Most weeks, at breakfast, I’m annoyed by one tiny, infuriating thing.
I get my cereal, pour it into the bowl, grab some nice fresh milk, and then…
It happens.
A gentle twist of the bottle cap and… ARGH! The little tab on the seal underneath has snapped off, trapping my delicious milk inside. So now I’ve got to peel at it with my fingernails, jab it with a knife, waste precious moments of my existence negotiating with a flimsy coin of plastic just so I can enjoy my cornflakes. The audacity of the thing!
Some mornings, though. Ah, some mornings are different.
Because some mornings, I’ve splashed out.
On those mornings, I’ve got a brand of milk whose name sounds a bit like Dravencale. Yes, this milk leaves my pockets a little lighter, but there’s a reason it’s worth the expense.
Superior taste? Nope. It’s the seal.
Instead of a useless, near-invisible tab, these seals have a sturdy flap across the middle. Lift that flap and the seal comes right off with it, every time. And as you peel it back, the clouds part, an orchestra strikes up in the background, you begin to levitate, bluebirds flock to join you… basically, it’s a great start to the day.
And now I’m going to tell you what all this has to do with how you market your business.
The little details make or break how a business is perceived
Let’s stick with the milk thing for just a second: what goes through the customer’s mind when the tab breaks on the unbranded bottle?
Answer: “This is terrible. They can’t even invest in good packaging. I bet the milk’s rubbish too. I’m going to buy something else.”
And what does that same customer think after she’s bought the more expensive milk?
“It came off in one go! No breakfast delays for me! These guys have thought of everything. This is going to be the best porridge I’ve ever had. I’ll never buy anyone else’s milk again!”
Alright. Maybe not exactly that.
But the sentiment is accurate: when a company skimps on the little things, no one has faith in them to get the big, important things right when it counts.
All good marketers and businesspeople swear by the “rule of seven”. It’s the idea that a client or customer needs seven interactions with your brand before they’ll buy from you.
In other words, you’ve got seven opportunities at most to make a good impression on your target market.
(The rule originated with 1930s movie moguls. These savvy bigwigs determined that, on average, people needed to see posters or hear ads a combined seven times in total before buying a ticket for the film being promoted.)
Back to milk: if Mrs Customer buys the cheaper stuff seven times and the tab breaks off on five of them, how likely is she to stay loyal? And how many of those lost sales could’ve been saved with one teeny change?
Time to apply this notion to you and what you do for a living.
If you’re reading this, the battle for your ideal prospect’s attention probably isn’t being played out on aisle three, next to the gouda. No: it’s online.
Every digital interaction your dream client has with your business is important – social media, search results, all of it. But there’s one place above all others where how you market yourself really matters.
Your website is your business’s shop window, so sweat the small stuff
Having a website for your business gives you a promotional environment over which you have full control, one that doesn’t need to be adapted to the whims of Mr Zuckerberg, Mr Musk, and the rest of the internet overlords.
Don’t waste that power. Get these six things right without fail, and reap the rewards.
1. Fix broken links
Nothing erodes a user’s trust like following a link that doesn’t work. Or, perhaps even worse, following a link that takes them somewhere they weren’t expecting.
Check every hyperlink on every page of your site. Check them again.
2. Stick to one style of heading
There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with having Headings Written Like This, a style called title case. More natural, and certainly more “modern”, is sentence case, with Headings written like this. The issue isn’t the case, but the consistency.
When someone sees conflicting cases on different pages throughout your site, or even *shudders* within the same page, they won’t know what’s wrong at first. But they’ll feel that something’s a little off.
And since your website’s job isn’t to confuse, but to impress, you need to keep that Caps Lock button in check.
And while we’re on the topic of formatting…
3. Write phone numbers consistently
Which of these carefully crafted fake phone numbers is the correct one?
1234 5678 910
12345 678 910
1234 5678910
The answer, of course, is all of them. Or none of them.
Again, you can write things out how you want. Just don’t flip-flop – pick one way and stick with it.
4. Make the most of logos
Few things on a website have quite the same impact as a meaningful logo.
It might be something that showcases your credentials (like a Chartered badge), the branding of a key organisation you’re affiliated with (SOLLA, for example), or the widget for a review site (such as VouchedFor). For visitors to your site, they’re a subtle signal that you know your onions and move in the right circles.
If you’ve got more than one to display (lucky you) and want them to appear side by side, just ensure they complement each other visually. Line them up neatly, resizing as needed so the heights match.
A quick word on file formats, too.
Wherever you source the logo from, get it as a .png file. That stands for Portable Network Graphic, and allows for a transparent background. No more ugly white boxes – your logo will blend right in with your site.
5. Maximise “microcopy”
Sometimes the little things that make the biggest difference really are the little things.
“Microcopy” is the term for the small snippets of text you find dotted throughout websites and apps, nudging you along. Treat it like an afterthought at your peril.
Through microcopy, you have a golden opportunity to inject both clarity and personality into your site. Take enquiry forms as an example. When someone’s entered their details, which message would they be happier to receive?
- a) Thank you for your enquiry. We will endeavour to respond when we can.
- b) Thanks for reaching out. You’ll be contacted by a member of our team in the next 48 hours to discuss how we can help.
Which brings us to the final and most crucial point…
6. Don’t “we” all over yourself
Too many websites devote too much of their precious online real estate to that little two-letter word.
“We have been established for more than 20 years.” “We aim to offer only the very best products.” We, we, we, we, all the way home.
Never forget: your clients don’t care about you. They only care what you can do for them. And the language you use on your website (and everywhere else) needs to be alive to that fact.
How? Easy: pretend you’re writing your ideal client a letter, one human being to another.
Doing so forces you to think how what you’re writing about (i.e., selling) will benefit them… and it means you’ll naturally use “You” more than “We”.
And that’s the kind of marketing worth raising a glass to.
Milking it
Has reading this made you realise your website’s lacking? Yardstick can help, you know.
Working with us will cost you more than a pint of That Posh Milk I Was Going On About Earlier, but you won’t regret the outlay. Just ask any of the financial professionals who’ve left glowing Google reviews and testimonials, or the industry awards judges who’ve generously filled our trophy cabinet.
Call 0115 8965 300 or email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk to get started.
