by ac4designs | Jan 9, 2022 | Uncategorised
Becoming a website owner is a challenge that I understand from personal experience.
In terms of being a website owner, this post is a case of ‘do I as I say not as I do’. I hope it offers some insight into things to consider and the potential pitfalls of choosing to set up and manage your website.
This post considers aspects of planning and approach.
I began developing my WordPress sites at the beginning of 2012 ahead of a planned business launch in January 2013. Halfway through 2012, I realised I had to reconsider my approach. I needed to stop and create a new plan to develop my website structure from the ground up. This took extra time, and the work I had put in on my website in the early part of the year, was lost. The lessons learned were real and valuable, and the new version was better. The content creation and the planned structure were ready to implement and over the next month or so the Phoenix rose…
During the second part of the year, I also helped develop and deliver a seminar to colleagues a the Audit Commission on setting up as a website owner. This post contains content from that work, and thanks must also go to my colleague Jim Gwilliam for his clear and concise advice.
Owning a website is a BIG decision!
Setting up and managing a website is a complex task.
.. .and the bad joke of the day! A website is not just for Christmas…
Owning a website is much like deciding to own a pet or have a child.
- It requires planning (always better to do this before arrival).
- you must be committed – in terms of time to nurture and develop.
- It will turn your world upside down! With demands, you just won’t expect!
Do you need to be a website owner?
The first choice in the website journey is – Do you need a website? Once upon a time, the only way to get an online presence was to have a website, understand HTML, coding and essentially be a nerd (sorry if I have offended any nerds out there). Social media, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, Pinterest, Instagram and all manner of other blogging and online platforms have changed the web landscape forever…
You can now promote, advertise, sell and brand build yourself, your services and your products without ever having to own a website. The possibilities are constrained only by your creative thinking, around how to use any given social media platform to deliver your online presence. For example:
- LinkedIn: A personal profile and networking tool. This has the option to add a company page to promote your business products and services.
- Facebook: The social networking platform of the masses! You can also promote your business and even sell directly through Facebook. Facebook advertising lends itself well to product selling to targeted audiences.
- Pinterest: This growing social media network is becoming popular with product-focused retail sellers looking to promote their products visually. By linking profiles directly to purchase options such as Amazon, a small business can create a simple sales route.
The pitfalls of using social media platforms as your key online presence
Using social networking to promote your business, and deliver an online presence is a practical approach, as many big and small brands use. When starting, give these options some real thought. Take some time to assess the platform and whether it offers your business proposition a clear audience. Is focused energy spent on a social platform that you can affect, better than lots of energy spent on creating a website that is beyond your control? If you can create a connection with your target market you will be achieving your business goal.
However, the potential disadvantage of building your business proposition on social networking platforms is that you do not own the site. In many cases, the content is also not yours (make sure you understand the T&C’s of any platform you use). There is much less control over how a platform might change over time. Changes made to the infrastructure of your chosen delivery platform might have consequences for your business, with little you can do about it.
Social media is now an important part of your online presence and for the most effective outcomes ensure social networking is integrated with your online activity. If you chose to use it as the delivery platform for your products or service, make sure that you keep up-to-date with potential changes and new features to make sure you do not run into difficulties.
Define your objective
The question to ask yourself before you proceed any further is simple – What is my objective? It is vital to understand this before you begin to consider how to build and manage your website. Your reasons for developing your website will be your own. For this blog, we are going to discuss them in these terms.
- Personal – Just for fun, to support a hobby business, raise a personal profile, or to support a charity. Essentially, a website you have time to learn and develop with and where ultimately financial success is not the driving factor.
- An online e-commerce business.
- A business providing services, (a website can support online and offline business services).
Why does this make a difference?
Because it should lead you to your first big decision… DIY or professionally developed?
If you are looking to build a website to support a business proposition aiming to deliver real returns, you should consider the following. While you’re learning to build your website, you are not growing your business. Your value to your business, let’s say as an hourly rate, is likely to be much more than that of your web designers. It’s a question of the best use of your time.
How much is your time worth?
This blog does not offer financial business advice. However, the following approach to evaluating the value of your time is useful.
- Decide upon a figure for the annual return you would like.
- Now divide this by the hours you wish to work (1840 is 46 weeks, 5 days a week for 8 hours as a guide).
- This will give you your base hourly rate.
- Now multiply this by your chosen non-productivity factor. No one is productive for all of their working days. Even the most successful business people tend to accept that they are productive for only about a third of their time. So, multiply your base rate by 3 or 4 to give you your final figure.
The number you have come up with is the total that your time is worth per hour. My guess is it’s higher than you expected. It certainly was when I completed the task. So why is it of value? It should give you a different perspective on the potential of buying in services, such as web design. Is it better to spend time learning to build a website, or better to spend time building your business? Yes, a web developer will cost money, but your time is not FREE. A website takes time. And lots of it if you don’t know what you’re doing, or have a clear objective.
If it takes you two hours to adjust something technical on your site, it’s going to take a professional less than half that time (if they are any good).
So get some rates, do the maths, and ask yourself, ‘Am I saving money?’
Get your website priorities right
OK. You are still want to take on this challenge yourself! Then the next step is to get your priorities sorted. Novice web owners view the priorities of their site in this order (and I know I certainly used to):
- Design
- Technology
- Marketing
Wrong!
Marketing is the factor that will decide whether your website succeeds or fails. Focus on this before design or technology. Design and technology are things to be adjusted to fit your marketing goals. Your website is about getting traffic and converting visitors. If you’re planning to become a website owner to support a business, then I would recommend reading Make Your Website Sell by Jed Wylie. This book walks you through the entire planning, set-up and management process.
Marketing your site
Step 1: Customer profiling
Define your ideal customer (and not your average buyer) considering these attributes:
- Name
- Gender
- Age
- Appearance
- Occupation/salary
- Other identifying traits – (relationship status, past failures/successes, likes/dislikes – look for identifiers that bind your market together)
- Emotional needs (to feel secure about business, freedom from stress, etc.)
- Core desires (to earn more, spend more time with family)
The more detail and types of customers you can identify, the clearer the picture.
Step 2: Ask yourself some key questions
Next, answer the following questions about your website and from the answers (taking into account your customer profiling) you will have some clear ideas about how your website should work.
- Who (is it for?)
- What (do you want them to do?)
- How (are they going to do it?)
- When (do you want them to act?)
- Why (should they bother?)
You have reached the website base camp.
OK, so this is the end of Becoming a website owner, hopefully, it has challenged you to think about what you want to achieve and how you might best go about this. In the end, the decision, as they say, is yours! Choose wisely and make sure you stay focused.
by ac4designs | Jan 9, 2022 | Uncategorised
Why small businesses should make the most of colour?
This post is about an effective approach, that can significantly improve the visibility of your brand. Big global brands take full advantage of colour, but many smaller businesses fail to grasp the importance of this attribute.
The power of colour
Colour is hugely powerful and emotive in all aspects of life. It is used all around us every day to warn us, direct us, define our mood and reinforce our perceptions. We all understand why a fire engine is painted red, and what a blue flashing light means. For business branding and marketing, colour is just as powerful. The best brands understand the importance of colour to support the brand and messaging.
“Research reveals people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product, within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on colour alone.”
Source: CCICOLOR – Institute for Color Research.
The quote above is also found in this article on the same theme along with several other very interesting facts.
www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/why-color-matters
Take the colour test.
Lok at the list below, and write a brand name next to each one. See how many match my answers at the end of this article. (No peeking!)
- Red:
- Orange:
- Yellow:
- Green:
- Blue:
- Purple:
- Red & Yellow:
- Green & Black:
- White:
- Multi:
How many of your answers match mine? That is not the point. After all, colours are not owned, (with a few exceptions), by brands. It is not the only aspect of establishing a successful brand identity. However, I would be more surprised nay astonished, if you could think of an answer for each. The point is to emphasise how important colour is to establish brands in the mind of customers.
The lessons for small business
So how is this applicable to my small local business? Yes. You may have less, actual and potential customers, but the rules are just the same. Securing your colours in the mind of your customers will ensure recognition of your brand, and the message is amplified. Now, it’s important to make clear, colour on its own is not a winning marketing strategy. Your message importance to the customer and your capacity to deliver on your promise, remain the key factors. Painting your falling down the wooden fence, a consistent shade of red does make it effective at keeping the chickens in the field. It can have the opposite effect and get your ineffective fence noticed for the wrong reasons by your neighbours… (Slash customers!)
BUT there are several key benefits to using colour consistently with effective messaging
- Increased recognition of your brand.
- Improved engagement and trust.
The common mistakes small businesses make!
It seems obvious but happens so much, in my opinion. Inconsistent use of colour! Most business owners understand they need a logo to define their business for marketing purposes, but few consider the application. Consistent presentation of your identity and use of colour has so many benefits. It simplifies the time, effort and money required to deliver your message. Essentially, because there is no debate on the issue of presentation of colour. Allowing you to focus on getting that marketing message just right. Sadly so many small businesses fail to take control of their presentation style and colour use. Leading to marketing material that may be effective in its message but that does not embed your brand recognition. It will also inevitably lead to increased costs in creating materials, for example, debating the presence of colour for each task.
The five simple rules, for small business use.
Before you read my list, I should make something clear. This list defines a simple approach for your brand. There are plenty of examples of brands that use colour in complex and creative ways. However, the more complex the use, the more time and money it takes to manage, so if you are a small business, try the following:
- Define a simple colour palette for your business.
- Ensure your logo reflects your use of colour.
- Use colour consistently in all your marketing material.
- Document your colour palette and ideas on colour use in your business and across marketing. Share this across your business and with those that apply your brand.
- Be consistent!
The use of colour by some brands is very much more complex. There are times when you will need to adjust your approach to colour. Sub brands or developing individual product brands are just a couple of examples. But for a small start-up or existing business, keep it simple. Look around you and ask yourself what your brand colour or colours are? Now ask yourself (and others) if your customers would give you the same answer? Look at your marketing material and ask, does it all look like it comes from the same business? If the answer is no, it has almost certainly cost you more money than it should have. And probably missed an opportunity to embed your brand in your customer’s mind.
Colour by itself does not make you successful. But it will help!
PS. Link to great infographic http://www.bitrebels.com/design/what-your-logo-website-colors-say-about-your-brand-infographic/
>>>
This is my list. Remember I am UK-based, so my answers are biased that way, and it is all subjective to your own experience).
- Red: Coca Cola
- Orange: B
- Yellow: AA
- Green: M&S
- Blue: Boots
- Purple: Cadburys
- Red & Yellow: McDonald’s
- Green & Black: Starbucks
- White: EBAY
by ac4designs | Jan 9, 2022 | Uncategorised
Brand, should not be forgotten!
Posted on May 11, 2012
Remember your brand is your business.
In the current economic climate, you might be forgiven for thinking that grappling with the complexities of your brand is the least of your problems.
However, a strong brand and effective management can help protect your business in tough economic times. It can even position you to take advantage of potential opportunities.
Follow the big boy’s example.
Big businesses such as Apple know this, but the same is true for us smaller guys. It’s just sometimes harder to stay committed when times are tough. Effective brands help ensure customer loyalty and protect profit margins by establishing a robust market position.
Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and everyone that comes into contact with it. It is the total of their experiences and perceptions. If delivered well and managed successfully, a strong brand can offer protection during an economic downturn.
Branding is not an optional extra
The fact is, investing in strengthening your brand is simply something you should be doing in the modern business world. An economic climate that creates pressures can even prove a positive environment for a small business with a strong brand.
So start by asking yourself these questions about your brand.
• What is our message? Is it delivered clearly?
• Does it enhance our credibility?
• Is it connecting emotionally with our customers?
• Does it help motivate our market to buy?
• Is it cementing customer loyalty?
If you do not have answers to these questions, then the time has come for you to start working out what they are. As a small business, do some research (the internet is a free resource) and get your management team together. Analyse the status of your brand and develop a brand strategy. If this all sounds like a mountain you’re not sure you can climb on your own, seek professional assistance. The options are wide, from freelance professionals to large agencies. Your budget may play a part in your decision. Remember that you tend to get what you pay for. Even more important than the cost is ensuring that whoever you work with has genuine empathy for your business and a real desire to see you succeed.
Deliver on your promise
Tough economic times require your brand structure and presentation to be effective, adaptable, and agile. It must remain connected across your business. Customer service, corporate communications, and public relations need to understand the role they play in delivering the brand promise.
This is not highbrow thinking that only certain types or sizes of business have time for. Every business has a brand because every business presents a promise to its customers. Whether it is, we are the best, the cheapest or trust our quality. Ensuring that your business delivers the outcome your customer needs is vital to success in competitive economic periods.
My advice. Firstly focus on strategy. Now is the time to take a good look at your business. Ask yourself some of those big scary questions like, who are we, and what do we offer? Then ask yourself what do you need to do to make yourself stronger, smarter, and more relevant?
Get creative. Think and re-think opportunity, not just survival. The opportunity is there to change your message, your offer, anything about your business to achieve a positive outcome.
