As of January 18, 2009, this blog is moving to Heart of the Matter Design.

Join me there for more in the series “Websites that Work: Your Step-by-Step Design Guide to Bring Your Passion to Pages that Move People.” You’ll see the site go from plain to powerful and learn the step-by-step process to do it yourself.

You can reach more people and attract more money. I’ll show you how. Go to Heart of the Matter Design for more information and to take part.

Thanks for reading the Inspired Raw Design blog. I look forward to bringing you even more high impact information on how to get the best web design at my new site.

Best,
Caryn

Are you ready to get a website that works?

You’re doing something that really matters in the world. To have more impact, you need to reach more people. And you need more money, both to sustain what you do and to do more of it.

So do you have a website that powerfully supports what matters? Whether you have a site that’s underperforming or you’re looking to build, you can. Your site can help you move people to action to create positive change in their lives and for the world. And it can help move your finances from sparse to solid to super.

Learn Effective Web Design and See a Site Done from Scratch – for FRE*E
Now you can understand and implement a step-by-step web design process that gets results. You’ll follow along from the all-important foundation of strategy through critical considerations such as story, site objectives, structure and more. Then you’ll get into style: the color, fonts and images… where many people – including designers – mistakenly start their efforts.

You’ll see how the process works from beginning to end as you watch the new Heart of the Matter Design site created from (almost) nothing. You’ll get ideas and tips for how to use the process to design your own compelling website. Think of how much easier it will be to put the steps to work when you can look at what someone else has done.

You could pay hundreds or even more than a thousand dollars for this kind of how-to help. And it would be easily worth it because of the impact it can have for you and your business or nonprofit.

But now you can get it for FRE*E with the new online series: Websites that Work: Your Step-by-Step Design Guide to Bring Your Passion to Pages that Move People

Go to http://www.HeartoftheMatterDesign.com now to see the (very boring) starting site and subscribe to the series posts, if you’d like. Get answers to questions you may have in the “About the Series” section there or read on here. Continue reading Websites that Work: Your Step-by-Step Design Guide to Bring Your Passion to Pages that Move People

Last week I offered my first teleclass, 3 MUST-DO Steps for Websites that Get Results: How to Get MORE CLIENTS, Achieve MORE IMPACT and Earn MORE MONEY with Your Raw-Inspired Business. The response greatly exceeded my most optimistic expectations! And now I’ve got a super free recording available to share.

In my next post, I’ll talk about some of the steps I took to create these exciting results, so you can apply them to maximize response to your teleclasses and other events. But first, let’s look at a few of the bumps I hit, so that you can avoid the time, stress and lost opportunity that come with them.

1. Over-packing the agenda
Trying to introduce myself, explain 3 steps, review two Websites and share a special offer in 60 minutes was, quite frankly, nuts. As a result, some of the presentation was rushed. More is not always better, especially when people are learning something new. And faster is rarely better! Fewer steps or a longer call would have helped.

2. Not including a source field to assess my marketing
About 3/4 of the sign-ups were not from my current list. I would have loved to learn where they came from: Facebook, Twitter, Karen Knowler’s Professionally Raw ezine, Give it to Me Raw, referrals or other places. I‘m sorry I didn’t include the optional field “How did you learn about the teleclass?” While such information is rarely complete or 100% accurate, it’s does suggest which promotion efforts are paying off.

3. Missing the Facebook RSVPs
My Facebook event listing drew an amazing response. But even though the post said that people had to register at my Website, very few did. By the time I noticed and got out a reminder the day of the class, my conversion rate from Facebook to the class wasn’t very strong.

4. Leaving some things until the last minute
Both Facebook and Aweber were intermittently uncooperative the day of the teleclass. All critical communications should have been completed the day before to allow a contingency for such problems.

5. Testing only part of the system
I very diligently checked and double-checked how to use the teleconference line and record the session. I even downloaded a test recording and found the software to edit and create an mp3. But I stopped short of testing the upload to my site. Imagine my surprise when I learned my new host doesn’t accept audio or video! I was able to sign-up for Audioacrobat, but then had to learn it on the spot (see point 2: Faster is rarely better). The extra time put me farther behind in getting the recording out when promised.

Fortunately none of these mistakes was fatal. People still registered in large numbers. The call recording is  a powerful tool for any raw-inspired business and a great marketing piece for me in the future. But these bumps made the process less professional looking and more personally painful.

How about you? Are there things you’d do differently in your next teleclass?

Subscribe to the blog or check back to catch the follow-up on lessons learned from success in creating a great teleclass.

My last post discussed that creating awareness isn’t enough. You want to focus on moving people to action. That post also asked you to think about a recent purchase you’d made, how the business helped you move from awareness to action and what you could learn for your work.

Now let’s push on that more by looking at an offer that’s come your way that didn’t inspire you to act. Think about either a business or personal product or service that you didn’t pursue.

• Was it simply that you weren’t interested?
• Were you interested, but ultimately decided not to pursue it? Why?
• Maybe you actually decided to go for it, but you actually haven’t done it. What happened? Fallout at this stage is more common than you might imagine. It often comes from unanticipated barriers such as a complex or confusing ordering process.

I bet you’ll find you didn’t take action because at some point in the process the barriers were greater than what you perceived as the benefits. Could the business have done something different that would have made the difference?

I hope this example helps you understand more about the decision-making process your clients undergo. And more important, I hope it gives you some ideas of how you can manage your business to help people move from awareness to action.

Because yes, you must make potential clients aware of you. But you also have to help them through every part of the decision-making process in order to get the sale.

Inspired Action
Use the following three-point diagnostic to take a hard look at the customer experience you provide and how it does or does not move people to action.

1. Do your communications feature compelling benefits that interest people in doing business with you?
2. Do you provide enough information for them to feel confident deciding to take the next step?
3. Do you make it easy for people to act? Does your Website provide simple, clear ordering? Do you return phone calls quickly, enthusiastically and professionally?

Set some time aside to do this. Consider evaluating just one point per day, so you can give it some deep thought. You can discover easy-to-implement ideas that will make an amazing difference for your business!

Are your results as inspired as your raw lifestyle? Maybe the problem is with your Website (or lack thereof). You can win a free Website analysis or concept design, each valued at $599. Visit http://tinyurl.com/winrawweb to learn more and enter. (Sorry to my international friends, but this one’s US residents / businesses only due to legal issues).