We take on a lot of customers that have come from bad (digital provider) relationships.  We have over the years lost a handful of customers for the same reason (not very often thankfully!).  In almost every case, I think the problems can be avoided by adhering to a few principles in how you deal with your digital agency (and how your digital agency deals with you too of course!!).

It’s all about a relationship of course – built on trust first and foremost.  The sales process usually helps get this sorted, and you choose someone you feel you can trust.  Once you’ve chosen the lucky company you wish to partner with, here are some tips to help the relationship last as long as possible.

1. Understand your warranty – Unfortunately many customers expect a website to have an unlimited warranty (or a long warranty period), and for the website to work as it did on day 1.  This isn’t the case.  Providing a website is like buying any other piece of software.   Websites live on servers and computers which change every day.   The software which drives your website (web server, database etc) is under constant maintenance and upgrade by your hosting providers.  Because of this changing environment in which your website lives, your Digital Agency partner will almost always place a time limit on warranty fixes.  This is often <90 days in length.  Therefore it’s important to get all your testing done during the warranty period to ensure everything is fixed within the price.  For a website, the provider will fix bugs after the expiration of the warranty period, but it needs to be paid for.

2. Understand your IP ownership rights - About 25% of the new clients we take on come from clients that have been burnt by the cost of having to revert to the software author of a proprietary content management system (CMS) which cannot be edited by you, or your chosen software developer (if that isn’t the original provider of the CMS software).  There are sometimes huge (tens of thousands a year!) license costs associated with these proprietary CMS systems which may be running your website, which cannot be avoided – and in some cases, you also can’t take the site elsewhere and are stuck with the original CMS vendor. Ouch!

3. Don’t be rude – Rude or aggressive emails which are personally insulting and take the focus off the issues and place it onto the people, rarely evokes the most helpful and useful response.    We hold ourselves to high standards of courtesy and professionalism at all times.  A polite but firm customer who points out problems and demands a sensible strategy to fix them, will ALWAYS get a better result, than a rude or insulting client who vents frustration and burns relationships in the process.

4. Remember its a partnership – As much as all businesses want more customers, this is a two way street.  Service providers are looking for long-term customers, and you are no doubt looking for a long-term service provider.  To achieve this requires productive, positive, supportive and respectful relationships.

5. The golden rule – It goes without saying that we all need to show respect, honesty, transparency and ethical behaviour in business.  If you treat your agency as you’d like to be treated – put yourself in their shoes – it usually all works out just fine.

Who doesn’t love mobile apps? No question, they’re changing the way we do a lot of things – particularly communicate (have you seen heytell.com? Unbelievable!).  But does your business really need one?

I’m now starting to see apps made for the wrong reasons.  We’ve had customers ask us to build apps for things that just don’t need apps – I have to hose them down a little and help them understand why.

There is no doubt that mobile is huge – your website should have a mobile version – our new brand is being launched on July 1, and we’ll certainly have a specific mobile version of our site.  Nielson reported recently that smartphones account for 63% of the mobile market now, and as this continues to grow, users will require a more powerful mobile experience from the websites they visit on their phone.

mCommerce is also an incredibly fast growing industry.  Of PayPal 3.6 million active customers, 400,000 (over 10%) used PayPal on their phones in 2010, purchasing 2.5 million items from a mobile device – up from 1% in 2009… 1000% growth!

It’s crucial to understand however, that many brands and businesses just don’t need an actual app – a mobile enabled version of your website is fine, and in many cases, even more suitable, than an app.  Who, for example would download an app of the salsainternet.com.au website (except me!)? Apps are great if they actually provide extra functionality, that a person is actually likely to use, such as interacting with the phones camera or address book, for example.  Even GPS can be integrated with the site (as you can see on our customers mobile site – m.oovie.com.au).

Once you build an app, you’ve at the mercy of the platforms of the distributors – Apple, Google & Blackberry are often altering their systems, requiring further investment in updating apps to suit.  95% of what most people want to do on an app, is available on a mobile website.  In fact, business that are considering an app may want to consider a mobile site as a first step – it’s quicker, cheaper, and will give you some exposure into the mobile use of your brand before you take the plunge into an app. If you build it correctly, you can also leverage existing site content, so you only update content in one place, which is then reflected in your main site, and your mobile site.

Online retailers may benefit from actually having both a website and an app – I think this could only work if you’re a big brand, that users use for regular, repeat purchases!  oo.com.au (only online) have both, and believe that having the oo logo in the palm of the shoppers hand is priceless.  I’m not sure I agree,  since you can setup a mobile site to popup a message asking you to add an icon to your home screen – which effectively then has the same effect as an app icon.

Roses Only also have an app and mobile site – again, given the brand, and it’s likelihood for repeat purchases, running an app may very well be worth it – it’s also likely to make the purchase process incredibly simple for the user.  I can imagine getting a popup on your phone when it’s a week before your wife’s birthday, with a simple one click purchase to send her the same bouquet you sent her last time.  Awesome use of an app for a well established, popular retail brand.  Founder and CEO of Roses Only, James Stevens does agree however, that apps are not suitable for all brands – you wouldn’t necessarily buy large ticket items from an app, for example.

The take-out: If your app is just about delivering simplistic content – create a mobile site instead – not an app.  If you can actually deliver more useful, smart functionality that needs to either integrate with the phones technology, or something that can’t be done via the web browser, then you may very well need an app.

I’ve love to hear your thoughts, or of any other apps that you think are note worthy for our readers.

Thanks to BRW for some of the inspiration/stats in this article.

When was the last time you went to the doctor, told them what was wrong with you, and prescribed your own medicine? Unfortunately the web has created a bad reputation as having plenty of dodgy providers, and the simplest form of the industry has absolutely become commoditised.  You’d be amazed at how often clients come to us with what they think their problem is, and tell us exactly what to build (to solve it). They have little faith in an agencies ability to define and solve a problem for them.

I’d like to think however, that there are a bunch of real, professional digital agencies that can help identify and solve your problems – not just grind out the work to solve a problem you think you’ve already identified.

A podcast I listened to recently (from an ad agency) mentioned that ad agencies started a trend – offering the same old solutions to any problem the customer threw at them – “You need a TV ad”.  Their customers became unsatisfied with the same solution to every problem.  The ROI of TV ads compared to online is another discussion all together, however we’re now seeing the really good agencies creating really effective campaigns that do really solve problems, and that are about more than TV ads.  Some of the banks are doing an amazing job of this.  I think this is what is now separating the big players from the jokers in the agency world – the ability to really identify the problem in the market, find out how the company can solve it, and then execute a genius plan to capture the heart of the consumers.

Companies are now starting to put more faith in really good ad agencies to help them identify and solve their problems.  Instead of banks saying “the competition is tough, we need to be in front of consumers more than everyone else, spend a zillion dollars on TV”, they’re now creating campaigns like the recent nab campaign which firstly identified the real problem (high interest rates, bad relationship with their bank, high cost/effort to exit), realised they have a solution (lower interest rates, payout exit fees, simple transition process) to the problem, then connected with their audience by executing a genius plan (humorous campaigns around portraying a human relationship breakup – with a bank).

We’re now seeing a lot more customers with real marketing problems coming to us with an open mind.  They tell us about their business, we try to understand the problems they can solve for their customers based on their strengths, then execute a web design and online marketing campaign to help solve the problems.

Every website should be created with the same perspective from the outset – what problems are we trying to solve, and how can a website do that?  Gone are the days of just creating a website because you have to – people want to engage with you online, they want to have their problems solved.

Our rates are so high because *this* guy goes through bananas like you wouldn’t believe!!

There is an old adage that goes something like “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”… and this one … “You get what you pay for!”.  Ah, the cliches are endless.

Seriously though, we get this question a lot.  There are a lot of ways to answer the question, and a lot of theories around what a website is worth. After being in the industry for about 12 years now, I believe you get what you pay for (well that’s not true if you deal with a really big over-priced agency that can demand any price they like) … AND also believe that some businesses don’t need to spend a fortune on their website!

If your business is very small, doesn’t have a huge marketing budget, or doesn’t see the web as a strategic part of the business growth, and is a strong offline business (accounting firms are a good example of this), then it’s not likely you need to invest heavily in a web presence, and can get away with having it built by a freelancer or a small agency, however be warned…

I’ve compared digital agencies and freelancers in another post.

As the owner of a mid-tier agency, I can tell you categorically that we charge what we do, to survive.  If we charged less, we’d have to provide a less superior service (and compete with the commodity end of the market), or disappear.  Here is why:

1. Experience - what a surprise huh? Building websites isn’t just about slapping together a design and crunching out a few pages of code.  Anyone that’s had a bad website built knows that there are endless amounts of pain associated with a site that has been built poorly: It doesn’t render properly in the browsers it should; hosted in an unreliable environment; CMS wasn’t setup correctly so you can’t edit all the things you should be able to; the site doesn’t appear in the search engines; it looks unprofessional; usability is poor!  We’ve learnt all these lessons the only way – the hard way!

2. Staff – you’re buying a service, not a product.  The quality of the service you receive depends solely on the quality of the staff that are providing the service.  It’s all about the people you’re dealing with.  The larger, and more professional the agency, the more talented and expensive their staff will be.  There’s a reason more experienced staff are more expensive!  It’s like choosing an accountant – if you go to an inexperienced accountant straight out of school, they’ll be cheaper, and you’ll most likely get poorer advice than from an Accountant that has been working in the field for years.  Probably not a great idea considering the difference that could make to your tax return – why make the same mistake on your website?

3. Infrastructure – Salsa has a dedicated Program Manager who’s sole responsibility is to ensure projects are run to schedule, and to the highest standards.  Our support team is dedicated purely to helping customers maintain their sites after they go live (as opposed to trying to get our developers to support client sites while they’re busy on building new ones). We also ensure the staff are well looked after – we have someone that manages the office, the beer fridge is stocked, the coffee machine is ready for our next client meeting, organises team events, & client xmas parties.  Happy staff make great websites, which makes happy customers.

4. Quality assurance – about 3 years ago we heard a story from a client of ours that had a website built by another agency, which was lost about 90% way through the build cycle.  They had a server problem, and the site that had been worked on for 3 months, disappeared over night – no backup, no copy on a local machine. Nothing. They had to start from scratch.  More professional agencies have backup systems, version control mechanisms, project management tools, development-production synchronisation processes, testing infrastructures… the list goes on.

5. ROI – a site that doesn’t return any customers isn’t a lot of value.  There is a LOT to learn about creating websites that work.  From design (read Blog posts from our Creative Director to appreciate how important good design is – yet another example of amazing staff) to prominence in the search engines, to integration with back-end sales systems – they’re all important aspects of creating websites that work.  It’s not too hard to do the math on what a good website will return for you when compared with other marketing medium, but it’s futile if the site isn’t built with ROI in mind.

6. Your professionalism online – this may sound pretentious, but have you ever driven a BMW, then gotten into a Hyundai?  Not that Hyundai’s are bad cars – I actually think they’re exceptional value for money, but you’d obviously notice the difference in quality and experience if you had the M3?.   If your potential clients look at your Hyundai website, and your competitors BMW website, who do you think they’ll choose?  We’ve found that making a BMW quality website, while more expensive, ends up returning far more to customers in leads, inquiries and sales, and so we focus on delivering quality websites that sell.

BUT I JUST WANT A WEBSITE – WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?!

Here is how you can decide – checkout the portfolio of the providers. Are they of the quality you would like?  Are they BMW’s or Hyundai’s?  Are their customers of a similar size/level of professionalism to you?  Maybe even call a couple of the customers – get some honest feedback.

Bottom line, if you get a price that is considerably lower, you should expect a compromise on some or all of the above.  That doesn’t mean you can’t get a cheaper website, but (wait for the Cleche) “You get what you pay for!”.  When ever we compete against agencies of a similar size to us, the prices are always comparable.

When we compete against smaller agencies, they’re always cheaper.  The clients that understand the difference, are the ones that we love to work with.

Most DIY projects end up either saving time OR money; rarely both.  Managing your own newsletter campaign, believe it or not, will save both of these precious resources.

Bockers & Pony (www.bockersandpony.com.au) recently saved a small fortune by managing their own newsletter marketing campaigns.  There are really good email marketing tools available now, allowing non-technical users the ability to create professional, html newsletters with very little effort.

Typically to achieve this, clients would write their content, select some images, send them to their agency with a list of subscribers, and then have the campaign constructed and sent manually.  The process of getting the content together, going back and forth with your agency a few times, run some tests, make some tweaks, etc, takes just as long as actually doing it yourself!

Tools like www.campaignmonitor.com and www.mailchimp.com allow the construction of these emails via an easy to use wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) editor.  The systems also integrate seamlessly with just about any website, so all subscribers, etc are stored directly into the email system, rather than having to be imported each time you run a campaign.  The unsubscribe functionality can also be integrated, meaning there is effectively no manual work required to manage your subscriber list.

Simple wysiwyg content editing

You’ll need to have an agency design, construct and test your email template once only, and you can then re-use that template over and over for each campaign you send out.

The cost of getting it setup right is typically about the same as having 2-3 campaigns sent by an agency – so you will recoup your costs very, very quickly, and create more flexibility about when you send your campaigns.

In the course of designing websites for a living, it is truly frightening how often I come across spelling errors in all manner of contexts.  Email is a particular bug-bear of mine, however it is, on occasion, equally disheartening to see the content within so many existing websites (and the planned content for new ones) lose its credibility because the Author who penned it had a limited propensity for, or interest in, linguistics.

These range from very simple, presumably unintended errors (typo’s) to ridiculously obvious ones (I came across a recent example that included the words ‘calender’ and ‘festivel’ repeatedly on different pages throughout a clients existing site).

Journalist for Melbourne newspaper The Age, Christopher Bantick, said in a 2003 article he wrote on the subject of poor spelling that “the importance of correct spelling as an indicator of clear communication has been reduced through our increasing dependence on technology.”  Seven years later, in 2010, this couldn’t be more true.

Along with the core forms of media and communication we have come to know, love and develop an almost unprecedented reliance on, such as television and the internet, the enormous growth in the peripheral digital landscape, incorporating social media, blogging, online communication tools (MSN, Skype, Yammer…the list goes on) and mobile content / application development, to name a few, demands we pay even more attention to the way we assemble and articulate words and sentences.

To further encourage our apathy on the subject, we also have to cope with a world which is being increasingly flooded with an elaborate and seductive spectrum of visual data – one in which images, rather than words, are rapidly gaining supremacy.

It is therefore those individuals, businesses, enterprises and organisations that make the paying of attention to these semantic details a critical component of the success of their daily operations, a big step ahead of those that don’t.

Looking at the web in isolation, correct spelling is also imperative for SEO-motivated reasons, if none other.  You want users to find you.  And you want them to find you using the correct terminology.  If you do drawings for a living then you may need to expand on, and further clarify that when it comes to defining search terms.  A quick search on dictionary.com should explain why (as of September, 2010 there are approximately 60 definitions of the term ‘draw’).

In summing up, there are some basic steps you can take to ensure you minimise your chances of eternal intellectual humiliation by spelling mistake.  These include:

1.  If a word doesn’t look right, chances are it probably isn’t.  Use the spell checker (and even dare to click the ‘change or ‘change-all’ button) in whatever application you are using to create content.

2.  If unsure, or for particularly tricky words and concepts, invest in a good dictionary.  These are worth their weight in gold and make an attractive addition to any desk.

3.  If you suffer from extremely low spell-esteem, hire a proof-reader / copywriter / copyeditor.  Make sure they are, however, appropriately qualified, professional and experienced.  Ask to see samples of their work.  Your mate Jim from school who was good at English may not be the most suitable person to write your website content.

I don’t profess to be an expert on the subject but I have found the above tips to come in handy on numerous occasions.  I hope you will too. As Descartes was overheard saying at drinks with friends one night, ‘I think, therefore, I spell correctly.’

First thing to mention, is that it’s not often I see a business succeed with little or no money invested to get things started.  However it usually takes someone at least one try to learn this truth – and hopefully this Blog post will help save some time and pain in that learning process.

I always recommend engaging a professional agency (like us) to help execute a web project, as it’s often an important part of getting a new business up and running successfully.  This article is aimed at those that don’t want to spend that sort of money, and instead are looking for a cheap & nasty solution to help get them started.  Salsa doesn’t provide these services, but here is what we’ve learnt over the years.

Sorry I know it sounds cynical.

Once you’ve taken care of the paperwork (register a business name – https://online.justice.vic.gov.au/cav/br-home, and register your domain name – Google “cheap domain names”), you need to get a website built.

If you have $1,000 – $2,000 to spend on a website.

The cheapest way to get this done is to use a pre-existing Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress, or Joomla, or Magento or OSCommerce for an eCommerce website.  You should then look to download free, or buy a template for the site, instead of paying for a custom design.

Some places to get templates from:

WordPress – http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/

Joomla – http://www.joomlashack.com/

Magento – http://www.silverthemes.com/

www.templatemonster.com is also a source of hundreds of themes, but the quality is inconsistent.

Once this is done, you need to then get someone to build it for you.  www.nachomedia.com.au can help put together a template website at low cost.  Or if you know a freelance developer, have them do it for you – should be around $1,000 for a WordPress/Joomla site, and $2,000 for an Magento/OSCommerce site.

They can probably help you with hosting also.

Credibility is important – so perhaps set up a 1300 number if you can – and have it direct to your mobile phone or land line – makes you look more professional, and doesn’t cost much.

If you have nothing to spend on a website!

Try setting up a Facebook page.  It costs nothing. See this post on how to do that: http://lazarus.salsainternet.com.au/2010/06/howwhy-to-create-a-facebook-page/

Take a look at Twitter also, if you have the time.

You can also redirect your domain name to your facebook page if you want to advertise the domain name, instead of the facebook page in your marketing collateral.

Get people to find you.

Once you’ve setup some sort of online presence as above, people need to find it.  To be honest, this is often the hardest part.

First, you should run a Google Adwords campaign (ads on the right side of a Google search results screen), as this is relatively low cost, and works instantly – you can setup a campaign, and get it running in a couple of hours – gets traffic to your site immediately.  You can check keywords, etc  at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

You can also read about how to setup a campaign here: http://www.salsainternet.com.au/adwords-explained.html

Once you’ve proven the model works online, you can start to work on getting the site to rank well in the free/organic listings in Google (left side of Google search results screen).  There are 3 things that make this work – Structure, Content & Links. More info on how this works here: http://www.salsainternet.com.au/search-engine-optimisation.html

You also want to put your web address on your business card, flyers, email signature, etc to help get the word out.

As mentioned, this approach in my opinion is speculative at best, but costs very little, so maybe it’s worth a shot for those that haven’t tried before.

Good luck!

Use our experience and knowledge to your advantage! (Image: Miika Kumpulainen)

In my 12 or so years in the exciting, yet often wild and rugged terrain of the Creative Management landscape, I have become all too accustomed to the regularity and reality of working with clients who have very specific, highly subjective ideas about how they want their website to look.

Being a former business owner myself, I completely understand the intense relationship one can have with one’s business.  There are undoubtedly certain parallels that can be drawn between owning a business and having a baby – particularly if it is your ‘brain-child’ and the recipient of a large proportion of your life savings, the new and likely unwieldy tenant in your house or the relentless force responsible for keeping your brain ticking away throughout the night.

That said, as a Designer, I do feel an obligation to stand up for and vocalise the virtues of my vocation, just as any other trained, experienced and knowledgeable professional would and should.

Whilst it can be argued that ‘design’ is in itself not a skill that can be officially labelled or accredited (although I personally believe the introduction of an official, widely recognised accreditation program for Designers would be worthwhile) in such a publicly resonant way as say that of a Doctor, Accountant, Solicitor, Chef or even Hairdresser, being a good Designer involves amassing an awareness of, and an ability to do a multitude of things.

We are so much more than technically-apt personnel through which creative solutions are realised, and can and do often wear multiple hats including those of psychologist, philosopher, business advisor, anthropologist, mathematician, problem solver and project manager, amongst many others.

Design is all about finding the right solution that will help an individual or business exceed their clients expectations.  And in doing so, it is fundamentally important that the solution is not just highly functional, but that it delights in delivering to the client or user an innovative experience, or a means of communication, that not only takes them where they want to go but inspires them to want more.

It is this amassing of experience – of searching for, experimenting with and exploring new ways of resolving communication problems, that provides us with the expertise that you – the client – come to us seeking.   It is also what we pride ourselves on offering you.

Next time you come in to Salsa, I’d recommend coming equipped with three things to ensure you get the most value out of our expertise.  Firstly, do develop your own ideas about what sort of interactive design solution you’re looking for.  In doing so though I suggest you ask yourself the following questions:

1.  Does this tie in with my branding?
2.  Will it resonate with my target audience(s) and make clear the objectives of my business?
3.  Will it differentiate me from my competitors? If so, how?
4.  What is the functional basis for my aesthetic decisions? (Ie:  If you think pink should the predominant colour used throughout the site, why?)

The second thing would be to adopt a willingness to be challenged. After all, you are paying us for our expertise, so get the most out of us.  We have worked with clients with requirements and demands similar to yours time and time again, so keep this in the back of your mind.  We also have a thorough understanding of the bigger picture – what design trends might be better to steer clear of and what other creative approaches might be worthwhile investigating.

Thirdly, have fun and remember good design has been proven to place you in a position of significant competitive advantage!  I highly recommend checking out the Design Victoria website for a great (and practical) read on how this does so.  Amongst many other resources and tools, you can also assess how well your business is embracing innovation.

As a digital agency, we often take over projects for clients that have previously been handled by a freelance designer/developer, and find us regularly coming across the same reasons for the switch.  It’s important to note, however that for some businesses, I believe it is a good idea to actually use a freelancer instead of a digital agency to save money.

It’s fairly obvious I suppose, but sometimes, freelancers are a good choice for sole operators, or businesses with smaller budgets.  They have much lower overheads, so can charge lower rates.  It’s important you’re aware of all the pros/cons of such relationships however.

Nimble – often a freelancer can be quite nimble in the way they operate – you get to deal directly with the operator/owner/designer.  Changes can often be accommodated easily, and work is done quickly (as long as they’re not working on too many projects at once).

Pricing – as I already mentioned, freelancers typically charge lower rates as they have lower overheads such as office expenses, project managers, marketing, etc.  You just want to make sure they’re highly experienced, so costs down blow out later (look for a fixed price quote, with a detailed inclusions list).

Support – some freelancers are able to provide really good support if they’re easily accessible.  If your freelancer has too many projects on the go, you may find that the support is poor, or non-existent.  A digital agency may also suffer the same problem, so it’s important to ensure they have a dedicated support infrastructure to provide the help when you need it.

Expertise – obviously using a freelancer means that you’re limited to the expertise of one person.  This may be suitable if you’re after a good designer only, or just an SEO expert, for example.  If you’re after a provider that can provide strategic input, a wider range of design skills (often they’ll employ more than 1 designer), online marketing expertise, larger scale development expertise (in case your business grows rapidly), high-end technical support, then you should consider using an agency.

Stability – freelancers sometimes disappear.  A large number of the new customers we get from freelancers are the result of them disappearing into an agency, or taking a ski trip to Canada.  This can sometimes mean your site disappears, or you suddenly have no support.   Agencies can also disappear, but if you do a little research, and you see that they have a load of happy customers, have been around for a few years, and the owners have a stake in the day to day running of the business, then you should be OK.

Contactable – Agencies are often a lot more contactable than freelancers, with a team of people that can usually help you.  Freelancers may be in meetings, working on an urgent new project, or just too busy!

In summary, freelancers may be suitable if your business is very small/not well funded, if the web is not a huge part of your business strategy, your business is in an experimental phase, or your company has an internal infrastructure to manage the freelancer.  Otherwise, go with an agency.

Consider all of the above, and make a decision that best suits your business.