So, you have your business up and running things are going good. You decide you better get a website online, seeing as how everyone else has one, right. Well have you ever taken a step back and asked yourself ‘why’ ?

If you stop to think, why exactly are you putting up the site, you can begin to get some really valuable information that can be used in the building of the website. The general answers to the why question are :

• I want to showcase my products
• I want to attract more potential clients
• I want to create more awareness for my service

Ok, these are all good answers, but there is a bit more delving to be done. For example, you want to attract more customers, ok cool. So you have attracted these new customers (let’s pretend you have some SEO in place and have managed to get visitors to your site in the first place), what exactly do you want these new visitors to do ? If you have an online product, presumably you want them to purchase it, right ?

Well, here is where the art of conversion comes into play. Gone are the days when you can just have a pretty site and the customers come flocking. These days, with sooooooooooooo much competition online, you really need to bring your A game. So here are a few suggestions.

Creating a path for your visitors to follow :

Ok, so the visitor has arrived at your site, attracted in by finding you with the relevant keywords they typed into one of the search engines. Let’s say you sell remote control helicopters. Your homepage should showcase you best selling models, or alternatively the models you want to sell the most. There needs to be a clear path for the viewers to take, meaning, you need to lead them toward an action, in this case the action being a purchase. Sites like Amazon do this very well, having spent thousands on researching what works best for their visitors. On a much smaller scale you can think “how could this work on my website.”

What do you want the viewer to ultimately do ? (purchase, enquire, download etc etc) How can you go about leading them toward that task (explainer videos, simply clearly defined steps, limiting options to keep task simple, uncluttered landing pages, etc). There are several ways you can go about this.

If you take a look at the Pixelo homepage you can see the path I have laid out for the visitor. Upon reaching the site the viewer is greeted with an animated explainer which mentions the services Pixelo provide, why we are good at them and how these services can benefit you (we use the analogy of Tom the toy car salesman). The large graphics point toward the action to take (see our work / get in touch). By limiting the choices on the page, the likelihood of these actions taking place is increased. This is not to give the viewer less options, but to unclutter the viewing area and give them exactly what they searched for. The ultimate aim of all this being to increase the number of enquiries (site conversions) which can lead to sales.

In the next newsletter we will take a look at how heat-mapping can help tell you what parts of your site your visitors use the most, which are not getting the attention they deserve and how you can use this information to restructure your page in the most beneficial way possible.

Flyers come in a range of sizes, the most common being A5. There are also A4 and DL versions (these being the most common types). Generally you can say all you need to using an A5 or a DL, anymore and we would generally recommend getting a Tri-fold brochure (like the one below) to showcase your business offerings.

So if you have an idea in mind for a brochure design, get in touch and let us come up with a custom design to showcase your business.

Your site can have all the bells and whistles in the world. Flashing lights, spinning buttons and fancy sound effects, but if the content is poor, your visitor won’t stay very long. When preparing the content of your site, take your time. Think about what your viewer will want to read. Are you an expert in your area, write about what you know and the results will speak for themselves. Employing a content writer is always a good idea, as they will litter your content with keywords, which will help you out in terms of SEO. If grammar and the gift of writing are not your strong points, outsource.

Go to the contact page if you are after a quote for copywriting.

Every page of your site needs to be planned out in detail. Write them all out, print them out, show them to workmates, take on board their comments. Visit as many sites as you can that are performing well, what have they got on theirs ? Only after several drafts should you contemplate handing over the content to the designer. Sure you can change it later, but from a cost and SEO point of view, it is better to get it right from the start.

Remember your content is more than just text. Consider what photos, pdf’s, links etcetc you want to include.

Consider your site’s structure:

How is your site going to be laid out ? How will a viewer get from page A to page X, then how easy is it to get back home ? These are all elements to consider when laying out your site. A basic flow chart will help give you a visual as to how things will end up. A flat navigation structure should be aimed for.

How many sites have you clicked on, they looked crappy, so you leave. We are a very fickle creature, and looks mean a lot to us, so it is in your best interest to make your site look as appealing as possible.

Assuming you have your branding in place across your logo and graphics, have your designer apply that theme over the site. You want your site to be consistent with branding, so colours and graphics should all be in line with your current style.

Pay attention to factors such as fonts, both style, size and colour. Not everyone’s vision maybe as good as yours, so you must allow for the various types of users that will be using your site. Try to make the experience as straight forward and intuitive as possible. Check W3 standards if you are a little unsure about how to best lay things out.

Proofreading

How does the site look in a range of browsers, or on your iPhone/iPad. Make sure you check all of this well. In terms of content, make sure you get someone to proof read it for you. Do not proofread your own stuff, by now you have read it so many times you will miss bits, so get someone else with a fresh pair of eyes to do it for you.

Do all the links work, do the images download quickly, how about forms and email links ??? Forms can be a bit of a nightmare, so make sure you test these well.

Launch Tme

Once you have done all this, you are ready to go. Get her uploaded and get the visitors in. You might want to consider employing the services of a SEO company at this stage to help you get a good ranking on the search engines.

You will want to keep an eye on how your site is doing, so some stats might be helpful. Google Analytics is the leader in this field, and it’s free, so get that hooked up. This will tell you all sorts of useful information – what pages are most viewed, who is clicking what etcetc. All pretty useful stuff.

So there you have it, a basic rundown on how to get your site up and running.

Plan it well &goodluck.

Pixelo were recruited to provide the promotional goalposts and other bells and whistles that helped make the event a success.

Above is a recent illustration we did for a Triple M event in Sydney.

Often illustration can be used to create a character that the public can identify with. Take for example Louie the bug from the Mortein adverts. He has become very well known throughout Australia and serves as an emblem of the company that the public can easily identify with.

Custom illustration can also be used to great effect in product mockups. Take for example this illustration we created for the children’s outdoor game ‘Yardkids’. The custom illustration was coupled with a 3D mockup to give a feel for initial prototypes during the mockup stages. It was much easier to visualise the final product with this image than with a regular 2D image or sketches.

T-shirt design, custom illustrations for brochures and promotional designs, such as this sticker design below are a few more of the more frequent requests we get for custom illustration.

If you would like a custom illustration of your own, get in touch with us, we would be glad to send you over a free quote.