Web Podcast - Episode 15: Don't get it wrong - helpful advice for websites & digital marketing

Read the transcription of this podcast:

Hey guys episode 15 today and I want to get you a bit of a different episode. I’m going to go through a few of the different things that I’ve observed from clients, things I’ve observed over the last ten years doing web design. Things I can pick up on that clients don’t do right, or enough of, to keep their website relevant and up to date.

To start with, when I started ten years ago, I was just learning the ropes, doing basic stuff, figuring out how to code, things like that. As I’ve gone on I’ve employed staff and left most of that job to them. I’ve been able to do a lot more with the client. In that time planning their website, and also post launch and maintenance, I see a lot of loopholes that business owners take when they build their own website and have it going.

The first one is keeping it up to date.

Most people, I find, never update their website. Or they only do it once a year and that’s about it. I’ve spoken about it before. You go to their website and they have a deal up there from the summer and it’s now winter! That’s a quick way to tell how old a website is. The thing is, what I’ve found, people that do put a lot of attention into their websites are the ones who see results. I don’t just mean updating their website and keeping it relevant. I mean other third party things like email marketing, social media, Facebook advertising, Google ads. If you focus on those things and help promote your website you’ll drive more traffic to it.
People who set up a website with the expectation that it will get them a lot of work without having to do anything else, they’re wrong 99% of the time, you have to put effort in to get a result out of it.

That’s one of the first things thats interesting that I’ve observed over time. Another thing is content.

A lot of people have outdated content, or they don’t write content for their site properly. They either have too little or too much. What we mean by that is they have an about us page and they have two sentences, 50-80 words on that page with a generic stock photo. Over time I’ve realised that’s not good enough. People want to have information, they don’t want to read too much though. As I’ve said, they don’t want to read a whole bloody novel. They just want to read the main points that are relevant to them. Most people want a quick, short and sweet message. The greater number want details...you have to cater to both parties.
These clients of mine have a few lines of text on their about us page, and basic bullet point list of services. It does the job but you need to have your website cater to everyone and it needs to look professional. If you only have a few words on your website it doesn’t look professional. It looks like it’s just been thrown together and left. That’s not good.

The people that invest in content writing or they sit down for two hours on a Sunday afternoon and they write information down, they’ll get a better result.

You have to put your time and effort in, as well as your money, if you get a web developer like us. But, if you’re doing it yourself, you have to put the time and effort into doing it properly.

Listening to these, or other peoples podcasts, getting ideas and using what you think works best and resonates best with you to make the most out of your website.

At the end of the day, over time I thought “I can do this for clients now”, so now we actually offer content writing, or we give them a quiz to do and then with that information we will fill out the content for them. A lot of people, as they’re paying for a website, would rather just have us do it. That’s definitely fair enough.

Number three is, I find a lot of clients, they’re all about me.

Obviously your life is about you and the value you add to everyone else's. Graciously give and willingly receive.
The issue I find with most clients is that they’re all about them. Not about target audience. They’ll build a website around what they would like. They themselves aren’t the target audience. They may have a product that’s a different gender, different age group, different hobbies or interest. So, they’re making the website about them around their tastes, when it’s supposed to be about their customers. I don’t make a website selling remote control cars that has all off these corporate looking textures, and stock photos, and looking very clean and professional. No. I make a remote control car shopping website with dirt images, and cars flying around race tracks, with big speedway fonts. That sort of stuff. I’m terrible at explaining it.

You HAVE to make it about your audience, whereas some people will try and make it about themselves, what they want.
What I often say is “No, listen to me or your developer”. If they have good business sense they’ll point out that the audience is this group of people, let’s make it like this via these design elements, or this wording, or this call to action, or using this form of advertising. Things that are relevant.

Make it about your audience, not yourself. Sit down with a piece of paper, not your laptop, get a pen, use the old fashioned way. Then write out who your audience is.

If your a new business and you don’t know then study it. Just walking into the Warehouse, or Walmart. If you’re selling remote control cars, walk into the remote control aisle and you will see who’s there. Obviously it will be kids but the people buying them will be parents.

Write information down about that audience, and then that will help you.
If you don’t do that, but you have sales coming through the door, observe your current sales. Observe your current customer base.

Sit down and write those things out to establish an audience. YOU are not the audience. But hey, I might be wrong here. You may be working in a business, and you are the audience. You could just be selling products that you buy yourself. But, you know what I mean.

Hopefully that’s helped guys, that’s just a few of the observations I’ve made over the last ten years. I think they’re quite valuable and hope you find them useful.

Thats Matt from the RAZOR Web Design Wire Podcast, and I’ll catch you next time.

Thanks.