Mindshare Web Marketing Mentors

How much does a website cost?

Rebecca — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:49:34 +0000

Chances are if you’re in any kind of sales or marketing related position, the company’s website has come up. You’ve likely been part of a team considering updating the website, redesigning the site or looking at ways to better market the site. Website costs vary.

So what do you do? Ask around for referrals, likely engaged in a Google search and even checked out competitor sites to see if there was a link to “website developed by XYZ Company” at the bottom of the site.

The proposals come in and you’re floored at the wide range of estimates. Depending on the kinds of companies you contacted for estimates – from smaller web design firms, a web “guy” or freelancer who’s done a few websites, your internal IT guy to a larger web design or development firms – there were remarkably low prices, very high prices and some in between.

This is an industry where it seems like everyone has a different approach to your website design costs.

Some will give you just what you ask for – a new design, with your input and brand materials, using the same content and navigation from your old site.
Some will make suggestions on improvements to copy, calls to action and likely address some elements of the on-page SEO (search engine optimization) elements. They may even touch on admin capabilities or a content management system.
Some will make a bigger deal of the whole thing. This company will educate or share with you a thought process of planning the site for your target audiences, addressing a lot more detail of the site structure for SEO(search engine optimization) and have a team to assist in your website design.

You’ll find a different answer from everyone you ask or consult with. Then look at their portfolios, work that is similar to your company or industry (or not) and weigh the pros and cons for each company.

Remember that your website is a marketing tool, and this is not an “expense,” it is a marketing investment – be sure to invest in something that will help improve and grow your business now, and well into the future. Here are a few things to consider:

Admin control and content management – how much do you want?
Current technology& access to updates – the web changes fast, will your site be flexible?
Video players – video is very important, what formats will your site support
Social media integration – your website is only part of your online presence these days
Great design – it has to look professional, yet be easy to navigate, think usability
Web success – takes more than a good looking site to make successful online

So what’s right for you? I’m not answering that for you, because everyone’s goals, needs and resources are different. Consider what’s important to you as part of your new or improved website, as well as your new Web partner. Good luck out there. I’d love to hear your experiences and insights for others considering a website update in the future.

-Rebecca Dutcher

Facebook Chat to Drop IE6 Support (from Mashable.com)

Paul Ferrier — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:48:37 +0000

I am SO happy to see Mashable.com report that Facebook Chat is dropping IE6 support. As long as people are forced to use IE6, they are forced to use a browser that doesn’t take advantage of the latest and greatest technology.

PLEASE let this be another nail in the coffin.

You can read more about it here: http://bit.ly/drozV7

Have a great day,
Paul

Random Posts

The Incredible Value of SEO vs PPC

Paul Ferrier — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:49:02 +0000

If you’ve written off SEO (search engine optimization) as a search engine marketing tactic in favor of the presumably easier PPC campaign (pay-per-click), boy are you missing the boat!

I am not going to talk about HOW to optimize your site for the search engines, but rather, showcase the tremendous importance it has for the success of your campaign, your website, and even your company related to traffic.

Before we talk about the future, let’s go back. Way back. Remember BANNER ADS? Sure, they’re still around. Actually, they’re still all over. But when is the last time you recall seeing a banner ad on a site and clicking on it? Chances are, you don’t…because you didn’t. This is so common, there’s a term that’s been created called “banner blindness“.

Basically, early on, people didn’t know what banner ads were. So when it said, “HEY, CLICK HERE!” – most people did! But what happened? You were most likely taken to some poorly designed website that asked for info that helped SPAM and credit card fraud go wild. Naturally, it didn’t take long for people to stop trusting those banner ads. So the easiest thing to do was ignore them, and that’s exactly what people have done! If you don’t believe me, read what Jakob Nielsen has to say about it.

Fast forward from the days of the great banner ad to the days of the great PPC ad. What’s happened? For years, people did not understand the difference between organic links (part of SEO) and paid ads in the search engines. So, they naturally clicked what sounded best to them (seeing the pattern here?). Well, it didn’t take long for marketers to wreck this too. Many ads today bring you to directories or squeeze pages, not exactly the content users are looking for. So what’s happened? They’ve lost trust and not only stopped clicking, they even stopped looking!

Here’s what’s going to blow you away. These statistics are from SEOMoz.org. In 2008, US marketers spent $11.9 Billion on PPC marketing (88.8%) and $1.4 Billion on SEO marketing (10.75%). However, the distribution of clicks (the traffic sent to sites) looks like this for the same time: PPC links received 10.5% of the search engine traffic while SEO links (organic) accounted for 89.5%. And they are forecasting PPC links to account for 4-5% of total clicks on the page in 2010.

I’m sorry, but if that’s not an eye opener to the power and value SEO brings you, I don’t know what could do it.

Ok, that being said, I am not trying to bash PPC. PPC can bring a tremendous value to you if it’s incorporated into the strategy correctly. We have statistics that indicate a site with a #1 organic ranking and a #1 PPC ranking converts 45% higher than if the site is only has a #1 PPC rank.

Here’s just a few pro’s and con’s of SEO vs PPC:

PPC

Pro: Start driving traffic almost instantly
Con: Costs extra $, limited to budget, higher financial risk

SEO

Pro: Doesn’t cost per click, generates more traffic
Con: Takes longer to get into the search engines

I hope this helps,
Paul

Facebook: Invite All Friends Code

Paul Ferrier — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:29:02 +0000

Ok, if you’ve spent any time inviting friends on Facebook to become a fan of something, you know it can take forever. Here’s some quick instructions on how to invite all your friends instantly.

Click “Suggest Friends” under the profile image.
If you’re using Firefox, Chrome, or Safari as your browser, copy this code:
- javascript:elms=document.getElementById(‘friends’).getElementsByTagName(‘li’);for(var fid in elms){if(typeof elms[fid] === ‘object’){fs.click(elms[fid]);}}
Paste it into your browser’s address bar and hit enter on your keyboard.

If you’re using IE, you still have to click all your friends manually.

That’s it. Hope this helps.

Spend More Time With Your Family (and have a job)

Paul Ferrier — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:47:27 +0000

Something I experienced over a 3 second period on my walk into the office building this morning inspired me to write this.

It was a deep inhale of brisk, downtown Grand Rapids air. I actually had to take a double sniff. The first inhale caught my attention, but it was that second deep, lung filling gulp of air that whisked my mind away to the warm breeze of Cancun, Mexico.

It was that smell. A magical mixture of clean air and something on the grill that did it. I was no longer walking down the sidewalk of Ottawa Avenue, I was relaxing pool side at the Royal Caribbean Resort with my wife, being served a mixed drink as the sun beat down on me (my mind works very fast).

Ahh, what a feeling.

The point? Let me get to it…

As far as we know, we have one shot at life. And the longer I live (wow, it’s been 30 years already), the less value I put on money and the more value I put on spending time with my family and friends.

During a recent keynote by Gary Vaynerchuk, he talked about how he’s infatuated with learning as much as he can from “old people.” The most important thing he’s taken away is none of them give a crap about the money they saved throughout their life. What they value most are the times they spent with their family. And if they could do it all over again, they’d spend MORE time with their loved ones.

And it’s true. You don’t have to be 90 to realize this. Imagine yourself on your death bed right now (you can do it). What’s most important to you? Your family and friends, or the amount of money you have in your bank account? Nobody on their death bed will wish they spent more time at work.

Gotta get real people. Money is important. Without it, life can be very stressful. At Mindscape, we enjoy working really hard to earn it, but we encourage every member of our team to put that money to good use and enjoy life. Go on vacation. Use that paycheck as a vehicle to get out and enjoy life with your family and friends!

It’s this mindset that caused us to change our work schedule back in 2007. We said if we’re going to work this hard for our clients, we have to play hard to reward ourselves. So we created a work schedule that allows each member of the team to have a 4-day weekend every other week. EVERY OTHER WEEK!

Do you realize what that does to your life?

If I wasn’t out enjoying life, I couldn’t have went from Grand Rapids, MI to Cancun, Mexico in 3 seconds this morning. The value of vacations comes from the time away, but it’s the smells and memories I bring back with me that will keep giving until that day I’m on my death bed.

So, here’s some great news. We’re hiring. We want to impact your life. And we’re interested in talking to you (don’t worry, everything is very confidential if you’re currently employed).

What we’re looking for (in this order):

All Star .NET Developers (must have a desire to be innovative)
All Star Web Designers (attention to detail, creative a must)
All Star Sales Reps (I don’t like that title, but you get the idea)

If you value time with your family and want to have fun at work, Mindscape at Hanon McKendry might be the right company for you to work with.

Visit http://bit.ly/dvepU6 to let us know.

But then again, if you’d prefer to spend 20% MORE time away from your family and friends by working 5 days a week, feel free. We’re not judging.

Value Added Selling Online

Nick Kuzmin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:53:15 +0000

We all want the best possible deal. However, the best possible deal is not necessarily the lowest price we can find. That is the point I try to make to people when showing them how to find what they are looking for online.

The internet gives today’s consumers much more power than they had 20 years ago. Today, I can easily compare the selling price of TV in California with the same one selling in North Dakota. The problem this causes for sellers is that they have to put as much emphasis on added value as they do on price.

Low prices are simply not enough anymore. Sure, it will get you listed at the top of an ascending search for having the lowest price, but that is just the starting point. Are you expecting all your clients to buy on pricing alone? What if your price isn’t the lowest in the world? Remember, this is the World Wide Web we are dealing with here. Users can research retail information from around the globe.

You have to do more today than just deliver a low price. Don’t get me wrong, price is a great starting point…but do you want to build your business around first-time and one-time shoppers? Or, do you want to do business with shoppers that come back to the same place because they feel like they get more from their purchases than just a low price?

That brings us to added value.

Adding value to your services and products isn’t that hard, yet it seems to be often ignored online. Sellers focus solely on volume. This mentality works at first with the initial rush, but eventually starts to fade and leaves the sellers scrambling to figure out what to do when their service flaws and “gotchas” are posted and discussed all over the internet. More and more online sellers have had to re-invent themselves after their initial rush. How do they do this? Well, for starters, they basically get back in touch with their customers. If they had built this idea into their business plan this to start with, they would have had far less growing pains.

Make sure your sites showcase the “extras” they get from you rather than simply buying from the place with the lowest price. Show your customers information about the little things that make you stand out from the rest. Showcase your values and appeal to their sensitive side if need be. As an example, here in Michigan we are hearing more and more about buying local. It’s no secret that the recession has hit Michigan exceptionally hard. People that live and work here seem to be pushing the “Made in Michigan” phrase…and for people with roots here it really means something. If you are employing Michigan workers, and providing products or services based here, then showcase that. You might be surprised at the advantage that gives you over the national sites and sellers.

Probably the best way to add value and character is to get involved with your customers. There are plenty of areas on the internet where people can go to complain and discuss things about almost any vendor or product. The most successful vendors pay attention to these conversations and engage directly in this dialogue. They have members, teams, and even entire departments devoted to direct contact on the internet. They don’t suppress the negative conversations either. They simply show their work where ever possible on how they resolve those problems that arise. In essence they are bringing back that old fashioned customer service but in the internet age for everyone to see.

I feel that it is becoming more and more important for online sellers to interact directly with their customers whenever possible. Just because you’re an e-tailer doesn’t mean you don’t have to interact with actual human beings anymore. You can be assured that your customers are out there somewhere and they are talking about you. Every online seller should offer a public forum for their customers to post comments in. It can be a product specific review forum, like Newegg for example. Or, perhaps a third party satisfaction forum like the one used by Zappos and their ‘GetSatisfaction forum’.

Some other very useful places online where people are looking for information on your business include Google’s seller rating and review system and ResellerRatings.com. Engage your customers. Do some searches on your own and find out where the complainers are hanging out. Listen to what they are ranting and raving about. Don’t be afraid to put your official name out there and interact with them. You will show your buyers who are out there doing their homework that you care. Trust me, your potential customers doing their homework LOVE to see resolved complaints of other users.

Internet Shopping and Marketing: A Consumer’s Perspective

Nick Kuzmin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:20:13 +0000

The web, as many know, is a new beast. Long gone are the days of first grabbing your phone book, flipping to the “Moving Company” section, and looking for the best looking ad or simply the nearest company. Back in those days the “leg work” of the sale was done after the initial contact. The rise of the internet era has completely reversed this train of thought.

Consumers are now looking to have the work done by researching online, reading other customer’s reviews, and gathering as many facts as possible BEFORE any contact is made with the business. As potential buyers, today’s shoppers first leverage the power of the internet in their shopping experience. They don’t want to be contacted until they are ready to be. A shopper empowered with search engines is able to gather vast amounts of extremely precise decision-making data before even thinking about contacting a seller.

One of the last things today’s internet users want to do is visit a nice looking site and have to hand over precious information about their identity so that a seller can contact them to “make the sale”. Websites should be able to basically make the sale already. Then the seller just has to close the deal!

With identity theft and fraud on the rise, website users are becoming more and more cautious of even handing over their name and phone number unless they are already 99% sure they want the products/services of a company.

Personally, I find the best sites to be ones that present information on exactly what I am looking for (rather obvious!). But what is that information? If I want to shop for a moving company there are 4 main things I am going to look for while doing my pre-contact research.

I am going to look for reviews/consumer reports and other information from real people that have used the service. I want to see the good AND BAD reviews. Not many companies have 100% customer satisfaction if they do a substantial amount of business. There are bound to be complaints and resolutions needed. If I see 100% positive posts from “customers” then I am immediately suspicious of who is posting/editing this information. I would rather see “the company broke my favorite lamp!” and afterwards a response/resolution from the customer or the company saying “but they handled it extremely well and replaced it without question!” This goes along directly with the mantra “no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes”.
Secondly, I want to see some pricing information. I don’t need exacts, but I need to see some estimates. Following the example of moving company, if I want to move a 2-bedroom apartment from Grand Rapids to Traverse City, I want to get an idea of the pricing the company offers before I commit to providing them with a way to contact me. Give us educated shoppers (always assume we have seen your competitors sites!) some type of pricing to add to our research.
Third is warranty information and value added services that I expect from the company. I don’t necessarily want the CHEAPEST movers, and if your company is not the cheapest then tell me why I should allow you to contact me and what the values are in your services compared to your competitors.
Lastly, show me pretty pictures of what I am getting/what you offer. Believe it or not there are plenty of internet users out there who simply don’t like to read much… just ask my mother J Show users detail images of what you offer and what you do! Pictures still are worth a thousand words. That has not changed, yet.

I think these 3 main areas are paramount to marketing to today’s SMART internet users. If the company is lucky enough to make it through my initial round of research, then they will be getting a call/email/contact information from me one way or another so they can close the deal. If they get this information then chances are they are very close to winning my business.

Nick Kuzmin

Lead Support Technician for Mindscape at Hanon Mckendry

I Have a Facebook Fan Page and Twitter Account … How do I get Fans and Followers?

Pete Brand — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:02:20 +0000

I received an email today from someone who is taking steps to get their company engaged in social media and now that they’ve got a presence, they’d like to know how to get followers and fans.

I am sure this is a question you, and everyone else on the planet, has been faced with at one time or the other while wading into the social media-sphere.

I know it was definitely a hot question for me in the beginning days.

The famous line, “Build it and they will come,” from the movie Field of Dreams is just that …. a dream! It’s also NOT something that will happen within social media unless you are some HUGE celebrity and have an extreme amount of luck.

There are a few things you can do though to increase your chances of gaining a strong fan and follower base on both Twitter and Facebook. The following are four things to focus on to help increase your chances of successfully building a strong social media following.

1. Be Interesting

I know this sounds simple but think about it. How likely are you to follow some boring, stiff, corporate entity online? I know I wouldn’t!

The days of stale old boring copy telling your company history or announcing the latest product or sale just isn’t cutting it. Social media is just that … social. If you think about the times you’ve found yourself at a networking event and got cornered by some guy that was blathering on and on with all his “corporate speak,” I am sure you couldn’t wait to escape from his clutches. If you handle your social media content on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn the same way, you’ll have your visitors running away as fast as they arrive.

The Internet is not one dimensional and neither should the content you put out there on the social media sites. Provide content your visitors want to consume and stuff that is just plain interesting. If you do this you’ll find your fan base and followers grow.

2. Offer Value

Papa John’s Pizza did an excellent job of this early on in the Fan Page game. They offered a free pizza to people who joined their fan page. I just checked the amount of followers they have and the number is nearing 800,000!

I understand that not all companies have a product to offer that is as compelling as a delicious pizza, but that’s ok. Find something of value to offer in exchange for people joining up for your Facebook Fan Page. Maybe it’s a report, an eBook, or a discount at your retail store. Be creative and follow rule number one …. make it interesting.

3. Have a Strategy and Tactical Plan

Simply getting a presence on the most popular social media sites isn’t enough. It’s important to take the time to create a strategy and a tactical plan which will help you accomplish your objective of building your Fan or Follower base. If you are going to actively participate on Twitter, for example, make sure you are not only providing links to your website, but also include links to content which proves your expertise to potential customers.

The Internet is an excellent tool for consumers to choose a competent service provider and the old rules are now out the window. Nobody needs to simply take your word for it. Make sure you craft a strategy that helps showcase your VALUE, and don’t be the old school salesperson who simply tries to cram the latest offer down your throat.

4. Be Consistent

You need to realized that social media is a commitment, and something you need to take seriously. Whether you know it or not people are viewing the content you are putting on the social media sites and even if they aren’t commenting, they are enjoying it and in some cases becoming dependent on that information. The worse thing you can do is let them down, and not put out content on a regular basis.

These are four simple things to pay attention to when participating in social media. You’ll soon find that the more you participate with a focus on helping other people and providing valuable content, the faster your Twitter followers and Facebook fan base will grow. I’ve noticed almost each time I put out a new “tweet” with good, solid content … I’ll gain a new handful of followers.

If you have anything you’ve found that works great for you … please share by leaving a comment below.

Random Posts

IE6′s Nail In The Coffin? Thank You Google.

Paul Ferrier — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:43:35 +0000

I just received an email from Google Apps and am grinning from ear to ear. Google announced, “…we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.”

Amen!

IE6 was released in August of 2001! Yet people still use it today, not taking advantage of the latest technology. Could you imagine in 2001 using a browser from 1992. No, you wouldn’t because the experience would be so much different (Mosaic was starting development in December of 1992!)

Ok, why do I care about this? Because I think this is an important step to killing off IE6. We now have a bigger reference to support our case for clients to upgrade. Before this, honestly, the fact the manufacturer themselves were no longer supporting the application was not a good enough reason to upgrade. But as popular and important tools become unavailable to IE6 users, it will force them to get current.

I love it.

Thank you Google,
Paul

Here’s the message:

———————–

Dear Google Apps admin,

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

The Google Apps team

———————–

Getting (or Staying) Motivated With A Positive Attitude

Paul Ferrier — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:06:09 +0000

I have had this same question posed to me several times over the last year and I thought it would make a good blog post.

It’s no secret the last year has been very difficult for people personally and professionally. The good thing, however, is that the economy is looking up and the downturn has produced a lot of opportunity.

But here’s the question: How can I stay motivated when things are hard?

For me, motivation is assisted mostly from attitude. Keeping an upbeat attitude is key even when you feel like you’re getting kicked in the gut over and over again.

What else is a big motivator? Money. You need it to survive, and you really need it for your business to survive. So here’s a quick way to think positive and get motivated.

Start by thinking about how much money you NEED to make to pay your bills and be happy per year (that’s X). Something very realistic.

Once you know what you need, define how much money, on average, you earn (PROFIT – that goes to your paycheck) per sale of your product or service (that’s Y).   There are lots of other variables here, but that’s not really the point. Just looking for a number that’s close.

Then, do the math.

X/Y=Z (Z is the number of sales you need per year.)

After defining your target market/audience, find out exactly how many businesses out there match (if you don’t have this, you can get it from the Chamber of Commerce, trade associations, etc).

Ok, enough of the boring stuff. Here’s the motivating stuff…

So let’s say for the sake of argument (and math) there are 5,000 businesses that could potentially buy from you. And let’s say on average you earn $400/sale. And let’s say you need to make $100,000 to be happy and make it worth while. You’d need to make 250 sales throughout the year to hit your goal.

Out of 5,000 businesses, you need to capture 5% of the market.   To make this happen, you’re going to need to make 1 sale out of every 20 businesses.

But here’s where the attitude thing comes into play. That means 19 out of 20 can tell you NO and you’re still going to hit your goal! When they say no, don’t take it as a negative. Thank them for their time and know you’re one call, email, appointment closer to getting that one you need.

Few people like to make cold calls because of the fear of being rejected. It’s the fear of someone saying NO. But with the right attitude and understanding of what your overall goals are, you can turn that NO into something very positive.

Another way to think of it. If your sale is worth $400 and you average 1 sale out of every 20 businesses, you can divide the sale up between the 20 businesses and value each contact at $20. So when they say no, it doesn’t get you down because you know you just earned $20 as you get closer to the next yes.

Hope this helps!
Paul Ferrier

Mindshare Web Marketing Mentors

How much does a website cost?

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Facebook Chat to Drop IE6 Support (from Mashable.com)

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The Incredible Value of SEO vs PPC

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Facebook: Invite All Friends Code

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Spend More Time With Your Family (and have a job)

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Value Added Selling Online

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Internet Shopping and Marketing: A Consumer’s Perspective

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I Have a Facebook Fan Page and Twitter Account … How do I get Fans and Followers?

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IE6′s Nail In The Coffin? Thank You Google.

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Getting (or Staying) Motivated With A Positive Attitude

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