You should consider 4 steps when producing a website: (i) The content & navigation (ii) The build technology/tool (iii) The promotion (iv) The maintenance. Most businesses spend too little time on step one which only ends up in a site with low conversion rates. This guide will help you with the content of your site increasing conversion rates.

1. 3
Total Recall Marketing Docs Series
Website Content & Criteria

2. Aimed at:
▪ First time or New website builds
▪ Revamping of existing websites
Objective(s):
To give our clients tips and guidance when creating a new site or how to get more
from an existing website including advices on dealing with developers or building
your own site.
Introduction.
There are a lot of tasks to manage when running a business, from financial to logistical, and it is easy and understandable for business owners to neglect or under estimate the value of marketing in the future development of their business.
But the fact is that time invested in Marketing will help you build your business faster and better.
In fact good marketing should easily pay for its self and should be thought of as an investment not a cost.
Your website (as a major marketing asset) should be the heart and soul of your company, it is your 24/7/365 best “Employee” or can be if done right.
The term “Done Right” is very pertinent because most websites are not right, by that I mean they normally fall into one of the categories below:
▪ Site copied off a competitor – Does not reflect YOUR company personality, ethos or offerings.
▪ Site created by a website company – These guys are NOT marketeers and normally just want to give you a Pretty site, move on to their next company and are not really bothered if your site converts into business.
▪ Site you have had for many years (Untouched) – No longer portrays the current YOU
▪ Site you inherited from the previous company owner – does not portraits the current YOU
▪ Site created by a (Son, daughter, friend, neighbour) – Normally not created to industry standard on either security or professionalism, you would not let your children go to an important business meeting instead of you so why let them create the most important window to your prospects and customers...
As humans we are shallow when it comes to judging people for example we believe an engineering company with an expensive glossy brochure is a better engineer than one with a single sided flyer...well websites are the same you have seconds to be Judged and categorised by your viewers so making an effort is well worth while and will pay dividends.
The rest of this document will help you to get the best results from your website and guide you through the pitfalls of dealing with developers. Please read it though and do not jump to the checklist, marketing is a journey make sure your route map is complete.
You need to consider 4 main stages when producing a website (1) The preparation of content and navigation routes for viewers (2) The build (3) The promotion of the site (4) Up-keep and site maintenance.
Why bother with a website?
You may be thinking why should I bother getting a new site or revamping my existing site when everyone is talking about Social media!
Think of Social media like hosting a party you need the hype to generate awareness and excitement but you still need a venue to hold the party at, by that I mean your website is can tick so many boxes in terms of the customers buying journey that social media cannot, the two should work together not exclusively.
People are making business building too complicated with all the new tools and techniques for marketing your business, but the essence of business will never change: you have a product that somebody wants (the prospect) that you know how to describe it to best effect (the message) and you know the best route to communicate you message to them - What to say to Who and How.

3. Next you should understand the buying process: (this is so important)
A good website should be able to help you at several of these stages for both prospects and existing customers.
To understand and get the most from your site, preparation, planning and understanding your customer/ prospects is imperative.
The bottom line is you want to achieve a successful business and you probably invested time and effort into creating your product or service so you should equally spend time on presenting and launching it.

4. The most successful businesses in the world understand that the customer is KING, the most important assets of your business and if you can focus on them and their needs instead of you then you will achieve greater success.
REMEMBER: It is not what you want to say and show but what they want to hear and see, so start thinking like your customers.
Your Customers
If you bother to know and understand the issues of your customers you will be well ahead of your competition, a good fisherman would not go fishing without the right bait...
Many companies fail or stall because they do not understand how important their customers are.
You need to know some critical data about your customers here is a basic guide:
• What calibre of customer are you after? some companies end up with clients that are high maintenance and low margin because they have not controlled their choice.
• What type of customer are you after?
• What answers do I need to provide on my website to their questions? (do you know their issues/needs?)
• What a 5 major boxes of their do I have to tick to get them to do business with me?
• Where are they in the buying cycle/sales funnel when they visit my site? and have I catered for that stage? (see notes below on buying cycle/sales funnel)
It is really good to create a perfect customer profile so you and your team know the calibre of customer you need to get you to your goal.
Setting goals & targets for your site is a great way to build your business and be in control for example you may decide that you want your website to bring in 10 enquiries per week knowing your close/conversion rate is 50% that equates to 5 new customers per week.
The Customer Journey
This is one of the most important aspects of business development, to understand the “Process” behind their purchase and create a seamless, fast, and rewarding journey for them is very important.
As you can see above your marketing and your website have a hard & complex job to do and when it is turned into a marketing system you have an amazing lead generating tool working for you every day.
But keep it simple know your customer and how to converse with appeal to them, do not have too many message going on at once after all if your end goal for the site is to give you the opportunity to speak to the prospect then all the site has to do is to sell that opportunity not to sell everything at once.
Taking time to understand Why they are buying e.g. is it to make their life easier, faster, increase their profits save them time make their job safer etc.
Understanding their concerns is also very important, if you know the top 10 stall/objections/reasons for not purchasing you can produce a list of positive responses to these and reduce their fear factor thus increasing your chances of obtaining a new client.

5. Knowing where they are in the sales funnel is also very important.
A lot of businesses think everyone who visits their site is ready to buy but this is not always the case some people are genuinely shopping around and your site should cater to these people.
What you want is for the people shopping around to come back to you and buy when they are ready and to achieve this you must Nurture the enquiry BUT first you need to capture the enquiry this is where having lead magnets (Downloadable free pieces of valuable information on you site that they can access in exchange for their email address and name. This way you can keep in touch with them until they are ready to buy increasing the chance that they will chose you and not a competitor.
Examples of PDF Downloadable lead magnets you can create yourself:
• The top ten things you need to know when buying xxxxx
• Free Guide to XXXXX
• The definitive guide to xxxx
(make sure they have a real value to the prospect)
Here is a typical sales funnel:
We have covered what you need to know about your prospects and customers but it is important to know what your website visitors need to know about you, here are a few criteria that will help you with your website topics and making them feel inclined to do business with you:
 Can you cope? What is your capacity?
 What calibre/price range are you- are you cheap, medium, high/premium.
 How can they trust you? What credentials do you have and what evidence do you have i.e. case studies, testimonials, accreditation's.
 Are you local?
 Are you friendly and helpful?
 Are you knowledgeable and an expert in your profession?
 What benefits will they receive from doing business with you?
 What reasons can you give for them to do business with you and not a competitor?
 How are you different or better than your competitors- Your USP/Points of difference?
 Can I see straight away what you offer and how it benefits me?
 Do you offer after-sales?
 Are you a new kid on the block or established?

6.  Can I see examples of your work?
 Are you secure with my transactions and privacy?
 Can I try before I buy/have a demonstration/sample?
 Are you easy to contact/find?
 Have you done work for anyone else like me?
 How do I find out more?
 What is the process to buy/what do I do next?
Summary on customers:
Not just for marketing but for other reasons, you should become an expert in your customers and their industry, talking to them in their metaphorical language, making them think you empathies and understand their business needs will increase your conversions.
The Message i.e. what your site it telling them.
You really should be an expert in your own industry/profession and telling your story is very important.
There will be people who visit your site and will want to gauge you by:
• Reading lots of details about you
• Watching a video synopsis of you
• Looking at your benefits to them bullet points
You should cater to all of these criteria, the site visitor will normally have a checklist in their head of boxes you need to tick i.e.
are they local, who have they worked for before and does their work look good, what price range are they in, do they look professional/capable, are they trustworthy.
Try to answer these via your website so that by the time they contact you they are a very Hot lead and simply need converting not selling to, let the site warm leads up for you.
You may be thinking this is a lot of work but remember how much revenue a good website can deliver plus it is far cheaper than a good sales person so it is worth the investment of time and money.
What financial investment will it take?
If you think of it like this, if you know the average value of a customer and it can generate x number of customers per week every week then ask yourself how much money are you willing to invest in a tool like this?
A good website quickly pays for its self but people scrimp on their sites and feel pleased they “Got it cheap” but it is an ambassador for your company as well as a money making tool so invest as much as you can afford it will pay you back over and over.
Do’s & Don’ts
✓ Do link your social media to your website and visa versa
✓ Do keep updating your site inc your testimonials and news
✓ Do get the domain name and hosting registered in Your name Not the web developer
✓ Do take your website seriously treat it like an important part of your company
✓ Do check all the links and videos on your site to ensure they are still live
✓ Do use as many marketing activities as possible to drive eyeballs to your site
✓ Do promote your site as much as you can as often as you can
✓ Do try to get across your top 5 main points
✓ Do consider the gender and age of your viewers- don’t just do what looks nice to you
✓ Do make sure Everyone in your company knows their way around the site and at least knows the domain name to tell prospects
✓ Do make the site future proof so it grows with you
✓ Do make sure the customer journey is obvious and easy and you deliver them as close to their desired destination and your goal as possible
✓ Do include obvious calls to action on every page
✓ Do make sure you value and act upon leads from the site as a matter of urgency
✓ Do use lead magnets to capture leads
✓ Do try to keep them on your site for as long as possible- Google will love that
✓ Do submit the site to search engines

7. ✓ Do give things and information away on your site
✓ Do cater to visitors viewing on their mobiles (have a mobile friendly or responsive website) or you may lose a lot of business
✓ Do link your site to an analytical programme like Google Analytics
✓ Do record and measure the results of your website
✓ Do make your value proposition obvious and valuable
✓ Do give the site a human feel and add some corporate personality
✓ Do try to make your site memorable
✓ Do uses pertinent keywords search terms in your body copy, blogs etc (but not too many) make sure it is human friendly as well as search engine friendly
✓ Do compare your site to your nearest competition make sure it is better
✓ Do make a big effort with the launch
✓ Can they Gauge quickly what type and calibre of business you are?
✓ Do you know which pages converted into leads
✓ Do use video to get you messages across
✓ Do make the navigation clear and logical
✓ Do they know what to do to find you, contact you, the next step?
✓ Do you capture leads?
✓ Do give them a reason to return to the site
✓ Do you encourage feedback, sharing?
✓ Do you know why they buy and what info they want to see?
✓ Do you look like experts in your field?
✓ Do Uses lots of photos if possible
✓ Do make it easy for people to recommend you
✓ Do spell & Grammar checks
✓ Do add a copyright symbol on each page
✓ Do you make them feel welcome?
✓ Does it cater for newbie’s and existing customers, both?
✓ Does it counter their top stalls objections?
✓ Does it create a desire and compel them to act? Call to action- what do you want them ideally to do when they have finished reading the page? Call you, email you, download something?
✓ Does it display value?
✓ Does it help you to: generate leads, retain customers, cross sell, up sell, build brand, start relationships, educate?
✓ Does it need to be Printable?
✓ Does it support the sale process?
✓ Does the site match the relevancy of the marketing tool that got them there in the first place? i.e. Google Adwords
✓ Does your online personality match your offline personality?
• Don’t abdicate responsibility for your site to an employee who will neglect it
• Don’t do a bad job of your website it will reflect on peoples opinion of your company
• Don’t try to say too many message on your site
• Don’t use cheesy photo library image if you can use real ones, if you have to use photo library images make sure they are relevant of have captions on
• Don’t be afraid to change what is not working
• Don’t be afraid of White space
• Don’t forget to test your site before going live and to check what it looks like on mobiles and all platforms i.e. Firefox, chrome, explorer.
• Don’t lose your brand in the site make it stand out
• Don’t uses a wacky non relevant colour scheme
• Don’t be ashamed of your site make sure it is something to be proud of an up to industry and competitors standards
• Don’t pinch other peoples text or photos you can get into serious breach of copyright trouble
• Don’t make them hunt for information – guide them
• Don't waste valuable space with words that will never get read, make every word count and earn it’s right to be on the site

8. • Don’t write in industry jargon
• Don’t
• Don’t use tiny type, if you want them to read it make it easy to read • Don’t use large areas of reversed out text
Call to action= what do you want them ideally to do when they have finished reading the page? Visit your shop, Call you, email you, download something, request a demo, request a sample?
Below is an at-a-glance overview of some important website features.
Useful and interesting links & Tools
Website eye tracking heat map http://www.crazyegg.com/
Website Analytical tool http://www.google.com/analytics/
Social media management tool https://hootsuite.com/
Website data tool https://marketing.grader.com/

9. Note: This document works in conjunction with Total Recall Marketing DOC number 4 which contains an advanced checklist of assorted possible website contents to be used to tailor your website to match your business to your target audience.
CONTACT US FOR A FREE COPY OF THE TOTAL RECALL MARKETING DOC NUMBER 4
enquiries@promoting-u.co.uk
+44(0)1704 565920
07871 308 755
https://twitter.com/ppc4u
www.promoting-u.co.uk
LinkedIn http://linkd.in/1wjKtcU
Disclaimer - This document is intended as a useful guide, we accept no responsibility for any loss of business or damage incurred by the undertaking of any instructions, suggestions or tips within the document and reserves the right to alter information without prior notice.
Issue# 1-2014
Copyright Total Recall Ltd 2014
“Helping your business to be seen and grow”
Contact us to see how we can help you develop your business…