12 Web Site Design Mistakes

In a session at last week's DM Days New York Conference & Expo, Craig Huey, president of the Creative Direct Marketing Group, outlined 12 costly mistakes to avoid when designing your e-commerce Web site. Here's a look at Huey's list:

1. Homepage suicide. Implement a “five-second rule” on your homepage, Huey said, meaning consumers must be able to find what they're looking for within five seconds of visiting your homepage.

“If they have to search to find it, you've lost the sale,” he said. Homepages should include right-hand sidebars, taglines/slogans, strong headlines, no navigation, offer/data collection and a powerful direct response sales presentation.

2. Navigation nightmares. “Don't give prospects a choice in navigation unless you can justify it,” Huey said.

3. Click, click — good-bye. Keep consumers moving swiftly through your site, Huey said, not making them stop to click along the way.

4. Dysfunctional copy. Huey provided nine essential online direct response copy rules, the most important direct marketing function:

* avoid myopic marketing — talk from the consumer's perspective, not the company's;
* publicize your unique selling proposition by including the following some place on the site: “Nowhere else will you find X that does Y for you”;
* have a theme with one clear promise;
* follow up that one big promise with secondary benefits;
* be conversational;
* be inclusive — the power of “you”;
* begin with your strongest selling point — “the law of the first paragraph”;
* specifics sell, generalities kill response; and
* sell benefits, not features: “You'll save X per year by using our product.”

Address marketing evils — recession, fear, rising costs, legal changes — within your copy, Huey said. And don't create a necessary barrier for copy length. “Say as much as necessary,” he said, disputing the notion that online copy must always be short. When finished, ask yourself the following seven questions regarding your direct response copy:

1. Does it grab my attention right away?
2. Is it written to me and me alone?
3. Do I feel the writer cares about me?
4. Do I feel the writer believes what he's saying?
5. Do I believe the writer?
6. Why should I respond now and not later?
7. Is there an alternative?

5. “Techy” graphics. Studies have proven that the simpler the e-mail (i.e., less HTML graphics), the better it works. Apply this same principle to your Web site, Huey said, advising the audience to use sans-serif, 12 to 14 pixel Arial or Verdana font on a white background.

6. No powerful offer. Make a powerful offer no matter what channel you're selling in — direct mail, e-mail, TV or online — Huey said. Tactics include offering premiums (e.g., whitepapers) to prospects as a result of taking action; guarantees with a picture and signature of the person making the guarantee; and discounts, making sure that the price is at the front of the copy. “There's an expectation now that consumers believe they're getting a deal; they want to perceive value.”

7. Shopping cart depressants. Ask yourself, “How easy is it to order or register?” Your shopping cart should consist of one or two steps, or at the most, three, Huey stressed.

“The more options you give a prospect, the greater the depression of sales.” Avoid long subscription and order forms. Essential components of every shopping cart page, according to Huey, include a clear offer with a discount and ordering options that are clear and visual.

8. Anemic SEO. Huey outlined two rules when it comes to addressing your site's search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities: Think like a search engine, and think like your prospect. Here are 10 other factors that can affect SEO rankings:

* competition;
* site maps;
* links;
* open directory;
* avoid flash;
* avoid images;
* meta description tags;
* meta title tag;
* meta keyword tags; and
* content.

9. Passive marketing. Take advantage of the viral nature of the Web, Huey said. Tactics include sending auto-triggered thank-you notes to customers after they make purchases, tell-a-friend e-mails and an upsell/cross-sell strategy. These techniques help generate prospect names while creating positive word-of-mouth around your brand.

10. No credibility. Use testimonials — including expert, celebrity, listing of clients, case studies, user ratings and reviews, etc. — to gain trust with consumers. The best Web pages to post testimonials on are the homepage and the shopping cart page. And use pictures and subheads in bold with your testimonials, Huey added.

11. Ignoring video. Video is a powerful way to get across your message, Huey said. How-to videos, testimonials and “walk-ons” with high-level execs are some of the ways that you can use video online.

12. Weak integration of direct mail and the Web. This can be expanded to include e-mail, TV, banner ads, paid search, radio, among other things, Huey said. Consumers need to know that they're at the right spot when they arrive at your Web site.

Huey noted that many consumers who get direct mail pieces don't call in their orders before checking out the company's Web site. So your Web site needs to be consistent with your other marketing materials. Consider using specific URLs on your other marketing pieces, particularly direct mail, to allow for easy tracking of these consumers when they go online.