Don't Shout - Communicate!
The internet is about information exchange
We cannot emphasize this point enough. Too many web sites are simply advertisements that look pretty but tell the visitor nothing of consequence.
Try to think of your web site as a page in a huge reference library, anyone chancing on your contribution will only read on or dig deeper if they think there is something to be gained by doing so. The information they are looking for is unlikely to be your company history or your mission statement, it is more likely to be how big?, how much? where can I get?. who should I speak to? etc.
To illustrate this point, think what happens when you ring directory enquiries - You are asked for the name, the address and, 20 seconds later, you have the number - All over with the minimum of fuss because they did not try to explain their corporate policy, did not try to sell you a telephone line and did not try to tell you that you were speaking to "Jenny".
They simply told you no more than you needed to know and you were much happier as a result.
The internet is about information exchange
Don't forget the word “Exchange” - You can gather a lot of information from your visitors which makes the Internet a unique medium for market research. You can know which pages (product range?) is of most interest, you can see which country visitors are in (Export potential?) and much more.By analysing feed back you can modify your range of services or products to include what the market wants.
An example:
What is that you want to know when you telephone a hotel? Do you want to know which of their staff won “front office rep of the month”? Do you want to know the name of their parent company? - very unlikely - You want to know if they have a room available and how much it will cost. Then you want to know the room standard and how to get there. The other information can be there for those who wish it, but the site should primarily be there to take your booking.
Ways in which the hotel could use feed back from the site could be:
If they had a lot of traffic from, say, France they could provide a French language version.
If they had more enquiries for double rooms than twin they could react to the market
They can find out what extra facilities the average punter is looking for
And so on.........
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