There is no shame in bringing in an outside group to help you assess or change your sales process or marketing messages. We are all too close to what we do to be able to view it objectively.
April 12, 2023
By Rachel Smith
There is this idea of “yes, and” that I love. It’s a phrase borrowed from improv comedy, and a notion that lets you hold space for two things that are simultaneously true while being seemingly at odds with each other. I teach my children not to use profanity AND I use it all the time. I hate consumer culture AND I am expecting 17 packages from Amazon in the next few days.
Humans are complex. We contain multitudes. We claim to love Ted Lasso for his message on kindness, but let’s be honest—Roy Kent is our favorite character on the show. And because you understand people and all of our complexities, I feel comfortable admitting one more hypocrisy.
My role at Maestro is to help our clients with messaging. I teach about how the curse of knowledge keeps us from effectively communicating. I am ruthless with a red pen, pointing out all of the places where jargon should be removed. Where is your call to action? That’s not how you use a hyphen. Is this really the first thing you want people to see on your website?
Well guess what? YES, I say and do all of those things when I review other people’s websites, AND…it’s possible…I wasn’t following my own advice quite so well.
Before we delve into the painful story of Maestro looking critically at our own website, let’s discuss what makes a user have a positive experience on a website in the first place. What are the characteristics by which we measure websites?
There are a number of instruments that have been developed and studied in order to assess websites, and four key factors have emerged that largely determine user experience—ease of navigation, credibility, aesthetic, and invitation to return/engage. These are the components that we assess when providing messaging audits to our own clients.
There are tools and metrics that can be used to help us assess some of these factors but, overall, these four components are often difficult to assess when looking at your own website. Consider ease of navigation, which is something nearly impossible to evaluate once you’re already familiar with a site. You know where everything is on your company homepage, and so you forget what it was like prior to being hired and checking out your potential employer for the first time.
Even if you’re a user experience guru or graphic designer, looking at your own site and materials objectively is nearly impossible. It’s always useful to get a fresh, outside perspective—someone to remind you that AE might mean “account executive” to you, but to others it could mean auxiliary explosive, adverse event, or American English.
Users should never have to struggle to find what they are looking for on your website. That means that all information should be no more than a few clicks away. It also means that, even though your company blog is called The Yawning Sea Cucumber, it is indicated on your menu as “Blog.” Don’t make people hunt for your “About Us” page because you decided to call it something unique and clever. And don’t require that website visitors have to understand jargon specific to your field to find what they need.
Ease of navigation is more than being able to find information—it’s being able to find it quickly. Nobody wants to wait around for your page to load, nor do they want to have to squint or zoom in to see something on your site. Does your search function work correctly? What about your newsletter sign-up? When people visit your site for the first time, chances are high that they are looking for your service from other vendors as well. Something as minor as a slow-loading website could take you out of the running.
Anything that can make website navigation smoother can help you, and this includes readability. No matter how smart your prospects are, they don’t want to work through your content. Make your site more enjoyable by keeping your readability scores at a middle-school level. Even high-literacy individuals report a better user experience on those sites written at lower grade levels.
Prospects go to your website to get to know your organization. Help facilitate that process by showcasing the people on your team with photos and bios. Using stock photos on your site is fine, but make sure they accurately reflect your company. In other words, don’t show an image of the New York City skyline if you’re headquartered in Houston.
Being credible also means sharing the right information in the right way. The information on your site needs to be factual, up-to-date, and well-written. Be a stickler for good grammar. I even hear there are people out there who will judge your worthiness based on hyphen usage. (It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.)
The best credibility you can get comes from other people. Use social proof on your website to enhance your trustworthiness. Client testimonials and case studies are the most effective way to demonstrate your talent.
People go to your website to learn more, and your aesthetic is just as much a part of that as your content is. While aesthetics can be subjective, there are some universal guidelines that make any website more appealing.
Choose a font that’s easy to read and that is accessible to everyone. Use two or three anchoring palette choices and avoid difficult-to-read color combinations. Optimize use of white space. Use high-resolution hero imagery that attracts the eye but doesn’t distract.
Who are you as a company? The aesthetic of your website should reflect that, and it should be enjoyable for people to experience. As part of Maestro’s messaging engagements, I often ask people what ideas and feelings they want people to associate with their logo. Put your logo in conversation with your website aesthetic.
Your website should invite your target audience in and encourage visitors to return. Think about current clients who might refer someone to you. Does your website help them do that? Can they be confident that one of their colleagues could visit your site and understand who you are and why you were recommended?
Remember that your website isn’t only for prospects, either. Past clients should find a reason to come back. Do you offer components that are updated weekly, such as a blog or news section? Your website is a place to illustrate who you are, continually engage with others, and share your knowledge and skills.
YES, your website plays a critical role in providing prospects with a first impression, AND we tell this to our clients all the time, AND we realized that Maestro’s own website needed a lot of work. Maestro Group has changed and evolved over its six-year history, and our original website no longer reflects who we are as a company. Next week, we’ll share where our website journey has taken us.
Ready for a frank look in the mirror? Reach out at mastery@maestrogroup.co to find out more about our messaging and sales assessments.
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