Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Your website needs to be regularly updated. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again now, and I’ll say it as often as I darn-well need to get you to believe me.
A common reason for an update is a new offer from your business. If you’re doing some kind of crazy midnight sale for the first 100 people that show up with their pants on backwards, it should obviously go on your website.
To make the most out of your update, put together a few different techniques:
1. A Landing Page A landing page is a page on your website where you might send someone first. When you’ve got a great offer to talk about, you should have a landing page about it. It contains all the relevant details and some copy that compels people to take action.
2. A Home Page Button Right on your homepage there should be a button that leads to your offer’s landing page. This way the casual visitor to your site immediately discovers your offer, and only has to click once to learn about it.
3. An Email Campaign A couple weeks before your event, run an email campaign that builds interest in your event. Work with our eMarketing team to create an attractive frame and engaging copy, and include links directly to your landing page.
Update like this, and see your web site go from online billboard to interactive marketing mega-tool.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
5 Ways to Avoid Getting Duped on Review Sites
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Last week we told you about a company that forced it’s employees to write glowing reviews of it’s services on independent rating sites. The company was eventually sued, but not before some unsuspecting people got duped.
When you read reviews on rating sites, take each one with a grain of salt. Here are five grains to help you evaluate the independence of a reviewer:
Is it all positive? Good reviewers know that their opinion is valuable only if it’s honest. Reviews that don’t touch on negatives or downsides to a service may not be in touch with the same reality that we normal people live in. Be skeptical of the all positive review.
Is it hyperbole? Does the review use a lot of extreme phrases like “Amazing” or “will change your life”? Chances are good that you won’t have the same experience. Call me a cynic, but I think we’re pretty well-educated consumers, and it’s rare that a product or service can truly amaze us.
Does the reviewer have a profile? If a review smacks of insincerity, read the writer’s profile. If possible, read other reviews they’ve written and compare the writing style. Do they always write the same way? Have they written reviews that bash competitors? Both are indicators of where a writer is coming from.
Does the reviewer rate other things? A good way to measure the value of a review is to see what else a reviewer has rated. If they’ve only written reviews of this one service, there’s probably a reason (e.g. maybe the place is owned by a friend). If they’ve written many reviews and come to different, realistic conclusions, you’re probably getting more honest answers.
Does the review apply to you? When I lived in Brooklyn, I used to get my hair cut at a barber shop that served alcohol. Actually, more like a barber shop that let you serve yourself some of their alcohol. They had this little bar in the back, and you could just grab a glass of whatever you wanted. It was the craziest thing.
It was a pretty cool little spot, but let me tell you something - it was not kid friendly. It was raw, smoky, and ... well let’s just say “Not P.C.”
I would have written a good review of the place, but I bet any mom who brought her kid in for a haircut would have given it a horrible review. Fair enough. It’s up to the reader to determine which of our reviews applies to him or her.
Hope this helps.
-Dave
Last week we told you about a company that forced it’s employees to write glowing reviews of it’s services on independent rating sites. The company was eventually sued, but not before some unsuspecting people got duped.
When you read reviews on rating sites, take each one with a grain of salt. Here are five grains to help you evaluate the independence of a reviewer:
Is it all positive? Good reviewers know that their opinion is valuable only if it’s honest. Reviews that don’t touch on negatives or downsides to a service may not be in touch with the same reality that we normal people live in. Be skeptical of the all positive review.
Is it hyperbole? Does the review use a lot of extreme phrases like “Amazing” or “will change your life”? Chances are good that you won’t have the same experience. Call me a cynic, but I think we’re pretty well-educated consumers, and it’s rare that a product or service can truly amaze us.
Does the reviewer have a profile? If a review smacks of insincerity, read the writer’s profile. If possible, read other reviews they’ve written and compare the writing style. Do they always write the same way? Have they written reviews that bash competitors? Both are indicators of where a writer is coming from.
Does the reviewer rate other things? A good way to measure the value of a review is to see what else a reviewer has rated. If they’ve only written reviews of this one service, there’s probably a reason (e.g. maybe the place is owned by a friend). If they’ve written many reviews and come to different, realistic conclusions, you’re probably getting more honest answers.
Does the review apply to you? When I lived in Brooklyn, I used to get my hair cut at a barber shop that served alcohol. Actually, more like a barber shop that let you serve yourself some of their alcohol. They had this little bar in the back, and you could just grab a glass of whatever you wanted. It was the craziest thing.
It was a pretty cool little spot, but let me tell you something - it was not kid friendly. It was raw, smoky, and ... well let’s just say “Not P.C.”
I would have written a good review of the place, but I bet any mom who brought her kid in for a haircut would have given it a horrible review. Fair enough. It’s up to the reader to determine which of our reviews applies to him or her.
Hope this helps.
-Dave
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Top 3 Benefits of E-Commerce Sites
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
I haven't given you a list in a long time, huh? Well why didn't you say something!
How's this for a useful one:
1. More Revenue Customer service is all about individual attention. No kidding. But guess what - your e-commerce site can give individual assistance to a bucket load of customers all at the same time. That's more sales, and more dough to feed the bottom line. Blammo.
2. Less Time Know what else? Your e-commerce site does 90 percent of the sales work for you. If someone can find your site, they can buy your stuff. That means the average time you spend on a sale drops dramatically. Write that down, junior.
3. Easy Marketing With an e-commerce site, all you need to market your product is a link. Email it to your list, and they're a click away from buying. So easy, a caveman could do it.
Check your pulse, Ladies and Gents. If those aren't the kind of benefits that get you all hot-and-bothered, I don't know what will.
I haven't given you a list in a long time, huh? Well why didn't you say something!
How's this for a useful one:
The Top 3 Hard-and-Fast, Rock-Bottom Business Benefits of e-Commerce:
1. More Revenue Customer service is all about individual attention. No kidding. But guess what - your e-commerce site can give individual assistance to a bucket load of customers all at the same time. That's more sales, and more dough to feed the bottom line. Blammo.
2. Less Time Know what else? Your e-commerce site does 90 percent of the sales work for you. If someone can find your site, they can buy your stuff. That means the average time you spend on a sale drops dramatically. Write that down, junior.
3. Easy Marketing With an e-commerce site, all you need to market your product is a link. Email it to your list, and they're a click away from buying. So easy, a caveman could do it.
Check your pulse, Ladies and Gents. If those aren't the kind of benefits that get you all hot-and-bothered, I don't know what will.
Monday, September 21, 2009
An Intro to e-Commerce
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Actually, you probably don’t need an intro. I bet you’ve used e-commerce sites many times before. If you’ve ever bought something from amazon.com, you’ve been a part of e-commerce. Even if you’ve just done some product research before buying something at a store, you’ve been a part of e-commerce.
What it is
e-Commerce is a name that covers a wide range of internet services. In it’s broadest sense, e-commerce is any of a number of web applications that allow people to research and buy products online. Examples being amazon.com, eBay, overstock.com, woot.com, and on and on. Essentially, any web site that gives visitors the ability to buy something online is a part of the e-commerce landscape.
Benefits to your Business
The benefits of e-commerce to businesses are obvious. By allowing your customers to buy your products at their convenience, you take advantage of sales opportunities previously unavailable to you. It’s like having a store that’s open 24 / 7. If someone want’s to buy your widget at 3am they can.
It also takes advantage of sales space you didn’t have before. Now your buyer doesn’t have to leave their house to purchase your products. Your store comes to them. They can browse as long as they like, add items to their shopping cart, and check themselves out. Your storefront is now in my living room.
Benefits to your Customer
The benefits to your customers are the same in some ways. Being able to purchase necessities quickly and easily leaves more time to accomplish other tasks. Being able to do so without driving someplace also saves fuel, and the frustration of standing in line. It makes shopping a less intrusive experience.
It also helps customers easily find what they’re looking for. With a searchable database of products, visitors simply type what they need, and your website brings it to them. No more wandering through a store, wondering if toasters would be with appliances or kitchen goods.
The research potential is not to be overlooked, either. e-Commerce sites allow people to browse prices and offers at different stores without having to actually visit them. By comparison shopping on the web, often stores find that customers need less guidance and have fewer questions.
e-Commerce is a win for both sides of the sales process.
Actually, you probably don’t need an intro. I bet you’ve used e-commerce sites many times before. If you’ve ever bought something from amazon.com, you’ve been a part of e-commerce. Even if you’ve just done some product research before buying something at a store, you’ve been a part of e-commerce.
What it is
e-Commerce is a name that covers a wide range of internet services. In it’s broadest sense, e-commerce is any of a number of web applications that allow people to research and buy products online. Examples being amazon.com, eBay, overstock.com, woot.com, and on and on. Essentially, any web site that gives visitors the ability to buy something online is a part of the e-commerce landscape.
Benefits to your Business
The benefits of e-commerce to businesses are obvious. By allowing your customers to buy your products at their convenience, you take advantage of sales opportunities previously unavailable to you. It’s like having a store that’s open 24 / 7. If someone want’s to buy your widget at 3am they can.
It also takes advantage of sales space you didn’t have before. Now your buyer doesn’t have to leave their house to purchase your products. Your store comes to them. They can browse as long as they like, add items to their shopping cart, and check themselves out. Your storefront is now in my living room.
Benefits to your Customer
The benefits to your customers are the same in some ways. Being able to purchase necessities quickly and easily leaves more time to accomplish other tasks. Being able to do so without driving someplace also saves fuel, and the frustration of standing in line. It makes shopping a less intrusive experience.
It also helps customers easily find what they’re looking for. With a searchable database of products, visitors simply type what they need, and your website brings it to them. No more wandering through a store, wondering if toasters would be with appliances or kitchen goods.
The research potential is not to be overlooked, either. e-Commerce sites allow people to browse prices and offers at different stores without having to actually visit them. By comparison shopping on the web, often stores find that customers need less guidance and have fewer questions.
e-Commerce is a win for both sides of the sales process.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Your Web Site's Personality
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Salespeople know a few things about authenticity. The best ones know how to bring their unique personality to bear in such a way as to create success.
Guess what else is like that.
Give up? It’s the thing I talk about every week…
Come on...nothin’?
Your WEB SITE, fa’ crying out loud!
Because Business is Personal
You can imagine that I’ve seen some doozy web sites in my time. Especially in the early days, web sites didn’t have much personality at all. Sure sometimes there’d be a funky background or a wacky image, but real personality had a hard time coming through on the web.
Well it comes through now. And in the business world, it’s expected.
Who You Are = Who Your Web Site Should Be
This is sort of a hard topic to talk about. Every business, like every person, has a unique personality that they bring to the table. Often, the most salient traits of an individual are what cause him or her to go into a specific business. You can’t always draw a box around those traits, but you can feel them. You know they’re there.
And those traits, when properly leveraged, can be exactly the ones that lead a person to success.
It’s the same on the web. The unique character of your web site, expressed in the colors, the copy, the imagery, the logos, the staff photos (or illustrations, in our case) all come together to give your web site a unique personality.
And that’s what sells
It’s a low-trust world we’re living in. That’s so true, that if someone hasn’t already used that line in a blues song, I’ll hang up my guitar and build web sites for a living (ok, I already do).
In a climate where trust is low, the really powerful people are authentic. And that’s what we’re building here at IntelliSites. Authentic web sites that reflect the real, core values of a business. Sites that engender trust, that water the seeds of business relationships. Sites that help you spread your message genuinely.
And you know what? It feels pretty good.
Salespeople know a few things about authenticity. The best ones know how to bring their unique personality to bear in such a way as to create success.
Guess what else is like that.
Give up? It’s the thing I talk about every week…
Come on...nothin’?
Your WEB SITE, fa’ crying out loud!
Because Business is Personal
You can imagine that I’ve seen some doozy web sites in my time. Especially in the early days, web sites didn’t have much personality at all. Sure sometimes there’d be a funky background or a wacky image, but real personality had a hard time coming through on the web.
Well it comes through now. And in the business world, it’s expected.
Who You Are = Who Your Web Site Should Be
This is sort of a hard topic to talk about. Every business, like every person, has a unique personality that they bring to the table. Often, the most salient traits of an individual are what cause him or her to go into a specific business. You can’t always draw a box around those traits, but you can feel them. You know they’re there.
And those traits, when properly leveraged, can be exactly the ones that lead a person to success.
It’s the same on the web. The unique character of your web site, expressed in the colors, the copy, the imagery, the logos, the staff photos (or illustrations, in our case) all come together to give your web site a unique personality.
And that’s what sells
It’s a low-trust world we’re living in. That’s so true, that if someone hasn’t already used that line in a blues song, I’ll hang up my guitar and build web sites for a living (ok, I already do).
In a climate where trust is low, the really powerful people are authentic. And that’s what we’re building here at IntelliSites. Authentic web sites that reflect the real, core values of a business. Sites that engender trust, that water the seeds of business relationships. Sites that help you spread your message genuinely.
And you know what? It feels pretty good.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Managing Your Contacts on the Web
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
There’s a context-setting scene in the movie The American President (I know it’s cheesy, get over it) in which Michael Douglas walks through the halls of The White House on the way to The Oval Office on a typical morning. As he walks, his secretary Jane shuffles hurriedly behind him, whispering the name of the next person he’s going to see.
The gardener, the guy washing the windows - it doesn’t matter. Jane knows their names, their birthdays, how many kids they have and what kind of ice cream they like.
I don’t know about you, but I’d love that kind of help. Except without the following-me-around-and-whispering-in-my-ear-all-day part. That could get annoying quick.
Having deep information on your clients is an invaluable tool for personalizing their experience of your business. If you’re the guy who remembers to ask how Susie is doing in her advanced basket weaving class, you’re building the kind of rapport that gets you beyond service provider and into caring business partner land.
You could get that kind of detailed service from a custom web app. I’ve said before that we build web apps that do just about anything. One of the things they are great at is contact management.
We’ll build you an application that tracks more than the basic name, email and phone number stuff. We’ll build you one that has a place for meeting notes, email conversations, client files, payment history, relationship rating, how that client came to you, what projects you’ve done for them...I could go on and on.
Or you could go on and on. Because the greatest part about custom applications is that they are tailored to fit your business. Maybe you don’t need a list of projects, but you do need a place to keep track of relevant touchpoints with each client. Great! We can do that.
I’ll be honest - I’ve got a thing for organized data. I’ve been known to salivate a bit over clever organizational systems.
But all that org-geekery aside, the benefits of a tight system are innumerable. As I mentioned earlier, having detailed notes on clients allows you to really personalize your interactions. The benefit of having up-to-the-second client info available to your whole team allows you to eliminate client update meetings. If anyone can post client notes a central database, then everyone stays in the loop, all the time.
And that’s about as close to magic as you’re likely to come.
There’s a context-setting scene in the movie The American President (I know it’s cheesy, get over it) in which Michael Douglas walks through the halls of The White House on the way to The Oval Office on a typical morning. As he walks, his secretary Jane shuffles hurriedly behind him, whispering the name of the next person he’s going to see.
The gardener, the guy washing the windows - it doesn’t matter. Jane knows their names, their birthdays, how many kids they have and what kind of ice cream they like.
I don’t know about you, but I’d love that kind of help. Except without the following-me-around-and-whispering-in-my-ear-all-day part. That could get annoying quick.
At Your Fingertips
Having deep information on your clients is an invaluable tool for personalizing their experience of your business. If you’re the guy who remembers to ask how Susie is doing in her advanced basket weaving class, you’re building the kind of rapport that gets you beyond service provider and into caring business partner land.
The Web App that Cares
You could get that kind of detailed service from a custom web app. I’ve said before that we build web apps that do just about anything. One of the things they are great at is contact management.
We’ll build you an application that tracks more than the basic name, email and phone number stuff. We’ll build you one that has a place for meeting notes, email conversations, client files, payment history, relationship rating, how that client came to you, what projects you’ve done for them...I could go on and on.
Or you could go on and on. Because the greatest part about custom applications is that they are tailored to fit your business. Maybe you don’t need a list of projects, but you do need a place to keep track of relevant touchpoints with each client. Great! We can do that.
Not Just Cool for Nerds
I’ll be honest - I’ve got a thing for organized data. I’ve been known to salivate a bit over clever organizational systems.
But all that org-geekery aside, the benefits of a tight system are innumerable. As I mentioned earlier, having detailed notes on clients allows you to really personalize your interactions. The benefit of having up-to-the-second client info available to your whole team allows you to eliminate client update meetings. If anyone can post client notes a central database, then everyone stays in the loop, all the time.
And that’s about as close to magic as you’re likely to come.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Stop Guessing about your Financials
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Those of us involved in businesses of a certain size are familiar with quickbooks. Likely, we’re familiar enough to know that it can be a big, mean, grizzly bear of an application. Without some kind of accounting training, it can be hard to know which of the approximately 11 bajillion reports to use to get some relevant information.
Nothing against the quickbooks guys. They’re the leader in accounting software for a reason. But for the business owner who just needs to be able to get some simple snapshots of his or her financials, using quickbooks is like taking a space shuttle to work. It’s fast and flashy, but there’s more than a little overkill going on.
Monitoring your Benjamins with a Web Application
There’s a simpler way to get a good overview of your business’ financial state. We can build you a web application that keeps track of only the items that you need to see. One that lets you create invoices, track incoming and outgoing bills, and see the value of potential deals. Something you can print simple reports from that give you a high-level understanding of how business is going.
And since it’s a web-based application we’re talking about, you can allow your sales staff access to it anywhere they can get a connection. So when they close the big sale out on the road, you’ll see it in your report before they even call with the good news.
Now Don’t Get Me Wrong
We’re (obviously) not accountants here at IntelliSites. And we’d be fools to say that we can build you a web application that eliminates the need for your accountant.
But what we can do is give you easy access to basic company financials so you don’t need to call your accountant just to see how things are going. With a higher level of company financials available to you at the click of a button, you’ll see trends faster, see results of promotions faster, and be able to make much faster adaptations to company strategy.
And that’s just one more way for you to get ahead of the next guy.
Those of us involved in businesses of a certain size are familiar with quickbooks. Likely, we’re familiar enough to know that it can be a big, mean, grizzly bear of an application. Without some kind of accounting training, it can be hard to know which of the approximately 11 bajillion reports to use to get some relevant information.
Nothing against the quickbooks guys. They’re the leader in accounting software for a reason. But for the business owner who just needs to be able to get some simple snapshots of his or her financials, using quickbooks is like taking a space shuttle to work. It’s fast and flashy, but there’s more than a little overkill going on.
Monitoring your Benjamins with a Web Application
There’s a simpler way to get a good overview of your business’ financial state. We can build you a web application that keeps track of only the items that you need to see. One that lets you create invoices, track incoming and outgoing bills, and see the value of potential deals. Something you can print simple reports from that give you a high-level understanding of how business is going.
And since it’s a web-based application we’re talking about, you can allow your sales staff access to it anywhere they can get a connection. So when they close the big sale out on the road, you’ll see it in your report before they even call with the good news.
Now Don’t Get Me Wrong
We’re (obviously) not accountants here at IntelliSites. And we’d be fools to say that we can build you a web application that eliminates the need for your accountant.
But what we can do is give you easy access to basic company financials so you don’t need to call your accountant just to see how things are going. With a higher level of company financials available to you at the click of a button, you’ll see trends faster, see results of promotions faster, and be able to make much faster adaptations to company strategy.
And that’s just one more way for you to get ahead of the next guy.
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