‘Amazon.com has reached a milestone, selling more e-books than hardbacks over the past three months.

But publishers said it was still too early to gauge for the entire industry whether the growth of e-books was cannibalizing sales of paperback books, a huge and crucial market.

Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos also countered the perception that sales of the company’s Kindle e-reading device had suffered due to the competition from other devices, such as Apple’s iPad.

He said the growth rate of Kindle device sales had ‘reached a tipping point’, having tripled since the company lowered its price to $US189 from $US259 last month, following a similar move by competitor Barnes & Noble to cut the price on its Nook e-reader…

Amazon painted a picture of accelerating growth in sales of e-books, which can be read on the Kindle and through software on a host of other devices, including Apple’s iPad and iPhone. The figures don’t include free e-books.

Over the past month, Amazon sold 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books it sold, it said…

Another statistic shared by Amazon suggest it remains the leading retailer for e-books. The company said that of the 1.14 million James Patterson e-books sold as of July 6, nearly 868,000 were from Amazon. In June, Apple CEO Steve Jobs had claimed that his company’s iBookstore had taken 20 per cent of the market.’

Source: Geoffrey A. Fowler & Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg for The Australian

Amazon E-Books Overtake Hardbacks is a post from: OE Design Blog

So, the first experience many people have with your business is your website. It stands to reason it should be a key place for you to generate sales leads.

The web attracts a broad audience and common wisdom says it is safest to assume that every prospect is a busy, smart person who doesn’t want to waste time. For this reason, I don’t recommend using an introductory ‘splash’ page since it requires an additional mouse click. You need to get their attention quickly and move them to the next stage, namely direct contact with your sales staff.

I have identified six critical elements that your site must have.

1. Be Found

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) and Search Engine Marketing(SEM). Ensure that your site appears for the most common search terms by including them on your home page and in its keywords. eg: ‘gym<your suburb>’ so Google can find you.

2. Value Based Headings & Summaries

These capture your prospect’s attention using heading and summaries that confirm you can deliver what they want. Give the information concisely and aim to build a sense of excitement about what you offer.

3. Make Your Service Or Product The Hero

The main emphasis of your home page should be the benefits offered by your primary service. Prospective customers only want to know more about who you are once they have established that you provide what they need.

4. Proof

Make sure people don’t have to click more than once to find a written or video testimonial proving that you deliver on your promises. Back it up with a testimonials page.

5. Call To Action

Make sure people know that you want them to become your customer. Tell them what they should do next, if they like what you have to offer.

6. Make It Easy To Contact You

Find our who the prospect is by providing easy contact information and links. Options include a large visible phone number, a link to a contact form, a button or banner with a special offer that links to a contact form. Put a contact link on every page.

Use sibling pages to give more detail for the information junkies, but make sure the home page is snappy and obeys the above rules. A good website generates maximum quality sales leads for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You wouldn’t be without it.

Thank you to Clayton Sinclair – Director of Advance Fitness Marketing for this fantastic article.

Must Haves On Your Website is a post from: OE Design Blog

‘Got a question the other day from a reader wondering when and where it was appropriate to list his show’s website.

I give you my answer in this photo of a Florida license plate.

The state of Florida is so interested in driving traffic to their “Official Portal of the State of Florida” that they aren’t just putting the name of their state on their license plates, their plugging their website!

So there’s your answer.  Put your website everywhere you can.  Especially if your domain name isn’t the exact title of your show.  And with domain name squatters pouncing on more names than ever these days, odds are you’ve had to come up with some modification of your title for your URL (which reminds me . . . if you haven’t read the post of mine from last year on why you must grab your domain name asap, read it now.  I’ll wait).  Putting your site address in as many locations as possible is also important if your site isn’t coming up at the top of a Google search of your show.  (Need an example of what I’m talking about?  See this search for Awesome 80s Prom compared to this search for Memphis).

Websites are now a part of a show’s branding, like a tag line, a logo, or even the trademark sign.

And if a state government is doing a better job than Broadway at marketing their sites, then we’re even further behind the times than I thought!’

Source: Ken Davenport

Where Should You Put Your Website? is a post from: OE Design Blog

So when many people are undercutting each other left and right in order to “get the clients,” I’m challenging us ALL to actually approach business in an authentic, ethical way… and also in a way to have fun and make money in the process too! After all, if you can make more money with a business model that WORKS, wouldn’t you rather do that than undercut your competition, only to make cents in the dollar? Who wants to work just as hard for less money? (Not me!)

1. Your Unpaid Sales Force of (Non-Competitive)  Vendors

Where do most of your clients go to ask who to hire, who’s reputable, who does the best job and who do you like to work with? OTHER complimentary businesses to yours! So, why not enlist them to help you by sending you leads and making you more money today?

Meet in person with vendors who you’d not only love to work with, but also vendors who would love to help you AND work with YOU! Simply ask for their referrals. Don’t beg. Don’t seem desperate. Just politely ask and also do the same for them. For example in the wedding industry, venues are the best place to begin, then (not necessarily in this order) planners, caterers, photographers, videographers, musicians, entertainment companies, florists, transportation companies, travel agents, stationers, bridal boutiques, hair stylists, makeup artists, and every other person you can think of who works with brides. Everyone!

2. Your Paid Sales Force of Affiliates

What’s the best thank you gift for most people? Money! So, why not offer that as a commission for any sales sent your way? It’s the easiest, fastest and most effective way to get sales right now, right away! So, do it. I would suggest offering anywhere between 10%-25% of commission to your paid sales force to get returns now and fast!

3. Raving Clients

Who’s your best mouthpiece for you and your business to get the word out to brides everywhere (besides your mother)? Your past and present clients! Send them a letter asking for referrals and letting them know that you love to work with clients just like them. Educate them on how to send you clients and how you’ll thank them for it (a bottle of wine, a night out for dinner, money, or whatever fits their personality).

4. Warm & Fuzzy Letter

A warm and fuzzy letter is the best way to educate anyone and everyone you know on how to send you referrals. It’s a direct mail strategy where you update everyone you know with what you need, when you need it and how to get it to you. And the beauty is that it works…fast! Keep it personal, personalized, and be yourself. The more you that you pour into your letter, the better! People will love it!

5. Networking

In this day and age, the beauty of networking is that you can network with people in person AND online. Your reach is virtually endless. And, that’s beautiful, amazing and exciting! In person is always best because people can get to know you better face-to-face, and the bond is built faster. But, social media networking also provides invaluable resources to reach out and spread your message. And that’s awesome for business!

Your Assignment:

Be a leader in your community. Instead of burning bridges, build stronger bonds than ever before, which will create relationships that last and relationships that sell. Use all 5 ways to build relationships to see results within a matter of weeks in your business. You’ll love what you see!

Adapted from Source: brideattraction.com

5 Powerful Ways to Build Your Sales Force is a post from: OE Design Blog

The following checklist can be used to do a checkup on your website, and make sure it contains these key features, which can significantly contribute towards the success of your website.

These improvements can be actioned by any small business entrepreneur to increase their web exposure, drive more traffic to their site, and ultimately make more sales.

The Successful Website Checklist

The Design

1. Homepage is attractive to look at.
2. Easy To Use Navigation.
3. Contact details are easily visible. This includes email, phone, address etc.
4. Logo is clearly visible.
5. Fonts are readable.
6. Create an eye-catching logo.
7. Make sure the navigation is in the same position on every page.
8. Any flash in the design is minimal.
9. Create a tagline that will describe your website’s purpose in a single statement and place it in the header.
10. Compatibility – Does it work on every browser?
11. Optimised graphics and scripts so the page loads quickly.
12. Add a favicon to your website so that your users will have a nice icon when they bookmark your site.
13. Make sure any ads and banners are not too distracting.
14. Keep it simple.
15. Make sure the logo links to the home page.
16. Add a search box to your site.
17. Don’t copy the look of another website. Be unique.
18. Reduce unnecessary graphics, as they will slow down your page load time and clutter the page.
19. Add the main navigation links to the footer of your website.
20. Reduce choices. Don’t overwhelm your visitors with too many choices.
21. Keep to 2-3 main colours throughout your website.
22. If using flash for the navigation, make sure you include a text link navigation in the footer.
23. Logo Redesign – Does your logo need an update?
24. Website RE-Design – How old is your website? Often a website redesign can re-ignite your website’s growth.
25. Make sure your website is not using a template design. Again, be unique.

The Content

26. Do you have a CMS / Website Editor?
27. Add a picture of the owner on either the home page or about page.
28. Place the name of the owner on either the home or about page.
29. Do you have a contact form on the contact page and the home page?
30. Add a Terms & Conditions page.
31. Can users easily find the purpose of your website within 10 seconds?
32. Check Spelling & Grammar.
33. Update the website regularly.
34. Set up an event calendar showing planned occasions for the month.
35. Brief description of your company’s history.
36. Major headings stand out.
37. A custom 404-error page.
38. Offer something for free (i.e. ebook, product samples, etc).
39. Create keyword rich titles for each page on your website.
40. Create user-friendly page links (i.e. www.yourdomain.com/your-link).
41. Make sure the important content is above the fold.
42. Styles and colours are consistent.
43. Use testimonials to create a sense of trust.
44. Make sure your website explains how they will benefit from your site.
45. In your contact form, ask users how they found you.
46. Make sure your online forms don’t ask for too much information.
47. Replace any ‘Click Here’ links with more descriptive links (ie. Download this PDF).
48. Add downloadable content to your website (i.e. MP3s, Videos, PDFS, etc).
49. Make sure all your links don’t open in a new window.
50. Add a contact form to your home page. Even if it’s in the footer, this will increase your conversions.
51. Test everything. Do your contact forms work? Do your download links work?
52. Make sure the text size isn’t too small. Remember there are different size monitors, so not everyone will see the text at the same size as you.
53. Use whitespace in your website. Don’t try to cram everything into one small space. Spread it out.
54. Break up large paragraphs of text with photos and sub headings.
55. Only use ‘bold’ to highlight important parts of the content. If you highlight too much of the content it reduces the effectiveness.
56. Can your readers understand the content? For example, don’t use a simile or quote that only people in your part of the world would understand.
57. Talk to the reader directly. For example, instead of saying, “We provide our products to over 100 people worldwide”, say, “We can provide our product to you anywhere in the world.”
58. Make sure each page on your website has a goal and achieves it through the content (i.e. Encourage user to fill out the contact form).
59. Make sure there is a good contrast between the text and website background.  The most easily read content is dark text on a light background.
60. If there are a lot of pages, do you have a breadcrumb navigation setup? Breadcrumb navigation is normally just above the content and it provides links back to each previous page the user navigated through to get to the current page.
61. Use professional good quality photos on your website. Unprofessional photos can have a negative affect on your brand.
62. Use header tags (H1, H2, etc) to highlight headings instead of just increasing the font size.
63. Make sure you provide a physical address to your business.
64. What is your USP (Unique Selling Point)? Do you explain this clearly to your readers?
65. Make an offer that visitors can’t refuse.

Social Media

66. Set up a Forum for your readers to interact with each other.
67. Create an online poll.
68. Set up a Blog.
69. Set up an RSS feed for your blog.
70. Submit your RSS feeds to aggregator sites like FeedBurner, Squidoo, Feedboy, FeedCat and Feedfury.
71. Write an article related to your site and submit it to article sites like ezinearticles, goarticles, webpronews and articledashboard.
72. Use Social Media.
73. Create a Yahoo Group.
74. Create a Facebook Fan Page.
75. Bookmark your website on Delicious.
76. Sign up to Stumble.
77. Create a Technorati account and claim your website/blog.
78. Add a ‘Tell A Friend’ button to your website.
79. eNewsletter – Have you set up an email subscription list?
80. Update your blog regularly.

Other Features

81. Do you accept Online Payments?
82. Set up Google Analytics to track your statistics.
83. Do you accept donations?
84. Good hosting – Is your website slow? Does your host support MySQL and PHP? Maybe you should upgrade to a better host.
85. Set up a 301 redirect for your non www website address.
86. Submit your website to free search engine directories.
87. Write your website address everywhere (i.e. business card, advertising, etc).
88. Offer 5 or more ways for people to contact you (i.e. email, skype, facebook, etc).
89. Make sure your website does not use frames.
90. Create an XML Sitemap and submit it to Google.
91. Ask at least 5 different people to give you honest feedback about the website.
92. Respond to all emails quickly.
93. Make sure your website loads quickly. It should be less than 10 seconds to load the website.
94. Call to Action: Tell visitors what you need them to do. (ie. Click here to contact us today).
95. Make sure your domain name is easy to say and remember.
96. Don’t force users to register to use your website.
97. Make a regular backup of your website.
98. Have you used Google Ads to bring more traffic to your website?
99. Have you paid for professional Search Engine Optimisation?
100. Do you have products? Have you set up an online shop so that your website can make money while you sleep?
101. Have you registered several different versions of your domain name (ie. domain.com, domain.com.au, domain.info, etc)?

If there is anything in this checklist that you don’t fully understand, please feel free to leave a comment and we’ll get back to you with further explanation.

101 Essential Features Of “The Successful Website” is a post from: OE Design Blog

Customer service is all about helping people to buy or use the services we offer. We are solving people’s problems!

We can spend so much money on marketing to attract customers, yet ignore those right on our doorstep!

Our current enquirers – those who call, visit the website or store as well as those who use our products or services regularly are our “hot” customers. Don’t spend money on attracting more until you can look after these people well – give them a reason to come back again and again or recommend you to their friends.

I want to cover some basic keys that are often ignored when helping customers to buy –

Vision:

What does vision have to do with customer service? – If your ‘vision’ is just a statement on the wall that everyone ignores, then nothing!

Have a vision your staff can believe in

A vision they can be passionate about and live out when helping people. People respond positively when they hear real conviction – the staff believe in your product, they know all about it and are confident to advise, even suggest other worthwhile purchases.

Keep the vision alive

Don’t forget to remind the team, keep training and encouraging them with how it is progressing.

Develop A ‘Yes Face’:

Customers are quick to pick up on negative ‘vibes’. Most people tend to gravitate that way – it’s why the media is full of bad news – bad news sells! However bad news doesn’t build your sales – if you show a negative or disinterested ‘face’ to your customers and staff it will turn them off buying anything.

What you listen to, watch and read will affect your attitude

Think for a minute – when the alarm goes off in the morning for many of us the first thing we listen to is death, destruction and the bad economy! No wonder we are miserable at the breakfast table, it’s no surprise we are cranky when we get to work with staff and customers! What we listen to comes out in the ‘face’ we present.

Learn to listen to things that will build you up, positive messages and practical advice – develop a ‘yes’ face.

A ‘Yes’ face wants to help and attracts people

Yes – I can do that!             Yes – I can help!

Challenge yourself to see how many customers and staff you can get to smile today!

Don’t we all want to buy from the people who cheer us up? – purchase is as much about relationship as it is product or price. If I feel good about the person I speak to, I’m much more likely to come back again or share my experience with others.

Start Solving Someone’s Problems Today – Help Them Buy

“If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a new horse” - Henry Ford

With customer service, we need to think outside the square – lead change – be the change. Good customer service is going beyond what would normally be accepted.

A sign out the front of a door saying ‘We provide great customer service’ is not going to cut it today, in fact it could backfire on you because people’s expectation is that they will be serviced when they go in to look or buy.

To stand out and be memorable start thinking of innovative ways to go the extra mile with customer service in your business.

Some more areas that will affect customer service.

Passion:

If you or your staff are just there to get by and pay bills by earning a few dollars until the weekend, then you will reflect that attitude at work. We’ve all worked with people who count down the hours till knock-off time, they’re not ‘there’ to help people, they totally miss sales opportunities, don’t want to do anything extra and affect everyone else’s attitude as well. The COO of the Ritz Carlton hotel group says he is staggered by age 27, how many people have effectively retired. They hate their job and have no passion for what they do.

Hire On Attitude, Train On Skills

Look for people that are passionate, because when they have enthusiasm, they provide outstanding customer service and have a great “Yes” face as they deal with people.

Build Your Team:

Ray Croc who founded McDonalds, said “None of us is as good as all of us.”

When you operate together as a united team, you can build a strong business and provide outstanding customer service.

Look at how each area of your business performs – eg. If you have a really good sales team, but delivery, or follow-up service doesn’t measure up, you will lose repeat sales. If your product is great, displays good and delivery prompt but the receptionist is slow to answer, doesn’t ring back and has no enthusiasm, you’re going nowhere!

• Get the right people into the right places
• Include everyone in team progress meetings
• Keep lifting up the vision – bring the team on the journey
• Look for ways to recognise and reward great customer service

Keep Learning:

We learn till the day we die. If you are not learning, you are not growing.

Learn how to become outstanding – not only will you be sought out as providing good customer service, but you’ll be more valuable as an employee – both the business and your job will bring greater $ returns.

Get hold of good training material on customer service, CDs or books, talk to others who do it well – learn what works for them. In the US 3% of people have a library card and 6% believe that Elvis is still alive. So you can see the priority isn’t learning! Don’t you be one of those statistics.

Be innovative, every business is different and there will be ways you can give customers outstanding, even unique service that no one else offers.

Make Your Business, (your department or job role) Memorable In The Way You Help Customers Buy.

This article was written by Peter Irvine – who is the Co-Founder of Gloria Jean’s Coffees, author of “Win In Business”, business consultant and speaker.

Customer Service Or Helping People Purchase is a post from: OE Design Blog

Mr Murdoch’s News Corp has ridden the iPad wave, selling 20,000 apps for its newspapers. The sales included 4500 subscriptions for The Australian app and 5000 for The Times in Britain.

Analysts estimate Apple will sell up to eight million iPads this year.

Mr Murdoch said he expected to gain at least an additional 1.1 million paying subscribers to The Wall Street Journal he owns, thanks to the iPad. The Journal already charges a similar number of people for access to restricted content on its website. So far 10,000 people are reading the newspaper on their iPads, according to Mr Murdoch. Another 100,000 people who already buy the Journal and have it delivered at home are also using the iPad to read it, he said.

‘To introduce them to it, we’re giving them that for nothing. But later on, we’ll charge probably a discounted rate, if you’re also buying the paper itself, ‘ he said.  In comparison, a spokesperson for The New York Times said last week that its iPad application – entirely free of charge for now – had been used by 300,000 people.

Last Tuesday, Mr Jobs – Apple’s CEO – said that ‘any democracy depends on a free, healthy press’, a thought echoed by Mr Murdoch, who said he was convinced that tools like the portable tablet computers would not spell the end of the press. ‘Most people over 50 love the tactile experience of reading a real newspaper,’ said Mr Murdoch.

‘But it doesn’t mean that you won’t also have this or take it with you or read it on the train or whatever. Or use it for your email or whatever. Or give it to your kids to play games on it.’

Gold Coast Bulletin

Ipad Making News(Papers) is a post from: OE Design Blog

Take aways are one tool to use that will help you to convert more of your visitors into enquiries, phone calls, and ultimately sales.

But what is a Take Away?

Take aways are simply something a potential client can “take away” with them after visiting your website.

It should definitely be something tangible, something of value, and something they can easily print or download directly from your website.

It can be as simple as:

• An ebook (Eg: http://www.weddinghouse.com.au/for-the-bride)
• A summary of your services – like an information pack
• A price or product list
• A helpful worksheet full of tips and advice
• A coupon or other special offers

It DOES NOT have to be elaborate. The idea is that they have something with your company name and address on it – and the last five competitor’s sites they just visited gave them nothing.

A customer who has your take away is already interacting with your company, and if they used it in conjunction with your online enquiry form, you’re on your way to booking your next meeting or making your next sale!

Source: Chris Jaegar from www.vertigointernetmarketing.com

‘Take Aways’ Improve Conversion & Can Generate More Quality Leads! is a post from: OE Design Blog

Here are five strategies that can help you accomplish this:

1. Help Your Clients Achieve Their Goals.

Virtually every businessperson has specific goals they are striving to achieve. These can include everything from increasing their market share and sales, to reducing operating expenses, to streamlining the business, and to incorporating new business practices. Invest time learning the key objectives of each of your customers. Then determine how your products and services can help them achieve their targets. In some cases, you may not be able to help them, but recommending someone who can assist them will be recognized and remembered. The more you can help them achieve their goals the more valued you will become.

2. Under-Promise, Over-Deliver.

As old as this expression is, it is still one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd. Far too many people make commitments to their customers and fail to follow through as promised. It’s easy to fall into this trap, particularly for service-oriented individuals. We have every intention of delivering on a promise, but often, unexpected circumstances crop up that prevent us from doing so. While this is acceptable by most people – once in a while – frequent occurrences will drive your customers to your competition.

3. Be Innovative.

Most companies do business the same way until a crisis, emergency, or significant change in the marketplace forces them to adapt. The most successful organizations are creative and innovative. They constantly look for new ways to do business, gain more market share, please their customers, and offer new products and services. The inherent challenge with this is that you will encounter resistance from many people both inside and outside of the company; I have experienced this first-hand in several companies I have worked for.

However, if you try to be innovative ONLY, when it’s absolutely necessary, you will never get the head-start on your competition. Watch for trends in other industries as well as yours, and think of how you can incorporate these into your business . Be a leader instead of a follower.

4. Surprise Them.

Look for ways to surprise your customers and do something completely unexpected for them. Make a charitable donation in their name. Invite them to a special event. Give them a bonus gift or service. Find out what networking events your clients might like to attend and send them a complimentary invitation. If they enjoy reading, send an occasional book in their area of interest. Gift certificates to a show or play may be appreciated by some of your customers.

Two words of caution: i) Be careful that your “surprise” is not misinterpreted as a bribe to do business  with you. There cannot be any strings or hidden conditions attached to this offering. ii) Make sure your client is allowed to accept a gift. Some organizations have a strict “no gift” policy, and you must respect it.

5. Keep In Touch.

Very few people keep in touch on a regular basis with their customers. Yet, this is the best way to keep your name in their mind. An effective strategy – without appearing like a pest – is to send them useful information on a regular basis. You can send a newspaper clipping or a magazine article. You can also send them helpful and practical tips to improve their business ; this can be set up quite easily electronically.

Send cards on special occasions, but instead of the standard Christmas cards send some on lesser promoted days such as St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween, etc. You can also send postcards from exotic locations – just be careful not to write a tacky message.

Have a VIP day. You can organize a golf tournament – assuming of course your customers play the game. If you’re a retailer, you can invite your best customer to an invitation-only special sale.

Every year, a friend of mine organizes an evening filled with networking opportunities, guest speakers, great food and beverages, and invites his clients, prospects, and friends to attend. Another friend of mine takes several of his clients on excursions to a local winery. He ensures they get a tour, a private tasting of premium wines, and a five-star dinner.

These are just a few tips that will place you head and shoulders above the crowd.

Source: robertsonTrainingGroup.com

Standing Head And Shoulders Above The Business Crowd is a post from: OE Design Blog

If you’re going to have a successful website, you will need to follow certain principles in order to make sure you can attract new potential clients.

From the smallest business to the largest business, all will be able to benefit from the following 7 keys to a successful website.

1. Good Domain Name

When choosing a domain name for your website, ideally you should use your business name as the domain name. For example, if your business name is “Wedding House” it would be best if you could register the domain name www.weddinghouse.com.au. This will make it easier for people to remember your website address and will also help with your Search Engine results.

Another way to make it easy to remember is to find a short domain name. Technically your domain can be up to 67 characters long, however the longer the domain the harder it will be for your potential clients to remember.

If you need help finding a great domain name, you can use the following website: Bust A Name. This website will come up with available domain names based on your business name.

2. Professional Design

When potential customers view your website, the first impression will decide whether your business is worth their time, so you need to make sure your website design is outstanding.

Grab the attention of your potential customers by making sure that your website is unique. Show these potential clients why it’s worth their time to go deeper than the home page of your website.

Some of the key points you need to take into account regarding your website design are:

1. Clear Layout – Easy to navigate.
2. Accessibility – Must display correctly and quickly on all browsers.
3. Visually Attractive – Capture attention.

3. Search Engine Optimisation

A large number of people who visit your website are getting there by clicking on a link from a search engine (ie. Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc). Search Engine Optimisation is the process of positioning your website to be found on these search engines which increases the traffic to your website.

These days it is vital to use SEO on your website. If you’ve invested in a website, you really can’t afford not to have your website optimized. After all, what’s the point of having a website if it can’t be found.

Here are a few tips you can use to improve your website’s SEO results:

1. Write fresh content regularly.
2. Use links within the content of each page.
3. Share your website with Social websites (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
4. Share articles from your website with www.ezinearticles.com
5. Create a sitemap of every page on your website.

4. Update Regularly

Original content is important. People may come to your website once, but in order to keep them coming back, you’ve got to add fresh original content regularly.

Most of the time, when people are searching online for a product or service, they will be looking at multiple websites at once. Often they will not immediately make a decision on which business to move forward with, and will come back to these websites at a later time to make their final choice. Having fresh original content, when they return to your site, is a great way to convince them to do business with you.

Some good examples of fresh content are:

1. New menu items for a restaurant.
2. Weekly live music schedule for a café.
3. Latest promotion or special.
4. Instructional tips for your industry.

5. Encourage Interaction

There are two types of visitors that will view your website:

1. New Visitors
   Those that visit, read, and leave. They might not return if they received all they could from your website.
2. Returning Visitors
   These visitors are those that visit, read and interact. For example, they might submit their vote on your latest poll, or leave a comment on your latest blog post. They might also bookmark your website to return and visit later in order to see the response to their interaction.

In order to encourage interaction, you will need to be prepared to respond to comments and emails. The benefits of encouraging visitor interaction far outweigh any time spent on these small tasks. Remember, it often takes 6 or more ‘touches’ of contact before someone will do business with you.

Here are some tips to increase the interaction on your website:

1. Publish a Poll – Ask your visitors for their opinion
2. Set up a Blog – Create a post with a question for the title
3. Upload a Video – Allow comments
4. Hold a Contest – Give away valuable information

6. Use Testimonials

Testimonials are important as they help your potential client to build their trust in you. When done correctly, testimonials can be a strong aid in establishing the credibility of your website.

If you do decide to use testimonials, make sure you use honest comments from real customers. If the testimonial is not real, it may actually have a negative impact on your brand. In order to maximise the benefit of testimonials, it is important to include at least the customer’s full name rather than just their initials. You can improve the credibility even more if you include the full name of the customer, a photo, a video and possibly a link to the customer’s website.

You can take your testimonials a step further by including case studies of some of your clients. A case study presents a detailed story of how you helped a particular client. You can explain how you helped the client and display the work you did for them.

7. Contact Details Clearly Visible

One of the most important goals of your website is to convert your readers into potential clients. In order to do this, they are going to need to contact you at some point. If your potential client can’t easily see your contact details, they might be forced to take their business to your competition.

You may have a great website that provides lots of useful information for your clients, however sometimes they just need to call or email you. Most people tend to look for a link on your website that says “Contact Us” when they want to phone or email you.

Here are some of the ways to make your contact details more visible:

1. Name your main contact link “Contact Us”
2. Add a contact form to the bottom of each page.
3. Add a signature to your emails or newsletters.
4. Show your phone number on every page in large font.

One of the common misconceptions companies new to the web have is that if they put up a page, people will visit. However, in order to have a popular site you have to offer something useful to the user. This might include good information, interactivity, fun, something for free, etc. You can’t just add your 1300 number and expect phone calls the next day.

The web is an interactive and rapidly changing environment. Here at OE Design, we are continuously finding ways to achieve better results through your website to take it to the next level. We can provide help for you in any of the 7 areas mentioned above + much more.

Contact us today to see how we can help you.

7 Keys To A Successful Website is a post from: OE Design Blog