Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Over and over again, people ask for a Web site critique and it turns out their site doesn`t do a good job of selling. There`s no offer for the customer, nothing to tell the viewer what`s in it for them. There isn`t a memorable layout, a tag-line, immediate message, and so forth and so on.

In fact, many times there isn`t even any kind of "action" request or reference to how to contact the business.

So many business owners seem to think that when anyone clicks on their site, arriving at the "landing page" (home page), they`ll just figure it out somehow. Alright, so let`s look at the same concept differently.

Suppose you reduce your home page to a 5x7" landscape postcard. If you want, you could do the same and reduce it to a standard 8.5x11" piece of paper as a flyer. You take it to a printer and have them run 1,000 copies in color.

Then you send this card or flyer to local businesses, or to a targeted list of potential customers in your local area.

Now imagine YOU are the person receiving this piece of "junk mail." The only thing on the postcard is a screen-shot of your home page. That`s it.

Would you have a clue as to why you were receiving that piece of mail? Would you understand what the company was trying to accomplish? Would you be interested? Would you save that postcard for later action?

Go ahead and call up your own home page. Print it. Then put it on the kitchen table. Walk away from the computer, sit down, and look at what you`ve printed. Is it interesting? If you received that piece of paper in the mail, what would you think?

What`s the difference between a casual visitor clicking on your home page, versus you sending out a picture of your home page to homes and businesses around the country?

None.

If you can`t sell someone with a picture post-card of your home page, then you`re surely not going to sell them online when you have 4 seconds to convince a visitor to "do" something. Right?

wow, that`s great advice, Craig! I`m going to try that as I think it will help us design our home pages in a much more effective manner.  Thanks alot!

I`ll bill you later. I use "Gold Only" and can be paid in 24k gold bullion. That or beef bullion....depends on whether I`m hungry. 

lol well if you`re ever hungry you know I can help you out there! Feeding people is my specialty

Now Craig, that`s some nifty ways of getting an objective look
You can also take your printout to your neighbor and ask him/her for their opinions

Jmes



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Our Goal Is Your Success!
Founder Girls with Goals

Craig, I`m going to disect what you just said.... First of you can`t reduce a 5x7 into an 8.5 x 11 (its called blowing it up. So Ok, I blew the image to fit an 8.5 x 11. If I print the front page of my web site, it tells you right away what I`m about...

So, I wouldn`t consider my own Marketing Material Junk. But I understand what you are trying to say. Now if you take the time to brand your services, create a buzz around town, and start identifying yourself with your products and services... People will know who you are... It is called brand recognition.


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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Yup, that`s exactly the point. Most Web sites have no such brand recognition. Aside from the fact that few Web pages will print on a 5x7, that really doesn`t matter. If you print them on multiple pages and send that package around, the problem becomes magnified.

The reference to "junk" mail is that any unsolicited mail generally gets sorted into the "junk" pile. It very much depends on the shape and content of what`s in that pile as to whether or not the recipient will even glance at a piece before throwing it in the garbage.

A successful direct mail campaign is entirely dependent upon how much that piece of mail stands out from the rest of the junk. A color 5x7 card would definitely stand out. The issue is what`s on that card.

If you can`t put your entire first page in to print, given scrolling and so forth, can you put the top part----enough to fit on to a 5x7? If not that, could you put out a 1-page 8x10 that would make a nice flyer?

That`s easy enough to test, even in black and white on a home printer.

From a technical perspective it is possible to use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to format the printout layout to be different from the web page layout.  I have used this method to create web pages that print as brochures formatted for a standard 8.5 x 11 piece of paper.