The document outlines key strategies for creating an effective website, emphasizing the importance of understanding the target audience through personas, setting S.M.A.R.T objectives, and researching competitors. It details a sample persona named Sara, illustrating her goals and challenges as a café owner, along with how an employee scheduling app, SchemaMaker, can assist her. The document also highlights the necessity of continuous testing and refining in the website development process.

2. How to Create a Website that Doesn’t Suck
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3. 2. UNDERSTANDING YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE USING PERSONAS
3. HOW TO SET S.M.A.R.T OBJECTIVES FOR YOUR WORDPRESS SITE
4. HOW TO RESEARCH COMPETITORS AND CREATE A SWIPE FILE
5. HOW TO BRAINSTORM AND CREATE A WIREFRAME
1. WHAT MAKES A WEBSITE SUCK?
6. BRIEFING MEETING CHEAT SHEET
7. ALWAYS BE TESTING
8. WRAP UP AND Q&A

4. WHAT MAKES A WEBSITE SUCK?

5. SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME

6. IT HAS TO BE PERFECT!
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7. TOO MUCH INFORMATION

8. TOO MUCH INFORMATION

9. TOO LITTLE INFORMATION

10. WHHHOOOOOOOOO ARE YOU?

11. ME, ME, ME!
useronboard.com

12. WHAT DO I DO?

13. DOESN’T WORK ON MY DEVICE

14. Infographic by Go-Gulf
Source: Business2Community

16. DESIGN IS NOT A SILVER BULLET
 Great product or service
 Great customer support
 Great copy
 Defined Objectives

17. How to Create a Website that Doesn’t Suck
5. ALWAYS BE TESTING
4. Brief designer or team
3. Brainstorm and Create Wireframe
2. Research competitors and samples
1. Define target audience and S.M.A.R.T objectives

18. Employee Scheduling App

19. UNDERSTANDING YOUR TARGET
AUDIENCE AND SETTING S.M.A.R.T
OBJECTIVES

20. Sources:
Persona 101 – How to target your ideal customer www.invesp.com
Create Buyer Personas For Your Business www.hubspot.com
Creating Personas
• A detailed fictional character (much like a
movie character) to represent your customers
• Interview OR email customers/prospects to
define customer segments and patterns.
• Interview sales and customer care teams.
• Use a lead capture form on your website.

21. Name of Persona - SARA
Age - 32
Gender - Female
Income - $65,000/year
Location – Downtown Boston
Family – boyfriend, dog
Double Income No Kids (DINK)
Job title and career – Owner of
the Koala Café and Bistro
Previous banking project manager
Sample Persona - Sara

22. The Koala Café and Bistro located in downtown Boston
offers a unique twist to old time favorites with fresh local
ingredients.
Personality: Sara is calm and organized and loves to create a
warm and friendly environment in The Koala that is very
different from her previous corporate job.
Communication Preferences: Phone call during her
commute. Do not call during peak hours. Email for other
times of the day.
Trusted sources of information: Boston globe newspaper,
and small business websites.
Sample Persona - Sara

23. Goals
 To provide the best food and dining experience to customers
 To provide a great work environment for her 10 employees
 To grow the café’s business by getting more customers
Challenges
 Ensuring great customer service and food quality
 Managing front and back of the house and admin
 Managing supplier relationships
 Managing part time and full time staff
 Getting new customers during non-peak hours
Sample Persona - Sara

24. QUOTE
“Managing a restaurant requires attention to a
variety of different tasks, from checking the day’s
delivery of supplies to making your customers feel
welcome and making sure the team is doing what
they need to do and enjoying it.”
Sample Persona - Sara

25. Currently:
- Manually schedules shifts on whiteboard
- Manually texts and emails schedule to
employees
- Manually updates and messages any
changes
How ScheduleMaker can help Sara

26. ScheduleMaker saves admin time & effort:
 Weekly schedules entered online/app
 Integrated with the payroll system
 Automatic messaging to employees
 Instant access to weekly schedule
 Easily make time-off or shift changes
 Instantly notified of any schedule changes
How ScheduleMaker can help Sara

27. Common Objections to using ScheduleMaker
1. Many of my employees are students who only
work part-time and for a couple of months out of
the year, so I don’t want to pay software fees for
employees that I don’t have any more.
2. Some of my employees don’t have a smartphone.
3. I don’t have time to learn complicated software
and teach my team how to use it.
Sample Persona - Sara

28. Creating a Sample Persona - Sara
ScheduleMaker Marketing Messaging
 ScheduleMaker is an employee scheduling app used by
over 10000 small businesses like yours.
 Set up your account in minutes, enter your shift schedule
online and your team members will automatically get a
text or email notification.
 Employees can easily request schedule changes or time-off
through the app.
 There is no contract and you can easily add or remove
employees and you only pay for the employees you have.

29. Creating a Sample Persona - Sara
ScheduleMaker Elevator Pitch
ScheduleMaker is an easy to use employee
scheduling app used by over 10000 small businesses
like yours.

30. S.M.A.R.T Objectives for your website
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria
S
M
A
T
R
Specific
Measurable
Attainable/ Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound

31. How
ScheduleMaker Website Objectives
Long-term Goal:
To double our customer base in the next 5
years.
Main Objective:
To get 20 new signups in the next month.

32. 
S.M.A.R.T Objectives for your website
Specific?
Measurable?
Attainable?
Time-bound?
Relevant?



33. 
Is this objective attainableAttainable?
2,000 free trial signups  20 new paid signups
(at a 1% conversion rate i.e. 1 out of 100 free trials buy)

2,000 free trial signups x .01 = 20 new paid signups
Calculation

34. 
Is this objective attainableAttainable?
200,000 website visitors  2,000 free trial signups
(at a 1% conversion rate i.e. 1 out of 100 visitors sign up for a free
trial)

200,000 website visitors x .01 = 2,000 free trial signups
Calculation

35. 
Is this objective attainableAttainable?
IF:
• Average of 170,000 to 190,000 website
visitors per month
• Average conversion rate is 1%
THEN: YES! This objective is attainable.

36. 
Is this objective attainableAttainable?
IF:
• Average of 2,000 website visitors per
month
• Average conversion rate is 1%
THEN: NO! This objective is not attainable.
ASSUME:
• Projected - 200,000 website visitors per
month

37. 
S.M.A.R.T Objectives for your website
Specific?
Measurable?
Attainable?
Time-bound?
Relevant?






38. How
ScheduleMaker Website Objectives
Long-term Goal:
To double our customer base in the next 5 years.
Main Objective:
To get 20 new signups in the next month.
(2,000 free trial signups and => at least 200,000
unique visitors to our website)

39. RESEARCHING COMPETITORS AND
SAMPLES AND CREATING A SWIPE
FILE

40. *Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swipe_file
Benefits of a Swipe File
• A collection of tested marketing and
advertising collateral including websites,
emails, sales letters, headlines, designs, etc.*
• A great resource for different tactics that have
been tested and proven to work in the past.
• Used by marketers, designers, writers and
entrepreneurs.

44. BRAINSTORMING AND SKETCHING
YOUR WIREFRAME

50. BRIEFING MEETING CHEAT SHEET

51. About you:
• What do you do?
• How long have you been doing it?
• What challenges are you facing?
• What is the competition like?
Objectives: What do you want to achieve?
Personas: Who is your customer?
Briefing Meeting Cheat Sheet

52. Scope: Review wireframes
Project Details:
• Time frame
• Budget
• What you like
• What you don’t like
Briefing Meeting Cheat Sheet

53. ALWAYS BE TESTING
“Your Hunch is
Probably Wrong” -
Distilled

54. WRAP UP & Q&A’s

55. How to Create a Website That
Doesn’t Suck

56. Think strategically about what
you want to achieve
S.M.A.R.T Objectives

57. Think about your audience -
Personas

58. Look at what’s out there –
Market and Competition swipe
file

59. Create a wireframe

60. Solid briefing meeting

61. ALWAYS BE TESTING

62. For 50% off in-depth online
course:
How to Create a Website that
Doesn’t Suck
danasalman1@gmail.com