eydryan.com business blog

Well, due to my rush last week to finish the post I really didn’t delve into what the blog can really offer a company and while this is a very very long topic, we’ll just discuss the main points since now we’re just considering it as an addition to the web presence. So let’s start.

The blog is more than a salesman though, think of it as a website which always presents the newest information, offers excellent customer support, and makes people interested in your company more than just a purchase. 

Firstly, the blog is the premier news source you can offer to your clients, because it’s always up to date, always accurate, and offers suggestions as well as other things. You control distribution and timing, it’s like having your own private newspaper. However, from this point of view you must understand that news does not only concern you. Should this be a place for news, you need to be open to other news like industry advancements, and expressing your excitement regarding non-threatening competitors, perhaps even convincing them to post stuff in your newspaper. They get free advertising sure, but you get control of their voice, and you can cut them off if need be. And news is powerful, especially in fields where impulse buys occur. Think of the field of home computers for example; a geek seeing the newest video card in its most attractive photos for the first time, and finding out they can pre-order it will give you a tool for convincing like nothing in a physical store.

Secondly, if done properly, you can actually create a believable source of news/reviews/information and create through it word of mouth, which as we all know is considered the future of 90% of sale-triggering marketing. If you can create a hub of data and believable reviews etc and make it a general point of reference for your market you can easily use it as leverage to become the market leader or maintain that position. Thus you can actually influence the market into a certain mindset and trigger certain reactions, but all has to be done with customer trust in mind, and preserving that must be very important, or else the blog will not have power.

Thirdly, the blog is a simple way to tell a story. For those of you who aren’t following, this means branding, and it means offering your clients more than just a product or a service, but something that sticks in their minds as pleasant and different. You can impart your own style onto the news, express your emotions or feign them, but basically you end up putting your own spin on things and if you do it properly you can make a difference and people will miss reading that every day/week.

I consider these are enough advantages for you to understand its importance, and for those who ask what they could write in their blog, it’s really easy. You can tell a story about your company, explain to outsiders what good things are happening and what makes you happy about it. You can tell them what new products are showing up and why they’re so important. You can use case studies and examples to show people why they should do what you want them to. Or, and most importantly I think, you could teach people something, and maybe they’ll remember they learned that from you and come back for more.

So keep coming back for more people, and thank you for reading the blog, although I’d like a bit more participation We’ll speak more tomorrow, about some other features you should plan for.

So you want to start making your big corporate website with all the bells and whistles and your much acclaimed and now tested features. Hold on! Where are you hurrying to? Many companies do the mistake of jumping into this head on, and in their excitement rush everything. Just remember this, if your company has managed without an internet presence until now, it can do it for a few more months easily. So don’t rush your designer, don’t hurry your programmer and don’t just do it… 

One of the most important things in this is making sure you’ve planned for a blog. Now, what’s this, what do I need a blog for, my time is precious and I won’t waste it. Fine, but you won’t capture any of your customer’s time either. The beautiful thing about the web is that it can repeat itself indefinately, think of it as a salesperson that never grows bored, tired or annoyed and works 24/7. Thus, the blog would be the place that can express more than any of your salespeople. It’s in no way a replacement, but it is a good adjuvant.

Today we’re going to discuss what happens after you’ve decided what it is you want the website to add to your company, and what features you think would actually work. 

So you’ve decided this widget and this new feature are going to mean the world to your clients. But thing is, you’re in too much of a hurry. Go to your store, or call up a few important customers and ask them what they think about website features, and then present them with your ideas, see how they feel about them. Maybe some things you thought were brilliant aren’t, and maybe something you ignored is actually a holy grail for your clients.

One important thing to remember is, to quote Guy Kawasaki, “don’t let the bozos get you down”. And by this I mean, don’t let every critical opinion get to you, treat them more as statistics than verification, you just want to see their reaction rather than their opinion. And it’s hard to convey the actual meaning of a website feature in an oral conversation, give it time and people may use it even if at first they were skeptical. 

Now, with this in mind, round up all the features and questions you may want answered and make a short survey, perhaps 10-20 questions, and ask everyone who walks into your store/office/waiting room which features they’d like. Also, to make it a bit more manageable, and if you have someone trustworthy who gives the surveys, make them use a reliability score on each questionnaire. This is a little something I picked up from law enforcement, it’s basically a letter (A-D) and a number (1-4) which decide a) how reliable the source of the info is and b) how reliable the information is (if they actually have anything to do with the info or just picked it up). So basically A1 would be a long time customer who is purchasing something, whereas D4 would be some guy who’s bored in the waiting room who never came to your company before. All opinions are important, just mark accordingly. Oh, and an example for A4 would be a long time customer who doesn’t use the web or something like that.

If you’ve ever done Quality Management, then you’re familiar with the House of Quality (if not hit the link). Basically it’s a way to decide which features to adopt taking into account customer preference, technical requirements, competition status and general importance to you. It starts with a questionnaire, then after you process the results you gradually fill the house of quality as per the rules. So get a template and make your own, or if you need help, I do consulting on this sort of stuff so just contact me. The House of Quality is a tool of immense help because it helps you decide upon features in an objective, rational manner and gives you real data to work with. 

After that, the decision is yours as to what you make and what not. You have the data, you have the tools, now just make a decision. One more thing I haven’t mentioned yet is branding. Keep your brand in mind with every decision you make because it’s extremely important that everything you make with the website be aligned with your offline image. 

All right, see you on Monday for a critical view of implementing your plans and I hope you’re enjoying this And don’t forget to subscribe, I prefer via email. Have a great weekend!

So you’ve decided upon starting your own thing on the web, expanding your business horizons and offering your customers something that you simply cannot in the offline world.

Perhaps the most important initiating step into this is to get into the proper mindset. Many businesses are under the impression that their core purpose is to make tons of cash, and that going on the web will increase those piles of money. Nothing farther from the truth really, since as I explained in the first post,  this whole expansion to the web takes a lot of time and money, which both mean that you will have less money for a short to medium period of time. But let’s step back, what is really the purpose of a business?

The purpose of any business is to provide a product or service to its clients as best it can.

The point here being that as long as you focus on cutting costs and so on, your clients, and by extension, y0ur company, will suffer. Think of all the people who complain, I don’t think there’s one who actually has something to say about price. If you want it and can afford it you buy it, if not, you move on. But everyone complains about the quality of the service, about how this little thing could make everything better. And in a way, that’s what your Internet presence will do: make what you make a little bit better, and help your customers enjoy it that much more. 

So the initial point of entry to the world of the web is making something that will improve the way your clients see/buy/use/comment on your service/product. This is what all good websites start with, it’s the why of the whole project. And the answer is to improve what you can. 

Now join me tomorrow so we can discuss about making that something a reality.

Before you do anything though, try to read the About page to understand what this whole project is about.

The first step to any successful project is to think about it.

What I mean by that is before starting anything, no matter how important or not, you need to look at the upsides and downsides of doing that. This is really important because even though it doesn’t seem like it, an online presence costs a great deal of money, time and effort from all those involved. If you can’t afford to spend any of those, think about improving your offline business rather than opening up something that could wait a while. 

Also, keep it in your mind, and this is perhaps the most important thing you need to know, this will take a long time… Most people expect to just hire some consultant or web designer or whatever and over night create something that is going to be awesome. Time is not supposed to be a concern, which is why I say that if you don’t have it, don’t start this. Most strategies take between 6 months and one year to bring any results, and in order to get this right you need to fine tune the whole thing, and that takes another year or so. 

So think about it, do you really need to build a website? Do your customers really need something new to interact with via the website? Do you have who to talk to via the web? And will they appreciate it? Think about it, if you will really gain that much by posting a few bits on the web? Or will that money and time be put to better use by focusing on your current business?

Having that in mind, come back tomorrow and we’ll talk some more.