Marketing Blagger

Question 3

Have you reviewed the websites you like and dislike and listed the reasons why?

The best place to look for inspiration in web design is obviously the internet. There are millions upon millions of sites online, with more added each and every day. If you take the time to look closely you will easily be able to pick out the styles and functionality you like and importantly, what you don’t like. These ideas should form part of the brief you deliver to your design agency.

Which sites should you look at?

Think about your competitors first, then your industry / profession, followed by aspirational websites. Far example, if you’re an architects practice, look at other architects first, then consider design or construction company sites, before a general trawl of the internet.

Try to keep in mind that you’re only looking for ideas and not a template to copy.

Question 2

2) Do your website objectives link to your overall business and marketing plan? i.e. will a website support your business goals?

Any marketing programme needs to be linked to your business goals in order to be worthwhile. This may seem like an obvious point, but it’s surprising how people jump into building a website, without understanding the wider context or opportunities available to the business. If you haven’t written a business plan or marketing plan yet, then I strongly recommend doing this first. Putting your ideas on paper and spelling out how everything will work (from banking, to premises, marketing, insurance and more) will help you to decide how important your website is to your broader business activity.

Try to keep your business objectives SMART - Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time bound. More advice on writing a business plan will be available on www.marketingblagger.com soon.

A website is an essential part of any company marketing tool set. If you want to look credible and established in this day and age, a website is a must have, rather than simply a nice bolt on. But if you’ve ever had to design a website before, you’ll know there’s a confusing array of options and you can easily get this wrong, wasting a stack of cash.

I’ve put together 7 essential questions you must ask your self before you sign up with a web design company. There will be a fresh question posted every other day for the next 14 days, so make sure you come back to read the entire series. This will help you avoid expensive mistakes.

Question 1

1) What specific objectives do you have for your site? Do you want to sell products, generate sales leads, or simply create an online presence for your business and brand?

It is essential that you know exactly what you want to achieve with your site. The difference in functionality, design and cost between a brochure site and an e-commerce site can be enormous. Think carefully about what exactly your objectives are and how you will measure whether your website meets these goals. Your design agency will need your brief to be clear on this.

Today’s consumer is nothing like they were twenty years ago. They are much more skeptical, wealthy, better informed and in control. Yet, the advertising industry at large has not changed and is still using tactics similar to those used twenty years ago. This is leaving a huge disconnect between what consumers want and what they are getting. In either case I am sure you are wondering what this has to do with open source marketing… Well let me tell you.

Open source as a movement is designed to allow the majority to design and mold whatever they are interacting with. From software to encyclopedias open source is taking the world by storm. And mainstream consumers are falling for it.

Open source marketing is therefore the process of allowing consumers to interact with the brand, marketing materials, product and service and change its direction. In the past it was war, bombarding the consumer and their senses with constant messages… it was about commanding the market. Now consumers go out of their way to use technology to shelter themselves from old school brand bombardment. Tivo would be a great example. In addition, they are relying more on each other and on communities of like minded people brought together by the internet to make purchase decisions – the rating and review system on amazon.com would be an excellent example.

The bottom line is businesses both small and large had better begin building an open source plan and it incorporate it into their marketing plan, otherwise they may face extinction. Face it, consumers are no longer happy to sit back and be fed a brand and its values. They want access to the brand source and an invitation to co-create. And no matter what size your business, this is possible. If you are Joe’s pizza it could be as simple as inviting in some of your best customers to name and design the new pizza of the month, if you are a B2B service provider it could be allowing them to give their input on your services and then molding the service to their advice, if you are a large multinational corporation it could involve creating an online blog to allow consumer to talk about your latest product and make suggestions which are incorporated into the next production run.

At very least, you had better start asking them what they want and take them seriously. Survey them and utilize the information you get to shape your marketing plan, message, product or service. You must create some type of feedback loop and begin listening to what your customers want because they are certainly willing to tell you. Further you had better put your ear to the ground and begin listening to rumors and whispers in the market, check out the latest blog postings on topics pertaining to your industry. It could be as simple as asking them to submit pictures to be used in the next advertising campaign.

So my advice would be that if you don’t know what open source marketing is you had better learn. Get ready… It’s coming. You had better be prepared and give consumers access to your marketing source code.