Are you wanting to shout your services and great work to the world? Want to advertise without actually advertising? But what you do is SO fantastic how will prospective clients ever believe that you can achieve what you are shouting about?

We need proof they say…

Proof? you want proof? I’ll show you proof!

Please navigate to my case studies page…

Before you can have the perfect case studies page you need a few perfect case studies. Here are some tips on how to create a perfect case study.

5 things your case studies should include:

1. Break it down – be sure to include a brief breakdown of the case study as an intro. It makes it easy for visitors to find the case study they are looking for quickly and without getting frustrated
2. Images – images always make things more interesting, if you haven’t helped a client with anything tangible that you can include photos or screenshots of, then you can use stock images, just make sure they are well chosen, match the look and feel of the rest of your site and they aren’t cheesy! Fish Financial used some great quirky images for their case studies.
3. Headings – breaking your case study into sections is a great idea – but make sure you include headings. Your visitor should be able to easily see who the ‘Client’ is, what the ‘Project’ is, where the ‘Challenges’ lay, an ‘Overview’ of how you planned to help the client, the ‘Work Required’ to achieve satisfaction, the ‘Solution’ and the ‘Result’ where you can say how everything was achieved and also how it has helped the company or client. Try using headings that actually help tell the story – such as “Helping a pet food company increase their earnings by 72%” or “Probate advice for a family of 8”
4. Testimonials – these are the life of case studies. Testimonials give a name and occasionally a face to the case study – this helps people feel a connection to the client in question and can build trust. If you can convince the testimonial giver to let you use a picture of them, then that’s even better – CWB is a great example of this.
5. Give me more! – if you have chosen to take our advice and have an intro to begin with be sure your site visitors can find the entire case study easily by either including a link to the full case study or a link to a downloadable PDF of the case study (something that visitors can download and read at their leisure). A Business Innovation makes use of downloadable PDFs for their case studies.

7 reasons to have case studies:

1. It’s a great way to advertise without actually advertising
2. It can help evoke emotion by discussing situations that other people may also be in (for instance financial case studies are very important as there will always be website visitors who are retiring, have been retrenched, or just want to save for a better future)
3. People get a much better idea of what you do by reading real life stories
4. It’s a lot less “salesly” to tell a story about the services you provide and to let the results and testimonials speak for themselves. You can list statistics to show how a company has grown, become more productive, or made more money. Numbers are always a great way to show how well things are actually working
5. Everyone likes a good success story
6. If your clients are also businesses they will get free exposure and SEO benefits
7. By showcasing a variety of different types of clients, you have a greater chance of the reader identifying with ONE of them and understanding how you can help THEM.

Below are some examples of case study pages that we have done:

A Business Innovation

A Business Innovation is a company we regularly partner up with on projects. Together we have worked on some great websites AND case studies pages!

This page features all case studies on one page – company name, brief overview, and an image of the websites home pages. If you hover over the images of the home pages the image border changes to red and the website home page image is replaced with the company’s logo. See the cool feature here.

A Business Innovation also makes use of pages dedicated to each case study with a downloadable PDF.

Fish Financial

For the Fish Financial website case studies page we chose a fresh, clean layout to match the rest of the site. All 6 case studies are easy to navigate between with them listed on the left. When on a specific case study the left navigation boxes change colour to show you where you are.

The case studies themselves all have their own individual quirky image to go with them. They include a brief overview of the case study with a quote from the featured client and a PDF download to the full case study.

The Bespoke Wedding Company

The Bespoke Wedding Company has a great reason to have a case studies page. Being a wedding planning company there will always be lovely stories to share, but more importantly loads of amazing photos to show off.

The main case studies page shows all case studies with one large feature image, intro text and a link to the specific case studies. The specific case study pages include a full write-up on the event and the services they supplied. It also has a testimonial from the bride and groom and a lovely gallery to showcase the event and services rendered.

Prescience

Prescience is an integrated media company who focus on film production, financing and sales. They have helped fund movies such as ‘The Kings Speech’, ‘Chalet Girl’ and ‘Horrid Henry’.

Their case studies page needed to show all the projects they have helped fund, the projects that are soon to be released and even ones still in development. Their main case studies page just features the movies name and a recognisable image of the actors in the films, if you click on any of the movie names or the magnifying glasses a cool lightbox pops-up to give you an overview of the movie, from there you can navigate through them all.

Karen Haller Colour & Design Consultancy

Being a colour and design consultancy means that there will always be lovely pictures to feature on the case studies page. The main case studies page features 4 case studies – large images, intro, and a link to the full case study.

Each case study has its own page which features a full breakdown of the projects (using those fabulous headings), a testimonial from the client, clever links leading into other parts of the website and a lovely gallery to showcase the colour and design consultancy that was supplied.

OWL Regulatory Consulting

OWL  is a Regulatory Consultancy who have helped many clients. They chose only 3 case studies to feature on their website. It’s a very simple layout and the full case studies all appear on one page.

Based on the fact that the case studies are quite small we used a great drop-down feature. So arriving at the page you see the 3 case studies, headings and images, and if you click on the ‘More’ link then it drops down to show the whole case study.

Clarkson Wayman Ball

Clarkson Wayman Ball are a finance company and have many success stories to share. As we mentioned earlier – adding a testimonial from the client is a great way to get your visitor to connect with the story. CWB managed to get their clients to tell their personal stories and was even able to convince their clients to pose for pictures for the case studies. This really gives a whole other level to them.

They have an individual page per case study which includes the full story, a photo of the client, a downloadable PDF of the case study, a testimonial and a brief introduction to the team members that worked on the project – this is a fantastic way to allow your visitors to ‘meet the team’ and also gives the visitor an idea of who could be working on their specific case. Brilliant!

It’s so exciting that our next event “Pimp My Website” is just around the corner. For those of you who missed the news – it’s Thursday the 6th October, 11am to 2pm, at the amazing venue we have been using lately for our seminars.

Seminars at 38
38 Devonshire Street
London W1g 6qb

We have prepared an array of amazing and useful tips which can be implemented on any website to improve the chances of people reacting in the way YOU want them to do.

Think of your call to action
Many people don’t even think about this when creating their websites. It’s so important to plan this out – what do you want your website visitors to DO? Do you want them to call you, email you, ask for a quote, buy something, share a link to your blog, come to an event? It’s an important concept and needs to be carefully considered.

Ok so what are the three things?

1. I will get right to it! First thing you should know about this event is that it’s all about the Secrets of High Conversion websites. We have stats and everything! And the idea is that every tip, in itself, is easy to implement on any EXISTING website. So, that means it doesn’t take a long time and is therefore not costly. In some cases the changes can be made for free! We also are offering a guarantee on the event.

2. The second thing is that like our other full day events, and even though this is ONLY £50 – we will be serving lunch, refreshments, and our famous Top Left Design cupcakes, made for us by our very own Tamlyn – so talented! Some people come only for the cupcakes, which are delicious – but of course we teach great stuff too!

3. The final thing everyone should know is by coming along you get two free bonuses. One is a workbook which will be a comprehensive reminder of all the tips and tricks we are sharing – extremely useful. And the other bonus is that we will add our attendees to our internal bulletin where we share cool useful tools (don’t worry we are VERY selective!) that allow us to make our clients websites so great – usually this is ONLY for Top Left Design people but we will be sharing this with all who have come to “Pimp My Website”

Below is the link to book – see you there!!

Having good quality images on your site can set you apart from your competitors in a big way. Have you ever been to a website and thought “those pictures are awful”? How did that affect your impressions of the company? I’d be willing to bet that your perception of the company went down some – the quality of your content is directly linked to how your visitors perceive the overall quality of your company.

There’s nothing worse than having a great website designed, only to populate the pages with low quality clipart style stock imagery, or dodgy team pictures.

• If you are a venue – people will want to see the venue in all it’s glory
• If you have a physical product – then show off the product with high quality pictures
• If you have people in your business – (yes we know this means everyone!) – adding team pictures creates trust and transparency

Professional photography really does add a sophisticated and unique feel to your company and products. Below is just a small collection of  professional photography used throughout websites TLD has designed – now you’ll be able to see why professional photography is a must!

Venue Photography

Caldesi

Caldesi uses high quality photography to showcase their elegant restaurant interior – allowing any visitors to their site to see exactly what they are in for!

Product Photography

Goo Goo Gourmet

The Goo Goo Gourmet website has stunning product photography, cleverly placing the raw ingredients of the food next to the finished product. In times where we are all very conscious of what is put into our food, the images here combine peace of mind with beautiful pictures of food.

Photography by Studio Erameri www.erameri.com

The Nut Hut

Product imagery can sometimes become bland and repetitive – but not on The Nut Hut’s website! The food has been arranged in different ways almost like a sculpture, showing that even the most basic types of food can be displayed in an innovative way.

Photography by Studio Erameri www.erameri.com

Caldesi

As well as being a restaurant, Caldesi is also a cookery school, and the images here create a classic kitchen feel – freshly cut bread, raw dough covered in flour, and well prepared finished meals. If looking at these images doesn’t make you hungry, there must be something wrong with you…

People Photography

Olim

Olim have used clean, well composed images of their staff to show that their company has a face – visitors to the site establish a bond of trust when they see the people behind the name.

Photography by Nigel Charman www.nigelcharman.com

Caldesi

Again, Caldesi is a prime example of well taken photography – pictures of their staff are up on the site to let you know who will be teaching you to cook in their cookery school, and who will be cooking the food you eat in the restaurant itself. You don’t get that kind of exposure at McDonalds!

Disapproving llama does not like your use of 90's web design

When it comes to making websites look good, there are a plethora of ways to set a design apart from the rest, without needing to delve into the pit of cliché doom.

A strong design does not need gimmicks, just as it does not need uninspired generic content. The tricky part is finding the balance!

Here are some common culprits, steer clear of these or you might end giving people a migrane – or worse – they might steer clear of your site completely…

Full Text Justification

A website is not a newspaper. Even websites owned by newspapers don’t justify their text. Print layout is very different to web layout, and besides the accessibility issues, it just looks messy:

The 'River' in all it's glory. Yellow = bad.

When you justify text on a website, you can end up with large gaps inbetween text, called “rivers”. You see, when a newspaper with justified text is edited, the designer can determine exactly how the text will look as the material will be printed. This means they can remove any “rivers” and compensate for any ugly spacing. However, there is simply no control over this on the internet. People use different browsers, different screen sizes, and can change the font size for accessibility – so fixing a gap for one machine might mean that it looks terrible on another screen. Don’t justify text on the internet.

Splash/Intro Pages

Websites don’t need waiting lobbies! I’m busy, you’re busy – we don’t have time to mess around when it comes to accessing the content you’re after. So why would we want to add an extra hurdle for the visitors of your website to jump over before they can get to the goods?

Why am I not entered already?

The 3 click rule states that users should be able to access any part of your site in less than 3 clicks (the clue is in the name) – so why tighten the vice on an already inflexible usability golden rule?
Instead, make sure that your website homepage contains teasers of your most valuable information, acting as a hub to all of your marvellous content.

Flash

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dissing Flash. Nothing pains me more than to see a product get shunned, when I’ve personally put many, many hours into mastering it. Flash is a very controversial subject in the web design community, and unfortunately, for a good reason.
The mere fact alone that Apple refuses to support Flash on it’s iPhone and iPad devices is reason enough to banish it from your site completely. Your site needs to be accessible to everyone, and in case you hadn’t noticed, those iThingymajigs are rather popular. Build a website in Flash and you suddenly close it off to countless hipsters.

Flash doesn't work on the iPhone, the iPad, nor the iBike

Also, text in Flash websites can’t easily be picked up by search engines, so not only will nobody using an iPhone be able to view your site, they won’t be able to find it, to discover that it doesn’t work.
It’s also bad for accessibility, as it does not support use of the browser’s back button, or resizing of text for users with sight impairment.
Flash is not without it’s uses though – it’s a great tool for presentations, animations, games, advertisements and application development.

Further reading on this controversial subject:

Is Flash dead yet?
5 reasons NOT to use Flash on a website
What is Flash, when and why should you use it?

Scrolling Marquees

Oh snap, is it 1999? I’d better start making plans for New Years, I hear the new millennium is going to be off the hook! Wait – It’s just that your website LOOKS like it hasn’t been updated since 1999 because you’ve got a bar of text flying across the screen. I shouldn’t need to explain why this is bad for accessibility, but it’s like clay pigeon shooting with your eyes. Text marquees are the cheekiest text of all – always trying to get away while you’re trying to read it.

NEE NOOR NEE NOOR – Catch me if you can! This text looks unprofessional and belongs back in the nineties with Saved By The Bell – NEE NOOR NEE NOOR

Alternatively, use content sliders, and let the text stay still for a second so people can catch a glance.

“Helpful” Video Assistants

Do you remember the annoying paperclip from Microsoft Word? Well he evolved, became self-aware, and (like the Cylon) developed more advanced paperclips, disguised as human beings.
At least that’s what must have happened, I can’t think why any rationally thinking company would want this on their website:

This classic gimmick makes me wish my mouse cursor could slice.

They are rarely helpful, and always annoying. Especially as the vast majority start speaking immediately and usually it’s salesy gibberish with no real value.
A well thought out FAQ page or help section is much more effective, and much less likely to make someone rush for the back button. The only sites that should autoplay video/sound are YouTube and memes. It’s just bad user experience all around.

“Click Here”

Who would have guessed! Buttons are supposed to be clicked?

It’s the easy way out, and very, very common across the Internet. But a link saying “click here” is not only unimaginative, but also bad for SEO and users with visual impairment using screen readers. Get your creative juices going, and think of a better way to get your users to that content. The link should be on the name of the product or service, not on the verb of how to get there.
Instead of “Click Here” – use “View the full explanation” or “See some of our latest inventions” and make those the link. Your users will have a much better experience all around.

Are you guilty of any of these website faux pas?
Are there any more you can add to the list?

We are very lucky to have met the lovely people who work at 38 Devonshire Street. It’s a Dental Practice and Seminar Venue. The venue provides a lovely large room and AV equipment and delicious catered lunch. It is there where this coming Friday I will be joined by Tamsin Fox-Davies for one of our famous joint seminars!

“‎Keren Lerner and Tamsin Fox-Davies make a great team!” (actual quote from Karen Haller who attended our last talk)

Both Tamsin and I constantly learn and keep up to date with latest in the world of social media, SME marketing, online marketing, blogging and design.
Those who have been to see us work together have been impressed by our on-stage chemistry! We hope you can join us and learn about the do’s and don’ts of social media impressions and behaviours, how to become effective influencers, and discover more about the overall magic of social media. it’s going to be information packed and interactive and we have both worked hard to put together valuable and useful information which can be applied to all businesses.

To book visit this link and for the especially observant of you, we are offering a 2 for one deal for those coming in pairs – just email me to ask how to get this!

There are many people who are using blogs as a replacement for a website.

A blog can make up your entire web presence, and has many benefits. Blogs are easy to update regularly, which means you can keep your content fresh. The most recent “post” comes up at the top. You can use it for text, images, video and audio and it takes very little time to put content online.  Blogs are also brilliant for search engines as varied and frequent content means search engines will visit your site more often and this will mean higher rankings. Blogs are also less expensive than a full website. And by having a blog you can build on your credibility because you can continue to showcase your skills, knowledge, expertise and work. And blog posts are more easily shared amongst people on social media, which means your post will have many more views than without a blog.

So, we really love blogs!

For those with a limited budget – having a blog instead of a full website is something we regularly recommend.
In many ways this is better than the other way around – having an out of date website without any social presence or blogging can nowadays look static and old fashioned.

But for optimum usability and to really showcase your business, there are some things that are more easily navigable on a website.

What makes more sense as part of a website

• A section called”Case Studies” where you can tell some stories about work you have done in the past
• Specific pages for each of your Services which can explain to people what they can expect
• A “Meet the Team” section with pictures of the staff and brief bios (we recommend links to their LinkedIn pages)
• Contact Us page with possibly a form, a map to where you are, and all your main contact details
• A really clear proposition of what you are actually selling – so people can see what your business is!

Note: Testimonials are good to have everywhere – within each page, on your homepage, and on pages with related content.

What makes more sense as part of a blog

• Recently launched projects
• Events and workshops you are running, attending, have run
• Video blogs reviewing events
• Video testimonials from clients
• New partnerships, new deals, new hires within your business
• Interviews with people in your industry
• Guest blogs from people who would be of interest to your audience
• Tips, Step by Steps, and How tos for your clients and contacts
• Collections and Roundups of things within your industry
• Reviews of software or tools which are relevant to your audience.

In addition, a standalone blog can have an “about this blog” type area and a blog can often be designed to even look like a website, with the categories placed horizontally accross the top.

So the best option is to?

The ideal scenario is that you would have a website with a blog. This is something we specialise in here at Top Left Design. It allows you to have the best of both worlds – showcase your expertise and be as clear as possible about who you are, what you do, how you add value to your clients/customers.

Below are some examples:

Fish Financial IFAs

Bluecoat Wealth Management

Kubera Wealth

The Bespoke Wedding Company

Owl Regulatory Consulting

Joanna Tall from Off to see my lawyer has been kind enough to allow us to feature her fantastic “5 hot tips on linking“ as a post on our blog. The content below is full of useful advice and hot tips when it comes to linking to other people’s websites and creating your own website Terms of Use.

I hope you find the article below useful to you and your business.

5 hot tips on linking

Linking to others’ websites is a good idea PROVIDED you carry out a few little checks. Otherwise you could find yourself in deep trouble (and possibly in need of a lawyer!)

First, check that the terms of the site you want to link to allow you to link to it. You should find the answer in its website Terms of Use which are usually reached via a link from the homepage. If linking is permitted, then:

• Warn your customers that they are leaving your site, especially if the other site is embedded in your site i.e. looks as if it is part of your site.
• Make sure your website Terms of Use say that you are not liable for any linked site’s content.
• Don’t include the linked site’s logos, trademarks or content on your site without their permission or they could bring a claim against you for damages (e.g. forbreach of copyright or ‘passing off’).
• Make sure you identify the other site’s trademark and/or copyright notices.
• Ideally have a formal Linking Agreement which not only lessens the risk of the other site being annoyed with you, but can establish a positive partnership and create revenue.

Hot tip: if you don’t have Terms of Use, visit Joanne’s online document shop where they can be bought and downloaded immediately – they are “oven-ready”! Simply go to: www.offtoseemylawyer.com and click on ‘Document Shop’.

A big thank you to Joanna for allowing us to use her top tips!

You can find out more information about Joanna and Off to see my lawyer on her website www.offtoseemylawyer.com.

Also follow her tweets here: twitter.com/off2seemylawyer and check out her Facebook fan page too.

Recently, one of our new friends from Twitter and Athena emailed to ask the advice on how to tell people in her network that they have a website which is “….(insert own expletive!)…pants!”

This prompted me to put together some tips on tactful ways to help them – we do believe it helps with referrals – if someone has a bad website, we are hesitant in sending their website address out to people we want to refer them to, as their websites don’t represent their businesses as they should and therefore it’s hard for others to believe us that those people are worth speaking to.

If someone you knew had spinach in their teeth, you would tell them, no?
A bad website is like spinach in the teeth of a business – it can put potential clients off!

Here are some tips to help you communicate this to people who you know deserve a better website, because they are nice people!

There is big difference between Traffic vs Conversion

It makes perfect sense that if you get lots of traffic to a website, and people spend only seconds on it before going elsewhere, that search engine traffic is not the be all and end all. Even with all the new amazing ways of driving traffic to your website via social media, you still need to keep them interested with good design and good content!

It really bugs me when people’s first question is “How do I get to the top of the search engines?”

When it should be

“How do I make a website that keeps people interested when they get there”!

So here are some tips on helping people out!

Ask about how often they get enquiries
If a business has people coming to their website and no one is calling them, then there might be a reason, and it’s worth investing some time and asking an expert for feedback. Sometimes just asking the question to them will make them think to themselves – HANG ON! Why don’t people get in touch? This is especially if they are showing up on Google but not getting enquiries – it’s a conversion thing! And a website needs to convert, not just “be found”

Ask the audience
Ask them to send the link to their site around to their friends and ask for honest feedback. If they are brave enough to do that, their friends and contacts may help to prove a point, though chances are they will get mixed results

Tell them a story about someone else who got more business following their website being professionally updated.
We have lots of these examples – we had one client (a doctor) who had his website redone by us who sees 30-40 patients a week compared to before when he only saw 5-6 a week. Another client, a wedding planner, is fully booked for the second year running and this is ever since she had her website designed professionally by us. And another client, a music management company, has had no shortage in work and enquiries in spite of the climate – due to his new site. So, there is business out there, and the people who are winning it are combining good design and content with consistent marketing.

Hopefully this is useful and you can tell someone their website is pants sooner – and send them to us!

We have a special offer for Linkedin people who happen to land on this page. Really you could be anyone – but we want to offer to meet you – and spend an hour with you looking at your online presence. The cost is only £10 and we this offer is valid until the 15th of February 2011. Bookings will need to occur before 15th March 2011.

We will follow up with a recommendation summary for improvements you can make and you can choose if you want to work with us or existing suppliers.

Here are the things we can cover:

• Social media – how you use it, what you are doing right, what you could do better or more of
• Twitter strategies – how to expand contacts, build relationships and move connections to “real life”
• Events – how to incorporate your event planning with your online marketing – you can work plans and strategy into 2011′s – based on your and your team’s current capabilities
• Email newsletters – What you use now for email marketing, what options their are out there for you to use this better
• Blogging – How to make the most of blogging tools around, what kind of customisation options

The offer is limited to 4 business owners only. Click on this link to apply!

Once you email us your details and a bit of background information about your current online presence and marketing situation, we can book in a meeting at a convenient time. Meetings will take place at our Central London office and will last one hour.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Keren

There are a multitude of options and ways to market small businesses on the internet. Nowadays it’s important to think about the whole internet as your “playground” – rather than just your website!
Most people are familiar with the concept of having a website to market their businesses but it’s important to consider social media and blogging as well. Read on for some tips on how to use each effectively. And please comment at the end! We like comments!

Social Media

There are 3 main social media platforms that each small business should consider.

All of them are FREE.

Twitter is great for all businesses – whether B2B or B2C. It’s best to be yourself on Twitter rather than a “faceless company”. There is a unique language spoken on Twitter so we provide 1-2-1 training to help people get used to it.

Linkedin is the most “respected” of social media platforms. It’s really a must for all professionals, as there is huge value in your existing contacts. The biggest mistake people make is not paying attention to their Linkedin profile and not filling it in thoroughly.

Facebook – if the business in question is retail, commercial or visual (eg a gallery, photographer, fashion designer) then Facebook is a brilliant way to market yourself. But you do need to be active regularly and post a variety of different things up there.

Websites

Our websites range from single page sites to small brochure sites to full sites with case studies, galleries, blogs and social media integration.

Each site is different but here are some things to start you thinking about your next website incarnation.

• A professional, well thought out design
• No more than 7 main navigation links – and sublink organised within these
• A clear homepage which draws people into the most important parts of the site
• Case Studies
• Testimonials
• A blog
• Link to your Twitter page
• Well written “plain English” text – and not too much
• A press area
• Newsletter sign up

If your business has a website you can be proud of and gives a great first impression, and if you are active on social media and blogging regularly, then you will really stand out.

Blogs and Blog websites

Blogs can be within the website itself, as in many of the websites we have created – or separate. It’s best to be very organised and plan your blog posts in advance. This means there is fresh content on her website all the time which means it’s a more interesting site to go and visit. You can also have  a feed from your latest blog post

Having a regularly updated blog on the site is also great for SEO. Each time you add a page to your blog, you create another page on the internet, and this means search engines are more likely to find your site when people search for you.

You can also create an entire website using “Wordpress” which is the system that blogs are built on. This allows you the ability to update all the text yourself without needing to know any special coding.

What do we do to help? If you want us to help just get in touch – we are very experienced with setting up and providing training on social media, websites and blogs. In January we will be holding an education session on blogging and if you would like to enquire about attending, please get in touch by emailing keren@topleftdesign.com or visit http://tld-blogging.eventbrite.com