How I’m Improving My Website

Commentary November 15, 2010 at 04:54 AM
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Two of my most recent postings ("Moving to the Cloud for My CRM,"  and "Should I Keep My Office, or Move Back Home?") discussed my moving my office to my new home and the new Website under development. This week, I'd like to elaborate on the latter.

There a many benefits of having a well designed Website. Our first site was a self-built template. Even though it was lacking many bells and whistles, because we designed it ourselves, it forced me to write the text for it. The next iteration was developed by a startup company and was an improvement over the first effort, but lacked certain features. Now we have hired a professional to design a dynamic site which is designed to foster return visits.

Here are some of the items I plan to include.

Client Portal

With this, clients can log in and link to their accounts with TradePMR. They will also be able to link to NetDocs (at least that's the plan so far) to view any documents I have posted. These documents may include performance reports, financial plans, client agreements, etc. I will also have webinar capabilities.

Videos

I am slowly learning how to record whatever is on my computer screen and post it as a video to the site. I also have a Web cam, but have to admit, like the previous item, I'm scaling the learning curve. The bottom line is that when someone visits a Website, they are much more likely to watch a video than read a long string of text. Therefore, I would like to make this as easy as possible. I will have to spend some time developing the right content, but in the end, if I do it well, it will catch a visitor's attention and keep it.

Questionnaires

Here's a much improved area. Let's say potential clients visit my site and would like to determine, fairly quickly, if I am someone they want to engage. They can fill in my "What's Important to You" questionnaire. Basically, this form has them rank the services I have listed (all of which I do). If their score is high, then they would value what I do.

In addition, I plan to include a risk questionnaire.

I may have them provide some very basic information before they answer the questionnaire so the report can be e-mailed to them. In addition, I would receive an e-mail to notify me of their visit and a copy of their report.

The Usual Features

There will also be a "Click for Directions," a "Sign Up for Newsletter," and the usual "Contact Us." I will also receive  regular reports similar to Google Analytics. Information from the site can also be downloaded to Excel and then uploaded to our CRM.

If there are items I have missed, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading!

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