8 Rules of a Great Music Business Website
In Atlanta for the Atlantis Music Conference. The event started last
night, but I've been busy preparing for a panel I'm doing tomorrow
on effective web design for musicians, bands, and labels.
Here are some of my notes on successful website elements.
Build It for Speed - It's a fact of modern life - people are
in a hurry. This means that you have between 10 and 30 seconds to
capture your potential customer's attention. To minimize your load
time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible. Use flashy
technology (JavaScript, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation)
sparingly and only if it is important to your presentation.
Target your Market - Know who your market is and make certain
that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site
reflect the values of your potential customers. Is your market
mostly business professionals? If so, the site must be clean and
professional. Is your product aimed mostly a teenagers and young
adults? Then your site could be more informal and relaxed. The key
here is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.
Focus the Site - Make certain your web site is focused on the
goal, selling your product or service. A site offering many
unrelated products is not necessarily unfocused, but this is often
the case. If your business does offer many products, dedicate a
unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one
page.
Credibility Is Crucial - The most professionally designed
site won't sell if your customers don't believe in you. A clear
privacy statement is one way to build your credibility. Provide a
prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site
as well as from any location that you are asking your visitors for
personal information. Provide legitimate contact information on
line.
Navigation should be simple - Make site navigation easy and
intuitive. Simple and smooth navigation adds to the convenience of
the visitors. Add powerful search and catalog features. Many times a
lot of visitors do not have the patience to navigate through the
whole website to find what they are looking for.
Consistency is the key - Make sure the site is consistent in
look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a
customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site.
Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.
Make your site interactive and personalized Ð Make your
website interactive. Add feedback forms as well as email forms that
allow your prospective customers to ask you any questions they might
have pertaining to a product. Personalization of your website is
another key element that can lead to customer delight and can
increase your sales. Personalization technology provides you the
analytic tools to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling when the
customer is buying online. It would give you an idea of what
products to cross-sell and up-sell. For example, when a person buys
a CD player, a disc cleaner can also be offered.
Content is King - Good content sells a product. Ask yourself
the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish
to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your
visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and
edit your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message.
Always double check your spelling and grammar.
These eight, simple rules will go a long way toward the improvement
of your website and most importantly, turn visitors into customers.
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Roadiejobs.com - Music industry jobs - tour managers, techs,
stagehands view/post roadie picture profiles.
Alvaro M. Rocha (aka AMR) Productions - Official site -
musician and producer of electronic music.
Mia Mind Music: Promotion & Marketing, Radio Tracking, Music …
- Promotion, and marketing company; includes a web-related
services division.
Artists-Lyrics.Com -
lyrics, biography, discography, wallpapers and pictures of popular
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AnyScore - Site offering free and paid sheet music downloads.
Music Places - Listen to artists and bands or, get your band
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Sheet Music Man - an excellent source for sheet music
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A3 Music - South Coast based downtempo
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samplecraze - SoundFont developers for Emu/Ensoniq. Providers
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Frank Singer - franksinger.com has free jazz mp3s, charts of
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Sean McManus - Web and music journalist has
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