Typical errors on web-studio own sites
Hi, Habr! I continue the series of articles on marketing and sales in web-studios / interactive agencies. In this article I want to talk about the studio’s own sites and the typical mistakes that their owners often make.
This digest is based on my decent experience in monitoring and analyzing websites in the web development market (research of competitors in ADV , monitoring and analysis of Tagline participants, conducting custom audits for studios, etc.).
I tried to systematize the main “bloopers” and omissions in several main categories, which I will dwell on in more detail:
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It's no secret that in our market there is a total problem with positioning. The overwhelming majority of companies do not outwardly differ from each other, they offer the same range of services, they equally say that they can do everything, and they are full-cycle agencies. Does this help in selling services? I doubt very much. I can highlight a few typical errors in terms of positioning, which are most common. Check yourself =)
Error "full cycle"
A typical example: “We are a young dynamic full-cycle digital agency. Our company was established in 2009, in the staff of 5 specialists. ”
Calling themselves a full-cycle agency and at the same time not two dozen companies on the market can win their heads. But this is not the main thing. Being positioned as a full-cycle agency (read - adding to the list services that you don’t know how to provide) you erode your area of ​​specialization, distract the client’s attention from services you are really professional in. In addition, the vast majority of companies are positioned that way, so you can not stand out.
Look for unique positioning points, write the truth, focus on key benefits and key services. A client is much more likely to contact a company whose profile is a deep analysis of conversion on promotional projects than to an “agency” whose list of services provided is greater than the number of employees in the state.
Error "separation from reality"
Often, when developing a website, emphasis is placed on design and creativity, and not on compliance with real key competencies. Design is beautiful and good, but it is only a tool that should help correctly convey the message to the client. On the market there is a huge number of companies specializing in complex functionality (web integrators), whose sites look like creative boutiques. Such discord is confusing to the client and, as a result, reduces conversion.
Error "mismatch price range"
This is a fairly frequent and slightly paradoxical thing. Some companies that operate in the low price segment make very beautiful and “expensive looking” sites. A potential client has the potential feeling that “it’s probably very expensive here”. Does this mean that you need to make the site "easier / worse"? Of course not. You just need to more clearly indicate your price range. I am not a supporter of specifying direct prices for the development of a site (a business card site is so much, an online store is so much), but you can specify approximate hourly rates of specialists, this will give the customer the opportunity to get oriented.
Error “what are you talking about?”
The standard error of first-tier companies and other companies who are sure that everyone knows them. The main pages of such companies often contain a bunch of different information, creativity, blog posts, some funny things and presentations. But. Often, there is nowhere stated what they actually do! I assure you, the average client has heard, God forbid, about the studio of the Lebedev, and all the other brands of our market will hardly say anything to him. Do not engage in nonsense, indicate directly what kind of services you sell.
Pink Elephant Error
A typical example: “A pink elephant with a bee sting is drawn on our main page. Buy sites from us! ”
Very often, a creative for the sake of creativity covers the studio's eyes, and she thinks that placing some kind of incomprehensible creative stuff on the site will help to show how cool she is. It's not like that at all. Well, that’s not true at all. Creativity should have an absolutely clear and clear goal - to convey a certain thought / feeling to the respondent. By itself, a pink elephant will not only help you, but will also scare away a client who simply does not understand what it is.
In this area it is difficult to classify typical errors, but this does not cease to be more important. The overwhelming majority of companies in the market incorrectly place priorities / emphasis on their sites. I mean viuzal, “weight of information blocks”, pages layout. To test your site and avoid these errors, I recommend the following simple manipulations:
Company Description
This section is present on 99% of studio sites. And in 99% of cases contains a standard gray text about a young ambitious team. There is absolutely no sense in such a text - the customer is not an idiot (well, let's count on it).
Write something really unique, intimate, that characterizes only your company. Unleash the atmosphere within the team. Show how the process is built. Nothing to write? Then, most likely, you are busy with the wrong business.
Description of services
Here most of the sites are between the two extremes. The first is a list of services with brief annotations. Like, engaged in SEO, it will allow you to attract targeted visitors from search engines. The second extreme is the immense "footcloth" with the most detailed and boring description of the smallest technical details.
Both extremes are bad. A brief description will not allow the client to receive new information, and no one will read the footwoman until the end.
In the description of services, it is important to tell not only about the service itself (the client probably knows something), but about the peculiarities of providing this service in your company, to show how the interaction will be built (this is interesting for the client first). If you have a large text - use visual techniques and page layout to highlight key facts, give references to cases on these services.
If you are a full-cycle agency - the last thing to give is just a list of services. The idea of ​​full cycle is that you provide a complex. Tell us about strategy development, how a customer’s life cycle in a company is built, how different communication channels, tools, etc. are combined.
Team presentation
The team is one of the main advantages of almost all companies on the market. And a very small number of sites contains information about employees. If they indicate personalities, then they are as “roles” in the description of projects in the portfolio. Such a format is more for employees themselves than for clients. One line “project manager - Vasya Petrov,” the customer does little to bring useful information about your team.
Show employees by face, post their quotes, opinions, success-stories. This will have a good effect on communication with the customer, allowing him to better imagine how the interaction will be built.
But the thesis that it is worth posting information about employees on the site - how they will immediately begin to be hunted is more likely a myth. In the era of total distribution of social networks, information about your employees can be easily found without your website, and hunters are well aware of this.
Customer reviews
The site needs customer feedback, most do not have them, although collecting them is a matter of one or two days.
"A couple of words about"
Most of the sections of the portfolio on the studio sites are a list of works in which the name of the project is indicated, a small screenshot, a few words about the client’s activities, a link to the site (and not always). Sometimes the screenshot is large and there are several. And SEOs and just give a list of customers, without any description.
So you do not sell the elephant (s). The client is interested not in the description of the activities of the Lukgazneftekhim company, but on what task it faced and how you solved it. By itself, a screenshot of the site is useless in 80% of cases.
Portfolio - the most valuable baggage of the company, so you need to work with its design. You have hundreds of works, and too lazy to write about everything? First, do not be lazy. Secondly, highlight key projects and describe them in detail. Select them in the general list. Put yourself in the client's place - he will not watch hundreds of sites, it is important for him to know the squeeze and the most interesting.
Rubricator portfolio by industry and type of service
Surely met sites that have a couple dozen projects in their portfolio, which are categorized in 15 areas of client activity? No comments. Or splitting a portfolio by type of service, where 8 out of 10 areas in the portfolio have one or two jobs.
“Cases? What are the cases?
This is probably the most sensitive issue. All over our market there are literally a few sites that contain detailed cases describing the client’s original task, ways to solve it, quantitative data on the results, communication schemes, information system architecture, etc. I’m not talking about beautiful commercials where screenshots of the site fly into pieces - plenty of them.
It is so strange that I still can not find a clear explanation. The client (and especially when we are talking not about business cards, but about the results, which can be expressed in specific KPIs - ecommerce, promotion campaigns, promotional projects, etc.) is super important to see how you solved their problems and what they achieved. The standard description of the project in the portfolio will not help this - you need a detailed version, full-fledged material with an abundance of numbers, quotes from participants in the process, etc. Why do not they do this, for example, SEOs, is this very “meat” for the client? I do not understand…
"Customer - reader"
On the vast majority of sites, the client is in the role of a static reader. Here's a booklet for you, read it. There are no promotions, direct speech of employees, interactive tools, blogs, SM integration, even the order / question forms are missing. It's all clear. Involve the customer in the process of interaction with the site, encourage him to perform the necessary actions. Entertain him finally.
"Dear fellow system administrator, let's talk about branding"
Many studios do not understand the specifics of their target audience, communicating with them in incomprehensible slang, use incomprehensible terminology, style of presenting information. If you are doing promotional sites - it is hardly worth writing about cluster architecture and programming languages. If you sell complex automation solutions - it makes no sense to talk about branding, etc.
Speak to the customer in a language he understands. At one time, I wanted to do on the website of one of the companies a special “marketing corner, brand manager, IT director”, where to submit information using the terminology familiar to the selected specialist.
“I’m answering your incoming outgoing”
The other side of the medal is too official, formalized style of presenting the text. This is not like anyone (except, perhaps, officials). Even if you chose this copywriting style, dilute it with more human direct speech of employees, inserts of creative pieces, etc.
"SEO-shnyaga"
The scourge of companies that provide SEO services is healthy chunks of text (both in the main content zone, and in the form of footer sackcloths), “optimized for search engines” - constantly repeated key phrases, emphasis on cursive, italic, etc. It is impossible to read this bredyatinu. Maybe you can attract additional traffic with these techniques, but a catastrophic reduction in conversion on such “garbage cans” will spoil you and this traffic, and all customer traffic in general. Do not do this. You are welcome.
It is quite obvious that the absence of the listed errors on your website is not a guarantee of its effectiveness. But their presence - almost certainly indicates that you are far from ideal.
What other common mistakes did you encounter on studios and agencies sites? How to avoid them? Let's discuss =)
This digest is based on my decent experience in monitoring and analyzing websites in the web development market (research of competitors in ADV , monitoring and analysis of Tagline participants, conducting custom audits for studios, etc.).
I tried to systematize the main “bloopers” and omissions in several main categories, which I will dwell on in more detail:
- Positioning errors;
- Prioritization errors;
- Incorrect presentation of the company and services;
- Incorrect presentation of the portfolio and cases;
- Errors in communication with the customer;
')
1. Positioning
It's no secret that in our market there is a total problem with positioning. The overwhelming majority of companies do not outwardly differ from each other, they offer the same range of services, they equally say that they can do everything, and they are full-cycle agencies. Does this help in selling services? I doubt very much. I can highlight a few typical errors in terms of positioning, which are most common. Check yourself =)
Error "full cycle"
A typical example: “We are a young dynamic full-cycle digital agency. Our company was established in 2009, in the staff of 5 specialists. ”
Calling themselves a full-cycle agency and at the same time not two dozen companies on the market can win their heads. But this is not the main thing. Being positioned as a full-cycle agency (read - adding to the list services that you don’t know how to provide) you erode your area of ​​specialization, distract the client’s attention from services you are really professional in. In addition, the vast majority of companies are positioned that way, so you can not stand out.
Look for unique positioning points, write the truth, focus on key benefits and key services. A client is much more likely to contact a company whose profile is a deep analysis of conversion on promotional projects than to an “agency” whose list of services provided is greater than the number of employees in the state.
Error "separation from reality"
Often, when developing a website, emphasis is placed on design and creativity, and not on compliance with real key competencies. Design is beautiful and good, but it is only a tool that should help correctly convey the message to the client. On the market there is a huge number of companies specializing in complex functionality (web integrators), whose sites look like creative boutiques. Such discord is confusing to the client and, as a result, reduces conversion.
Error "mismatch price range"
This is a fairly frequent and slightly paradoxical thing. Some companies that operate in the low price segment make very beautiful and “expensive looking” sites. A potential client has the potential feeling that “it’s probably very expensive here”. Does this mean that you need to make the site "easier / worse"? Of course not. You just need to more clearly indicate your price range. I am not a supporter of specifying direct prices for the development of a site (a business card site is so much, an online store is so much), but you can specify approximate hourly rates of specialists, this will give the customer the opportunity to get oriented.
Error “what are you talking about?”
The standard error of first-tier companies and other companies who are sure that everyone knows them. The main pages of such companies often contain a bunch of different information, creativity, blog posts, some funny things and presentations. But. Often, there is nowhere stated what they actually do! I assure you, the average client has heard, God forbid, about the studio of the Lebedev, and all the other brands of our market will hardly say anything to him. Do not engage in nonsense, indicate directly what kind of services you sell.
Pink Elephant Error
A typical example: “A pink elephant with a bee sting is drawn on our main page. Buy sites from us! ”
Very often, a creative for the sake of creativity covers the studio's eyes, and she thinks that placing some kind of incomprehensible creative stuff on the site will help to show how cool she is. It's not like that at all. Well, that’s not true at all. Creativity should have an absolutely clear and clear goal - to convey a certain thought / feeling to the respondent. By itself, a pink elephant will not only help you, but will also scare away a client who simply does not understand what it is.
2. Prioritization errors
In this area it is difficult to classify typical errors, but this does not cease to be more important. The overwhelming majority of companies in the market incorrectly place priorities / emphasis on their sites. I mean viuzal, “weight of information blocks”, pages layout. To test your site and avoid these errors, I recommend the following simple manipulations:
- Write out (without opening the site) the five most important facts about your company, which should prompt the client to use your services (preferably in order of priority). This may be an indication of your specialization, some facts from the company's life, key projects / cases, etc. Now open the site. Are all these facts reflected on the main page? Are there any other blocks that would surpass them in weight / degree of attraction of attention? Is the priority of following these blocks observed?
- Ask your friends from outside the industry to open the site and within three seconds tap your finger into the block that most attracted their attention “by spot”. The result may surprise you greatly.
- For the coolest: do a full test on the focus group using eye-tracking tools.
- Do the same for the main pages as well as for the main pages.
3. Incorrect presentation of the company and services.
Company Description
This section is present on 99% of studio sites. And in 99% of cases contains a standard gray text about a young ambitious team. There is absolutely no sense in such a text - the customer is not an idiot (well, let's count on it).
Write something really unique, intimate, that characterizes only your company. Unleash the atmosphere within the team. Show how the process is built. Nothing to write? Then, most likely, you are busy with the wrong business.
Description of services
Here most of the sites are between the two extremes. The first is a list of services with brief annotations. Like, engaged in SEO, it will allow you to attract targeted visitors from search engines. The second extreme is the immense "footcloth" with the most detailed and boring description of the smallest technical details.
Both extremes are bad. A brief description will not allow the client to receive new information, and no one will read the footwoman until the end.
In the description of services, it is important to tell not only about the service itself (the client probably knows something), but about the peculiarities of providing this service in your company, to show how the interaction will be built (this is interesting for the client first). If you have a large text - use visual techniques and page layout to highlight key facts, give references to cases on these services.
If you are a full-cycle agency - the last thing to give is just a list of services. The idea of ​​full cycle is that you provide a complex. Tell us about strategy development, how a customer’s life cycle in a company is built, how different communication channels, tools, etc. are combined.
Team presentation
The team is one of the main advantages of almost all companies on the market. And a very small number of sites contains information about employees. If they indicate personalities, then they are as “roles” in the description of projects in the portfolio. Such a format is more for employees themselves than for clients. One line “project manager - Vasya Petrov,” the customer does little to bring useful information about your team.
Show employees by face, post their quotes, opinions, success-stories. This will have a good effect on communication with the customer, allowing him to better imagine how the interaction will be built.
But the thesis that it is worth posting information about employees on the site - how they will immediately begin to be hunted is more likely a myth. In the era of total distribution of social networks, information about your employees can be easily found without your website, and hunters are well aware of this.
Customer reviews
The site needs customer feedback, most do not have them, although collecting them is a matter of one or two days.
4. Incorrect presentation of portfolio and case studies.
"A couple of words about"
Most of the sections of the portfolio on the studio sites are a list of works in which the name of the project is indicated, a small screenshot, a few words about the client’s activities, a link to the site (and not always). Sometimes the screenshot is large and there are several. And SEOs and just give a list of customers, without any description.
So you do not sell the elephant (s). The client is interested not in the description of the activities of the Lukgazneftekhim company, but on what task it faced and how you solved it. By itself, a screenshot of the site is useless in 80% of cases.
Portfolio - the most valuable baggage of the company, so you need to work with its design. You have hundreds of works, and too lazy to write about everything? First, do not be lazy. Secondly, highlight key projects and describe them in detail. Select them in the general list. Put yourself in the client's place - he will not watch hundreds of sites, it is important for him to know the squeeze and the most interesting.
Rubricator portfolio by industry and type of service
Surely met sites that have a couple dozen projects in their portfolio, which are categorized in 15 areas of client activity? No comments. Or splitting a portfolio by type of service, where 8 out of 10 areas in the portfolio have one or two jobs.
“Cases? What are the cases?
This is probably the most sensitive issue. All over our market there are literally a few sites that contain detailed cases describing the client’s original task, ways to solve it, quantitative data on the results, communication schemes, information system architecture, etc. I’m not talking about beautiful commercials where screenshots of the site fly into pieces - plenty of them.
It is so strange that I still can not find a clear explanation. The client (and especially when we are talking not about business cards, but about the results, which can be expressed in specific KPIs - ecommerce, promotion campaigns, promotional projects, etc.) is super important to see how you solved their problems and what they achieved. The standard description of the project in the portfolio will not help this - you need a detailed version, full-fledged material with an abundance of numbers, quotes from participants in the process, etc. Why do not they do this, for example, SEOs, is this very “meat” for the client? I do not understand…
5. Errors in communication with the customer
"Customer - reader"
On the vast majority of sites, the client is in the role of a static reader. Here's a booklet for you, read it. There are no promotions, direct speech of employees, interactive tools, blogs, SM integration, even the order / question forms are missing. It's all clear. Involve the customer in the process of interaction with the site, encourage him to perform the necessary actions. Entertain him finally.
"Dear fellow system administrator, let's talk about branding"
Many studios do not understand the specifics of their target audience, communicating with them in incomprehensible slang, use incomprehensible terminology, style of presenting information. If you are doing promotional sites - it is hardly worth writing about cluster architecture and programming languages. If you sell complex automation solutions - it makes no sense to talk about branding, etc.
Speak to the customer in a language he understands. At one time, I wanted to do on the website of one of the companies a special “marketing corner, brand manager, IT director”, where to submit information using the terminology familiar to the selected specialist.
“I’m answering your incoming outgoing”
The other side of the medal is too official, formalized style of presenting the text. This is not like anyone (except, perhaps, officials). Even if you chose this copywriting style, dilute it with more human direct speech of employees, inserts of creative pieces, etc.
"SEO-shnyaga"
The scourge of companies that provide SEO services is healthy chunks of text (both in the main content zone, and in the form of footer sackcloths), “optimized for search engines” - constantly repeated key phrases, emphasis on cursive, italic, etc. It is impossible to read this bredyatinu. Maybe you can attract additional traffic with these techniques, but a catastrophic reduction in conversion on such “garbage cans” will spoil you and this traffic, and all customer traffic in general. Do not do this. You are welcome.
Conclusion
It is quite obvious that the absence of the listed errors on your website is not a guarantee of its effectiveness. But their presence - almost certainly indicates that you are far from ideal.
What other common mistakes did you encounter on studios and agencies sites? How to avoid them? Let's discuss =)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/121053/
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