Respect Your Customers

Saturday at 11:30 is time for "The Age of Persuasion" on CBC radio.

If you haven't been following the series, hosted by Terry O'Reilly, you are missing an entertaining and informative series on adevertising and marketing. Fortunately, the series is now available on streaming audio.

This week the topic was "23 things I’d Like to Change About Advertising". As usual the presentation was entertaining and informative. However, like a number of O'Reilly's, presentation it can be boiled down to one phrase - respect your customers.

In "23 Things . . . ", O'Reilley covers many of the complaints we all have with adveristing. Everyone from telemarketers to loud business owners doing their own cheap commercial make his hit list. Absent, however, are the many ways that the Internet has come up with to disrespect the customer.

Forget spam - even spam websites. Real businesses, with real websites have found new and innovative ways to disrespect the customer.

Here is my top ten hit list:

1. "Under Construction" pages. If the page isn't ready don't link to it.
   
2. Broken links - why are you wasting my time with a broken link - remove it!
3. IE only sites. Yes - they do exist. What other business model turns away 20% of its potential clients.
4. Closely related are sites that are not cross browser compatible. They look good with one browser, usually IEx, but fail to display properly on others.
5. Splash pages - again, you are wasting my time.
   
6. Flash only pages. Pity the person on a dialup who has to wait while some moron features his graphics designer - not his product.
7. Pages that load the whole image instead of a thumbnail.
   
8. Broken Javascript. If your page relies on Javascript make sure it works.
9. Animated images the endlessly repeat. Show it once then STOP!
10. Tiny fonts. Yes I know how to change the font size - but not everyone does. Either use a bigger font, or let the user select a larger font size.

Welcome to Vancouver Island SEO

Confused about the logo?

It is all about marketing on the Internet.

TIMR Web Services has been marketing its brand name locally, but as we grew we wanted to establish a more regional presence. Hence the name Vancouver Island SEO. An Internet presence that reflects what we do - not who we are.

Before the Internet brand promotion was fairly straight forward, you slapped your name on just about everything you could think of. To the point where your brand name almost became synonymous with the product. (What is the first name you think of when you hear the word ketchup?) Marketing was all about branding.

Brand marketing does have its draw backs. If you have ever Xeroxed a document instead of photo copying it, or reached for a Kleenex instead of a tissue you know how brand names can replace the product. This is a problem for the brand owners. Albeit, one that denotes their success, not failure.

However, the Internet is challenging the primacy of the brand name - particularly for small businesses. Search engine marketing (SEM) is based more on what you do, rather than who you are. The brand name is important - but so is the product or service.

It is doubtful anyone is going to pick a ketchup based on an Internet search, but, lets say they did. Heinz is not their only choice. Nor is Heinz number one on the search engine results page (SERP). Depending on the data center, a search for ketchup puts Heinz as low as number 6 and no higher than third. And, the all important first SERP also features two other ketchup varieties.

The Internet has made it possible for smaller, regional companies to get the same exposure as large multinationals, based on searches for a product or service, not brand name. Getting noticed on the Internet is as much about what you do as who you are.