there has been a 4.2% decline in high street sales while in the same period e-retail has tripled. Apparently 22 million consumers bought goods online in April, spending £1.4bn between them.

Although this is hugely encouraging news for web designers like myself and goes someway to explaining the massive surge we have seen in our sector over the last few months, it doesnt necessarily mean you are on to a sure thing when it comes to selling online.

The reality of ecommerce

Even if you manage to overcome all of the classic problems of ecommerce such as fufillment it is still all too easy to undermine a successful ecommerce site.

Take for example a client we are currently working with. We have had an excellent working relationship with this client and have developed them a hugely successful ecommerce site that has become a major contributor in the success of their business. However today I received a list of changes they are proposing that threaten to undermine the success of their site.

Here are just two of the suggestions they have proposed for the site:

Marketing over functionality

They have proposed removing the search box, telephone number and shopping basket link from the header of the site and replacing it with their corporate strapline. This is a classic example of the kinds of mistakes a marketing manager would make. So often they see a site as a brochure promoting their company rather than a shop front that actively sells their products. By removing key functionality they are simply making it harder for their customers to buy. Why?

The four biggest concerns in ecommerce

Another proposal they are making is to remove some of the clutter from the page. What is wrong with that I hear you ask? Well they propose doing this by removing help on issues like returns policy, privacy and security. This is invaluable information that addresses the 4 biggest concerns users have when purchasing from an ecommerce site:

  • Can I return my purchase if I am unhappy with it?
  • Are there any hidden delivery charges?
  • If I provide you with my credit card details how do I know they are safe?
  • How do I know you aren’t going to use my email address to send me SPAM?

I am sure you can think of more but in my opinion these are the big four.

It is so important to carefully consider what changes you make to your site. Even if you believe you are improving things you can easily undermine what success you are currently having. So what will I be saying to my client? The answer is simple, try it and test it. Before making these kinds of major design changes to your web site create a prototype and test it on a sample audience. See what response you get. This is by far the best way to ensure any changes you make are the right ones.

A personal project

Posted in Design on by Paul Boag

I can’t believe it has been almost 3 months since my last post! I will be amazed if anybody is even aware of this blog anymore. Usual excuses I am afraid; moving house, family, Christmas, normal things. So what have I been up to while I have been away and what little tip bits have I picked up?

A personal project

I am ashamed to say that lately I have been spending almost as much time after work building web sites as I have during work hours. I have been working on a web site for my father (David Boag) who is a professional nature photographer.

View David’s site

His old site provided loads of information and was rich in photography but lacked focus. It had hardly any traffic and rarely, if ever generated leads.

With the new site we hoped to generate more traffic and convert more of that traffic into real leads. Below I outline a few quick tricks we used to achieve this. For now this is just a quick overview. Perhaps I will expand on these in future posts.

Tips and tricks for turning your web site into a more powerful sales tool

Target audience

Step one was to write a list of your potential target audiences. For my dad this included a variety of different audiences that tended to commission nature photographers. Because we had limited time and resources we decided to start with one target audience and also create a more generic site for the rest.

Landing pages

Once we had decided on our target audiences we created landing pages specific to them. The landing pages identified problems they faced and demonstrated how David could address those problems.

The generic entry point is www.naturalfocus.co.uk

The second is aimed specifically at Quarry owners who dad has worked with before helping them better communicate the conservation and environmental work they do: www.naturalfocus.co.uk/quarry/.

You will notice that although the homepages are different the rest of the site is fundamentally the same. I used cookies to remember which point people entered the site in order to ensure they saw the right type of images in the gallery and that when they clicked home they went back to the right page.

Call to action and sales

We wanted to ensure that the site was focused on getting the user to complete a single action. In this site that action was to contact David. The whole of the site was built around this aim. The copy was written in such a way as to demonstrate David’s understanding of his target audience and how he could help them with the challenges they faced. Each page had a clear call to action at the bottom and contained prominent contact information throughout.

Driving traffic in the short term

I wanted to get Dad results as soon as possible so the first thing I did once the site went live was set up a PPC campaign with Google. Because of the niche markets we had selected this didn’t need to cost the earth and instantly started driving traffic to his site. Combined with some message board seeding and requests for reciprocal links we managed to push his traffic from a couple of visitors a day to well over one hundred.

Driving traffic in the long term

The focus now is on finding link partners to help push Natural Focus up the search engine rankings. We have identified two primary keywords for our two landing pages "nature photographer" and "quarry". We have looked at who is currently number one and used them to identify potential link partners by looking at who links to them. We have also looked at their text and the amount these keywords are used and tweaked our own content accordingly. This is an ongoing process and one that we hope in time will bear fruits…watch this space.

Live Chat

Posted in Marketing on by Paul Boag

Have you come across live chat yet? It gives the ability to interact with your site visitors in real time on your web site. For a long time this was an expensive luxury but finally things are improving.

Start with an apology

First of all let me apologise for not posting in a while. I am just so manically busy at the moment that I just haven’t had the time. We are so busy at Headscape that I have been drafted in as a programmer, thats how bad it has got! Not good news… anyway on to live chat.

What is live chat?

Live chat allows the visitors to your web site to speak to you directly online via a chat window in much the same way as a chat room or instant messenging software works. The best way to explain live chat is to try it for yourself. Click here to speak to me directly via live chat (Please note I might not always be online!)

Different live chat providers offer different services alongside the basic chat facility. Some allow you to send people to specific web pages, some allow you to monitor users as they move around your site while some even allow you to initiate chat with your visitors.

Why live chat?

So why should you consider trying live chat. Well live chat can increase sales and reduce the cost of customer support.

Sales

Live chat is proven to increase online revenue by as much as 35% and shorten the sales cycle. It also increases the converson rate by as much as three times.

Support

Live chat also decreases support costs dramatically especially when compared to telephone support. It also increases customer satisfaction because users get immediate answers to their questions.

Live chat providers

For a long time there was just one name that dominated the live chat market; live person. Live person is great and in my opinion still the best of the bunch however it has one major draw back: price. At $99 per month per operator it can get a bit on the expensive side for a small business that just wants to try out the idea to see if it works. Yes they do offer a months free trial but this isn’t really long enough to judge how effective it is going to be at increasing revenue. There are cheaper solutions about but none of them seem to get it right. They either don’t let you customise the interface or use technology many browsers don’t support. Some even have this annoying habit of constantly reloading your web pages!

The new kid on the block

However recently I came across a new provider called BoldChat. BoldChat have in my opinion got it right. The entry level is absolutely free. You can add a basic chat facility to your site without paying a penny and try it for as long as you want. Admittedly you cannot customise the appearance of it much and you have to wait for visitors to contact you because it is not possible to initiate chat, however it is enough to get the idea.

They also offer an excellent upgrade path that allows you to add just the functionality you want. For example for $9.95 you can customise your chat window and $34 a month you can watch your visitors navigate your site and choose to initiate chat if they look like they are struggling.

So why not trial it on your site. It only takes a few minutes to set up and could revelutionise the way you interact with your web site visitors:

Try Live PersonTry BoldChatTry Instant Live Response

Does customer loyalty exist online?

Posted in Site content on by Paul Boag

I stumbled across an old article by Jakob Nielsen today and wanted to share with you a small example he used when trying to explain the competition we all face on the web and how superficial customer loyalty can be.

If Soft Drink Sales Worked Like the Internet

When somebody tried a new soft drink and liked it, they would not simply tell five other people at their lunch table; instead, they would shout the news to a crowd of millions of people with an interest in soft drinks. Any of them who felt intrigued by the new drink could say "sure, let me try one" and would receive a sample can by FedEx twenty seconds later. If they liked the sample, they would be assured of finding ample supplies of the new drink on the shelves of every supermarket and convenience store in the world the next day.

If soft drink sales worked like the Internet, there is no doubt that new brands would be launched much more frequently and that consumers would change brand loyalties more than they currently do.

An interesting point

Neilsen raises an interesting point here that is just as relevant today as it was in 1997 when he wrote it. Infact in many ways the trends he identified then have become even more pronounced.

It is still so important to hang on to your users especially on ecommerce sites. Existing users are much more likely to buy again and to spend more than first time visitors. The problem is that with so much competition coming online all the time and existing sites constantly being upgraded it can often become hard to keep up. That is why it is so important to have an ongoing web strategy instead of simply building a site and walking away.

Ecommerce 101

Posted in Web strategy on by Paul Boag

I am currently working on an ecommerce site and so as normal I have been doing my homework into what improves sales on a web site. Here is a quick summary of the key ingredients:

Watch some real users

Before changing anything on your ecommerce web site make sure you run some usability testing. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. Just get some real shoppers, sit them in front of your web site and watch how they buy from the site. If you have time grab as many people as possible and repeat the process making notes on any trends that develop. But remember always test users one at a time and not in groups. The idea is to simulate how they would shop online while at home.

Organise your site

Be sure to organise the products on your site in ways that users will find intuitive. So often web sites are focused more around the companies structure than the users needs. Also be careful not to offer the user too many choices. This can be overwhelming and leads to users leaving the site before purchasing.

Get the product descriptions right

At one extreme product descriptions can contain far too much technical detail that the user simply doesn’t understand. At the other end of the spectrum product descriptions can be full of marketing speak and little in the way of real content. The best solution is somewhere in between. Describe your product in an accessible, easy to understand way but allow users to delve deeper if they want more information.

Ensure you are credible

Shoppers are inherently suspicious of ecommerce web sites. The idea of handing over your money to somebody that you can’t see or touch is disturbing. It is therefore vital that you are considered trustworthy. Add an about us section to your site that shows photos of your staff and premises. Answer concerns about delivery, returns and security. Most of all make sure your web site is professional in appearance and has recently updated content.

Just take their money!

A shopkeeper would never stop a person handing over money at the counter in order to make them fill in a questionnaire. Why then does that happen online. Make the purchase process as easy as possible and ask for only the minimum information up front. Marketteers want the additional information in order to target users with future promotions and encourage repeat sales. However experience has shown us that it is much easier to make additional sales once the customer has already purchased from you in the past. Make the sale first and then ask if you want more information.

Don’t always follow the crowd

Its easy to look at successful ecommerce web sites like Amazon and think all you have to do is copy them. However remember to focus on your target audience. What might be right for one large ecommerce web site might not necessarily be right for your audience.

Cross sell whenever possible

Take the opportunity to recommend other products to visitors which they might not have considered before. But be careful. Don’t make your recommendations look too much like advertisements. Web users have become very adapt at blocking out banner ads.

Is it time to upgrade your web site?

Posted in Web strategy on by Paul Boag

How do you know when it’s time to upgrade your web site? Should you expect to have to upgrade your site regularly? This article gives you the answers.

How do you know when it’s time to upgrade your web site? You may be receiving recommendations to improve your site only months after it was initially launched. Can you really be expected to invest more money in your site so soon? The answer is probably not. However, it is important to understand that your web site is not a static entity that rarely changes. Like the Internet itself, your site should constantly expand and develop.

Why should I upgrade?

So why do I believe that your web site should be constantly developing? Surely once you have put your message out there that should be enough. Unfortunately things don’t work that way on the web.

Because brand loyalty is a thing of the past.

Unfortunately the very nature of the Internet is fast paced evolution. With millions of websites only a click away, the stakes are constantly being raised and somebody is always doing it bigger and better. Users are constantly expecting more and brand loyalty is a thing of the past. You constantly have to work to ensure your customers don’t click from you to your competition.

Because your site will appear neglected.

New possibilities on the web are emerging so rapidly that it is easy for your site to look out of date. Although it is not possible to keep up with every new innovation, you do need to keep up with the main trends. If you don’t, your site can appear to lack investment and that reflects badly on the perception of your company.

Because users behaviour changes

One of the consequences of the Internet being such a new medium is that users are still coming to grips with it. The way they navigate, read and interact with web sites is adapting to enable more efficient browsing. Users have come to anticipate navigation being found in a certain place. They have also grown to scan pages instead of reading them and to filter out unnecessary information such as advertising. It is important that your site takes into account these changing trends.

To ensure compatibility

Unfortunately a lot of mistakes were made in the early days of the web. A lot of web sites were developed without anticipating the rapid changes in technology. As a result the technologies employed were not always the best ones for the long term. In order to ensure that your web site can grow in the future it is necessary to upgrade now rather than later.

When to upgrade

So when do you upgrade? Below I provide a list of questions that should give you an indication of whether now is the time. If you find that the answer to many of these questions is yes then its probably time for you to improve your site.

  • Does your competition have functionality and features that you don’t have?
  • Does the design of your site look dated when compared to others?
  • Does your site fail to show new product lines or still feature out of date products?
  • Has your business model changed so that the content on your site is not relevant in many places?
  • Are users not staying on your site as long as they used to?
  • Are your visitors leaving after only a few pages?
  • Are the hits on your site failing because you are seeing less repeat traffic?
  • Are you seeing a drop in leads, contacts or sales through your web site?

Will I always be upgrading?

It can begin to feel like you are constantly making changes and improving your web site and to some extent that is how it should be at the moment. The Internet is still in its early stages and your web site has probably only been around a few years. People are still learning how best to use the web and the technology is still evolving.

However, it won’t be like this forever. As with any golden age, from the Industrial Revolution to the Renaissance, things will eventually slow down and equilibrium will be reached. Standards will be established and technology will develop less rapidly. Already many lessons have been learned and a longer term approach is being adopted.

The personal touch

Posted in Site content on by Paul Boag

Computers can seem very impersonal at times so it is important to do everything possible to make your website seem more friendly and approachable.

Computers are not the friendliest of machines. They always seem to take what you so literally and never come across as very helpful! This can make the internet seem quite an impersonal place at times. It also doesn’t help when you are trying to encourage a user to purchase your product or service. Many seem to be taking the approach of developing sophisticated software that appears more human however I believe that at the end of the day nothing beats the personal touch. This article identifies a few ways that you can make your website seem less foreboding and more approachable. The result will hopefully be an increase in sales:

Writing style

The way your copy reads has a huge effect on how people perceive your website and therefore your company. Copy should be friendly and approachable without being overly familiar. Avoid the hard sell or the use of corporate mumbo jumbo. Be succinct, direct and friendly. For more information on writing for the web click here .

Phone

Always have your phone number prominently placed on your website. Preferably make it a free phone number in order to demonstrate that the users call is important to you. Make sure the phone is manned when you said it would be and is always answered promptly and professionally. A website without a telephone number gives the impression that the user’s queries are an inconvenience that should be avoided. By placing the phone number prominently on every page you are communicating a desire to help with any problems a user might be facing.

Email

I am constantly amazed at how many websites fail to have their email address available to their users. Often you find it buried deep within the site and then it is an address such as [email protected] . This leaves me wondering if I should be writing to this address. Make sure your email address is always visible and that it is something obviously like [email protected] . You may already have an enquiries form on your website but that is not always the most convenient approach for a user who is paying to access the internet by the minute. You should always offer an email address as well as a form. When you do receive enquiries via email be sure to answer them quickly. This means that you must check your email regularly and then respond immediately. Remember while they are waiting for your reply they are checking out your competition! Although it is possible to set up auto responders which send an automated response to any emails you receive this doesn’t replace the human touch.

Live Chat

Live chat is a relatively new approach to dealing with customer enquiries and is offered by a number of companies. Basically it allows the user to request a chat session with a member of your customer services. A small chat window opens and the two parties are connected. However on top of that it also allows you to monitor users moving around your site in real time and offer them the opportunity to chat if they appear to be having difficulty. What really sets this approach apart is that it is more instant than email but more anonymous than the phone. Users can ask their questions but easily walk away at anytime if they become uncomfortable.

For more information on live chat check out:

Live Person

Human Face

I went to a website recently that handled enquiries beautifully. I clicked on an enquiries link which took me to a page that not only provided an email address and phone number but also the name and photograph of the person I would be speaking to. This really made me feel like I was going to talk to a real human being in preference to a faceless corporation. It totally changed my attitude to the call.

Keep them coming back for more

Posted in Marketing, Site content on by Paul Boag

The real way to make a website work for you is to encourage users to visit it again and again. But how exactly can you make this happen?

In my last article we looked at how to encourage users to visit your website for the first time. However achieving this is only half the battle. The real trick is to keep them coming back. Here’s where the real work begins. Having built a Website and attracted some traffic to it, your objective now is to gain repeat visits.

Why are repeat visits important?

A one time visitor just isn’t enough. As I am sure you already know, the chances of a first time visitor making a purchase is extremely low. They need time to review your competition, weigh the pros and cons, decide that they really do want to purchase. Depending on your sector this could take anything from a few days to several months. The question then becomes, how do you keep them coming back to your site so that your brand remains in the forefront of their mind when they do finally decide to make a purchase.

How to keep them coming back

Regular updates

Many sites are just never updated. This is a sure fire way of putting people off. If people are interested in what you have to offer they will return again and again as long as there is something new each time. However if they come back more than a couple of times and find nothing has changed the chances are they will never return again.

Message Boards

Allow users to discuss your products and services via an interactive forum. You will find that a recommendation by another user is a lot more believable than you telling your visitors how great your product is. Of course you always run the risk that somebody will say something bad about your product but you can always remove such postings from the forum. However be careful. A forum that is full of nothing but praise can seem a bit suspicious!

Special Offers

Special offers are always a sure way to keep people coming back. By creating special offers that are&nbsp;exclusive to the website and that change regularly you can be sure users will keep visiting the site to see what your latest deal is.

Support

If you sell a product or service that might need after sales support you may wish to consider a support section. This could provide frequently asked questions, downloadable updates or even a forum that allows users to support each other. This will dramatically reduce your telephone enquiries as well as encouraging users to return to your site. When they do return it gives you a good opportunity to recommend related products.

Newsletters, ezines and mailing lists

You can have as many special offers and fresh content on your site as you want but if nobody knows they are there then they won’t come back. That is where a mailing list comes in. Send out a newsletter to those that choose to subscribe informing them of updates to your site. Mailing lists are very easy to set up and can generate huge rewards to your business if done properly.

Hopefully some of these ideas will inspire you and help to maintain those hits well after the initial burst of activity when the site launches. My final article in this series will look at how your current visitors can be one of the best source of advertising you have.

Art direction on the web

Posted in Design on by Paul Boag

Your site might be the easiest to use, most accessible site in the world but without a good concept it may well fail to sell.

What is art direction?

The first thing to say is that art direction is not a new concept. In fact, it is one that is found in almost every other creative medium. You find art directors in film making as well as in print design and the world of advertising. Their job descriptions differ slightly from sector to sector but fundamentally they work alongside graphic designers and copywriters to come up with concepts that sell products or communicate ideas. They often communicate with us on an emotional level through the use of metaphor and symbolism. Art direction finds the switch that makes us buy into the product or concept they are trying to sell.

We are constantly exposed to the end product of art directors. Just try looking at billboards as you walk down the street or watching TV commercials and you will immediately see art direction at work.

How does this relate to the internet?

The sad truth is that although art direction has proved itself in every other advertising and marketing medium it has been largely ignored on the web. When it comes to web site design, developers focus almost exclusively on the interface, its usability, accessibility and functionality. Some attention is given to copy but only in an attempt to keep it easy to scan and digest. All too often little thought is given to the concept behind a site.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. Suppose a company who produced stair-lifts for the elderly were looking to launch a new website. Most web design agencies would focus on making sure it was easy for the elderly to use. They would ensure that the buttons were easy to click, that text was large and had sufficient contrast to improve readability. The graphic designer would probably include lots of stock photography of people using stair-lifts and warm reassuring colours. He will focus on whether to have a two or three column layout and how to incorporate the logo.

Although all of these things are important they fail to address the overall concept that will sell the product to the user. The approach lacks art direction. An art director focuses on a concept that will promote the benefits of the product. Stair-lifts provide freedom to an elderly person and open up areas of their house which have not been available to them for sometime. The art director may then focus on concepts of unlocking closed doors, breaking free of chains and flying free like a bird. This would be reflected in the choice of imagery and the copy used. This subliminal messaging reinforces the more traditional approach to web design and helps to move the user further along the sales process. It connects with the user on a deeper emotional level than traditional web design.

The way forward

So how do you begin to apply these techniques to your site?

Establish your concept

Have it clear in your mind what it is that you wish to communicate – be that the unique selling points of your product or the key message of your site. Also ensure that this message ties in with your objectives for your site. Always ask yourself, is this going to help me achieve my goals?

Brainstorm

Do whatever it takes to come up with as many ideas as possible. The more ideas you generate the higher probability one of them will be a gem. Don’t censor yourself. Write down everything that comes into your mind however bizarre it may seem. Also don’t worry about the details. That can come later. Focus on keeping up the flow of ideas and getting them down on paper. And remember, focus on symbolism and metaphor. The idea is to communicate your concept on an emotional level not necessarily a literal one.

Narrow the field

Now that your ideas are down on paper start to work through them and remove the weaker ones. Once you have narrowed the field to a few of the best start to flesh them out and add detail. Compare them to your objectives again to make sure they clearly communicate the right message. This process should make it clear which is the best concept to proceed with.

Managing the team

Now is the time to work with your designer, programmer, copywriter or external design agency to apply this concept to your site. Remain flexible, since a good idea can always be better, but don’t allow your concept to get lost in the practicalities. It is your job to bring all of these people together to turn your concept into a reality.

Conclusions

So is that all there is to art direction? Of course not. To a large extent art direction is a creative process that is hard to quantify. If you are not confident thinking in this way then maybe you are better finding a web design agency that offers these services. However, don’t be afraid to experiment. A good concept can have a dramatic effect on the response levels your site generates and shouldn’t be lightly ignored. Also with so few websites making use of art direction techniques there is a real opportunity to put yourself ahead of your competition.

Financial benefits of usability

Posted in User experience on by Paul Boag

In this article I outline exactly why usability testing is worth the effort and how it can translate into real financial gain.

A large part of my job is improving web site usability. However, convincing companies to spend time and money on usability testing is always an uphill battle. Somehow it is seen as a luxury that can be left out. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Below I outline exactly why usability testing is worth the effort and how it can translate into real financial gain.

Reducing Customer Support

Answering customer queries, taking orders and handling complaints can prove an expensive and resource hungry job. But a well designed, usable web site can significantly reduce this burden. If your web site makes it easy to order online, get questions answered and resolve problems then your users won’t need to phone, fax or email you. This means you can reduce the number of man hours dedicated to customer support and so make significant financial savings.

Design is a matter of opinion

It is amazing how many web development projects stall over disagreements based on personal opinion. Disagreements over colour schemes, the benefits or drawbacks of dropdown menus, the amount of marketing information that can be collected from a website before you begin to put people off. These are the kind of issues that can prevent a site progressing in its development. Everybody seems to have an opinion and everybody thinks they are right. By presenting these issues to a sample of your target audience you can get a truly independent point of view. This often cuts days or even weeks off development time allowing you to become the first to market.

Increased customer satisfaction

We all know that customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty and that customer loyalty leads to repeat sales. This is especially true on the web where your competition is only a click away. When it is so easy to go elsewhere customers become very fickle and the tiniest thing can make them give up on you and visit your competition. However a site that has been tested with real users, and therefore meets their needs, can give you an edge over your competition. It will ensure your customers to stay with you while encouraging your competition’s customers to make the switch.

Decreased need to publish after-the-fact fixes

Hindsight is a great thing. Once your web site is live and real users are interacting with it on a daily basis it often becomes obvious where the flaws are in your site. However, changes at this late stage can often be too late and expensive. If users find your site difficult to use on their first visit they are extremely unlikely to ever come back again. It is therefore vital that any problems are resolved BEFORE the web site goes live.

Decrease in abandoned shopping baskets

Something like 70% of shopping baskets are abandoned on the web! This equates to millions of pounds of lost revenue. People abandon shopping baskets for lots of different reasons some of which are beyond your control to prevent. However the vast majority are abandoned because the user becomes frustrated with the shopping process. Usability testing can help identify these points of frustration early and help remove them from the shopping flow.

Early identification of problems

Effective usability testing isn’t just something that is carried out at the end of a project. By that point it is almost too late to make changes and correct problems. Usability testing should be an integrated part of the development process happening continually as the site is developed. This enables you to identify problems early and avoid having to make expensive and complex adaptation later in the site’s life. By catching problems early it is possible to correct problems before they have too great an impact to correct .

Removal of unnecessary features

It is often surprising what usability testing turns up. It is not unusual for it to actually demonstrate that your web site is over-engineered. Sometimes you discover that actually your site is too small to bother about a search function or that your target audience isn’t interested in some of the applications you are offering. By carrying out testing you discover this early on in the sites development and can drop these components before time and money is invested in building them.