Regular readers will know all about my search for a blog format that will satisfy both blog readers and business visitors. I might be attracting plenty of potential customers through the doors, but they’re not finding what they are looking for and promptly leaving.
For the latest reincarnation of The Copywriter’s Crucible I have switched from the popular Cutline theme to a three column layout called Vertigo by Brian Gardner. I chose the new theme because I think it looks more professional and allows me to communicate much more information above the fold, which should hopefully improve my sales proposition.
I now have room for a full blog feed, details explaining to visitors where they are and some nice comments I found on other sites (thanks Ponn Sabra at Empowerwomennow.com, Sara Scott at Smallbizpod.co.uk and DIB Marketing for your generous words). I’ve placed the comments above the fold not just to feed my own ego, but to build trust with visitors – independent recommendations are marketing gold.
I’m a lot happier with the new look and the early indications are promising, with some business visitors making it all the way to the contact page before leaving. There’s still some tweaking to be done, but I think I now have a much more professional looking shop window with a clearer path to the checkout till.
Let’s just hope my business visitors think so to.
As Sara says, the content’s always been top notch. Now the design is very cool too!
Hope it helps bring more, well deserved business for you Matt.
Cheers
Alex
Thanks Alex. From watching the site stats it certainly looks as though I’m getting business visitors further down the sales funnel. I think it’s now just a case of tweaking the copy to give them that last little push to fill in the contact form. I’m pretty optimistic right now as before it normally took 5 or 6 click throughs to get them to the same stage.
Matt.
HI Matt!
The tweaking is awesome!
Hee hee, now how did you find Brian’s Vertigo theme? Just over 4 month later I’ve out-grown the layout…it has served me very well up to now. As you know, I’m not focusing on the client, as you are; so I figure it’ll ‘stick’ with you for quite a while.
Your header looks great! Congrats again 🙂
I might move the columns around, but I think it’s a lot more professional looking than Cutline. Coincidentally, I believe Brian is now working on the next version of Cutline.
The movement of busniess visitors is looking healthier some I’m not planning anything drastic for the time being.
Ill be interested to see what direction you take empowerwomennow.com in. Maybe push business services more above the fold? So much to fit in – so little space.