The New Year is always an exciting time—fresh starts, revised resolutions, and new personal and business goals. I hope one of the goals on your “2011 hot list” is refreshing your organization’s website. Full Capacity Marketing, Inc. (FCM) recently conducted a master workshop session on social media. We actually reviewed close to 80 of the participants’ Websites, prior to the workshop. About 92% were not ready for social media. Why? Because their websites were a mess! Social media is about having conversations and getting people to take action. This action leads people back to your website for more information that should engage the visitor as a customer, partner, or funder.
The results of our evaluation were not promising and revealed common mistakes that FCM sees consistently throughout the country.
- 98% of the sites utilized jargon and unclear messaging
- Only 2% of the sites had sections for their strategic partners which is a missed opportunity to build relationships with key influencers
- 75% had no call-to-action
- 82% did not clearly define products and services for its intended audiences
- 94% had cumbersome site navigation that was not intuitive
- 67% had at least six or more logos on the site without explanation of the brand architecture and partner affiliations
- 89% had dead links or links without explanation as to why the visitor should click on them
- Only 2% of the sites tracked website statistics
When we asked workshop participants how they went about designing their websites, it was revealed that they a) did not use a defined roadmap; b) misunderstood the type of expertise required to build an effective site; and c) lacked the appropriate processes to understand their various target audience’s needs and then to deliver on those needs through site design, social media and other web-centric tools.
Your website is one of the most important storytelling and engagement tools in your communication and outreach arsenal. This year, FCM is on a mission to help you revamp your websites and get in the social media game. We just launched several free tools on our website to help you meet these goals.
Web Audit Tool – An online evaluation tool to determine how well your organization’s site aligns with effective Web development principles.
Web Enhancement Library - Build your knowledge about creating, launching and maintaining an effective Website.
Web Tutorials
Getting Started: Creating a Dynamic Workforce Website
Customer-Centric Web Building: Customers’ Opinions Count
Targeted Messaging: Writing for the Web
Website Design and Usability Testing
Web Marketing: Using Social Media & Optimization Strategies
Tracking Success: Keeping your Site Relevant & Current
Want a complimentary evaluation of your current website? Contact us at info@fullcapacitymarketing.com or call 858-793-6694. Download our free Web tutorials at our Web Enhancement Library
Let’s make it happen in 2011.
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