Posts Tagged ‘messaging’

Site Launch / Re-design Checklist

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

site launch check list

We just launched a new site for a client of ours – Business Financial Planner  (http://BusinessFinancialPlanner.com). The product is a great tool for both finance and non-finance people to be able to build professional business financial plans with integrated reports and sophisticated, yet easy to use, analytics. It’s early days but so far so good – visits are up and conversions are too. We thought it would be helpful to share our check list of all the necessary steps needed when doing a site re-design and/or launch:

  1. Survey (for existing products) – find out how it is really used and by whom
    • Survey in-house and external customers for main feature use and which functions within the organization actually use the product
    • Review the data from the survey as well as existing site analytics with an eye for target audience and what content works and what doesn’t
  2. Content – what it is, what it is not, iterate
    • Based on the survey results (1) plan your messaging and always remember to keep it simple (see our post Less IS more (400% more))
    • Plan the main goals for you users – download, trial, newsletter sign up, buy etc.
  3. Design
    • Don’t be stingy here – this is your storefront so work with a designer.
    • The design must adhere to the who (1), what (2) and guide the users towards your planned goals (2)
    • Iterate – make sure the site conforms to engaging your customer and don’t forget to verify the site across browsers.
    • Don’t forget the favicon (wiki).
  4. Website Tools
    • This is a really important step to get a good read on the performance of the site on an ongoing basis.
    • Analytics – goals and funnels, Google Analytics or others such as clicktale.
    • Google Alerts – set up alerts on the site branding and other appropriate keywords, this will allow you to monitor and join the conversation about your product.
    • Provide a phone number on the site to reach you, it’s simple with Skype or other providers.
    • Payment mechanism: we’ll write more about the options here in a separate post – in the meantime just make sure you’ve got a way to take your customers money :)
  5. Friendly Review
    • Ask friends and friendly customers to give their feedback about the new site
    • Iterate

You should now be ready to launch. Of course – this is not the end but really only the beginning of the process. Look out for the next checklist which will focus on the post launch activities.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Less IS more (400% more)

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Just in case more proof was needed here it is:  keeping the messaging on your site  targeted and focused really works.   We recently completed a site messaging review project with one of our clients -  Prefix IT a provider of  software for remote management of PC’s and other network assets.

We started out speaking with customers to see how they actually use the product and then integrated that feedback into the site content. It’s always a tough call cutting out certain capabilities of the product,  but focusing the message on the key areas, even at the expense of not mentioning all of the rich functionality the product offers, has a real effect.

The messaging review also involves defining a clear call to action for the visitor – in this case getting them to download the demo product. In addition to making this a focus of attention on the site in general, we worked on  ensuring that the path to achieving the call to action is as intuitive and non-threatening as possible. In this case this involved moving from a register form with 7 fields and a two step confirmation process, to a one step, direct sign up and execute approach using only 2 fields (one required the other not).

There is a trade off here – namely: depth  of information about your trial customers. But in most cases, the ability to communicate on an ongoing basis  with your trial customers (what we call multi touch marketing – more about that in a coming post) can be achieved with much less information than you think.  Conversely – with competition in every product space as tough as it is – visitors are not inclined to spend a few minutes sharing their entire CV on a download form – they’ll just move on to the next product. If you’ve got confidence in your product – which you should – let the product speak for itself.

For Prefix the results have been astonishing:   a  consistent increase from 5% to over 20% in conversion of site visitors to download of the trial product within only 2 weeks.

It’s tough to argue with 400% growth so try it out . Or better still (**shameless plug alert**) contact us and let us do it for you.  Either way – always remember that less really is more.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »