My last article talks about common misunderstandings towards good technical product website, and how to use simply 5 steps to assess yours. I do recommend you to go through it. You will have a better understanding of not only your website’s performance, but also your clients.

However if you are not that enthusiastic about the web design stuff, and just want to spot some to-do and not-to-do things, this post is a shortcut.

This simple image shows basic contents to add, and rules to consider for a business website. For technical product there are extra considerations, but let’s start from simple things.

<Image Credit: https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6227215?hl=en&ref_topic=6231194>

1. YOUR PRODUCT – SOUL OF YOUR BUSINESS

Your product is the star of the website, not the company, not the stakeholders and definitely not the CEO himself. It will be different if your goal is to attract investors instead of selling products, but then it’s a better idea to have a separate corporation website. Trying to serve two bosses – investors and clients with the same website usually goes wrong.

Make sure your product is very prominent , and people can have a good impression of it in the first 10 seconds landing to your homepage. It means you need to briefly introduce your product and its unique benefits above the first scroll of the homepage.

Seeing the product helps too , so don’t hesitate to add a nicely taken (but still realistic) picture. If your product is very complex and conceptual, and you find difficulty to explain it within several words, adding a intro video can be a better option.

Many companies put company values, CEO motto or happy employee pictures on the homepage. Think it again before doing that, because your clients don’t know you yet, it probably isn’t the best moment to talk about your values. They come here with specific needs, show them how your product can fulfill their needs. Company morality can surely help to build trust, but it’s better to put them on a separate page called “About Company”.

2. CALL-TO-ACTION – CAPTURE VALUE AND CONVERT CLIENTS

Product website is not only about introducing products, after all it’s about making business. Make sure that your clients constantly understand what to do next , and make the the conversion process barrier free.

The idea is simple, but everything can go terribly wrong when it comes to technical companies, for whom sales lead time is exceptionally long, and closing the deal needs many human efforts. Companies know a “Buy Online” button might not work in this case, and they are driven to the opposite extreme – hiding everything behind a same contact us web form. This practice sounds lazy and inconsiderate, because it provides little information about when, from who, how the feedback will come, and gives client no way to preview or control the process.

There are simple ways to make your website looks welcoming without giving out too much purchasing details.

• Share as much inessential information as possible . If you don’t want to share the price, then just keep the price itself as secret. Let people know what packages and options they can choose; give them some anticipation about the price level in the market; use a customer comment to reassure them. There are many creative ways to do this. Don’t write “Contact for price” only, it scares off many clients.
• Give client control and anticipation . Tell your client what will happen after he fills the form – when will he receive the feedback? Should he anticipate a sales call? Will some technical engineer talk with him regarding his project? How the sales will proceed? Give client power to control the process – how does he want to be contacted? To whom he wants to talk to?
• Provide contact form alternatives . Not every client likes the idea of waiting the feedback passively. They might want to email or talk to you right away. Make sure leaving at least one email and telephone number on your website. There are many other options too, such as a LinkedIn account of client support, a live chat tool or a live demo request. People want to talk to people, not to web forms, so it won’t harm to be more human.

Selling is not the only Call-to-Action to have. You can use different types of Call-to-Action to capture leads at different stages of the purchase. White paper download can capture first time visitors who shows interest in the topic. Newsletter signup can capture leads who want to keep a long term engagement. Online demo request shows a client starts to consider your product. There are many signs that indicate a lead is evolving along your business process. Capture these moments using CTAs so you can generate many leads, as well as get enough information to make wise decisions.

3. CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS – USE PEER APPROVAL TO BUILD TRUST

One thing that I’ve learnt in technical marketing is the importance of peer approval. Engineers, who may not be easily moved by advertising hypes or well polished demos, can usually be convinced by several words from peers or an authority figure .

There was once a prospect who had requested many efforts from us – customized technical demo, support on a project, benchmark comparison with several competitor products. We tried everything but the case was still no where to be closed. I almost gave up until someone decided to let one of our users talk to him instead, and the deal was closed the second week.

It was not an accident case. The same magic happens several times. It seems clients have their own way of communication which can not be replaced by efforts from vender side.

Adding customer testimonials to your website is a perfect way to gain trust. So how to get and use testimonials to achieve the best performance.

• Always ask for feedbacks . The best way to get effective testimonials is to accumulate them from usual communications. Deciding to put testimonials online next week, and asking your customers to write them for you is not a good idea. First, they might refuse to do this for you. Second, you might get very bad testimonials. When I say “bad”, I do’t mean customers will say bad words about your product. Oppositely, they will say too much good but general things about your product that the testimonial can’t touch anyone .

When you ask a customer write a testimonial under no particular circumstance, he really wants to help you, but the only thing he can make is something like “X company is a very good company – people are good; products are good; support is good; everything is good.” This testimonial is too general that it doesn’t answer any particular question, thus it won’t trigger any particular interest.

The feedbacks that you get everyday, however, are collected under specific circumstances. The customer might found a feature is particularly useful in one project, or a technical support is extremely helpful with the new installation. Collect these small pieces first, and ask for permission when you want to use them. You will finish with more effective customer testimonials.

• Avoid sales pitch like testimonials. The magic of testimonials lies in the objectivity of the comments. There is nothing worse than a testimonial that sounds like the customer took some advantage from the company, and try to sell the product. It sounds suspicious and usually evoke negative impression.

A product has its strength and weakness, a testimonial should focus on the strengths, giving a large amount of specific examples, but it shouldn’t avoid the obvious weakness, or even twist the facts. Yes, a good testimonial can also talk about weakness, as long as the customer can explain how he made made the tradeoff.