Let’s face it. Any website geared towards generating leads, sales and revenue must focus on converting visitors into buyers. To do this, the marketer must understand the website users’ needs and expectations. The good news is, you can ensure that the basic usability elements are present on your website with a short checklist. It does not even involve a big investment, only time. Ideally, the following must be taken care of before your website is launched.

Page titles

Page title is a critical element as it will show your visitors where they are on your website. Page titles are also used by search engines and it’s what searchers see on search engine result pages. Ensure that each page has a unique page title that represents the page content.

Compatibility with browsers

Does your website look great on all the popular browsers? Test to see if it displays the way you want on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari.  Also check to see if your website displays well on mobile screens like smartphones and tablets.

Proofread for spelling and grammar errors

This may seem logical, but thoroughly proofread your content to minimise errors. Preferably have someone else read through it too, even if you are using a copywriter.

Are all your links live?

There is nothing more annoying for a visitor than a link that does not work. Make sure you test links on an on-going basis, testing to see that they lead to the right page. Here, also take care to see that your visitors can differentiate your links from the other text.  The links should stand out from your website’s copy and be “clickable”. Always link your logo to the home page.

Website functionality

Check if your contact forms, sign up links and navigation are working properly. Imagine a visitor trying to sign up, only to find that the form is not working!

Do you have a favicon?

If not, create one. Favicons are website icons that display in the browser’s address bar at the left of your URL. It is easy to create one and it is a great branding tool.

The 404 page

Website visitors arrive at the 404 page when content that they clicked on does not exist. Make your 404 page informative and redirect your visitor with suggestions for useful pages within your site. Add a search function that they can use to find what they want on your website.

Page load time

One of the classic reasons why visitors exit a website is page load time. Make sure your website loads fast. Not everyone has high-speed broadband and a slow loading page is the quickest way to drive a potential customer away from your website.

Lastly, use analytic software to test and measure website usability and performance. Google Analytics is among the most popular analytics tools as it helps track visitors, page views, traffic sources and more.  Ultimately a website’s goal is to ensure that the visitors can find their way around easily, find the products or services they are looking for and have a smooth experience buying them.

Nielsen released their latest social media report, and the report features some interesting statistics on social networking and consumers’ online habits. According to the study, the average consumer spends a quarter of their time on social networks. Social networks are more visited than email and Facebook is the clear winner when it comes to social networks that users prefer to visit.

The older demographic, also known as the Boomers, are most active on LinkedIn. While Facebook was ranked as the top visited social network, their largest user group is between the ages of 25 and 34.  Facebook’s mobile app is a popular method which users use to access the social network, and the study found that almost 40% of social media users access social media content from their smartphones.

Females are the most active social networkers while people between the ages of 18 and 34 make up the highest concentration of visitors among all age groups. People over the age of 55 visited social networking sites twice as much as the same time last year, indicating rapid growth in the use of social networks by the older demographic.

According to the report, Tumblr is one of the up and coming social networks, having nearly tripled its unique audience over the last 12 months.  The report also indicates that 70% of adults actively using social networks also make use of online shopping and that the active social media users, are also influencers in real life or offline.  Read the full report on Nielsen’s website for detailed statistics.

Mobile marketing focus on keeping your customers and prospects engaged via their mobile phones and this usually takes the form of location-based marketing, mobile websites, mobile apps and messaging.

As a marketing channel designed to connect and interact with your target audience, mobile marketing offers a suite of technologies that leverage the advantages of mobile phones as a marketing medium. These include the fact that mobile phones are always on, in most cases connected to the Internet and used as a personal communication channel. The main benefit of mobile marketing is its ability to allow meaningful interaction with customers and keeping them engaged with brands while increasing brand loyalty.

A trend in mobile marketing is the use of mobile video apps to enhance customer engagement. Mobile video apps are also widely used, although some users think twice before they pay for the apps. However, once convinced about the features, this is a great way to drive traffic to the business’ website. One of the basic reasons that consumers decide to choose a mobile video app is because it is free, or comes at a low subscription rate.

Video advertising, for example television advertising, is traditionally a paid medium and its reach and frequency depends on the business’ budget. While these can reach millions of viewers, they do not always have the “share” option once the campaign is over. Video marketing clearly differs from this as it brings the user branded videos and through creative content it depends on the user to share it across networks. The campaign itself has to be carefully planned as everything depends on the viral nature of the video. This approach involves the integration of creative, advertising, social media and PR that will ensure that the campaign lives on long after the “paid” element is exhausted.

Since online video consumption happens mostly on demand, marketers may not always be able to find out when and where their content is viewed. On the flip side, even though this is controlled by the users, digital videos score over traditional television video advertising in their ability to be socially shared via email, blogs, texts and social networks.

A business that develops a mobile app could actually be creating new business opportunities for itself. Free mobile apps can be used as an effective marketing extension. Compared to investing a fortune on a marketing campaign that relies on the business’ marketing team for its success, a free mobile app can achieve the goal of adding value to the target market’s lives at a much lesser price, while being trendy.

Both mobile apps and video advertising can play important parts of the business’ overall marketing strategy, since the common goal of various elements in the marketing mix remains constant – that of connecting and engaging the user, persuading them to buy and share their positive experience with their networks, bringing the business a far wider market reach that would not be possible with traditional marketing tools.