Ever receive a link to a business web site where you can’t figure out what the company does? The home page sounds like something from the company’s fancy and non-sensical mission statement. Unfortunately, many companies rely on content from their business plan and other internal documents.

I had a brief client who did this. The filler content came from the business plan. So what the company did wasn’t instantly obvious to the target audience. So I massaged the content, webified it, and shared a draft with the client.

She preferred the business plan. I couldn’t believe it. But then, she knew her business well and it would make sense to her.

I explained the approach I took and the reasons for them. It didn’t convince the company, so we agreed to part. Reflecting on the project, it was good that it didn’t work out. We weren’t compatible and it would’ve been a miserable project. Easier to get out earlier rather than later.

Different Businesses, Different Needs

A business web site should quickly communicate what it does. It largely depends on the company’s business. If it sells products, can you tell what kind of products? Is it a secure site? Reputable? I’ve seen too many commerce sites with no names or company details on their about page. This screams the site isn’t credible or trust-worthy.

Professional service businesses need to communicate what services they provide and include names and bios as people matter in this case. These sites should list companies and industries they’ve served. Testimonials are also powerful.

Designers do well in including a portfolio of their work on their web site.

At the end of every project, try to obtain testimonials and permission to publish information about the project (such as posting the design for a portfolio and publishing case studies). Better to do it as soon as the project ends while it’s fresh in everyone’s mind.

An Example…

IBM is huge and does many things. Its home page doesn’t begin to tell the company’s story. About the only valuable information is “Migrate to a mainframe.”

“What does a smarter planet look like?” implies the company supports more efficient technology — but it’s still a broad question and it doesn’t give me an idea of what IBM’s involvement is with a smarter planet. Click it and it provides jibber jabber about what people want to do.

The first couple of paragraphs are the only problem. The rest does a good job of showing a bulleted list of problems, the solution, and what IBM can do.

“IT managers, are you building or blocking transformation?” Click it and the page tells a different story that doesn’t quite connect to the headline.

Should you insult the manager? Or is it touching a nerve that managers will want to click the question? People will argue for and against this. Besides, the picture takes up too much of the page pushing down important content.

At the bottom of IBM’s home page is “What IBM can do for …” and lists different industries and careers to help the person go in the right direction. Smart move — maybe it should be more dominant on the home page? IBM does have a wide audience and this solution works in helping them along.

I like the home page image and the moving cars. It still takes up a lot of above the fold (area before scrolling) space — a problem with many sites today. It takes effort to find the heart of the content.

Three Things Your Customers Won’t Tell You Unless You Ask offers excellent advice to help you improve your business and relationship with your clients. Here are the three things from the Freelance Folder entry and I add a fourth because it ensures your business receives effective testimonials:

1. Why Do You Enjoy Being My Customer?
2. What Else Do You Wish My Business Did?
3. Who Should You Tell About My Business?
4. What has my services helped you achieve through [service provided]?

Item #3 feels awkward. It comes across more like a statement — “Go tell others about my business.” I suggest replacing “should” with “would” and see what happens. Maybe they will provide contacts or it’ll compel them to tell others on their own.

Blurbs, testimonials, and quotes are a great way to promote yourself or your book as you let the clients and readers do the talking. No worries about sounding like a braggart. But there are good, bad, and tricky testimonials.

“This is a great book!”

“Joe did an excellent job on the project!”

Do these tell you anything? These are empty and generic quotes. Here’s one that’s an example of a tricky testimonial, but you wouldn’t know it:

“Jane is very reliable.”

This tells part of the story. The rest of the story… “Jane is very reliable in arriving late for work every day.” Makes it easy for someone who didn’t like the person’s work to avoid saying something bad. But in most cases, the employee wouldn’t use such a person as a referral. So referrals can’t be trusted 100% — another problem with the traditional job search process.

When reading book reviews in Amazon or elsewhere, you can tell which ones are the author’s friends. They’re short and empty. They tell you nothing about the book. It’s better not to have a testimonial than one like this, I think. What if a big name wrote this kind of blurb? The blurb is useless in terms of convincing you to buy the book, but the author’s association with the person could convince some people to buy it (that old “It’s who you know.”).

When asking for a testimonial after the person agreed to supply one, ask the person to answer this results-oriented question and the testimonial will more likely be valuable.

“What has [product or service] helped you achieve?”

The latest article from Roy Peter Clark of Poynter.com and author of Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer says it’s the 100th anniversary of the “blurb.” Since when do words get their own anniversaries? How do we know which ones deserve an anniversary?

A reader responding to Clark’s article wrote a great comment and an excellent example of a tricky blurb:

My all-time favorite came from a soft-hearted sportswriter who was asked to provide a blurb for a memoir by a washed-up and nearly illiterate professional boxer. His contribution: “Obviously a labor of love.”

You can make your testimonials more credible if you include one that’s not positive. Why would you want to include that? It shows you’re honest and human. But why would we want to show our weaknesses? C’mon. Everyone has weak areas and we might as well as be up front about them and earn credibility points.

I tried to get one from an editor on an assignment that didn’t work out. Even told the editor that I fully expected a testimonial that wasn’t positive. No luck. But then again, I understand because it would be difficult for me to point out something negative about a person’s work and then let it get published for all the world to see.