Just read 2 ebooklets(“Flipping the funnel” and “Knock knock”) about online marketing by Seth Godin. This is my personal quick note/summary/thoughts on his content.
Note: This is not something about SEO etc.
Make AdWord advertising worthwhile.
This is simple but often overlooked. If you are having an online store, insert the url of your product page into the AdWord advertisement instead of your homepage link. So user do not need to waste their time, digging around your website to find the product they want.
And yes, please, never direct them to a page that is either outdated or contains error messages. This is the last thing you would want to do.
Simplicity is Beauty.
Very often, we try to be an one-stop centre. But with more things to handle, it needs more responsibilities, energy, commitment etc. that will most probably lead you to losing your main focus. On the other hand, if you got all the time to develop a single product/service, chances of you perfecting the product is much more likely to happen. Think about it.
Tone of your website.
Feature “reputable” designs/graphics/layouts/logos etc.(Seth got a perfect example in his “knock knock” booklet) to generate trust at first sight. When visitors first come to your site, what they truly want to know is “who you are” and nothing else. You got no time to leave them hanging and allow them to explore on their own.
3 main purpose of your site.
i. Convey who you are.
ii. What you want your user to do.
iii. Make your user tell a story about you. (Word of Mouth marketing)
When they are convinced/persuaded to tell a story, that’s when we need to come out with more innovative product/ideas to make them continue doing that.
If you are not doing that, I am afraid you are wasting your time.
Different presentation for new & repeated visitors.
When new visitors come to your site, offer/tell/direct them to something that elaborate your service(remember, they want to know who you are). You can do that with showing them a video, flash intro, brochure, “about us” page etc. I would suggest you to identify their problem, write it out in the “about us” page and tell them how you are you different from your competitors. This is important.
Record user’s behaviour & utilize it.
In a good way that helps you and them of course. When you have statistic of what your user want, simply, give it to them. 
No Dead Ends.
When users end up on a error page, or a search with no results, show them something meaningful or at least with more value than the message “No record found”. Possible alternatives would be to show a joke, recommendation to other product(that you are selling, of course), discount code/coupon, secret insights etc. Just need to be a little more innovative here.
Too many choices = No choice.
If you think providing your user with many choices and alternatives is going to be what you so called “user-friendly”, than you are dead wrong. They will be spoilt by choices and end up doing NOTHING. You want them to proceed on with using your service, then give them that link. They would be much happier.
Contact Info.
Many sites do have “help” page, but many times it is not helpful at all. Well, if you have a customer service hotline or helpline that you would like them to call, then make sure that this line is going directly to someone and display this information on every single page.
Change your page periodically. Daily perhaps.
In the process, you can have a better understanding of what’s good that work and what’s bad that you should reframe yourself from repeating it. Seth described this as “Test & Manage” and I would also recommend that this to be a continuous process, you should always test new things and manage the test results.
Freak them out.
We need to catch the user attention with our “landing point” after they are referred from our homepage/other sources. We can show different vernacular that differentiates the landing point from the homepage. With this, you freak them out, make them think and hey, you caught their attention.
I have just came to know Seth Godin lately and I thought he is just a great marketing person. His views are always special and different. Kudos kudos. Thank you Seth for your generosity in sharing and that’s all I have for you folks.
Do comment & put up more ideas~
