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New venture Website, Looking for feedback

Jaden Jones

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As i mentioned before, I have partnered with a friend to help him launch his business idea. We have now completed all the legal stuff and are looking to start booking work. Since this is our first website, I wanted to get some feedback before we proceed. Because we will be targeting businesses, I really want us to look professional. I am looking for feedback from the group as I know everyone will be brutally honest with me.

Raceline Media|Automotive Photography|Calgary
 
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NC Bidniss

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As i mentioned before, I have partnered with a friend to help him launch his business idea. We have now completed all the legal stuff and are looking to start booking work. Since this is our first website, I wanted to get some feedback before we proceed. Because we will be targeting businesses, I really want us to look professional. I am looking for feedback from the group as I know everyone will be brutally honest with me.

Raceline Media|Automotive Photography|Calgary

I think you're off to a good start. Your website is modern and attractive. However, there are some things missing. First of all, it isn't clear what product or service you provide. I can assume that you provide photos and videos of cars for a fee, but that's it. Your website should be very clear about the precisely what you provide to the market.

You also need more actionable elements front and center in your site. Rather than displaying the buttons "dealers", "motorsports", and "private", you should display things like "services" and "our portfolio". Your ultimate goal is to get people to call or email you, and your website does not set a clear path to that goal, other than a slightly transparent, small "contact" button. It would be best if you set up an RFP form built into your contact page rather than simply listing your personal emails. Also, you should setup a "catch-all" email for your primary form of contact. Something like "info@racelinemedia.ca". You also don't have any phone number listed, and I would recommend that you do. Answering services are cheap if you need a good way to screen calls.

Another point: where are you? People looking for your service aren't going to want to fly someone in from 1,500 miles away, but rather find someone closer. Your website makes no indication of where you are or the areas you service. Perhaps you wanted to be vague, but I would advise against that.

Lastly: what value does your service add? Why should someone hire you? It would be a good idea for you to be able to answer that question before people even get the chance to ask it. Provide evidence that your service adds value to your customers above "our work looks neat", and you will find it much easier to gain clients. Lets say I owned a car dealership. If you could show that your photos/videos can increase my sales volume by 10% and/or allow me to sell my cars for 10% more, I could do a simple calculation to determine what my ROI would be if I paid for your service. If your service costs me more than it's worth, then there's no reason for me to hire you.

Altogether I think you're on the right track. Keep in mind that the industry you are entering is highly competitive. To be competitive in any industry, you have to at least be cheaper, better, or more convenient/faster. If you can't provide your service in any of those regards, you need to change something or quit altogether. Good luck!
 

Patrick Jones

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There is a huge black area at the top (missing a hero image?) and the RLM icon below it is not sharp.

The general "blandness" of the site doesn't look professional to me (nor appealing).
 

Jaden Jones

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There is a huge black area at the top (missing a hero image?) and the RLM icon below it is not sharp.

The general "blandness" of the site doesn't look professional to me (nor appealing).

There is a video that plays there, not sure why its not loading for you.
 
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minivanman

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While it wasn't really impressive, I did like the 1st part of the video where the lights on the Mustang came on. There should be a few more cars in the video where the lights come on.... not blink, come on. Bad ending to the video by the way.... professional video person but not professional editor? :eek:

I agree with NC Bidness and, once you go to the Motorsports page, the only way to get to another page is to go back or scroll to the bottom. All pages should have buttons that will lead you to other pages at the top.

The site is focused on newer sports cars, any reason to not include old cars? Just wondering....
 

Jaden Jones

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While it wasn't really impressive, I did like the 1st part of the video where the lights on the Mustang came on. There should be a few more cars in the video where the lights come on.... not blink, come on. Bad ending to the video by the way.... professional video person but not professional editor? :eek:

I agree with NC Bidness and, once you go to the Motorsports page, the only way to get to another page is to go back or scroll to the bottom. All pages should have buttons that will lead you to other pages at the top.

The site is focused on newer sports cars, any reason to not include old cars? Just wondering....

Thanks, this is very hepful. We just havent done a lot of old cars yet. Our main customer is going to be new car dealers as well, so we want to show up mostly new cars. Also the lights are not blinking they are just on, with certain types of lights they flash when on, just too fast for the human eye to see. But because of the frame rate of the camera, it makes them look like they are flashing. We havent figured out how to fix this.
 

NC Bidniss

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Thanks, this is very hepful. We just havent done a lot of old cars yet. Our main customer is going to be new car dealers as well, so we want to show up mostly new cars. Also the lights are not blinking they are just on, with certain types of lights they flash when on, just too fast for the human eye to see. But because of the frame rate of the camera, it makes them look like they are flashing. We havent figured out how to fix this.

Is there a post processing tool that can fix the infamous LED blink? If not, can you make one? That tool alone could be worth far more money than your service. The LED light blinking is something you even see on high-budget productions like The Grand Tour and Top Gear, and they would probably pay a pretty penny to have an easy remedy.
 
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minivanman

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I didn't mind the blinking, you just rarely, if ever, see the lights come ON.... as in if the person in the car turns on the switch. Does that make sense?

Dealers, I gotcha, I thought you was more focusing on the person that wanted to sell their car in Auto Trader, I didn't realize you were focusing on dealers..... your fault for not telling me on the sight ;)
 

NMdad

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Do you need to keep polishing the website, or do you need to call prospective clients?

Maybe fix issues A & B with the website, then start calling prospects? Will prospects realistically even look at your site?
 

Jaden Jones

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Do you need to keep polishing the website, or do you need to call prospective clients?

Maybe fix issues A & B with the website, then start calling prospects? Will prospects realistically even look at your site?

Technically our next step is start calling clients, however Im very sure they will check out our website after speaking to us. So I want it to look as good as possible. I dont want to burn a potential client over something silly on the website.
 
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Timmy C

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I haven't read the other comments but the black seems to dominate the page which i do not like at all,your home,about and contact buttons at the top are also hard to find even though they are right there.

The dealer, motorsports and private buttons doesn't show the entire button on my monitor either some of the botton is cut off, i would get rid of the black or at least have less of it at the top so the page doesn't look so plain and boring.

Doesn't look terrible just my thoughts.
 

NC Bidniss

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I haven't read the other comments but the black seems to dominate the page which i do not like at all,your home,about and contact buttons at the top are also hard to find even though they are right there.

The dealer, motorsports and private buttons doesn't show the entire button on my monitor either some of the botton is cut off, i would get rid of the black or at least have less of it at the top so the page doesn't look so plain and boring.

Doesn't look terrible just my thoughts.

The black portion is supposed to be an autoplay video/gif, but it apparently is not working for some people.
 
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rwhyan

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The video wasn't working for me either, but my browser and adblocker had blocked the autoplay which prevented the video from showing.

I think you should the above-the-fold to be a two column section. Left side: headline text and CTA. Right side: regular video player that autoplays (allow player controls so that if a browser stops autoplay, they can still click on the video to watch it).

But I agree, prospects are more important that your website. Talk to people.
 

Jaden Jones

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The video wasn't working for me either, but my browser and adblocker had blocked the autoplay which prevented the video from showing.

I think you should the above-the-fold to be a two column section. Left side: headline text and CTA. Right side: regular video player that autoplays (allow player controls so that if a browser stops autoplay, they can still click on the video to watch it).

But I agree, prospects are more important that your website. Talk to people.

What browser are you using?
 

AF77

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I would buy three domains. Each very similar but with a different target customer. In your emails and calls give the short domain to whichever customer it is made for, and have it bring up the page targeted at them.
And add the video to be top of all three of those pages.

This is simply a web redirect to a specific page from a short url ( domain).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Jaden Jones

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rwhyan

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Never heard of it...
Is it popular?
It's basically Google Chrome with a built in adblocker and some other unique features. I can guarantee you that your video not playing is an issue with adblockers/browsers stopping the autoplay.
 

Roli

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As i mentioned before, I have partnered with a friend to help him launch his business idea. We have now completed all the legal stuff and are looking to start booking work. Since this is our first website, I wanted to get some feedback before we proceed. Because we will be targeting businesses, I really want us to look professional. I am looking for feedback from the group as I know everyone will be brutally honest with me.

Raceline Media|Automotive Photography|Calgary

Hi Jaden, I've looked at the site and a number of things jump out at me which I'll detail below.

Home Page:

Good - Really nice visually captivating video

Bad - Does not say what it is you do.
Video load time is too long.
Top left menu is not immediately noticeable.
The three buttons along bottom are not obvious until you click on the buttons

Solutions:

- Make a captivating and prominent strapline to appear across the video, along the lines of RLM The Place To Be For Automotive Media (That's pretty bad, but you get my point)

- Optimise video so it starts and plays easier.

- Make menu on left either bigger, or place in middle(ish) of screen

- Add a transparent grey (or whatever colour you like) sheen over the video, that way it can still be played, and layered on text can be read easily.

- Add the word 'for' in front of the words of the buttons, so For Dealers, For Motorsport For Private, or another word or term that makes it obvious.

About Page:

My first impressions with this page is it is not as visually impressive as your home page.

Secondly the line; Raceline Media is a Calgary based visual content provider specializing in the automotive and aerospace industries. leaves me a bit confused, because I'm not sure whether you are providing this media for anyone who's interested, or you are targeting the automotive and aerospace industries.

You assume that the reader is going to know who or what Barrett Jackson, and Jeff Gordon are. I understand that your target audience will probably know that info, however it's best not to assume this.

Solutions:

- You need some nice pictures here in the background, use the same 'tint' style I've suggested for the homepage, and have some pics in the background, or maybe some kind of gallery, you need to keep the wow factor of the first page!

- Be more specific in your content, the about page is where a lot of people will make contact/purchasing decisions, make it easy for them.

- Explain what Barrett Jackson is, as in; we even got to visit ______ Barrett Jackson and met the legendary ________ Jeff Gordon.

- Explain exactly who you see your clients as, then link to the three types of client from that page.

Contact Page:

This seriously lets you down.

- The emails and the names are misaligned.

- The term co-creator is confusing, especially as you don't have a 'creator'.

- No phone number does not look good.

Solutions:

- Align the names and emails.

- Change co-creator to something less confusing, yet descriptive. (I think it's also jarring because you have used the CEO and CFO initialism yet you go for a full word for this one.)

- Get a phone number and put it on there, even if you hire out a 1-800 number and it goes to an answerphone, it's better than nothing.

Footer Menu/Buttons:

The dealer page needs to have some immediate examples of how an ad might look in situ, so use one of your amazing shots and mock up an autotrader ad or something. In fact do a few and have them as a slow slideshow menu.

Motorsports needs some content, even if you keep the, coming soon, at least give us a flavour of what you actually mean here... I'm even wondering if you need it at all, and you should maybe have that as a separate site, as there is congruence between a pro car dealer and a private car seller, but not so much with a pro racing team.

Private: as with the Dealer page, you need to mock up some ads and/or any other scenarios you expect your private clients to be using your services.

General Notes:

- Identify what a conversion is for you - is it someone contacting you? Or maybe it's someone purchasing straightaway, which brings us onto the next one:

- You need a 'buy now' button, you must assume that a percentage of your clients, understand what you offer and simply want to buy. (I realise you do lots of different packages, however you need to capture clients who are in a buying frame of mind, therefore you need some kind of price/package list).

- Use one or more of your nice pics as background images for all your pages, this will tie the site together and keep that premium feel that you've worked so hard for on your homepage. Just remember to use the tint style so that you don't have text directly on the image(s). For an example of what I'm on about, check OmniFood which is a dummy site, however has the tint style on the main image and at the very bottom of the site.

Also the way they do the little 'popouts' when you mouse over the food pics in the third section is something you might want to copy or approximate.

- You need to have 'contact us' in a few more prominent places.

- The top menu is too subtle for the first page, however it goes missing for the subsequent pages, white lettering on light grey background might work if the text was bigger, however I'd drop this scheme altogether if I were you I'd make the text darker and larger.

- You need a version of the top menu at the bottom so that you don't have to scroll back up to find it.

Conclusion:

Good home page, nice captivating images, need to use those images throughout the rest of the site, make menus more prominent and meaningful. Get clear call to action buttons throughout the site.

Nice job!

That's it for now, happy to answer any questions regarding the above, and if I see anything else I'll post again.
 

Roli

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People still use firefox??

According to this: Usage share of web browsers - Wikipedia, 15 million people.

Make sure your site is optimised for Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge/Explorer, oh and of course Safari (as annoying as that is).

And just in case, I'll state the absolute obvious here, make sure it works properly on mobile and pad...
 
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Autoplay is a no-no. You risk accessibility issues, on top of what everyone else posted in the thread. Use a modal popup instead.

Or, if your programmer is skilled enough, have some javascript animations and functions.

On click play, fade the info and play button to the side somewhere.

On hover, show pause button + audio controls if there is audio.

On click pause, fade in the info and controls.

You need the headline b/c visitors need to know what you're about in less than 3 seconds.

upload_2019-3-11_15-0-8.png

Also check the video on 4:3 monitor, and other resolutions. You get black bars, which doesn't contrast well with your logo.

Use an .svg vector logo with a png fallback, so it stays crisp and professional.
 

Roli

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I can guarantee you that your video not playing is an issue with adblockers/browsers stopping the autoplay.

Hmm, I have adblockers but the video played fine for me...

If this is an issue, you need to get on it fast, that video is responsible for the feel of the site, so v. important!
 

Roli

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Autoplay is a no-no. You risk accessibility issues, on top of what everyone else posted in the thread. Use a modal popup instead.

Or, if your programmer is skilled enough, have some javascript animations and functions.

On click play, fade the info and play button to the side somewhere.

On hover, show pause button + audio controls if there is audio.

On click pause, fade in the info and controls.

You need the headline b/c visitors need to know what you're about in less than 3 seconds.

View attachment 23980

Also check the video on 4:3 monitor, and other resolutions. You get black bars, which doesn't contrast well with your logo.

Use an .svg vector logo with a png fallback, so it stays crisp and professional.

^^^^^
This... I would add, put a tint over that image so that the text can be read easily (I'm tint obsessed!)
 
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Jaden Jones

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Im so glad I made this thread, this is amazing feedback! We will make some changes tonight and Ill repost once we have made them.
 

rogue synthetic

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Same issue with the Big Black Square, though the video loaded after I clicked back over. This is Firefox 66 on Ubuntu, script-blocked to hell and back.

I agree with the others -- I have no idea what this site is about when I first land. You need more headline and more detail to orient somebody that drops into this page.

I don't actually mind the autoplay video in the background as long as there's no sound to it, but it would be worth (1) loading a fallback image so that it doesn't show up as a yawning abyss with no video, and (2) dialing up the opacity on the overlay to tone it down a little...which will also help with text visibility.

1: Your theme is loading the video as an iframe:

HTML:
<div class="sqs-video-background content-fill" data-config-url="https://youtu.be/foVpKDuXOao" data-config-playback-speed="1" data-config-filter="" data-config-filter-strength="">
   
    <!-- iframe loads here -->

  </div>


If you've got enough flexibility with the loader, you can change this to the HTML5 video tag, something like:

HTML:
    <video loop="loop" muted="muted" autoplay="autoplay" poster="your_fallback_image.jpg" class="background-video">
      <source src="https://youtu.be/foVpKDuXOao">
    </video>

which will get you a static image to fill in the Big Black Box while the video loads, or if it doesn't.

The HTML5 code is easier to deal with but you might still need some JS to make it work across browsers.

2: To change the overlay opacity, in your CSS file add this rule:

Code:
.banner-thumbnail-wrapper .color-overlay, {
   background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);  
}

The fourth value in the rgba is what you want to fiddle with to adjust the opacity.
 
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Knugs

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To give you really good advise for your website, we need to understand what your Business is about and how you aim to make sales.
 

Jaden Jones

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To give you really good advise for your website, we need to understand what your Business is about and how you aim to make sales.

Here is the business model:

Auto dealers currently take their own photos (or in some cases reuse photos) to post online to sell. These photos are generally taken on cellphones and dont really stand out.

We offer a service that takes these photos for them, with pro cameras and editing. We charge per car or dealers can contract for a monthly price for all of their cars. Dealers have also started doing walkaround videos and higher end photo shoots on their websites for some higher margin vehicles. We do those as well.

We have proven the model and pricing is something desirable, its just making sure we look as pro as possible.
 

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