A down-turned economy presents the perfect opportunity to spend some time examining your business’ online presence. When activity picks up, and it will, wouldn’t it be great to roll out a new look and feel for your customers? The internet is fast-paced and always changing. Staying up to date with the latest design and optimizing trends is crucial to keeping up with your competitors.
Imagine your website with a whole new look: great banners, color scheme, traffic monitoring features, a blog and new social media outlets. If you build it, they really will come – IF your brand is properly positioned online, and ready to capture new and returning customers and markets.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when considering a revamp:
Is your brand your best face?
How is your logo looking these days? Is it still fresh and translating across all platforms? Does it match your mission statement and creed? Is it catchy, grounded and undated? How does it look on your printed materials, ads, and website? Is it capturing the audience you want? Remember, your brand isn’t about you, its about your business and how your customers, clients, readers and guests embrace and relate to it. Big brands update their logos every so often and so should you.
Have you seen your website lately?
Website layout and design trends seem to morph on a daily basis. Staying on top of these design trends is essential in presenting your business online as fresh, modern and professional. You mean business. Business today and tomorrow, not five or even three years ago. It pays to get updated and change up the scenery even a little bit every year. You stay hip and in-the-know, your customers recognize your willingness to keep them engaged and interested.
Today’s websites and blogs (yes, you NEED a blog) are attractive and easily maintained on the client side thanks to formatting and technology from WordPress. Features such as web-optimization, blog posts, archived articles, etc, all help search engines to find what people are looking for. Regularly posting short articles and commentary on your business’ blog is key to staying on the radar with keywords and topics. Your competitors likely have a great looking website with a blog, shouldn’t you? And if they don’t, get there first.
Do you have a Tech Guru?
Do you have an in-house go-to web designer? Not absolutely necessary as there are numerous freelance professionals out there ready to take your online presence to the next level. These designers and developers make it their business to remain educated with new trends and technology. It would behoove you to hire one of them (or a big firm if your needs reach beyond just design and optimization, for instance e-commerce and secure server needs) or at least open a dialogue to gauge how the process works.
Designers these days have at their fingertips the skills required to take your web presence from ho-hum to HELLO in far less time than it would take for you to try and save a buck by doing it yourself. After all, you have a business to run. Leave it to the professionals.
If the designer you choose to revamp your website and online marketing tools is not familiar with your industry (it really helps if they are,) then consider including another marketing professional to pinpoint opportunities during the design process.
The great thing about some of the technology out there today is you can have a website designed so that you can manage the content changes yourself, on your time, thanks to CMS like WordPress, Adobe Contribute, or a myriad of other programs. You can add pages in a snap, update your restaurant’s menu, add photos from an event, whatever. And you really can’t mess it up, either. You own it.
Have you gone viral?
If you haven’t already gotten on the social media bandwagon, do it now. Its not going away and all your competitors are out there, blogging, sharing good information, saying hello, and marketing without shoving ads down the throats of their audience. Take Zappos for instance. Or the wild success of the Kogi BBQ trucks in Los Angeles. They get how social mediums like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube work to build trust and loyalty with their customers and within their organizations.
One small cafe here in Burlington, Vermont, August First (@AugustFirst), jumped on the social media bandwagon months before they even opened. They stirred up brand awareness and developed relationships with future customers who ended up salivating for the opening day. Its been a big hit for them and they continue to nurture relationships with their patrons and tweet about what’s hot out of the oven numerous times daily. You can read more about @AugustFirst’s social media experience here…
Or how about the Senior Concierge tweeting for Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, Ann Peavey (@SeattleMaven)? She’s taken the Visitor Center kiosk in the WA State Convention & Trade Center to a whole new level – online. She fields visitors’ and convention attendees’ question about what in the world to do while in Seattle, and she dishes out her lifelong Seattle wisdom with enthusiasm and authority. She gets it, and her followers – visitors and local businesses alike – can’t get enough of her. You can read more about Ann’s experience here…
Do you have a social media manager on board? You should. Simply propping up your brand on Twitter and Facebook is not enough – its not a ‘set it and forget it’ process. Social Media is exactly that – social. Bringing in someone who’s familiar with what works and doesn’t is definitely beneficial to your online marketing efforts.
Following online branding pros like Joe Mescher (aka theSocial Media Commando) possess thorough knowledge of how it all works for business and personal branding, and can spot opportunities for exposure, growth as well as community and loyalty building. And public relations mavens like Jason Falls confirm: Social Media is your next big challenge.
If not now, when?
Your website isn’t just about you or your business anymore, its about your relationships and building trust and loyalty with your customers, audience, and (believe it or not) your competition. Maybe your marketing plan has changed, or your business is taking a new direction. Do you have something to say? Do it effectively with a blog. Do you have a growing portfolio of projects, products or images you’d like to show off? Let’s feature them in the most attractive way.
A redesign of your website indicates a new direction and fresh perspective for both you and your visitors. There’s no better time than NOW.
Are you ready to take your web presence to the next level? I can help >>
