Archive for the 'Business' Category
5 key characteristics of web brands
According to market researchers Millward Brown Optimor, Google is the most powerful brand of 2007. While discussing this, Gerry McGovern writes that the 5 most important characteristics of web brands are:
- Web brands are useful
- They have a clarity of purpose
- The embrace simplicity
- They interact and engage
- They are customer-centric
Now, maybe your business isn’t Google. Maybe your business is selling real live widgets in a brick-and-mortar shop. Even so, if you have a web site, these characteristics of web brands still apply. If your web site isn’t simple to use, doesn’t do what the customer needs it to do, and doesn’t make it easy for the customer to interact with your company, then your brand suffers for it. If you’re not easy to do business with online, why would the customer think you are easy to do business with offline? The trick for an offline business, I think, is to clearly evaluate what it is that your web site needs to be useful at. Why would a customer come to your website? What do they need it for? How can it help the customer meet their goals? To succeed online, businesses need to answer those questions, then design a web site that does all these things well. If your web site doesn’t do these things (at the very least), then it’s wasted everyone’s time.
I don’t have a website. Do I really need one?
I just received the latest Market Navigator newsletter today and was reading this interesting Q&A.
Q: I don’t have a Web site and I’m pretty busy as it is. Do I really need one?
A: A funny thing happened at the office last week…
No kidding, just last week a graphic designer came by to pitch me on his services. The first time he’d sent me an email, months before, I saw he didn’t have a Web site and basically chucked his info. Why?
Because in this day and age, not having a Web site is like networking without a business card. No matter how good you are, you lose a great deal of credibility without one.
If you’re serious about doing business and you want people to take you seriously, make the investment.
It doesn’t have to be fancy with a multitude of bells and whistles. It does have to educate visitors about your business and showcase why they should care.
And, particularly for retailers and restaurant, it also goes a long way to providing good customer service.
The graphic designer, it turns out, is actually pretty good and has a well-rounded portfolio. That’s something I’d never have known if he hadn’t been persistent in following up.
The lesson: if you think you can’t afford a Web site, the question you need to ask yourself is whether you can afford not to have one.
The Market Navigator newsletter is delivered once a month and contains interesting Marketing ideas, tips and tricks. Visit their website to read archived newsletters.
Task Marketing brings you Web success
The best websites know that customers are ready for action. They help customers complete common tasks quickly and easily. Gerry McGovern explains…
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Benefits of working with a small company
When planning on working with a Web developer, you may have to shop around and see who is the “best fit” for you. You may come across big companies that have an amazing portfolio and many talented people and may come across a lone individual who is just as talented. So who is best? Big or small?
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Introducing WebTrends Glossary
If you need to define a web marketing term, you can find it in a flash in the new WebTrends glossary. This new resource on webtrends.com provides a handy guide to commonly used web marketing and analytics terms.
Relationship marketing and web analytics seem generate an inordinate amount of acronyms. From ACT to KPI to YSM, it’s easy to get a little lost. If you’ve ever confused your POA with your POC, or wondered what exactly “sessionization” refers to, you may want to bookmark this page.
Ryanair Sucess has Strong Web Lessons
Web Content Management consultant and author, Gerry McGovern looks at Ryanair’s success and provides a very good Web lesson.
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Taking Advantage of Pay per Click Advertising
Pay per Click (PPC) advertising has been touted as a lower cost alternative to traditional promotional methods. By paying a set fee you bring qualified traffic to your website via key word searches on pay per click search engines. Its proving very attractive especially to those organisations with a limited marketing budget but there are issues that must be taken into account and research that needs to be done in order to implement a pay per click strategy that works.
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Explode Your Business by Writing an E-Book
Many people succumb to the “Build it and They Will Come” notion. Create a website, display your products or services and customers will come flocking in. Unfortunately, building a website is no guarantee of success. Business is based on leveraging and one of the ways to do this is by authoring an e-book.
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Podcasting - Reach your audience while they jog.
Podcasting is the latest trend in digital downloading. The word itself is a combination iPod (the leading digital music player) and the word broadcast and, as the name suggests, a Podcast is simply a means of broadcasting audio files to a computer or any digital music player.
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Does your Web Company own you?
You’ve taken all of the required steps to build your website and you’ve found a Web design company to work with. The first thing you’ll need is to do to secure a domain name. Buying a domain name is very simple and takes a few seconds. Most Web design companies will gladly make the purchase for you and include it as part of the Web design package. If you decide to let the Web design company purchase the domain name, make sure that you discuss ownership of the domain name.
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