Greetings WOW members and Web professionals everywhere. Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute.
Today?’s podcast is a continuation of the media coverage of Web Builder Conference, that took place in Las Vegas earlier this month. I had the pleasure to sit down with Sandra Niehaus, Creative Director and Vice President of User Experience, Closed Loop Marketing, a Web marketing and consulting firm based in Northern California.
I asked Sandra to summarize her session Web Design for ROI: Rocking Your Landing Pages. In her practical session Sandra covered real-world examples with actionable recommendations to improve the performance of your landing pages. Sandra also provides insights on the book “Web Design for ROI” that she co authored and a few tips for Web designers looking to sharpen their skills.
Check out today?’s four minute podcast on WOW Technology Minute website.
Today’s WOW Technology Minute is sponsored by Adobe Systems and their series of MAX conferences for 2008/2009
MAX is an experience unlike any other — an opportunity to connect with thousands of designers, developers, partners, executives, and Adobe staff for education, inspiration, and community. MAX 2008/2009 will be held in San Francisco, Milan, and Tokyo. Be sure to mark your calendar for this important global event.
MAX is an experience unlike any other — an opportunity to connect with thousands of designers, developers, partners, executives, and Adobe staff for education, inspiration, and community. MAX 2008/2009 will be held in San Francisco, Milan, and Tokyo. Be sure to mark your calendar for this important global event.
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Transcript of Web Design ROI
BILL CULLIFER: Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute, here at the Web 2.0 Las Vegas Conference. I have the pleasure to be interviewing and talking to Sandra Niehaus. She is the Vice President of–
SANDRA NIEHAUS: User Experience and the Creative Director for Closed Loop Marketing.
BILL: Great. Thank you. I appreciate that. You did a session today entitled…?
SANDRA: It was “Rocking Your Landing Pages.” So I talked about landing page design and testing.
BILL: Right on. What were some of the walk-aways? Can you summarize that session for us?
SANDRA: Yeah. I hit on some high points that have really been top of mind for me recently because they keep coming up again and again with clients. First of all, I hit on some basic elements that you must always have on your landing page. You always need to communicate who you are. You need to support your credibility while you do that. You need to make sure it?’s immediately communicated what your offer is. And you need to immediately communicate what the visitor should do next. So those three things – who you are, what you?’re offering and what the visitor should do next – should be immediately, instantly viewable and understandable when someone hits your landing page.
You go to so many landing pages and it?’s not clear, your identity isn?’t clear or it?’s not supported by credibility, credibility pieces like quotes or “as seen on Oprah” or something like that. The offer is often not clear and it?’s often really dense text or it?’s confusing, there?’s too many things on the page. Often the action itself, that you want people to take, is not clear. And that?’s usually because either the company is not clear on what their business goal is for the page. They don?’t know what they want it to do so of course that shows in the page design. Or it?’s because the designer didn?’t know what the business goal was so they didn?’t know how to emphasize the elements of the page properly. So those are three of the things I talked about at some depth today.
BILL: Yeah. I appreciate that. And also, you wrote a book, or co-authored a book, on Web Design ROI. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
SANDRA: Sure. “Web Design for ROI” is about designing websites with return on investment in mind. Not just because you need to check a checkbox, “Do we have a website? Yes” Check! Or not because it?’s a creative outlet, but because it?’s a business vehicle.
There are so many businesses now that have a web presence but they don?’t know why. They don?’t know why they have a website, honestly. And it drives us crazy. So Lance and I got together to write the book, “Web Design for ROI” because we wanted to help correct that. We wanted to help business people understand the power of the Web and Web Designers understand how they need to work towards business goals, that?’s the whole reason for the website being in existence.
So taking a look at your entire Web strategy, and we put together sample Web strategies for companies to look at. What is your Web strategy? Businesses have business plans, why don?’t they have a website strategy plan as well? They know what their goals are for their business, why don?’t they know what their goals are for their website? It?’s just a really frustrating situation but one that we think can be corrected with a proper mindset.
BILL: Excellent. Well said. One last question, a closing question if I could for you. For those designers listening to this podcast, those artistic individuals that are out in this economy, concerned or struggling about where they?’re going to get their next job or how they?’re going to interact with the corporation that they?’re currently employed with, do you have any closing advice on these tough economic times?
SANDRA: Sure. I think if you?’re looking to improve your skills and your salability as a professional Web Designer in this economy there?’s two areas to look. One is usability. There are a lot of designers out there who are very creative and talented but they don?’t know how to make things very useable and that?’s going to be crucial in Web design and all sorts of interface designs, whether it?’s games, whether it?’s other types of interactivity, all sorts of things. That?’s going to be very crucial coming up.
The other piece is for designers to understand about business. They should educate themselves as much as they can on different business models, what drives the business that they work for now. What are they trying to sell? What are their goals as a business? And educate themselves about other types of businesses too.
So those two things. Being a designer is one thing, being talented is one thing, but then adding to that, understanding how to make things easy to use and understanding what the business reason for that is, why you?’re making it easy to use, why are you making it beautiful. If you can educate yourselves in those two areas you?’ll make yourself much more saleable as a professional.
BILL: Very well said. Sandra, thank you so much for your time today.
SANDRA: Absolutely. Thanks Bill.