You Get What You Need

Mick Jagger studied at the London School of Economics. Which probably explains why he still owns the right to his songs. And is one of the biggest players in the music industry.

Of course that doesn't explain why I turn to the 'Stones' when ever I need some to do solve a particularly irksome problem. There is something about the music and the lyrics that lets my mind play 'connect-the-dots'.

One of the reoccurring problems every web developer faces is the customer who wants to tell you how their site should be built.

We all want client input. They pay the bills after all. But, when the client moves from giving input to taking on the design role the poor web developer is in a bind. They can give the client what they want and be blamed when the site looks like cr.. Or, they can risk losing the contract and give the client what they need.

I have a proposal to get ready for a potential client. The client wants the site to be similar to their competitor's. The competitor's sites a very elegant with lots of eye candy. Their marketing is focused on the lifestyle and experience that come with the product.

The client has a more practical version of the product. Useful and utilitarian. Their potential customers want product information.

Do I give the client what they want - or do I try and convince them we have a better idea.

Which is of course where Jagger comes in:

You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need, ah yes...

Ah Yes . . .

Luck Trumps Oversite

I have you ever wondered why similar posts appear on different blogs at almost the same time. In this case it is because of Brendon Sinclair'seditorial in Sitepoint's Tribune newsletter. In the editorial he describes how a client lost her domain name registration. Which got me thinking of one of our client's brush with domain name expiration.

Fortunately, she got lucky.

It started when the client decided to protect her brand name by registering the .ca version of their domain name. (A really good idea.) We don't do domain name registration - so she decided to do it herself.

And, that is were she got lucky.

The company she chose to register the domain name talked her into transferring the registration of the main site to them. However, due to an error in the "whois" database, they were unable to complete the transfer. The email name in the database was incorrect so the client asked us to fix it. Which is when we found the domain name registration was about to expire.

If the client hadn't decided to register the new domain name or if the company hadn't talked her into moving from their present registration service, the site would have gone down.

While we do offer website maintenance, checking registration dates was not something we normally did for clients. And, we still don't list it as one of our services. However, we now routinely check expiry dates for new clients.

This is something every website owner should do. All you need to do is enter your domain name into "Whois" service such as www.whois.sc/. Check that the contact information is up to date and check the expiry date.

You might not be as lucky as our client.

Are You Being Served?

You may remember the phrase 'Are You Being Served?' as the title of an old British comedy series that pops up on the public TV channels. It was a parody of everything that was wrong with British stores in the 50's and 60's. However, the phrase itself is still relevant.

The concept of service still gets a lot of lip service. Food stores advertise 'customer service' while making us bag our own groceries. Banks tout 'customer service' but limit the number of tellers forcing us to do our own banking online, or at an ATM. It may be convenient, but it is not 'customer service'.

'Customer service' means just that -- serving the customer. It does not mean forcing the customer to do things the way you want. Every customer is an individual. Customers need to be able to decide how and when they will interact with your company. The customer, not the manager, decides what 'customer service' means to them.

How does that apply online?

It means designing a site where information can be easily found; where every page has at least one method on contacting you; and where the customer, not the designer, decides if they want to view a video or flash.

It means testing your site with real people to see how they use the site; having a site that is accessible to customers with screen readers; and being W3C compliant.

Customer service, means what your customers say it means. Open a dialog with your customers. Ask the question - "Are you being served?"

Marketing With White Papers

One of our services at TIMR is custom programming. Recently I was asked to write a simple auto responder that would send a link to download a White Paper on a clients product. Fairly, straight forward until I asked the obvious question, "How will you be storing the email addresses?". To my surprise the answer was "We aren't storing that information."

Since we were only sub-contracting the programming I didn't pursue this any further.

White Papers and other download-able material are great ideas for a number of reasons. Since they involve a "Call to Action" they can be used test the effectiveness of a page. Set up a split run, ( Show visitors different versions of the page.) to test things such as copy, link placement, colours, etc. This information can be used to improve the pages conversion rate. (How many visitors actually download the item.)

Sending a link to the download-able material adds a whole new level of value.

It gives you that all important contact information. The visitor has moved from a 'cold' to 'warm' contact. This is someone who is interested in your product. Information gathering begins when they request a link to download the information. At this point you should be capturing not only their email address, but also their location.

Capturing their location can either be done in software for general location. Or, by asking for a zip code or postal code for more detailed information.

Your contact form should include a check box that lets the user 'opt-in' to receive more information. Don't be overly aggressive. Some sites will block the download if the visitor doesn't 'opt-in'. That tends to drive away potential clients.

Finally, the link that you send to the visitor should include a tracking code. This will let you see if the person actually completes the transaction.

White Papers and download-able brochures are great ways of retaining contact with potential customers. Using them properly can greatly improve your sites value.

SWOT

If you don't know what SWOT is read this post.

If you do know what SWOT is read this post.

SEO SWOT Analysis

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.