Usability Insights and Tips For Seniors
Good Usability or user experience is essential to your site’s success. If your site is ugly or hard to understand – click – visitors are gone in a flash!
Usability is especially important for seniors
Just today I was responding to an email from a gentleman interested in meeting with me. In preparation for my response I visited his company web site. They deal with the senior market.
I was impressed they had a video tutorial describing their program and process step by step. The narrator’s voice sounds more mature to me, and I liked the attention to detail there.
Thing is, they are using white captions. While the use of captions shows attention to usability details, but the use of white captions is hard to read. Check out the screen capture below.
Note the use of white captions and how hard they are to read
Now I’m only 44, and have 20/20 vision and I find the captions hard to red. I’m positive more elderly viewers will have trouble reading the captions. Note how the captions are especially hard to read when they are super-imposed on other images or where the background fades towards white.
Usability Poorly executed is as bad as no usability at all!
I’d recommended to the gentleman that he request that his company HQ redo the peice using black captions. I am sensitive to this because I just read a great book by Steve Cone called Steal These Ideas! Marketing Secrets That Will Make You A Star. Here is a quote from page 43: “Small type is the enemy. Sans serif type is the enemy. Reverse type is the enemy.” White captions is reverse type. I found the book funny, informative and overall one of the better marketing books I’ve read in a while.
Below are some tips on usability for seniors.
I developed this list for a presentation I gave to a group in the senior industry.
The number one usability tip for seniors: When talking to seniors, online text must be readable.
Progression in age brings changes in our vision making it more difficult to see and read from a computer screen. The first step is to make your text as legible as possible for seniors. Here’s how:
- Use either 12- or 14-point type size, and provide a text enlarger on every page of the site where it can easily be found.
- The background and text color must be in contrast with each other. Ideally, a dark text should be used against a light background. Avoid using yellow, green and blue in close proximity. Better yet, go for colors that are viewable on a black and white monitor.
- Don’t ever use white type over a black background. This is difficult for web users of ALL ages to read.
- Use a sans serif typeface such as Arial, Univers, Helvetica and News Gothic for your on-page text – unless it is part of a graphic element and is used for aesthetic value
- Avoid using all caps.
- If you want to use italics, use it only in headlines.
- Reserve the underlines only to indicate active links.
An example of a senior-oriented site with good usability
I found a site featuring great senior-oriented usability, Adelaide Place. They really deserve some praise. Below is a screen shot.
Senior-focused site with great usability
Note how the site uses large type, lots of white space. Large icons and a enlarger for the accomodations photos.
Note too, how prominently the phone number is displayed. This usability detail recognizes that for some demographics, it’s not all about texting and twitter. Yes, some generations still prefer the phone and in person!
Take a look at your site. Do you cater to a usability-sensitive consumer? If so, where could you make some improvements? I’ve given you a list to start with.
What other usability tips to know of? Please share!
6 Questions to Determine if you qualify for a 6 or 7-Figure Information Business
Here is a great checklist to determine if you can add a significant additional revenue stream to your business. I got it from Dan Kennedy, who is, as you know, one of my great marketing mentors.
Go ahead and see how you stack up.
- 1. Do you process Expertise or Insider knowledge about your Industry that you charge for?2. Do you perform a Service for your Clients that is Time-Consuming and therefore limits your ability to “Scale” your Business?
3. Do you follow a step-by-step process to get results for your Clients?
4. Do you have (or could you develop) checklists, calculators, shortcuts, quick start guides or a list of common mistakes Clients make or a list of lies that are told in your Industry?
5. Do you have stories (proof) of how you’ve helped Clients save lots of time and lots of money?
6. Do you like to write? You don’t have to Love to write to be a Successful Information Marketer, but you can’t hate it either.
If you answered yes to at least 3 of those questions, there is a very good chance you could be sitting on a 6-Figure Information Marketing Business. All you need now is instructions for how to mix those ingredients into a Successful Info Business…
If you are interested in building an information marketing program to your business, let me know! I can help.
Where Most Businesses Go Wrong In Their Lead Generation Offers
Where is it that most businesses fail with Lead Generation?
They are too damn cheap!
That’s right. In most cases, across every industry, businesses try to acquire valuable new customers without giving the customer a compelling reason to provide contact information. At it’s most basic, think about the hundreds of websites you’ve visited where they ask you to sign up for their Enewsletter but do not give you a real reason or something of value to sign up. How often do you sign up? Or if you do, pay the Enewsletter any attention? I thought so.
Sadly, these business owners are wasting time, energy and money on advertising. They are also not capitalizing on traffic created to either to their website, phone or business. Many never even ask for any personal information and therefore can not follow up for future offers!
Here’s What You Need To Do To Increase Lead Generation Effectiveness:
Sit down for 10 minutes and think about the type of customers you are trying to attract to your business. Then create and irresistible offer – something of real value that will get those interested in your product or service to raise their hand and say I want more information or the great gift you are providing for giving up their personal information.
Don’ t be cheap on this! Figure out what the lifetime value of a new customer is to your business and spend more to get them than your competition. You’ll find that you’ll grow your list of prospects very fast.
So there’s two lessons here:
#1) offer something of value in order to get leads. Focus on what the customer values, not you. There’s a difference. People who get this, get sales.
#2) Spend appropriately. Do your customer lifetime value math. You can differentiate by spending more to acquire your most ideal customers. Do it.
Funny and true story on spending appropriately for lead generation:
The biggest customer of a company I know well accounts for about 30% of revenue annually. That’s $1,500,000 give or take. This customer was acquired by several four figure trips to strip clubs. I am not going to comment on the morality or business ethics of this, just the numbers. One $1,000,000 purchase order followed a $6,000 tab at the strip club. The ROI? Good enough don’t you think?
In fact, most CFOs figure 10% of customer lifetime value is a good number to spend in acquiring a customer. In the example above, the $6,000 was less than that for the initial order. That’s great!
I asked the senior management of this firm why they didn’t spend over $100,000 to land an ideal customer given that the customer lifetime value is in excess of several million dollars. They had no answer and the idea went over like a fart in church. Needless to say they remain a fringe player.
What are examples of spending in this way to acquire an ideal customer lead?
- Targeting doctors and dentists with a B2B offer at their home address is one example. The list costs more.
- Using “lumpy mail” to get your direct mail opened.
- Optimizing “gift with appointment” using appropriately expensive and alluring gifts such as autographed baseball bats.
- Even sales force design: investing by hiring experienced sales reps with Rolodexs and industry relationships and then placing them in territories the field, compared to an inside sales team cold calling.
What are some of your lead generation successes and challenges? I’d love to hear about them so I can write additional posts on the topic!
How to Kickoff January for a Great Year in Business
Enter January. The bills are due and there’s bad weather, lower sales, colds and nothing to do until Valentine’s Day except wish for the Packers to go 15-1 and win the SuperBowl.
This year, I want you to do something about January. I want you to use this month to evaluate your business from top to bottom and save and make money.
Go over 2011′s results and 2012′s goals. Ask for ways to fix problems and new ideas for sales. Tell them your team about your project for January. And then celebrate the business and them with a special toast to start the New Year. Maybe give awards too.
Now, I’m a marketing guy, but we also need to look at some operations issues. I have some thoughts for you. Use what you can or want to.
Deliveries and Inventories: Are you being as efficient as possible in getting your deliveries and in your inventory and stocking procedures? This can cause cash flow problems if you have too much in stock.
Pricing: Is volume, value or premium your game? Can you expand into another pricing sphere with new products and services?
Marketing Plan: Look over your advertising, promotions and public relations plans (you do have a plan all mapped out on your annual marketing calendar, right?). If you don’t have a plan, don’t do anything else until you make one (if you want help, call me!). And if you don’t do anything else, at least run “suggestive sells” aka “Do you want fries with that?”
Couponing: Know the number of coupons that are redeemed and what the add-on to each is. Ask customers redeeming coupons how often they come in. If your coupon program is only discounting to current, regular customers, you’ll probably want to try something else.
Groupon and other daily deals: If you are product based, don’t! If you are service based, do, but only with careful consideration. If you need butts in seats to make a living, it’s worth a shot if done right, with the proper back end marketing approach in place. That’s the piece that small business owners miss 99% of the time! There are things you need to know about Groupon before you get started.
Brand Image: If you have any control, define your brand image and personality. Give your own personality to your business and\or store. Become Mr. Insurance or Mrs. Nails in your community. Study your competition and emulate their successes with your own special touch and avoid their mistakes.
Social Media: Take a deep breath and start to converse with your customers and prospects. Too often newbies to social media broadcast. Heck, I do it. The dialogue is key, not announcements. Use PR for announcements. Use social media to be social, converse, share. If you want to establish your social media presence quickly and with a minimum investment in time and money, check out my Universal Listing Service where we claim over 350 local, mobile, blog and social media sites for your business for you.
Customers: Know your customers. Take a long, hard look at them. How can you expand your customer base, add additional purchases and increase the frequency of use? That’s how you increase sales and profits. You don’t need an ad agency or ad salesman to figure that out.
So take January and analyze your business. Work on it more than in it. Look for ways to save money and to make money. Brainstorm with peers, suppliers and vendors. It’s worth a free lunch or pot of coffee.
Looking for more inspriation? Check out my small business marketing free resources page! If you don’t see what you need, give me a shout and I can put something together for everyone.
Here’s to a successful 2012! Good luck!
Focused Plan for Successfully Marketing Your Business
Focus for Marketing Success
It has been said that the number one is the worst number in business. Especially when it comes to customers. In this sense, one exposes you to risk.
In the sense of focus, one is an absolute godsend. But if we all know that focus is helpful, why then do so many self-employed and small business owners suffer from “shiny object syndrome, flitting from one thing to another, often without finishing what we’ve already started?” (Visit here for a funny story on shiny object syndrome.)
Here’s how focus helps you grow your business.
- Take one Product.
- Find one way to convert or sell your leads\prospects.
- Find one way to generate those leads\prospects.
- Take one year to improve your lead generation and converstion process.
- Take another year to scale up the optimized process.
Clay Collins of The Marketing Show fame uses this model to generate seven-figure product lines. So it’s proven to work. Can you make it work for yourself?
I think so. The beauty is that rather than just scratching the surface attempting a number of things (those pesky shiny objects), you dig deep with focus.
With this method you really become knowledgable about one thing at a time before you move on to the next thing. I think it’s wonderful advice.
Do you think this approach would benefit your marketing efforts and sales success? Why or why not? Please share!