Category Archives: Home Page Design
Website content for your homepage
Three things to look at on your home page.
When you review your website consider this… Most people will for the most part, have never seen or know anything about your business. In fact, for the majority of websites most visitors will probably find them by chance in Google, Yahoo, MSN or by a some other form of marketing of their business.
Ok, so when someone arrives at your site what will they see? Look at your own site for about 30 seconds and answer these questions from the visitor’s perspective.
- Where am I?
- What can I do here?
- Why should I act?
While these all seem really simple questions chances are your website and many other small to medium business sites do a poor job at providing the answers to visitors.
One of the favourites you see on websites is the ‘Welcome To…’. Let’s think about this for a second, you have only a matter of seconds to grab a visitors attention before they leave your site and look elsewhere, so instead of ‘Welcome To Jim’s Shop’ why not consider telling people very clearly where they are, what they can do here and why they should act now.
Let’s consider this, pretend you own a mechanic shop in Waikanae, here is what I would have on my home page…
‘Mechanic Shop in the Waikanae‘ as the main headline on your home page. Followed by a statement such as, ‘where you can have your car, truck and van serviced by our specialised and certified auto mechanics‘. And then something like, ‘Not only do we offer free pickup and delivery of your vehicle, once serviced we offer top quality support and 24 hr assistance just in case you car breaks down in the local area when you become a customer of ours!‘
This not only defines what you do, which tells the visitor ‘where they are’, then moves on and explains ‘what you have to offer’, (specialised and certified mechanics) and then provides them with a solid reason of ‘why they should utilise your services’ (by offering pick up and delivery).
It provides the reader with motivation, clarity of your offer and incentive to take action with you, all of which all help you generate sales from your website.
Dave Lemmon
Business Development Director
Redcow Marketing
Phone: 04 2935846
Mobile: 021 425 692
Hotel website best practices
Good ideas for creating a pleasant website experience for your customers.
As time goes on and people get accustomed to interaction through social networking sites our expectations of what websites should offer visitors are changing. I like to think of this as a free spirited approach to offering information about your hotel and its unique offerings.
When I design a website I start off by thinking about what my main objectives are and focus on accomplishing these. For some hotels, there are multiple objectives but try to narrow them down to a select few. Keep your objective at the forefront of your mind when you design or modify your home page.
Here is an approach that I like to use – list your objectives, your primary ones down to your secondary goals. For example, your primary goal could be to generate more bookings. A secondary could be to get more people signed up to special offers, or your Facebook account or just to your newsletter. Whatever they are list them on a piece of paper, and then print out your home page and circle what objectives you have met. Do the comparison and then have a shot at placing a new image on a piece of paper of what should be on your home page.
Some owners treat their home page as a sales tool, while others look to get people moving along through the journey to making a online booking. Think of ways to engage them, think about your objectives again and look to position your unique sales proposition and then make sure you have these on your home page. Make visiting your hotel a unique and easy experience from the very beginning (ie from your website).
The newest trends are videos or seamless photos of your hotel to create a virtual tour. This creates an interaction with customers as they can look through your entire hotel without needing to be there in person. Whatever you do, think about the visitors experience and make sure you attempt to connect and engage with them!
Dave Lemmon
Business Development Director
Redcow Marketing
Phone: 04 2935846
Mobile: 021 425 692
Five website tips for car rental companies
Follow these five guidelines for increasing your leads.
The car rental business is a very competitive space. In order to attract and obtain more customers I recommend a number of items for you to consider if you want to generate more sales and leads.
Make sure your homepage is not cluttered. Think about your main objectives (which are to gain leads and sales from visitors) and ensure your booking form or search form is located on your home page so that visitors can start on that journey of finding a rental vehicle.
Make sure your contact number is placed on your home page and even consider having your entire location on this page so that people can see exactly the location of your business… this can be helpful if your rental business includes truck hire, or is not dependent on places like the airport for your main revenue stream.
To add credibility include some testimonials on this page from people in the past that are your fans!
Look to add a real support option (a live person) into your website in the form of live chat function. Research has shown a connection to the business from within your website will increase its sales by up to 30%.
Make sure you make the most of the social networking opportunities that exist today. Place a connection to your Facebook and Twitter accounts directly from your home page.
For more tips and advice on ways you can generate more business from your website, join my newsletter or give me a call so that we can start working on your site together to generate more sales.
Dave Lemmon
Business Development Director
Redcow Marketing
Phone: 04 2935846
Mobile: 021 425 692
Clarity on your webpage
Clear Design
It might sound like a no-brainer, but having a clearly designed and set out website will do wonders for your business!
Don’t be scared of white space. As in the print industry, having white space on a page adds clarity. If your website has links, ads, boxes of quotes all crowded up in the same space and visitors find it confusing to navigate, oftentimes they will exit out of your site, never to come back. Less is more when it comes to webpage design.
Dave Lemmon
Business Development Director
Redcow Marketing
Phone: 04 2935846
Mobile: 021 425 692
Does your website make it easy for people to contact you?
A golden rule for your website.
There is nothing more annoying on a website than having to search it to find the contact details.
The Number One Rule is this: Have your contact details clearly presented at the top of each page.
It’s so important to make it as easy as possible for visitors and potential customers to contact you.
Dave Lemmon
Business Development Director
Redcow Marketing
Phone: 04 2935846
Mobile: 021 425 692
Personalising your website
Adding photos is a great way to personalise your website.
Giving your website a ‘face’ is a great way to connect with potential customers or clients. Having a photo of yourself and your team adds credibility by helping visitors to see that when they contact you they will be dealing with a real person.
When customers see that you are willing to put your face out there and your credibility on the line, they are more likely to trust you and your product.
Dave Lemmon
Business Development Director
Redcow Marketing
Phone: 04 2935846
Mobile: 021 425 692
Home page mistakes
Some tips to help you avoid pitfalls on your home page
- Don’t try to achieve too many objectives on your home page
- Make sure you start up a conversation with the visitor
- Don’t depend so much on multimedia to convey your message to the visitor
- Don’t turn that home page into a landing page. Your home page after all is there as a doorway into your house – use it to welcome people in and then tell them where they can find items within your home. The intent of the home page… is to get through to your other pages and not necessarily to sell them right there right now
- Don’t assume that best practices will work for your website. Look to test versions to see which home page brings in more value. If your website has enough traffic look to using the tools available to track where people are clicking and then determine what other items either might be of use or can be removed from the page.
- Last but not least… keep testing!
Dave Lemmon
Business Development Director
Redcow Marketing
Phone: 04 2935846
Mobile: 021 425 692
Designing Website Home Pages
What should my home page have on it?
Here are some great considerations in regards to making sure your home page is designed correctly. First of all, determine what your objectives are and list them on a piece of paper. Once you have done this print out your home page and circle the areas of your website home page that match the objectives you have just listed. There are three different types of objectives:
- Primary
- Major
- Minor.
Once you have established your objectives and arranged them into the three groups above you can then get a really good picture of where you can to improve or create your home page.
If you want to know more about how to classify the objectives into the three groups above please contact me using the information below.
Dave Lemmon
Business Development Director
Redcow Marketing
Phone: 04 2935846
Mobile: 021 425 692
