Here are some important pointers - and my comments on them - to using the website as a marketing and PR tool. They are from Nielsen’s Alertbox - a blog I strongly recommend. Much of the advice seems, in retrospect, blindingly obvious, but the fact that Nielsen has thought of it first is why he is held in such high regard.

First, quite an old one on where B2B sites often go wrong

Most B2B sites emphasize internally focused design, fail to answer customers’ main questions or concerns, and block prospects’ paths as they search for companies to place on their shortlists.

Most online interactions are demand-driven: you either give people what they want or watch as they abandon your site for the competition’s. The result of poor design on B2B sites? In our user testing, B2B sites earned a mere 58% success rate (measured as the percentage of time users accomplished their tasks on a site).

Nielsen does make the point, to be fair, that B2B sites have a complex selling task and need to address a group of people. B2C is usually for an individual who is able to make an instant decision. However, that only means that B2B sites must work extra hard to support, inform and involve users. Particular usability glitches cited are absence of pricing information of any kind, having to register for information without knowing how useful it will be, and poor segmentation, so that users are marshalled along a route that does not contain all the most relevant information for them.

What interests me about these findings is that these are clear signs that buyer personae have not been examined properly, and that companies are not putting themselves in the shoes of their prospective customers. Both of these we see as fundamental elements of marketing and PR planning.

The report, with 144 usability guidelines and 158 screenshots can be downloaded for $198 - so just a small fraction of the cost of a website redesign.

A more recent one on bounce rates

I found this really interesting because it shows how user behavior has evolved along with website design. As users are directed to landing pages deep within a site, many of them refuse to commit to the second click. Partly I think this reflects the speed of browsing nowadays, as it is now easy to have a quick look and leave. The lack of appeal seems to be often due to low-relevance link sharing or over-general SEO.

This phenomenon points to one of our key principles in online PR: tuning your SEO to people that are genuinely interested, by increasing the specificity of key phrases. The Nielsen report views the bounce rate of search-directed traffic as particularly critical - and this is the one to test the real effectiveness of the landing page on.

Do About Us pages do their job?

First, a positive: contact info has improved. Now the negative: fewer companies are making clear what they do in a single paragraph - the information that makes most people go to the page in the first place is now unclear in nearly 20% of sites. You can probably guess what the bounce rate is like! The worst thing, though, is that user satisfaction has actually decreased over the past 5 years.

The reason I don’t find that a surprise is that I reviewed about 100 About Us pages of European tech businesses a while ago. Many were pretty much interchangeable even in widely different industry sectors, and almost all said they were leading the world in something. Which means that the prospect, instead of getting a clear impression of what makes a company different, reads about what makes them the same! I’m not going to give any of my own tips here, because there’s not much I would add to Nielsen’s advice in this blog.

We recommend providing About Us information at 4 levels of detail:

1. Tagline on the homepage: A few words or a brief sentence summarizing what the organization does.
2. Summary: 1-2 paragraphs at the top of the main About Us page that offer a bit more detail about the organization’s goal and main accomplishments.
3. Fact sheet: A section following the summary that elaborates on its key points and other essential facts about the organization.
4. Detailed information: Subsidiary pages with more depth for people who want to learn more about the organization.

This layered content presentation forms an inverted pyramid that uses hypertext to shield users from overwhelming details, while making specific information available to those who need it.

The full guidelines for this run to 253 pages, again not too expensive at $124, but a lot of work for a single page?

Web 2.0 may have changed the web and websites a lot, but the old-fashioned skills used to create compelling print and “Web 1.0″ material are still the key to a successful site. The single most important aspect of creating a website is content that drives your business goals. That means getting the attention of your target customer, keeping it, and persuading them to take the next step. In a high-tech, large sales environment that probably doesn’t mean an online order form, but the next step is still crucial, be that joining a mailing list, signing up for an event, or setting up a meeting.

Making this happen probably depends not so much on how sophisticated your website is as how good the content is. Design and online marketing tools enhance content but are no substitute for it. To make sure that your content is effective, you need to stay close to the creative process, and stick to a few golden rules.

So, what are the rules?

1. Know your audience. You need to have a clear idea of exactly which buyer persona / personae will be reading your page, and why they will be reading it. You also need to be clear exactly what you want them to do next (- and make it clear to them, too!).

2. Be friendly. You want to develop a close relationship with the reader, so don’t keep them at arm’s length. Address them as “you”, and use personal examples that will help them see you as a trusted friend.

3. Tell your readers something they want to know. News, useful information, a solution to a problem they have. Ask yourself, “Even if they don’t take the next step in the buying process, will they be glad they read this page? Are they likely to use the information here, bookmark the page, or talk to someone else about it?”

3. Headlines are all-important - though writing them can be an art. Lists are good: “10 things you need to know about…”. “How To” statements work, too, e.g. “How to increase sales on your website in 3 easy steps”. Figures are good: “Why 97% of all our customers say they will buy from us again next time”. Problem-solution statements are helpful: “Make certain your software purchases match your business needs, every time.” The headline should attract but not mystify readers.

4. Write top-down and use subheads. Many readers scan. They need to see the main points easily, and that means that the crucial information should be visible at a glance. Most important points should be first line, and the subheads should spell out rest of the content clearly. Using bold text for key points also helps.

5. Clean, clear copy. No typos, stick to grammar rules, make the style simple, consistent and effective. Try to use action verbs. You may well need a professional copywriter to write or at least edit your text, but that will be money well spent.

6. Offer a definite benefit in the content, and link it to action. Time-limited or free offers are classic B2C tools, and can work for B2B too, but at the risk of cheapening your image. For B2B, the principle still applies to e.g. papers, webinars, conference tickets, newsletters etc.

7. Use “calls to action” in your copy. Asking people to click a button increases response rates dramatically.

8. Use visuals. Why? Firstly, they will get attention and make your page more interesting. Secondly, they make the product or solution more visually appealing, and your claims more convincing - also maybe easier to understand. Thirdly, they give you an opportunity to repeat the selling message in captions and labels!

9. Monitor effectiveness and revise accordingly. Record your visitor numbers and clicks. Ask your customers what they read, what convinced them, what they discovered when reading the site, how easy it was to understand. A content management system is enormously useful here - though you must be sure to proof your revisions carefully and not complicate site structure.

10. Make your site search-engine friendly. Search engine optimization is a specialized topic, but a couple of key rules are: Use all the key phrases that your prospects will be looking for and that are relevant to your them, and include them in headings where appropriate.