In between the usual client activities this summer—customers always come first— we were able to redesign and relaunch our Radar Media Group website. Top of list was to create a site that would impress and inform customers and new visitors alike. In other words, cause prospects who might not know Radar (except what they found on a web link, social media post or word of mouth from another client) to call, email or give us a try on a project.

Time will tell how successful we’ve been. But here’s some of the logic that caused us to make the content and design decisions we did:

Don’t be coy about what you do.  We appreciate good web design as much as anyone else, but not at the expense of making it clear up front as to what this company does. If the top animated tiles don’t give you enough information about the services we provide, just click through for more information on each one. If that’s still not enough to inform you, then the homepage “elevator pitch” about our mission says you’ve found the integrated marketing services company in Boston (and not that “Radar” gossip site in NYC).

Real customers, real quotes. Experience counts for a lot in the marketing services business. In our 10+ years of history, we’ve delivered lots of work for clients. And we’ve not been shy about asking for a quote or recommendation at the end of an engagement.  Sure, some clients are unable to do say anything for legal or competitive reasons, but you never know until you ask. We feature rotating client pictures, real customer names and titles on both the homepage and Testimonials page.

Show them your work. It’s one thing to describe the products and services you offer. We do that in our Services section.  However, showing samples of your work is arguably more important. For a boutique web agency like Radar, prospects typically scope out our design and content deliverables before anything else. Knowing this, we wanted an interactive Portfolio section that would provide a good cross-section of capabilities without forcing visitors to jump from page to page.  Judge for yourself whether we hit the mark.

Integrate your social channels. It’s not enough to just update your website with fresh content on a regular basis. Today’s prospects are just as likely to find you on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. Given that, it’s surprising how many websites bury their social media and blog activities behind a link or icon. That’s why on our own (and many client sites) we like to surface the most recent social media and blog post headlines on the homepage and key inside pages. Doing so keeps your website content fresh and better integrates your channels. Plus modern content management systems like WordPress make it easy and automatic.

Until next time. . .