This is why I don’t think that typical businesses should spend a fortune on a brochure site which provides no inherent transactional value; the likelihood is that you’ll need to change your website ever few years, so paying several thousand pounds a time on a purely informational brochure site is just throwing money way.

A good web agency will anticipate the need for your site to grow and adapt with your business, so in theory this should never be an issue; however often clients get in their own way from the outset, and a lack of flexibility or foresight by the client during the development process can often lead to difficulties adapting in the future.

Just keep in mind very early on that the business for which your website is being built now could look completely different in 12 months time – do you want to keep paying through the  nose due to outgrowing your site or would you rather it grew with you?

So that’s a wrap folks – hopefully we haven’t depressed you too much!  The reality of having a website developed often falls short of the expectation for many reasons; however with a smart strategy and a level head you can avoid the mistakes most small business owners make and have a website that really works for your business.

With all three if these clients I thoroughly discussed what they needed, and when the all said they wanted a “Latest News” section I advised that failing to keep it up to date could reflect badly on their business, since people associate the activity on your website with the activity in your business.

All three of them enthusiastically pressed on, with assurances that they’d have no problem posting updates.

5 years on, and two of those sites still have “welcome to our new website” as their most recently story… Dated to 2006.  The other did have a few articles posted, with the last one being added February 2007.

Now I know for a fact that all of those business are still operating and are, actually, flourishing; however if I was none-the-wiser and stumbled across any of those sites, I’d assume they were all out of business because their website has shown no activity for so many years.

These guys weren’t the first to neglect their site, and they certainly won’t be the last.  When I launched this very website I made a somewhat snide blog post about this same subject, slyly chastising people for not committing to publishing regular content.

Of course, months later I ended up removing the dates from my blog posts so people wouldn’t notice that I was going months between updates.  Now I’ve kicked myself up the backside on the content front, the dates are back!

Point is, you will neglect your site, guaranteed; and when planning a new site you have to let honesty stow off over-enthusiasm and novelty when it comes to committing to features such as a blog, portfolio etc.

There have even been companies in the past who have attempted to sue Google, either because they didn’t rank their websites highly enough, or because they had seen their rankings drop.

For all those people, and for you, let me simply say this… Google don’t owe you a damn thing.

So many people forget or ignore the fact that Google are a commercial enterprise, not a public service.  Their only obligations are to their stakeholders, the only way their make money is if people use their products, and the only reason people would use their search product in particular is if the results for searches are relevant and of quality.

Why then, should Google care about your crappy little website?

Or maybe they do, maybe you’re sitting pretty atop the listings for your desired search term, if so, then good for you!  But remember, topping the search engines is both fragile and overrated, and in no way is it a situation with which to become complacent, or on which to base your entire marketing strategy!

The Google Algorithm is a fickle bitch, and there are a number of cautionary tales about why relying on topping the search engines is a bad idea.

Besides, being at the top of Google doesn’t guarantee anything anyway, a rubbish website is still a rubbish website whether it’s on the first page or the fifty-first.  If your website is unprofessional, ugly, poorly coded,  poorly written etc etc then all a page one placement I google will mean is that you’re embarrassing yourself and your business in front of more people than before.

Relying on any third party to generate success for you is beyond idiotic, so your best bet is to just focus on crafting the best website for your visitors and users which, funnily enough, is the “secret” to SEO…

What you like doesn’t matter!

Probably one of the sorest points in the development process comes when the client and the designer/ developer clash over a particular feature or element of the design.  The developer often gets hacked off because they’re the “professional”, they have the experience and knowledge, so they know best.  The client gets angry because it’s their business, their project, they know it inside and out, so they know best.

The truth is, neither party knows best.  It doesn’t matter what you, as a client, want your website to look like, how you want it to function, because when it comes to this process, you don’t matter – the only ones who matter are your audience, your existing and potential customers.

Too much time is spent arguing over making the logo bigger, or deciding what colour the text should be, and nowhere near enough time spent truly trying to understand what will appeal to visitors.  They honestly do not care about the vast majority of the things you care about when it comes to your website, and while you may think you know “what’s best” for your website, you need to remember that what is best for your business is to have a website which generates revenue, so you need to start focusing on the people who are going to provide that.

Nobody cares!

The truth is, a run of the mill “brochure”/informational website serves little purpose other than simply existing.  It holds no tangible value to the average Internet user, and even in cases where your website does offer a little bit extra, the average “reach” of the site owner is too small for it to really have any significance.

This isn’t to say that a standard brochure site is worthless; because those people who do visit it will be doing so with a purpose, most commonly after meeting a representative of the business, essentially as a validation/fact checking exercise.  In that sense, for the average small business owner their informational website does form an integral part of the sales process, but it is very rare for websites of this nature to ever generate more than a handful of visitors a day.

A solid online marketing strategy centered around your website can change both its purpose and its performance, however most business owners tend not to actually know how they are going to use their website other than to pop the link on all of their promotional material.  By turning your website into a resource – something around which you can build social media activity, content strategy, email marketing and so on; you stand a much better chance of seeing a return on your efforts.

However if you’re pinning all of your hopes to a 5-page brochure site with no real strategy around it, then you need to change that mindset quickly and ensure that you have a solid marketing plan to leverage other marketing activities in addition to your website.

Tomorrow we’ll be taking a look at why you’re the least important person in the process of developing your website – so if I haven’t depressed you enough for one day, be sure to check back in tomorrow!

As with so many things, the application of online channels somehow makes many people see “going viral” as a new thing, or even something you can “buy” or strategically plan.  Most viral content happens by accident – being contrived, by nature, often goes against the notion of viral content.

However viral content isn’t something which suddenly appeared because of the Internet – big companies were at it years ago, and while it may not have been Facebook “likes” and Youtube views which showed us how popular something was – the streets and playgrounds were where the real talking and sharing happened.

I’ve picked out two of my favourite examples of what I feel are great examples of “pre-viral” viral content; starting with a simple, stupid, but fantastically repeatable ad campaign for Dime bars:

The shout of “Armadillos!” spread like wildfire, and is still remembered fondly by many people over 15 years on.

This advert for Tango was so “viral” it ended up being banned, as kids throughout the UK suddenly took to mimicking the ad and slapping each other, in some cases causing a bit of damage.  Almost 20 years on, this advert still sticks in my mind.

There are no doubt countless other great examples, but the point is that none of these needed a social media campaign to permeate the day to day lives and mindsets of people far and wide.

What adverts or other examples of viral content and campaigns do you remember which pre-date the rise of the Internet?  Or do you think the idea of “viral” is one which only relates to online marketing?  Comments, as always, below!

However so many business owners employ a “hit and hope” approach to marketing, almost with the expectation that their efforts will fail to a larger degree than they’ll succeed.

It’s somewhat expected that direct mail campaigns will only have a success rate of 5-10%; that email marketing campaigns will only be read by 10-20% of people; and that if 40% of the people visiting your website leave  just as quickly as they got there it’s performing well.

The expectation for success in marketing is minimal, yet accepted.  This makes sense, when you think about it – imagine if you sent out an email campaign to 10,000 people, and every single one of them decided they wanted to buy from you – would you actually be able to handle those levels of business?  I know for a fact that I wouldn’t; and unless you have a team of hundreds of people or a warehouse filled to the brim of stock then the chances are you wouldn’t either.

The chances of that happening are slim, but that scenario does underpin the irony of marketing – in most cases we need it to fail more than it succeeds, and we’re happy throwing money and resources at this pursuit of failure.

This highlights an opportunity, and in many ways a need, to market smarter – to focus on smaller, targeted marketing activities, where the likelihood of success is greater, and the implications of that success aren’t too much to handle.  Many already do this – highly targeted search campaigns, email marketing and telesales – but are you doing enough to raise the success rate to a manageable level?

Is it better to “convert” 5% of an audience of 10,000, or 50% of an audience of 1,000?  It’s less about increasing the amount of customers, and more about eliminating the waste – or the expected failure rate – that is involved in getting those customers.

It’s just something to think about and hopefully steer you towards more focused, targeted marketing.  I believe we all take for granted that 95% of people ignoring our marketing efforts is an acceptable loss, so it’s good to challenge those ideas every now and then.

As always I’d love to read any thoughts on the matter – have you any examples of “hit and hope” marketing you’ve done in the past?  Has there every been an occasion where the success of a marketing campaign has caught you unaware?  Or do you think a “spray and pray” approach is the best or only one we have?  Thoughts, comments and questions below!

Now, however, the internet is somewhat saturated; and it takes a little more thought and effort to not only attract customers to your website, but to ensure they buy from you too.  This article aims to give a few essential tips for e-commerce on the social web.

Add a bit of polish

First and foremost you need to ensure that you own “shop” is in order; and that means well-written product descriptions and good quality imagery.  These two essential areas often let e-commerce store owners down due to being overlooked in the rush to start selling online.  In addition to words and pictures, consider adding videos for product demonstrations, if possible.

Go social

Ensure your business has a presence within the world of social media; but remember that this arena is all about ‘conversation’, not selling.  While that may seem to defeat the purpose in terms of promoting your store, where social media is strongest is in building up a presence, and nuturing brand loyalty.  Use twitter to share exclusive discount codes; enable fans of your Facebook page to access vouchers – your market is out there waiting for you to engage with them.

Give something away

People love “free” – so if your e-commerce venture involves the sale of information, in terms of ebooks, training guides, videos etc – consider producing a freebie which you can offer through your site, either to all visitors, or to people who subscribe to your newsletter etc.  This can work if you’re selling conventional products too – an online store selling gardening supplies would certainly attract more people in with the offer of a free guide to pruning your rose-bush!

Run a blog

In the same vein as giving away freebies; attaching a blog to your e-commerce store through which you can publish informational articles related to your field is a sure-fire way of attracting visitors as well as appealling to the search engines.

Engage your customers

Make it easy for customers to communicate and engage with you, as well as talk about your products.  Many major e-commerce sites display product reviews – however this is not always replicated by smaller outlets, usually out of fear of negative reviews – let go of that fear and allow your customers to converse about your products.

Be different

depending on what you’re selling, it can be hard to be unique if your range is the same as countless others.  However as they say, it is often the little things which count; so think about the wording of your sales pages, the email templates which are automatically sent out to customers – what can you do to promote your individuality?

Spread the word

Again this comes down to harnessing the vast and varied array of social media and sharing resources available.  Enable your customers to share your website and the individual products on it with their friends;  make your products available as an RSS feed in order to keep people updates, and ensure that you utilise such resources as Google Merchant Centre to submit your product feeds to their database for extra exposure.

The possibilities presented by this new, more social-orientated web are endless; and actually favour smaller online traders – the important thing is to start thinking about how best to connect and engage with your market rather than merely trying to sell to them.  Hopefully this article has provided some food for thought to get you on your way.

This is yet another step by Google to shoehorn their social media efforts into their search offering, following the addition of their “+1″ button a while back; and has drawn a mixed reaction from online observers.  Personally, while I understand and don’t necessarily dislike this development – with all things considered I believe there is a fundamental flaw in the change…

What does it mean?

Unlike before, when a search for a particular topic would return results based on a variety of factors used to determine relevancy; we now get these results from the internet at large, as well as a sampling of results from content which your Google+ network have shared.  This content may not otherwise have been deemed relevant by Google using their prior search metrics, but because somebody you’re connected to has shared – or essentially, recommended – this content, it is seen as being of higher relevance to you personally and as such is displayed along with standard results.

Don’t be evil

Much of the negative reaction is centred around the hypocrisy many feel Google are displaying with this move – going against their mantra of “Don’t be evil” (or in practical terms – put the needs of the customers/users before the needs of the company) and manipulating their position as the leading search engine in order to give priority to the promotion of their own social media platform over the provision of truly relevant search results.

The development has been labelled as a display of nepotism, and while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a company making money and promoting their own products and services, the fact that the “Don’t be evil” company ethos has become so high profile makes it a bit of a bitter pill to swallow for some.

Google, however, are promoting Search+ as an evolution of search, stating that the inclusion of results from your Google+ network gives you an unprecedented level of personalisation to your searches; meaning the results shown are ones which are most relevant to you, not just most relevant “in general”.

The problem with “Social”

This is where I feel the fundamental flaw in what Google are claiming about Search+, and it relates to the way in which many of us use Social Media in general.  The premise Google are focusing the positives of Search+ on is that content viewed and shared by your friends becomes more relevant purely because of your connection – however when it  comes to social media, most of our connections aren’t necessarily people we consider friends, and in many cases we don’t know them at all.

Purists will argue that the “right” way of using social media is to connect with friends, acquaintances, colleagues, industry leaders etc – but the reality is that this doesn’t happen.  Sure, we connect with those people, and they’re probably the only ones we ever really engage with – but the majority of most peoples connections are superficial at best.

There is a culture of reciprocity which is rife throughout social media – you follow me, I follow you back; you share my content, I share yours – and so not only do you end up connected to hundreds of people you don’t know, who you connect with purely out of being polite; but you also end up sharing content which – if found independently – you’d pass over.  Of course that doesn’t describe all of us, but you’d be naive to think that’s not the norm.

The flaw

With all of these things considered, Search+ will potentially become filled with recommendations from people we don’t know, and content shared without being read or validated for quality/relevancy by the people sharing it.  Should such superficiality really be influencing our search results?

Putting aside the problem of wafer-thin social connections influencing search; it’s also a certainty that this will be manipulated by search marketers looking for shortcuts to boost their rankings.

When you consider that Google appeal has always been simplicity – suddenly having all of this added “noise” within your searches, as well as having to not only assess whether a listing is one you want to view, but also whether the “endorsement” from someone in your social network is a valid one has the potential to make search a far more frustrating process than ever before.

You can, of course, disable Search+ – but it’s enabled by default, and so the likelihood of people doing this is slim.  Instead searchers will no doubt be more likely to flick through the first page or two of results before heading off and looking somewhere else for what they need.

The reality of it is that even if the fears and concerns put forth in this article come to fruition, it will be with a muted response.  Google have a stranglehold on search and are so deeply routed in the daily routines of Internet users that people will simply adapt and fall into line.  Despite the negative tone I can see me quite liking Search+ for the most part; but as for “Don’t be evil”, I think Google’s attempts to appear to be upholding this have fallen down on this occasion.

So, what are your thoughts on Search+, is it a good thing or a bad thing for search?  Have you noticed any of the issues I’ve mentioned or do you think I’m full of hot air?  Comments and opinions, as always, are very much welcomed and appreciated.

PS: be sure to share this on Google+ before you go….

The same goes for social media – particularly Twitter, which is the most “conversational” of the main social media platforms.  The most common reason I hear from people about why they don’t use Twitter is that they simply don’t know where to start and what to Tweet about.

 If you’re in a similar position, here are 4 top tips for you:

Embrace small-talk

Something I’ve heard a lot over the last few years in objection to using Twitter is “nobody want’s to know that I’ve just walked the dog”.  It’s an understandable point, but the thing is, it’s the mundane stuff like this upon which conversations are built.  Think about the last time you went to a networking meeting – what were your first conversations like when you walked through the door?  Most likely things like the weather, what the traffic was like on your way there, how badly you need a coffee etc.  Safe, surface-level small talk.  Twitter is no different; while there are some quality conversations happening, they’re padded out by the mundane stuff.  So if you’re not sure what to tweet, then tweet about what it is you’re doing, or what you’re thinking – don’t overanalyse the small stuff, just be natural with it; you’re personality will come out better that way and while you’re not likely to have crowds of people flocking to ask you about the cup of tea you’ve just made, you’re making yourself visible, and you’d be surprised with how the most insignificant things can spark conversations.

Find common ground

This is a useful one to keep in mind not just for coming up with “stuff” to say, but also finding people to connect with.  It’s assumed you have an interest, a passion, a hobby – and unless you’re particularly partial to making cauliflower sandwiches while snowboarding nude then chances are there’s at least one other person in the world who shares your interests.  Twitter makes it easy for you to find people who are talking about the sort of things which are relevant to you by simply searching for a topic.  If you’re a designer, find other designers – if you’re into fishing, search for people talking about fishing.  You’ll find a variety of conversations in full swing, and unlike a “pub” setting there’s no downside to jumping right in – in fact in most cases people will welcome it.

I mention 4Networking occasionally in my blogs and videos – it’s a UK business networking organisation I’m a member of, and unlike other companies of their like, they’re fully embraced online networking and social media.  To that end, whenever people tweet about 4Networking, they typically “tag” their comments with #4N.  That gives an extremely easy way for a new member of that organisation to search for this tag (“hashtag”) and find other members to connect with and talk to.

That common ground gives you an easy place to start or join a conversation – or to post something that will get people talking to you.  With the #4N example, if you connect with a bunch of other members, then you’ll know that tweeting something with “#4N” is going to be noticed.

Help someone out

I don’t mean offer to go round their house and babysit their kids – there are far easier ways to “help” people on Twitter.  If someone posts an opinion, a link to a blog, a question etc then they’ll be grateful to anyone who can help spread their message further.  Twitter gives you the ability to “retweet” what someone else has written – akin to “forwarding” an email on to your own list of followers.  Doing this kills two birds with one stone – it’s “content” you’re putting out there to your followers, and it builds your social capital (“brownie points”) with the person you’ve helped, often presenting you with an opportunity to engage with them further.

It also shows people that you’re helpful, and in turn will likely make them more inclined to help you out in future too.  So keep an eye out for people asking questions or tweeting about a particular piece of news etc – don’t just blindly retweet everything without a seconds thought – but be mindful of the upside of wanting to help.

Share interesting content

This is where social media becomes a powerful marketing tool rather than just a way to make virtual friends.  Content is currency when it comes to online marketing, and Twitter is a fantastic way to get that content out there.  If you’ve written a blog, published a video, contributed to a particularly interesting forum post, or have any other interesting content which you could share with the world, then tweeting the link out is a must.

Quick note: don’t just tweet the link without saying what it is – I’ve seen many people doing that!  Instead tweet something like “If you’ve ever been stuck for what to tweet about, this blog may help: www.blahblah.com”

Social Media is a great delivery vehicle for your content, so if you’re sitting scratching your head about what to tweet, all the while you’ve got a stack of brilliant articles on your website, then you need to start linking to them!  It doesn’t have to be new stuff either – of course tweet links to new blogs or videos etc, but pull some quality articles from the archives and link to those too.

People are far more inclined to click a link they see from someone on Twitter than they are on, say, a forum – because Twitter moves so quickly they’re worried they’re missing out!

And don’t just tweet the link out once and then forget it – mention it a few times over the course of the week as chances are not everyone will have seen it.  So Monday morning you may say “Check out our new blog post…”, Wednesday evening it could be “Did you see our new blog post…”, Friday morning it’s “For anyone who missed it, here’s our new blog post…” and so on.

A little content goes a long way to not only building your expertise and giving people a reason to connect and engage with you; but to also giving you a message to get out there and something to say other than “walking the dog LOL”.

So, I do hope this has helped any of you out there with “Tweeters Block” to identify ways in which you can get stuck in to Twitter and start the ball rolling on making connections.  What other challenges do you find with Twitter?  Is there anything else which puts you off using it?  If you’re a “seasoned” tweeter, how long did it take you to get to grips with it, or did you just jump right in?  I’d love to hear any thoughts or contributions in the comments section below!