Lee McIntyre went from overworked high school teacher to full time marketer in just 56 days. He is the founder of Aim Higher Marketing where he shows others how to use honest marketing to build profitable Internet businesses in record time.
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What Does Your Homepage Say About You?
By Lee McIntyre | September 15, 2008
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Last week I changed the theme of this blog as part of a simple test to see if I could make more of my visitors consume more of my content.
The idea is simple.
If my traffic remains broadly similar, and the only variable to change is the theme of this blog, then I can review the stats inside my Google Analytics account and draw a reasonable conclusion about which theme is best for my business.
As an example, the last time I changed my blog theme the length of time visitors stayed on my site increased, the bounce rate decreased, and the exit paths to my sales letters increased.
I’m hoping for similar results this time too.
BUT while I’ll be carefully measuring all these numbers there’s a secondary reason why I decided to change my theme.
This blog is basically the ‘home page’ of my business, and as such it sends important signals to others about what type of operation I’m running.
Yes I use this blog as a tool to communicate with current customers and new prospects, but it’s also the first place a new acquaintance will look when deciding whether to do business with me or not.
Who am I talking about? Well the list of different types of people looking at this blog as a way of ‘measuring’ my business is endless.
Customers, JV partners, potential employees, accountants, government agencies, prospects, suppliers, banks, merchant account provider, and so on.
All these people look at my homepage and what they see and feel feeds into their decision about whether or not they want to continue talking business.
I’m serious. When moving into my new office even though my company got an A* credit rating, they still wanted to review my site since we were an online business.
When applying for a merchant account with my local bank the call centre operator flicked through the pages of this blog before deciding whther to proceed with my application.
When recently applying to the local university to take a graduate on a year long placement they checked out my ‘homepage’ and then came back with a list of questions about the nature of my business.
On reflection I wasn’t quite happy with the ‘image’ of my business presented by my last blog theme.
So here’s my question. What does your ‘homepage’ say about you?
As always I want to hear your thoughts. Please leave your comments below now…
Popularity: 10% [?]
Topics: Marketing Lessons |
September 15th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Hi Lee,
Gotta say, your theme change all makes sense now! Really hadn’t thought of it from that angle.
I remember your post a few weeks back where you said you were taking the business to a new level and this is just one of several things you’ve done to prove it. You also seem to be creating new products like there’s no tomorrow.
It could be seen that the new theme is cold and may turn off new prospects, but also maybe those of us who have followed your progress in the past year may take your lead and step up their business from a “money on the side hobby” to a professional business.
Sam
September 15th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Hi Lee,
I understand your reasoning, but I didn’t think your old look was unprofessional.
I am wondering - I see a lot of well-known marketers using a similar theme to this one. Don’t you feel that they look too much alike? I will be curioius to hear the results of testing this new theme.
It’s funny, because I was planning on my next blog post being about the importance of being yourself and not conforming to what is “expected”. So if you read that, don’t feel that it is directed at you, I thought of it before I saw your new theme…
September 15th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Hey, Lee,
Sorry, I have been that route and, well, they are their own breed.
Good point if all you’re trying to please is the banks and other institutions.
I think that since you will be dealing with real people and not always the banker, you could soften it a bit more. It’s just not the friendly Lee McIntyre look, IMHO.
Still, if you are taking it to a new level which means a new image??? … maybe that has to balance the friendly with professional.
Still will be intersting how new (non- institutional) visitors react - look forward to a report.
Just some thoughts,
Cheryl
September 16th, 2008 at 7:49 am
You know I’ve considered doing this for our site as well, it seems as though we get alot of traffic but people don’t seem to stick around all that long. And it takes us about 20 visitors to get a phone call. All of which could be improved. Good luck to ya and keep us posted on the results.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am
Looks Great Lee.
Clear and Crisp
Would be interesting to know the impact it has on Traffic.
Cheers,
Miltski
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
[…] “showing your personality” thing this week, I came across Lee McIntyre’s post, What Does Your Homepage Say About You? He recently changed the theme on his blog. It used to be more brightly-colored and unique to Lee. […]