I critiqued a site last week for a sizeable firm of legal professionals (3 separate offices in the Midlands, more than a Million pounds turnover).
Their ‘cleanly designed’ corporate site has only 6 pages in total.
Four of those pages are all “About Us” (i.e. about them), and one page is a Contact form with very little text on it.
Finally, there’s the “Services” page… a rather sad little page that lists their services — about 20 of them — with only a single line per service.
And you can probably guess how many enquiries and how much business their site is currently generating. Virtually zero enquiries leading to no extra clients.
Your prospects are screaming for information.
I’ve spoken a lot about increasing online sales using techniques split-testing, conversion rate analysis, optimising sites and so on.
It’s true, there are tonnes of amazing software applications, tools, gadgets and gizmos that can boost the results you get.
But all of them require one key ingredient, without which they’re all useless. Content.
Compelling content really is king on the Internet, and the moment your web site starts providing more fascinatingly descriptive content, results will almost automatically improve.
So my advice to this company?
Well I obviously had a lot to say, but here’s the annotated version:
1) Start again! The current site is a total waste of time. Redesign the navigation so the focus is all about them… the visitor, not you, the company.
2) Separate each ‘service bulletpoint’ into at least one full and very descriptive (but not boring) page.
Give specifics on how services have helped people, and where possible give case studies and live example of actual results achieved.
And ideally have a lot more than one page for each service — maybe even separate web sites. It really is true that “the more you tell them more you sell”, especially for ‘considered purchases’… like choosing someone to defend you in court and win a legal battle on your behalf for example.)
3) Add features that compel visiting prospective clients to enquire. “Contact Us?” Phooey! How about a form on every service page, where the title of the form ties into the service itself?
Also, and critically, test those pages (especially the enquiry forms themselves) until the conversion of “visitor into enquirer” is optimised.
Those just for starters. My forthcoming book explains all of these principles in a lot more detail, and if you’re subscribed to this site, you’ll get it e-mailed for free on 1st Feb.
-Ed.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Well, that certainly is telling them!!!
This post not only tells a story of how you helped the law firm but also drops heaps of hints to anyone on the IM journey.
Thanks, Brendan.
February 8th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
This is excellent advice: create the website around the visitor! Obvious but so often overlooked!
Kenneth
March 6th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Thanks for submitting this article to the blog carnival at The Rhythm of Write. Please stop by to check out the blog carnival and to support the other writers to sent in submission. Have a great day!
Deborah
http://www.therhythmofwrite.com
August 16th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
This is something which I too have to say I have fallen prey to.
Writing for the customer is now on my to-do-immediately list. Thanks for the sound advice Ed. Just needed a gentle Shove, lol.
Dont suppose I am too late to get a copy of that book am I?
Kind Regards,
Liam