Web Design for ROI by Lance Loveday & Sandra Niehaus
I had the opportunity to hear Lance Loveday speak at Web Design World in Seattle. I am very interested in learning how to present hard numbers which support the role of web design. Last December, I created an HTML email which linked to a branded microsite containing success stories and a quiet request for donations. The return that year was 40% above the previous year. I went back to study the campaign from the previous year and compared it to what we did in December of 2007. I had alot of data but did not know how to interpret it until I read this book. I learned from Lance how important it is to have branded landing pages, simple targeted navigation and limit choices for the website visitor (in our case, the donor). Now that I have the words and strategies to explain the success to upper managment, I can also see the areas of the campaign I can improve even more, such as redesigning our form on our donation page and targeting the metrics that truly matter. This book also provides information for understanding web analytics and how they tie into business objectives. The book is well organized and the color screenshots are helpful to visual learners. The best part is now I have business language to sell the importance of what I do that adds value to online campaigns, whereas before all I had was intuition and luck.
