Web Usability – Design Tips (Part 1 of 2)
In Category: General
By: Jinn-Erik Tveita(94 articles)
Web Usability
Usability is a crucial factor in any interface design, particularly website design. For any business that uses its website as a means for attracting customers or making sales, making sure that the site is easily understandable, fulfilling the functional purposes and providing for an enjoyable online experience must be a high priority. Intuitive interfaces can increase the positivity of a user’s experience, whereas messy, outdated interfaces can leave a sour taste and undermine the value of your brand.
Dr. Jakob Nielsen, a well known interface usability expert, has come up with 8 usability heuristics or rules of thumb to abide by. We would like to present these principles to you and provide examples of how they apply to a website design.
1. Visibility of system status.
“The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time”.
This means that at any given moment that a user is interacting with the website, they must be notified of the current status of the process. This principle has several practical applications.
A simple example is an image slider that shows how many images it contains and which one is currently displayed:
On our home page slider, the transparent bar at the bottom displays the content of the slider and the current image
Another case where this applies is progress bars/circles:
a loading circle that displays the progress percentage is more effective than one with a looped animation
2. User Language.
“The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.”
Your site has to be easily understandable to an average Joe. That means you shouldn’t use too much complicated terminology and specific jargon, especially in the areas of the site that provide common functionality. Experts love to come up with unique terms or use large words in an attempt to be unique or to display a high level of proficiency, but it is often recommended to use common terminology in order to avoid confusion. Remember: your website needs to appeal to a broad demographic.
Here’s an example of confusing terms found on a homepage of an educational institution’s site:
If you must use an abbreviation, make sure to explain what it stands for, when you first introduce it to the user. This is especially important for first time visitors.
3. Emergency Exit & Undo
“Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo.”
This particularly applies to areas of a site where users are facing some form of a commitment being requested from them. For example, clients who RSVP for an information session should be able to cancel their RSVP at the click of a button.
4. Consistency and standards
“Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.”
When a piece of functionality is referred to from different areas of the site, it is important that the referrals are using the same term. For instance, if your menu button, containing the information about your company as well as the contact information, is titled “About Us”, then that is the title you should use when directing users to find your contact information. In contrast, if you were to say “find our email in the contact section”, it would be unclear, since there is no such section.
Consistency applies to the visual look of your site as well. That includes color schemes, fonts and themes.
On our site (www.advisorwebsites.com), the color choices are consistent throughout different pages:
This heuristic principle is the easiest to implement, as it can be done on the early stages of your site planning and does not require complicated coding.
How did this financial advisor get over 38,000 YouTube views?
By: Jinn-Erik Tveita(94 articles)
While based on his media presence it’s quite clear that this financial advisor clearly has a high profile to begin with, it is also clear that the video style also contributes to its immense popularity. While 38,000 views may appear to pale in comparison to the millions that music video generates, it is nevertheless extremely impressive given that this is essentially a long commercial for his services.
While this video certainly isn’t perfect, it does do some things right – and provides a benchmark for you to compare your videos to.
So, what exactly does this video do right?
1. It doesn’t feel like a traditional commercial.
This video isn’t a hard sell. While it’s clearly got a bit of bias going on, it relays information in a way similar to news coverage. A variety of voices break up the potential monotony of having just one voice, and the advisor himself looks and acts like he’s telling a story about something he’s passionate about.
2. Strong Production Values.
It is immediately clear that this video has been professionally made – lighting is clear, he clearly knows his lines, and the video editing is professional and attractive. While he may have had a budget to work with, these aspects need not be exclusive to big budgets. Remember our 6 tips on how to make a professional looking video?
3. The message is clear.
The video is concise, and isn’t too long so as to bore viewers or worse, lose viewers who simply don’t want to spend a lot of time watching what essentially amounts to a sales pitch. Within the first minute it becomes clear what his value proposition is, and why he is good at what he does. Again, a variety of voices and individuals add credence to his message, and also serve to change things up and prevent monotony.
Are you using YouTube as part of your Online Marketing Strategy?
We would like to hear from you… please share your experience by leaving a comment.
Google Launches ‘Good to Know’
By: Jinn-Erik Tveita(94 articles)
The world-wide web is much more than a static information source. In effect, it seems to have become a sort of e-civilization; work, leisure, and education – no activity, in its current incarnation, would be the same without it. As a result of us living so much of our lives online, however, significant amounts of data about us and our activities exist on the web. To some, this can be a terrifying thought – what information do others know about me? What types of malicious individuals exist on the internet? How can these individuals attain my information, and use it to harm me?
Google has taken a stab at answering some of the related questions stemming from these worries in their ‘Good to Know‘ pages. An internet in the 21st primer of sorts, good to know offers tips for online safety, how to manage your data, and describes the various malicious activities that can occur on the internet, and how you can mitigate risk. In particular, Google explains how your data is used by Google, how Google operates, and how you can improve your Google experience.
Certainly a brilliant PR move. In the face of privacy criticism and mistrust in internet giants such as Facebook, Google is leveraging its reputation of providing a transparent, trustworthy service.
Check this new service online: www.google.com/goodtoknow
Register for our LinkedIn webinar on Jan-26
In Category: Social Media
By: Loic Jeanjean(167 articles)
The Advisor Websites’ team is hosting a free web seminar on Thursday January 26th at 10am PST (1pm EST). This webinar will be solely on the benefits of LinkedIn as a tool to grow your online presence.
This 45 min session will cover the following items:
- Why you need a 100% complete profile
- How to SEO your profile
- Why you need at least 150 contacts to prospect
- Where to look for opportunities
- What groups should you join
- Compliance issues
The session has been filling up pretty fast and there was only 15 seats left last time I checked. REGISTER TODAY by clicking the link below (the session is free)
Book Review: 101 Success Tips & Strategies for Financial Advisors
By: Jinn-Erik Tveita(94 articles)
Whether you’re a fledgling new advisor, or an established, more seasoned advisor, you understand that your professional performance is the primary driver of your practice’s success. But what are advisory best practices? Are you doing everything you can to build your business?
Rosemary Smyth, an associate certified coach (ACC) and member of the International Coach Federation (ICF), is here to help with her book “101 Success Tips and Strategies for Financial Advisors”.
Topics include clear actionable messages, and are presented in a neat, easily readable format with extensive use of lists – she certainly understands that many advisors simply don’t have the time or want to read unnecessary jargon. Book topics include how to:
- CREATE a compelling vision of your business.
- BUILD lucrative relationships with your ideal clients.
- DELIVER a meaningful level of client service.
- ENHANCE your client communication skills.
- CAPITALIZE on potential referral opportunities.
- GET unstuck and dive back into your business
This gem is filled with actionable tips that have the potential to skyrocket your performance! Not only is the content timely and relevant, but it is broken into manageable sections that make it easy to implement. I highly recommend this resource for every financial advisor!~ Robert J. Sofia, Cofounder & C.O.O Platinum Advisor Marketing Strategies, LLC
Learn more about the book at Rosemary’s official website.
Why Your Financial Planning Practice Needs a Website
In Category: Marketing
By: Guest Author(30 articles)
Marketing your financial planning business is about more than just networking or advertising in the local newspaper or phone book. The Internet has opened up so many more possibilities for marketing your business and connecting with new customers. Establishing a web presence is a critical part of any successful marketing and branding strategy. If your business does not already have a website, here’s why you need to create one:
Shares Information about Your Company
Your website is a great way to introduce your company to new customers and partners. You can present a tailored message about your products and services, your company’s history, your employees, and much more. Basic information can be presented, such as contact information,a staff directory, a catalog of products, or pricing and description for services. More extensive information can present your company’s mission and goals for the future.
Builds Credibility
Proper marketing with your website can help you build credibility for your company. Writing a blog, hosting videos, or offering e-books or tutorials can help you to establish yourself as an expert in your field, helping to build customer respect and loyalty. Making this type of information available also offers your customers additional value, giving them more reasons to come to your site besides buying your products or services. The more reasons they have to come to your site, the more likely they are to stay to learn more about your company, your products, and your services.
Creates Brand Awareness
There are many ways that a Website can help you to create greater awareness for your brand. Proper search-engine optimization can help to get your website noticed, drawing more attention to your company and your brand. Performing proper keyword research, building quality back links to your site, and writing regular, quality content for your site can all improve your search-engine ranking. In so doing, whenever someone searches for content that is related to your site, Google and other search engines will include your site near the top of the results, getting your site noticed by more people and helping you to create greater awareness of your company.
Attracts New Customers
The more you do to improve the visibility of your site through higher search-engine ranking, the more traffic you can drive to your site and attract new customers. Focusing on getting quality back links to your site can help you to drive a significant amount of traffic to your site, helping to improve your ranking even more. Writing guest posts for other sites, maintaining an active presence in online forums, and promoting your site through social-networking sites can help you to generate more back links to your site. The more links you get and the higher your search-engine ranking, the more traffic you will be able to drive to your site, helping you to attract and retain new customers.
Keeps Company Current
Just about every company has a website or some other presence online. Creating a company website keeps you current and in line with contemporary trends. Companies who do not have a website or some other kind of online presence in this day and age are going to appear behind the times and not forward thinking. Having a website should be as basic as having a company phone line. What you do with that site helps set you apart from your competition and defines your marketing strategy.
Creating a company website can have many benefits for your business. It helps you to create brand awareness, attract new customers, and establish credibility within your field. A website is a key component of your marketing strategy. Establishing your Website is just the first step in a strategic marketing campaign that can help you to win over new customers and grow your business.
About the author:
Amanda Tradwick is a grant researcher and writer for CollegeGrants.org. She has a Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Delaware, and has recently finished research on grants for nursing school and grants for teaching degrees.
Img src: http://kyo-tux.deviantart.com/
Advisor Websites quoted by Investment Executive in 2 articles about blogging
In Category: Blog
By: Loic Jeanjean(167 articles)
Fiona Collie from Investment Executive called me about a week ago with some questions about blogging for financial professionals. she wanted to know if I had any tips or resources to share with their readers.
This 20 minutes interview turned out to be a great discussion about blogs and the financial services industry, and Fiona decided to break her article into two posts (see below).
I hope you will find these articles of value and encourage you to leave a comment below or share this blog post across your social networks.
Build a wildly popular blog
Published by Investment Executive – January 16, 2012
“The blog is a great foundation for a successful social media strategy,” says Loic Jeanjean, director of web marketing with Vancouver-based Advisor Websites. To create a successful blog, you must have a strong desire to build a community of readers — and have a compelling story share…. Read the full article online or download as PDF.
Start a blog and stand out
Published by Investment Executive – January 12, 2012
A blog is a great tool to help advisors connect and build relationships with prospects, says Loic Jeanjean, director of web marketing with Vancouver-based Advisor Websites. A blog will make your business stand out, Jeanjean says. Only about 5% of advisors blog; the rest are probably held back by the modest time commitment required or worries about compliance…. Read the full article online or download as PDF.
You might also like this white paper: Social Media and Websites Integration
Google Indexing Facebook Comments
In Category: SEO|Social Media
By: Jinn-Erik Tveita(94 articles)
In November, Google quietly introduced new indexing paramters, with the notable new update being that comments on blogs and facebook will now be searchable by google. What does this mean for you?
- Increased exposure, decreased privacy – Be prepared for more people to gain access to what you’re posting
- New search engine optimization strategies – Increased commenting will allow your blog or facebook profile to generate more clout, and google search hits. Advisors who actively engage using social media will be the biggest beneficiaries of this change.
- More spam – Spammers will take advantage of this development in an effort to gain more exposure
Some may be quick to criticize this latest development as anti-privacy, but remember: everything you post in the internet runs the risk of being seen by all!
Read more about Google’s indexing: here.
10 Tips to advisors on using a blog as part of a marketing campaign
In Category: Marketing|Social Media
By: Loic Jeanjean(167 articles)
Although blogging has been around for quite some time, few financial advisors have leveraged this powerful tool.
It’s a shame. I consider blogging to be an amazing tool to empower people to find, connect, and build relationships with financial professionals.
A blog is the foundation to a successful social media strategy. It allows the advisor to push its content and talk about who they are as a professional, who they work with and how they serve their clients.
In order to succeed, one advisor must have a desire to build a community of readers and ambassadors, a compelling story to share and a commitment to educate its visitors.
Here are 10 tips to get you started and stay motivated:
- Talk to your compliance team and find out what you can or cannot do while blogging. (remember that archiving your content is a must)
- Plan out a solid content strategy (unique and valuable content that speaks to your target market)
- Be passionate. Nobody talks about boring businesses
- Focus on content that is actionable (i.e how to’s) Your client want to be educated and learn something new
- Encourage conversation by responding to every comment, good or bad
- Empower your readers to share your articles on social media (use social media buttons like Share on Facebook, Tweet this etc.. or “subscribe by email” widgets)
- Promote it constantly using social media
- Be consistent and update frequently (at least once a week). Businesses that blog at least 20 times per month generate 5 times more traffic than those that blog fewer than 4 times per month (HubSpot study)
- Have a solid SEO strategy (research which keywords are important to target, focus on long tail keyword phrases, which are less competitive)
- Review your analytics and write content accordingly (learn what content people respond to)
I would love to hear about financial advisors who have already incorporated a blog in their overall online marketing strategy. How are you using your blog? How often do you post? What topics are the most read? Please use thew comment box below to share your story.
About Us
Welcome to the Advisor Websites blog. Our goal is to provide useful ideas and suggestions related to utilizing the internet in your practice. We will share with you a number of case studies, ideas, success stories and answer any questions that get sent our way.
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