When I worked at a publishing company my boss always insisted the graphic designer use serif fonts (Times New Roman was one of his favourites) for the body text in all our publications.
Why? Because serif fonts are easier to read on the printed page. But it’s a whole different ballgame online. That’s because computer screens have lower resolution than printed paper, which make serif fonts harder to read.
When marketing savant Perry predicts, I take notice!
He recently blogged his 10 Predictions for 2010-2019.
His prediction about the future of website development was of particular interest. To quote:
The traditional HTML website site hand-crafted by an HTML editor and uploaded via FTP is fast becoming a relic, replaced by Content Management Systems and platforms like WordPress and Joomla.
Are you keen to leverage the web to promote your business, but only have a minuscule budget for website development? This four-step process shows you how to build an effective small business website on the cheap. Real cheap.
A friend of mine had a job selling ad space for a local newspaper. He once sold a tiny ad to a delicatessen owner in a suburban shopping mall. The deli man put on extra staff the day the ad came out to cope with all the extra customers… who never showed.
It may have been because the ad was a dud. But it’s more likely that one tiny ad simply isn’t enough to build sales.
The deli man didn’t know what all successful marketers know. As Jay Conrad Levinson so clearly explained in Guerrilla Marketing, “marketing is a process and not an event”.
Many business owners I talk have an “event” mindset when it comes to the web. They believe a website is a marketing silver bullet. They think all they have to do is get the site on the Web and the phone will start ringing and the orders pouring in. Unfortunately that rarely happens.
Always budget for your web content before you hire a web developer.
I know it seems counter-intuitive; you want to build your house before you decorate it. But, as web usability guru Jakob Neilsen states in Designing Web Usability
Recently I found this quote on an online marketing agency’s blog: “Macromedia Flash is the key to making your websites look funky.”
It really got me wondering. Why do you want to make your website look funky? And more importantly, what’s the ROI on funky?
I’m no great fan of Flash. It has its place and I believe it can improve the ROI of a website. But only if it offers something that’s both useful and efficient.
Most of the Flash I see is gratuitous “show business” and does a website more harm than good. I fully endorse Gerry McGovern’s acerbic observation: “What is a Flash intro except a fourth rate TV ad by someone who knows that they will never get the chance to do a real TV ad?”
I think the main reason Flash remains so popular is that many website owners are still under the misguided impression that their website will be better if it looks “funky”. And their web developers/agencies don’t know enough about what makes a successful website to advise them otherwise.
Charles Cuninghame – Website Copywriter
This week, just by chance, I happened to be emailed a client proposal for a website by a web developer. I was reading through it and came across this sentence: “By [you] supplying us with the text and content, we are able to keep your costs down.”
It strikes me that asking a client to supply their own content to keep costs down is false economy. Clients rarely create high quality content. And why should they? They’re usually not writers. And even if they are, it’s unlikely they have any experience writing for the web.
Without high quality content not only is the site unlikely to achieve its goal (to sell a product), but it could easily tarnish the reputation of the company. By trying to save a few bucks they’re jeopardising their entire web investment.
Failing to educate clients about the necessity for high quality content on their websites is a losing strategy for web developers. Sure they might make some money in the short term. But when their websites fail to create value, their clients won’t be happy and won’t be coming back or singing the developer’s praises around town.
Read Gerry McGovern’s latest spray on the importance of high quality website copywriting.
About the author: Charles Cuninghame is an expert website copywriter and marketing trouble shooter who helps business owners and marketing managers attract more clients.
I dug up some old research from my filing cabinet the other day. According to a 2003 study 80% of Consumers Hate Flash Intros. At around the same time this research came out I also discovered a hilarious parody of the odious Flash intro. But despite this public bollocking the Flash intro persists to this day.
The other day I re-discovered Vincent Flanders’s Web Pages That Suck. Its mission is to help visitors “learn usability and good web design by looking at bad web design”.
It’s totally irreverent and a hilarious and enlightening read. Flanders mercilessly parodies real life examples of clueless web design. He explains why to avoid mystery meat navigation and why you shouldn’t confuse web design with sex along with dozens of other useful design and usability principles.
"I help my clients communicate more effectively, improve their images, and increase their sales with high quality copywriting."
