Don’t You Want Contact? Boost Your Fan Base With Web Usability That’s Free ‘n Easy
Don’t You Want Contact? Boost Your Fan Base With Web Usability That’s Free ‘n Easy
Take for example comments made to me yesterday by a journalist during a telephone interview. We got on a tangent about website usability and its role in a successful online marketing strategy. My interviewer said that she spends much, much more time online than most people, and as such she deems herself a sophisticated user. She also has little patience for websites that are a pain to use, but especially those that hide their contact information.
"All I want is that Contact button," she said. "And if I can’t find the contact information in about 30 seconds, I’m gone."
Imagine all the entrepreneurs out there who didn’t get an interview–and some invaluable publicity–because a journalist couldn’t find something as basic as their phone number or contact form on their website? Forget the snappy headlines or jazzy flash pages. All you need are a few words on a page and a snippet of script you can probably get for free.
Sad, really. And so simple (and CHEAP) to fix:
1. Make sure your website has a simple Contact page.
2. List all contact information including your name, phone number, fax number and mailing address.
3. Avoid the spam bots and add a secure Contact form people can use to "email" you with.
4. Keep the form simple, asking only for what’s necessary.
5. Keep the Contact page itself minimal, focusing only on the goal of generating a successful inquiry. By the time someone clicks on your Contact page they’ve already decided they want to contact you. Remove any element or wording that might distract from this end.
6. Put a link to your Contact page in your primary navigation and for goodness sake name it "Contact."
Doing the above is so easy and inexpensive. Free if you can do your own web editing. Yet NOT doing the above could cost you sales, inquiries and valuable publicity opportunities.
Dont You Want Contact Boost Your Fan Base With Web Usability Thats Free n Easy - To learn more about this author, visit Karri Flatla's Website.
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As entrepreneurs we just can’t help ourselves. We have pretty big egos, and it’s often glaringly obvious on our websites. The copy makes us look like the navel gazers we often are (life is but a dream), and the usability if often, well, non-existent (does anyone put their rates on their Rates page anymore?). What’s incredible to me though is how much marketing capital is lost by websites that don’t invite easy contact. And I’m not talking about anything in-depth or expensive to implement either. I’m talking about basic stuff like changing navigation text or deleting all the extraneous garbage on your Contact page (assuming you have one of course).
Take for example comments made to me yesterday by a journalist during a telephone interview. We got on a tangent about website usability and its role in a successful online marketing strategy. My interviewer said that she spends much, much more time online than most people, and as such she deems herself a sophisticated user. She also has little patience for websites that are a pain to use, but especially those that hide their contact information.
"All I want is that Contact button," she said. "And if I can’t find the contact information in about 30 seconds, I’m gone."
Imagine all the entrepreneurs out there who didn’t get an interview–and some invaluable publicity–because a journalist couldn’t find something as basic as their phone number or contact form on their website? Forget the snappy headlines or jazzy flash pages. All you need are a few words on a page and a snippet of script you can probably get for free.
Sad, really. And so simple (and CHEAP) to fix:
1. Make sure your website has a simple Contact page.
2. List all contact information including your name, phone number, fax number and mailing address.
3. Avoid the spam bots and add a secure Contact form people can use to "email" you with.
4. Keep the form simple, asking only for what’s necessary.
5. Keep the Contact page itself minimal, focusing only on the goal of generating a successful inquiry. By the time someone clicks on your Contact page they’ve already decided they want to contact you. Remove any element or wording that might distract from this end.
6. Put a link to your Contact page in your primary navigation and for goodness sake name it "Contact."
Doing the above is so easy and inexpensive. Free if you can do your own web editing. Yet NOT doing the above could cost you sales, inquiries and valuable publicity opportunities.
Dont You Want Contact Boost Your Fan Base With Web Usability Thats Free n Easy - To learn more about this author, visit Karri Flatla's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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