IAFE 2015: 20 Ways to Ruin a Fair Website

1. Cassie Roberts | Saffire
20 WAYS TO RUIN
A PERFECTLY GOOD
FAIR WEBSITE

4. SOMETHING
BUT
WAS MISSING

5. HELP MORE PEOPLE!
We wanted to

9. Arkansas

12. CLIENT PORTFOLIOVisit Navasota
South Texas State
Fair
Rodeo Belton/ 4th of
July Celebration
Brazos Valley Fair
Heart O' Texas Fair
& Rodeo
Amarillo Tri-State
Fair
Fort Bend County
Fair
Central Texas State
Fair
Comal County Fair
Okeechobee County
Fair
Amador County Fair
Chowchilla Fair
Palomino Fest
Lea County
Coors Cowboy Club
Washington County
Fair
Napa County Fair
Dodge City Round Up
Brazoria County Fair
San Angelo
Rogers County Fair
Greater Baton Rouge
State Fair
Central States
Black Hills Stock
Show/Rodeo
Los Fresnos
Twas the Lights
Reno Rodeo
Redding Rodeo
Northwest Washington
Fair
Sikeston Rodeo
Delaware State Fair
Sangamon County Fair
East Texas
Park of East Texas
Laramie County Fair
Benton-Franklin Fair
Carroll County
Fair
Pendleton Round-Up
Pony Express Days
Arizona National
Livestock Show
Yolo County Fair
California Rodeo
Salinas
Rio Grande Valley
Livestock Show
Old Sorehead Trade
Days
Cuero TurkeyFest
Fiesta San Antonio
Glenn County Fair
State Fair of
Louisiana
Four States Fair
Montgomery County
Fair
Fiesta San Antonio
Glenn County Fair
State Fair of
Four States Fair
Montgomery County Fair
Agricultural Learning
Center
Grant County Fair
North Texas State Fair
Rooftop Rodeo
West End Fair
Crabtree Amusements
Trinity Valley Exposition
Brackenridge Recreation
Complex
Kitsap Rodeo Cowpokes
Refugio County Fair
Rockdale Fair & Rodeo
Children’s Center
NILE
MATE
Volusia County Fair
Firefighter’s Fair
Fayette County Fair
Extreme Tix
Salvation Army
Jerry Jones
Education Town
Wings Stadium
Bradford County
Fair
Pasco County Fair
Greeley Stampede
Sweetwater Events
Complex
iFest
Hardee County Fair
Angelina Ccounty
Fair/Expo
Midland Horseshoe
Arena
Harborside Events
Center
My River District
Taylor County Expo
Five State Fair
Western Heritage
Classic
Extraco Events
OVER
200
CLIENTS!

13. A LITTLE FUN!

14. WE’LL SEND THE SLIDES IF YOU LEAVE
YOUR BUSINESS CARD!

15. WHAT MAKES A GOOD WEBSITE?

16. MOBILE-FRIENDLY
FUN EASY TO NAVIGATE
INFORMATIVE
GOOD PHOTOS
FAST LOADING
GOOD BRANDING

17. THE FOUNDATION

18. 1. BUILD WITH OLD PROGRAMS
• Flash breaks on iPads and sometimes
computers too—ditch it!
• Programming languages change
• Social media outlets change
their plug-ins

19. SITE WIDTH & ALIGNMENT

20. SITE WIDTH & ALIGNMENT

21. COMPUTER MONITORS
1997 2015

22. 2. HAVE A BAD HOST
• Some hosts don’t monitor for traffic spikes
• Some hosts don’t isolate your space from your neighbor’s
• With many hosting plans, someone else’s high traffic or improper usage can affect you

23. STAR WARS CRASH
Did anyone try to buy tickets for the new Star Wars movie when they went on sale?

24. WHAT HAPPENED?
• Massive traffic
• Server Overload (Like when you try to open 100 files on your computer at once)
• Sites slowed, eventually leading to crash

26. WHAT CAN YOU DO?
• Increase server space during peak times
• Buy more server space
• Invest in dedicated server space (more expensive but fewer or more reliable
neighbors)
• Make sure the platform your website is on is up to date

27. 3. BE INVISIBLE TO GOOGLE
Most people that search for your festival name are going to find your website. What
about other things they type?
• What keywords are strong?
• How can you use keywords to get a better ranking on Google?

28. THE LONG TAIL

29. LONG TAIL WORDS
• More descriptive=less searches=more likely to find you
• More descriptive=more interest in you anyway!
• More descriptive=costs less if you advertise
• EX: Family fun, music festival, animal exhibits,

30. www.google.com/trends
Type in any word, find out the trends and search
history of that term!

32. THE FRAMEWORK

33. 4. CREATIVE SITE NAVIGATION
• A place to watch “design over function”
• If there is a place to keep it simple, this is it!
• Your map to your content

35. JUST F IT.

36. 5. FORGET THE FAVICON
Normal Day!

37. FAVICON IMPORTANCE
Users (especially a younger audience,
opening multiple pages in rapid-fire
succession as a way to remember the
items on those pages and revisit them
at a later time.

38. 6. NEVER CHANGE CONTENT
1. Visit
2. Visit with same content
3. Never visit again

39. CHANGE YOUR WEBSITE
If you update your Facebook page

40. YOUR BRAND
YOUR LAND!

41. BAD OFFENDER: NEWS & BLOG
• If you have them, keep them updated
• A tip to make it easier: Don’t say how often you're going to publish. A “once a
month” newsletter is a surefire way to be behind.

42. WORST OFFENDER: OLD DATES

43. 7. FORGET CALLS TO ACTION
What’s the action for someone visiting your site?
SMALL
• Listen to Music
• View Photos/Videos
BIG
• Sign up for your email list
• Buy tickets

44. IMPORTANCE OF WEB ACTIONS
OLD WEBSITES NEW WEBSITES

45. COPY FACEBOOK

46. TWITTER DID!

49. TAKE A POLL

50. LEADS TO CLICKS ON THIS!

51. 8. SKIP ONLINE SALES

52. MULTIPLE BUY OPTIONS

53. BUY FROM ANY PAGE

54. CREATE CUSTOMER CONFIDENCE

55. 9. SKIP MOBILE-FRIENDLY
If you:
• Send email (something people check on their phone!)
• Post Facebook ads (something people check on their phone!)
• Sell Online
• Have a website
YOU MUST BE MOBILE!

56. GOOGLE LOVES MOBILE

57. MOBILE STATS

58. 10. LEAVE OUT EMAIL SIGNUP
Not Cool: Email seems lame compared to social media
Cool: It’s the most successful tactic!

59. Most Cost-Effective
Top Revenue Generator
Fastest Results

60. EVERY PAGE!

61. 11. HIDE CONTACT INFO
Very poor customer service to only have a contact us form on your website
• Utilize email aliases if you’re worried about spam
• At least one phone number should always be available

62. THE DETAILS

63. 12. FEATURE TEXT INSTEAD OF PHOTOS
Engagement per follower is 58 times higher on Instagram than on Facebook.

64. DOES IT REALLY MATTER?
PHOTOS:
• Provide a personal connection to your event and your brand
• Evoke desire to “do what they’re doing”
• Allow visitors to virtually experience your event all year long

65. DOES IT REALLY MATTER?
Albums do even better than single photos, so don‘t forget those!

66. PHOTO ALBUMS

67. 13. SHOWCASE ADS OVER YOURSELF
A lot of websites make the mistake of using their most important real estate for ads
instead of their content.

68. DO PEOPLE LIKE YAHOO…

69. …OR GOOOGLE?

71. ROTATING ADS

72. 14. DON’T DO VIDEO
Visitors will engage with your site if they’re watching videos or listening to music!
• Video brings an average of 3 times more visitors to your site per month
• Organic search traffic increases by 157%
• The average website visitor spends 88% longer on sites with video

73. APPEALS TO MILLENIALS
4 BILLION videos are watched every DAY on YouTube
• More 18-49 year olds watch YouTube in the U.S. than any cable network.

74. • An eye catching thumbnail encourages more clicks
-Use what you just learned about photos!
• Film “behind the scenes” with performers, event organizers etc.
• Tour of the grounds videos can be fun!
VIDEO TIPS

75. SHORT AND SWEET
Use what social media has taught us about video.
• Vine – 6 seconds
• Instagram Video 15 seconds – outperforms Vine
• On Facebook, videos can be any length but they automatically play as you scroll past, so first
few seconds must be compelling!

76. AUTOPLAY WITHOUT ANNOYANCE

77. VIDEO IN EMAIL
Using the word “Video” in an email subject line:
• BOOSTS Open rates 19%
• INCREASES Click-through rates by 65%
• REDUCES unsubscribes by 26%

78. 15. PUT THINGS IN .PDF
PDFs are the easiest way to keep customers from seeing your content!
• No SEO- Google can’t read them
• Your internal site search can’t read them
• Adds an extra click for your customers
• No exposure to photos/videos on your website

79. ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR FORMS

80. 16. DISMISS USER-GENERATED CONTENT
That’s what social media is right? And people love it!
• Allow customers to upload photos
• Ask sponsors/guest writers to contribute to your blog
• Put customer YouTube videos on your website

81. SHARE A PHOTO

82. 17.FORGET WHAT MAKES YOU SPECIAL
Find your differentiators and sell the heck out of them!
• Scenery
• Attractions
• Special Events
• Culture/Tradition

83. SCENERY

84. SCENERY

85. ATTRACTIONS

86. ATTRACTIONS

87. EVENTS

89. CULTURE

90. THE FOLLOW UP

91. 18. IGNORE CUSTOMER VIBE
If your people are talking about memes, include memes on your website.
• If snapchat is all the rage, use snapchat
• Current events can provide great content
• Not every option is good for every event

93. 19. SKIP ANALYTICS
What should you watch?
• Google Analytics
• Facebook post analytics
• Email opens & click throughs

94. YOU’RE NOT
MARKETING!
If you’re
not measuring,

95. FACEBOOK ADS

96. EMAILS
• Test layouts and content
• (Almost) always include more than one topic.
• The things people care about will shock you!

97. GOOGLE ANALYTICS-LOCATION
• What are you doing to make strong places strong? What could you do to increase areas you
wish were strong?

98. GOOGLE ANALYTICS- MOST VIEWED PAGES
• How can I make those pages serve me better?

99. THEN APPLY EVERYWHERE!

100. 20. DON’T ASK FOR INPUT
Sometimes we are the easiest critics on our own websites
• Ask your friends to buy a ticket from your website in front of you
• See how easy it is for them to get to important information
• The thing you’re missing may be the thing they catch!

101. MORE FROM SAFFIRE
• Shine Online-Improve your Website Ticketing & More with Saffire
• TOMORROW, December 1, 12:00pm-1:00pm
• Technology Can be Fun!
• WEDNESDAY, December 2, 3:30pm-3:40pm
ALL EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS IN BALLY’S INDIGO TOWER, FIRST FLOOR

103. FREE ONLINE MARKETING TIPS
Website www.saffire.com
The Amplifier www.saffire.com/podcast
Facebook www.facebook.com/TeamSaffire
Twitter @TeamSaffire
Instagram teamsaffire
Pinterest teamsaffire
YouTube saffirestudio
Questions?

104. THANK YOU!
Cassie Roberts
cassie@saffire.com
www.saffire.comwww.saffire.comwww.saffire.comwww.saffire.com