The 'How We Do It' Blog

All too often people attribute a poorly-performing site with its (to them, lack of) looks. They see a competitor’s site which they feel looks ‘prettier’ or ‘more modern’ than their own, immediately perceive that to be more successful, and want their own to look exactly the same.

This is a classic example of the grass being greener on the other side, with a bit of ‘eye of the beholder’ and a nod to style over substance thrown in for good measure!

In reality there is no way to know whether another site is ‘doing better’ just by looking at it — your site may in fact be the superior one and you don’t even know it!

Let’s examine possible reasons as to why this could be the case, or not.

Looks

We all know the saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, but let’s be honest and admit that we all probably do it anyway. Even if only sometimes! Similarly, people do and will judge a site by its looks, absolutely.

So yes, looks are important — to the extent that they may make or break a favourable first impression. But I’ll almost guarantee that you comparing others’ sites with your own on the basis of looks only, is you in the mindset of a casual visitor to that site. How does a customer compare sites? What do they see, and why are they there in the first place?

I can assure you as a mad plant-nut that I’ve seen plenty of old, awful-looking plant sites and plenty of pretty, modern-looking plant sites. And I’ve bought from the older sites just as much as from the newer sites. Without prejudice or favouritism.

Why? Because they have what I am looking for. If a site has a rare or unique something that no other site has, I don’t care how old or ugly the site looks, I’m buying that thing, and from that site, because that site and only that site has what I want.

In fact, you could make an argument that the older and uglier a site is, the more trustworthy and reliable it may be, because it’s been around a while and is still in business.

So while a casual, uninterested visitor may immediately click away to some other site, a person looking for information or to buy something is going to stay a little longer, regardless of how the site ‘looks’. This is because they aren’t there for looks, but for…

Content

Content, the one thing that determines whether a visitor leaves, sticks around a little longer, makes contact with you, or buys right there and then. The prettiest site in the world may be the most devoid of anything of interest, and its looks won’t ever be enough to keep potential customers there. The simplest, most amateurish-looking site packed with the best content, whether information or products, will.

There is a caveat, in that no matter how content-rich your site is, your customers still need to find what they’re looking for! How good is your…

Search-Engine Optimisation and Navigation

These two elements are crucial in attracting customers. Optimsing your site’s content gets your site in front of potential customers in the first place, and once on your site, good navigation helps them to stay and explore everything you have to say. Broken links and information buried in obscure and poorly-labelled sub-menus are not the best ways to turn visitors into customers.

Your Niche

You may feel that your site isn’t attracting as much business as you’d like. But if you’re in a very small or exclusive niche, you may well be attracting the lion’s share of that tiny market and not realise this. Are enquiries and sales coming in at a fairly regular rate, even if only once a week or less? That’s actually a good sign, especially if you’re new to that market. It shows that there is a reliable clientele you can work with, and that you’re already attracting them. Consider complementary products you can add, or other ways to value-add and add revenue to your business. Keep at it little by little and you’ll be amazed at how a once-weekly enquiry or sale becomes twice-weekly, thrice-weekly, and soon, a fully-fledged sideline or even business. (We have a lot of experience with up-selling and cross-selling — get in touch for a chat! — and have a knack for thinking up ideas that aren’t always obvious to people immersed in their business.)

In Conclusion

If you genuinely feel your site should be performing better than it is, please do look deeper than just its looks. Looks, after all, are only skin-deep. It’s what’s inside that really counts.

Do consider your customers and what they are looking for, and finetune your site to their mindset. Add content that speaks to them, and they will come with time. If you have what they are looking for, your site will be the most beautiful sight (!) to their eyes, and they will stay, and they will buy.

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It’s fair to say that not every business would be a good fit for our line of work, much of which involves in-depth research and writing quality information. You most likely won’t see a good return on investment with us if your product or service is a low-priced mass-consumable, I’m sorry.

But if your business does offers a unique, or high-end, or specialist ‘thing’, I can almost guarantee that we will find it as intellectually- or emotionally-stimulating as you do and won’t be able to resist explore every aspect of what you have to offer, and getting to know it in and out.

This in-depth knowledge then allows us to craft several approaches to promoting your product or service. Please explore our Case Studies for specific examples and the different approaches for each, and feel free to contact us to discuss the content marketing strategy that works best for you.

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Our line of work requires long-term commitment from both us and our clients, and for this to work there needs to be trust and rapport on both sides. While we absolutely want to do the best by our clients, those same clients must also want to work with us as well. We need to be a good fit for each other from the outset. We need to be a partnership.

And the people who would most enjoy working with us are people with the same work ethic and approach to business we have.

They are patient, long-term thinkers who understand that some things can’t be hurried along, but need time to develop.

They are people who lack the time — and sometimes the desire — to prepare and write their own materials. But they certainly don’t lack understanding of the time and effort required for others to write these on their behalf, and are happy to step back and let them get on with it.

They are professionals who appreciate that some things are better delegated to other professionals for better results.

And they most definitely aren’t micro-managers, but people who enjoy collaborating with others who bring different ideas and perspective to the conversation!

If this is you, we’d love to meet! Please don’t hesitate to get in touch to find out if we’d be a great team together.

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Content marketing is a way of engaging with potential clients through storytelling and the sharing of useful and relevant information. Traditional marketing focuses on your business and products; content marketing focuses on your audience. Building a rapport with your audience develops trust and confidence, and your audience will often become happy and willing clients in return.

Content marketing can be done in any number and combination of ways. Social media is an obvious and first go-to for many, and can be a fast way to interact and develop an audience. This is very much a plus, but there can be downsides too. One is that you do not control the platform you are on, and you are beholden to that platform for your very existence on it. Another is that it is driven by ‘sound bites’ and feeds on short attention spans. It is hard to share deep and meaningful content in such an environment.

Broad Ribbon Designs concentrates on slower, time-honoured methods which build trust and rapport. This also has a downside (time), especially in this age where everything is needed yesterday. But these slower methods are the very things which make them our go-to method. Our careful and thoughtful research and writing can pay dividends for those with patience!

And of course there is no reason why the faster social media approach and the slower content marketing approach can’t be done together — in fact each has an advantage that complements the other’s disadvantage.

What Methods Do We Use?

We build trust and rapport with your clients via thoughtful research, which we condense into words high in information but very low in hype.

There are many options available in getting these words in front of purchasers, and include:

• blog posts
• case studies
• white papers
• articles in trade or other magazines
• your own newsletter
• your own magazine, catalogue or combination of these (a magalogue)
• support, tech and how-to manuals
• emails (but only to opt-in subscribers as we detest unsolicited mail)

Any of these options can be available on your own website, whether your existing one, or one we can develop and look after for you with our sister business Optimate Web Hosting.

Many of the above can be distributed online as PDFs, or even printed for offline distribution — we can help with that too if you like!

Whatever your needs, we’ve probably done it sometime in the past for someone and have you covered! Please get in touch — ask for me, Kristi Prohm, and let’s work it out together!

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