Things to Consider When...
Designing a web site:
The purpose of a Web Site is to attract new customers as well as create a catalog of your products and or services. This may seem obvious to you but not all web sites work to achieve this goal. Your site may look nice and beautiful, but you need focus on its results because you can not deposit nice and beautiful into your bank account.
Pretty pictures and lots of colored space might get some ones attention but rarely will it result in making a sale or stimulate that person to respond to your company’s products or services. People turn to web sites because they are in a decision making mode to spend money on a product or service that you have. Your presentation and the emotional stimulation to do business with your company over your competitor are critical at this time. They want facts about your products/services and then want to feel confident that your company can deliver on its promise and feel confident in their desire to buy from you.
These all have to be present in your web site so you and your company can achieve your sales goals. If you think this is an easy process try having your brother-in-law or someone who is not a marketing expert sell your products to you before they build you a web site.
In a recent report "The Web Site Report" consumers looked at over 2000 web sites in 252 different categories and headings. They found that 55% did not give enough information about the products or service. 51% thought that information about the company was inadequate and left them with negative feelings about doing business with that company. Over 60% wanted more visual information so they could tell what the product looked like.
All of this shows that when building a web site persuasive content is the key to making perspective customers call you.
Over the past 5 years we have pioneered the process for creating winning web sites that work. Every business has unique reasons why customers choose to do business with them. We uncover those reasons by interviewing the owner, key employees as well as past and current customers. Those interviews uncover true buying motivations, psychological triggers, and hot buttons that caused customers to do business with you. We then create a marketing message that is almost hypnotic in a way that it connects with the customer. Finally we add graphics that supports the marketing message that was created.
The end result is a web site that predisposes the reader to want to do business with you. A web site that is unique to your business so it is difficult for your competitors to steal any of its elements. It will build confidence and desire in customers to choose your company to do business with.
We work one on one with our clients who have existing web sites or want new ones to create outstanding marketing capabilities for a successful future.
Developing a marketing plan:
We all know that the key to success is customers purchasing our products or services. We all want this to happen quickly, without delay. We want to reap the profits and build our companies financial success.
The problem is how to achieve that goal. You can look at some of the fantastic things others have done, like the Pet Rock 20 million in sales in less than two years. A box with a rock in it and at just over ten dollars each. Add that number up!
Now how do you achieve your success? By Reaching your clients sense of emotional stimulation and desire to have your products or services you can have the same success as the case in point of a rock in a box. How do you do that? By use of a Strategic Marketing Plan along with a Tactical Calendar your business will start its path to success.
Why? A Strategic Marketing Plan and a Tactical Calendar, because they lay out the direction to follow along with the steps that are necessary to meet your marketing goals. As this plan moves along you can measure whether you are meeting these goals towards your success. The need to stay focused on your plan and not be distracted by off shoots will lead your company to its financial success.
I have watched companies that have taken off with a flash and sales jump then all of sudden they lose momentum and sales fall off. Now the managers and owners start looking around asking what happened? What happened is that no formal marketing plan was ever in effect. You ask them who are their customers and they always say “Everyone”. They have all kinds of ideas when in reality they have no idea of where the original customers came from, what they did right or what went wrong. All they know is that they have lost momentum.
What owners and managers need to do is stop, look at how they have benefited from the past and where they are right now. The past will give you hind sight so you can plan the future with a solid Strategic Marketing Plan and a Tactical Calendar. This will lay out your next twelve months objectives and goals along with the time table to complete them.
Your success is up to you, remember businesses don’t PLAN TO FAIL, but rather FAIL TO PLAN this statement is as true today as it has been for the past. Good luck on your future.
Exploring advertising options:
Advertising is a tricky subject as well as an art. So why do so many of us advertise and how many times have we been disappointed in its results. There are different types of advertising; institutional which keeps your name in front of the public, this is the same thing over and over again with our name and location in hopes people will still come to our place of business. Then there is product which is what most of us try in an attempt to move items in our store or business. Then direct advertising which is mail or flyers of which we hope will lead to response of our business or organization.
If you want to see what a great ad is all about look no further than Home Depot or Lowe's, their business relies on you visiting them two to three times a month. Whenever you get your newspaper, male or female, young or old, their ads respond to your desires, to your needs and to your wants. These ads are design by professional ad agencies that do nothing but think and work with communication to a vast array of people
Most business haphazardly put ads in the newspaper, magazines, yellow pages etc allowing someone else to design the ad or they try to copy someone else’s ad. Because you’re not an ad writer or designer doesn't mean you shouldn't know what a good ad is, WHY……because you know your product or service better than anyone. You know what it takes to sell it and you know what it is about. Therefore you know what should be in a great ad; you just need some one to teach you how a great ad should read and play. Most of us just let some newspaper or magazine artist designs a pretty picture of our product and we think it is a wonderful ad. You have to stop and think, pretty pictures don’t put money in your bank account, great verbiage and inspiration, along with design and motivation are the strongest keys to a successful ad. The next thing to add to this mix goes product recognition. I see hundreds of ads a day in every newspaper across the country and only about 15% to 20% make it into what could be called “A Good Ad Category”.
The Lucey Group works with small to medium clients by designing and producing quality ad layouts that are ready to send to the printer. We teach how to formulate a good advertising campaign for a positive response. We show you how to use a small advertising budget and produce great results in an affordable way.
Do I need a new web site?
Below is a set questions you can ask yourself. If you answer them honestly, you'll know whether you need a new site or not. After you've gone through the process, ask some colleagues to do the same. See if your answers compare.
1. Does Your Web site Have A Purpose? Every web site should have a clearly defined purpose. Having a web site just because everyone else has one is not an acceptable strategy. What is your web site's purpose?
a. Transactional sales-oriented site
b. Customer service support site
c. How to instructional site
d. Product or service demonstration site
e. Lead generation site
f. Marketing, branding, positioning site
g. Promotional campaign site
h. Viral or buzz creation site
2. Is Your Web site Focused? Too many businesses both large and small use their web site as an information junkyard, a dumping ground for everything you do, everything you've done, and everything you ever thought of doing. This won't work. Customers are like children; they want clarity, direction, and unequivocal answers. Your web site should be focused on a singular function. URL's are cheap, there is no reason you can't have different web sites for every major thing you do, or every marketing campaign you initiate. How focused is your web site?
3. How Functional Is Your Web site? Everybody knows that web sites should be easy to use, that you shouldn't have to drill-down too deep to find what you're looking for, and of course everything should work. Your web site is a communication tool. If your web site doesn't work properly, the only thing you're communicating is incompetence. How functional is your web site?
4. Does Your Web site's Construction Balance Competing Concerns? Web sites by their very nature are a compromise of competing issues. Aesthetics, multimedia, frame construction, HTML, Flash, client-side, server-side, data bases, SEO tactics, information architecture, marketing communication, transaction efficiency all compete for precedence in the design of a site. Are you sacrificing clarity, focus, and communication for SEO tricks and unattainable traffic numbers? Did you start with an IT solution like a database and build your site around a poorly conceived information delivery system. Does your web site's design reflect your sites' defined business purpose or is it a result of secondary technical concerns?
5. Does your web site honestly reflect your business personality? Does your web site represent and promote your marketing objectives? Okay, this is a trick question for many small owner-managed businesses. Marketing is not sales. Marketing is about communicating who you are, what you do, and why you do it better than the other guy. Marketing is about image building, branding, and positioning, in other words, enhancing your business personality. Does your web site honestly reflect your business personality?
6. Is your Web-presentation integrated into your overall marketing plan? Too many web sites bear no relation to the rest of their business' marketing initiatives. Everything your company does should reflect an over-riding ethos, point-of-view, and personality. If your marketing collaterals don't match your web site presentation, you are confusing your audience. Is your Web-presentation integrated into your overall marketing plan?
7. Is content king on your web site? I once had a fairly large manufacturing client ask me to build a web site based on a business card and ten 8x10 glossies of discontinued merchandise. This fellow was so paranoid that his competitors would see what he was doing that he hid his products from his customers. This business is now bankrupt. We've all heard the saying 'content is king'. Is content king on your web site? Does your web site adequately display and explain what you do, what products you sell, and what services you provide? Are there examples of your work? Are there testimonials from your customers? Have you provided information on how to order, how to use, and how to resolve problems? Is content really king on your web site?
8. Is your web site an experience? You watch television, you listen to the radio, you read a magazine, but you experience a web site. Unlike other marketing vehicles, web sites provide you the opportunity to deliver your marketing message with the full complement of multimedia tools. Web sites can stimulate all the senses, sight, sound, and interactive touch in order to communicate and connect with your audience. Web sites are not brochures. Visitors shouldn't just see your web site, they should experience it. Is your web site an experience?
9. Does your web site have a distinctive look? The notion of the flaming animated logo has become a cliché for bad design and style over substance, but that does not mean your web site should be aesthetically boring and visually dreary. Your site should display clarity of vision; it should provide functional page layout; its use of colors, type, and static and kinetic visuals should be distinctive and purposeful. Your web site should provide a defining "Look" that enhances your business personality. Does your web site display a distinctive look that represents your business personality?
10. Do you list appropriate contact information on your web site?
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