DESIGN PROJECT – Lori G Bird

November 7th, 2007

I was recently approached by Lori G Bird, a professional genealogist specializing in danish family history. Lori is a stay at home mom that was wanting to sell her genealogical skills as a service to add a small secondary income for her family. This is what we came up with.

The Design
I decided to keep it as simple as possible, we put all the info on one page, and simply had a “buy now” button at the bottom accompanied by a form on the following page that got all the information someone may need that came to the site. After testing we changed it to a simple form that asked them how she could help fill their needs; a sort of free consultation. Here is a screen shot of the final design:

The Plan
She had very little real competition for the search phrase “danish genealogy” which after some keyword research seemed to be the most popular keyword string. The site was optimized for “danish genealogy” and we purchased the domain name “danish-genealogy.com” to add in the efforts.

The Results
A month later, Lori is getting an average of 2 new clients a week at an Adwords cost of about $5-$6 a month. With little off-site SEO her site has a Google ranking of #20 for “danish-genealogy” (check it now). She has gained a total of 6 clients from a total visitor count of 121 giving the site a conversion rate of just over 5.0%. This could probably be improved but Lori is content with the$100-$200 a week she is making in her spare time. Visit www.danish-genealogy.com for more info.

MEC LABS – Continuity and Congruence

October 24th, 2007

MarketingExpriments.com had another one of their free teleseminar’s today on two subjects as a follow up from their “site flow disruption” episode. Continuity and Congruence are aspects that, the more I think about it, are missing from many of the pages I have designed. For the most part it exists because naturally our minds tend to organize things in a continuous line, but rarely have I stepped back and thought about how the rest of a page ties into the value proposition from my CUSTOMERS perspective.

I recently did a google search for “road bike derailleurs” and clicked on an Adwords ad with the title “Buy Top Bike Derailleurs.” The landing page showed helmets and headlamps; I clicked “back” and tried the next link. Why? Because the link said one thing and the landing page said another.

I later searched for a free web design course and found this site mikeoconnor.biz after clicking on an Adwords ad. Here is the screenshot:

MikeOConnor

The link that I clicked on said “free website income.” Instantly, this extreme example of lack of continuity and congruence illustrated the effects of not following these principles. So, I clicked on a link that said, “free website income – get a free website and make money full or part time” the header of the page I land on reads “sports and recreation,” the header of the first paragraph is simply the web address which has a very stock paragraph on making money, then a banner ad, and then three links to different ebooks about SEO and online marketing.

I am getting four completely different messages; get a free website, I like sports, leave my site via this banner ad, look at these ebooks on making money. How effective is this site? I hope that Mike is not paying a high CPC for his Google ads because I anyone that came to this site would get instantly lost and probably click “back” and try the next site.

DESIGN PROJECT – Backstrom Events

October 5th, 2007

Backstrom Events is based in Colorado Spring, CO and needed an update to their current “homemade” website as they looked to expand their services into Utah. Let’s first take a look at their old site.

Backstrom Events Before

As you can see, the page had a basic left-column layout with the logo in the top right, Denielle’s (the owner’s) picture in the top left and lots of white space and standard text. Backed by two talented designers and planners, they needed a look that matched their skill and image.

Working with Laurel Farrer, we created a design that we converted to HTML, tweaked to increase the usability of the site(we deleted two pages they were thinking of and combined them with other pages to simplify and streamline the visitors experience), and created a second site with a different header image to differentiate between the Utah and Colorado services offered and their prices. Heres what we came up with:

Backstrom Events After

They chose the color scheme and tag line and I guided them through to rest to make sure their site was usable, simple to navigate, and tried to quickly make the visitor aware of and excited about the services they offered. See the finished site at www.backstromevents.com.

To Sell or To Contact?

October 3rd, 2007

Recently, I created a website for Lori G Bird, a genealogist who specialized in danish family history (www.danish-genealogy.com). We initially created the site to sell them right up front. We gave them all the information they needed and the purpose of the page was to get them to purchase X number of hours of Lori’s time for her to do genealogy work for them. Over a three week period, the page just didn’t convert.

We then placed a form at the bottom of the page that said, “What Do You Need?” The second visitor to the site after upload submitted a form, so did the sixth. Since then, nearly 1 in 4 visitors have submitted a form explaining how they need all their genealogy done. Mrs. Bird has been able to email them a couple times, explaining what she can do, explain her pricing, and then direct them to the same link that was found at the bottom of the original page where they eagerly purchase X number of hours of Lori’s time.

So, the question is…should the main point of every web page be simply to sell? Perhaps, certainly a large online retailer would have trouble building a relationship with each of the thousand or so visitors to their site each day. However, with autoresponders, a site can capture contact information from interested parties (perhaps lured in by a freebie of some sort) and then send a casual, comfortable frequency of messages to the prospective buyer to build a relationship, establish credibility, and then sell.

Trust is a huge factor in internet marketing. If your visitors cannot trust you, they rarely will buy from you. Trust is more easily built through communication than a static web page.

One Thing Only Please

September 30th, 2007

I have recently been to a number of web sites that have been elaborately designed and look very sharp. However, I have no idea where to go once I get there. “Is this what I am looking for?” I ask myself. Are they selling something? Are they a service?

A good rule of thumb I have found to work by is to create each web page with one purpose. If it is a the main landing page, what do I want visitors to know and then where do I want them to go? Once that is determined, I have found that page appearance pales in comparison to the contents. Once I know the purpose of a page, the contents come much more naturally.

Knowing the purpose of a page comes as part of a web of an entire site. Each page should be focused on getting the visitor to the same spot, an order page (or equivalent), armed with the information that will get them excited to make a purchase. This purpose is found by knowing your target market and knowing how they think, what they need, how they feel, etc.

DESIGN PROJECT – Lori G Bird

MEC LABS – Continuity and Congruence

DESIGN PROJECT – Backstrom Events

To Sell or To Contact?

One Thing Only Please

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