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.

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.

It’s become one of my new years resolutions – reduce interruptions.  As if there weren’t enough interruptions in a day; then came blog subscription notifications, Twitter, Facebook, an open plan office… etc, etc.  If we’re not talking to someone, we’re consuming media of some sort – all the time!  Don’t get me wrong, I love it – the digital age is incredible, but sometimes it drive me nuts. It scatters my thoughts.

I love interacting – it’s how I learn, grow (& sell!).  I just can’t help but notice how much more effective & productive I am when I’m not interacting!  It needs to be very, very carefully managed.  In fact, I think the ability to manage interruptions can seriously affect a career or a business.

If I’m in a “interrupted state” it’s really hard to focus on writing an important email, or proposal – things end up being done superficially, and without enough consideration.  This also extends to human interaction.  If you’re sitting with someone, having a conversation, or a quiet moment, and their phone is buzzing and burping constantly, distracting them from you – your interaction with them is also compromised.   How often do you get a message when spending time with your kids, and you whip out the phone to take a look?  People need to be present. Put down the iPhone and Blackberry and enjoy the personal company of the human(s) you’re sitting with right now (after you read this   ).

There are a bunch of other things to consider about having quiet time.  I’m compelled whenever I read something about these topics.  Here are some interesting thoughts to consider from others:

“If anything, it is having more choices that is driving more and more consumption. It’s our ability to fill those smaller time slots (like any idle moment of waiting in your life) with some form of media/entertainment (be it a quick glance of a Twitter feed or checking the sport scores on your mobile device)”.  From http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/you-do-this-more-than-sleeping-and-working/ – Mitch Joel.

This is a brilliant article – “A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers”.  From http://m.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/how-the-internet-makes-us-stupid-20100909-15383.html – Nicholas Carr.

Here are some things I like to do to help:

Turn off notifications

When I get a new tweet, instant message, email or blog post to read, I don’t really need to know about it immediately.  Turn off the notification settings on these apps, and watch your focus increase.  The world isn’t going to end if you don’t respond immediately.  People will come tap you on the shoulder if they need to.

Don’t answer/respond to your phone

I’ve removed my office phone from the Sales ring group.  I can still answer the phone if I hear it ringing, and feel like answering it, but my desk phone doesn’t ring all the time now.  When I get home from work, my mobile phone gets shelved at least for the “rush hour” – I have quality time to spend with the family.  If too busy at work, I turn it onto silent.

Don’t check your emails

If you really think about it, how many emails do you get that require an immediate response – anything that can’t wait a few hours?  And if something was urgent, wouldn’t they just call you?  Probably.  Give it a try – don’t click on the mail link for a few hours, you won’t explode.  I like to deal with emails first thing in the morning, in the middle of the day, mid afternoon, then end of day. 3-4 times per day is often enough.

Work remotely (not from home)

I often stop at a cafe I pass on the way to work – it’s usually quiet, they have big tables, good coffee, and free wifi. I can work there for as long as I want, without interruption.  I don’t work from home for various reasons.  I have 3 energetic kids, a talkative wife (bless her), and am easily distracted by the never ending list of stuff to do around the house.

Disconnect from the internet

The web is the cause of most of the interruptions in our lives – turn the wifi off on the laptop now and again – works for me.

Get up early

This is likely the most effective of all the techniques I use.  Not only are early mornings naturally void of most distractions, but I also find myself most aware, clear-minded and thoughtful at this time of the day.  I honestly think of my best ideas first thing in the morning – however rare they may be!

Lists

Oh man, I LOVE “Things” on my Mac.  There are heaps of ways to keep a list – write it down, use notepad, outlook tasks, to-do pads – whatever.  Just write stuff down.  If you think of something to do when you’re in the middle of something else, add it to the list.  Don’t distract yourself and go “do it quickly” – add it to your list quickly, clear your mind of it, then continue to complete the task at hand, and come back to the list later.

Don’t be shy to say you’re too busy

I used to be worried about what people would think if I said “sorry I’m a bit busy, can you come back later”. Or “just let me finish what I’m doing, and I’ll pop over”.  Guess what? They don’t mind!

Prioritise

Don’t take it form me.  Covey and Blanchard had theories on how to prioritise tasks – I have the Covey quadrant pasted on the wall in front of my desk.  Quadrant 1 are highest priority, then 2, and so on…

Here is a run down: http://tinobox.com/wordpress/productivity/todo-sorting-by-coveys-and-blanchardquadrant/

Carve out interruption time

While at work, I find that the interruptions can build up quickly.  I often ignore them for a while, especially if in the middle of something that I want to finish.  When I’m done, I might spend 10 minutes reading emails, responding to Tweets, etc.  I do this every few hours.

In summary…

Sometimes I think of it as a mini-holiday.  When you go away on leave, everything continues one way or another, without you.  There is heaps to do when you get back, but everything is generally OK.  You come back refreshed, energised, and ready to be productive again.  Removing yourself from interruptions is similar, on a smaller scale.  Remove yourself, come back with a fresh mind, a clear list of things to do, and get cracking again.

Of course, these are just ideas, and in reality, we must be approachable, flexible and effective communicators.  I find that if I remind myself of these guidelines every now and again, and carve out the important quiet time, I’m more effective, less agitated, actually sell more business, and offer better leadership than when constantly distracted.  Interruptions are very, very expensive for our businesses, careers, and more importantly, our personal lives.

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.

I had a discussion about this with a client last week – he’s a marketing manager for a large IT services mob in Melbourne.

We spoke about whether the basics of marketing have really changed.  BRW said in an article recently “the underlying theme for good marketing is knowledge: know your business, know your products and services, know your customers and know what your objectives are.” Amen.

Here is the definition of marketing from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing:

“Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.”

It also goes on to explain the trends in marketing over recent history – and suggests the marketing orientation from “1970 to present day” is still the same!

If I was to read this 6 months ago, I’d have thought it was ridiculous – with the introduction of the Internet (on a side note – ever wondered what we did with our time before the internet? Anyway…), surely marketing fundamentals are now completely different compared to 40 years ago?  I’m certainly no marketing expert (far from it), but have learnt something about it over the years of helping run & grow Salsa – I sometimes wondered whether the fundamentals of marketing have changed at all?  I recently decided they haven’t. Even though the tools are different, all marketers are still trying to achieve the same result.

Here’s why:

If you’re a marketing manager, for example, don’t you need to still adhere to the same rules? Here are some simplistic examples of how the principles haven’t really changed.

Communicate clearly – the same goal applies today as it has in recent history.  If you can’t clearly communicate what you do, you’ll quickly turn prospects away to someone who can.  We used to use radio, tv & newspapers.  We now also use websites.

Build relationships - a marketers goal is often to get a sales person in front of a prospect to start to build rapport.  The call to action of most marketing media (whether it’s radio, tv, websites, or whatever) is to have someone call, or visit a showroom, or a website (which often then sends them to a phone call!!).  Get in front of someone, build a relationship, sell them something – still the same.

Create value for customers – facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Websites, whatever – the most successful are designed to actually serve a purpose.  Educate the prospect, allow them to gain value from reading what you have to say.

The list goes on – the fundamentals of marketing haven’t changed.  There are a load more tools to use to drive traffic to your marketing material (Google Adwords is a revolutionary tool for generating traffic), but the basics haven’t changed.  Marketers don’t need to intimately understand how Google Analytics works – they need to pay an Adwords professional to run a campaign for them that gets them loads of relevant traffic.

The marketer then needs to worry about what happens when the client finds their website, and makes the phone call – how well is the prospect communicated to, how good is the person on the phone at building instant rapport, and what value can they add right away?

So don’t obsess on learning every detail on how online marketing works.  I say leave that to “online marketers” and worry about the marketing basics of your own business – for a maximising outcome.

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.

I had a meeting today with a potential new customer, and they were just getting out of a bad relationship with their previous developer.  They mentioned that he’d “oversold” them on the capabilities of his organisation.  In fact, he didn’t even have an organisation – it was only 1 person.  His website, and the way he presented his business, made it appear as though it was a more substantial business.  Anyway, it turns out he’s going on a long holiday, and their site is supposed to have gone live in 2 weeks, and is not near ready… needless to say, they’re now looking for a new developer!

I  guess the point I’m making in a round about way, is that your site can be used to allow people to see who you are (in the above example he was lying, but let’s assume you won’t do that!).  It’s not only my opinion, but I’ve seen it time and time again – if your website visitors can see who you are, what your team is like, and get a feeling of comfort that they’re dealing with real, honest, people, your enquiries will go through the roof.  Not only that, the quality of the enquiries will be considerably better.

E.g. We run a marketing site using another brand name (email me if you want to know what it is).  This particular site is a brand that only generates leads for Salsa – there is no real business behind it.  The site itself ranks its butt off in the search engines – gets twice as much traffic as the Salsa site, however the leads are generally very bad in comparison.  There are about the same number of leads (in fact maybe even more) but they are much, much lower quality, and equate to about 5% of our sales, while the Salsa site generated about 40%.  I butted my head against the wall for years trying to work out why, and one day a client actually told me – after mentioning they’d actually come across the other site, but decided not to enquire; I asked why they did choose to enquire with us?

Their response was “because I felt like I was dealing with real people.  The other website didn’t look real”.  The site itself is as well designed as the Salsa site, however it does not contain any people – no staff page, no photo’s of clients, not even a stock photo of one of those ladies you see on every 2nd website!  Nothing that gives the user the feeling they’re dealing with real people, and so they don’t have any confidence, and don’t waste their time enquiring.

Get your staff onto your website, and watch your enquiries improve.

Here is our staff page: http://www.salsainternet.com.au/about-salsa-staff.html

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.

A couple of years ago, users didn’t want to be “engaged” online – they wanted to go to a website, do something (enquire, sign up), fix something (solve a problem) or buy something (shop!).   We’ve seen an incredible shift in the way people achieve this over the past couple of years with people now spending so much more time online.  Users now want more from their website browsing experience.  The introduction of social media (I still don’t like that term, anyway…) tools means that people have now become used to using the internet as more than just a tool, but as a part of their life. And so, they naturally expect a website to be more than just a tool – it needs to make them feel at home, make them feel like they’re part of something – not just enquiring, problem solving or shopping.

How many times have you checked your web enabled phone today?  How many times a day did you check it 2 years ago? We spend a LOT of time online now.

Your clients and potential customers now want to know who you are, what you look like, what your office looks like, what you did at your last team event, what was the name of your first pet!!  They want to build a relationship with you, and feel that you’re actually interested in telling them about yourself.  It needs to be genuine of course, as any relationship needs to be, so you do need to be careful, because this new world of online transparency means that if you’re not honest, it will easily show.  Marketing hasn’t really changed, it’s still about being able to genuinely connect with the people who care the most; however the tools we used to make us look like someone we weren’t (websites are so good at making small businesses look like big companies) are not enough – there are just so many ways to find out more about a person or company now, that you can’t hide behind a website – so you might as well come out and tell the world about who you really are. If you don’t, someone else probably will.

An interesting side note: the staff page on the Salsa website is one of the most popular (top 2%)

Take the following examples (thanks to Avinash Kaushik from a “6 Pixels of Separation” Podcast I recently listened to).  2 competing companies in Canada, both selling laundry products.

www.vim.ca - not all that engaging, imo

The first example is quite a simple site – shows some products (ok, good start), has a voucher to save $1 (wow!), then the standard marketing spiel (“makes tough cleaning easy”). They have content on the site about how to use their products, cleaning tips,  and home decorating ideas. Yawn. www.vim.ca

seventhgeneration.com - incredibly engaging

This example is not only a much more beautiful site (an enormous part of the ability to engage in my opinion), but also absolutely tells the website visitor all about who and what they’re dealing with.  They become part of something much bigger. “Protecting Planet Home”.   One of the major menu items is “Learn”.  In here you can educate yourself on the bigger ‘green’ issues they’re passionate about, read an active Blog, visit the Forum, watch video’s.  You can also see where people have “Asked Scienceman” a question, and can read his response.  They of course also connect via Facebook, and Twitter – you can actually see in their Twitter account that they’re interacting with their customers, answering questions and solving problems! Oh, they also have some product information on the site of course. www.seventhgeneration.com

I can’t wait to re-design our website.  Keep your eye out for it.

We find that clients these days are not just after a website.  The web is often such a crucial part of their strategy, that they can’t afford to just hire in the skills once-off; they actually need to partner with a company and group of people that can join them on their business journey, for the long term.  It’s about building a relationship, and then maintaining it.  And like all relationships, it needs to be built on trust and strong fundamentals.  Here are 4 things to consider:

1. Ensure you’re confident in their abilities

Obviously, you need to check out their portfolio.  Often they won’t have clients in your specific industry, which is no big deal – you just need to make sure they design beautiful work, are familiar with the technology they’re using, and the sites they build are well presented and work well!  You should also speak to a couple of their key clients (3 or 4 if you can).  It’s helpful if they at least deal with businesses of a similar size to yours also.

Dodgy website salesmen also sell 2nd hand cars & stereos from white vans

Companies that have been around for a few years are more likely to be around for a few more.  The web industry is famous for having low barriers to entry – so many small businesses, or sole operators go out of business, creating huge problems for their clients  (For the record, about 20% of our new customers have come to us from this exact predicament!).  Do they have a solid team of professional staff members?  Decent office?  Do they charge enough?

3. Do you have a realistic price quote

If you get a quote that is considerably lower than the others it may be a sign of inexperience (they aren’t familiar with what it takes to get a good site built, and so under quote). The project may then become contentious later, when the developer invests more time than budgeted, and are very hesitant to cater for any alterations – could also become expensive for you.   You should look to get a fixed price quote if you can, and ensure your proposal covers the important items you need.

4. Do you like them?

You need to be able to get along! Like any relationship, you need to understand each other, trust each other, and be able to rely on each other.  Do they respond when you email or call them? Do you enjoy dealing with them?  Can you get easy access to the company stakeholders or key staff members when you need to?  I know whenever I choose a supplier I often rely on my gut (it’s not always right, but has served me fairly well over the years!)