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Landing page?
Question:
Thanks Mark, That is great feedback again Mark. Every point is well taken. Let me fill you in on some of those points: I was very active in the field for several years. I have now gone off on another business venture and have not accepted projects for the past five years. The site was really for other professionals in my area to search the internet. Very little commercial. Then I decided on a new business strategy where I would accept inquiries but have three other companies that I know do the work for them for a fee. The idea is to transparently move the inquirer to the other company by saying things like "…. we do lots of projects together" and "….xyz is the expert in your particular area". So the next thing they see is an email or call from one of my "service providers." I want to build a referral service that does not require much time, effort, and staff. I know this is a bit unusual but I want to see if I can make this model work. You are right about people wanting to meet us but sometimes it is phone, email, and proposals. I could do a glossary very easily and will do so. I know that I am light on examples of past work but everything I have is dated. My plan is to show some of the work that the service providers do and attribute it to them, of course. I am also going to show a better client list with logos, etc. that adds the service providers clients. Content is not the best because all my articles, etc. are dated as well. Also, I don’t want to sell them on me to heavily. I need to hand them off to another company. The services I am selling are the five mentioned. Each one is really different but related. Companies do have in-house people, hire on-site consultants, and hire design houses. We get work from companies that don’t choose to do this for one reason or another. The contracts can be from a small to mid-sized company all the way up to requests for proposals from large aerospace companies. There seems to be room for all. Many start-ups and smaller companies coming out with the next version of their product. We often compete against design houses but we charge much less, are more personalized, more engineering oriented, and usually win when in competition. We are heavy on engineering psychology and the design house is heavy on industrial design (aesthetics only). Big design houses like IDEO do both and are quite good. Most projects are fixed-fee for us. I hesitate to get industry specific or reduce the offering to one specialty. Combined with the service providers, we really can offer all five specialties and do get inquiries for all. Ergonomic Marketing is just a term I coined to refer to using engineering psychology as a way to design products that are easier to use and aesthetically pleasing in an effort to sell the product. Often, the work is done for products and systems that are used in-house rather than going to market. For example an aircraft, intranet, or server. But we don’t get into some of the other marketing things you mentioned: | packaging – point of sale materials – food, drink, | delivery to stock, reusability, environment, regulation, multilingual, | multinational, etc etc. I will be able to make a stronger impression when I add the project samples and client list for my service providers. Good point though. I am aware of the shortcoming. Keep in mind, I only want them to call me. Then the service provider sells me along with them. They are very good in their respective areas. I don’t do any speaking or do seminars these days. I used to do a lot of that but not any longer. I am trying to do this without it taking much of my time. The newsletter is a great idea but it tends to get to the same folks that are using the site for searching the Internet – other professionals in the area. I am afraid that I am not targeting past clients because the people have all moved on. So these are all new clients that recognize my name, company, or like the expertise they see on the web site. It is all web site generated business. Jacob Nielsen is the caliber of service provider I am using. I knew him from my Xerox Parc days and have great respect for him. I will check his techniques for promotion but I think he might be a good service provider for me. I think I will call him – a voice from the past. We are in the process of tracking search terms and results. The SEO campaign is just starting. I will know more in about a month. The idea of separating the commercial from non-commercial with a different URL is interesting but I might loose my search engine position for the second site. Also, since I don’t want to date myself, I can have a full site with lots of traffic and a high search engine position while offering services at the same time. I may be wrong about this but it seems right at the moment. I agree about making it easy for them to contact me with phone, mailto, and fax. I was just objecting to filling out a form. It seems like a pain and rather impersonal. Well, I think you see the picture. I may be trying to do this with one arm behind my back but when I get inquiries, I will be able to benefit from them. Thanks again for all the insightful ideas. My Best, Bob
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> Thanks Mark, > That is great feedback again Mark. Every point is well taken. Let me fill > you in on some of those points:
Interesting read. It looks like you are working to be a reseller, distributor or possibly even an affiliate site. All these terms are a bit confusing to me but they all imply some reselling of services. > Well, I think you see the picture. I may be trying to do this with one arm > behind my back but when I get inquiries, I will be able to benefit from > them.
I wonder if you have thought of charging for links on your site, a link from a high PR page on a similar topic subject is worth money to knowledgable webmasters because of the effect this can have on Google search results. > Thanks again for all the insightful ideas. > My Best, > Bob
Not at all, thank you Bob, it is always interesting to learn what people are doing on the internet. — Mark A. www.sticky-marketing.net
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| Interesting read. | It looks like you are working to be a reseller, distributor or possibly even | an affiliate site. | All these terms are a bit confusing to me but they all imply some reselling | of services. | I wonder if you have thought of charging for links on your site, a link from | a high PR page on a similar topic subject is worth money to knowledgable | webmasters because of the effect this can have on Google search results. Hi Mark, Yes, a reseller might best describe it. While, I will represent the other company as collegues who we work with on many projects and then transparently hand-off the work, the business relationsip would be that of a referrer or a reseller. I want to see if I can get this business model to work. I thought about selling links but the one person who asked did not want to pay enough. I tried to get $1200 per year but he would not bite. One problem for me is that I am trying to keep the links non-commercial or academic. I would be willing to change that but not for small change. Do you have a sense of what a link should cost on a site with about 6,000 unique visits per month? Thanks Again, Bob www.usernomics.com User Interface Design, Human Factors, Ergonomics, Training & Documentation
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> I thought about selling links but the one person who asked did not want to > pay enough. I tried to get $1200 per year but he would not bite. One problem > for me is that I am trying to keep the links non-commercial or academic. I > would be willing to change that but not for small change.
Not surprised at that Bob that is a high price. > Do you have a sense of what a link should cost on a site with about 6,000 > unique visits per month?
Bob take a look at some of the commercial directories out there offering specialised categories.. Yahoo costs $299 a year for the .COM categories, 199 once only for the ..co.uk categories. Business.com costs $99 dollars a year at the moment. The issue may be one of a large directory charging to cover the cost of checking the quality of submissions and then because it has increased its own value to visitors with quality, being able to sell advertising on top of this. These models are all in a bit of a state of flux. Yahoo.com changed their policy recently wrt search results listings which has many discussing the value of a directory submission there for the time being, business.com recently reduced their prices from $199 to $99 a year. It may not be worth your while, I would just be aware that a link from your site "can" be valuable especially if it delivers traffic. I would not get hung up about the value of Google PR assigned to your pages as what Google gives it can take away and usually does when it regularly tweaks its programmes. Witness legal action at this moment filed by search king. Hope that helps. — Mark A. www.sticky-marketing.net
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> I hesitate to use a form because I hate them. I want to make it easy > for them to contact me and I will often pass if it is a form that I > have to use. I did give them my phone number as an alternative though.
I agree, I hate forms too. But I think that is do to poorly thought out forms, rather than the form itself. Most make you answer a zillion questions and won’t accept the submission unless you answer them all. Just keep the form simple. Name, email address, free-form comments. Nobody should be put off by that, since it’s just as simple as creating an email message. Also reduces the spam you are going to get if you put a real email address up there 
John
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> | The questions I would ask Bob are: > | What terms are you targeting with your site? > | Which are you ranked by now in top 2 pages? > | Which terms are regularly searched for? > | Of these, which convert into business? > Hi Mark, > Thanks for the great feedback. I get about 400 unique visitors per day, rank > in the top 5 or 10 on almost all my keyword searches (but not all), but very > few inquiries. However, this is a big ticket item with a typical project > running $20,000 and going over $100,000.
Thanks for the response Bob I am glad you liked my initial feedback, perhaps a little brainstorm more. I would guess no one will sign up online to spend $100k without at least meeting someone I think you could show more content of your own. You could perhaps build the best glossary of ergo / user – nomic terms, post articles on the subject (assuming you are Dr Kaplan, Bob you must have generated a catalogue of articles in getting all your PHDs I am not clear exactly what service you are selling. It may seem a stupid question but many larger engineering companies employ temporarily contracted specialist consultants, they also employ outside design houses. Do you take projects at your own risk or join teams on projects at clients risk? I get the impression that you do or have done lots of interesting things. The risk of this is that one might not see a "speciality" focus jumping out either in technical application or industry sector. (I am probably ignorant, forgive me please) In Services you mention ERGONOMIC MARKETING – Designing for Marketability – Product Packaging for Marketability. Is this not a distinct market including packaging – point of sale materials – food, drink, delivery to stock, reusability, environment, regulation, multilingual, multinational, etc etc. Some organisations will have just this one speciality possibly just POS for one industry sector. I would expect a stronger impression about their expertise in that specific area on their websites than I get from your current one line entry on your services page. You could build a lot of content behind that one line as a sub link. Other promo ideas: You could generate proactive communications with an email newsletter or inside track information. Do you speak, hold seminars, have a travel schedule perhaps to trade shows where you could meet people for discussion? Are you targetting "new or old clients". I bet your clients are still developing products do you have other initiatives targetting winning new projects with existing / past clients? A well targetted email newsletter could maintain top of mind awareness with people who already gave you work. > The site is used by other professionals as a resource and I am trying to get > decision makers (executives or project managers). I now have an SEO working > on the search words with me and we are making progress. I have campaigns > running on Google and Overture.
Bob just a thought, you might like to explore Nielsen, the web usability chappie. He has I think built a career (certainly a reputation) out of usability on the internet and I believe gets good results from Internet (and other media) promotion. What you are working on must share more than a little with him. I wonder if looking at his approach to promotion would give you some new angles. > It is hard for me to know what converts to business but I am happy to know > which ones result in an inquiry. > Do you think I am going in the right direction?
Yes certainly the right direction. A page rank of 7/10 is an excellent start, it is clear that there is a commercial aspect to the site. It is perhaps not so normal to promote links to so many other sites so early or visibly in your site. Again I tend to try to remove any content on a commercial site which is not pushing the benefits of what the company has to offer so I would not have gone about it in this way. Your SEO or you should be able to track terms people arrive on from which referrer and filter which result in enquiries. I would think about making this site completely informational and the best resource on the subject while making a second site perhaps usernomics.net into your fully commercial site where you focus only on selling your services. BTW re web forms and mailto links, I would discretely enable all channels of communication, phone, mailto, form, post, fax. I think especially with big ticket items you should make it as easy as possible for potential clients to make contact. Hope that gives some food for thought. — Mark A. www.sticky-marketing.net
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| | Mark, | | I’d also suggest locking down the right margin so that the text on the | page does resize without restrictions. As is it will resize as narrow | as the two top graphics are wide. [ Excess quoted material elided by moderator. -JimL ] Hi Grahame, you addressed Mark in my thread and I was wondering if your comments referred to me (Bob K at www.usernomics.com or to Mark?? Thanks Grahame, Bob
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| I find the second paragraph on the welcome page too wordy. I run at | 800×600 resolution, and the ‘click here’ button was not viewable without | scrolling. Ideally, it would show without the user having to scroll down to | see it. If you trim some of the wordiness from the text you could probably | move it up enough. | > Any suggestions are welcome. | | Overall, I like the site. I think it’s clean and the navigation obvious. | You don’t need to add extra instuctions on how to navigate. (*Twice* on the | second page: "Site Navigation Buttons on Left" and "Use the navigation | buttons to learn more about us and about our disciplines.") Usually I would | say if you have to explain your navigation then you have a problem with the | design, but in this case I think you just need to delete the explanations. | There is nothing wrong with the navigation design. | | Since the most important aspect (to you) is to get people to contact you, | I’d think twice about using a mailto: link. A form would be better. For | technical reasons, "mailto" doesn’t always work. It depends on the user’s | email configuration. Also, they might be browsing on a machine that doesn’t | have an email client such as at a library or airport. | | John Hi John, I am in the process of re-writing the first two pages. Thanks for the heads-up. Thanks for the navigation direction duplication. Will remove. I hesitate to use a form because I hate them. I want to make it easy for them to contact me and I will often pass if it is a form that I have to use. I did give them my phone number as an alternative though. Thanks again John, Bob
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Mark, try exchanging the html keyword causing left-justify with "align".
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Mark, I’d also suggest locking down the right margin so that the text on the page does resize without restrictions. As is it will resize as narrow as the two top graphics are wide. I’ve sensed that more websites have tossed out the floating page width for professional pages. The advantages don’t outweigh the disadvantages, the primary of which doesn’t apply to your page… when imbedded graphics locked to either margin encroach into other paragraphs and when they collide with each other. Just lock the page width to something slightly less than 800 pixels (allow for browser edges etc.). Something from 720 to 770 should do nicely. Some people find dynamically adjusting page widths annoying while they are adjusting their open windows. Make sure you test your page with javascript and java turned off as not everyone enables these. I viewed the page without graphics enabled and it looked good – lots of companies have zero nongraphic content.
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> Mark, > I’d also suggest <
Grahame possible threading problem or misunderstanding. The site review is not of one of mine, it is of Bob Ks — Mark A. www.sticky-marketing.net
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| > 2. Clear that the action we want them to take is to contact us with their | > project. | > Any suggestions are welcome. | > www.usernomics.com | > User Interface Design, Human Factors, Ergonomics, Training & Documentation | | For what its worth, I wonder if you are asking because you don’t get many | conversions to date? | | If so I have to wonder about the business relevance of your target key terms | because your site has an excellent Google PR of 7/10 so you should be able | to get good and "free ranking" for many important terms without resorting to | pay for click which appears to the user differently to normal search results | even when they are overture inserted into SERPS. | | The questions I would ask Bob are: | | What terms are you targeting with your site? | Which are you ranked by now in top 2 pages? | Which terms are regularly searched for? | Of these, which convert into business? | Hi Mark, Thanks for the great feedback. I get about 400 unique visitors per day, rank in the top 5 or 10 on almost all my keyword searches (but not all), but very few inquiries. However, this is a big ticket item with a typical project running $20,000 and going over $100,000. The site is used by other professionals as a resource and I am trying to get decision makers (executives or project managers). I now have an SEO working on the search words with me and we are making progress. I have campaigns running on Google and Overture. I re-wrote the two pages at the advice of the SEO and others to make the site clearly commercial in preparation for the ad campaign. We are now in the process of analyzing the search terms as you suggested and will be pushing the ads over the next few weeks. It is hard for me to know what converts to business but I am happy to know which ones result in an inquiry. Do you think I am going in the right direction? Thanks Mark, Bob
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Hi Everyone, I am running a Google and Overture campaign for my professional services. The site focuses mostly on people in my field. I want to make it clear that we offer consulting services and are not just an academic site. Specifically, I wanted to give a potential customer an "action to do" once they landed on the site. I added a link to the first page if they are interested in consulting services. Then I added a new page that discusses consulting only and ends with a link to our email and phone. The action is to contact us. Could you look at these two pages and see if you think that they do the trick in terms of: 1. Clear that we are consultants and want business. 2. Clear that the action we want them to take is to contact us with their project. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks A Lot, Bob www.usernomics.com User Interface Design, Human Factors, Ergonomics, Training & Documentation
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> Could you look at these two pages and see if you think that they do > the trick in terms of: > 1. Clear that we are consultants and want business.
Yes. > 2. Clear that the action we want them to take is to contact us with > their project.
I find the second paragraph on the welcome page too wordy. I run at 800×600 resolution, and the ‘click here’ button was not viewable without scrolling. Ideally, it would show without the user having to scroll down to see it. If you trim some of the wordiness from the text you could probably move it up enough. > Any suggestions are welcome.
Overall, I like the site. I think it’s clean and the navigation obvious. You don’t need to add extra instuctions on how to navigate. (*Twice* on the second page: "Site Navigation Buttons on Left" and "Use the navigation buttons to learn more about us and about our disciplines.") Usually I would say if you have to explain your navigation then you have a problem with the design, but in this case I think you just need to delete the explanations. There is nothing wrong with the navigation design. Since the most important aspect (to you) is to get people to contact you, I’d think twice about using a mailto: link. A form would be better. For technical reasons, "mailto" doesn’t always work. It depends on the user’s email configuration. Also, they might be browsing on a machine that doesn’t have an email client such as at a library or airport. John
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> Hi Everyone, > I am running a Google and Overture campaign for my professional services. > The site focuses mostly on people in my field. I want to make it clear that > we offer consulting services and are not just an academic site. > Specifically, I wanted to give a potential customer an "action to do" once > they landed on the site.
Looks pretty clear to me that you are a consultant. BTW I get different fonts in MSIE5.5 and NN4.7 > Then I added a new page that discusses consulting only and ends with a link > to our email and phone. The action is to contact us.
I dont see any reason why not to add address phone and email links on every page of a commercial site small in a footer. After all you can’t always dictate where people will come in or what they will find interesting. > 1. Clear that we are consultants and want business.
I think its clear, plus you have a prominent link to "services" which could not be mistaken for anything else. > 2. Clear that the action we want them to take is to contact us with their > project. > Any suggestions are welcome. > www.usernomics.com > User Interface Design, Human Factors, Ergonomics, Training & Documentation
For what its worth, I wonder if you are asking because you don’t get many conversions to date? If so I have to wonder about the business relevance of your target key terms because your site has an excellent Google PR of 7/10 so you should be able to get good and "free ranking" for many important terms without resorting to pay for click which appears to the user differently to normal search results even when they are overture inserted into SERPS. The questions I would ask Bob are: What terms are you targeting with your site? Which are you ranked by now in top 2 pages? Which terms are regularly searched for? Of these, which convert into business? — Mark A. www.sticky-marketing.net