The Pit - IMI Trust

I have an observation for you - Most websites are weak at best!  You would probably agree.

They offer no real value to their clents and they dont follow any process or structure. Worst of all, websites are designed without any thought for the consumer which, after all, is the end-user of the site.  This is not good.  However, this norm has the potential of putting you at a competetive advantage.

To illustrate this, I give you an actual example that happened to me this week.   

This week I was having issues with my ADSL at home and this forced me to use the ol’ favourite of Dial-up for the first time in an eternity.  An eternity is a word you should get familiar with if you are using Dial-up as this is how long everything takes to do.  Many sites take over 15 minutes to load in using Dial-up.  The over-use of useless Flash animations and pages over-stuffed with content that people can’t even be bothered to skim over it.  Why am I drivelling on about Dial-up?

Generally if you have broadband Cable or ADSL, you assume the rest of the world must have it. Let me inform you… they dont.

Many people in Australia - approximately 35% of all internet users - still have a simple Dial-up account at home. Get this into your head.  35% of your potential clients are not going to wait up to 15 minutes for your page to load.  Whilst it looks great once it is downloaded, who is going to wait? 

We live in a “I want it now” society and 35% of people want it now and with a small site size. 

If you check out your website stats, most people are on your site under 30 seconds. If it is poorly conceived and designed it will be even less.  The IMI Trust website, incorporating The Pit (hello reader) manages to hold the attention of the average visitors for over 4 minutes.  This may not sound like much but it is a lot longer than most sites.  If visitors stay for that long, you are clearly grabbing your readers attention, building rapport and offering information that is wanted.

Let me share with you what we believe are the key elements to a successful website.

1) Your website reflect the brand you are building
2) Your website has a fast download time
3) Your website provides your clients with a reason to give you their details
4) Your website provides your clients with a reason to keep coming back to you
5) Your website can be found by the search engines and your clients

If your website does not contain these elements, you are losing 10’s of thousands of dollars in potential business.  The IMI Trust specialises in building websites for the financial services industry.  Each of our last five websites have made their money back with a financial quarter.  Most people will tell you a horror story about their website.  How it’s a dog, a donkey a duck, whatever.  We want to change that perception in you…

To all the business owners out there, go back and have a look at your site. Ask yourself, is this really making me money, or is it losing me potential business?  This is an area we are passionate about because we know it inside and out. There is so much people can do when they get their website and if the strategy behind their website right.  Is your online strategy succeeding or failing?