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We've had a constant web presence since March 2002 when the very first Endeverus website was launched.
With one or two exceptions, our websites have always been very successful for us. This website here generates up to £5,000 worth of new business every
week. We get a lot of questions about it, so we're going to try to answer some of the most frequently asked here.
We get three or four compliments a week on our
website and the way it talks to customers. We're really
grateful for all comments - good, bad, and those
pointing out spelling or grammatical errors! Please tell
us!
This FAQ was first written in May 2005. Most of the original
website was written by marketing guru, Jeff Ashton. Jeff
plays a smaller role now in our marketing as he's busier
than ever before. Any additional bits on this FAQ have
been written (or updated/re-written) by the current
copywriters.
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• How do you advertise your website?
A mixture of ways. We attract around £5,000 worth of new
business on an average week through Google Adwords,
although we do get a lot of hits when we send out fax
and email adverts about our service.
• You would say that. Does the fax and email do that
much to get people to your website?
We're not really sure. All our fax and email advertising
is designed to get people phoning us up. If you've ever
used us, we go on at you not to put your website or
email address on your fax or email - we want them to
phone you up. We're the same - we'd rather someone be
speaking with us than surfing our website.
We don't really point people to the website that much on
our direct advertising because we're much better at
selling when you're on the phone! That's the honest
answer, and if you book a campaign through us, we'll
gently try to steer you towards our point of view about
your own website.
• What would you say was the key to designing a good
website?
All you have to remember is that a website is nothing
more than a fancy advert. It's not a place for your
potential customers to fawn over your design skills (or
the skills of the person you have paid). They couldn't
give a damn about design - they want to know what you'll
do for them. If you bore them to tears with graphics and
confuse them, bye bye profit margin.
All the normal rules which apply to advertising also
apply to getting business through a website.
There is something called the "customer experience", and
it's our Bible here at Meridian Delta. What it basically
amounts to is to try to understand your point of view
when you encounter our website, our phone services or
anything else which involves contact between us and you.
What do you get out of it? And, more importantly, does
it make you feel good?
There are 6 of us here. We're normal punters. We are
subject to the same wants, desires and needs as anyone
else. When we design our website, or we design your
advert, we try to PUSH your buttons and appeal to you as
a man or a woman, not as a businessman or woman. It's
quite blatant really, but it's what works!
• So, layout, design, etc. What do you make of that?
Layout and design are very important (technical details
on that further down this page if you're interested).
Perhaps not in the way you think though.
Visitors glean an awful lot about a company through the
design of their website.
Don't hire any fancy designers to do your website.
DESIGN DOES NOT SELL A PRODUCT OR SERVICE - REPEAT THAT
TO YOURSELF! What will sell what you sell is how easily,
cleanly and understandably your offer is put across.
If anyone tries to sell you a service that involves a
splash-intro page or a fancy Flash design, tell them to
go to Hell. If anyone thinks that your website should
have any background other than white, or they say that
you should employ a fancy menu system, you know what to
say to them.
People are not bothered by it. The internet is the
ultimate in instant gratification - make sure that your
website does that. Don't impose on them fancy menu
systems, don't make them wade through pages of design to
get to the information.
Most web designers are interested in their own designs
and self-glorification than your sales. They'll try to
bamboozle you with jargon and technobabble on how their
way is best. Don't believe the hype, dear
visitor/customer. We're salespeople here - all they are
are bad salespeople who can chuck a few geeky terms in
conversations!
Remember the two simple rules. Provide the punters with
what they want. Provide them with the easiest and most
logical way to get to it. Just like any normal
advertisement.
• So, what you're really saying is that you should
judge Meridian Delta's ability on your website? What do
you make of your competitors' websites then?
Not exactly. The fax and email marketing world is quite
close - even though we all compete with each other, we
do speak to each other a lot. We even tell each other of
who defaults on payments so none of us get caught out by
fly-by-nights. There's enough room for all of us, and
probably a few more. "I like most of my competitors -
I'd even buy from most of them", says Mark Fairlie, the
sales director of this website, when I asked him.
Look, of course we want your business. Of course, we
genuinely and honestly believe that you're better off
using us than anyone else. You have to make a value
judgement for yourself. Look at this website, look at
our competitors' websites - who sells their services
best? Who gives you the most information? Who seems to
understand your needs and your desire for information?
Make your decision based on that. A website is an advert
- judge us and everyone else and how good you believe
the adverts are.
• Is this just some long-winded pitch to make us buy
a website from you?
We currently don't design websites for customers -
individual pages linked with campaigns, yes, but not
websites.
We won't lie to you though. We've best asked to do it
probably more than 50 times now, and we are looking into
it. But it's probably not going to happen. If it does
though, we'll let you know!
• Right, so are you saying that, if I'm in the mood
to buy advertising for my business, I should view their
website as an indication on how well they'd advertise
for me?
You're smart enough to run your own business and keep
yourself afloat for however many months and years.
You know the answer to that question.
• Your website's technical details?
In any advertising, it's important that anything looks
professional and fits in with what you're trying to do.
Even though it's far more important that your website is
there to sell what you do, it does have to look
reasonably consistent too.
So, here are the techie details.
COMPATIBILITY: The website is 975 pixels wide at all
times and centred. Why? This size of website will appear
properly and attractively on over 99% of computers. When
designing for any website or advert, you have to think
about how you appear to the overwhelming majority of
readers or recipients.
MENU SYSTEM: Whatever you do on your website, don't go
against the trend. Make sure that the menu is on the
left-hand side or the top of the page. If you have a
sub-menu (that is a menu applicable to only certain
parts of the site), make sure it is on the left-hand
side too. People are used to seeing the menus there -
don't confuse them.
STYLE: Never use more than 2 different font families on
your headline and sub-headlines. Keep it as uniform and
tidy as possible. This site's headlines and
sub-headlines use one font style - Gill Sans Infant.
Keep the use consistent so visitors instinctively know
what they mean.
When using system fonts (that is the fonts that normal
text is written in, like this sentence), keep to one
style and one size for each location. On this site, it
is Arial 10pt, colour #333333. For the menus down the
side, it is Verdana 8pt, colour #333333.
Keep it simple. Always use black text on a white
background. Simple as that, I promise. Plus never use
Times New Roman or Comic Sans as your system font - it
looks terrible and punters will judge you on it.
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