This document outlines four key areas to focus on to improve a website: design, audience, engagement, and analysis. For design, it recommends keeping the site simple and usable. For audience, it says to understand who they are, what keeps them up at night, and where they are located. For engagement, it suggests opening the door to welcome customers and prospects through credibility, connections, and commentary. Finally, for analysis it advises being willing to fail fast, get feedback from customers, and ensure the site is easy to use. The overall message is that focusing on these four areas can help a website better guide critical business decisions and make the site shine.
17. Do you understand your audience? #2 Audience Whatâs it like to walk in their shoes? Whatâs keeping them up at night? Whatâs their life like if youâre not there?
35. Be prepared to fail and willing to fail fast #4 Analyze Look at your competitors for insights Heed criticism & learn to love it Give yourself time to think & be creative Ask your customers for feedback always
Where was Tory 7 years ago??!! Really honored to be here: Itâs a milestone for me to share my insights w you, marks the past: newspaper lifecurrent: look at words, meaning & engagementFuture: security from volatile newsp worldHow do you make your website glow? Mistake to focus on design only: can easily recognize a pretty picture
Looking back, name of boat is of former bossGet to Newport, decline of newspapers
This is more like it, though. A little snapshot of the future,helps to remind yourself why youâre working so hard, right?OK, letâs get back to earth
15 years in newspapers, Masterâs in Jour McommKey point site always a work in progressWebsites sophisticated, 3-5 seconds to engage, Not just about a pretty picture anymore
Letâs get serious about your website.Partners reluctant? Kids your attention?Overwhelmed by job or business?Easily and quickly get your website up to snuff. Key data point that will drive business decisions.Free or low-cost tools.
2,000 years ago Fundamentals of communicationsHow do you know who to address on your website? Today is the day you can stop guessingMasterâs degree
Time in the day run life & biz â or launching bizBiggest website challenges? Time, money, spouses, unknown target audiences, budgets? Lack of tools?Mindset = mistakes made web evolution
Is the cost of a website going up or down? Site from scratch, so many tools available, key data points to give feedbackStop guessing
Key biz dec, / missing the boatHow many have a website? Are you happy with your website? Is money an obstacle to to making your website better? Time? Where to start?
Cover Tools make your website glow & pitfalls Design, audience, engagement, analysis: rinse & repeat, make site glow
What year did you get on the web? This Amazon site is circa 1995, thatâs 16 years ago!
Being outdated, what else could be improved?Clear desired outcomeRemove obstructions More than ABOUT US, get & give information
Whatâs the purpose here? Ppl to discover something, pricing, information, gift ideaClearcall to action: newsletter signup, download
Stay out of the way: info-based economyFlaw: Ignoring low-cost tools and techniques â canât say you didnât knowWatch for: Clutter, what to do (call to action) & falling in love
Set up a site, get a logo, PVD WP meetup
Now that we have a great-looking site at reasonable costAnswer these= effective site.What information do you need to get you closer to understanding your audience?
Really nice site, Webby award.Why selected? Navigation. Influencer very different concerns
Note the background image: having fun
Graduation = empty nest. Is your site echoing what how you make pplâs lives better?
Map overlay, keywords, where theyâre coming from
LinkedIn Answers: not just phishing for clients, engaging with
Justask: survey monkey â great for B2B
Facebookpoll - great for B2C
Speak to specificpplFlaw = not doing targeting, not trying to understand moremarketing speakdiscrete noun (take customers = Moms etc), aim to broad: no one sees herself as a customer
Now that have a great low-cost site & sense your audience. Engageto help resonate w audienceWhere do you engage with your customers and prospects?Secret: Social media but email still more ROI, Mailchimp free account
E-commerce? Online shopping? Credibility & reason to trust: An opportunity to get to know you: Media outlets add credibility,Call out for savings: VA save $120on cellphone bill
Connections: NIM, use Twitter to engage, test your audience
Commentary & listeningInfo-based economy, todayâs society wants to know getting
Landing page: so fun, let your creativity some out but w/in confines
Refine your audience furtherCritical flaw = not making time to really careHazards = donât know how powerful, not creating cohesive ID from web to social, not adapting
Hootsuite: post to multiple accounts, see who connecting w/Bit.ly: How many clicks are you getting? How make your engagement betterSocial mention & radian track your success, see how stack up
Fine-tune your site & audience targeting & engagement by testing & failing for better ROICompetitors, criticism=gift, creativity time, ask customers feedback
What could this site do better? Talking head, no, no noNowhere to go?
Bit.ly see what works: Spike was asking social friends to mention my linkGardenGrants â customize, see a real phrase & curiousity
Holding you back? Throwing away to start new
Check your fearMost critical flaw: not asking questions & not caring about answersPowerof it, listen & learn | Set & forget
Usability: Feedback army & 5 second test: low-cost tools testing call to action
Design, audience, engagement, analysis: rinse repeat for refinement, not just guessing
WEB 2.0 navigate biz decisions
Now go make your website glow: Find and engage wppl who need you. More info on DE.com whitepapers to download, Happy to answer questions & thanks