Blogging is big!
Blogs are a popular way of reaching customers and an ideal opportunity to connect with a wide audience.
Not everyone likes blogs but if writing, good spelling and grammar are part of your ‘shop window’ then blogging is certainly part of your customer liaison – or it should be.
Follow these tips to give your blog a head start:
- Think of your blog as a way of reaching customers on a personal level – this is an opportunity to share what you want of your business; to give others a special glimpse inside.
- Make sure your blogs are professional, decent and ethical – part of that wide audience could include your aunt or grandmother…
- Keep your blog posts up to date and interesting – don’t do one if you don’t have anything that is of some value or interest to your visitors.
- Make good use of technology – post images to enhance your text.
- Blogging is free – so use it as an additional marketing tool!
- Make your blog work for you – use it as a networking tool by encouraging comments and feedback on your site.
If you already blog, then comment below and I’ll visit your blog.
If you know you want a blog, but it’s all just a bit too much, then find out how I can help: send me an email.
Buying a Website is Exciting Isn’t it?
Doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re interested in there’s bound to be some part of buying a websites that excites. Quick question for you.
Which one of these is the most important element of your website?
- the design bit
- the technical bit
- the marketing bit
Unfortunately there are a lot of people who will choose one of these, but it’s a trick question. These are all the most important bits of your website. Miss out any one and it’s like having a three legged stool – doesn’t work very well without a lot of propping up. When you’re buying a website, or helping someone else to get online, then think about all the elements.
I write web content for people – writing words and putting them live too – but recently I’m being drawn into much more technical areas. That’s fine (you don’t achieve Chartered IT Professional without liking technical bits) I’ll help and advise anyone who asks. What isn’t so fine (I find it really disheartening) is that so many people are treated badly by suppliers; IT, design and marketing suppliers. Many people don’t understand what they’re buying when they invest in a website and I don’t agree with ‘buyer beware’!
Here’s my Quick Guide to Buying a Website
- Remember all three elements – design, technical and marketing – you don’t want a two-legged stool. Here are some random thoughts on each element – which I’d be happy to expand on… just ask.
- Design
Design is about a lot more than pretty images and wonderful fonts. Brand matters so the right look and feel to represent your business is important. Design doesn’t stand still, so you’re entering into an ongoing relationship with your designer. Design must take account of best practice when it comes to HCI (human computer interface, interaction, usability – or making sure your visitors can use the website easily). Design should take account of different abilities and devices.
- Technical
You need to make sure your website is built on the right platform (gulp! – what? – even if you don’t understand me, I’m still right). You need to know who registered your domain, who hosts your site and you definitely need the access codes. Not convinced, then read this blog post about website access. Websites need to be backed up and it must be possible to recover them in the case of disaster. You must understand any licensing requirements (they are your responsibility). Security is important – you wouldn’t leave your business premises unlocked would you? Speed matters. Technical stuff needs maintenance, so be ready for an ongoing relationship.
- Marketing
Your website needs to be found – that means SEO and there’s NO excuse for ignoring good practice completely. There’s more to online marketing than throwing a website live and sitting back and waiting (very little about marketing involves sitting back and waiting) so be prepared for ongoing work (that’s why content management systems are developing and improving so fast). Writing for the online world IS different (yes a lot is the same too, but there are differences). Results must be measured and analysed.
Understand your contract. What no contract? Then at least understand what you’ve signed up for and in particular, what you own.- Make sure you have everything you need to recover if disaster strikes (e.g. a relationship turning bad, server problems, supplier stops trading, etc.)
I hope it’s obvious I feel strongly about this. I hope more people start to ask the right questions before they buy a website. Maybe I’ll write a checklist… Tell me what you think below.
If you have a small business website, then I have only one tip for your business this Tuesday: Make sure you have your website access details. That means you can log on (or ask someone else to) and access the details of your site.
You wouldn’t rely on someone else opening the door to your business premises whenever you wanted access. You’d make sure you had your own key. The same applies to your website.
Tips Tuesday Website Access Details
Make sure you have the ‘key’ to website access, which is at least the first two things listed below:
- Details of who is hosting your site and logon details (including password). This gives you access to your website.
- Details of who has registered your website domain for you. You may not have access to this (it depends which supplier you chose) but you should definitely know who registered your site and what date your registration runs out.
- Details of access to any CMS (content management system) you may use.
If you’re now thinking – good grief Dawn I have no idea what all that means - then at least believe me when I say that understanding doesn’t really matter. You know you need to know your bank sort code – but you don’t need to understand the details of what the numbers actually mean. You do know you need it and should have a record of it somewhere. Fortunately, the banks tend to include our sort code (and other account details) over just about everything they send us (but that’s’ another story) so it’s easy to find – not so with most web services.
If you don’t know details of your website access, then you’re leaving a very valuable resource in hands that one day might not be so friendly to your businesses.
So please, even if you don’t understand what I mean, make sure you have your website access details – and if you’re not sure what to ask for, I’ll draft the questions for you if you send me an email.
Business people need professional websites. Don’t allow urgency to overcome professionalism. Learn from the website mistakes I came across last week.
I had a busy week last week – actually, I had one of those ‘where has the week gone’ moments on Friday when someone asked me if I could complete a ’25 things to do’ document for them. The problem was I just didn’t have the time to do it immediately and because I was so busy, I forgot to take a breath and ask why the sudden urgency. You see this person has been meaning to do these things for months and now this has become top of the to do list and there’s a sudden urgency.
I think that urgency grips everyone (in business or not) now and again. This can be powerful force for getting things done. It can also be a powerful force that drives business people to make the wrong decisions.
This week I looked at quite a few websites (as usual) and two in particular stick in my mind.
Websites Built by a Professional?
The first website had been built by the website owner’s son. Now that’s fine if the son is a professional, but he clearly isn’t: no account of SEO, the website doesn’t meet standards and it’s not ranking at all in Google (I know why, but the owner – and his son – don’t). Why did the owner go this route? Because he needed a website urgently. Hmm – but what he’s ended up with doesn’t work and doesn’t do what he wants. He’ll now have to do what he should have done in the first place and ask for some help from the right website professional …like me hopefully 
Lessons to be learnt from this website:
- Make sure the person building your site knows how to build a site that will deliver what you need – and preferably also has some ideas about what’s needed that you didn’t realise yourself. Like what:
- being found by the search engines
- a site that works on different devices (iPod, laptop, blackberry, corporate PC, home computer, etc)
- reducing the likelihood of spam
- standards – don’t yawn! – not everyone in this world has the same abilities and meeting the right standards means more visitors
Professional Websites for Business People
Business people should choose professional website suppliers. Here’s another example of urgency taking over sense. I’ve been asked to write some content for a client – a few new pages. As you know I also put pages live on websites for clients as part of that service. Only problem is that ‘the website guy’ won’t allow anyone access – he won’t even give the website owner the passwords. Outrageous! The client owns the website (I checked) not ‘the website guy’. Does he really think he can stay in business with an attitude like that? I thought those days were gone –clearly not!
How did this come about? Well my client needed a website in a hurry and rather than speaking to a few suppliers and making an informed choice, she went with the first person she met at a networking event. Well I’ve got news ‘website guy’ – play nice, or we’ll move the hosting away from you and set up somewhere else, with the same domain name, same website, same design, same pictures, same content and with new content and a more professional supplier too.
Lessons to be learnt from this website:
- Choose your supplier carefully. If you don’t understand what they’re saying then maybe they’re not the supplier for you.
- Make sure you own your website (you probably do) and keep control of it.
- Know that there are plenty of professional website people out there and most of us will be happy to help you get away from unreasonable suppliers.
Next time you feel in the grip of urgency to do something right now, something that’s needed doing for months, take a deep breath and make sure you make the right decision for your business (not for the urgent voice in your head).
If you’d like me to look at your website, or if you need some advice about moving away from a supplier who isn’t delivering what you want, then contact me – always happy to chat or email and give advice!
Businesses understand the numerous benefits of using social media sites to develop their business and promote their company. One of the most popular sites being used by business owners is Facebook, however, an increasing number of businesses are establishing Twitter accounts. Twitter is an excellent tool that businesses can use in a variety of ways.
Keeping Customers Updated
Most people think of Twitter as something individuals use personally to keep others up-to-date on their thoughts and daily routines, but the Twitter application can be used for so much more. Twitter is a terrific tool for businesses to keep up-to-date on the latest business happenings and also quickly bring awareness to new products, services, and information that may not easily reach their customers through other advertising methods.
Communicate with Customers
One of the best things about Twitter is that businesses aren’t simply talking at their customers, but they also have the opportunity to hear what their customers have to say. Many businesses are learning that Twitter is a great place to get feedback on products, services, and ideas. Twitter allows open communication and dialogue between users, and business owners simply need to ask their customers what it is they want to know. The right feedback can help a company improve.
Hiring New Employees
Some companies are even using Twitter to bring in new employees and interns. Using twitter to tell others about a vacant position is a great way to spread the word that a company is hiring. As the message spreads, the company can receive resumes and recommendations with more ease than if the business had placed an ad in the local paper.
Finding New Clients
More than anything, businesses are eager to use Twitter to find new clients and customers. One of the easiest ways to find new customers and clients is to simply use the Twitter Search Engine to find users interested in the keywords related to the business’s product or service.
Business Communication Tool
Some companies are even using Twitter to make their business operations more manageable. It has become a tool that easily allows employees to communicate with each other (this is especially helpful for companies that have employees that sometimes work off site). Twitter is also a fantastic way for people within a company to record important ideas and concepts they may want to further explore.
Follow me on Twitter.
Avoid These Truly BAD Email Practices
Last week I wrote about follow up emails and that made me think more about some of the emails that I don’t like, the ones that irritate me. The ones that will be leaving a bad impression on customers.
I’m sure we all must have things we hate about emails, so I thought I’d give some examples of what to avoid.
Three Examples of Really Bad email Practice to Avoid
- There’s one organisation (nameless, for now) that I email regularly. I immediately receive a reply thanking me for contacting them – so far so good – and then telling me that they’re really busy at the moment and won’t be able to reply for least 48hours – oh dear, I wonder what they really think of my message! (I know what I think of their message.) And what makes this worse, is that this auto-response has been the same for at least 1 year. If they really are so busy, then why not clear the backlog?
- Someone contacts me by email and then in the email, tells me not to reply to the email! I don’t care how busy these busy people are – they can use their sophisticated email systems to sort out the replies to their ‘unmonitored’ email box and stop telling me what not to do.
- Emails that have a standard subject, so I don’t know what it’s all about until I open it – and of course it’s then hard to find it again!
My top tip this week – avoid these three bad email practices. What else would you like to add to the list?
A really simple question this week. How do you follow up? Promptly? I’m sure we all know that’s the right answer – you must follow up promptly; leads go cold quickly, so don’t delay, follow up today; show you care, contact them again; our attention span is short, so be quick… etc.
What I find interesting though is why we don’t always follow up promptly. And here’s a confession – this week I found myself explaining why I hadn’t replied to an email from a customer. Yes that’s right, an existing customer and I didn’t reply promptly, in fact I hadn’t replied at all gulp! I wonder how many of you are feeling smug now and shaking your heads in despair at me and I bet there’s a few who know exactly my situation. I did have a very good reason, you see, – eh no actually there isn’t really ever a very good reason is there?
So what’s my point?
My Tip This Week: Have a Follow up Policy …and stick to it
It’s all about meeting and exceeding expectations. Here’s what to do in four steps:
- Think about all the contact methods that apply to you
- Someone leaves a phone message
- Someone sends a personal email
- You meet someone at a network event and promise to follow up or take some action
- A general email arrives (a newsletter for example)
- Someone sends a letter or other mailing
- Someone replies to an advert requesting more information
- You speak at an event
- …
- Think about categorizing contacts – some will need faster follow up than others
- Think about the different ways you could follow up
- Send an email
- Make a phone call
- Go and see them
- Send information as requested
- Send regular information
- …
- Finally, define a follow up policy for different contact types.
Then follow the policy as it will help you focus on the important contacts. Of course, that’s only the start, a truly great follow up policy will take each contact with your organisation and weave it into the best journey for that contact and give the results you both want – and that’s all about working out your marketing touches.
If this all sounds like a bit too much, then remember that technology can help with automating the marketing touches – find out more by signing up below:
And who was the customer? Pets Homes and Gardens …sorry Julie!
As part of Dorking Business Show (16 September, put it in your diary now) I’m running a free Masterclass on social media, content and all things web.