The monthly #BusinessRocks had a change in venue, but that didn’t make the event any less boring, in fact, better! This month (24 April), I had the opportunity to attend Keren Lerner’s (@topleftdesign) mini presentation. Yes, she is here in Singapore! (She’s only here for one week, and gracing Athena Singapore this month too)
Her 30 minute presentation ‘How To Rock Online’ is short, yet informative. I believe many readers have problems getting customers online, let alone browsing their websites. She shares 9 tips, hopefully, one way or another, would be useful to you.
Before she started, she explained about The Pickle Syndrome – how website visitors are picky and fickle. That is why you cannot be boring online! You need to have good design to keep your pickles fresh!
1) Don’t underestimate the power of a holding page
While working on your website you want to have the time to put proper effort into making it as good as possible. But in the meantime, having a well designed, branded and professional holding page can give people all the necessary contact information and a summary of what you are about and who you are talking to. It can look as professional as your website, in actual fact! Another way you could look at it is as a single page website.
Eg: GooGoo Gourmet
Gina Romero – Unconventional Business Thinking
2) You need to see and love the design of your website before your website gets built
Keren’s company Top Left Design go through a tried and tested process to ensure clients have a good chance to see options and feed back on designs before anything gets built. They first see homepages and then when the homepage is approved and signed off, the inner pages are each designed according to the purpose of the site, and then the final site gets built and launched Eg:
3) Give people a reason to leave their details
You cannot automatically capture website visitors’ details on your website –but you can give them a good, convincing and compelling reason to do this. Make sure you make it really clear what people would get that would be of value. For example you could give them a free PDF guide or a voucher code for a discount off your services or product, if they leave their information. Eg: Alicia Cowan Kell Scott Haircare
4) Show off your testimonials
If anyone has ever said thank you for your services, or praised you for your work, you can ask them if they mind putting it in writing and giving you a written testimonials. Eg: Clarkson Wayman Ball (Financial company, where clients’ testimonials on their website) London Circumcision (built trust with clients)
5) Be consistently awesome in your brand or design on social channels
Make the effort – if you have signed up for any social media networks – eg Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin – put some time into filling out your profiles, uploading a good headshot picture of you, and learning how to use them, properly. Each social network has it’s own behaviour and in the case of Twitter, there is even a special language. It’s not hard to learn though, and if you are going to be doing something, do it properly. In addition, use your blog to share your expertise and show off your personaliy, sand then share your posts via social media. One thing to note – don’t be salesly or talk about yourself the whole time – social media is about sharing other people’s stuff too, and talking to people, promoting others, building relationships and beign useful. If you act in this way on social media, others are more likely to share your posts too.
Eg: Bee comunications You need to learn the lingo (but don’t let it put you off) – Twitter Don’t be an egg (Easter Newsletter by TopLeftDesign) Blog – Share your expertise Karen Haller – Colour and Design consultancy Kubera Wealth
6) Email Marketing works if you do it right
Just like all marketing, it’s worth looking at and learning properly. Keep in mind your audience and what they would find useful and interesting. You can keep your newsletters short – with little snippets and links to articles in your blog. Good examples are:
7) Use video to share your information
Psychologists have shown that people are 65% more likely to look at your brand if you use videos. Videos are great for engaging your site visitors on a much deeper level and it’s been proven to hugely increase conversion. If you are in any way hesitating, it’s time to get started, as this is where more and more online content will in the future. So, take the plunge and try it.
8) Think like a PR person to create a story out of everyday events
Over time you will start to hopefully recognise more and more opportunities to use things that happen in your every day business as reasons to go online and share stories. Keren gave an example of a book cover design she worked on for Tamsin Fox Davies where they created 3 options and put it onto Facebook for a vote. Another example was “Urnie” the urn that was featured in Top Left Design’s newsletter.
9) Keep checking in (onto your social channels)
Keren used the analogy of your website and social profiles being important, like a member of your team, and you should make an appointment in your diary to have a meeting with yourself, every month or two, to make sure you keep on top of things and keep everything up to date. Your business is evolving and so should your online presence, as you continue to learn to refine things and improve on how you look online.
So, in all, the presentation was really informative, and I really do believe we all learned how to “Rock Online”.
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