Do You Need Responsive Website Design?

The most effective website gives every visitor what they want. But consider this: even if you have everything they want, your visitors still might not see it. There is an assault of devices accessing the content on your website: desktop PC’s, laptops, tablets of all shapes and sizes, smartphones galore. All have different screen sizes. How can your website handle those screens? Not very well, in most cases.

multiple devices access your website

Photo credit by londoncyclist on Flickr

It’s time to respond, with responsive website design. Responsive website design is your answer to the device assault on your website. What is it and is it for you? Responsive website design makes your website content universally accessible across a number of devices, in an optimized format for that device. Sounds like magic. But is it?

In this episode of the Power to the Small Business marketing podcast, we ask an expert web developer to weigh in on this hot new trend in website design. Cory Webb is an web developer, author and Joomla specialist, and he joins host Jay Ehret to discuss the pros & cons of responsive web design, content management systems, and how to hire a responsive design web developer to create your website.

Guest: Cory Webb – Web Developer, Joomla Expert
Host: Jay Ehret of TheMarketingSpot.com

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Responsive Website Design Cheat Sheet

Responsive Website Design – An approach to website design that takes your existing website content and makes it accessible to all devices accessing your website.

CSS: Cascading Style Sheets – A programming language used by developers to design the look and feel of a website.

Javascript – A programming language used by developers to make websites more interactive.

CMS: Content Management System – Software on your website server that allows you to create, publish, and edit content on your website. The three major CMS platforms are WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.

Show Notes

Tips to hire a responsive website developer:

  1. Look for developers who have a lot of front end development experience.
    – HTML, CSS, media queries
  2. Look for developers who are familiar with the popular frameworks:
  3. Look for examples of responsive designs the developer has done.
  4. If they try to sell you a template, ask to see what your site, or others, look like with that template.
  5. Examine the examples across multiple devices.

Selected Podcast Quotes on Responsive Website Design

“Whether you do a mobile website or responsive website, you probably should do something. Because it really makes you look bad to the customer if you are not paying attention to those details.”

“A website is the most efficient and effective way to communicate with your customers.”
~ Cory Webb

Show Links:

Cory Webb responsive website designCory Webb on Twitter

WordPress
Joomla
Drupal

Website Conversion Science

Topic: Converting Website Visitors into Customers

Converting website visitors into customers

Podcast Episode #81 of the internet show about small business marketing


Your website exists to create customers. But how? Website visitors must be converted from visitor to customer. That’s where things get tricky, or should we say that’s where science comes in; conversion science.

In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Brian Massey, the Conversion Scientist joins host Jay Ehret to discuss how you use your website to get more leads and customers. He will describe the five primary website patterns and prescribe a conversion strategy for each.

Host: Jay Ehret – Chief Educator at TheMarketingSpot.com
Guest: Brian Massey – The Conversion Scientist
Length: 28 minutes

iTunes

— SHOW NOTES AND LINKS —

What is Website Conversion?

Find someone who is not a customer and convert them into a customer. On a website, it’s taking a visitor and converting them into either a lead or sale.

Five Website Patterns and Their Conversion Strategy:

I. The Brochure Pattern

Purpose is to provide enough information to whet the desire of a prospective customer and tell them how to get more information.

Strategy:

  • Design – Fits the personality of your business and your customers
  • Logical, Tree –like navigation
  • Contact info must be easy to find.

II. The Portal Pattern

Overall, the primary goals of a portal are to get people to stick around, to view more pages, and to join or subscribe.

Strategy:

 

Home page – Crucial to Conversion

  • Feature specific content
  • Highlight company and products, but don’t say too much about the company

Navigation

  • Site Search
  • Drill-down navigation, nested menus, links to related content
  • Highlight specific content
  • Author pages

Enrollment

  • Know your abandonment rate.
  • Eliminate friction and make it easy for people to sign up

III. The E-Commerce Pattern

Strategy:

Category Pages

  • Home page has specific offers
  • Keep non-selling information at a minimum
  • Have search on the pages

Product Pages

  • Show the product
  • All the info necessary to say “yes”

Shopping Cart

  • Flexibility and optimization

IV. The Considered Purchase Pattern

Strategy: Start a conversation by email

V. The Site-as-a-Service (Saas) Pattern

Strategy:

  • Sample the product
  • Use a Google style pattern to convert triers to buyers

Selected Advertising Quotes from Brian Massey:

On the importance of content in website conversion:

“He who has the best content has the best conversion rates.”

On website conversion strategy:

“We can’t really see conversion as a button color, or a landing page, or a specific event. It really is about picking the right strategy that gives you opportunities to convert visitors.”

On website conversion tactics:

“This is the key with conversion: your audience is going to surprise the hell out of you.”

SHOW LINKS

Brian Massey’s Website: www.ConversionScientist.com
Related Articles on Website Pattern Conversion Strategy:
The Five Core Patterns of Conversion Marketing

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WordPress for Small Business Websites

Topic: WordPress for website content management

wordpress-for-websites

Podcast Episode #76 of the internet show about small business marketing


One of the biggest headaches for small businesses is their website. When you add the cost of building a website, to the cost and time of maintaining that site, plus the pressure of keeping that website current… Well, maybe that pain is actually in the lower half of your body. Enter WordPress, the free content management software for websites. WordPress allows the entrepreneur to take control of their website and update and refresh the site at a moment’s notice. Depending on the technical savvy of the business owner, maybe even build the website themself.

In this episode of the Power to the Small Business podcast, WordPress coach Bob Dunn joins us from South Puget Sound, Washington to discuss how small business owners can use WordPress to effectively and efficiently manage their own website. Bob will answer several questions, including:

  • What is a content management system?
  • Can anyone put up their own website?
  • Why should WordPress be the choice?
  • How much should it cost?
  • What are the basics of getting a website up?
  • Should you use premium themes or not?

Guests: Bob Dunn – WordPress Coach and Trainer at BobWP.com
Host: Jay EhretTheMarketingSpot.com
Length: 31 minutes


iTunes
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SHOW NOTES

What is a website content management system?

A content management system is user friendly software that allows the small business owner instantly and directly manage and update their own website. The most popular website CMS are WordPress, Drupal and Joomla.

The Difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

WordPress.com is a free, hosted blogging platform in which the user does not own the site.
WordPress.org is free software that businesses may use as a content management system on a self-hosted website.

The Steps to Building a WordPress Website

STEP 1: Open up a free sandbox account at WordPress.com to get comfortable with the software.

STEP 2: Register a domain name for your website (if you don’t already have one).

STEP 3: Open a hosting account (we recommend BlueHost or HostGator)

Step 4: Install WordPress on your site. BlueHost and HostGator have an auto-install feature.

Step 5: Find and install a theme that works for you.

Top 5 WordPress Plugins for Small Business websites (premium or free)

  1. Akismet – For catching spam comments
  2. Google XML sitemap – Helps search engines see all of your website content.
  3. All in one SEO – Makes your website content more search-engine friendly.
  4. WPDB Backup or Backup Buddy (premium)- Backs up the data base of your website.
  5. Gravity Forms (premium) – Simplifies contact and other form creation for your website.

Two Bonus Social Sharing Plugins

  1. Digg Digg
  2. Sociable for wp 3.0

Show Links

Bob Dunn’s Website – BobWP.com
Bob Dunn on Twitter – @bobWP
Bob Dunn on Facebook – Savvy WordPress