Re: Joe and Laura website
- From: lukeburrage@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Luke Burrage)
- Date: 05 May 2008 11:37:28 GMT
Thanks (?) for your advice. I'll sort out the message from the harsh
statement attached to it, and I'll file this one under T for "Tough Love".
I'm understanding and accepting of the constructive criticism concept
(say that ten times fast) but this seemed a step above. I guess it's just
another reminder to get ready for the dog-eat-dog business world we're
getting ourselves into.
Next time you offer advice, can you do it a bit less aggressively? You
don't need to remind us we're starting out and probably don't have many
clients as of yet... we'd be the first to know.
~Joe Showers
Hi Joe,
It is really better to get this advice now than later. Pola took some of
our promotional material to a friend of her parents who works in the
circus/variete world. She went through point by point, saying why the
design I'd made was really bad. Pola wrote down pages of notes on things
we should change.
To start with, I couldn't understand what the problem was. The promotional
pack I'd made had worked well enough, we'd got loads of valuable work from
it. But for different clients, different approaches are needed. It really
hit home when Pola told me that this lady had said "Wait... is this text
in English?"
She had been looking at the promo pack for 10 minutes by that point, and
had only just realised what language it was written in! She also said, for
the variete circuit, that if there promo stuff doesn't catch their eye at
first glance it goes right in the bin.
So I still use a promotional pack with loads of writing and loads of
information if someone requests it. But otherwise we have cut down on what
we show people massively. Here are two examples of our postcards (thanks
LP for this collection):
Old postcard front:
http://100jugglers.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/luke_pola_front.jpg
Old postcard back:
http://100jugglers.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/luke_pola_back.jpg
And now:
http://100jugglers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/luke_and_pola_3.jpg
The second postcard doesn't have anything on the back. If they want email
addresses or phone numbers we can scribble them anywhere front or back,
plus prices, dates we are free, etc. Blank white space on a postcard or
business card is vital in this respect.
We've had more good responses from this latest post card than any other.
People love the simple design more than anything. It isn't perfect, and
I'm sure we can improve it further, but it shows everything it needs to
and nothing more. And it is the result to listening to advice from people
who know better.
To be honest, I agree with Steve, but I didn't reply because I didn't
think I could say it nicely. It's a good job Steve is more direct than me,
and you should take that as kindness, not as an attack.
I think your costumes look really drab. The colour is not suitable... blue
is the least standing out colour there is! Shine as much light on it and
you'll still not show up well on stage. Where is the emblem on your
costume? I've never seen a superhero without something on their chest.
Without your "logo" on your chests you look like gymnasts, not super
heroes. You should smile, or not look like you are pissed off with Laura.
The orange clubs don't go with your costumes. On other pages... don't have
one person looking at the camera and the other looking somewhere else.
Laura has a beautiful smile... let me see it more!
Some general bits...
I'd give your website maybe 10 seconds. If I don't know what I'm looking
at within that time, I'd leave. You have 10 seconds to make me want to
learn more. That photo doesn't do it for me. Nor does the other design
elements.
You know that block of text to the right on the front page? I've flicked
through all the pages, looked at the designs and the titles and the
images... and I still haven't read through it. It might as well be written
in Dutch. Same with all the other blocks of text on the website. I need to
know it is worth my time to read it, and all I want are facts. Don't tell
me how wonderful the show is going to be, or how much people will enjoy
it. I'm booking a juggling show, so I'm paying for an enjoyable, wonderful
show. You need to tell me what I'm paying for, and how your show is
different from other juggling shows.
I'm still a bit confused about what is going on here. What do you do? Am I
booking a show that is 5 minutes? 45 minutes? It says at the bottom of the
text "other shows..." but what is this show?
Who is in the show? Laura and Joe? The video says Paige and Pete. Who are
they? I find this confusing, and I'm trying hard!
You need to find an image or a brand or a title and stick with it. Are you
"Juggling Production"? Or are you "P2", "Paige and Peter", "Joe and
Laura", "Particle Propellants" or something else?
At this point you should have two names. One the name of your group or
team, and one for your show. The name of your group should tell people who
they are booking and your name should tell them what they are getting.
Finally, I suggest you look up google analytics. You put a bit of code on
each page and it lets you track how long people stay on your website,
where they come from, how long they look at each page, what routes they
take through your page and all that kind of stuff. For example, I know
that people, on average, spend 29 seconds on the first page of
lukeandpola.com and 30% of people never look further than that. So on that
page I make sure there is an email, phone and contact address, an overview
of what Luke and Pola do and some performance pictures so people can see
what they get. If they want to know more, they can follow the links, but
I'm happy with the good impression they'll get from that first page.
I'm not saying you should make your page the same as mine, but you need to
be aware of these issues. Never put anything on your website because YOU
want it there. Never have anything missing from your website that your
potential customers want to find. The website visitor is the only
important person in this experience.
Hope all this helps.
Luke Burrage - really needs to kick his own website into order.
--
----== posted via www.jugglingdb.com ==----
.
- References:
- Joe and Laura website
- From: MasterKatra42
- Re: Joe and Laura website
- From: Steven Ragatz
- Re: Joe and Laura website
- From: MasterKatra42
- Joe and Laura website
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