Is your web presence effective?
To be considered seriously for ANY enterprise, you MUST have a website AND it has to be a VIABLE, EFFECTIVE website.
Your HOMEPAGE should immediately and clearly state what you do.
The entire website should:
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•Primarily address the BENEFITS to your prospect of using your products/services.
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•Be completely free of copy and syntactical errors and malapropisms. If you are appealing to a market that speaks another language, it is STILL your responsibility to see to it that it is written perfectly.
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•Be clean (see Google.com)
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•Be simple to surf and understand (see Google.com)
I use Google as a primary example because, no matter how much information Google presents, it ALWAYS looks clean and simple.
Your Internet presence is only as strong as its weakest link. The majority of businesses and organizations seem to be unaware that such a chain even exists.
To create the best chain:
2.Develop a web presence, created with usability* in mind.
3.Test usability**.
4.Develop Best Practices contact-infrastructure for website (phone contact, chat, contact form etc).
5.Develop a traffic optimization strategy (SEM, SEP, SEO, PPC).
6.Evaluate, test, refine, redevelop.
MUST READS:
"Freakonomics" and "Super Freakonomics" by Levitt & Dubner
"Don't Make Me Think" Steve Krug
"The Tipping Point" (and anything else by) Malcolm Gladwell
“Where Good Ideas Come From” Steven Johnson
"Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind" by Reis and Trout
"Little Black Book of Connections: 6.5 Assets for Networking Your Way to Rich Relationships" Jeffrey Gitomer, worth reading for one key concept.
* “Usability” as defined by Jakob Nielsen. “Usability’s” main purpose is “Conversion.” “Conversion”: converting site visitors to clients and/or involved participants.