Planning a big project is like planning a trip. The bigger it is, the harder the plans become. 

Recently (okay this week), I spent some time packing for my trip to Ethiopia. We have been slowly planning for many months, and it all seemed to be rolling smooth. That was until it came time to pack our luggage. See I am in a unique traveling situation, where my wife and I are not just traveling to Ethiopia, we are traveling to bring back our adopted twins. The issue: I have to plan, and pack for not only myself, but two 6 month old boys as well. Basically once we arrive, they are all ours. So we have to bring diapers, clothes, and all the kid junk that goes along with it. Being first time parents….woah it’s a lot of stuff. 

So what does this have to do with web or marketing?

I know what it feels like to step into something new and big. If you have never had your own web site, from scratch before, or are just starting a marketing plan, it can feel like a lot. Sure at first it looks easy, but we all know getting from start to finish on a large project may have hundreds of tasks. 

So breathe. look at the list, “pick off the low hanging fruit” as Ryan likes to say. Work on it, set goals, and react as needed. 

Me, I’m back to trying to pack and stick to the plans / packing lists we laid out.

Would you let your customers see a showroom / lobby / office in a complete mess? Piles of paper on the floor and desk? Broken lights, missing ceiling tiles, stained floors? No! You dress your best, your employees dress their best, and you keep your showroom / lobby / office in tip top shape. Or at least I think you should. Your website should be no different.

The demand for good web design is increasing, revealed a recent Webcopyplus online poll. Almost 25% of web users indicated “poor visual presentation” as the number one element that drives them away from websites. Only 6.6% of web users who participated in a similar 2007 online poll indicated “poor visual presentation” as the main reason to abandon a website. That equates to a 267% increase during the two-year period.

From Webcopyplus:

Our web content specialists believe the increased desire for quality design comes from the fact that Internet users have become increasingly sophisticated. Consequently, more of today’s Internet users understand that a well designed website makes it possible to achieve more, with less time and effort.

A total of 318 web users were asked what’s most likely to drive them away from a website.

• 50.9% indicated “slow load times”
• 24.8% noted “weak web copy”
• 24.2% specified “poor visual presentation”

In the 2007 poll, 51.2% of 258 participants indicated “slow load times” and 42.2% noted “weak web copy” as their biggest turn-offs.

 

So what does all this mean?

A website won’t fix your slow business. UNLESS your site is well done. Work with your designer / developer to address all of the above issues. Your website is often the first thing a potential client / customer sees. They are judging the quality of your organization, products, service, and reputation based on 30 seconds of face time online.

So make those precious page views count!

My youngest boy evidently has a favorite ‘adult’ restaurant that he asked to go to several times while we were on vacation. So we headed out to it one afternoon for their specialty shakes and reasonably good americana fair. The service in this establishment was mediocre at best during a ‘less than busy’ period of the day. As usually happens, my kids focused on the the good things, while I remained puzzled by the items in this operation that could be easily improved upon with a little attention and no more money spent. We were no less than two-thirds of the way through with out meal when our waitress magically appeared with the check in hand. Without concern for our next needs or whether we would like to order more or whether we were satisfied she laid the check down on the table with this stellar quote:

I am going to go ahead and drop your bill of now and get it out my way.

End of quote… end of service. I could hardly believe it. For the 3 of us I was going to be on the hook for about $35 and this is how is was being ’served’. It was a jolting reminder to me…

Whatever price your customer is paying for your product, they anticipate that level of service or more.

Up economy or down, it is not that complicated to give your customers top level quality service. It takes no more money to serve them with a great attitude. The only thing that can come from your determination to be personable in your delivery is a more loyal and appreciative customer. Obviously, you can figure out what might happened if the converse is true of you or your employees.

Yep. Hyundai is paying people to drive their cars

Now I am not really a big fan of these cars. I usually hear about the loans outlasting the car. It can’t feel good to be paying $250 - $350 a month on a car that is falling apart. 

But is this the new way to sell cars? Or is this just the little guy trying to make some waves in the pond?

Personally, and I dont want to sound like a snob here, but they would need to pay me double that, for a longer period of time to drive one. Otherwise I’ll stick to my used 03 and 04 toyotas with 80k+ miles each.

Great content is certainly the most important feature of any blog, no argument here! But a good design can help feature your content in the best way possible. Different blogs require different things to make them efficient and targeted toward the right users. Some blogs use advertising to gain revenue and give exposure to companies that offer services that would be of value to its readers. It doesn’t work for everyone though. The secret to a good blog design is figuring out what you need and how to best organize it so that people can easily read your content. Here are some great blog designs, targeting different audiences with a multitude of styles.

Think about your favorite blog. I bet the design plays a big part in why the content seems so good to you. Have you seen some great new blog designs lately? Share your favorite ones.

In Continuing our series on twitter tips, I present tip #4

So you want to use twitter as a company / organization. In following our other tips, i’ll keep this short. 

• create a company account (nothing special, just an account reserved for professional stuff)
• only tweet the big things
• keep @replies to a minimum
• avoid linking to things out of your control (but DO link to your own stuff as often as needed)
• Follow your new company account from your personal, and vice versa. 
• follow other businesses, employees, organizations you belong to, and industry leaders. 

In Continuing our series on twitter tips, I present tip #3

Avoid twittering just for the sake of twittering. 

Nothing to say today? this week? Thats okay.

In Continuing our series on twitter tips, I present tip #2

Would you call a customer to tell them this tweet? even email it to them?

If not, dont tweet it. 

Posting relevant, important, news is good. Silly is okay some times if it fits your company culture. Just dont tweet when you used the restroom, something you ate, what you did off your to do list, etc.

In a new series, I’d like to share tips on using twitter effectively as an organization. Small, short and easy to swallow tips on twitter. 

the first tips to kick off the series:

DO NOT feed your twitter posts into your blog.
People reading your blog dont care to see your @replies. 

DO feed your blog posts INTO twitter. 

So a few weeks ago i posted some questions regarding the newspaper industry, and how to fix it. I think I have some solid ideas, that I will post later. But that post got me thinking. A new series of blog posts, on what would you do to fix a company or industry. Could be a fun exercise in creativity. 

So today I ask: If Sprint came to you for marketing / business help,

How would you fix Sprint?

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