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How to get a ‘swipe right’ for your website 

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How to get a ‘swipe right’ for your website 

The heatwave isn’t the only thing that’s been raising temperatures in recent months. From high profile Royal weddings, to the return of trashy dating show Love Island, 2018 is shaping up to be a year filled with love and romance.

What you may be surprised to hear is that love could also be the answer when it comes to creating a sales-driven website. As the secret to generating sales – even if you’re a B2B company supplying highly specialised pieces of kit – lies in how well you can form connections.

While it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers (how many web visitors you’re getting, how many conversions, etc), it’s important to remember that people buy from people. Every lead is simply a person (or team of people) that you need to convince to start a relationship with you. If that’s not happening, then maybe it’s time for a review of your website and its content.

Us humans are social beings. We are driven by relationships and making a connection with those around us. The top performing teams know this and understand the importance of embracing the human element of business (both externally and internally). It’s the reason why so many companies are now investing so heavily in user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX) – basically, what it feels like to work with them.

With any B2B or B2C website, you’re firstly putting yourself out there and trying to catch someone’s eye. Then trying to make your business, products and services as attractive to them as possible. Your ultimate aim is to turn them from a prospect into a long-term, loyal partner – which is why a masterclass in dating can be a great place to start.

So, how does the age-old art of courtship translate into B2B web design?

The blind date test

Having someone visit your website for the first time, is in many ways like going on a blind date. An individual may have found you in a number of different ways –  for example, a friend may have set up the encounter by making a recommendation, or they could have seen you putting yourself out there, such as through an online ad. Expectations will vary, based on how much they have been told about you beforehand and what they have seen up to this point.

In preparation for this first encounter, there are some basics you need to get right.

Turn up!

While someone may wait 10 or even 20 minutes for their date to show up in person, if your website doesn’t make an appearance within just a couple of seconds, they are unlikely to stick around. And potential customers aren’t the only ones you need to turn up for, loading quickly on any device also matters to Google and can influence how well you rank.

Speak clearly

How you express yourself is very important and is the secret of forming a strong connection. Always avoid talking in long or hard to read sentences, or using jargon and industry spiel too heavily.

Even if your target market includes nuclear physicists, you need to use language that is accessible and easy to digest. How you communicate on your website will paint a picture of what it may be like to work with you. If you’re providing a complicated service or technical product, then you need to show you can explain things clearly.

Present yourself well

How you present yourself is another big factor. Never go for design over substance. You need to be smart and well presented, yet comfortable. Using too many flashy graphics, or being over-designed can end up being distracting and put people off. There is also no point having a colourful and intricate web design, if the information it contains is too hard to find or physically read!

Avoid the 7 biggest dating put offs

Once you’ve got the basics right, it’s time to perfect your dating skills. These common dating put offs are best avoided with any company website.

1) Making a poor first impression

You need to make a great first impression, as lasting opinions can be formed in just seconds. With so much competition out there – and coming from anywhere in the world nowadays – potential customers will simply ‘swipe left’ and move on, if they don’t like what they see, or can’t find what they’re looking for very quickly. Look at you site through the eyes of someone who has never visited before and knows nothing about your company. What impression does it instantly give? What does it suggest you are like to work with?

2) Going for the wrong type of person

Dating is about finding a good match and that means understanding clearly who your target audiences are and what they will be looking for. Is your website up to date and clearly focused on your key buyer types? It’s never going to work if you’re pulling in and spending time on the wrong type of person, no matter how much you want it to. Work out who is the best fit for your product – who will have a need and benefit from it the most? Are they in a particular geographic area? What budget do they need to have access to? What level of person should you be talking to?

3) Having nothing in common

You need to make it obvious from the moment someone arrives that they are in the right place and should be speaking with you. Check that your website makes it clear who you work with and how you help them. You may find you have a high bounce rate (i.e. people arriving and leaving straight away) if it isn’t instantly clear what you’re offering and the problem it solves (promoting the benefits not nitty gritty features at this top level).

4) Trying to move too fast

When you first start dating someone, especially when you’re meeting them for the first time, it’s not only a little creepy but can also be very off putting, if they grill you for tons of personal information.

There needs to be an adequate level of trust in place, before you try and prise someone’s life story out of them. The biggest culprit here is the website form. You many want to know a potential lead’s name, company, phone number, email address, job title…..but ask too much too soon and you may lose them all together.

5) Talking too much (and about yourself)

Waffle is never appealing, especially on a website. Work out what the core information is that you want to get across and go from there. The more you say, the more your important messages may become buried. You also need to think about your target audience and the information they will want to find on your website. As you may want to shout about all your awards and accreditations (and that swimming race you won when you were 8), but is that really what your audience will be interested in? If you’re all me, me, me and don’t show you understand your target audience and their issues, you’ll just be shown the door.

6) Being too pushy

Every relationship takes time to develop. If you try and rush things by being too pushy, then you’re going to scare potential leads away.

Work out the buyer journey that visitors will follow on your website and use tailored content to guide them along. For example, you may pull people in with an interesting, educational piece offering advice on a problem your target audience may be experiencing. This may link to a more detailed or technical piece of content and finally lead on to a case study that shows your product solving the problem. This is a tried and tested content marketing journey. It helps you make a strong case for your product or service, and expresses how it can help make their life easier, without jumping on someone to push for the sale.

7) A big mismatch

Plus, don’t forget that the reality must match up with what you’re promising.

Most people can spot a faker a mile-off. You may get away with generating leads for a while, but people talk, and it won’t take long for your reputation to be damaged.

Be transparent and ensure that your website sits at the heart of the wider company culture. Whether someone visits your website, calls you on the phone, sends you an email, or meets an employee at a networking event, there should be consistency and a customer-first approach.

By Amy Archer at Creative Leopard for Alive!

“I feel like they own and care for the project as much as we do! I would not use anyone else for my creative work and think Alive is ahead of the game.”

Jo Hobbs — Communications Manager

“Thanks for all your help. We are delighted with the campaign, both in terms of the creativity and messaging but also the thought taken over the rollout of the materials. All looks absolutely fabulous!”

Sarah Crowdy — Campaign and Media Officer Communications, South East Water

“We went to ‘Alive’ for ideas on how to run a specific employee program in Europe. Alan and his team were brilliant in coming up with fresh, creative and practical approaches. The team took charge and executed brilliantly. We are pleased with the progress made so far and hope to have the same level of partnership and commitment going forward.”

Sobha Varghese — Tata Consultancy Services

“Alive helped us create a video of our response to the floods of winter 2019. Our Chief Officer received messages from all round the country praising us for it and was really pleased with both the video and the response to it.”

Alexander Mills, Communications Manager — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

“We had the privilege to work with the Alive team. It was our first time to be involved in creating an animation for our patients within paediatrics. The team were approachable, friendly, creative and very accommodating. Your vision for what you want to create, is at all times acknowledged, appreciated and accommodated by the team. They worked effectively and with great passion towards our project and worked not only alongside health professionals but also our patients who really enjoyed the experience of working with the Alive team. It has given our team the confidence and inspiration to do further projects in the future. We highly recommend Alive and their exceptional team.”

DR ELENI ATHANASAKOS, Lead Paediatric Clinical Scientist — NHS Barts Health

“‘The short animation developed in co-production with clinicians and young people is outstanding! Informative, developmentally appropriate, vitally fun and engaging. We are really grateful for the expertise of the Alive with Ideas team for their innovative approach in building children’s health literacy.'”

Kath Evans — Director of Children’s Nursing at Barts Health

“Our mission was to update our brand visuals to better reflect our innovative and forward-thinking organisation. After receiving numerous pitches from different branding agencies, Alive stood out with their clear passion and understanding of our identity and goals. We thoroughly enjoyed working with the Alive Team to create an engaging new brand that we are immensely proud of.”

Lianne Springer — Communications and Engagement Lead

“Alive wowed us during the pitch process and they didn’t stop wowing us throughout the whole project. Every person we worked with at Alive were so friendly, knowledgeable and clearly passionate about what they do. They have worked with us to really understand what we do and have created a new brand and website that really stands out from our competitors. Thank you!”

Louise Burnard, Head of Marketing and Communications UK — Be | Shaping the Future

“I think the team have done such a brilliant job, particularly with responding to our requests. It's one of the best mental health videos I've ever seen. Very proud to be associated with your exemplary work. Thank you so much.”

Dr Anna Batho — Clinical Psychologist – Critical Care, UCLH

“We have worked with Alan, Caroline and the wider Alive With Ideas team for many years. In that time, they have provided a dedicated service that is second to none. We appreciate their attention to detail and creative approach to bringing our brand, communications and stories to life. And would recommend them to anyone looking for creative communications support.”

Georgia Beech — Internal Communications Specialist, Ocado Group

“This is brilliant. I wanted to give my heartfelt thanks to all of the team who worked on this. You all understood exactly what we wanted to communicate and why, and then managed to do it in a way that was far better than anything I could have imagined. I’m a bit choked up to be honest!”

Sarah Wright, Head of Communications and Campaigns — NEA

“Each time I work with the team, I am always stunned at the effort and creativity that goes into each detail and am always eager for the end result. The team is extremely accommodating and always provide a fresh approach to our projects that elevates our communications materials!”

Alana Khaytin, Communications Specialist — Braskem America

“What I really appreciate about Alive is that they work with us as partners, and care as much about getting it right for our patients as we do.”

Sara Langston, Patient Engagement & Marketing Manager — italk

“Alive are unique in how much they deeply listen and invest in you and your ideas. I have not come across a company that listens as much as they do to ensure your needs are understood and met (actually - they always exceed my needs and expectations). Everyone I recommend Alive to has an equally brilliant experience. When you work with Alive, you are not only getting some genius creativity brought into your life, you are also hanging out with some of the best examples of human beings I’ve ever known.”

Steph Tranter, Hybrid Exec Coach & Psychologist — StephTranter.com

“The (Alive) team were able to creatively pull together and document (in just over 2minutes) everything our service has achieved over the last few months, from thousands of prescriptions deliveries to hundreds of phone calls made to the vulnerable. The final product was so powerful and reflective of what our service has and continues to achieve. It couldn’t have been better received within the service – thanks Alive for once again helping us to communicate our vision!’”

Emma Wright — South Yorkshire & Rescue

“We worked with the team at Alive to create our staff recognition video.
At a time like this, its never been more important to share the amazing work that our staff have done and continue to do on a daily basis under very difficult circumstances. We wanted to shout about this and recognise that when the time came, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue stepped up to the plate. We didn’t want an ordinary thank you post on social media or a basic email sent out internally, we wanted something special. Enter Alive. ”

Emma Wright — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

“Our company is fun, we have great brands, but most importantly we’re all about our people – and I wanted an agency who would understand that and help us bring it to life through our website and other comms. Straight away I felt that Alive ‘got’ us and provided the creative inspiration exactly where we needed it, as well as the technical expertise to deliver a well-functioning website.”

Keren McCarron, Head of Corporate Affairs & Communications — KP Snacks

“Boom!
Thank you so much. Incredible work done at incredible speed by incredible people.
Outstanding work as ever and what a turnaround. As for the concepts – wow. These are that good it would be an insult to describe them as just good. It’s a joke, quite frankly. This is exactly the Alive effect I was after. Right now I feel like I am living in an Alive With Ideas wonderland. Thank you!”

Jack Grasby, Campaigns Manager — SYFR

“If you are looking to improve creativity and build teamwork, I highly recommend a session like this for your team. No matter where you are in your creativity journey, a workshop like this can give your team a boost of energy and ideas to invigorate their creative thinking.”

Amy Lilja, IC Manager — Hennepin Healthcare

“Alive were there to help when we were working every hour to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. They gave us the creativity, ideas and support we needed to deliver campaigns which empowered our residents in the most difficult time most of us have ever seen, personally and professionally. The team understood what we needed, worked closely with us and delivered fast without any compromise on quality. Working with Alive has been a joy in the darkest of times and I have no doubt will have helped to save lives. Thanks team x”

Julie Odams, Assistant Director of Communications & Customers — Derbyshire County Council

“We got 'Alive' involved to help us shift mindsets across our organisation and they delivered! Using simple, clear and creative ideas the team have delivered us a campaign which has seen a dramatic increase in idea sharing and development. They’ve also played a significant role in creating a culture of shared success. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with again, in fact, we already are!”

Gavin Buckle — B&Q
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