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I need some advice...

by lmeyers
8 replies
Need input from sales savvy warriors. I'm a programmer and created web service for local employers to help their employees and themselves. I think the concept might have legs but not sure my marketing site is presenting it well. Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated. Http://perkslocal.com

Thanks in advance for your feedback,
Lauren

Site: Grow your business and reward employees with PerksLocal
#advice #benefits #discounts
  • Profile picture of the author PanteraIM
    I like your site, it's targeted well and you obviously understand your audience. It took me awhile to figure out exactly what it is you sell, and most visitors will not give you this kind of patience. Your homepage should reflect what you do and your benefits/positioning within 15 seconds otherwise they are gooooone.

    I didn't feel that there was a compelling reason to sign up, you really need to SELL a service like this to businesses, it's not something that will carry its' own weight so to speak.

    How are you planning to market the business aside from a website? Who will you be targeting specifically?

    Not meaning to toot my own horn or anything, but take a look at my company's website for what I mean. http://pantera.im

    We are offering one product which is Local seo, we are the only specialist company in the country that offers this, we describe what it does and why they should care. We give benefits and talk value with a strong CTA on every page to get in touch with us. We funnel the traffic from the LP to our phones. I didn't feel like I really knew what I was doing or what you wanted me to do, you need to make it really obvious and TELL them what to do next.
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    • Profile picture of the author lmeyers
      Wow, great input!

      The homepage is a bit muddled because there are 2 sales going on: vendors/merchants that want to list offer to local employees, and businesses that want to offer this as employee perk. Ok, i will rethink how to grab initial attention without confusion.

      I thought the limited time beta offer would be compelling, but maybe not. "Post your offer to local employees for FREE!" "Give your employees a reason to love you...sign up today!" I have plenty of taglines but again audience is confusing: national vendor, local merchant, employee.

      Yes your site is crystal clear with benefits and audience targeting. You are exclusively focused on website owner which make it simple. Maybe i just forget about vendors and employees to focus on business owner that are paying members.
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    • Profile picture of the author lmeyers
      I know local businesses do not seek out online solutions, so i am doing direct mail, door drops and knocking on doors. Unfortunately this approach does not scale well and very expensive. This is local business conundrum: expensive to reach and no budget when you get there. In the end i may abandon local businesses and just go after larger corporations. Selling to owner of struggling 10 employee company is in many ways more difficult than selling to HR in 1,000 employee company. My mission was to help small to medium sized companies, but if it is not viable then move upstream.
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      • Profile picture of the author oneonesip
        Originally Posted by lmeyers View Post

        I know local businesses do not seek out online solutions, so i am doing direct mail, door drops and knocking on doors. Unfortunately this approach does not scale well and very expensive. This is local business conundrum: expensive to reach and no budget when you get there. In the end i may abandon local businesses and just go after larger corporations. Selling to owner of struggling 10 employee company is in many ways more difficult than selling to HR in 1,000 employee company. My mission was to help small to medium sized companies, but if it is not viable then move upstream.
        Offline is one conventional technique but I do not think this will growth in online area now.
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        • Profile picture of the author lmeyers
          Yes but i have done direct email and they are not opened. I have done PPC and it is ineffective and very expensive. I think bottom line is local businesses are not online so need to approach them offline.
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        • Profile picture of the author lmeyers
          I am very curious how online services market themselves to offline businesses I have seen daily deals be successful with huge direct sales forces, But they must clear $5k per deal to make this expensive model work. Also understand seo and social media companies sell their services on subscription basis, but in my experience this is not cost effective for client. Would love to hear of examples of online services being successful with local brick and mortars.

          Originally Posted by oneonesip View Post

          Offline is one conventional technique but I do not think this will growth in online area now.
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  • Profile picture of the author MelanieandMiles
    Pretty good feel and clean site, for sure... But, there are a lot of different components all pulling at the eye... PanteraIM mentioned that you have 15 seconds and I'd say that you have half or one third of that amount of time. 4-7 seconds.

    The first image had a biz card which grabbed my eye, then it had text which grabbed my eye, then my eye bounced down to the 3 content blocks and then the image rotator fired up and pulled my eye back up.

    The big carousel/rotator is totally distracting... I tried to read below again to learn what you are offering and the slider moved again and pulled my attention back up...then I tried to go back below to read and the slider slides again... I never 'got' it.

    I'd focus on dialing in one image for that main rotator area and sticking with it. Try to let your message be the most attention getting part of that area... Faces and contrasting imagery can be really distracting and your goal is to explain/entice, not to distract.

    Then, consider moving your blue opt-in bar above the 3 content blocks. Also consider adding a call to action in the main image (where the rotator is) with an arrow pointing towards the bottom right that points down to the get started button.

    Isn't that really what you want people to do, to click the get started button? That grey button is kinda flat. Maybe try a red button... Red would POP on blue.

    Then when I click on that button, there is the blue 'beta' bar up top... I'd yank that and put in a solid value proposition in its place (probably reinforcing the text you had on the main image that pointed to the button and got them to click).

    Tell them exactly what they are getting when they enter their info on that page. "You get xyz for free which will help you abc... But the free offer won't last, so act now" Or something like that.

    Keep going! You've got a great start and de-cluttering / removing competition for the eye can help you focus in on 1 main message and 1 main call to action.... Then your visitors can 'get it' in the 4-7 second attention span they have available.
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    • Profile picture of the author lmeyers
      Great feedback.

      I have slowed the slider transition to be less distracting--others have commented on this, but i see many award winning site with sliders. Changed color of Get Started button. The opt-in bar is shared across pages so can't move. Modified alert on signup page.
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