The Power of a referral

I have started working with a new customer and that customer has referred me to one of his clients. The new prospect said "If Sam is using you thats good enough for me" As a small business owner those words are very powerful. A referrals is a guaranteed way to build a substantial business. The best way to get referrals is to join BNI http://www.bnimelbourneeast.com.au/index.asp

Welcome back to an old friend

An old friend has come back into my life. It says a lot about our digital lives when I am referring to software as an old friend. I would like to welcome back Avidian's Prophet back into my life. If your not familiar with Prophet, take the time to get acquainted!. Prophet is a fantastic CRM program that sits inside outlook. It just works and if you need some tech support, their people are excellent.
Have a look at http://www.avidian.com/default.aspx

Return on Investment (R.O.I.)

1.    

A website should either generate money in the form of new sales or save you money by helping you to communicate quicker and cheaper with your existing customers. There are plenty of stories of how companies spent thousands of dollars on a flash new website and the site didn’t add a dollar or save a dollar for the company. If a web designer skips around ROI, then, perhaps you should skip away before you spend any money with him.

I love it when a plan works

I have recently started working with a customer who wants to become known as a 5 Star Hot Water specialist. So we built a site, set some goals in Google analytics and started the process of building his business on line. A few short weeks later his business has started to achieve the goal of new customers via Google.

He is ecstatic at the early results, and so am I.

Your site must be professional

Just because your nephew knows first aid doesn’t mean you should let him perform open heart surgery on you. First impressions count and on the internet you have around 4 seconds to generate that first impression. 

Email Marketing

Having a website with the ability to email your customers is a very powerful tool, in fact an integrated email solution is the cheapest and quickest way to keep in contact with your existing customers. In many cases email marketing is a very expensive add on that a web designer might offer! All Online Knowledge websites include email marketing.

 Online Knowledge Email Marketing

Programmers & Designers

A website can be built with a range of competing technologies. In many cases web designers discuss the technology and the platform they use to build a site. When this happens it makes it very hard for a customer to tell the designer what they want or expect. The customer can end up with a site that doesn’t meet there needs. This could be due to several reasons:

• A great designer who is a bad programmer
• A great programmer who is a bad designer
• A bad designer who is a bad programmer

A programmer writes the instructions the computer needs to display your website, allow you to buy a product, etc. A designer knows what looks good on a screen and how to get the best visual effect. It is rare (read expensive) to find someone who is both a great designer and a skilled programmer. You should look for a web company that has separate designers and programmers, that way you end up with a site that works and looks good.

Online Strategy

It is amazing at how many websites are out there that have no correlation to the company’s business strategy.
A website should contribute to the marketing goals of a company and should be measured by the same R.O.I. scale as any other part of the business. If your designer has not asked you about your companies business strategy, and builds a site on what he/she thinks will look good, because the logo changes colour or the menu items look “cool” then it is time to get another designer. Linking your website and your business strategy is a complex process that requires the help of a marketing and sales specialist.