How I came to get a copy of Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers & Prospects into Leads
Lance Loveday was looking for some bloggers to read and review the book he co-authored with Sandra Niehaus (apparently first time authors are completely responsible for the marketing of their books). Our mutual friend Shane Vaughan over at Balihoo, knowing I’m an avid reader, recommended that Lance should ask me. To complete the circle Shane is married to fellow HP blogger Tanya Vaughan, who uses Lance’s agency Closed Loop Marketing. After reading his great book I now see why.
I was really amazed with the content in this book. I’ve read several books on search marketing, usability, design and general web marketing but this was the first one that has pulled it all in to one concise book. I’ve read books twice as long that haven’t covered half as much.
While this book isn’t meant for a complete newbie to the web I would recommend this book for web savvy first time web marketers. But don’t think that this book is a beginner book. An adventurous young entrepreneur could run an entire consulting practice just by following the steps in this book and still feel comfortable that they were providing real value to their clients.
In fact I was very surprised at the completeness in this book. Most books written by agencies or consultants give you just enough of a taste to understand the principles but don’t actually give you enough knowledge to go off and do it yourself. I really applaud the thoroughness in Web Design for ROI.
Lance and Sandra walk you through each section of the site from landing pages, home page, shopping carts and everything in between as well as break down the unique problems for each page and how to fix them.
They have working sections where you can actually apply what it is they are teaching as well as actual examples with screen grabs.
My absolute favorite part of the book though was the metrics section. They show you how a little effort on single sections of your site can have a greater effect than just dumping more money into driving traffic to an inefficient site.
Their approach is amazingly simple and even a number challenged marketer like myself can use it. I’ve even started using those metrics when I make presentations to my managers and let me tell you, managers (or clients) love seeing numbers. It makes it so much easier to sell your initiative when you have some simple numbers to show them.
If you do web marketing of any kind, for your own site, for clients or for your company get the book right now, I promise you’ll be thanking me
Still not convinced? Check out their site and blog www.WD4ROI.com for more resources, work sheets and samples of the book.
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Thanks for the great review, Tac. Glad you liked the book. We hope to help people get more out of their web sites by thinking differently about it. The positive encouragement is very much appreciated.
Great review Tac. I’ve also read the book and agree with your assessment. For busy people this is the route to go to learn more about making your web site more effective. Great book Sandra and Lance!