Saving Our Website Clients from Themselves

I will share something that a great website design company should do.  They have to be strong enough and knowledgeable enough to put you in the their place.  Yes, you heard me right: “put you in your place.”  

But how can that be you are thinking.  “I’m the client, so why would my website company put me in my place?”  Sometimes it’s necessary.  

One of the most common events that occurs in the website design process is that after we do a basic design and we seek their approval, they want to change the whole concept (as opposed to minor things), because “they” would prefer something else.  

Here’s the challenge: It’s the client’s website, but if we let them do whatever they want, they begin to deviate from our expertise and they are ultimately being left with a less effective website.

A good website design company cannot allow that to happen.  There are times, we have to explain to our clients that the changes they want to the design is not acceptable to us, because it’s going to leave them farther away from their goal...and that’s more business.

Often times, ego, preference, analysis paralysis will lead client’s to pick apart every little thing that jumps out at them.  This is fine.  This with every client to a certain degree, but when it gets to the point where they are undoing what’s effective, it becomes a big problem.  In the end, the question we ask is “Why did you hire us if you know how it needs to be done?”  

I bring this up to let you know that your web design company must act in this manner, because they are doing what’s best for you and your business.  This is why we say: “We have to save our clients from themselves.”

Lack of Congruence in Small Business Marketing

A common issue we see with small businesses is that their marketing is not congruent. For example, there's one small business I saw recently where the website has one look and feel, businesses cards have a different color scheme, and the brochure had a completely different logo! This mishmash sends an unprofessional message to the clients and customers.

Having congruent marketing throughout all your advertising and marketing pieces is becoming more and more important in the eyes of consumers. Branding is no longer for big corporations. Small businesses now need to brand themselves as well. The consistent message, look and feel, color scheme, logo and other details is very important. The consistent message sticks with people.

We're finding in our businesses, that it's taking more exposures or touches to get our future customers engaged and familiar with us. It's increased because of the Internet. In one day now, people are bombarded with more info and ads in a single day, then they were 20 years ago over a week. Having a congruent, branded marketing messages helps with your exposures and potential customers remembering you.

Does your website, business cards, billboards, brochures and store signs send a congruent message?

Website + Sales Process = Revenue

A properly designed website can definitely bring you people for your business, but one thing I want to caution people on is that it cannot close those sales for you.

People need a website and a sales process to bring in your overall revenue.  

I only state this, because I think there is a misconception out from business owners (especially new ones) that when your website generates interest which can be in the form of a phone call, email, or a form request on your website, that the people are ready to buy right at that moment.  Maybe.  But I have watched business owners take a prospect who was ready to buy and turn them into a no sale situation.

I'm not going to get into a complete sales training here, but I will break down some areas that we teach our staff in our companies.



We teach a five step sales process to our people.  The five steps are:

1)  Connect

2) Develop

3) Introduce

4) Follow-Up

5) Close

In the Connect step, you are making that initial connection and that can happen in the first five seconds, five minutes, or five hours in a conversation. It depends on what's going on, but use a typical call off your website. That usually happens in a minute to five minutes.  Once you know who they are and they know who you are, then the connection has been made.

In the Develop step, you are developing the relationship and determining why they are calling and what they need.  This is all about the person you are talking to.  This is 90% of you asking questions and 10% listening.  Once you have gathered a lot of information and the conversation starts to move where they want to hear what you have to offer them (what's in it for them), then this step is over.

At this point, you transition to the Introduce step where you introduce what you can do for them and you want to tailor your services or products to what is most important to them which is something you should have determined in the Develop step.  You are talking more hear and they may ask a question here and there and you may have to ask more questions to clarify their questions before you continue to introduce what's important.  Once you have explained everything that your business can do for them, then it's time to wrap up that part of the conversation.   At this point, the prospect will want you to send them some information that they can review (this depends on the type of personality you are dealing with) or they may ask for how do you pay you for what you have to offer.

If they want to get going,  then skip to the close.  You don't have to wait for them on follow-up if they want to buy right now.

If they want to review information, then make sure you schedule an appointment or time to follow-up to address their questions on the materials.  Schedule that follow-up time and then determine in this step what they need to make a decision.

Once they are ready to buy, then get whatever closing contracts, payment plans, etc. that is needed and close them. 

That's the "Reader's Digest" version of what we teach our people, but we felt that this would be helpful to you on a long-term basis.

Manager Your Own Advertising or Hire a Professional for Your Small Business?

Advertising your small business on the Internet can be a daunting task, especially if you try to use Google Adwords. Adwords is a very powerful advertising platform with incredible reach, but it's also incredibly confusing.  We've seen many of our clients start advertising on Google and then get stumped or run a very inefficient campaign. If you don't understand how the Adwords platform works, it's very easy to overpay for an advertisement.

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Adwords, as with many online advertisers, has a formula that calculates the cost of every ad, every time it's displayed. It takes dozens of factors into account to determine how much you will pay for the ad. The price you pay compared to another advertiser's ad right next to you, can vary by dollars. A couple of dollars many not sound like a bunch of money, but keep in mind that you pay that advertising rate every time someone clicks on your ad!

We've seen such extreme examples where one advertiser is paying around 50 cents per click, while another advertiser who is right next to the other is paying $5 or more per click! This example will drive home the point: Let's say you have a $1,000 a month for Internet advertising.  If your Google Adwords campaign is poorly managed and you're paying around $5 per click, then you can only drive 200 people ($1,000 divided by $5) to your site. Now, if you have an efficient campaign you could drive 2,000 people ($1,000 divided by $0.50).

Advertising on the Internet is not as simple as buying radio spots or newspaper ads where you can do negotiations for placement and build relationships with your rep to get better deals. Internet advertising is all about the numbers and is impersonal. People who know their numbers, understand the rules and can put the time in, get results. Unless you have the time to log into your account daily and go through regular training courses to stay on top of the latest changes, you're better off hiring a professional. And don't go with some big company as a package deal (think phone books...) because they do a horrible management job. They know their clients know very little about Internet advertising and take advantage of them. Stick with a professional that can show your numbers on a regular basis and that you can talk to directly. You want a one-on-one relationship with ad manager!

Contact us at Viginti Media for further help.

What Type of Small Business Website Do You Need?

There is no "one website style fits all." Depending on your business, you may need one style of a website than another small business owner. You may need a full blown website with all the details and even a shopping cart. Or you may need a simple site (or even just one page) with some essential information about you and your business.

Don't let what other people are doing or a prebuilt template force down one route. Stop and think what information your customers need. Are they going to your website for your contact details? To learn about a product or service before they even contact you or step foot in your store? Too many websites are designed to look pretty, but accomplish little to nothing for the business owner.  Make sure you know what exactly your customer wants and communicate it on the website.

Another very important thing is to make sure your website looks good on all types of devices - smart phones and tablets! More and more people are accessing the web from mobile devices. Don't waste your money on a smart phone app.

If you currently have a website, ask yourself, "Does it communicate the info that my customer and potential customers want and need?" If it doesn't... then get in touch with us!

Pay Per Click Ads: Law of Diminishing Returns

The other night my dad contacted me and asked about advertising on the web as an immigration lawyer.  My dad is a lawyer and  is thinking of diversifying into immigration law.

His questions like most of clients were more general in nature: How would I have a website for this?  How would people find me? How much would I have to spend for a client?

These are all great questions and make a lot of sense from a business person's point of view.  So, in doing my best to address his questions at an this early exploratory stage, I wanted to do "rough" analysis of the amount of website clicks are available out there for immigration lawyers.  In another words, how many people are out there searching for a immigration lawyer or something related and how much is each click if you were to pay for the traffic?

I was appalled at the lack of skills going into this group. Either the lawyers are doing the advertising themselves or they have hired incompetent firms to do it for them.  The cost per click range was between 80 cents a click and a whopping $32.00 a click.  You might be thinking...that's quite a range.

Here is an interesting thing I think even a rookie in paid advertising can see, but yet they clearly hadn't based the bids that this marketing platform is getting.  Once the cost per click got to $2 the amount of traffic you got from $2 on up was negligible, because a graph indicated the amount of traffic you would get as you paid more per click and it was straight and then leveled off when it got to $2 a click. The fact that $32 a click was in the graph shows one of two things:

1) Either someone is way over-paying past the point of diminishing returns; or
2) Their Quality Score is so bad, it's driving the upward amounts paid by people in this community upwards.

It's probably a bit of both.  If you don't know what Quality Score is, then search for the term "search engine quality score" and read up on it.   The more you know about it, the more you'll realize you need professionals to handle your website marketing.

Needless to say, I told my dad that if he were a client, I would advise that your website is dependent on other advertising media beyond pay-per-click, because of the climate of the people advertising in this area.

Now, it's not to say that you cannot win this game and by the looks of the numbers I am seeing, I bet most of the people advertising (the law firm itself or a hired firm) is pathetic in their advertising knowledge, so they can be beat with a good quality score.

I just wanted to share this story, because I think it's a common problem out there for service type businesses like law firms.  They just don't have the time to monitor this stuff and don't understand whether or not their advertising is being done correctly.    Buyer beware on firms that "claim" they understand pay per click marketing.  It could be costing you a ton of money.

Video on your Website: Worth It or Not?

A common question we get from people is: "Do I need video on my website? Is it worth it?"  That question "opens up a can a worms," because it can totally be "worth it" IF it's done right.  There's the rub.

The problem with video on websites is most people try to cut corners and either do a video themselves or have a low quality job done by their neighbor who "dabbles" in website design and video editing. In that case, it actually can hurt your website.



Now, the question is whether or not it's worth it.  The cost of a good video can bring you a lot of business, so it's a great investment in a lot of cases.  If you have a business with benefits that are hard to describe or you have unique advantage over the competition, sometimes a video can do a better job of explaining these things to your future customers / clients.  So in those cases, spending the extra money on video can pay huge dividends.  Again, that's IF you have a video that's done right.

Understand that having a professional quality video isn't enough; you need a video that follows the proper marketing principles and ultimately answers the questions on your customers' / clients' minds. We have seen so many videos out there where the business owner paid good money and got high quality as far as video shoot and editing skills; you came away thinking "that was a nice video."  The problem was that it didn't sell the product or service.

If you think about commercials you see on TV and remember how many times you thought to yourself: "That was a great commercial, but I don't even know what they were selling."  Now, huge companies with millions to spend have that luxury; sometimes, it's just terrible marketing and other times it's branding themselves on a long-term basis.  Most small business owners don't have that luxury.  You need to get right to the point on what your future clients / customers will want from you; why they will come to you; what makes you different, etc.

So, we'll close this week's topic with this:  Ask yourself these questions:

1) Do I need video?
2) If yes, then why? If no, then why?
3) If yes, what exactly will make my potential customers say: "I got to do business with them."
4) Who's going to do your video for you?