At a recent networking event, I met a really interesting couple who have a virtual office services company based in Croydon.  They have been in operation for a year and most of their business consists of bookkeeping for small businesses and accountants.  They have  a lot of interesting ideas for taking their business forward but have neglected one important part of their marketing repertoire - their website!  During the course of our

conversation where we were talking about how important it is to keep your website current (hmm, notice the laziness on my part with the Springmedia blog recently :-S) they shamefacedly told me that even though their business cards proudly advertise a website address, they don’t actually have a website.   Not only that, they don’t even have a holding page, so anyone that types in their URL, which they are proudly publicising on their business cards, is going to find a page cannot be displayed page. 

 There can be no positive message that this sends to potential clients and customers.  People that type in their URL are either going to think:

1.  that they are not aware that their website is down
2.  that they have gone out of business
3.  that they don’t take their business seriously

They will almost certainly have lost potential business through this oversight and while I can understand that a website can be a big expense for a small business, in todays competitive marketplace, it is crazy to not put some form of presence on the internet.  

 For a business like this I would recommend a phased approach. 

Branded holding page

First thing they need to do is put a branded holding page up.  This page should follow their existing colour scheme and branding and list the basic services that they have on offer along with an email address and phone number.  And in my opinion they should do this immediately, they urgently need to get something up there to avoid the above consequences.  We have created a similar page for Mira Britton, a reflexologist and beauty therapist based in Ashtead, Surrey. 

Simple website

Secondly they should think about their objectives for their website, both short and long term.  They can then discuss these with their web designer and put up a simple brochure site with navigation to their services, price list, contact details and client testimonials.  These pages should be optimised to be competitive for a search in their local marketplace such as book keeping in Croydon.

Dynamic content

Thirdly they can think about dynamic areas that they can include on their website including articles, news and events.  They can also use the website to accept payment and have a newsletter section to keep in touch with changes in their industry which will help their positioning as experts in their field.

Project management

Fourthly they can now develop their ideas about how they can use the internet to develop their business by having client and associate areas on the website.  These would help them manage their projects by offering up to the minute information on progress, documentation, and a section where clients could download their accounts information.

I would suggest a one year plan for this type of development.  The benefit of this will mean that they can see what is working for them and improve the site accordingly.  They can also budget for the development over a year which will help spread the cost and make it much more manageable.  By taking a phased approach and also knowing where it is that they want the business to be, they will be able to avoid re-working the design and the navigation too much as the site can be built with that growth in mind. 

 If this type of web project is of interest to you, please call Springmedia on 0800 035 2650.

How fast is 50 milliseconds? The blink of an eye? A flash of lightening?  That is how long you have to make an impression on your customers that visit your website.  A Canadian study given in 2005 asked some volunteers to rate a website after only seeing them for 50 milliseconds.  The researchers then discovered that the conclusions that were formed in that quick initial assessment were validated in a longer review of the site.  So, almost as quickly as the eye can see it, a judgement is made on how good your website is. 

I had a call today from a woman that has been very successful selling second hand clothes on ebay, making up to £500 per week which is fantastic.  She’s now thinking that she would like to translate her ebay business into an online store that is seperate and bespoke from ebay.  While I think this a great idea, she really needs to consider the costs and effort that will be involved in making this transfer from ebay to real world.

 The benefits of staying with ebay

• The first issue that she will need to take into account is that ebay already has an enormous customer base that she is benefiting from, it will be hard work to generate the same type of traffic to her own site
• The storefront is familiar and ready made, she doesn’t need to worry about merchant services or storefront design
• The review functionality makes her a trusted source to her customers, so she doesn’t need to persuade them that she is a legitimate business

Disadvantages of staying with ebay

• Ebay have the relationship with the customer, though it is possible for her to start building this on her own
• Cost, it costs her the listing fees each time she puts an item on the shelf, this is a real issue if an item doesn’t sell

The benefits of setting up her own store

• She will be able to develop her own brand and customer loyalty, building her own relationship with her customers
• She won’t be competing directly and immediately with every other seller in her niche area
• It will be her own business, with assets and value attached to it

The disadvantages of setting up her own store

• Cost, cost, cost - everything costs when setting up an online business.  The domain, the logo / branding, the online store, the hosting, the advertising.  Even the free stuff costs in time, even if not in money
• Finding and pulling customers to a website is hard work - she really needs to understand how to get her business listed organically for her niche products and build the site accordingly (luckily for her she is a journalist so at least has the writing skills to submit articles)

Her biggest problem at the moment though is that she doesn’t know what she doesn’t know.  She needs to pull together a business plan, marketing plan (both real world and internet), set a budget and targets so that she can figure out where to go from here.

It can be difficult to know where to begin when you want to update your website.  You know that the animated logo in bright pink isn’t doing you any favours but don’t really know where to start when thinking about how you can improve.  Before you write a word of copy or think about the graphics and images you need to do some research. 

Identify the purpose of your site:  Who is your target market and why do they come to your site.  Are they coming to to find out more about what you do?  Are they coming to buy products?  Will most of your traffic be directed by you or do you want to be found using keywords and phrases through the search engines.  Do you want to build a community, earn money through advertising, build a blog, use it as a portfolio of your products /services.  There are many ways you can use your site effectively for your business, what do you want it to do for you?  And more importantly what can you put on the site that is going to convert a visitor to a customer.

Identify the purpose of the update: Do you want to drive more traffic? do you want a better design? do you want to add more content? do you want to change the focus of your content?

Use what you’ve already got:  Go through your website statistics and identify where your existing visitors are going and how they got there ie did they type in your URL, come via search engine (if so which ones ), what search terms did they use to get to you.  Which pages are the most popular, how long are your visitors spending on  your site.

What is your competition doing?  Visit your competition and see what is working for them.  Use different business related search terms and see who is landing at the top, think about why that might be as you visit their site.  Identify what you like and what you don’t and think about what you can put on your site that is as good or better than theirs.

What are people doing in other industries that you can use on your site:  We are all using the internet so much these days, odds are you are visiting sites that you think are really useful and effective, what can you take from other industries / sector websites that might work on your site.

These are only a few of the things you should do before you start planning or building a website.  I will be covering more of the process in later posts.

Exactly 1 year ago today I visited a potential client to bid on a project to update a website.  I didn’t win the business as they decided to go with a local web design company, but it looks like I was saved from what could have been a very long and drawn out project. Today their website remains unchanged from the one they had last year. I have been told that the design has now been agreed (I would hope so after 12 months!) but the design company has other commitments that they need to fulfill before they can start building the new site.

So what went wrong? My guess is that the key decision maker wasn’t involved early enough or engaged in the process. This is a common problem when building or updating a web site, and can also be very costly in the long run. It is clear that the website has not been a priority for this organization, and undoubtedly it has cost them, not just in terms of the cost of the design, but also the resource cost and reputation cost. People expect a lot from a website, and ones that are old and outdated are going to disappoint.  The moral of the story?  Get the key decision maker involved early, make sure they are committed to the project and save time, money and aggravation!