Website Contest, we have our winners!

With over 80 entries for the best speaking-expert website contest, the panel and I had our work cut out for us!

And it was a very tough decision!

Drum roll please……..

THE WINNING WEBSITE IS: www.toninewman.com

Here’s what the panel saw in Toni’s website which made it stand out:

1. A clear promise and expertise. The minute you come to this website, you understand that it’s about innovation. And, Toni positions as an expert who happens to speak.

2. A topic that is needed and bookable. Innovation is something that corporate and association audiences need consistently.

3. A unique and innovative site. Toni’s site smacks of originality. You don’t see alot of the “same old – same old” speaker look or lingo.

4. Solid video.  The demo video on this site is well done and the speaking clips within are a solid representation of Toni’s platform talent.

5. Website has what a decision maker needs This site provides the decision maker with the tools they need to make their selection. She appears client friendly and easy to work with.

CONGRATULATIONS, TONI NEWMAN

Toni wins a one hour coaching session with Jane.

And congratulations Richard Tremblay for nominating this site Richard wins a one hour marketing makeover or 5 copies of The Wealthy Speaker.

RUNNERS UP

There were about 10 really great sites.  We thought that these two runners up deserved honorable mention.

http://www.laughyourway.com/

Mark Gungor’s website is very topic specific (Laugh Your Way to a Good Marriage) but the panelists agreed that it was unique and authentic. And the communication piece could work for corporate audiences. More importantly it was written with the audience in mind (rather than the, ‘book me I’m a speaker’ approach).

www.danthurman.com

We all agreed that Dan’s website is really nice looking, and has a great feel to it. The video is high energy and solid and Dan’s home page is very effective with many effective features. Great job!

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Let’s not forget that websites are very subjective. Some of these you’ll love, some you won’t. I hope you will look at the criteria of this contest and measure it against your own website. There is much to learn here!

PS:  Wondering why your website didn’t win?  Consider a Focus 40 session with Jane to work on tweaking or making over your site.  Here’s the link http://www.speakerlauncher.com/coaching.html

Are you distracting your prospects?

Recently, I decided to take most of the social media logos off of my website.

You see, I don’t want to drive people away from my site (over to Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) I want to keep them with me until they take the desired action.

In an effort to be deemed current, I think we all jumped on the social media bandwagon. But did we do it with strategy?

Remember that old saying a confused buyer never buys? Well, a distracted buyer won’t buy either. He or she will hop on that social media train and will be off your site faster than you can say ‘YouTube’.

So we have to work hard to keep people engaged with our website from whatever page they come in on, right through to the desire outcome.

Now the argument could be made that if they are linked to you on a social site that they may find there way back to your site again, perhaps.

Or maybe we lead them to our social sites through other means?

How about through our eTips or our blog for example?  I’m not saying which way is right for you, just to give your social media strategy some thought before placing those live links on your site. And keep your prospects around until they take the action that you desire.

PS: I can’t miss this opportunity to get to know you better. If you’d like to connect with me, here are some options:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/speakerlauncher
LinkedIn: http://tiny.cc/linkedin992
Twitter: http://twitter.com/janeatkinson