Since my column about the Power of the About Us page (remember 2006 when MySpace was really popular) was written, not a week goes by that I don’t receive a comment about it. Every website needs an “About Us” page, it’s one of the most important but undervalued elements of a company’s website. This is especially true in a world where social media profiles allow us to connect content to people. The “About Us” page needs to show and tell about…
Last week, I visited ComicCon Austin with my 7 year old son. The people in costumes, the famous actors and characters were not what caught my attention. What fascinated me is the engagement that people had with these characters many of whom have been around for more than 50 years. That is the value of great content. I caught up with Shane Gibson, Chief Social Officer for WizardWorld and ComicCon to discuss the power of these iconic brands and to…
It seems like only yesterday that I typed the following words into my computer: Conversion rate is a measure of your ability to persuade visitors to take the action you want them to take. It’s a reflection of your effectiveness and customer satisfaction. For you to achieve your goals, visitors must first achieve theirs. In order to help you understand what visitors need in order to achieve their goals, you need to have empathy about their journey through the buying process. Too…
After the first dot-com bust, “content is king” was the rallying cry of any competent Web worker. Back then this revelation was novel online. Soon after, this mantra became a cliché. As it often goes with clichés, they start out as something true and meaningful. Eventually, the words become common, outlive their value, and are so overused that they’re easily ignored. Saying content is king is the equivalent of saying money is valuable; it’s true but obvious. Tell that to…
It is the best of times and the worst of times for some businesses. Many look at the world and see the opportunities of being data rich, customer centric, and nimble while others imagine they can bring their old school thinking to the new media, always-on connected customer. They sit cross-fingered hoping that putting lipstick on their pig will improve their results. Let’s explore two publishers making news recently and learn how one is failing while the other has become…
Are you selling your white papers short with poor merchandising? Many sites offering “free” white papers, case studies, or resources in exchange for some visitor information utterly fail to merchandise their downloads. Yet if your website doesn’t treat your white paper as containing valuable information, your visitors won’t either. The problem starts by thinking of these downloads as free. You’re asking for something extremely valuable to both you and the visitor, their contact information. To get this valuable information, you…
If we could spend only a few minutes working together to optimize your website, we’d still get results starting with a process. When evaluating and improving any type of content or copy, there is a quick 10-step process you can use. 1. Headlines. Why are headlines first? They are the critical attention-getters that allow your visitor to determine if the page is relevant to her needs in just a few seconds. Readers of your pages scan the headlines and sub-headlines…