Thank you again to all those who submitted their sites for review in the clinic. Last month we looked at the importance of communicating a clear message to your customers about your business service. This month we look at a website that has a strong grasp of how to communicate with customers, and wants to look at spreading that message to new audiences.

www.GoLearnTo.com is a travel experience company offering learning courses abroad. GoLearnTo has already been featured in The Daily Mail and the Independent and founder Vanessa Lenssen got in touch with for a little feedback from the Web Therapy Clinic.

First Impressions

The site has a clean and clear design complimented by relevant and high quality images to illustrate the courses on offer. High quality images make a notable difference and can give even the most simple of sites a professional edge. From the home page it is clear that I can use the search function, or the menu buttons to navigate my way around the site and find a course I am interested in.

Design

The light grey background keeps the site neutral in its design and makes it easier to find images of any colour that will look good throughout the site. A strongly coloured background can make a bigger impact and is effective if you have strong branded colours, but if your business needs to use a lot of images like GoLearnTo, it can be tricky to find suitable pictures to complement a bolder design. The layout of the homepage is logical and its format is mirrored throughout, giving the customer a sense of consistency and familiarity. I think a few easy tweaks however could help streamline the first impression of the site.

On the home page, the “Recommended Holidays” are listed with each course title written in thin blue text on a dark grey block background. The title could be better emphasised by making the font thicker and perhaps a lighter colour to contrast with the grey. Because the recommended holidays are grouped together, there are many dark grey blocks together. I would be tempted to choose a lighter colour for this background to make it more in keeping with the neutral design of the site.

Spacing or reducing the list of the “Popular Courses” on the left hand side will make it more attention grabbing to a visitor. Displaying a range of the most popular products on a website is a great way to point customers towards to items they might otherwise not have seen. The site currently lists seventeen courses and the typeface is small making the individual titles difficult to distinguish at first glance.

Content

GoLearnTo is a good example of a site that understands their customer’s needs. Someone considering booking a learning course abroad will want a lot of information and GoLearnTo provides this in a clear and easy to find fashion. There is an extensive FAQ section, live chat support as well as information on the individual courses. These details are essential in providing the customer with the confidence that they will need to book and pay the deposit online.

I would consider reducing content only on 2 pages: the main “Activities” and “Destinations” pages. The reason for this is that the choice of destinations and courses are currently at the bottom of the page and rewriting the content at the top to make it more succinct will bring these further up the page and make them easier to spot to potential customers, particularly those viewing the site on a smaller computer screen.

There is an informative travel blog on the site with regular updates about current travel news and course information. As well as providing information to potential customers, this will also enhance the site in search engines such as Google by having regular and relevant content posted on the GoLearnTo website.

Spreading the word

Vanessa is looking at increasing the viral marketing and word of mouth recommendations for her products and site. The key here is to let visitors to the site know about other ways to keep in touch and up to date with offers, and to give customers and potential customers reason to keep coming back to the site even if they have booked or taken their holiday. GoLearnTo currently uses social networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook to promote the products and services. I would consider adding to the homepage icons which let people know they can find out about course updates through these popular networking sites.

Contributions from customers through videos, photos and reviews can also be a great way to spread the message of the products as well as increasing the content on the site. Building this community aspect gives customers reasons to return to the site in addition to booking a holiday. In addition to including more customer photos and media on the website, GoLearnTo could use external photo and video sharing sites like Flickr and YouTube to publish photos and videos about the course they offer, increasing the number of sites the business is featured on. I know that Vanessa plans further developments to the site throughout the year and I would love to see more customer interaction and community aspects helping to promote the business this way.

If you would like to submit your site to the clinic send your website address with some brief details about your business and what you would like to improve most on your site to: amy@women-unlimited.co.uk

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About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service. Amy will be offering practical hints and tips about maintaining and promoting your business website in our series of articles: “Web Therapy”. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing about your own website experiences! www.harrisonamy.com

A lot can be achieved by sending the right message to potential customers through your site’s content. Here are some brief hints if you have a website for your business and you’re thinking of writing your own content rather than hiring a copywriter.

Keep your landing page simple – pull people in

People have little patience when it comes to websites so you need to make sure that the content on your front page captures the audience’s attention (in a good way) and explains simply how your service or product might be of interest to them.

Some key questions your visitors will have when visiting your landing page are:

• Who are you?
• What can you help me with?
• Why would I be interested?
• Is it a product I buy, information I use or a service I hire?
• Where are you based?

Your landing page should try to answer a couple of these questions – and make it simple for them to find out the rest of the information. Clear navigation buttons with titles such as “Services”, “About Us”, and “Contact Us” let the customer know that answers can be found with ease.

Talk to your customer – ask them questions

Questions are a good way of transforming dull text into lively and engaging content. You are asking for a personal response and the answer just might make it clear to the customer that they need your product or service, for example:

• Does your current web content need livening up?
• Do you feel your business message isn’t clear on your brochures or flyers?
• Are you looking for an affordable, quality service?

Questions can also be used to pre-empt any objectives or doubts the customer may have:

• Why should you use our service?
• Do we offer both online and offline content writing?
• Can we work on short deadlines?

Don’t be pushy but don’t be shy – sell your service

Think of a sales person who you liked. Chances are they weren’t pushy – listened to your needs and possible objections and gave you enough information to show you how their product would help you. Your website is part of your online sales team and should work in the same way.

Content shouldn’t read as though it is forcing the customer to do something “You must buy this product or else!” Stay away from negative connotations and focus on how the benefits of your product or service can help a customer:

Don’t write:

“Buy this product or you’ll never make friends and you’ll end up lonely and miserable”

Do Write:

“Our product can give you the confidence to shine in a crowded room and connect with more like minded people”

All statements pertaining to your product should of course be true – and if you have statistics to prove your claims – even better!

Strip out the jargon

You are an expert in your field – your customer may not be so keep your content straight forward without dumbing down your business service. Even if you are a highly specialised technology company, someone looking to hire you may not be the head of IT, but a project manager who knows what needs to be done but is not familiar with the industry terminology.

Don’t write:

“Improve your SEO and reduce bounce rate.”

Do Write:

“Let your customers find your site easily in search engines like Google, and keep their attention when they get there! ”

Check Spelling

Check your spelling and then check again and then have someone check it for you. The same goes for grammar. A typo may not be the end of the world for your business, but it shows care, due attention and respect for your audience. Spelling mistakes happen to the best of us but we should do everything in our power to prevent those cheeky mixed up letters getting through our quality filters!

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About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service. Amy will be offering practical hints and tips about maintaining and promoting your business website in our series of articles: “Web Therapy”. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing about your own website experiences! www.harrisonamy.com

Welcome to the first edition of the Web Therapy Clinic. We had an excellent response and I want to thank everyone who submitted their site for a little therapy.

Clear communication is essential for a successful business and one of the most important things to consider when setting up a website for your business, is ensuring the message you send to people visiting your site is clear and sells the benefits of your product or service.

This virtual “conversation” between your website and potential customers is achieved through the design, layout and the words you use. Imagine your website is not only your virtual shop front; it is also your online sales assistant. It should act as a tour guide to your business, showing visitors what it is you offer, and more importantly, why they should buy your product or use your service.

This theme of a virtual conversation is one that we can look at in more detail with our first patient:

www.straightthinking.co.uk is run by Sophie Brett, a qualified NLP practitioner based in Hertfordshire.

First Impressions

Straight Thinking has a clean and simple design and as a site is easy to explore. There are the important sections such as “What’s Involved”, “About Us” and “Contact Us” and there are glimpses of enticing content written with the customer in mind.

The main area for potential improvement is ensuring that a clear message about the service is more prominent throughout the site, making it easier for customers to understand how Straight Thinking can benefit them.

Straight Thinking Homepage

The first question for potential clients on the website is eye-catching as it asks:

“Are you satisfied with your life?”

And then:

“Is there a specific problem that you would like to overcome – stress, weight loss, phobias, recovery from ME?

If you have someone who has answered yes to these, you have their attention – now is the time to finish your opening statement by explaining what service Straight Thinking offers to help.

Rather than:

“Straight Thinking is an organisation that has helped many people…and it can help you”

Something similar to this would be more effective:

“In one to one sessions with a qualified therapist, Straight Thinking offers a range of services from NLP to Hypnosis to help people overcome problems in their life and achieve their dreams.”

It’s still short and snappy but let’s your customer know very quickly that you offer a therapy rather than a product, a book, support group, medication or a distance learning course for example.

Free Consultation

This is a fantastic offer and I would love to see more emphasis on this. No-obligation free consultations are excellent in generating interest especially if potential customers are unfamiliar with the type of therapy you offer. Why not have a permanent link on your navigation bar which directs customers to a form for the free consultation?

Design

I don’t think the design needs to be much more complicated but it would benefit from having more images – especially of people. Professional photos of friendly looking people will make the site more personable as well as breaking up the text and adding depth. For professional royalty free photos, I use images from www.istockphoto.com and spend about £1 per image.

On some pages you do break up the text by using bullet points and I would employ this more throughout the site. Break the text into bite size chunks and you will have a customer’s attention for longer.

You may want to consider having a photo of you Sophie, on the “About Us” page. As your service relates directly to you, people may feel more comfortable putting a friendly face to the name. You may also want to include a contact number for your business as well as a contact form.

Content

Below I’ve picked some of the main pages to consider revising for a stronger impact on your audience.

NLP

Currently a very informative but lengthy quotation explains NLP. I would include a simpler, less “text-book” definition at the top for customers to read first:

“Ever wondered why some are afraid of spiders and others aren’t? It’s all to do with the way we have taught ourselves to behave. What might feel like automatic reactions that we have no control over are simply habits we have built up over time and some of those habits can stop us being happy: being afraid to fly or putting off achieving our goals for example.

NLP, which stands for Neuro-Lingusitic Programming, teaches you how to “re-program” your reactions so that you can board a flight without breaking into a sweat, or start and complete that book you always wanted to write.”

What’s Involved

I would include some more information here about what the customer can expect. A detailed explanation isn’t necessary but think about the common questions a potential client may have:

• Is it one to one or group work?
• How long is a session – is it 8 hours straight?
• Will I get any materials after I complete the session or techniques to practice?
• What is the centre like and how do I get there?

Case Studies

This is a useful section but seems to lose steam at the end. Rather than base these pages on testimonials, why not re-work this area as “What problems can Straight Thinking solve?” Include information on how the problems can be overcome, punctuated with short excerpts from testimonials.

Links

Here you can provide links to other websites relevant to your customers. Perhaps you know people offering services that complement yours and you could promote them here whilst asking them to promote your services on their site?

Blog

I am a strong advocate of having a blog (or web-log) on websites and will be covering this in future articles. A blog is an online journal for your business and is an excellent way of showing that your business is current and up to date. By constantly adding useful entries and content that relate to your business and industry developments, your website will stand out as an authority in your field.

Thank you again to Sophie for submitting her site. If you would like to submit your site to the clinic send your website address with some brief details about your business and what you would like to improve most on your site to: amy@women-unlimited.co.uk

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About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service. Amy will be offering practical hints and tips about maintaining and promoting your business website in our series of articles: “Web Therapy”. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing about your own website experiences! www.harrisonamy.com

Ever wished you could travel back in time to impart wisdom on your younger self? If this were possible there are a few pearls I would pass on:

“Buy stocks in Google. Worry less. Don’t get your hair cut from the mumbling village barber because he only charges £3.50 – the resulting mullet will never be seen as a bargain…”

Though time travel is impossible, it doesn’t stop the past sometimes catching up with you to offer its own valuable advice.

From age old shopping lists to last week’s diary entry, I am surrounded by an eclectic range of documentation written by an Amy of all ages. It was no surprise then, that during some routine filing (procrastination), I found a list of goals from many years ago.

The goals; including starting my own business, were still untouched. Some dreams had been amended to include more realistic deadlines – I now have until 2010 to run away with Bruce Springsteen to a mountain ranch. Phew.

My dreams hadn’t changed since then, so how had I accomplished so little? With a demanding career in online business development I couldn’t see how I could possibly fit any more into my day…

My younger self was shaking me by the shoulders with the answer:

The job had to go.

Four months ago I decided to go it alone and set up my own business. Since leaving my talented team of designers and developers I have had to learn firsthand how to set up a blog, buy domain names, create a website and promote my business online, all on a shoe string budget.

So far it’s been an exciting journey, and now I want to take you with me.

Web Therapy

This series is about passing on my experiences through practical articles that will show you my trials and triumphs and give you tips to help you set up an affordable virtual shop front regardless of your business.

This series is for you, designed to show you what you can achieve without a huge budget or technological know-how. I will respond to your suggestions on areas you want more information on and would love to hear about your experiences as well.

A feature of the series is a regular “Web Therapist” spot. You can submit your site to the “Web Therapy Clinic” and I will do a profile on your website with hints and tips on how to improve it.

This series aims to:

• Dispel the myth that having a website is expensive, complicated or a lengthy process
• Give you practical information in a jargon-free format.
• Show that you don’t need a fully operational business before starting your website. A simple website can develop as your business does.
• Help in choosing and buying a domain name
• Show you easy-to-use programs to build a website
• Help you start your first blog and use it to promote your business
• Explain Twitter, Facebook and other social media applications and how to use them to market your business

As well as useful articles, I will be sharing my own experiences so you can see what has or hasn’t worked for me. As an anonymous source once said:

“A smart woman learns from her mistakes; a wise woman learns from the mistakes of others.”

Let’s hope there is plenty you can learn from me!

Till next time.

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About the Author: Amy Harrison. After training as a screenwriter, Amy moved into the world of online business and since 2004 has worked on small to large enterprises both here in the UK and Canada. Amy left her job in online business development in 2008 to go it alone and now offers a copywriting and project management service. Amy will be offering practical hints and tips about maintaining and promoting your business website in our series of articles: “Web Therapy”. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing about your own website experiences! www.harrisonamy.com