I am not a massive fan of Flash, mainly because I produce marketing websites that need to be found.
I think the raft of websites that use Flash badly has also driven me away from the technology.
That said, there is definitely a place for it and, when it’s done well, it’s bloody good - like the portfolio navigation on Whitevoid.
I’m trying to find a yoga teacher in Basingstoke. Someone who can come to our office and do a Yoga session with the staff once or twice a month. So, I do what I would for any business search and turn to Google. I type in my search phrase and sift through what’s there.
I know I will not find someone with a massive budget so my expectations on website experiences are set and I find a couple that look like the part. I look for email addresses to contact them because I don’t want to speak to them yet.
Two days later and I am still waiting for a reply… Now here’s my question (mainly to myself but feel free to answer).
Will I even get a reply? Am I being too impatient (it has been known) and how long should I leave it before I search for others?
As a reader, you may agree with me or you may think I am completely unreasonable and here is the correct answer…
I am the searcher and as such can afford to be as irrational as I so chose. I could just go back to Google and choose one of the other large selection. My purchasing strategy may not agree with the sellers, but I am the person in the driving seat - the customer.
It’s all about setting expectations
As an online marketing exercise, the hard work had been done for the seller and they fell at the last hurdle because my
My expectation of e-mail is that I send it and the other person gets it within a minute - I know I do. But, I can’t imagine a Yoga Instructor is as much as a geek as me waiting for their e-mail, they are probably Yoga’ing.
But, if they had a small message that said something like, “I am busy practicing my Yoga, but I check my e-mails every 48 hours. Alternatively, you could call me on xxxx”, my expectation would have been set.
So, who gets the enquiry forms on your website?
You may have heard the phrase - Never Assume because you make and ASS out of U and ME? We all do it.
Which reminds me that we all generalize as well (see what I mean).
Put the two together and you have a generalized assumption.
So, next time you hear someone in a meeting say, “People want to see that”, or, “then they will do this”; wonder if it’s really true.
Assumptions are there to be challenged.
You probably hear them all the time (there’s another one), along with negative reasons from individuals about why ’something won’t work’.
The guys at Google were told that there’s no money in search, people want portals - did they?
Established retailers thought people wouldn’t buy online - now they are scrambling to climb aboard.
As marketers, sometimes the opportunity is found on the edges, rather than in the safe middle ground. Have you got the balls to take a chance?
More importantly, can you afford not to?
In less than ten years, Google has grown into one of the world’s best known brands and according to a survey by research firm, Superbrands, they have been rated the number one brand in the UK (based on the views of 1,500 professionals).
The list is intended to reflect the brands that have “established the finest reputations in their fields and make the most impact on the UK business sector”.
Ref. BBC.
Standard marketing logic says I shouldn’t say what I’m about to. But, you and I both know that I can’t hide what’s out there anyway and I actually find it all rather exciting.
Innovation is what it’s about these days as more and more traditional jobs, trades and products become commoditized (is that a word?). You may not agree with it, but the flip side is that it’s driving down the prices we pay at the other end - from your computers made in Ireland, and your clothes made in China.
Even in the design / print trade we have seen industries go out of business - not companies, industries.
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Design of a website is user interface design rather than creative pretty-ness and this has recently been highlighted to me (again).
Firstly, in a usability session with a client and a stranger, which allowed the client to subjectively see how someone used their website and also confirmed again today by Jakob Neilsen with his Top 10 Application Design Mistakes article.
The key thing is with people is that they are, if nothing else, creatures of habit and when it comes to displaying ‘rules’ we need constancy. That’s why we can all understand road signs when we go on our summer hols - because they are so similar to the ones in the UK.
It’s the same with a website. People will ‘expect’ navigation to be in a certain place - either across the top or down the left-side. If they see a search button, you can assume they probably know how it works.
There is though still a tendency to apply print design rules onto new media. The problem is, if you don’t stick with the very basic premise that at the end of the computer is a person, you may leave them staring at your site wondering…
What would you do if you managed to get hold of 1001 different fonts? I can imagine the ‘designers’ of parish magazines, etc. will end up with a right eyeful in terms of trying to use every single one in a single publication.
For all you designers though that understand a good use of a typeface, you may enjoy this resource of 1001 free fonts.
As an aside, isn’t it interesting that moving away from the Adobe / Linotype / Monotype model where you pay for families, you can actually get some stuff for absolutely zero? Who said the internet doesn’t change the rules?
I have to be honest, a don’t have a degree in marketing so everything I talk about usually comes out of a book, is applied and tested and re-worked into an ideology - it works for me.
Anyway, I had a marketing meeting this morning about The Escape and something hit me like a brick… marketing campaigns are not linear, they’re radial.
By having an epicentre for a campaign you can spread outwards. I’m not sure if this is driven by my work with the web but by creating multiple epicentres you will also inevitably end up with cross-over from different directions. A bit like sowing multiple fields of seeds with the idea that someone wants “food”.
Another great advantage of this approach is implementation. A campaign that starts at a centre and moves outwards it a lot easy to manage, can be measured and can still be scalable.
This may be obvious stuff to the more studious followers of marketing but for me… I feel like I have been hit round the face with a big wet fish.
Thoughts anyone?
Sorry. I know a lot of businesses think that their customers care about them but I can assure you that they probably don’t. Not unless there is something seriously in it for the customer, or you have truly engaged them on a personality level.
Some companies manage it. Two spring to mind immediately, Google and Apple:
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I have had a great time this week putting live a new website for Magic Mitre, partly because I persuaded the client to create some top tip videos.
Basically, the client sells a unique patented DIY product. This currently sells heavily in the UK and US but in different ways. IE. IN the UK, you can buy it online, in the US they sell via QVC.
There is also the issue of terms and translation - miter vs. mitre being the main difference but also coving & crown molding; skirting board & baseboard; dado rail & chair rail, etc.
This led to two sites - with clarified content for each market, using Webmaster tools to defined the location of the .com website. Google now knows the .com is for North America and the .co.uk is for the UK.
The structure also allows for scalability for future international growth (the French version should be up in the next few months).
The videos cost next to nothing to produce but they do what they need to on the Magic Mitre You Tube Channel. These also feed into the top tips section.
Why not check it out, whether your are English looking to cut mitre joints, or American looking to cut miter joints.