If You’re Under 30, You Don’t Have To Read This.

Your age will determine how you feel about this article. Chances are, if you are under 30 years old, you already understand the importance of having a website to market your business. If you are above 40 or 50 years of age, you may not feel that a website is critical to the success of your business. It has a lot to do with your point of reference. My parents used to tell me about the days of radio and growing up without a TV. I grew up with not only color TV but eventually cable with 500 channels as well. It was hard for me to understand their point of view because TV already existed in my life. That’s why it’s easier for people under 30 (certainly under 20) to get it. The Internet is like a utility and they never knew what it was like to be without it.

When you look at the Internet as a utility it’s easy to connect-the-dots and see how your business website fits into the overall picture. That means your business needs a great website. Websites are replacing traditional marketing and advertising methods such as direct mail or advertising in your local newspaper. And website marketing is easier, faster and less expensive than traditional marketing methods. Recently, when I was looking for a new employee, I submitted an ad in my local newspaper over the phone and I submitted an ad online with Craig’s List. Placing the ad in my local paper took about 20 minutes to complete at a cost of $200.00. The online ad took about 5 minutes to submit. The result was that I received a couple of resumes from the newspaper while the online ad drew over two-dozen qualified responses. And did I mention that the ad on Craig’s List was free?

Take a Good Look at Your Website. Okay Now Look Away.

A fair number of people call me every week to take a look at their business website. Usually they are looking to improve the branding of their company. When I ask for the URL address of their website, a number of them preface the conversation by saying: “This isn’t what we want.” or “It’s really old.” or “Could you look at our competitors website instead”. I even had a person once say: “Please don’t look at our current website!” I guess that’s why they are calling for advice. These businesses are seeking to improve how they look to the world.

We’ve all seen websites that are successful and many that are not. How do you determine when it’s time for minor updates or wholesale changes? Below is a brief list of seven items for your review. If you answer “no” to any of these items, then it’s time for a redesign of your website.

- You are proud to show your website to anyone (not just your mom)
- The content accurately describes your business
- The information is up-to-date and relevant
- It’s easy for someone interested in your services to contact you
- Your website has been redesigned within the past year
- You’ve had more than 50 visitors in one day
- You spend more time on your own website than a competitors

By carefully looking at every page of your website you can determine the next step. Of course, if that’s a painful process then it’s time for an overhaul.

Ohio Website Design, Government Style

Website design is important for government websites as well. The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission has created a new website to promote their services. Flash animation was used to enhance the website. For a website this large, it is well organized and easy to navigate.

A New Website Design Can Improve Your Business

A new website design allows you to re-introduce your company. Think of a company like Apple and how they are constantly seen as innovators of their market. One method for giving your business a boost in sales is to review your existing website.

- Does your website reach your target audience effectively?
- Have you reviewed your competition’s websites?
- Does your website reflect your brand identity?
- Is your website search engine ‘friendly’?
- Does your website design look professional?
- Have you budgeted for a new website this year?

Sales does not happen in a vacuum. If you’ve done your homework by creating an effective brand, then the next step is to build solid marketing support to reach prospects, warm them up to your product or service, and make the sale. The more qualified prospects you can get into the pipeline, the better the opportunity to improve your business. And the Internet is the most exciting playing field to plant your flag. Online, the world is your oyster.

That’s not to say that you can put up an average website. Your website needs to be the best. When prospects visit, you want them to stay, review and be excited about your product or service. The goal should be to get them to call or send for more information. On low-priced items, get them to place an order online. On higher ticket items, a salesperson usually needs to make the close. In either case a new website design can dramatically re-energize your business’ sales.

Ohio Website Design, Part IV

Website design is important in promoting events. The Ohio Auto Dealers Association has created a new website to promote the Greater Toledo Auto Show this month. Flash animation was used to enhance the website. The opening is fantastic.

Should You Hire a Website Design Company?

There are three ways to design and build your company website: Build it yourself, use an online service or hire a professional website development company. The first choice, building the website yourself, is easy and inexpensive. If you have the know-how, you can put a basic website up for in a short amount of time. Keep in mind that you need to think about the target audience, your competition and brand identity. There are other articles on this website blog that go into more detail about the web design process. There are also unlimited books and resources available on the Internet to help you build a website. The downside is the time it takes to build your website. If you own your own business, then you might have more pressing needs such as keeping the business running by focusing on sales.

The next method for building a company website is to utilize available online resources. Simply Google ‘website design’ and you will see hundreds of companies that offer pre-build websites for your company. I would recommend using this method if you are opening a new business. This give you the time to work out different versions of the content that defines your website.  There is a free service at ionWeb.com that offers a one-page, non-nonsense approach to get you started. When using this method, you won’t have a lot of choices, but it helps to get your website off of the ground without the fuss.

The third choice is to hire a professional website development company. If you don’t have the time or experience to use the other methods, then hire someone to help. When you find the right company, you get a more objective opinion about your company’s website. There are even businesses that offer marketing and search engine services that go beyond just the design and production. Obviously it will cost money to hire someone who knows what they are doing, but if you budget for marketing, including website design, your company stands a better chance of succeeding.

Before you start the project yourself give this some thought. When we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago, I reviewed the process and thought I could save money and do the work myself. However I don’t remodel kitchens for a living so I also assumed that I could only work weekends and weeknights and found it would take me a minimum of 6 months to complete the remodeling project. Along with the mess it also meant that we would be without a kitchen for that period of time. Long story short, we hired a kitchen remodeling expert; it was completed in a tmely fashion and we were serving meals to our family in our beautiful new kitchen no time.

Website Design Process, Part III

Now that you have identified your target audience and we now know who the competition is. We have a clear understanding of who is buying your product or service and who is selling it to them. What’s the next step in the website design process?

Step three is to establish your brand identity. This would include every aspect of your product or service. Think Starbucks for business people, Apple for ‘cool’ computer people and even Hannah Montana for ‘tween’ girls. Here are some thoughts for moving your brand identity forward. Answer these questions from the standpoint of your target audience.

- Does your company name make sense?
- Is your logo identifiable?
- Are the colors that you use consistent?
- Does your website match your print marketing materials?
- How does your brand differ from your competitors?
- What other brands does your target audience buy?

According to the American Marketing Association, a brand is a name, term, design, symbol or other feature that distinguishes products and services from competitive offerings. A brand has also been described as representing a consumers’ experience with an organization, product or service. Both descriptions are correct because a brand is what the product or service looks like and also what it feels like.

Spend a little time working on your brand identity. Ask current and potential customers what they think about your brand. Review the competition and see what works for them. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel. Just make life a little better for the target audience.

Website Design Process, Part II

Okay, you have identified your target audience. You’ve narrowed down the list of potential customers and their demographics. What’s the next step in the website design process? Unless you want to create your website in a vacuum, you need to see what other people are doing in your industry.

Step two in the website design process is to review the competition. What we’re talking about is good old-fashion research. And the great thing is that with the Internet as your partner, it doesn’t take long to accomplish this task. 

I’ve heard many businesses say that they don’t have any competition. Let’s get one thing straight, every business has competition. And competition is healthy for everyone. Consumers and businesses alike. Competition helps your website business because you don’t have to make the same mistakes that others have made. Here are some ideas to work with when researching the competition.

- Find 10 businesses that sell your product or service
- Where are they located?
- Are consumers buying their product or service online?
- Buy a product or service from a competitor
- Review their marketing materials
- Review their sales figures
- Try to speak with a sales person
- Find associations of your industry
- Research trends from statistics that associations provide
- Find 10 more business that sell your product or service

I could list 100 ideas for researching the competition. Just keep at it. Never stop looking at what others are accomplishing in your industry. Research, review and reevaluate. Keep updating your website and marketing materials. See what works for others and how you can benefit.

Website Design Process, Part I

Design is an important element in the development of your website. How a site looks and feels can determine if a viewer is interested or not in your product or service. Usually the visitor makes that determination within 3 seconds. That’s right, I said 3 seconds. That doesn’t give you a lot of time to get your message across.

The first step in the website design process is to define your target audience. If you say that ‘everyone is my audience’, then you need to go back to the drawing board and refine your answer. No product or service is needed by everyone. In fact, you could waste a lot of time and money finding that out the hard way. So do your homework now by clearly defining your target audience. Here are some basic questions to ask yourself:

- Who does my product or service help?
- Am I targeting consumers or businesses?
- Local or national?
- Is it men or women?
- What is the age-group?
- Do they buy my product or service online?
- How often do they buy?
- Who do they buy from now?
- What are my projected sales figures for the first year?
- What is the total market sales for my product or service?

Website design begins with knowing your target audience better than anyone. And most of the data is available on the Internet. Your competitor’s website can also provide a wealth of information. If you already have a website up and running, and you’re not getting the desired results, then redefining your target audience can help.

Keep in mind that the smaller the target audience the better the results. Just like in archery, many people can see the target, but the most successful hit the bulls-eye. Next in this series about website design, we’ll discuss how your competitors play an important role.

NY Times Article on Publication Websites

NY Times article ‘Publications on Fitness and Health Head to Web’ describes the trend of publications to increase their website efforts.  Hearst Corporation is seeking to improve the branding of their publications. The NY Times article covers the financial side of the business very well. It would be helpful to the reader if the article spoke towards publication website design as well.  Good website design allow users to dig deeper into relevant information quickly and build a strong relationships.  Strong relationships mean repeat visitors to the website.

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