Do you have a web presence that wins? Find out key rules you MUST follow!

Like many other ambitious entrepreneurs is your website your store front? If you’ve answered ‘yes’ then this show is a must listen.

According to my guest – web strategy pioneer Philippa Gamse there are 42 rules you must follow if you want to build a web presence that wins. However, many websites don’t follow these rules and are therefore missing out on numerous opportunities.

Philippa talks about:

• Why you should stop obsessing over search engine rankings
• How to create emotionally compelling content for maximum visitor engagement and interaction (and results)!
• How to find and fix some of the “leaks” in your web presence that are costing you money and lost opportunities,
• And MUCH more!

Now over to Philippa to show us how to create a web presence that wins!

 

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Show Transcript: A Web Presence That Wins: Does Your Website Make the Cut?

Welcome to the Ambitious Entrepreneur show I am your host Annemarie Cross. Do have a website that that is not generating the results that you want web strategy pioneer Philippa Gamse from websites that wins joins me today to talk about why you should stop obsessing over search engine rankings. How to create an emotionally compelling contact from maximum visitor engagement interaction and results and how to find and fix some of those leaks in your web present that are costing you money and lost opportunities and so much more, so stick around.

As your ambitious entrepreneur, your website charge from virtual shop front. I know myself as a coaching consultant I offer services to the client all over the world and my website certainly plays an important role in my business and I am sure your website does as well in yours. However, have we got up our website set up correctly? Is a content that we are sharing on our website connecting and engaging with our audience and now we are missing on multiple opportunities that we are not even aware of? Now Philippa Gamse is a web strategy pioneer, author of 42 rules for a web presence that wins is going to answer all of those questions and lot more. So welcome to the call Philippa.

Philippa: Thank you. Good Morning. It is great to be here.

Annemarie: Now 42 rules for a web presence that wins and of course that is your book, we are going to be talking little bit more about that in a moment but first of all I am really impressed I mean your background since 1991 you have been working with internet applications?

Philippa: Yeah! I don’t know how much of you remember those days but I was working with the things. Do you remember the things that go for and tellnet? You could Tellnet into the library of congress and look at their catalogues and stuff like that. That was before the worldwide web but we were beginning to use email, we were beginning to use bulletin boards and I got interested in electronic communications in that stage so yeah, quite a long time.

Annemarie: Do you know when I started my business that is gosh going back about 16 and 17 years now. When people had their business obviously not many people had web presences. But now pretty much all we got web presence which is so exciting to catch up with you. Because there things that they are doing and not doing that is are they going to enhance or inhibit their web presence, obviously relationship with the customers and sales. So first for what are the some of the key messages of the book before we start looking at some of the individual rules?

Philippa: Well the real key messages the one that you just said which is actually the rule 41, one of the last rule in the book but it is basically it is booked nutshell that you got to have a strategy, you got to know what you are doing, you got to know what you are trying to do with your web presence, who do you are talking to and what do you want to achieve? Really importantly and lot of people don’t do that. How you are going to measure success? because that is very important question. It is not necessarily how much traffic you get in your web presence and success can mean very different things and very different people. So knowing what you feel good before you start or even dream into the process you know I see get into it is a really important things to figure out.

Annemarie: Because once you have a strategy, the things that you create, the things that you upload, the things that you share is very much going to be determined by what is your end goal. And I have spoken to many businesses that is come and check out my website and it is beautifully designed but when you look at it you will sort of think well it is really like a glorified brochure. What is it that you want people to do? I always had thought about that. we were just told that we need to be out in the web so we have and it is certainly does not build and add to yet their business goals because there is just a lack of strategy there. So you talk a lot about leaks, so what are the some of the common leaks that you see business owners when you are looking at their website?

Philippa: Yeah, let me just explain what I mean by that because as you said a lot of people do that to me too and they say oh could just take a look at my website and tell me what you think and you know the answer is no. Yes, I could look at your website but honestly what I think is really don’t have any bearing on it because that is surface of it. And it is like I created this sail boat in America which can look really beautiful on the surface and have this all links underneath the waterline that is stopping it and getting it how to burnt a whole lot of fuel and so on. And when you look into the real gut into the website and that really means digging into the analytics and really figuring out what is going around.

My business is around as pretty much as yours. I have been auditing web presence and websites since 1995. And over 95% that I have audited have left money on the table either they are losing out on revenue making opportunities and the things that they decide and outcomes that they are certainly not happening or because spending money on the resources and not getting anything back. So that SEO, paper click advertising is a huge place like a black hole for money getting down. So I just started to call them leaks and some of those leaks are really easy like the one that I just mentioned like paper clicks really important if you are doing that kind of advertising, so look at each and every keyword and make sure that every keyword and the page that people come to are really generating qualified traffic and conversions because if not you are pouring money away.

So another one is some of the one that you can see easily like I think it is rule 29 in the book. I can’t remember the numbers but there is a lot of research that shows the value of testimonials and how much really good testimonials can lift your conversion rate, raise your impact and someone and video testimonials more on these days than just text. And it is amazing the number of websites and they have all this copy and say we are the things and slice bread. Our customers say that we are incredible but there is no word from the customers. And it is way more valuable that your customers telling the world how great you are for you to say it.

Annemarie: Do you know many years ago I was at the business meeting and someone stood up and he developed website for the people and I thought you know why don’t and check some of the websites that he created and he also said that my background is in marketing and I thought all that is going to very impressive on all of the clients websites that he have statement at the top ‘Congratulations you have searched and found the best’ and I am thinking oh my goodness, as you said there is no validating customer testimonials. Is it if the business owner was saying we are wonderful you should not invest in us, you are not going to go the opposite are we and that is really is building trust without the site visitor.

Philippa: One of the other key messages that I have, one of them is leaks and one of the big messages that I like to talk about is the emotional connection because you are talking a lot about customer relationship and I know how that it is focus of what you like to talk about and in my experience the lot of websites are completely flat. I mean I can see their brochure but they can don’t really relate to the visitor as a person and especially when most of us business got different type of businesses who come to us may be for different products and services or may be the same product and services but they think about it differently or they visualize differently or they want different kinds and ways of interacting with us and most of us do a pretty bad job of figuring that out and structuring our web presence so that we take that into account and again emotional connectedness can make a huge difference on your outcomes. I have several books that I go through in the some of the things in that regards.

Annemarie: Yeah, I think we will certainly going to talk about on all of these things. A lot of people business owners really don’t understand what we can do to become more connected or have a web presence that is going to connect more on emotional level. And I looking here on the number of the rules and one of the rule 27, speaks the language of your visitors, do you want to talk a little bit more about that rule?

Philippa: I love that rule because it is very Win soft who is the true father of the internet in the US all goal claimed it but it is not true. Win soft actually invented Internet Protocol TCIP and I am really honored that he endorsed my book and he said that lot of my examples and rules are counter-intuitive and I got such a great compliment. And that rule is one of them because of the things that he says is that there are two aspects of it one is that don’t talk a lot of jargon, you know don’t assume that everybody who comes to your business website understands the jargon of your industry the geek speaks of your industry and that is great story about that. And the other side of that is literally thinking about the language that your customer speak because I have a lot of quote, I have all my resources and notes and prove everything I say, you know that says that when the people are in consumer mode so most of us businesses and we are consumers in our right, that the people are in consumer mode they are much more likely to buy up to 70% of more likely, interact with you and do business with you online if they can read about, what you talk about in their native language regardless if they speak English or not, just because they cannot speak English does not makes a difference.

So even if they are fluent in English if you have a large contingency of the people who speak different languages obviously in the US, we are talking Spanish for example, I do not know if you have a big foreign population in Melbourne, you have people who speak British English. But thinking about that and thinking about whether you want to consider having other languages on your site and the beauty of that is that if you do that in UK for example there is a large now polish population, so you can imagine that people are searching in UK for example in Polish, if you are using Google in UK, there aren’t be people who are competing Polish in their keywords on Google right. So you have a much better chance of appearing higher up in the searches if you are using that language. Now of course there is a catch to it is that you then have to expect that you might got lot of phone calls and emails in that language and you better have somebody who can respond to that.

Annemarie: Very important.

Philippa: You know there is a huge marketing benefit in such as thinking this way.

Annemarie: Oh! I think is so. And I think this is what people aren’t spending time and strategy look at the strategy who are our ideal clients, are they speaking different languages, is it going to be beneficial for us on the things that are on the websites that really is going to connect with them. You know the one other rule that I like to spend little time is rule 28 because actually the rule after you speak to the line of the visitors talk to the buyer behind the buyer. That is interesting.

Philippa: You are right. Well I am talking about there is people influence the decision who may not make the decision but they have a lot of influence on it and the thing is that you may not be conscious of them because you never speak or see them but they might be hanging out. I have examples of people who are like going back to counter-intuitive but my favorite example is client that runs child care for co-operative meeting and event. So there is a large convention where people out for several days and they bring their spouse and kids so that they have a child care services and I have been saying that for ages that we should have stuff from the kids about what great time that they are having on the convention because you can imagine that telling little Johnny that he is going to in big meeting and Johnny is saying Oh no.

And if the kids going wow this is going to be really bold and then it is all going to be different ball game right? And especially on the looks on that dad I really want to go to that then it might influence the buyer to use the childcare service.

Annemarie: Oh Absolutely! Parents will talk and kids will talk too and imagine you as a parent if someone as a child has an amazing time as a child care center you will certainly find out more on you know let’s book out children in there. So think about the buyer behind the buyer and it really is included. And you are talking about the testimonials that you imagine if you incorporate videos, testimonials and kids running around and laughing and being really happy. That could really be quite impact for that business.

Philippa: But I am also talking about business to business as well. I mean there are several examples in that rule just to me clear to everybody I mean thinking about if you have a very good technical web presence and your immediate buyer is very technical then don’t forget that they might send the chief financial or their purchase officer to check you out before writing that check to make sure that you are credible. And that is going to understand your Geek speaks. So trying to go back to their Greek Speak and language of your visitor but also the owner of the technical website always says to me everybody understands my stuff and no one comes to my website which is highly technical and that is not true. So really have to think more widely.

Annemarie: Philippa, I have jotted down so many notes already and I know you have more that you would like to share with us. So let’s take a very short break to hear from our sponsor and when we get back I know you will share some more rules to help us create web presence that really means.

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Annemarie: Welcome back we are speaking with Philippa Gamse, web strategy pioneer all about how to create our web presence that wins. And I think on rule 25 you talk about different strokes for different folks and one of the question that you often ask you write, how can we write copy that will appeal thousand hopefully millions of different visitors and I mean when you think about in that sense I can see how it can be quite confusing or block for the people who are sitting down and write a copy and thinking how on earth can I say something that is going to connect with that many people who have different needs and different styles all of those different things.

Philippa: And right so one of the rules before that talking about developing personas so really starting to think about model types of different type of visitors. And putting kind of flesh and blood details like names and genders and what they like and so on and then taking those and structuring your website you know different strokes talks about whether you want literally different parts of people to go down. So that you can really target and honoring on what they are more likely to hear about whether they are more visual, whether they want tones of data, you know where it makes sense to have different types of pages where it doesn’t have to think about that and remembering that there are some people who are religiously want quick access. You know they do not want to have tones of access; they don’t want to think about it. They just want to call you. Hopefully! So one of the things that I say to a lot of people is simple stuff like most people have their phone number at the top right corner, now that is like a stand up place to put in on the webpage. So think of that as soon as possible as you scroll it is gone.

So it is actually enough of room from having your phone number in several places at the top or bottom or any point. I mean it really pugs me when people say call us now and there is no phone number when you are going, okay great, so it is simple but wherever you say call us now, put the phone number right there.

Annemarie: So that is right so that people don’t have to go searching it is a hidden treasure where the telephone number is and it is so simple. And I tell you people are so time cause these days that they are not going to stay around and really look for the phone number if they got time and that is really true. And I think it all really gets back to what you said before. Have a strategy; what is your end goal and rule 18 talk about personify your visitors. You need be really clear on who is our ideal client, what is the messages, what is the wording, what is going to connect with them on emotional level and really create your web presence around that so that when your ideal client comes across your website you really are speaking directly to them and then their needs.

Philippa: And that little thing about the phone number also talks about the emotional connection piece because one of the emotions that we have to consider is motivation and engagement so when I am talking to them areas at any point where the visitors going well that is interesting tell me more or I am ready give me that or that kind of thinking. Right there you want call to action even if you repeat it another points. So you need to really look at what you are doing with your web presence identify those places where the visitors are like jumping around and make sure that right there you got what they need and they don’t have to search for it.

Annemarie: Would you say that because you mentioned something that is call to action, would you say that having audited so many websites that it tends to or people tends to miss that call to the action. Got people hooked in there and they are clicking on the website but there is no call to action. People are just sort of leave. Do you find that it is also a common leak?

Philippa: Absolutely! Yeah it is. I didn’t mention in what we are talking about leaks. Absolutely missing calls to action is one the biggest places where you can see it especially now you got in page analytics so you got something free like Google Analytics, you can see where in the page people click and that can be really instructive and so you can see them leaving, you can see the vacation summary, you can see the order in which they visit pages and it is amazing to me how many people say that but you know that is right there in the navigation box of it and somewhere else. And we all fall into this trap that would so use to seeing our own staff, of course we know that it is everything in our web presence and it is obvious. So it can be really intuitive to watch people trying to get around, give somebody do on your own website and stand behind them so that you are not influencing them and just watch them how to trying figure out to do it and it can be really instructive.

Annemarie: Yeah! That is true. I mean just an example yesterday and I was writing an article and I written a couple of sentences and I read them loud but then I left it for couple of minutes and I came back and do you know that I found word in there that I had completely glazed over because I know what I want to say and I have written there but that little grammar error I couldn’t see it I couldn’t read it and often we don’t see it because we know how to navigate that, we click through there, we click there because we often designed it, so it is really important as you say get someone else there, give them a couple of instructions and say you trying to find that and the results sometimes surprise you, you need to think wow I thought it was just so obvious. Yeah! Don’t take things for granted that is really important.

Look there are so many wonderful rules here and I loved the way that you have written it in very non-techy way. You know there are some books you read them and your eyes lays over because you think I have no idea what that person is talking about and I think your book 42 rules for web presence that wins really does provides us key elements and we can plug up those leaks and ways the results that we are getting from their presence. So it has been a wonderful to catch up with you and talk about some of those today. Now for people who are listening and perhaps recognizing that we don’t have a strategy in place then then results that we are wanting from our websites has really have not been on what we are looking for and we want to get some help.

How can people get a free preview of the book or get a copy of the book.

Philippa: Obviously! My website is called www.websitesthatwin.com and if you go there you can actually get a free preview which is a 5 sample rules in it plus the introduction and the list of the rules. That is available as free. By the way, I also do offer brief strategy sessions for people just as an introduction so that we can just have a chat, get a couple of ideas because obviously I am consultant and speaker so I do this for living. But I am happy to chat with people up front to see what they are doing and find the way to help them. Give them couple of ideas that I can and the books obviously is for sale and is on the kindle version and iTunes store.

Annemarie: Wonderful! So just say your website name so that people can jot that down and get in contact with you.

Philippa: So my website is www.websitesthatwin.com and I am sure you have the link from the recording on your site right.

Annemarie: Absolutely! We will certainly put that link through as well so that people can click through. Well thanks so much for coming in the show Philippa. Amazing information, I think that the things that we spoke about today people can go back and really start to look at their own website and say some oft these leaks, common leaks for us too and I am sure that if they want to some support they can reach out and get in contact with you.

Philippa: Great, thank you for great interview.

Annemarie: Fabulous.

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