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Navigation: Increase Chances of Customers Taking Action on your Website

Design a website that is clear and easy to use, and decrease your chances of customers leaving based on difficult navigation. You’re less likely to have customers leave your site when it provides clear navigation and a result-driven layout. Don’t leave website traffic to chance; do your research on effective website design and layout.

 

The main goal of your company’s website is to get your target client to take action. Before designing the website layout, decide what action you want your client to take. This action could be to call you for a consultation, apply for your services, purchase your product, make a donation, or join your cause. Make the action obvious on your website. This is where result-driven copy comes into play.

Copy works with design to help facilitate easy navigation through the site. You want visitors to be able to investigate your services / products easily on your website, which means links, contact information, the newsletter subscription box, and the company’s blog should be easy to find. It’s important to have well-written web copy to motivate viewers to move about the site.

 

For example, a travel agency wants clients to call for more information on booking a trip to Italy. This means, there should be a Contact Us tab on your tool bar, your phone number should be in plain sight, and your call to action on your homepage should motivate visitors to call your agency today. Placing your contact information in several spots decreases the chances of a client moving on to your competitor’s website. If your website navigation is confusing, visitors won’t take action because they won’t know how to find the button to contact you.

 

Many businesses lose their customers due to poorly designed navigation. Easy navigation is crucial. Eliminating any ambiguity about where to look for information within a site is important.

The four main things to remember about navigation: Make it simple. Make it fast. Make it clear. Make it work.

Branding Your Company Online: What Message Are You Sending Online Viewers?

Are you concerned about how customers perceive your brand image online? Perhaps your website currently isn’t a strong branding tool for you. If not, it should be.

Many businesses find that their message isn’t clear, effective, and targeted to their correct market. It can be extremely difficult for businesses to project an accurate message, encompassing a combination of their company’s products, beliefs, mission, and goals. The message is a mixture of several key elements, including effectively placing keywords to increase SEO, which makes the task of projecting company image quite precise and complicated.

Crafting your brand image online is an extremely important client attraction tool. With a result-driven business message, your targeted website visitors will understand the language and tone of the web copy, and the client will feel a stronger connection to your brand. Once this bond is established, the customers will be more inclined to take action and purchase from you.

The customer wants to feel compatible with all your company stands for. For example, if your brand image is high-end, a high-end client will be attracted and comfortable with this image and, in turn, will want to buy from you.

Since fashioning a company message online is both complex and important, it would be highly beneficial for your company to hire a professional copywriter.

A professional copywriter:

·         Interviews the company to pull out key elements vital to the business message.

·         Recognizes the company image and puts this image into the written word—the message.

·         Creates well-crafted copy that speaks the language of the target market.

·         Strategically places keywords to increase SEO.

·         Facilitates a connection between the brand image and the client through the use of a creative tone in the copy.

If you’re uncomfortable with the message you’re sending potential customers online, it’s time to change this message and solidify a strong brand image.

 

Going Green: Daniel Island Mortgage Debuts Partnership With myEnergyLoan

Wednesday, February 11, Gary Harwyn, owner of Daniel Island Mortgage,  unveiled his new green mortgage services and association with myEnergyLoan. (photo below: Gary Harwyn and Jeff Cole, founder of myEnergyLoan)

We are so excited to be helping promote Daniel Island Mortgage and its new ecofriendly mortgage products, and writing the web copy for their new site.

The event, hosted by Green Drinks Charleston, was held in downtown Charleston at Yo Burrito. As you can tell from the photo, we had a huge turn out for the event. 

SEO Efforts: Rank #1 in Search Engines with Effective Web Copy and Website Design

Designing a company website requires some compromising. It involves the perfect balance between visually appealing and functional elements. It’s important that one element doesn’t dominate the other. This is where many companies go wrong.

 Many times company websites are polluted with too much flash, pointless graphics, and unnecessary copy. The combination of these elements is a major risk factor for decreasing website SEO.

In order to ensure your website ranks #1 in search engines, you must adhere to some kind of compromise. Make sure your entire website isn’t in flash. Many people might think flash is more appealing—and it is at times—but it greatly reduces your SEO if overused. Flash limits the amount of copy you can have on your page. Great copy is your best chance at ranking #1 in search engines and should never be substituted for unnecessary elements.

Result-driven copy . . .

·         Increases SEO with effective keywords placed throughout. It’s important that these keywords add to the message and mission of your company.

·         Converts leads into sales and motivates visitors to take action on your website.

·         Increases site traffic.

·         Targets your company’s specific market and keeps them on your website.

·         Works to reinforce your brand image. Compressed, informative, and concise web copy is easy to read, gets to the point, and expresses your brand image in merely a few sentences without compromising important details.

It’s important to hire a web designer and web copywriter who work toward expressing your brand image online. An excellent web designer will ensure your site is attractive and functional, while an effective web copywriter will guarantee your company message comes across accurately and thoroughly.

The functionality and visual elements of your website may require a slight compromise, but you shouldn’t compromise on a web copywriter and web designer who don’t understand your needs and message. Grow your business. Grow to success. Hire the right copywriter and web designer.     

 

Attract More Clients: Perfect Your Business Image

Your business image–from your marketing materials to your personal dress–affect potential clients’ perception of your company. First impressions are everything.

Check out the style contest hosted by Charleston Style Concierge. The deadline is the end of this week — so hurry and enter today!  

Enter to Win a Style Consultation

Add some excitement to your Valentines Day with the gift you really want:

EFFORTLESS STYLE.

Enter to win a

Virtual Style Consultation

($100.00 Value)

Enter to win your Virtual Style Consultation.

During a 60-minute Virtual Style Consultation over the phone, we’ll discuss your style goals, answer your questions, and uncover the best way for you to get effortless style. We will use a style-assessment workbook and digital pictures you send to help develop the personal style you desire.

In your 60-minute Virtual Style Consultation, you’ll learn . . .

• What clothes are right for your body.
• How to dress based on the proportions of your body.
• What you need to buy to create a versatile wardrobe.
• How to develop a great style within your budget and for your unique lifestyle.

Here’s how it works: Using a style assessment and digital photos, we will help you determine the right clothing for your body type and easy ways to update your current wardrobe. All you need to do is fill out our style assessment, send photos, and show up for the call. It’s that easy.

Celebrate you this Valentines Day and enter to win.

Winner to be randomly chosen and announced on Valentines Day, February 14th.

Click here for your chance to win a FREE Virtual Style Consultation

Effective Navigation: The Key to Keeping Customers On Your Website

The main goal of your company’s website is to get your target client to take action. If your navigation is confusing, they won’t take action because they won’t know how to.

Caution: This is where many businesses lose their customers. Easy navigation is crucial. Eliminating any ambiguity about where to look for information within a site is important.

Web copy works with design to help promote navigation through the site. Your website should encourage visitors to click on certain links, such as contact information, newsletter subscription, and the company’s blog. It’s important to have well-written web copy to motivate viewers to further investigate your site.

The four main things to remember about navigation: Make it simple. Make it fast. Make it clear. Make it work.

In a nutshell, your customers shouldn’t have to make too many decisions on your website. Too many websites have extra links they don’t need. If you give too many choices, you overwhelm the visitor, and they get frustrated and click out of your site.

People who visit your site are busy and can become impatient if they have to search your entire site to find what they need. Chances are, they won’t stick around to do that. Visitors want to get to what they need quickly and easily. If you make it too difficult, they’re gone, and they’ll buy from your competition. The more copy and graphics you throw at them, the more confused they’ll be, and then you’ve lost them. Your site needs to have strong focus.

Want to know more? Join us for a free teleseminar on Top 5 Design Myths, happening February 19th. Register now at: http://webcopywritingqueen.com/designmyths.html

Top 5 Website Design Myths

Is your website design stopping you from ranking higher in the search engines and getting the traffic you want?

Are you frustrated that site visitors aren’t contacting or buying from you?If so, then I have a treat for you.

Join me and my special guest Nina Menezes, professional web designer and owner of InterDream Designs, for a 60-minute, free call on the “Top 5 Website Design Myths.”

Register now at http://webcopywritingqueen.com/designmyths.html

On this call, you’ll discover . . .

 

• What you are doing that’s preventing your website from ranking #1 in the search engines.
• What a great site entails—from visuals to functionality.
• What to avoid on your website and what you need for a successful site.
• Why your website might be turning away customers instead of attracting them—and how to steer clear of this.  
• The tools you need to grow your online presence.

If you are in the process of creating or revamping your current website, thinking about redoing your site, or just want to change a few things on your site . . . then you need to be on this call Thursday, February 19, at 8 Eastern  /  4pm Pacific.

Register now at  http://webcopywritingqueen.com/designmyths.html

Nina Menezes works exclusively in the area of web design for women who are small business owners. She understands the challenges small business owners face when building a strong online presence and works with clients to create custom websites that bring in new visitors and convert them to paying customers.

And she’s kind enough to share her expertise with you. For free.

Don’t let your website turn away customers. Register for our free call, and discover how to make your website work for you. The call is being recorded, so if you can’t make it, you can still listen later.

Succeed online in 2009 and sign up today — http://webcopywritingqueen.com/designmyths.html

Are you struggling to make your website work for you?

Grow Your Business With Social Media Marketing

One of the greatest challenges companies face with their online presence is lack of time and effort to market their company online. One of the most important aspects of growing a booming business is to market your company online in the most efficient way possible.

Using social media resources to promote the presence of your business online drives website traffic, reaches thousands of potential clients, and gets you involved in your industry’s online community.   

Since social media marketing is one of the most important ways to grow your business online, it’s important to set aside a minimum of three hours a week to promote your business on various social media sources. You can reach out to thousands of potential clients by simply adding three hours a week of social marketing to your schedule. Your business will thank you.

Below are important social media marketing vehicles to utilize.

Video Posting

Videos are an excellent way to allow customers to see the face behind the business. According to comScore, a global internet information provider, internet users in the U.S. watched 13.5 billion videos in October 2008, which was a 45% increase from October 2007.

Video provides a personal connection to customers and allows you to show them how certain services are done, how you work, how the company works, how your product works, and so much more.

YouTube is one of the most popular sites to post videos, since thousands of potential clients view them. Developing a video for YouTube is simple and benefits your company tremendously. You can place the YouTube video on your website or blog to further promote your company.

Blogging

Posting professional advice, information relating to your industry, company projects, and more on a blog, shows customers you’re an expert in your field and are passionate about getting the word out to the online community.

Commenting on other blogs relating to your industry, adding companies to your blog roll and vice versa, and using interactive media on your blog, all create an excellent haven of company / industry information. Using a call to action at the bottom of each blog post and linking it back to your website is an excellent way to bring in potential clients. 

Social Networking

Social media is the key to successful networking. There are many social media websites where you can post your company profile, interact with other companies, integrate yourself into the online community, and share information. Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, MySpace, and discussion forums are just a few places worth checking out. Facebook, for example, allows you to create a company page with your mission statement, basic information, photos, events, video, a place to put your logo, and an area where your blog is fed directly onto the page every time you add a post. Stay active on these sites by posting comments, joining groups, joining causes, and becoming a fan of company pages.

NOTE: Social media sites are not a place to simply promote your company / product / service. They’re a place to build relationships and network with others.

Nest Realty Website Launches

We are very excited about the launch of Nest Realty’s website. We worked for weeks with Blue Ion to make this site a one-of-a-kind real estate website.

Nest is the new breed of broker and the website had to reflect the company’s brand and their unique business model. We oversaw the direction of the creative content and wrote the web copy. It was a great project because we worked closely with Nest owner Jonathan Kaufman and the awesome team at the brilliant crew at Blue Ion to create the end product. And we had a blast writing the copy.

We interviewed Jonathan on why he decided to build a strong online presence immediately after he launched his new company.  

Here’s a excerpt from our conversation.

How do you think the decision will affect the success of your business online?

The Nest web site is the face of the company.  Therefore, I had to have a site that was head and shoulders above the competition in all respects.  Within the last 10 years, real estate has shifted from an offline industry to one that is starting to become dependent on technology and the web.  In fact, 87% of   home buyers now begin their search online.  I believe that having a strong web presence will set apart the winners and the losers in the real estate world.  Hiring Blue Ion to design and develop the Nest site to be aesthetically pleasing and functional is helping to set me apart. 

Having great copy was really the icing on the cake. If the site was beautiful and functional, but the copy was clunky, I would lose prospects and the site wouldn’t be as appealing to visitors.  Michelle took pages and pages of business plans and company beliefs and consolidated them down into simple, concise, and easy-to-read copy.  Since Nest is different than your typical real estate brokerage, so it was important for me to be able to express those differences in a clear and concise manner.  And from a search engine standpoint, great copy will help me attract visitors to the site so that I can then convert them to clients.

I knew I wanted a top-notch web site and actually started researching real estate web sites and design firms almost 12 months ago.  However, just before I launched Nest Realty this past summer, I began interviewing different web designers throughout the country.  Blue Ion had been on my radar because I stumbled across another web site they had done after picking up a real estate flyer while I was visiting Charleston in 2006.  I ended up interviewing 4 different firms, but chose Blue Ion because I felt confident in their abilities and developed a good rapport with them. I decided to bring on a copywriter at the suggestion of Chris and Robert at Blue Ion. 

I have been involved in large web projects in the past, but never considered a copywriter.  However, I felt it was important to have professionally-written copy not only to enhance the visitor experience, but also from a search engine optimization standpoint.