Site Planning

This is the most crucial part of the process and should include:

How you are going to market your site i.e. drive traffic
Your USP - "If you don't have a competitive advantage don't compete" (Jack Welch CEO GE)
Your Navigation
Storyboarding
Your Branding - branding is now more about what you do than what you say - the experience has become the brand
Understanding your visitors so that you can anticipate their knowledge levels, moods and mindsets.

Remember that the website is not for you - it's for your customers so you need to know what your customers want and what they do. It's important to make a distinction between marketing and sales; Marketing drives traffic! Sales converts traffic into revenue. The customer is in control now that traditional marketing is no longer working. Anticipate and model customer needs, then personalize the information and processes to meet those needs.

Your objective is to attempt to meet many different visitor's needs for value, trust, confidence, security and relevance. Your website should perform all the functions of a human salesperson, guide the prospect through all 5 steps of a professional sale, acknowledge how different people want to be sold to and adapt to those needs. The goal is remove friction from the sales process. Don't make it easier for the seller! Make it easier for the buyer! Publishing ALL the information that the seller needs to feel confident presents unlimited opportunities for resolving the friction that prevents buying.

The Clarity of your Message

A potential customer visiting your website will try to establish if your company fulfills their requirements. Typically a visitor will spend 3-7 seconds on your website to determine if your company merits more of their time. Is is important that the homepage of your site, which is normally the main entrance point for visitors, is as clear as possible as to what your company does.

Set your Site's Objectives

What do I want people coming to my website to know about my company?
What is the main purpose of my Company website?
What are the site's secondary purposes?
What are the site's tertiary purposes?

USP - Website's Unique Selling Proposition

Your USP provides the reason or reasons why a customer would choose to do business with you instead of your competitors. Customers visiting your site will assess whether you can deliver the products/services that meet their needs and then decide if they will give you their business. It is vital that you display your USP clearly and prominently. You may have more than one USP but only display the most important on the Home page.

When claiming a USP consider at least these 3 factors:

Is the USP true and can you deliver on what you promise?
Does the USP separate you from your competitors?
Will the USP be valued by the customer as something they want or need?

Example USPs

Professional Advice
Customer Service
Range of Products
Free Installation
Lowest Price
Best Technology
Warranty/Maintenance
Durability
Long-Lasting
Safety Features

Remember: You're ALWAYS one click away from goodbye!

The Important Questions to Ask

What types of visitor needs to be persuaded? (Personas)
What actions do you want them to take? (Register, purchase, contact you)
What information do they need to take that action?

If you grab and hold the prospect's attention by answering their unspoken questions your site will be successful. Answers to their unspoken questions should be relevent, address their needs, and propel them to take the action you want them to take.

Eyetracting Principles - Sight paths

On a website the eyes track in an F shape, do to the text first, particularly captions and summaries. In a matter of seconds the eyes do a quick scan starting at the top left, moving across the centre to the right, then return leftwards. Make sure that your Logo is in the top left and that your USP is clear and prominent.

The user's gaze ultimately focuses on the centre of the screen, then moves left, then right. User's pretty much ignore the bottom of the screen and seem to act peripherally with the right side.

Comprehensive navigation works well on the left side where people look for particular points of reference. The right side is a good place to convey confidence through assurances, guarantees & testimonials. Put "Calls to Action" on the right side e.g. "Subscribe to our Newsletter".

ONLINE COPY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN IMAGES

A Sample Framework based on Eyetracking Principles

Red Section Eyetracking Principles

This is the most valuable section of the page. This is the place most visitors look first upon entering your website. The Company logo in this section creates brand awareness and can reassure vistitors who were looking for your specific business that they are in the right place.

Orange Section

This is the second most valuable part of the page. This is the place that most visitors expect to discover whether or not you actually have the information they are looking for. This is probably the largest area you should have on your home page and should be used to let your visitor know what you do, how to find what they are looking for and where to click to get more information.

Yellow Section

The yellow section is where the visitor often expects to see site navigation or supplementary information that is useful but not critical. It is also a good place to put your newsletter sign up or special offers that you want your visitor to see. If, by the time they see the Yellow section a visitor hasn't seen anything on your home page that interests them, they will typically leave your site.

White Section

The white section is typically a good place to put your phone number and other contact details. You could also perhaps put customer service section, client login, shopping cart, or checkout information here. If you don't require any of these things on your site, this is a good place to put images or what you do, or to reinforce your USP in some way.

Black Section

The black section of your page is normally the last place your visitor looks, if they look at this section at all. The should be for your least important information. If critical information is in this section or your page, you may be losing potential customers. If your site needs to attract visitors to view this area, you will almost certainly have to use colours or graphics to make it more visible and catch the visitor's attention.

Usability

Whilst Usability is very important, it's not enough on its own to guarantee success. Good Usability practices reduce customer's frustration levels but doesn't persuade your customers into doing what you want them to do.

Identifying Types of Visitor

When you meet a customer face-to-face it's almost automatic to quickly identify the type of personalty they have and what their needs are - this is called developing a relationship. Most successful sales people can intuit how to best satisfy their customer's needs this way. On a website you need to be able to do the same thing.

To do this we need to develop Personas. We define Personas by focusing on their needs. Personas are constructed from research into their demographics, psychographics and topograhics related to how they approach the buying decision process. So we need to consider age, gender, sexuality, lifestyle, beliefs, values, social class and culture, and attitudes as well as personality type and buying motives.

The point of this is to define how people arrive at the website and what questions they are like to have that need to be answered before they are comfortable taking action. The key is to allow multiple personas to access the same page but identify how to address each persona's needs on that page.

In theory, satisfying the primary persona will satisfy all users. In practice, sites that need to service many types of customers, prospects etc, optimise for some at the expense of others.

Personality Types

To be able to satisfy each personality's want and needs, we will look at the 4 basic personality types:

The Competitive Wants Accomplishment

These assertive individuals have a deep appreciation for challenges. They like to be in control, are goal orientated and are looking for ways to complete tasks. They are usually quick to reach a decision. They want to know what your product/service can do for them to solve their problem.

Guided by intuition and thinking, they seek competence in themselves and in others, they want to understand and control life. Driven by curiosity, the Competitive is often preoccupied with learning.

The Competitive Personality Type

Attitude: Businesslike, Power Orientated

Use of Time: Disciplined, Fast-paced

Question: What can your solution do for me?

Approach: Provide Options, Probabilities and Challenges

Sample Copy

(Underlining indicates which phrases this personality type will respond to most strongly). Our approach is personalised to meet your objective. The bottom line is that your results are guaranteed. Explore our methodology to discover how thousands of clients just like you have been delighted.

These are the types of questions Competitives ask:

What are your competitive advantages?
Why are you a superior choice?
Are you a credible company?
How can you help me be more productive?
How can you help me look cutting edge?
What are your credentials?
What is your research?
How can you help me achieve my goals?

The Spontaneous Want Acceptance

These individuals appreciate the personal touch. They like things that are non-threatening and friendly. They hate dealing with impersonal details and cold hard facts and are usually quick to reach a decision. they want to know why your product or service is the best to solve their problem.

Spontaneous people are sensing-perceptive. They are always engaged in a personal quest for their unique identity and live their lives as an expression of it. For them, integrity means the unity of inner self and outer expression. These individuals like personal attention.

The Spontaneous Personality Type

Attitude: Personal, Actively orientated

Use of Time : Undisciplined, Fast-paced

Question: Why is your solution the best to solve the problem>

Approach: Provide guarantees and assurances, personal solutions, credible opinions rather than options.

Sample Copy: Our approach is personalised to meet your objectives. The bottom line is that your results are guaranteed. Explore our methodology to discover how thousands of clients just like you have been delighted.

Questions the Spontaneous type asks:

How can you get me to what I need quickly?
Do you offer superior service?
Can I customize your product or service?
Can you help me narrow down my choices?
How quickly can I take action and achieve my goals>
How will this let me enjoy life more?

The Humanistic Wants Applause

These individuals are very creative and entertaining. They enjoy helping others and are particularly fond of socialising. They are usually slow to reach a decision. They want to know who has used your product/service to solve problems.

Humanists are guided by intuition and feeling. They need to belong. They often feel that they must earn a place by belonging, being useful, fulfilling responsibilities, being of service, giving to and caring for others instead of receiving from them.

The Humanistic Personality Type

Attitude: Relationship Orientated

Use of Time: Undisciplined, Slow-paced

Question: Who has used your solution to solve my problem?

Approach: Offer testimonials and incentives

Sample Copy

Our approach is personalised to meet your objectives. The bottom line is that your results are guaranteed. Explore our methodology to discover how thousands of clients just like you have been delighted.

Questions the Humanistic type askes:

How will your product or service make me feel?
Who uses your product/servcie?
Who are you? Tell me who is on your staff and let me see biographies?
What will it feel like to work with you?
What experiences have others had with you?
Can I trust you?
What are your values?
How will this help me to strengthen relationships?

The Methodical Want Accuracy

These individuals appreciate facts and information presented in a logical manner as documention of truth. Methodicals are sensing-judging and need to feel free to act. For them "doing" is its own reward. They enjoy organisation and completion of detailed tasks. They do not appreciate the "personal touch" or disorganisation. They want to know how your products/services can solve their problem.

The Methodical Personality Type

Attitude: Businesslike, Detail Orientated

Use of Time: Disciplined, Slow-paced

Question: How can your solution solve the problem?

Approach: Provide hard evidence and superior service

Sample Copy

Our approach is personalised to meet your objective. The bottom line is that your results are guaranteed. Explore our methodology to discover how thousands of clients just like you have been delighted.

Questions the Methodical type asks:

What are the details?

What is the fine print?
How does this work?
What's the process you use?
Can you take me through this step by step?
How can I plan ahead?
What are the product specs?
What proof do you have?
Can you guarantee that?

Even if you are pretty sure that 70% of your visitors are Methodicals, don't design your copy just to target these. Most people are a mixture of personality types. Provide multiple linking paths in which visitors can "self-serve" the customer experience they prefer.

The What's In It For Me (WIIFM) Summary

Competitives prefer to focus on WHAT questions

Spontaneous prefers to focus on WHY questions

Humanistics prefer to focus on WHO questions

Methodicals prefer to focus on HOW questions.

Call us now on 0845 8386377 to find out more.

CAT3 Services

Cat3Systems