Looking for some feedback and ideas on how to increase exposure for our business?

binkyboo_2

ok so here is a brief rundown of where we are:

business set up in an office feb this year so we have been running for coming up to 4 months

we offer several services including graphic design and company branding, web design and development, interactive design, social media themes etc.

Any suggestions of how we can improve on what we do?

Horace

I am about to scoot to a client's so will look at your website later.

Use free things to promote your business - Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook - have links on your own website to ping out to these when you update your site, ping out to other places too such as pingfm, diggit etc etc.

Make sure your website is the best it can possibly be because if you are selling website themes your own needs to be spot on.

Look at networking events - low cost ones such as Business Biscotti or if you have ladies working for you Ladies who Latte.

Have a contact form on your website so that people can contact you, offer them free stuff e.g tips on getting the best from wordpress etc ask them to click a link at the end of that link you will be able to send them a message asking them to confirm their email address and then you can send them the tips.

Will come back later and say more but I didnt want to read and run.

binkyboo_2

my website is in my profile if anyone wants to have a look and make commments i think i'm having a crisis of confidence!

steve1980

Is it 7 seconds that you have to blow someones mind? Your website certainly does that, but it also screams that to get a look this good it's going to cost a fortune.

The website.....

The images change far too quickly on the homepage, average of about 5 seconds per frame?

Are you using flash for the contact form? As a web designer you should know that there may be some people that now can't contact you.

Too be honest, you have too much content on your site, personally I don't like reading little snippets and then having to click through to read more.

There is no idea on what you charge. For all I know because your site looks expensive, that means you are expensive and I might not want (or be able) to spend x amount on websites/design etc. Even a "our websites start from £500.00" would be better then at least potential clients would have an idea and then, if they do get in contact you can try and upsell.

You must have an idea of what your minimum charge for a website is.

binkyboo_2

thanks steve, I will look into all the points you have mentioned. our contact form doesn't use flash so don't think we have to worry about people nor being able to use it. We have been toying with whether to add a 'prices start from ...' on the site but didn't want to exclude anyone as we want to portray that we can help people with any budget big or small. I didn't realise that we might be putting people off by appearing too expensive this is something I will have to think about.

Horace

I found the website to be too dark - I hate dark backgrounds, they are not clever especially for people with visual impairments.

Sometimes as soon as people see flash used on a website then they move away, I found the changing pictures irritating.

I would like to know the cost of the website and whether or not hosting is included. Your site looks too expensive and that is offputting because people immediately think that they will have to pay £5K for it and often businesses don't have this kind of cash.

I think your message is too diluted because you are offering too many services, graphic design and branding plus web design, interactive design bla bla bla. I would stick to web design and social media themes and drop the graphic design and branding or stick with the graphic design and branding and drop all the web stuff. The message that you are sending out is that you are a jack of all trades and master of none which isn't the message you want to send out is it?

Sorry if this sounds harsh but you asked for criticism.

Also - less is more, your website is too busy which is why people are not staying on it nor buying your services.

binkyboo_2

Horace wrote: »

I found the website to be too dark - I hate dark backgrounds, they are not clever especially for people with visual impairments. we have recently brightened up the home page so i think we will look at doing something with the other pages too.

Sometimes as soon as people see flash used on a website then they move away, I found the changing pictures irritating. we don't use any flash on our website, the changing images are temporary until we have completed a video which we will be adding

I would like to know the cost of the website and whether or not hosting is included. Your site looks too expensive and that is offputting because people immediately think that they will have to pay £5K for it and often businesses don't have this kind of cash. as above we are considering ways to deal with this but we are very reluctant to give fixed prices as every job is different.

I think your message is too diluted because you are offering too many services, graphic design and branding plus web design, interactive design bla bla bla. I would stick to web design and social media themes and drop the graphic design and branding or stick with the graphic design and branding and drop all the web stuff. The message that you are sending out is that you are a jack of all trades and master of none which isn't the message you want to send out is it? i think the problem we had when we didn't list all our services is that a customer almost went elsewhere for a service that we could have provided as they didn't know we could do it. perhaps we will list our main services more prominently and have our other less popular services listed elsewhere on the site.

Sorry if this sounds harsh but you asked for criticism.

Also - less is more, your website is too busy which is why people are not staying on it nor buying your services.

criticism is good we wouldn't get anywhere without it! we will definitely take all these points on board and see if things improve

vax2002

Too much use of "bussinesspeak" that kind of language is only spoken in places that splash public money.
It is hard to decipher and you can read a whole page of the damned stuff and still have absolutely no idea of what you are trying to offer me.
What is a complete creative solution ?
Are you mixing a medicine or selling websites ?
If you want some honest advice, cut the jargon and spin, leave it to local councils press departments.
I can not speak for others but where I see "jargon" in place of descriptions I get the feeling that if I have a problem with that company all I will get will be a belly full of jargonistic excuses.

steve1980

binkyboo wrote: »

thanks steve, I will look into all the points you have mentioned. our contact form doesn't use flash so don't think we have to worry about people nor being able to use it. We have been toying with whether to add a 'prices start from ...' on the site but didn't want to exclude anyone as we want to portray that we can help people with any budget big or small. I didn't realise that we might be putting people off by appearing too expensive this is something I will have to think about.

This is the thing though. If I came to you and said "I've got £150 for a website, what can you do?" what would you say? Would I get a no problem or would I get laughed at?

vax2002 wrote: »

"bussinesspeak"

Do what? I assume you mean business speak

bordercars

binkyboo wrote: »

my website is in my profile if anyone wants to have a look and make commments i think i'm having a crisis of confidence!

cannot see your website from profile. have you removed

s_b

bordercars wrote: »

cannot see your website from profile. have you removed

me neither
thought i was going nuts
from the posts it seems that no prices were up ,now i always never ever proceed with anything unless i have a ballpark figure
i was in a nice little market in oxford where local people sell home made jewelry the stalls with prices were busy the ones who expected you to ask the price were empty
theres a hell of a recession going on at the moment,im in the selling business and seen one customer today and trust me they know how much my items are so every potential customer who visits your site doesn't easily find what they want (prices) and lets be honest this country wants everything cheap and cheaper you will not get that customer to return if you haven't offered answers to how much
from what i read you are ex government and maybe talk wordspeak too,this language is not allowed in my house i make the wife leave it at the door and she only uses it to wind me up as some of her colleagues are brainwashed into using it daily
i have a word for anyone in business who wants to get on and i learnt it long before computers and twitters
KISS
KEEP --IT --SIMPLE --STUPID
remember this word and use it because people no matter what level of intelligence people still need leading to a sale

wow many words and