Durban Website Designers

It’s tempting to think that your experience isn’t special, that everybody else already knows everything you’ve learned.

You have nothing interesting or valuable to blog about, write a book about, or even sell.

On the contrary. Nobody else has your perspective. Your story is unique, and I’ll bet there are people right behind you on the path who would benefit from your knowledge.

Sure, the things you learned a few years ago may be old news now. But the herd has moved on. What are you learning right now? What can you see from your unique position on the edge of the herd? What can you share with those following behind you, to help guide, reassure, inspire, inform, or educate?

Time goes by, and the herd moves along. But your particular perspective will always be unique and special.

Don’t be afraid to share it.

Best wishes,
Ben
Ben Hunt Limited
50 Penrhyn Road
Sheffield, UK

When was the last time you tested your own website? Actually forgot what you think you know, went in from the start, and tried to find your way around?

Even better, get someone else to do it, and watch them. You’ll probably get some nasty surprises! You’ll want to jump in and help them, to show them their mistakes. (But, of course, they’re your mistakes.)

You may think your website is great. There may be bits you love. You could get plenty of traffic and great feedback…

But none of that matters, unless

What matters is Action!

It’s meaningless if you get a thousand people every day who enjoy your site, browse around, try to register for something, nearly get there, then give up.

That’s like this bridge, which lets you cross most of the way, then it’s just impassable.

Unless you walk through your own websites, or watch other people try to do it, you may never know if there are bits of your bridge missing.

It doesn’t matter how far people get, unless they can successfully take the action you want them to take at the end.

Good luck,
Ben
Ben Hunt Limited
50 Penrhyn Road

Pitching the right message in the right way - at the right time - can make a huge difference to how much people engage with your web site.

But can you tell what to say where and when? I bet you can’t. I don’t know, and I’ve been studying this stuff for years.

Check out these examples, and see if you can tell which copy won:

a) “Buy Save the Pixel and improve your site today”

b) “Buy now for instant delivery”

c) “You can’t afford not to know this stuff - get Save the Pixel now”

a) “To make your web project a success, contact Scratchmedia for Great Web Design - guaranteed!”

b) “Contact us to discuss your web project”

c) “We’d love to hear about your web strategy. Contact one of our team today!”

a) “Top Quality Towels at Low Prices”

b) “TOWELS Direct from the MILL”

4. Call to action button, linking through to pricing/buy page

a) “Show me the Options”

b) “Yes, I want to sign up”

5. Headline on promotional ad

a) “Save the Pixel”

b) “Make Better Web Pages!”

You don’t sell products or services, or their features.

You don’t sell your brand, or yourself.

You don’t even sell to customers or prospects.

So what do you sell and to whom? Let me tell you exactly how it works.

We’ll start with the buyer, because that’s the right way round. What you really need to understand is that your customers and prospects are people, emotional beings, and they probably buy from the heart.

You can only sell if there’s a need to solve. If your prospect has a conscious need, desire or opportunity, you must answer it.

People don’t buy features, they buy WIIFM - what’s in it for me? They only invest in making their life easier, happier, or more rewarding. That’s it. Whatever we choose to buy, we are motivated emotionally by some self-interest.

The WIIFM comes from the benefits of what you offer. Features are “what it does”, whereas benefits are “what it does FOR ME”.

Those benefits are not properties of the product or service. Like I said, people don’t buy products or services. What they buy is your proposition. A proposition is “this is how this product/service will fulfil your need/desire/opportunity”.

Behind the proposition are your products or services, and the features they have. There is also you, the seller, and the values your brand offers.

But none of this really matters. It’s not what people buy.

Take a look at your marketing messages. Can you see the WIIFM? Can you see why an emotional being (like you) will get excited and motivated enough to take action? If not, don’t expect your prospects to do it.

All the best,
Ben

p.s. It’s the LAST DAY to get 50% off http://www.WebsiteWorks.tv
Ben Hunt Limited
50 Penrhyn Road
Sheffield, UK

I have spent the past two years researching and testing what works on the web. I have studied the 20th Century’s great marketers, applied best practice to dozens of web sites, and collated the evidence.

The most valuable thing I have learned is that I know absolutely nothing about what makes people buy.

Really. The number one insight I can give you is that whatever you think is likely to work probably won’t.

Consider this as Rule #1. There really are no other rules that matter.

One reason for this is that your customers aren’t you. They think differently, and they have a very different perception of what they need and what you offer. It’s like there’s a black box that you cannot ever fully understand - the psychology of your market.

So what can you do? How can you sell when you don’t really know what people want?

There are two things you have to do, and one thing you must never do.

The thing you should never do is to assume you do know. Your first best guess is almost certainly far from correct.

What you should do is: test! Previous generations of marketers knew this, and practiced it religiously. They split-test print ads and mail-outs because they knew that it would generate better returns. It is no different today.

The good news is, the web lets you do that more easily and quickly than ever. Where it would have cost thousands of dollars and weeks of time to split-test an advertisement in a newspaper, you can test endless variations of your messaging on your own web sites very rapidly and for very little cost.

Today, my company’s core revenue comes from subscriptions to my Pro Web Design Course. I recently spent days crafting a new landing page to promote the course (http://www.prowebdesigncourse.com/). But Rule #1 reminds me that my first best guess is not right. So I’m testing.

See the image below (you may need to “show images”):

When I created this page, I also created a few variations of the main headings and introductory text. I then used one of the powerful testing tools on the market to serve up random combinations of this content to all visitors.

The tool (Visual Website Optimizer) tracks how many people who see each content combination click through to the pricing page.

This image shows that 20.5% of people who see my first best guess (”Control”) are persuaded to click through.

But some of the other combinations engage 42% more visitors. That’s potentially 42% more income for my business - from a test that took me less than an hour to set up!

The results are not yet conclusive, but when it has finished I will know which heading and intro text works best.

You know what I’ll do then? I’ll test again. I’ll see whether I can come up with alternative content, rearranged content, more content, which will compel even more people to click through.

Plus we’ll also be testing the pricing page itself, to see how many more people we can persuade to take the final step and sign up.

And that’s how it goes. I don’t know anything. I may have some smart guesses, and some of them may work better than my previous guesses. But until I test, I won’t know for sure, and maybe I’ll never find out what works best of all.

Consider the economics for your business. Setting up A/B or multivariate tests with a tool like Visual Website Optimizer takes no time at all, and yet can potentially double your revenues, double your leads, double whatever you want people to do on your web site. Or better! I know this, because I’ve done it.

You don’t know what works. Until you test, you’ll never be sure. How much money are you leaving on the table? Want to find out?

Best wishes,
Ben
Ben Hunt Limited
50 Penrhyn Road
Sheffield, UK

Here’s a neat tool you can use to get insight into any offering, any brand, and any client’s needs.

A “sale” is only possible when both parties perceive that the value they are getting  from the trade is greater than the value of the thing they are giving up.

You can view the value in almost any transaction in terms of three primary factors:

• Speed
• Quality
• Cost

These three factors make up “The Value Triangle.” The general principle is that you have to choose between these factors. You can’t have them all.

Here’s how a Value Triangle might look visually. In this example, the triangle is rotated to show that Quality is the #1 priority, Speed is fairly important, and Cost is not an issue.

You can show any balance between the 3 value factors by simply rotating the triangle around its central point. You can’t have all 3 factors as high priority.

Let’s see how you might use the Value Triangle in practice.

Scenario 1: Client’s Requirements

A client comes to a web designer and asks for a web site to be built. They want a good standard, and it needs to be built within a short deadline. Oh, and they only have a small budget.

So they’re asking for all three factors to be high priority. That’s not how the world works.

• If you want a high standard of result, and you need it soon, you need to be prepared to pay.
• If you want a good result, and you want it cheap, be prepared to wait.
• If you want it cheap and quick, don’t expect quality.

To put it bluntly, you might say to that client, “Quick, Cheap, Good - pick two.”

Scenario 2: Positioning a Service

If you’re putting any product or service on the market, people need to know where it fits in relation to what they already know. That’s positioning.

Let’s say you’re marketing your own service (web design, consulting, programming, logo creation, whatever). How would you spin the Value Triangle to represent what you offer?

If I were making a premium web site, I would have something similar to the example above: Quality top, Speed OK, but don’t expect it to be cheap.

But remember, for every client, there’s a corresponding perfect service. I could just as easily market “Speedy & Cheap Web Design” (which you’d expect to be relatively low quality), “Paratroop Web Consultancy” (which would deliver great services at the drop of the hat - but really cost you), or “Good Web Sites for Businesses on a Budget” (in which case those clients would need to wait).

Scenario 3: Project Priorities

You can use the Value Triangle to help you understand and choose between the priorities in any project or transaction. It will also apply to a project you’re running.

In our team, we always have a lot of ideas for things we could do next. If we decide that something has to happen now, the Value Triangle tells us that we either have to sacrifice Quality, Cost, or some balance between the two. If it has to be quick and good, we know we may have to pay to bring in extra help.

I hope you find this really useful in your work, and look forward to your comments.

Best wishes,
Ben
Ben Hunt Limited
50 Penrhyn Road
Sheffield, UK

You know how teens spend so much energy trying to be different from the rest of the world… trying so hard to show how unique they are?

Have a look at your web site. Is it trying hard to be different, for the sake of being different?

A lot of testing has been done on first impressions in business and sales situations. For example, you are statistically more likely to get a results if you go into a meeting wearing a navy blue suit, a tie with red in it, and black shoes.

Quite simply, if you look the part, you’ll immediately appear as more trustworthy, more like what your prospect expects.

The same goes for your web site. If you’re a corporate marketing site, look like a really smart corporate marketing site.

Ask yourself what your prospects want. Do they really want something that has a weird, original style? Or do they want something that looks right, that they know they can depend on?

Invest your time, money, and energy in creating a unique message, position, and propositions that distinguish you. Don’t waste it on dressing “different”.

In all my years designing web sites for clients, I can’t ever remember a client saying, “We just want it to look really conventional,” which is a pity.

Maybe it’s because the web is still in its teenage years. Maybe in its twenties, it will start to get its act together and get down to business.

Best wishes,
Ben

To learn how to make your web site really work, check out my Pro Web Design Course, http://www.prowebdesigncourse.com/
Ben Hunt Limited
50 Penrhyn Road
Sheffield, UK

1. A new visitor arrives at one of your web pages. What’s the first message they get? Does it speak to the new visitor, does it say “This is for you”, and give them reason to proceed?

   As we’ve already seen, a powerful headline needs to do a few basic things to keep more visitors moving forward, but it really comes down to one thing…

   Give me a benefit that I can connect with immediately

   A headline should be direct, personal, and give me a clear “what’s in it for me”.

   Here’s a dead easy trick you can use to turn any wooden headline into a honey trap. It’s just three simple words:

   “Which means that…”

   Take a boring old descriptive headline, like this one I just found:

   “We are one of the most professional web design companies around”

   Then just add, “Which means that…” and see what’s behind it.

   We’re professional…

   Which means that… We know our business.

   Which means that… We can give you the best advice.

   Which means that… We make growing your business our priority

   Which means that… You can trust us with your web strategy and your budget.

   It’s as easy as that. Just keep asking “Which means that…” and each time you’re taking another step nearer to your prospect, nearer to that emotional being who is looking for something.

   When you can connect what you’re offering with the emotional need of that person on the other screen, you’ll increase your ability to turn them from a prospect into a customer.

   Best regards,
   Ben

   More at www.webdesignfromscratch.com/

   Ben Hunt Limited
   50 Penrhyn Road
   Sheffield, UK

In lots of ways, business and marketing are like dating.

Just like dating, there are different ways to go about it, so you need to find what really works for you, and avoid falling into habits that don’t work.

Ideally, every business wants to find its ideal match in the market. But too many are promiscuous, spending too much time courting the wrong customers, sending out the wrong messages, and this can really cost you.

It is tempting to think that you need to:

• chase a lot of different customers,
• say “yes” to any offer,
• avoid turning away any business,
• and keep looking for new customers

But apply the same approach to dating. If you feel you have to date every potential partner that comes along, you’ll get a mix of good and bad experiences. But will you be able to spot (and secure) the really good ones when you see them?

Your time, energy and attention will be split. When you do get a great match, you’ll still be spending a lot of time dating lots of others, so will you be able to devote the attention to that one really good one? Will you be able to listen to them, to make them feel special, exceed their expectations?

I believe that it is vital to be disciplined when it comes to choosing which prospects to talk to. Choose what you really want and put it out there. If prospects come along that don’t look like a good match, don’t go there.

Avoid taking on clients and projects that will use up your time and resources, if they’re not the right ones.

When you do find a “keeper”, you’ll be able to devote the right attention to them, and you may find that something amazing happens.

In my previous agency, I used to process maybe 30 sales leads every month. This took time: filtering, setting up calls, writing proposals, and teaching new clients the way we work.

These days, we’ve shut the doors to new clients. Our team focuses our attention on literally a handful of clients. They get more of our attention and time, because I’m available. I’m not spending my days kissing more frogs, but on making my best clients happy.

And you know what? We’re doing better business, and we’re doing it with ease. We’re doing better work for our favourite clients, getting it done more quickly, and these clients are always ready to come back for more.

With the space this gives us, I know we can give out the exact message, and we can afford to be really choosy about any new business. That was always the case, but I needed the confidence to believe it’s possible to break the cycle.

Best wishes,
Ben

* Please send this to everyone you know who has a business. They can sign up for my series of 50 Secrets at http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/web-design-articles/
Ben Hunt Limited
50 Penrhyn Road
Sheffield, UK

Whenever anybody visits any web page, they only have one question in their mind: “Am I in the right place?”

They just want to know whether they’re on track to find what they want, or whether they need to go back.

So each web page needs to answer that question - immediately!

That’s why it’s critical to have one obvious thing to which your eye is drawn when you first load a page (a focal point).

And why that thing is text - because text is quick and accurate.

And the text tells you directly where you are, and why you’re on track.

We call this large, bold text at the top of the page that does this job a headline.

The good news is that most web pages do have headlines (using the heading 1 HTML tag). The bad news is that they’re often not very effective…

Here’s what a good headline should do. Check out your own site and compare your headlines (on any page) against this short list:

1. The headline should be in large text - at least twice the size of regular body text.
2. It should be high contrast - ideally black on a white background.
3. It should identify the target visitor - immediately give the impression “This is for me”
4. It should summarise what’s on offer, and give the visitor a reason to proceed.

As an example, here’s the headline on our site’s home page:

Best wishes,
Ben
Ben Hunt Limited
50 Penrhyn Road
Sheffield, UK