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>Ideas Are Free This page is periodically updated by our Marketing Department. Stop by from time to time and see what's new. To save you the trouble of trying to figure out what you have read and what is new, we mark each new entry with a New! flag. After 30 days the flag comes off. By the way, you are free to copy our ideas and use them if you wish. Click On A Topic Below To Navigate To That Area: >Build Mapping Mashups For Your Customers >Cutting Through The Search Engine Fog >Don't Always Listen To What Web Developers Tell You >Designing Your Websites So They Work >Integrating Your Web Systems With Your Back Office Systems
Build Mapping Mashups For Your Customers
Cutting Through The Search Engine Fog Everyone is trying to figure out how search engines, bots and spiders work and how to optimize their site for them. In this section we post our thoughts about how you can get search engines to smile at your site too: Making Friends With Web Bots: Optimizing your site for search engines is not an art, it's a science. That is, to succeed, you don't have to be born with a skill in search engine optimization, you can learn it... or hire someone that has it. Best of all, the learning curve isn't steep, since for all practical purposes there are only two ways you can work with a search engine: 1) optimize your site for a "natural search", or 2) pay for sponsored keywords. Obviously, you should do both. To optimize your site for natural searches, all you need do is build a well thought out, clean, natural site, and then "tag" each page truthfully. It's really that simple, and it's never too late to do these things. Get started now. You'll be surprised at how quickly your website ranking will improve. This Sunday, instead of watching TV, spend some time making a list of the pages on your site. Each page should have one theme or primary topic. Make a list of your themes. If you find a page has more than one theme, then rewrite it so that that page's content is focused on only one theme. Not too good at writing? Then do what you did in high school: keep your sentences short and organize your paragraphs around one sub-topic that relates to that page's theme. As for tagging your pages, search each page's wording and make a list of what you think the key words are for that page. Cross reference each key word list to the page it applies to. After you have a list of keywords for each page, check to see that each page's list of key words is different from the list of words for the other pages on your site. If they aren't, try to rewrite the content of your pages so that you have a bigger variety of key words, with each page being somewhat different from the others. If this proves difficult, don't worry about it, instead, focus on getting your new list of key words inserted into each page's "meta tags". Meta tags are nothing more than lists of common things that you want to make known to search engines. They appear at the top of each page, hidden in that page's HTML code. When a search engine lands on your page, it reads the meta tags first to find out what that page is about, then it scans the actual content of the page to see if you are telling the truth or not (well, sort of...). If you're lying (such as having content that is pornographic while your meta tags list content about banking and finance), you run the risk of the search engine classifying your website as a spam site and blacklisting it. That's why the meta tag list for each page should match the actual content on that page. Meta tags include things like a description of the site, author, copyright information, key words and more. To get your meta tags to match your new key word list, when Monday comes, send the new copy you created above, and the cross referenced list of key words, to your web developer. Ask him/her to update each page's content, as well as the "meta tags" for that page. Tell them to be certain that they match each key word list to the page it came from. Once you have done this, sit back and watch your natural search ranking go up. Simple, huh? Learning how to use sponsored keywords to increase your site ranking is even easier: assign the responsibility for ad word management to one of your staff, tell them that from this point forward it is part of their job, instruct him/her to spend two hours on Google's AdWords site reading how the AdWord program works, give them a small budget (if you're a small company, start with $100 a month until you see what the outcome is) and then ask them to report on the results in two weeks. What's the best way to learn how AdWords work? The following link will tell them everything they need to know: http://adwords.google.com. After the first month, instruct them to learn how Microsoft's AdCenter works, and then the next month, learn how Yahoo's Search Marketing works. As they learn about each program, have them spread the budget you gave them between the various programs (the norm is: spend 28.8% of your budget on Google, 35.6% on MSN and 35.6% on Yahoo. Why? Because Google is more effective, you can spend less money there and get the same result as you would with the others). See, there's no need to hire an expert, not even us. You can do it all yourself. Don't Always Listen To What Web Developers Tell You Yes, web developers like us serve a purpose... but no, we are not all knowing. Like all business people, the advice we give is based on our education, past experiences, biases and more. Here are a few cases where you should not listen to web developers: Developing 'Bespoke' eCommerce Sites: Don't do it. Have your web developer use an off-the-shelf development program. The plain truth is that most web developers enjoy playing around with new technologies, and will be happy to do it on your dollar. Don't let them. Every time a web developer tells you they need to build something from scratch, ask them why a commercial product won't work. In our experience (over 20 years at this) 95% of all companies can get 80% of the functionality they need off of standard, off-the-shelf applications. Since commercial products usually cost less than 30% of the cost of a bespoke development, and since they almost always work the way they are advertised, why bother paying the extra costs for a productivity gain of less than 20%? Unless your company really, really needs it in order to hold its place in the marketplace or stop from going out of business, don't bother chasing that last 20% increase in productivity. Instead, take the time to learn what the depth and breadth is in terms of functional capabilities of the available off-the-shelf applications, and then adjust your company's business processes to match those, instead of building custom applications that match your own processes. Trust us, there is a time and place for bespoke development, but it is not in those areas where professional application development companies have been producing commercial products for anything greater than 5 years. Want an example? Look at Actinic® (www.actinic.co/uk/webstore). Actinic makes a superb eCommerce solution, with far more capabilities than most developers even know how to make use of. Why pay someone to try to imitate a product like this when you can buy it the way it comes, implement it in less than 2 weeks, and save 70% or more on the cost of bespoke development. And no, Actinic does not pay us to say these things. In fact, I'll bet they never even heard of us. VoIP and IPTV... Phew, Who Needs Them... This is another one of those areas where Web 2.0 developers like to recommend you spend your hard earned profits in a vain attempt to generate more sales leads. Forget about it. Unless you have a unique need to help your customers communicate with each other or your 'clients' then forget it... VoIP and IPTV won't make you any money. Where would it be useful? In cases where a health care provider has a group of doctors that need to hold weekly online sessions with their patients it would be useful. Cases like Cosmetic Surgeons who want to keep in touch with their patients and mine their patient base for new customers comes to mind. It would work there. But unless your customers need to hear from professionals on a periodic basis, it's not needed. You can do the same with Chat Rooms and moderated User Groups. For the average company VoIP and IPTV is an expense that is simply not needed. Web Developers Are Geeks, Not Lawyers or Business People: Don't blindly follow their advice. Make sure either you or they know what laws you need to adhere to via your online presence, and make sure you adhere to them. If you're not sure, have your lawyer draw up a simple two page report that clearly states what you expect your developer to do to insure that you don't fall afoul of the law. It doesn't need to be a contract, but it should certainly be a guideline. Not sure what we are talking about here... then it's even more critical that you do business with developers that understand the law. Let's take a couple of examples: 1) the US firmly regulates what you can do with health information you learn about your customers. Violate this law and you could find yourself wearing a striped suit. If you are a doctor, nurse, nutritionist, company that sells health food products or anyone anywhere near the healthcare industry (e.g. a retail furniture store that sells lounge chairs to people with back pains...), make sure your web developer knows as much about HIPAA compliance as we do and your lawyer does; 2) doing business in Europe or among the UK's Commonwealth of Nations are you? Then worry about the Data Protection Act, the Companies Act, Customs & Excise tax acts, Disability Discrimination Act, and Sale of Goods Act. All of these and more impact how and what you can do on the internet... and they all have their equivalent in the US and nearly every other country around the world. See, and you thought we were just geeks. Now you know why our rates are as high as they are. Still, unless you are involved in internet gambling or the like, wouldn't you rather stay on the right side of the law than the wrong side? Us too. Designing Your Websites So They Work Notice that in the header above we said "Websites" not "Website". Plural... not singular. I'll bet you figured there was a reason for this, right? Understand Your Online Market: How can you be effective at selling online if you don't know who your buyers are? And how can you sell to more than one type of buyer with only one market presence? No, your online buyers are not the same people who buy from you in your bricks-and-mortar store. Take a simple example: a specialty retail clothing store that sells men's clothes: do you know women are 38% more likely than men to buy Christmas presents online, and 55% more likely to do all of their shopping online?[2] Well, if you did, then you might design your online men's clothing store so that it appealed to women instead of men. No cute pictures of skimpily clad women fawning over male models... instead appeal to what women want to see. The easiest way to learn what and where your market is is to ask your Sales or Marketing Department to search online and gather statistics on web usage for every buying group you serve. Don't worry if they can't make heads or tails out of the numbers they gather. Just have them gather the stats; it'll save you a fortune when it comes to working with people like us. Once you have the data, ask the web development company you work with to analyze it and present you with a formal report stating how the solution they are proposing aligns with your statistics. If they can't do so, well... then I guess you know how effective the website they design for you will be, right? Don't Think You Need An Online Store? How about this: in the 10 weeks leading up to Christmas each adult who buys online spends an average of $350.[3] If it costs you $23,000 to build an online eCommerce store, how long do you think it will take for you to make your money back? Assuming an average non-web sales volume 1,500 units per month during the holiday season, it'll take you about 2.7 weeks to break even. To find out what your breakeven point is during the off-season, divide 2.7 weeks by the % difference in unit sales between peak season and off-peak. Do the ads you place in your local newspaper pay for themselves that quickly? How about radio ads? Is there anything that offers you as quick a payback as an online store? Why Do You Need An Online Store If You're A Service Company and Don't Have Retail Products? Every customer of yours needs something in the form of a retail product to fulfill the buying experience associated with your services. For example, if you are a dermatologist then your customers need ointments and salves. If you are a nutritionist, then they need cookbooks. If you are a lawyer, then they need simple legal documents like rental agreements that you have no right to be charging them $300 an hour for anyway... put these document on your website, in a small retail area, and offer them for free to your regular customers. Worried about the legal risk of giving away plain vanilla legal documents? Oh come on, you are a lawyer, aren't you? Write a disclaimer and make anyone who downloads the document "opt in" to say they understand the risk before they can download it. How does someone qualify to be a regular customer? Gee, that's easy: have them send you an eMail registering as one... and then put them on your monthly eNewsletter mailing list. You do have a monthly eNewsletter, don't you? How Can You Turn The Web Version Of Today's Gorilla Marketing Craze To Your Advantage? Gorilla marketing was all the rage a few years back, and still is in places like Los Angeles and Hollywood. Out in Dubuque though, it seems like sales purists have forsaken it for traditional marketing techniques. What they are missing is that it still works, even in Dubuque... and it works especially well on the web. Don't believe us? What do you think YouTube® is all about? Yes... it is an advertising platform. But it works because its users flock to the site due to traditional impulse buying forces like those associated with Gorilla marketing. You too can use these techniques to your advantage. How? Look, let's face it, people like to get things for free. Web people in particular think that everything on the web is for free... so they readily pirate MP3 music, steal JPEG and BMP images, plagiarize content for their college reports and more. All you have to do is assign someone in your Marketing Department to produce a monthly video that everyone will want to steal... and then let them steal it. Let them upload it to YouTube. Let them send it to their friends. In fact, make it easy for them to send it to their friends by putting a button under the video that says "Steal This!" Of course, make sure that the button also places a cookie on their computer and tracks the eMail address of the people they send your video to... and then market your products to these people. How do you know the people stealing stuff from your web site need your products or services? Aw come on, if you manufacture dental implants, why would these people be on your site looking at dental implants in the first place if they didn't have some reason for going there? Don't have a Marketing Department to produce a monthly video catchy enough to make people want to steal it? Call us. Remember? We build market stimulation platforms. All Customer Feedback Is Good Feedback: Haven't asked your customers what they think of your company lately? What are you afraid of? The very, very best way to engender customer loyalty is to ask your customers what they think of your company/products/services... and let all of them see you doing it. Do it on the web. Put a "Comment Section" or "Customer Feedback" section on your site and make it public. Let people see some of your customers lambasting you... and let them see how gracefully and professionally you deal with it and move mountains to satisfy that 1-in-1000 person who will complain about you no matter what you do. Most people will feel sympathy for you and go out of their way to not only support you but also send new business your way. Those few who revel in causing havoc, well, remember, you are in charge of the web site. Just have someone in Marketing moderate your customer feedback "boards" and delete any entries that don't comply with your company's public comment policy. You do have a public comment policy, don't you? Gosh, I guess there's another opportunity for us to help you out. We Already Have A Company Newsletter We Send Out To Customers, Do I Need A Customer Blog Too? Yup. You sure do. Traditional printed Newsletters are fine, but they are time consuming to produce, expensive, and tend to get thrown away when they arrive. Blogs are easier to produce and can offer benefits Newsletters can't. First, your customers can search the content. Second, they can save them without having to clutter up their home. Third, you can build custom content for each of the various types of audiences you have. You did know that your customer base can be broken down into different "audience segments", didn't you? Why use a shotgun type of marketing approach when you can target individual customers? Fourth, you can use an RSS feed to allow your customers to subscribe to the specific kind of information they are interested in... like product discounts, sales, updates and the like. Fifth, the content in your Blog will increase your search engine (i.e. Google et al) ranking. Blogs are hot for a reason. Don't fight them... join the revolution. If things change, well, you can change too. Right now the idea is to get your message out to more people, interest them in your company, and incent them to make a buying decision. Blogs can do that and more. Integrating Your Web Systems With Your Back Office Systems What Exactly Are Customer Facing Solutions, and How Do They Benefit Me? How many times have you heard a company tell you that your call was important to them? Funny, it seems like they always say this to you while you're sitting there on hold... yet while they tell you how important you are, you are never important enough for them to actually answer your call. Instead they put you on hold and make you wait forever, or talk to someone with an accent worse than Sanjaya's. "Customer Facing" refers to any place in your company where your customers, clients and suppliers interface with you. "Customer facing solution" means little more than finding ways to add value to the experience your customers have when they touch you through one of these "portals". The process of delivering value to customers who interface with you we call delivering "Applied Value", and the science we have defined that lies behind how how you can deliver Applied Value is extensive. How can you deliver Applied Value in your customer facing systems? Try this: ask your customers if they mind receiving SMS messages from you. If they don't, then collect their cell phone number and send them reminders of appointments, confirmation of product shipment, or other updates by SMS. Here's another example: if you have an ACD, program it so that customers who are "high value" go to the top of the call queue and get answered first. Better still, let your customers register for priority services like SMS message notifications and priority queuing on your website. As for how you can do all of this, and more... that's where we come in. We can help your IT people integrate your web presence with your back-end systems so that you too can deliver Applied Value to your customers. Why bother? Because it increases "customer stickiness", customer retention, repeat purchases, customer referrals and more. |
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[1] To read several excellent paragraphs that tell the story of the Ludites, check out http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0602/articlecfen.htm [3] Practical WebDesign, Issue 159, pg. 16 Copyright 2006-2010, WebSpecks Incorporated |
