Making engaging About Us pages that inspire action

A key reason why webmasters and business owners overlook the quality of an About Us page is because they feel it doesn’t relate to product enquiries or the exciting benefits and values that other product pages do. Neglecting the About Us page however, can do damage to product and conversion pages themselves. The main people who read your About Us page may be looking to build some understanding and trust before ‘taking the leap’ to buy or contact you, or they may simply want the feel of some human personality to know they’ve found something unique. Because of this, you need to make sure that you are doing what you can to stand out, represent, and invest your ideals into the readers mind in this space.

 

Give vital Information

What do you actually do? How do you do it? Finding this information is probably the reason why about 90% of your users are on the About Us page to begin with. Try not to delve deeply into impressive statistics or what your strong beliefs about your industry are before confirming with potentially high-end users that they’ve definitely come to the right place.

 

Get personality and benefit across clearly

When we discussed the importance of conveying a consistent feel and attitude across logo, brand name, headings and more, this also applies to the About Us page/s and can be achieved fairly simply.
Think about what personality is going to be consistent from introduction to giving information and to sale, and how that can be conveyed in your language. Are you a highly experienced firm that is proud of its achievements and has historical points of interest? Are you a fun and exciting gym that loves all of its members? Whatever your stance is, it needs to come across in your writing in such a way that your audience immediately picks up on the vibe and feels included. When they leave your About Us page to look at products or content, they should continue with the same mood you set them up with.

 

Be social

Does your business have a figurehead that is commonly involved in several aspects of customer interaction? Be sure to list them right at the top with a happy profile picture and description.
Are there also key staff members that make the business what it is? Be sure to list them and their positions as well. Some websites list their staff with descriptions a whole new web page in an effort to engage the idea that certain fields of services or outcomes are handled by very personal and professional experts.

 

Give proof where appropriate

Testimonials and success stories have several homes on most websites, and the About Us is a great place to list your best. Be sure to cover the scope of your key services and benefits, and don’t get stuck into the details - your user should be able to simply understand how their needs might relate.
Other helpful aspects to include are authentication and awards. Keep it short and sweet as you may need to update this regularly, and provide some simple imagery to get the point across. If you have some stand out strategic partnerships or previous users be sure to list them.

 

Use simple and effective design

Layout, colouring and design elements should allow users to begin and finish reading where you want them to in the most straightforward way possible. Although, this is easier said than done… here are some ideas that might help you out using the UK Coca-Cola About Us page as an example.

‘Introducing our business’ kicks your journey off with prestige, you don’t even have to click on the article to learn the big impressive numbers they want you to know.
‘Our Leadership Priorities’ gives an up to date nod to the company’s Corporate Responsibility, which does wonders for their public image and what you quickly learn about the brand’s personality.
After the big boxes about where the company came from, what they’re up to now and where they’d like to go is done, you have a mini-library of options to choose from and continue to become engaged with the business. And on the side of these pages is a constant ‘browse our brands’ option users notice that makes it all worthwhile!

 

Finally, think about your SEO, and links to more options

Hopefully after reading other Online Marketing Guides, this is already in the forefront of your brain whenever you’re making new webpages or testing out new marketing ideas. If there’s a logical path to calling you after an explanation of the team; add a link to ‘contact us’. If there’s a small spiel about the helpful information you give to your followers, share a link to subscribing or your social pages. Remember to make sure that your hyperlinks are smart and SEO primed.

 

Finding the mix of writing, design and SEO difficult?

Career Exchange can help allied health clinic websites to get back on track with engaging webpages so that you can increase your influx of natural interest. Our team has the design, writing and SEO marketing capacity to tackle almost any challenge and we are geared to the clientele challenges that allied health Australia face. To chat about what might be possible contact 03 9670 9590 or email info@careerexchange.com.au.

Homepage Layout – using the customer’s expectations to your benefit

One thing we repeatedly tell all small business owners making or renewing their website is that “The homepage is not a destination, it is a starting point.” This is because people will rarely ever make their final decision on enquiring, buying, or other ‘conversion’ actions solely based on the homepage. Conversions exist where there is enough informative and persuasive communication available to validate a transaction of time, money or personal information. Because of this, your homepage needs to only have the essentials to begin the journey a user takes that gives them a mental value with your offering, bells and whistles will weigh you down. So let’s take a look into how you can translate expectations into solid answers and valuable website use through an experience-focused homepage.

What are the ‘expectations’ users have?

When someone visits your homepage either through a search engine result or a backlink, they will have a question for which they need an answer. For example, if they Google search ‘Psychology practice Surry Hills’ and click on a result that seems to match, they will want to confirm that the webpage they are taken to can match that expectation in the first few seconds. The same idea goes for if someone is expecting to find a service that ‘ticks the box’ of being cheap, nearby, fast or any other distinguishing feature. It is the role of the homepage to answer these very basic questions quickly, and then setup new expectations and questions that lead to action.
Below are some key ways to achieve this on your homepage:

 

1. Headline

This normally appears at the top or top left of the page and is a very to-the-point affirmation of what it is you do and where users are. It can tie in with your business name tagline to be efficient with your messages, or it can stand alone.

 

2. Sub-Headline

After users know they’ve come to the right place, it is good to consider using a statement to stand out a little more. You still want to keep it a ‘one-liner’ and remain short and sweet. Your unique selling proposition and biggest benefit should tie in easily here without getting too technical.

 

3. Benefits

Here is where you can give some solid reasoning as to why people should opt to go with you. Keep it short, sweet and consistent. Some key areas to address are:

• Solving common or niche problems
• Doing things faster, cheaper or at a higher quality than normal
• Having a certain amount of years of experience
• Being able to customise the product or service.

Try not to tick all of the above as benefits and overload them, or your visitors will find it difficult to remember the stand out reason to choose you. Be sure to add some connecting and supporting imagery to your claims as well.

 

4. Call to Action

Here is where you need to allow users to proceed to taking the main action you’d like them to. This should be catchy, easily understandable and clearly tie in with what they would need to do in order to become more involved. Be careful to only include one per core action and limit yourself to a couple per page or you will be asking for too much at once.
The Psych Press and Career Exchange pages give some common examples:

 

5. Features

This is where your offering is put into context and where users might find it easier to check your features against what they already expect, and then compare you to others. Individual service or product pages will have more room to go into the particulars of how something works or more features that will help persuade people, but here you only need to list the ones that make you stand out.

 

6. Testimonials

If your users come to this point and haven’t diverted to another page from your call to actions, benefits or features, then there’s a good chance they ‘get it’ but will sit on the fence. Here is where testimonials can help build some early trust and use real life experiences to match their expectations. Here it is good to have a bit of variety if you do have some positive comments from different channels such as social media, email quotes or others. Just be sure to ask the original commenter if it’s ok to use. Other pieces that are beneficial to include are relevant industry awards if applicable.

 

7. Research and Support

This is where your “keen to learn” visitors can continue to learn more about you and also have the basic information about your company. Be sure to provide phone numbers and locations, amongst links to ‘about us’ and other areas where people can continue learning about what makes you special.

 

8. Navigation

Most sites now put their main navigation at the top, centre position. This is very important to include but can often be misguided, in that webmasters place options in an odd order or put in way too many. Make sure that you prioritise what you’d like users to read and then follow through on. Another great option to use if you have many important pages but not enough room is to make a site-map on the bottom of the page. An example lies on the bottom of all Psych Press and Career Exchange pages.

 

Want to make sure you’re doing it right?

We have been optimising and upgrading homepages and other high-value webpages for several years and know how frustrating it can be to hit a wall. Thankfully we are able to get our experienced team together to help you with these time-heavy activities so that you can get it right the first time with important SEO considerations in mind, and not waste valuable hours experimenting whilst customers lose interest. Contact info@careerexchange.com.au or call 03 9670 0590 and we can chat about what challenges you’re facing.

Creating a logo that gets lasting attention

Have you ever ventured to pop just one small section of a roll of bubble wrap, to wind up madly popping through the whole roll in a manic and child-like fashion? Creating logos is much the same; let yourself become lost in a world of irrelevant possibilities and you will find yourself depleted and disconnected from what you first set out to achieve. Creating a lasting design that reflects the value your business creates can be achieved without too many headaches with some simple steps and guidelines to keep you on track.

Research competitors and logos you like

Get the creative ball rolling by researching some other logos in your industry. Determine what kind of fonts are used to match the sincerity of the business. Do you think you definitely need an icon, or could you just work with wording? What kind of colouring and line use stands out for you and gets a reaction?

                                                             

Always match your brand name and tagline

This is easier said than done. You and the designer you choose need to make sure that when your brand name, your logo and its elements (which can be used in conjunction with a logo), and your tagline come together; they make good sense. For your reference, you need to make sure you’re ticking off the following relationships between name, logo and tagline:

o   They provide a consistent and complementing message.

o   They provide an understandable message.

o   They give the viewer a ‘prelude’ into what it is you do, and why what you do is valuable.

Achieve brand attitude and personality with clever design

What should people ‘feel’ when they see it? Is your product or service ‘energetic’ and ‘strong’ / ‘fun’ and ‘enjoyable’ / ‘prestigious’ and ‘reliable’ or maybe ‘up-to-date’ and ‘tech-savvy’? You’re not just a name and an image, but the name and image can reflect these attitudes and keep the mood going throughout someone’s experience with your website, call, purchase, use of and re-use of the product. Keeping up appearances is a fantastic marketing method that can work well even if you’re a small or online-only business, but to achieve it you need to be consistent and never allow your great idea to gather dust.

Some tactics that achieve this: 

Anthropomorphism: Using an animal or object that has qualities you’d like to associate with your business. With this tactic, you don’t need to build your attitude from the ground up, because your logo already carries a feeling that people understand. An owl is wise, a fox is cunning, a rabbit is fast and a bull is strong.

 

 

Clever shape use: Can the first letter of your brand name be formed into a human body-like shape that looks like it’s moving? Many gym and training businesses go for this angle. If you’re able to incorporate the area or function that your business fulfils, similar to anthropomorphism, you will create expectations for users in the first possible instance of learning about you.

 

Abstract Graphic: This is where you’re using shapes or elements that may not have anything to do with the brand, but are easily memorable and fulfil part of your brand attitude. Nike’s ‘tick’ and other shoe brands are an example of using abstract graphics in logos.

 

Test, review and repeat!

Enlarge your logo to the biggest size it would come in and then shrink to the smallest size people would see, does it still work? Put your logo on top of different webpages or products, does it fit in?

After this be sure to share your ideas around with different staff members, what kind of responses are you getting? If people lean toward one design through several stages of development and alterations you’re onto a winner.

Need help with your branding?

We work with various allied health firms to make sure their fantastic services get the attention they need in a simple and down to earth way, without the hefty pricing strategies and ‘carpet-swatch’ approaches that boutique agencies use. We would love to have a chat about your marketing or enquiries challenges and see if we can team up to give you a lasting solution.

Call 03 9670 0590 or email info@careerexchange.com.au.

Creating New Business – What’s in a name? Part 2

In our last article we looked at the different kinds of categories you should look into when naming a business / product or anything else that needs intelligent branding. Today we are going to suggest some all-important considerations to put your naming plan into action. This way your brand can achieve long term flexibility, be friendly across various internet contexts, and most importantly – get the desired response and outcome from your audience.

    1)    Plan for the probable

Right now 'Peter’s Massage Parlour' may make a lot of sense. But if you can foresee that there may be a need to expand on that service later on, your name (and branding that flows from it) could suffer. If you know you will always offer Massages and they will always be the bulk of the business then adding this term into your brand name can have great benefits, especially for your SEO, but don't let yourself or your brand become restricted further down the track.

Often companies that expand their offering beyond directly-related fields are forced to update their brand name, which of course takes time and money, but most of all means that you can potentially lose out from the effort you put into making people remember and appreciate you in the first place.

     2)    Don't forget your logo

A big mistake business owners make in brand creation is launching a name first and then tackling the logo later on, which can lead to an awkward visual mismatch between the two. It can be simpler to think “name first, logo after” but make sure that you’re not excluding logo design considerations from the process entirely.

    3)    Be web friendly

When you’re putting your site together, make sure that you take these important considerations into account to secure your great name.

Check your name on the company name register

There’s nothing worse than putting all your love into a name only to find out it already exists, or that a competitor’s is too similar. Make a habit of searching for existing names at registers such as this: Search Business Names. Be sure to avoid sounding similar to other business names, not just because you want your brand to stand out, but also because if a competitor has ‘claimed’ a niche with their name you will find yourself competing against an established idea and losing out on available opportunities.

Check URL hyphenation and length

Many company names can look good truncated into one word and make it easier for visitors to find you. For example ‘career-exchange.com.au’ would not be as straight forward as ‘careerexchange.com.au’ where URLs do not function with spaces but use hyphenation instead. However, if you have a function attached to your business name which makes it longer it is worth comparing the difference, for example ‘peterssmassageparlour.com.au’ becomes confusing whereas ‘peters-massage-parlour.com.au’ helps make sure that your name isn’t getting lost.

    4)    Register, place and update

Finally, once you decide on a business name (we hope it wasn’t too painful for you!) make sure you ‘nab’ your name in every relevant space you can think of, this will also do wonders for your SEO. Below are the common areas you should be getting an early foothold in once you’re ready.

Website: Register your own domain name with a hosting provider, refer to our domain hosting options article.

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn company page and any others.

Directories: websites such as hotfrog and whitepages allow you to list your companies name and details for searchers to find. Many are free.

Register: The Australian Government shares steps to Registering your Business Name, and you can view more information on registering and trademarking your intellectual property here.

Is it all too much?

Career Exchange and Psych Press have had much experience when it comes to making new brands, products and webpages and we’re here to help. Let us know what you’re aiming to do or what your issues are in the online marketing world and we will give you a down to earth overview of whether our Content, Development or SEO packages can help. Contact info@careerexchange.com.au or call 03 9670 059003 9670 0590.

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Creating New Business - What's in a name? Part 1

Ever shuddered from a soon-to-be parent giving you the 'what we want to name our baby' speech? It should be a simple procedure; think of a few syllables that sound nice that don't remind you of someone you dislike and voila! But no, once some ideas are started you then open up to more and more, and before too long they're touting something like "Anastasia-Dakota-Mango" whilst forgetting what you were meant to achieve in the first place, causing difficulties in the schoolyard, sports and everything else. Branding and business names are much the same, focus too much on your own pride and wittiness and your actual end product gets left behind. Your name may not connect to client needs or be memorable enough to have any effect.
In the online world it is crucial that your name brings early attraction and attention when you need it the most, and carries the value of your business into every space it touches. It is the first touch point that carries your value proposition textually and visually, and the longest lasting asset you have, but don't let that stress you out! Let's look into some different ways you can approach the naming process and important naming categories that should help you formulate ideas to be proud of.

 

Name Types

Function-specific

This is where 'what you do' or 'how it's done' is imprinted into the name itself. This can be as basic as 'Sydney Massage' where you're following a well-known grain that helps people identify what you do very quickly. This is usually preferable if you're not trying to break the mould with your service, but rather cater to a particular area or customer base.
On the other hand, if you'd like your core benefit and what sets you apart to be as clear as possible you can get more involved. For example: 'Vistaprint' puts a nice visual term and the core service of printing into one new word. 'Lite n' easy' describes their product, hints that it is a food category, and sets them up for a branding personality in just 9 letters. 'Hotmail' and 'Gmail' are product names of larger entities that have made their positioning very simple for all users.
PROS

• Efficient branding and customer understanding
• Great benefits for your URLs and SEO if you can claim your name
• Opportunities to re-use the name on different products and visual spaces

CONS

• May limit your expansion further down the track
• Can be difficult to find a niche that doesn't have similar competitors

 

Metaphoric / Emotion-relative

Amazon don't sell rainforests, and ebay don't sell bays. What they have in common is that they give you the feeling of a large and expansive place where anything is possible. For this reason they can move into just about any area they please.
An example of the emotion-relative notion is easily explained when you look at French sounding names in the fashion and fragrances industries. If it's more difficult to pronounce, chances are you'll be paying more for a premium product. Have you noticed how Target has been promoting the use of the French "tar-jay" pronunciation? Funnily enough their clothing lines seem to have risen in price.
A big online trend in metaphoric naming and logo use has been the influx of anthropomorphism. Firefox, Linux, Bronto and many more use animals to give you different feelings instantly. The Firefox fox is quick and cunning, and makes you want to befriend and attach yourself to it a lot more than a large 'e'. If you want to go down this path, be sure to match what makes you stand out to how you your audience should feel when they become involved with your business.
PROS

• Quick connotations about your brand personality help alleviate 'complex' services offerings
• Allows you to expand into different offerings more easily further down the track

CONS

• Requires strong, ongoing marketing to stand out in the consumer's mind
• Deviating from the 'feeling' that your logo and name give could weaken your overall image

 

Personal name progression

Some of the largest and longest running companies in the world started as the founder's surname. With this technique you can avoid several branding pitfalls simultaneously as a human name doesn't necessarily make promises.
PROS

• You can use this in conjunction with the function-specific approach and always come across highly professional. Eg: 'Smithson Therapy'
• Used by itself it is unlikely that you will ever need to change the name
• People are more accustomed to remembering names in their day to day dealings
• If you are a services business, you can use the name's owner as a figurehead for the quality of your work to help drive expectations and create a great brand story

CONS

• You will have to get more creative with making a relevant logo
• You may also miss out on the early benefits of the first two techniques, especially for SEO

These name categories should give you a better idea of the direction your business would like to take. In the next article we will be looking into how to link the name to a logo, common mistakes to avoid and plan your name for online readiness.

 

Crank Films and Cambodian Kids Can - One Good Turn Deserves Another

Many of our clients and readers will be aware that for over five years we have supported Cambodian Kids Can which provides a home for underprivileged girls in rural Cambodia. We are also supporting a library, an English and IT school and developing various social enterprises in the provinces to develop self-sufficiency. Quite 'out of the blue,' Crank, an Australian film group contacted us to develop a promotional video from concept to post production. Crank are a media production company geared towards telling stories across all mediums - television commercials, new media content, music videos, documentaries, feature films, and video games.
This brilliantly shot and touching piece highlights the discrepancy between a girls upbringing in rural Cambodia against places such as Australia. Might we suggest that if your business or company is looking for a marketing edge through film or video, Crank Films would be great people to talk to, or refer someone to, as ... "one good turn" deserves your support!
You can view what they have produced here http://fdcc.org.au/2863/news/too-many-children-grow-up-alone/