Does Your Website Match Your Business Card?

Happy New Financial Year!

The beginning of the new financial year is a good excuse to reflect on the past 12 months and to plan for the next 12. It’s a time when many businesses look at reviewing their marketing plan, marketing materials and sales targets to make the coming year better then the last.

It’s also a great time to review your website. Many times I’ve talked about the importance of updating your content, but this month I’d like to talk about reviewing your website to ensure it fits within the branding style of your other marketing/business materials, i.e. Does Your Website Match Your Business Card?

Over the weeks, months and years I’ve met many other business owners and have collected quite a number of business cards. Being in the business of websites one of the first things that I do after meeting someone is go and have a look at their website, and often I find that their website doesn’t match their business card.

While I won’t name names I recently received a card from a business that really caught my eye. The colours are bold, the logo is modern and reflects their services and overall it gave me a great deal of confidence that this is a great business. As usual I returned to the office and looked at their website and found something completely different. I found a website where the colours didn’t match that of their card and the logo quality was quite low, and not used in the same way. If I had seen the website first I probably wouldn’t have had the same impression as I did when seeing the card.

So why is it important to have consistency of brand across all your marketing/communication material? Well one word - recognition. With recognition comes familiarity. With familiarity comes trust and confidence. Also, if done correctly, consistency brings clarity and purpose which consumers buy into. They can become loyal, and loyal customers are profitable customers.

If we look at some of the big brands around the world they all have consistency. Every piece of marketing material you see, every product that is branded and any advertising they do all have a consistency in terms of their look and feel. They are aiming for that brand recognition.

The result of successful branding and achieving brand recognition with your customers can be great. Just look at some of the big brands around the world. A recent article talked about some of the most successful and brands around the world. Google topped the list at AU$124.55 Billion – that’s just the value of the brand.

While Google is an extreme case it doesn’t mean that you can’t, with a little planning and work, achieve great results for your business by ensuring that you have brand consistency. Have a look at your website and compare it to your business card, your letterhead and your brochure. Do the colours match? Is the logo used in the same way? And, do they all convey the same message?

Five Reason Why Facebook Is Good For Your Business

No doubt you’ve heard about Facebook and how it’s a great way to connect to, and share information with, your friends and family, but did you know that you can setup a Facebook page to promote your business?

Here are my five reasons why you should think about Facebook for your business.

1. Viral Marketing

What is Viral Marketing I hear you say?  Well it’s marketing that spreads like a virus - quickly.  Facebook is great for this as you’re not only marketing your business, products and services to your “friends”, but also to friends of friends of friends – you get the picture.

2. Targeted Marketing
Facebook has a paid advertising service, similar to that offered by the search engines but with some added advantages.  Because members of Facebook provide information such as location, gender and age you can more effectively target your specific market.

3. Showcase Your Business
Facebook is designed to connect people and allow them to interact with each other, share information, photos or links to websites.  Why not take advantage of this and share some information about your newest product, latest project or great testimonials you’ve received from your customers?

You can use your business Facebook page to post a “teaser” and link back to your website.  This will help drive traffic to your site.

4. Reconnect With…
With millions and millions and millions of people (a post on the Facebook blog in December 2009 cited more then 350 million users) there are bound to be some of your customers, friends, family or past colleagues online.  Reconnect with them and you’re suddenly able to promote your business to their friends, and their friends friends.  You never know who needs your product or service, or who they know that needs your product or service.

5. It’s Free!
And finally, it’s FREE!  Setting up your business Facebook page won’t cost you a cent.  All it takes is a little bit of your time.  Of course their paid targeted advertising will cost, but that’s completely optional.

So there you have it – the potential to increase your customer base and market your business to millions of people around the world.  What have you got to lose?

See you on Facebook. (click to view the web.d3 page)

Also note on the right how we've integrated Facebook into our website.

Planning is the key to a successful website

Like all areas of your business your website requires planning in order to get it right and make it work for your business, so this month I have a tale of two websites.

This first story is of a client who has put a lot of time and effort into planning their website and the marketing of their new products.

A new client came to me recently with the task of building a new website for a range of products they were about to launch.  During our first meeting they were very clear about their goals and had done a lot of research, planning and had a clear strategy for marketing their products, including a high-profile product launch.  The timing of this meeting was 3 months before the launch.

Working closely with the client, and the copywriter they had engaged, we put together a solution that achieved their goals within their timeframe.  Their solution including a custom designed website to help promote their products, integration with an online store to manage the sales, integration with an auto responder email system to manage the dissemination of information to customers, and one of the most important things to achieve good search engine rankings and customer follow through – professionally written website content.

So what step were followed that made this project so successful?

1. The client had a clear understanding of what they wanted to achieve;
2. The client had done their own research so they knew what they were looking for and what questions to ask;
3. Their timing was realistic to ensure a successful project; and
4. They saw the value in engaging a professional copywriter to produce effective content for their website.

Read more about this project.

The second story is a story of ill planning.  Several months ago I was contact by someone who needed a couple of small updates done to their existing website.  I reviewed their website completed the updates for them.  Their existing website was build several years ago by a family member and during my review noted many areas where the site can be improved, most notably in the area of design and search engine optimising.  I gave my recommendations to the client who agreed with them, but wasn’t in a position to act on them.

A couple of weeks ago the client contacted me again with a couple of other changes to the site, one simple, several not so simple.  These changes needed to be done ASAP as they had engaged a marketing company to carry out a marketing campaign for them, which was days away from beginning.

The simple update was completed, however the no so simple updates, which came back to my initial suggestions, could not be completed before the marketing campaign began.

This lack of planning, and not having all parties involved, could mean be the difference between a success and failure in the campaign.

What could this client have done to ensure success?  Well it all comes down to planning, planning, planning, and communicating your goals to all parties involved.

Are you planning updates to your website?  Are you about to start a marketing campaign?  Have you spoke to all people involved in the process?  If not it may be time to step back, review, plan and communicate.

Who is your website for?

One of the questions that I ask new clients is “who is your website for”.  Most of the time they answer with “for me and my business”.  While this is somewhat true, the correct answer is “for my customers and potential customers”.

One of my favourite shows is called Property Ladder.  It’s a show about everyday people who decide they can make millions from property by buying run-down houses, renovating them and selling them on.  They key to being successful in this market (according to the host) is to research your potential market and renovate the property towards their needs.  A common trap that 90% of the people on the show fall into is not following this rule and renovating to their taste and needs.

What does all this have to do with websites you ask?  Well the concepts are the same.  While your website is all about your business ultimately you’re not the one using it every day.  The aim of most websites it to sell products and services, so it should be designed with the needs of your market in mind.

With this in mind it’s also important to ensure that the design of your site is consistent with all of your other branded material, so if you hand someone a business card and they go to your website they can visually make the link.  Not only does this make your business look more professional, but it also helps you stick in peoples mind.

Here are my top 3 tips for your website:

1. Know who your website is targeted at, and ensure your site is designed with this market in mind
2. Provide relevant and easy to read content (a professional copy writer is well worth considering)
3. Keep your content up-to-date because content is king.