Quick Read Top Tips - 5 best practices for all businesses

Here is a quick read focusing on 5 things you can check your business is doing while on your tea break. Let’s get started!

1. Do not send your traffic elsewhere

When writing blogs or news for your site, including external links can be beneficial, but it is important to make sure these links are set to open a new window or tab when clicked. This ensures you are not just sending your valuable traffic elsewhere. To do this, simply set your hyperlinked anchor text to open in a new window or tab (this has a target attribute value of ‘_blank’).

2. Are you looking professional?

Check the appearance of your company's listing in search engine results. Is your listing professional and accurate? Have you got the right pages appearing in your listing? Do you have suitable images appearing on the right of your listing? Does it give a user the right impression and does it tell them what they need to know about you and your unique offering? Consider these things from the point of view of a potential customer and make changes where needed.

3. Take advantage of an often-missed opportunity

Make sure you are adding Preheader Text/Preview Text to your emails. It gives you an additional opportunity to persuade your subscribers to open your email. Each Email Client (Outlook, Yahoo, AOL, Gmail, etc.) has a different maximum number of characters it will display of a subject line – on mobile you may only get the first ~25 characters being displayed! So, utilising Preheader Text allows you to add context to, elaborate on and solidify the subject line message. You should aim to further incentivise the subscriber to open the email. The use of an effective Preheader Text could increase your open rate by a margin of up to 30%.

4. Word your buttons carefully

Avoid using words or phrases with negative connotations in your Call To Action buttons (the buttons used to get someone to do something, e.g., the button that users click to submit a form, or buttons within your emails leading to your landing pages or more information). One of the most common examples of this is using the word ‘Submit’ on the button at the end of an enquiry form – it may seem like an insignificant thing, but a more positive word or phrase could lead to an increase in conversions on the form. Another example is the use of the phrase ‘Sign me up’ on a button that is shown early on in a user’s journey – this phrase may seem like too much of a commitment when the user has only just heard of your new product/offering. Instead, try to intrigue the user, rather than daunt the user with your choice of wording. Small tweaks where needed can make a big difference. Split testing is great way to work towards improving the efficacy of your Call To Action Button wording.

5. Reviews and testimonials

Reviews and testimonials are increasingly regarded as key factors in the decision-making process - potential customers want to see what their peers think of you and your service. There are many different ways to collect and display your reviews/testimonials - from Google reviews, to a testimonials page on your site, or even partnering with a specialist review platform (e.g., Feefo and Trustpilot). So, decide on which way is most suitable for your business and then make sure your great reviews can be easily found. Consider placing them throughout your site and landing pages, especially in areas that require the user to make a decision – this could increase the chances of them progressing or converting. Do not be afraid to ask happy customers to leave you a review – most people would be happy to give a quick review after receiving great service.

If you could do with a few more tips or some more in-depth marketing or operational advice, you can get in contact to discuss how we can help you.

Written by Holly Gown – Systems and Operations Manager, Angels Media

holly.gown@angelsmedia.co.uk