[Maxine]

Deep breathing...

OK, I would really really appreciate lots and lots of constructive comments and any feedback on my new site for creditcontrolmanager.co.uk

There aren't any keywords or headings in there yet so its really the design, layout and content at this stage. Then I shall be asking Sally for help with blogs

It's the first one I have done with dreamweaver having used publisher for ages

Right, off to get myself a very large drink while I wait for comments and will be really really appreciative of all comments.

Oh, and thanks to Glen for helping me get this far you have been a SUPERSTAR!!

Thanks everyone

[admagic]

Maxine...you are sat on a goldmine..and you arent even digging!!

You have the perfect type of business to build a good passive income stream in information products - and yet you arent even offering "great information free" to get people to sign up on your list!!!

It is criminal! There is not a call to action anywhere!!

Your pages should be designed to essentially attract traffic, yet none of the menu page titles are anything that anyone would remotely search!

And then that traffic should focus on your name squeeze!!

Use a classic copywriters headline "do you make these mistakes with your credit control? - the worst five mistakes that everyone makes that is costing most companies 14 days credit"....download our free survival guide....

and immediately back end upsell / one time offer

The "credit managers survival guide..the 12 keys to reducing your debt book in 7 days flat.. you can make DVD or whatever and sell for (say) £37
) as aninformation marketer I can tell you that 2 DVDs people percieve are worth £50-£70 - so maybe go for the pair?)

To create this either talk over power points ( use camtasia) or run and record a 3 hour seminar.....( sony vegas makes editing/ burning/ music easy for anyone)

Get a good copywriter to write the sales letter ..in this instance it is vital to sell that straight off the page.


"with guarantee - if you dont think they will save you at least 10 times what they worth return them for yourmoney back - all classic info marketers stuff

Then the gift is included provided they purchase NOW!!!
(or a thank you pageupsell)

IS the 1 on 1 tele 1 hour "roll up the shirt sleeves specific" advise session...which obliges them to fill out a deep questionaire - or include it in the offer anyway.

So then you get to find all about them, without ever having to pitch!!

And that allows you to tailor specific offers....to them

Read my "getting of first base thread about list building"


So whether or not they buy youhave a list to sell to

You can then either back end the 12 DVD course, or the seminars to the list!!! or 1 on 1 consultations - but do that by emailing your list,with specific landing pages on your autoresponder.

RIght now your website is pretty, and does some credibility building, but doesnt seem to have a specific sales purpose or any call to action-it should!!

And you are also in a great position, to make this a rebrandable viral site - that allows people income just for passing your free ebook on.

You are perfectly placed since your site is 1inch wide and 1mile deep focussing on a very specific issue which is ideal!!. your business lends itself to training videos, seminars, books MP3 downloads, podcasts, mentoring webinars..the whole gamut of info marketing.

So my advise is...stop thinking like a conventional credit manager ...using a website as a business card, and start thinking like an internet/information marketer

And make your services something you pitch to the list as you grow it

Thing is. You are doing your small company customers a favour: they cant afford the full 2 day one on one... but they can all afford the video course, and that is passive income stream....throw in an hour of your time as a premium upsell.

All your advertising, web and other, should be focussed at getting them to download your free guide, and sign up. And that guide is what proves your credibility

But Before I comment furter I would like to know..
Where do you/where do you intend to get traffic from?
What sources....and how/who are you targetting?

[Sanook]

Hello Maxine

Sorry to say when i look through the site it screams to me way too much management speak. It depends on who you expect to be looking for your services within the company. If I was the owner/manager of a SME to me you show that you had a wide range of services but failed to convince how precisely you would help my business.

For example the collections intro on the homepage talks about your fee as competitive commission or fixed fee, but to me the client could be more interested at first glance to your "No payment = No fee" found near the bottom on the second collections page.

I think you need to 'speak' to your potential clients more though your site, tell them this is how i'll recover your money and ensure you never have a bad debt again. Tell them it's costing their business money every minute this debt is outstanding, can they afford NOT to hire your services?!. Also some well placed case studies would make things clearer.

However i might have it all wrong and your aiming for CEO's who salivate at the words like "interim management"

Ian

[sally]

Maxine it is nearly 4am and I am bushed but I have written it on my to do list for tomorrow ........ if I get sidetracked from list just give me a nudge and I shall give it a real good going through

[Maxine]

Admagic - WOW - Thank you sooooo much!!!

You are completely right, I need to stop thinking like a conventional credit manager who uses their web site as a business card / CV!

I love the ideas of webinars, podcasts, mp3downloads, dvds, guides etc and feel that this could certainly be very successful if I did it right! I am going to go away now and formulate a plan and research how I might best do this using technology and resources. I also have access to a number of other key experts so I could rope them in too The technology side is new to me so I shall start with researching how a few others are doing it. I am thinking that I could start with people who are currently doing their ICM Credit Mgt Project (final paper) as this is where I won an award with 97% distinction so this could be a good start/tester.

Totally agree about the Call to Action - and this can be focused on getting people to sign up for information. Brilliant

In terms of where do I currently get traffic from? I only really get traffic at the moment via word of mouth. The old website deliberately did not have any keywords in it as I couldnt handle much work in this field other than the odd bit of consultancy due to family committments/husbands business/telemarketing business but from Sept I will have more time with youngest starting school, and I have employed a No2 for husbands business and a telemarketing manager for other business so I can focus energies on this business which is where I have 20yrs experience I am working back from 15th September as my full launch date and July/Aug needs to be low volume activity & travel due to school holidays so I want to spend Apr, May & June planning and building up stuff (portfolio/articles/databases/contacts) and your ideas fit brilliantly into that.

My main target audience is corporate co's mostly with CEOs, CFO's, VP Finance, Finance Directors, Finance Controllers, Group Credit Managers, Credit Managers, AR Managers, IT Project Managers so hence some of the "management speak" as these are terms that people will likely search on such as "interim credit management" and also Recruitment agencies and HR managers will look under that term too (especially if they need to find an Interim when they sack current managers and find replacement. Another audience for me is Accountants, Administrators and Liquidators who want to sub out some of the technical or specialist bits of credit management or the debt chasing or who could do with temporary help for business turnarounds / insolvent positions.

I am thinking that only around 20-25% of my business will be SMEs as there is less demand for some of my products and services and I do not want to set myself up as the best debt collection agency as there are oodles of companies out there who could do it cheaper than me but I will offer debt collection that retains business and maximises profits with a focus on proactive credit management rather than chasing around small claims courts afterwards. Perhaps I should have a selection especially for SME's What would be the things that you guys would spend money on??

It also becomes quite apparent with Sanooks comments that I have not written it with the customer in mind. It's too much of a Menu imo rather than selling the benefits, describing the features, then why me and my company specifically then of course the Call to Action.

But hey, it is a basis in dreamweaver (wey-hey) that I can chop and change around now .... looks like I am gonna be putting the hours in

Thanks everyone and sorry for rambling and hope you are all having a lovely day

Max

[admagic]

Originally Posted by Maxine

I am thinking that only around 20-25% of my business will be SMEs as there is less demand for some of my products and services and I do not want to set myself up as the best debt collection agency as there are oodles of companies out there who could do it cheaper than me but I will offer debt collection that retains business and maximises profits with a focus on proactive credit management rather than chasing around small claims courts afterwards. Perhaps I should have a selection especially for SME's What would be the things that you guys would spend money on??


Max

I think the combination of ...
A DVD training course.....

(with form letters)

UPSELL A 1 on 1 half hour tele consultation , based on a questionairre

Is an incredibly powerful combination for small businesses ...who could not afford normal visiting consulltation..and a much better leverage on your time.

BTW....you could have a "membership site" in which you also do a one hour group webinar every week, to answer questions submitted by email. for any members who want to comeon the call
That is a really powerful formula to leverage a lot of income out of a one hour call.

(amemberpro is a great script for that type of site)

I am a member of a number of similar things.

re technology

easy with "camtasia" and "sony vegas"..... and if you dont like speaking "voxproxy " animates speaking characters on powerpoint

re creating a big "back end " course....easy....invite businesses to come dirt cheap for (40 off at say £37) - so you are presenting to a full room and cover the costs....

record both the screen on your PC and the event on camcorder (all cheap)

A few hours editing and hey presto, you have the "advanced class".

Tell the other speakers, they should do it for free, to get free promotion!!
Offer your bank manager a slot too, or a debt factoring co (info, not pitch)
and then you have a great logo to put on the DVD...all implied credibility

PM me when you are ready , and Ill give you a few pointers.

[Maxine]

Thanks Admagic. I was talking to my husband this morning about doing membership area so great that you mentioned that too. He is wary of me going out to the whole www and attracting nutters

Will have a good think about speaker events too... thanks... will pm you too

[sally]

Hi Maxine

Right it is 3am and I am in blunt mood so forgive me!! Sorry I haven't read the other reviews as I like to make my own mind up so you may already know some of this.

Home Page:

The whole page is left aligned which puts me off, I would prefer it centred on the screen as this would be easier to read and being left aligned your banner on the left gets a bit lost.

The logo isn't speaking to me, it looks wishy washy and I have to click back to remember it. I like the design but think it would stand out more with black text on pastel colours or the grey text on stronger colours (but then what do I know about design).

I am not liking the top portion of the page, I can see links, small text and italics so my eyes don't even want to strain themselves reading it all - I actually had to put my glasses on to read the italics as they are so small (or I am so old). It is well written but doesn't scream "is this your problem? We can help". I think the problem is that images are enticing and because I can see images below I naturally want to scroll down, as I would initially look at the images and titles to decide if I want to read more about that section.

Yes I want more info ...... but I can't get it because the more info links don't work!! I also don't like the 3 dots and underline, would be better if it just had more info as a working link.

Images are good and say exactly what the subject matter is. Not sure if it's just my screen but the image of the Asian lady with the headset is very blurred around her face?

About Us

I love that you have photos but there is very little info about the two of you. You say "We have strong skills in the areas of the services we provide" but can you give some information about that, how many years dealing with each service, have you achieved set targets, what sort of financial ranges of debt recovery have you achieved ... that sort of thing. Make me think I can't do without your help, at the moment your about us doesn't say enough to make me think wow I have to employ these ladies.

Collections

Gosh I am on page 3 before I find out that no payment = no fee. Yet that would be a huge selling point for me and I had to read 3 pages and scroll down before I read about it.

Also in the blurb you state that I would get paid directly, therefore not slowing down my cashflow - another huge plus for you but again it is hidden away. I am not suggesting you go all salesy but bullet points on the home page telling me why I need your services and how they can help me would be much better imo.

Page nicely set out but in the bottom grey box the word Pricing is touching the left and needs nudged to the right.

The pricing box is also confusing me, it doesn't mention a price for your services and talks about receiving reports by email - what does that have to do with pricing? If you are not going to give an hourly rate or % charge I would rename that box.

Interim

Ok let's say I couldn't be bothered to read all the snippets of info on the home page and I simply clicked the link for Interim ... my brain said interim payments but this is not what I am reading about, so the link needs to have the full heading.

I am in Cumbria and want you to come and cover for a week while my credit manager is away on holiday - can you do it? You give no idea (so far) of what geographical areas you cover.

Again the pricing box - it is below the bottom of my screen with white space above so I didn't know it was there until I scrolled down. Again it doesn't give a price of any kind, saying competative is just frustrating me, either tell me how much or tell me to call/email for pricing but don't call it pricing if you aren't going to tell me the price.

Data Analysis

You say "This is another AWARD WINNING service.".... what awards? I read the about us page and it didn't mention awards.

OMG I am on page 5 and I am only just hearing about this "Maxine Welford was the winner of the Pricewaterhousecoopers award in January 2005 for best Credit Management Project specifically in the area of data analysis and evaluation and end to end process reviews with a distinction of 97% of the pass mark. Karen Dufrene has conducted a number of prestigous contracts in the areas of complex data analysis and evaluation."

Why isn't it on your about us page? Also if I didn't read the about us page who are Maxine and Karen? This mentions one award but you said earlier awards, are there others? I am getting confused about who I am reading about and what their achievements are.

The light blue box with white text on the left about testimonials is very hard to read, that should stand out more and why don't you have a testimonials page to build trust?

Shall not mention the pricing box again ..... but it's really ticking me off now

Process Reviews

Now it may just be me and perhaps other people go straight for the page they want but I tend to follow links in order to learn about a company. I am now on page 6 and have 2 blue boxes on the left, so I seem to be getting more information the further on I go. I would suggest you change the balance around so I get more snippets of info at the start.

Personally I would move the info about awards to the about us page and say to read the about us and our awards on that page, that gets people clicking the about us and they will then visually connect with your photos - you become real people not just a load of text. Plus if someone is looking through every page you are not repeating yourselves, which gets boring for the reader.

Training

OMG it gets worse you have a free coaching session and a great little logo thing but I am on page 7 before I see it.

You have to move all these snippets to the home page, I feel as though I am reading your site back to front and should have started at the last page to give me the information I would want in order to draw me in to the rest of the site.

You say "Don’t leave external coaching to the top executives…" but don't tell me why. Then you say "This is a highly effective learning experience" but don't tell me what is a highly effective learning experience.

I would like to see a sample training schedule and how that can be changed to meet my needs.

You say "One of our Team can provide a Mentor depending on suitability and fit." and "subject to availability and fit" - fit what? Availability covers fitting your schedule so fit what? What do you mean by suitability - are you saying you might not have someone that can cover the topic I want my staff trained in?

So you have offered me something free and then twice mentioned that you probably can't do it though (no you didn't say that but it is how I read it). Make me the offer, get me to call you but don't put me off before I reach for the phone.

Of course you have to say subject to availability on certain dates (or however you would word it to say it must be when you can fit it in) but this page reads in a very negative way.

Policy Reviews

On the left you have a grey box on top of a light green/blue one and the text appears to have slipped down, so the words "revitalise yours!" are cut in half on my screen as I can't read white on the light background.

This does not read well - "User guides are usually in chapters with full contents", are you saying you can produce the Policy and/or Procedures with a user guide in chapters? Saying usually suggested to me you were talking about the industry in general.

Recruitment

To me this should be split into 2 sections, helping employers recruit and helping people find the right job. If I am an employer I don't want to read about what you can do to get me a better job and vise versa.

Little green/blue box on the left - dedicated email - looks like a link but isn't one (so why am I still clicking it expecting an email box to open?) and the 'link' is so far down it is falling out of the box. There is also the danger by having it all in one section that you will scare employers off, if I have an excellent credit controller and employ you to cover for my manager will you be poaching my staff and getting them better jobs?

For some reason on this page the last link (business cases) turns blue.

Cashflow

Fine.

Something has just clicked - Could the text be justified on the pages as the right side looks tatty and justified would tidy everything up.

Customer Behaviour

Fine apart from the photo which as I say looks strange on my screen - may just be me though.

Business cases

If I contact you can I get a sample business case? This one is a big subject as so much often rests on it, I would beef the blurb out. Tell me about how you could help me get my plan on paper and sell it to investors. At what stage should I contact you? Would you calculate to Return to Investment figures for me to show this is a viable project or do I do that? I have this great idea but I need help getting investors, can you help? Give me info, make me believe you could be the difference between failure and success!!


Okay 4am now so I think that's enough. Hope something in all that waffle is useful to you.

[Maxine]

Sally - you are a superstar and I am going to go round thanking all your posts now

That was precisely the kick up the bum I needed in terms of how it read / navigated as I have gone round in circles with how to set things out so you have given me some excellent pointers. Thanks again and really appreciate the time you spent.

And I love it straight between the eyes so that's cool

I am finding that I am not aware of my own/industry jargon and language too so that def helps.

I also dont like the logo, the colours, the layout, or anything really so have a long way to go from this starting point but hey I have allowed myself a few months so I blooming hope I get there in the end.

Cheers pal
Max

[sally]

You are more than welcome. That is the thing, we are so close to our own projects we can't see the wood for the trees, I can do that for your site but not for my own.

You offer a great service and have the credentials to back it up so you will get there, you just need to rethink the site layout.