ZWIN Meeting April 2020: Web Design and Marketing
While Indiana is sheltering in place, ZWIN met virtually on April 9th. Our guest speaker, David Mccardle, shared a presentation on how to create websites that effectively reach our customers and generate business leads.
David is with Indy Web Designers and uses the “story brand” marketing approach. He said that the main two things to customers respond to are empathy and authority. He suggests creating web content that clearly offers this.
David explained that most stories—from movies to classic literature—follow this pattern: A character with a problem meets a guide who gives them a plan and calls them to action, which results in…SUCCESS!
Since people respond intuitively to stories, we should think of our businesses as fitting into this picture. We should ask:
• What do our customers—the main characters in our story—want?
• What are the external, internal, or philosophical problems that we can help them solve?
• Have we positioned our business/brand to serve as the guide that can help the customer?
• Have we created a clear plan of action to lead them to success?
To apply this to our websites, we should think of the information and message on our home page. It should clearly show and tell what we do and what we offer. Don’t overwhelm visitors with too much text or jargon. Clarify your message to position yourself as an authority in your field.
David also suggested that we build an email list to create warm business leads. To connect with readers and encourage them to share their email addresses, we should offer useful, relevant FREE information to them. He suggests writing up some of our top material, making it into a PDF file, and offering free access to that information. The customer requests it and sends his or her email address so that you can send it along.
What could you use for this? Think about the top 5 FAQs you receive.