Although we’re talking about website design here, I’d like to take a step back and share a real-world experience that shows how choosing form over function can cause a poor user experience — and ultimately make a product unusable, or at the least non-optimal for the end user.

Choosing Design Over Functionality: a Mini Case Study

I recently upgraded my iPhone and purchased a case to protect it.

The design of the case was beautiful, complete with wood inlay art on the back.

Regarding function, the online description of the case promised a “raised bezel” for screen protection. Since protection was an attribute I was looking for, I bought the case.

The Problem

Upon placing the case on my phone, I noticed there was NO raised bezel to protect the phone’s screen, and that putting the phone face down exposed the screen directly to whatever surface it was placed upon.

What’s happened here is two major things …

My expectations weren’t met, and they should have been based on product specs. This raises the issue of delivering what you promise, which we won’t dive deeply into here (maybe in a another post).

The other issue is the fact that the company that makes these cases chose form over function.

In a tech world where Jonny Ive (Apple’s long-time product designer) strives for an ever-slimmer aesthetic, case makers have followed suit to make cases ultra thin. What the fascination with thin is, I don’t personally understand, especially when a slightly thicker iPhone would make the back of the phone FLAT, as opposed to having a camera protrusion, which would be a better design — and a better user experience — for all of us iPhone users.

Regarding the case in question, the problem is the MAIN function of a case is to protect your phone, and removing a protective component to add a few less millimeters of thickness defeats the purpose of the product.

In this case (pun intended) the manufacturer of this case, and many other cases I’ve researched, are all choosing form over function — which means they’ve gotten it all wrong.

Good design is design that holds functionality at the forefront, allowing the design to SUPPORT functionality, and actually make the product more intuitive to use. Think Mac vs. PC (sorry Microsoft, but it’s true).

What This Has to Do With Your Website Design

When a visitor arrives on your website, they typically have a specific reason: to attain information, buy a product or service, schedule an appointment, etc.

The function of your website is to make it as easy as possible for a website visitor to take the action YOU WANT THEM TO TAKE NEXT, which means you need to make it as easy as possible for the visitor to understand what you offer and if it solves their problem (what I often refer to as a pain point).

If the design of your website supports this philosophy, that’s great! It’s also following a solid, proven user experience and conversion methodology.

For example, the Cuppa SEO website homepage provides brief descriptive copy that lets you know exactly how we can help, followed by two (and only two) calls-to-action that lead the viewer to where they want to go. No distraction, no confusion.

Here’s another example of a homepage where function is fully supported by design:

On the other hand, if the design of your website looks like this, offering you’re in trouble …

As you can see, it has no less than FIVE navigations (I’ve counted the ad at the top of the page as a navigation element as this is prime real estate, and typically where your navigation should live). This homepage also offers no clear conversion strategy.

The result? I’m left with not really knowing where I am, what I’m looking at or what to do next. The desire to design this website without placing functionality at the forefront has created confusion — which is a bad user experience.

Want more info about this topic and others like it?
Check out my book, A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing.

The post Website Design 101: Never Forsake Function for Design appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

However, even though the call-to-action is one of the most basic concepts of marketing, many people don’t like to use them.  They usually have one of two standard excuses:

1. Call-to-action phrases are annoying.
2. Everyone knows what to do if they like your products.

Neither of these excuses holds up to scrutiny.  Putting a link to learn more about your product in a blog post isn’t annoying; it convenient.  It isn’t wise to assume that people know what to do if they like your products.  The last thing you want is for your article to prompt them to visit a competitor.  Your results will usually be better when you communicate clearly.

Building a Better Call-to-Action

Are you still unsure about defining your call to action?  Here are five tips that can help:

1. Make it Clear: Your readers should know what to expect when they click your call-to-action.  For example, the phrase “Click Here to Subscribe to Our Newsletter” is much better than just “Click Here.”  You are starting a relationship with your customer when they respond to your call-to-action.  Being clear is the best way to start this relationship on the right foot.
2. Make it Easy: Your call-to-action should not be complicated.  You might think a phrase like “go to our website, call us or visit us in person to learn more!”  gives your reader options, but it sounds a little desperate.  Keep it simple, and people are more likely to respond.
3. Make it Verifiable: Did anyone respond to your call-to-action?  If you’re not monitoring your traffic, you won’t know.  Measuring the impact of your call-to-action statements also lets you test a variety of options to see what works best.
4. Make it Universal: Your call-to-action belongs everywhere.  Every blog post, every printed mailer and every sales conversation should include a call to action.  You are in business to sell products and services; that’s not a secret.  If you want people to respond, give them the opportunity.
5. Define it in Advance: The most important tip of all is to define the #1 thing you want someone to do. Whether it’s to make a purchase, book an appointment, or something else, make sure you don’t get caught up in creating a call-to-action that isn’t in alignment with your number one goal.

The goal of all your marketing efforts is to promote your products or services.  Though it may seem old-fashioned and simplistic, the call-to-action should still be a crucial part of your website conversion efforts and overall marketing toolkit.  Define your call to action today!

Want more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO?

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Website Conversion Tip #1: Talk to Them

Survey your existing customers, as well as leads and potential customers. Ask them what’s important to them. Ask them what it is they’d like to see from your company in the future. Are there some additional services you could provide?

A warranty or other guarantee to help ease their concerns that they might end up with a product that’s not what they’re looking for? By understanding what your customers want, you’ll be in a better position to provide it for them. This is a great step towards showing potential customers that a purchase would be worthwhile.

Website Conversion Tip #2: Focus on Problem Solving

Your product fills a need in the customer’s life. It may be a small, frivolous need, or a major, life-altering one. But either way, the reason they’re looking at your brand at all is because there’s some sort of void in their lives that your products or services can help fill. They have a problem that you can solve.

So to offer a greater value, simply find more ways that you can fill that void. Look for other, similar problems your customers may be having, which your company is equipped to solve. If you can meet your customers’ needs more efficiently and effectively, then they’ll have even more incentive to buy your products or services.

Website Conversion Tip #3: Offer Exclusive Deals

We’ve talked about this before. A quick way to increase your value to customers is to give them a discount, or a free add-on, or some other offer. If they feel like they’re getting more for their money than they ordinarily would, they’ll be more likely to make a purchase. And if they feel like they’re getting a deal that’s exclusive to them, or that’s only available to a select few, then taking advantage of it will make them feel special.

Tell them that by subscribing to your newsletter, they can get an exclusive coupon code sent right to their inbox if they sign up. You can also add value by creating scarcity, telling them that only the first hundred people to sign up will be able to take advantage of the offer.

There are all sorts of ways to add value for your customers without cutting too much into your bottom line. It’s all about understanding what your customers want, and finding the best way to provide it for them. If you can do that consistently, you’ll not only convince people to make a purchase, but keep them coming back to your site time and time again, to take advantage of the great value you offer.

Want more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO?

The post The Best Way to Convert Website Visitors to Customers – Offer Great Value appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

So how do you convert a lead into a sale? You need to offer your visitors something they’re interested in — something they can’t resist!

Here are some tips for creating an irresistible offer for your target audience.

What to Offer

In lead generation, you attract people who have an interest in your brand and products. They may even be already considering making a purchase. The goal of the irresistible offer is to provide them with some extra incentive that gets them over the edge towards lead conversion. There are all sorts of things you can give them that will accomplish this.

The most basic offer is a discount, a free trial, added value that might not be apparent at first glance, or something similar. If someone is on the fence about buying your products, the promise of spending less money is very enticing. You might also consider other incentives, such as free shipping, buy one get one free, or a free gift with their purchase — something that doesn’t cost your company a lot, but will be appealing for a customer to receive.

How to Offer

A discount, free gift, or the added value you provide may be enticing, but if you want to make it truly irresistible, you need to find the right way to communicate it. Success depends not just on what you’re offering, but on how you’re presenting that offer to your customers.

One way to make an offer irresistible is to make your audience feel like they’re part of a select few. For instance, send the discount offer to your e-mail list and tell them that you’re doing something special, exclusively for subscribers to your newsletter. You can have another offer that’s just for people who Like your Facebook page, or who follow you on Twitter. Give them a special discount code that allows them to claim the offer.

This will make your customers feel special. They’re getting something that’s just for them, and not available to everybody. They have the secret code to claim the discount. All they need to do is make a purchase, and they’ll be part of an elite club and can claim their special benefits.

For instance, I recently signed up for TWO annual subscriptions to notebooks (Field Notes, and Log+Jotter). One of the cool things about subscribing is the fact that you get subscriber-only swag like stickers and pens that the general public do not receive when ordering.

Another great hook is to create a feeling of scarcity. This offer is only available to the first hundred people who buy our products! This creates a sense of urgency. They have the opportunity for a discount, or some other added value on their purchase — but if they wait, they could miss out. Better to buy as soon as possible.

These are just a few of the ways you can create an irresistible offer to convert visitors (remember, they’re people not just “leads”) into sales. Think about what kind of added value your brand can provide for your customers to give them that little extra incentive towards a purchase. If you can find the right offer, and present it in the right way, your customers won’t be able to resist!

Want more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO?

The post The Art of Website Conversion: How to Create an Irresistible Offer appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

A Means to an End

It’s easy to get caught up in the success of a social media campaign. As more and more people follow your pages, and Like and Share your content, it can give you the satisfaction of a job well done. But you need to remember that social media is just a means to an end.

The people viewing your content represent the top of the sales funnel: brand awareness. Those likes and shares don’t mean anything unless they can prompt your audience to move through the subsequent levels, until they eventually make an actual purchase.

Lead Generation

If you want people to move from casual followers of your brand to actual customers of your company, you need to get them to do more than just view your content. They to interact with it, and with you.

Try offering them something more than just what they see on your page. Invite them to download an in-depth ebook or white paper on a topic that interests them. Encourage them to subscribe to your newsletter, so you can send them even more premium content. Offer them an exclusive coupon or discount code.

To claim these special offers, first they need to click a link and be taken to a landing page on your website. Then, they need to enter in their name, e-mail address, and other basic contact information. Now you have a direct line to the people with more than just a passing interest in your brand and what you do. And just like that, they’re no longer viewers. They’re leads.

Follow Up

Once you have your list of leads, the next step is to follow up with them. Don’t spam them or inundate them with ads they don’t want or sales pleas they won’t listen to. Take note of what they downloaded or requested from you. Now you have an idea of the specific area they’re interested in.

Start by offering them more content that’s related to that same specific area. You can also ask if they have any questions, or if there’s anything specific you can help them with. Develop a real relationship with them over time. Find out what it is they’re looking for, and do what you can to help them find it.

By taking an active interest in your target audience and what they want out of your brand, you can go a long way towards converting them to sales. Not only that, but by treating them well and making that extra effort, you can make sure you’re the first one they think of next time they need something too, and keep them as a customer for years to come.

Conversion aversion is an easy rut to fall into. But it’s not hard to get over. Just make sure your customers are cared for, from the top of the funnel to the bottom, and you’ll be increasing your sales in no time.

Want more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO?

The post Do You Have an Aversion to Thinking About Conversion? appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Slideshows are a commonplace strategy for  sharing more information through a series of sliding imagery/offers on a homepage.

We’ve all seen them. Each slide sits front and center for a few seconds, and then it’s gone.

Avoid this strategy on your website, as it’s bad for conversion.

Website conversion is a strategy that takes a website visitor from where they are, to where you want them to go.

When we offer too many options for where we want to lead people, it causes them to think. And although thinking is usually a good thing, we want to avoid unnecessary brain work on our website because it can easily lower the user experience. And when the user experience is damaged, conversion can often be a casualty.

To avoid bombarding visitors with offers, you can ask yourself one simple question: what are the top one or two things we want a website visitor to do?

This is not always easy to answer, especially if you sell a lot of products or services.

If this is the case, it’s good to employ the 80/20 rule. What 20% of your products or services account for 80% of your business? if you’ve got a lot of services/products, then identify the top performing product or services categories, instead.

Write them down.

Essentially, the goal is to pare down your top products/services to 2 or 3, and then create a strategy to present them on your homepage in a way that avoids slideshows.

This is not always easy, but it’s been proven that providing less options, in a clear and easy to digest way, helps improve conversion rates. And that means more people buying product, or scheduling a consultation to discuss your services.

Think of it this way.  Which is easier to digest and remember?

1. My name is Joey and I run a web design firm
   OR …
2. My name is Joey Donovan Guido, and I’m originally from New York. I have two kids, a cat, and a beautiful wife. I run a web design firm that specializes in SEO, UX, conversion and Adwords, and I’ve been blogging for over 10 years. I like Apple products and mid-century modern design.

As you can see, the more information presented, the more difficult it is to retain, and the less clear my message becomes.

Want more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO?

The post Ditch the Slideshow for Better Website Conversion appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

In this installment of our SEO Tips series, we’ll take a look at an oldie, but a goodie — text links.

Note: I could have said, “Contact Cuppa SEO about our holistic web design services,” in order to get another keyword into the text link, but it made the phrase feel unnatural — so I left it out. Remember, never sacrifice your content for the sake of search engine optimization!

Related Articles

• SEO Tip#1: Optimizing Title Tags
• SEO Tip #2: Search Engine Optimization and the Art of Optimizing Your Headlines
• SEO Tip #3: Not All Images are Created Equal (Optimized Ones are Better)
• SEO Tip #4: Is Your Content Rich and Relevant — or Just Plain Yucky?
• SEO Tip #5: Soup Up Your Sub Headlines with SEO

The post How to Make Terrific Text Links — Optimize Them! appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Common sense says that an educated human brain can handle a certain amount of complexity, an this is true.

But when someone’s on your website, you’ve got to forget this fact because your visitor is depending on you to offer them an oasis from complexity.

If they’re like the rest of us, they’re already overwhelmed, exhausted and coping with complex issues like family, work, health, and who the heck is going to make dinner …

… Which is why your website needs to be the opposite of complex.

When a visitor gets to one of you web pages, present them with a wonderful UX that doesn’t ask them to think about anything. Make them feel like their on solid (virtual) ground. Make it easy for them to understand what you do and how it can help them. Then, make it easy for them to take the next step in becoming a customer with a CLEAR call to action (website conversion).

The post The User Experience (UX): An Oasis from Complexity appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

When handled incorrectly, even the most helpful intentions may come off as desperate (what I like to call Hungry Wolf Syndrome).

Case in point, I was recently shopping for a holiday gift for my wife, and in order to see how much shipping would cost for the item in my cart I needed to enter some personal info — including my email address.

It was all downhill from there …

Shipping was almost as much as the item, so I decided to buy from Amazon at a far lower cost.

When I checked my email, I was surprised to find … (drumroll for first conversion faux pas) … that I had somehow signed up for the company’s newsletter!

Although I entered my email address to check the shipping cost (and potentially complete the order), they decided that was permission to place me on their email list.

Later that evening, I received the following email, which reminded me I had an unpurchased item in my cart …

OK, one reminder might be a good thing, right? Maybe I had to get the kids to bed or something and just plain forgot to finish my order. But then, within just hours at 3:15 am, I received a SECOND reminder (faux pas #2) …

Now, this company is really starting to smell of desperation. Someone on the team decided — or was instructed by management — to pummel me with reminders to buy from them!

This is an example of the Hungry Wolf Syndrome at its best. I could almost see their marketing and sales department drooling for the sale, ribs protruding from hunger, eyes ablaze with the need to convert.

And then the wolf’s howl came at 7:50am — a third reminder within twelve hours (faux pas #3)!

Whether it was well-meaning, sales driven, or just plain lack of knowledge about conversion, this company did a great job of turning me completely off.

The desperation was palpable.

When it comes to conversion of any kind, be sure to examine your process and your strategies to make sure you’re adding value and developing relationships — as opposed to being perceived as a hungry wolf.

The post The Dark Side of Conversion: Desperation appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Next, let’s look at some ways you can positively affect the user experience (UX) and website conversion on your Facebook Business page.

CREATING A SOLID UX

The more thoroughly you populate your Facebook Business page with accurate, relevant, benefit driven customer-centric content and imagery, the better the user experience will be.

When someone arrives on your Facebook Business page, you want them to see original imagery on your Home tab (it at all possible) that represents the essence of who you are as a business (no cheesy stock photos!). Choose engaging imagery that makes people feel at home and comfortable (this helps build trust), instead of imagery that is devoid of humanity.

Taking the time to ensure the content on your Services and About section is consistent, clear and customer-centric will go a long way in upping engagement with viewers. The result? Better UX.

If you’re not quite sure if your imagery and content is fitting these criteria, ASK some of your customers, colleagues or some trusted friends (who will not just placate you) what they think. After all, your Facebook Business page — like anything else in online marketing, business and life — is a test. The more you test, the easier it is to determine whether something works, kind of works, or is a complete dud. Without intentional testing, and recalculation, how can you ever expect to improve?

Whether or not you can help their organization is typically not the first question your visitor will ask. Some of the first questions (asked consciously or unconsciously) will be, “do I like them,” and “do I trust them.” If the answer to these is no, why would they want your help? This is why UX is so critical to the overall success of your online marketing, and the health of your brand.

UX AND YOUR FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE HIERARCHY
Facebook understands that every business is different. That’s why they’ve given us some choices as to where each of our Facebook Business page elements (like Posts, Videos, Photos, etc.) show up when a visitor stops by.

In order to edit your page hierarchy, and aesthetic, simply go to Settings, and click on Edit Page on the left-hand nav.

As you can see, near the middle of our Edit Page example is a Templates section where you can choose from templates built for Services, Business, Venues, and more. It will take a little time to determine which of these templates is actually best for your business. And once you do, you’ll then need to determine the best order for your Tabs, and if there are any you need to get rid of.

For instance, I currently use the Services template, but needed to turn off “Use default tabs” (near the bottom of our Edit Page example) so I could re-order the tabs for a better UX, AND remove Tabs like “Shop” and “Offers,” as they’re not relevant at this time for my business. Since this book is in your hands (or on your electronic device), this has probably changed as I’m going to want my visitors to buy my book! This ability to customize my Facebook Business page is an opportunity to ensure the best user experience possible for the visitor.

CONVERSION ON YOUR FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE

With a solid UX in place, you up your chances for conversion in two ways. First an attractive UX means a visitor is more likely to stick around. And the more they stick around, the better the possibility of them checking out one of your posts and clicking on whatever call-to-action it includes (we’ll look at this more later when we talk about Facebook Business posts). later).

Second, and directly relevant to your Facebook Business page, is the call-to-action button Facebook makes available. Here’s what mine looks like …

In addition to “Contact Us,” Facebook gives you a handful of categories and options to suite your business type:

Each of the top-level categories gives you options on button language, and where the button links to. Once your button is live for a few months, you can check analytics to see how many people have clicked on it. If your conversion rate is low, or non-existent, you can change the language/intention of the button, as well as where it leads to.

Here’s an example of the options that live under the Book Services category:

Just as we discussed with your website conversion, your conversion strategy here is to have visitors take the next step YOU want them to take. So, choose wisely …

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