A website that is clear, simple and easy to navigate could increase your sales by 100 per cent, as suggested by the latest research.

It appears that even if your products are less compelling than your competitors, if your website is clean and un-complicated visitors will stay on your site longer and are more likely to buy.

With the fast pace of life these days we expect things to be quick, easy and fuss-free. A website that is clearly marked out and easy to navigate will be more appealing than one that is complicated and busy.

With this in mind a website should be designed for the consumer. The quality of consumers’ online experience determines how long they stay on a site and whether they choose to make a purchase. Good website design coupled with good copywriting could convert up to 100 per cent more than a poor website.

User-centred design (UCD) optimises the principles of designing a website around how people can, want or need to work, rather than forcing the user to change how they work to accommodate the developers design. At each stage of the website design process the wants, needs and limitations of the end user should be evaluated. Rather than dictating how the user will use a website any site should be designed giving the user what they want. Jakob Neilsen, the grandfather of UCD said it doesn’t matter what a website looks like, just as long as it works for the user. Whether you agree with this statement or not the message is the same – usability is the key.

Many websites these days use Flash, and yes, this can make it look very pretty and appealing, but this needs to be weighted up with functionality. Making things bright and swishy doesn’t naturally comply with DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) and Flash content isn’t read by search engines. This begs the question – why use Flash? A well written site doesn’t need Flash, so wouldn’t you prefer a fully integrated site that everyone can see?

There is so much to think about these days when it comes to designing a website, Web 2.0 being one of the latest buzz words.  Web 2.0 design style allows users to do more than simply find information, it provides greater user participation, a richer user experience and dynamic content. Web 2.0 also demonstrates clean, simple, basic lines – less is more, as they say!

Google, the most visited website on the planet is the prime example of the perfect website.  It’s simple, clean and it just works – what more do you want, it doesn’t need to do anything else! Everyone recognises it you know what it does and it just does it – no big Flash banners, it’s not crammed with text and pictures – it just is.

A website is not a piece of art and it’s not the same as designing a poster. People view websites in completely different ways, whether it’s different browsers, operating system, security software, screen size, resolution, hardware or speed of connection. Designing a website must be about the user experience otherwise people will get bored and go somewhere else. Research shows that it takes only eight seconds for someone to choose whether to stay on a website or not so a site needs to be good enough to catch someone’s eye, but not complicated so that they don’t stay on the site.

Mystery meat navigation is something that some ‘designed’ websites use. Although they may look nice and pleasing on the eye the navigation is inefficient and confusing. If a website is complicated and unclear visitors will not stay on the site. It is not recommended to use something that people are unfamiliar with as they won’t know how to use it and it is a sure fire way of losing a sale.

When designing a website one of the key characteristics is functionality. If a site is clear and easy to use visitors will stay on the site longer, make return visits, bookmark the site and tell their friends.  It’s not enough just to think about the colour and what its visual impact is, you must think about what people are coming to the site for. People expect a website to tell them what to do, so make things obvious to guide them. A website is often the first point of contact a company has with a potential customer, so make a good impression.

Look at the front page of any newspaper and you’ll see a picture that tells a story. Newspapers will only consider the quirky, exclusive or impactful. Cute kids and celebrities always go down well and having a few people in the shot is usually a good move for events pictures. If a story isn’t strong enough by itself, a picture can make the difference in securing good coverage. Editors want to sell newspapers and a good picture story will help them do so.

Any press release that is sent out to newspapers following an event requires a photo to illustrate it. Without this, a newspaper is unlikely to run the story (unless the story is huge!). Media research shows that readers are much more likely to a) buy a newspaper and b) enjoy reading it, when the number of colour pictures increase and the amount of block text decreases. Therefore good quality, interesting photos are really just as important as a stand-alone press release to the editor of a newspaper.

A picture will draw a reader to actually look through the article and that is where the positive PR for an organisation comes into effect. Pictures can lead to great coverage for an organisation. Here are some examples of the type of photos that make the papers everyday:

1. Winners

   Pictures of competition winners generally make the papers. Pictures of the winner being handed his/her trophy by a VIP always goes down well. The following details are required alongside this: Full Name, Age and Town. Without these details the photo isn’t worth much. It may be that the press will want to interview the winner if the win is an important one.

2. Kids

   Children are always great ways to get coverage.  If you are taking photos of children under the age of 16 you need written authorisation from a parent/guardian.

3. VIPs

   VIPs always make good news.  Any shots of VIPs e.g. with a member of the public who has won something, or a VIP in action, generally gets published. This can be anyone from a local politician to the CEO of a large company to a soap star. Popular photos are ones of a VIP ‘getting his hands dirty’ or doing something you wouldn’t expect.

4. Openings & Events

   If a new building is opening there is the age-old cutting of the ribbon shot. This is quite ‘cheesy’ however some newspapers, especially local ones like them, especially if the person opening it is a local councillor or celebrity. It is great to get all the people involved in the project in the picture with the celebrity cutting the ribbon (this may need to be staged again and again until you get the right shot). Names and job title/company are required.

   For events it is advisable for photos to give a good feel of the event. It needs to appear busy, so there should be plenty of people smiling and having fun. You want the event to appear busy, popular and fun.

5. Action shots

   Shots of people and children reacting to things in a positive or negative way are great. A child seeing a heron and pointing in the air, mouth open in amazement, makes a good shot. It is easy to put a nice caption with this. Other shots, such as a horse jumping mid-air would be good or a kid stroking a pony and laughing or having her first go at grooming. Again, name, age and town are needed for any person in a photograph.

6. Telling a story

   Newspapers love shots that really tell the story. These are photos that, with just the photos, we get the gist of what is going on. For example, with a school trip to the Natural History Museum: a good photo would be one of a child with his worksheet in front of a fossil. From this we can immediately see without looking at the heading that the article is about a school trip to a museum to learn about fossils. Hopefully the photo would be a little more interesting than this, but that is the gist of ‘telling a story’.

   Putting things in context is important. A child with a bright Easter egg to illustrate an Easter event is much more appealing with just a picture of a child. The same goes for a child with a Santa hat, riding a horse, for example. This makes an ordinary story. The person needs to be doing something which illustrates what the event is about.

7. The Quirky

   This is anything that will catch the reader’s eye. It might be visually attractive or just very funny. For example, for the dog show Crufts, pictures of the smallest and largest dogs (Chihuahua and Great Dane) make for a humorous photo. The same could be done with a Shetland pony and a Shire horse. Anything which shows extremes will catch the eye. Another example is a 70 year old ice skater with her medal or a cute little pony that has won an important competition on its first outing. The story and the photo are something out of the ordinary and that is what makes good news.

8. Heart Strings

   Any picture which pulls on the heart strings will help strengthen a story. The ‘feel good’ element always makes a good story. This might be a rider that has come back from injury to win a competition or a child having her first horse ride. Any good news stories, especially with these added elements are always appealing to the press. The same goes for a cute child – if it makes the reader smile and get emotional, it’s a good press shot!

Things to avoid:

• Peoples’ backs in the photos…faces are much more interesting!
• People too far away from the camera – they just look like spots!
• Shots that don’t really say or do anything – think about the story the picture is (or should be) telling. The picture is there to make the reader want to read the article.

Things to try:

• For events, busy, happy shots are the way to go.
• If there is an opportunity to take a photo near a branding board, logo or site name of the organisation involved, do so.
• Remember to get the name, age and town of the person in the photo.
• Remember to get signed consent forms for under 16s
• Don’t be afraid to ‘set up’ a shot if you can imagine seeing something similar on the front page of a newspaper. Kids are usually surprisingly willing to do a bit of acting!

What information is needed to accompany the picture?

The most important thing is to get hold of is the full name, age (if child or elderly – carefully asked!) and town of anyone in the picture, otherwise the photo doesn’t mean anything. If it is a group of school children and the story does not relate to a particular child, just the school name, town and class name is fine. Name, age and town of team members or visitors featured in the photo are often useful as press releases can be sent to the newspaper covering where each child lives.

Marketing and public relations, they’re the same thing – aren’t they? This is a question I get asked all the time, and my answer – No, public relations and marketing are different. Marketing is interested in the market – consumers and demand. Public relations is interested in relationships and reputation.
I think the confusion comes as they both deal with communicating an organisations message to its public. This is true, but public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour, while marketing is more ‘in your face’ to grab attention, such as advertising campaigns.
However different their functions and how they are perceived, marketing and public relations do and must work together towards one goal. Good public relations create a healthy environment for marketing.
Hopefully that has given some clarification to marketing and public relations and the differences between them. Both components are important and should be used to support each other as part of a management tool.