Successful Blog

7 reasons why visitors leave websites for ever

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When I built my first website in 2003, none of the tools we have today existed. WordPress was a newborn and you had to know HTML!

For an entire week, I worked my butt off within Microsoft FrontPage. I was so proud of the result that I spent the first day staring at the site and sending its URL to friends and family.

In a nutshell, I felt on top of the world.

Then, someone brought me back to reality. “You know, the animated gif of the mouse lifting weights on your landing page? It looks very cheesy. Get rid of it,” they said. And, of course, little me had no idea that the browsing experience would vary depending on screen sizes. Needless to say that I was heartbroken.

It took me a little while to realize that website design is an art. If I wanted to be taken seriously, I had to do some research and educate myself.

Well, 13 years and six websites later, self-education is far from over. Actually, I learn something new almost every day.

If you cannot grab the attention of your audience within a couple of seconds of them seeing your website, chances are your bounce rate will remain high.

Here are seven areas of concern that you should address when thinking of creating or upgrading your website.

1) Automatic music player

Years ago, a business owner sent me a link to her website. The only thing I remember when landing on the home page was the blaring music. The player was impossible to find, so I left and never visited again.

Auto players are at the top of most people’s dislike lists (alongside automated DMs on Twitter). Why? Because when you are looking for specific information, unexpected noise and content distracts attention. Even radio stations stopped using auto players a long time ago.

If you must have music on your site, visitors should have the last word when it comes to clicking the “play” button.

2) No call to action

A call to action is a short message that urges people to take action (e.g. “Follow us on Twitter,” “Subscribe to our YouTube Channel”).

Installing a web form to convert readers into subscribers is always a good idea.

When they land on your website, visitors want to find relevant information right away. So, do not leave them hanging. Tell them where to go and what to do. You will be surprised by the results!

3) Confusing menu section

A menu is one of the most important areas of a website. Think of it as your personal portfolio, where you feature exactly what visitors need to know about you, your work, and/or your products.

Drop-down menus, in particular, allow you to regroup several related sections under a main theme and make things a little less confusing for visitors.

When deciding what to show in your menu, do not forget to include an “About,” “Contact,” and “More” sections — especially when your pages do not have a common theme.

4) Lack of key information on the landing page

Do not delay information delivery by forcing visitors to click through several pages. Use your home page and sidebar to give them a good idea of what your website is about. Then, let them decide what they want to do next.

Also, pay attention to your keywords and avoid making grandiloquent statements and promises.

5) No “About” section

A website is designed by human beings for human beings. As such, if there is no human touch, visitors will leave right away.

Without an “About” section, a site looks impersonal and cold. People do not do business with robots, unless you are in a science fiction movie.

Want to see an example of a great About page? Moz has one of the best I have seen.

Visualizing your About page is always a good idea to make it more engaging.

If you are just starting a website and checking the domain name availability, think how easy it will be brand your new name.

6) Typos

I have blogged about this several times, but it bears repeating. Occasional typos and grammatical errors happen. However, when they are recurrent, they will lead visitors to wonder how serious you are about your business.

Nobody wants to have to stop on every other sentence to catch what you are trying to say. So, if writing is not your forte, ask somebody else for help. A (professional) proofreader is worth the investment. They may end up saving your reputation…

Here are more tips:

  • Find a few grammatical resources that you like, such as The New York Times’ Grammar News section or the Grammarly Handbook, and spend a few minutes every day reviewing a rule.
  • Subscribe to the Ragan’s PR Daily Writing & Editing section.
  • Read varied quality literature to teach your brain to think differently.
  • Play word games regularly to increase your vocabulary. Vocabulary.com is a great starting point.

Conclusion

Sometimes, a little help comes a long way. Do not hesitate to ask your own audience for feedback. They will be more than happy to give you a hand.

Your audience wants to play a part in your journey, so involving them in the process will make a huge difference in the way they respond to you in the long run.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Nonprofits and Social Media: Which Sites Work Best for NPOs (and Why the Answer Isn’t All of Them)

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Social media is a must for nonprofit organizations (NPOs).

NPOs have to get in the social media game if they want to stay relevant and grow their donor base with the up and coming (of age) donors. What I haven’t addressed is why NPOs shouldn’t use ALL social media networks unless they have a very large staff to manage them. So today we take a look at which social media networks are best for NPOs and why the answer isn’t all of them.

The needs and target audience of a NPO will determine which social media network is best for them. The answer will be different for everyone. Sometimes a presence on just one site will work, while others may need to reach out via multiple networks. The important things to consider when making these decisions are 

  • Do you have a staff person that has enough time to manage multiple sites?
  • Which social network site offers you the services/features you need most
  • Where is your target audience flocking?

First things first, do you have a staff person who can manage multiple sites? The quick answer is typically no, but managing multiple sites doesn’t have to be a full-time job. Most social networking sites offer ways to link to each other so that when you update a status on one, it automatically posts to another. 

While I truly believe that any NPO can handle two or three social media outlets, I also believe there is such a thing as too many. Trying to be everywhere will dilute the time and energy you spend everywhere. So make sure you look at the time available for site management and choose wisely.

Once you’ve decided how much time you have to manage your social networking, how do you decide which sites fit your needs the best? The first place to start is with you and your organization. Determine what it is you really want to do online and then find all the sites that meet those criteria. Is starting a blog on your growth plan for the year? Do you want to post short, to-the-point updates throughout the day? Will you use social media to host chats or conferences for your donors or followers? Figure out what you need and want and go from there.

With your needs determined, the next step is hands-on experience. Get on the sites and see how easy they are to use and if their features are what you thought they were. Many sites offer similar features and it may be a tough choice.

With all of that homework and choices to make, the third thing to consider is the most important – know where your audience is and go there. If your target audience is into brief updates on Twitter then writing even the best blog won’t help you. There’s a good chance that some of your high-profile donor prospects are using LinkedIn and don’t have the slightest idea what Pinterest is. Know your audience.

Next, make sure you have a strategy. In other words, you know how to organize and consolidate everything you are doing on social media. Tools like Hootsuite and Linktree can help. Here’s a great guide on how to make a Linktree.

Having a presence on social media sites is a definite must for NPOs. Spreading yourself too thin with a presence on sites that don’t meet your needs is not. Do your homework and figure out what works best for you and then go for it!

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Are Complaints the Biggest Social Media Traffic Drivers?

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Have you ever had the opportunity to moan about something via social media? Did you do it? Put your hand up if the answer is yes…

Was it the stale bread in your lunchtime snack, a broken product, or something that you purchased but it didn’t work or was it something bigger? 

Did you complain about bad service?

So let’s talk about the dark side of social media traffic

I work with brands as well as small businesses to help them create and implement the right social media strategy for their business. If a company does its due diligence, it’ll find the Virgin Media post. They will see me bashing a brand to good effect – it got a resolution to a problem. But does that mean they will want to work with me? Am I biting the hand that feeds me?

When starting a business and considering various domain name ideas, keep branding in mind: How will it be perceived on social media?

Let’s look at it from their perspective. A company starts to follow me on Twitter. We interact a few times, start chatting and then they click on a link and find my site. They’re intrigued. Like all good social media marketers, I provide lots of valuable content for free and they can read through and see that I really know my stuff. 

They will also see that one of my busiest posts is one that shows how fed up I am with the responses from another company. They may feel empathy, they may feel annoyance or they may just lose a little respect for me.

Not all social media complaints get an easy resolution, just because you can blog and kick up a fuss doesn’t mean you’ll get the outcome you desire.

If you are looking for traffic and love to complain, be careful because it can quickly spiral out of control. It’s not just bloggers that complain, it’s irate customers.

If you are in business, great service is the way that you avoid bad social media traffic and the cost of a reputation management expert. If you experience bad service and are tempted to air it via social media, remember it can get out of hand, and not all social traffic is great traffic.

Have you or your company experienced the dark side of social media traffic?

Image by Azmi Talib from Pixabay

Your Company Blog – Why It’s Still Your Online Marketing Hub

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With all of the excitement about Facebook, Twitter and now, Linkedin, you might get so distracted that you forget about your blog.

Big mistake!

Your company blog is the best asset that your company has and should be the hub of all of your online marketing activities.

Here’s why your Company Blog is your online marketing hub:

1) You Own It!

Your accounts on the social media platforms are not yours. They can be turned off at any moment if it’s considered that you’ve violated their terms of service.

It is a little bit of an investment but you can get your domain names cheap and hosting can also be very affordable.

2) It’s Tuesday, Facebook must have changed again

The social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are constantly changing the rules. They change how you post content, how to connect with people, the rules around privacy, how you can communicate with your connections, the look and feel of the site and what third party applications you can use (or not use) with your page on their system. Your blog serves as a point of stability online.

3) Your Blog is the fuel for your social media Eengagement!

What happens if you participate in social media and have nothing to share? Well, if you don’t produce any content of your own, you’re basically passing around other people’s content and not driving anyone back to your own site. Produce great content, share via social media, and get qualified traffic back to your site!

4) You Control the Design

Your presence on social media platforms is very constrained. You can only design your page based on the constraints of the social media platform. Your blog and website allow you much greater design flexibility where you can really express your unique branding.

5) You’re Free To Sell On Your Blog

There are policies and technical limitations to marketing or processing transactions on social media sites. In some cases marketing is limited and you can rarely (or never) actually process a transaction on a social media site. Bring them back to your blog and website as a key part of your marketing and to finalize any transactions.

6) Search Traffic to can be a free, ongoing Lead Generation Source

The narrower you target your efforts, the easier it is to rank in the search engines. For example, rather than targeting “home architect” (and competing with ALL home architects), why don’t you focus on “Palo Alto Home Architect”? Getting your blog to rank for your key terms can lead to qualified and ongoing traffic to your site.

Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay

5 Reasons Your Company Should Not Use Online Videos

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There are a lot of very good reasons to use online videos for your company, and it has been effective for both B2B and b2c companies.  

However, the internet is littered with videos that should have never been made, and here are some obstacles that may keep you from creating a lesser video for your brand.

1. Your Boss Doesn’t Think It Is Necessary

Even if you are confident that your company can use video effectively, at the end of the day, if the decision-makers aren’t convinced, it’s not going to happen. 

You can try to explain to your boss why it may be beneficial to the company, but the reality is that videos cost money and not everyone’s going to want to spend the amount necessary to make a good video.

2. You Don’t Have a Budget

The worst thing you can do for your company is risk your brand’s reputation by being attached to poorly made content of any kind. If you don’t have the budget, don’t try to go the “cheap” route. It is much better to not have  video at all than to have a bad one. 

Video production costs money: the equipment, time and experience are all important pieces to producing a good video. If you don’t have the budget now, it’s probably best to wait until you do.

3. You Have Unrealistic Expectations

You need to be aware of how much a video can really help your business and what your expectations are for it. It is good to have clear and focused expectations. Does this video heighten brand awareness? Is it supposed to be funny? Is it supposed to be informative? How do you want people to respond when they see it? Who is going to see it? 

These are all important questions to ask to help clarify exactly what your expectations are for your video. A video you use internally can’t be judged by the same criteria that a YouTube video is. This is why it is important to know your target audience.  If you have unrealistic expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

4. Your Goal Is Viral Online Videos

One way your goal can be unrealistic is if you hoping for your video to go viral. If a video goes viral, that generally means that it is being shared and re-shared by a large number of blogs, Facebook pages, and other social media outlets. 

The problem with expecting this is that it is incredibly uncommon and unlikely for it to happen to your video. While it’s true that the most popular viral video may have over 100 million views, the reality is that you only have a 0.3% chance of even reaching 10,000 views. It would be better to focus on creating a video that is sharable rather than viral.

A better goal is to make your site engaging. There are so many plugins and CMS solutions that integrate videos easily and make pages more attractive and useful. Shopify allows to add product videos which make product pages so much more effective. Here is a Shopify discount code for you to try this feature!

5. You Don’t Have a Goal For the Online Videos

Even worse than unrealistic expectations is to not have any goals at all. How are you supposed to evaluate the success or failure of your video if you don’t know how to measure it?

 It also makes it difficult to brainstorm on the creative end without having clear goals in mind. The possibilities of video are endless so having an end in mind helps narrow down what kind of video you need. You shouldn’t make a video just to make a video, so it’s crucial to be able to articulate your goals clearly.

There are plenty of good reasons to use video for your company.  However, if your  company is facing any of these roadblocks, you need to sit down and think through solutions to them before hiring a video production company.  

It’s always better to wait until you are ready to move forward and create a video than it is to rush into production and come away with a video that isn’t right for you.

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

How to Choose (and Use) the Best Tools for Your Business

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Tools have the power to either make your life simpler, or more complicated, depending on what you choose.

That is why making the right choice is important.

Here are my top tips on finding what tools are right for your blog or business.

Start by defining your needs.

Most people look at price or features, and just assume if the price is low and the features are numerous, they will be set. But that’s not always the case. A tool could have 1,000+ features, which is pretty awesome. But if you are only going to need three of those features, then there’s no sense in

  • A) paying for things you don’t need or
  • B) not choosing a tool that is awesome at the three features you need and instead choosing one that is so-so at a 1,000+ features.

Let’s say that you’re evaluating email marketing software. Your requirements are that it integrates well with other tools that you use, it offers a wide variety of templates that are mobile friendly, it allows you to preview emails before you send them, and it helps you create great forms and squeeze pages.

While there are tons of platforms to choose from, you’ll likely go with GetResponse because of their 100+ integrations, responsive email design, inbox preview tool, web form builder, and squeeze page generator.

Once you have defined your requirements, making a choice about what tool to go with will be much simpler.

Compare your top choice with some alternatives.

Just because you only found one tool that fits your needs, doesn’t mean it’s the only tool out there. There are great sites like TopAlternatives.com that can help you find the top tools for specific needs. For example, in their SEO category, they break down tools with specific functions.

This can help you discover a few great alternatives so that you can jump into the next step. They offer alternative tools for building a website, customer satisfaction, design, ecommerce, email marketing, mobile, optimization, SEO, social media, time management, usability, visual  marketing, and business communication.

Try before you buy.

Whether you end up trying to decide between multiple tools with the features you want, or just one that seems to be perfect, be sure to try it before you buy it. Most tools will offer some form of free trial, usually ranging from seven to thirty days. Here are my recommended free trial tips.

  • Don’t sign up for a free trial until you are ready to actually use it.
  • Set a reminder in your calendar to visit the tool each day until the trial ends.
  • Take into consideration the ease of use of the tool you are trying. If it’s difficult, you won’t want to use it on a regular basis, which will lower its value for your business.
  • Know how long you have and when/where to cancel if you decide against a particular tool (include a reminder in your calendar for the last day to cancel).
  • Plan to evaluate the results of using a particular tool the day before you need to decide to commit to it.
  • Look for deals before buying any tool you liked. For example, searching for “Wix promo code” may help you discover great budgeting options.

Remind yourself to regularly use your tools.

Once you have made the commitment to the right tools for your blog or business, don’t let them sit stagnant while they auto-debit your credit card. Set them up so you can easily remember to use them on a daily basis. If they are web applications, for example, create a folder on your bookmarks bar for your tools and put your username next to each so you can easily get to the login pages and remember how to login. Below is my list of top tools…

If there’s certain times you want to check a particular tool, such as taking a daily look at all of your dashboards in Cyfe to review your analytics, then you’ll want to set a calendar reminder to do so. What I like to do is grab a link to the first dashboard I want to view (like my ultimate social media dashboard)…

You don’t have to do these specific things, but you should make it a point to regularly use your tools.

Review, and review often.

If you find you’re not regularly using a particular tool based on difficulty or lack of usefulness, then it might be a sign you need to choose something new. Or, at the very least, time to cancel your account and save some money until you find something new.

Finding the right tool is key to business productivity.

For this, you might want to set a monthly or quarterly reminder to review all of the tools in your toolbox to see if you are still using them and still getting what you need out of them. If not, go back to the beginning of this post and start the selection process over again. This will ensure that you are always getting value from the tools you choose for your business.

How do you find great tools for your blog or business and then ensure you are always using them?

Image by free stock photos from www.picjumbo.com from Pixabay