BUSINESS IN PROFILE: Diligo

Amanda Gonzalez writes.

WHO:
Diligo
22 Perouse Road
The Spot, Randwick 2031
(02) 9399 8543

Check out their website

WHAT:
Diligo is a hair, beauty and massage salon in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs.

Offering a complimentary purpose-built creche, this chic and friendly establishment allows mothers to indulge and relax, knowing their babe is being looked after by a qualified nanny.

Diligo's beauty lies within its services. Not just a hair salon, Diligo offers all beauty treatments and massage therapies, including spray tans and makeup.

Rather than make a multitude of appointments and travel endlessly between locations, men and women can now attend to all their hair, beauty and soul needs in the one establishment.

WHY:
Diligo wanted to promote the complimentary creche to mothers, and to show all clients how convenient and beneficial it is to have hair, beauty and massage services in the one spot.

As an incentive to visit the website, we added their monthly offer to the home page. By choosing a beauty or soul incentive, Diligo immediately brings attention to these facets of the business.

Adding the link 'Print this voucher to redeem' means Diligo can measure the effectiveness of the offer.

Diligo can update this offer and other website text themselves through our easy-to-use content management system.

WRAP-UP:
Diligo now has another tool to target their intended audience. A tool which is inexpensive, easy-to-use and can be updated instantly - unlike traditional advertising!

There's no place like home

Amanda Gonzalez writes.

As published in Flying Solo and South Africa's Your Business magazine.

Ah, the homepage. Increasingly the first impression of your business, this piece of prime real estate can make or break your cred. So what can you do to keep your visitors reading?

DO make it blatantly obvious what your website is about
Whilst this in itself sounds blatantly obvious, this is the one thing you need your website to achieve. Together, taglines, menus, headings and a concise blurb can immediately identify who you are and what you do.

DO set the theme and tone for the rest of your website
Although your homepage does not strictly have to be identical to the rest of your website, it strictly has to set the theme and tone. Consistency between pages means your visitors won’t have to re-learn the way your website works each time they browse to a new page.

The layout grid, menu names, colours, fonts and writing style should not be up for negotiation. This is particularly important for those visitors who don’t land on your homepage upon entry.

DO tie your layout with your call to action
Think of how you’d like your sections to flow together, then logically organise them on the page to lead to your call to action. Whether you’d like your visitors to sign up to your newsletter or read your blog through to buying a house online, this applies to all websites, regardless of your size.

DO make the text easy to scan
Stick with short blocks of two to three sentences. Bolden your carefully considered keywords, but don’t be too bold-happy; you’ll annoy rather than assist.

DO make it a cinch to contact you
Having a contact page with your contact details may not be enough. If your call to action requires your visitor to pick up the phone and make a booking, then make sure the call to action and the phone number is on your homepage.

Go one step further and have this available on every page. Many print a particular page from a website for future reference or to show another. Make it easy for them to contact you without having to revisit your website.

DON’T make me think
This is what your homepage (actually, your entire website) should do. Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think! chats about how we really use the web and techniques to make our websites a breeze to use. I love this book because it’s to the point, purposely short and a great laugh to boot. You should see my copy.

DON’T try to promote everything
You’ll only clutter the homepage, bugger the layout and make your visitors think. Constantly remind yourself about the role of your homepage and stick to it.

DON’T have a Flash spectacular as your homepage
Not only are you making life difficult for search engines to crawl and index the key page of your website, you are driving your visitors to click on one very popular button: skip. Don’t let your visitors start their website experience on the wrong click.

DON’T scare the wits out of your visitors with music
They won’t be impressed - or likely to visit again. Enough said.

DON’T use images that take an age to load
Images too big in data size will keep your visitors waiting… and waiting. Use images which are small in size and load quickly yet are sharp and clean to view. Unprofessional images portray unprofessional business.

What homepage elements keep you reading or drive you away in frustration? I look forward to reading your thoughts!

This article has been published online on Flying Solo and in print in South Africa's Your Business magazine.

IN THE PRESS: Profile of an Online Empress

Amanda Gonzalez writes.

I've received some wonderful publicity from SPROUT Publishing.

Have a squiz; I've been featured on their site as an Online Empress.

I'm chuffed. This type of publicity is great for your professional image and search engine rankings. More importantly, publicity heightens your credibility as it can't be bought, like an advertisment.

Publicity with a blend of business and personal information makes you more than just a business name or a logo.

People like to deal with people, particularly with people they know and like. By revealing a small amount of your personal side, your clients and prospectives will naturally warm towards you.

What measures have you used to obtain free publicity? Has revealing a snippet of your personal side helped your business?