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May 17, 2012
Written by: Bernie Harsevoort

In my experience of planning website strategies for many businesses, I often encounter a list of items that the company wants to have included on their website: their 'bragging points' about who they are and why they are so good at what they do. At the end of the day, however, the harsh reality is that it doesn't matter what they want on their website. The only thing that matters is what their clients, and prospective clients, want.

Too many websites are just sales brochures that go into every excruciating detail about the company - right down to a tedious history of when and why the company was founded, etc. But is that what your clients are looking for?

I dare say that the majority of business websites today are built from an internal focus and miss the boat on delivering what their clients want: finding a solution that works for them.

The good news is that there are simple and immediate solutions that you can implement in order to keep prospects on your website and convert them to paying customers.

Here is a list of five simple and proven ways to transform your website:

1. Create A Clear Purpose

When a visitor comes to your website, your purpose needs to be crystal clear. For example, do you want the prospect to enter their name and email into a website opt-in form? Are you trying to sell a product or service? Are you interested in educating the prospect? Your website should be designed to efficiently guide visitors to the information that they are seeking. In order to engage your client you must make them comfortable, not confused. Your website must have a clear and direct purpose, and a simple and clear navigation to allow your visitor to easily find what they are looking for.

2. Highlight The Benefits That Matter

A prospect visits your site with a clear purpose in mind, usually to solve a problem or improve their lives in some fashion. It's your job to convince them that your product or service will accomplish this. You can succeed in doing this by highlighting the benefits that matter most to a prospective client.

3. Keep It Simple

When a visitor lands on your website, they want to find the information they are looking for in a quick and timely manner. They don't have hours to browse through your website.

Keep your web copy concise and to the point. You should use short paragraphs, bulleted lists and bolded and underlined text to highlight items of importance. And, don't allow your primary messaging to get lost in a collage of less important items.

4. Give Your Visitors Reasons To Trust You

As soon as a visitor comes to your site, it's crucial that they feel that they can trust you. There are a number of ways to increase the trust factor: make sure your site looks professional, that your contact information is prominent and easy to find, and no grammatical and spelling errors!

Research suggests that trust must be established for a prospect to either give you their information or make a purchase.

5. Have A Clear 'Exit Action'

Your website visitor has found your website, been engaged by the content which addresses their identified need, and has gained a level of trust with your business. Now what? You need to establish what the next action is that you want a website visitor to take (ie. buy the product online, call your office, complete a quote request form, etc.) and clearly direct and encourage them to do so.

There is no greater reason for a visitor to leave a website than being confused as to what to do. If you can clearly direct your prospective client to take the action of contacting you or buying your product right there, your website will produce a much higher level of conversion for your business.

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July 26, 2011
Written by: Bernie Harsevoort

Due to company growth, and to best serve our valued clients, we are excited to be moving our office to a brand new, modern building in Ancaster, effective August 10th.

We extend a sincere thanks for the support of each one of you; support, we hope, through hard work, we continue to earn.

Effective August 10, our address will be:

1480 Sandhill Drive, Unit 201
Ancaster ON L9G 4V5
(Click to view google map)

Phone: 905 648 3939 | 905 631 7726

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July 26, 2011
Written by: Bernie Harsevoort

Beyond good times and great food, Jack Astor's now has a mobile website that will allow their customer to find their nearest location, browse the food menu, and more.

In addition to working on their main website and content management system, our staff is excited to have completed the mobile design, development, and launch for Jack Astor's - not to mention a few delicious lunches along the way.

We invite you to view the new Jack Astor's website at www.jackastors.com on your smartphone - and visit them for some great food.

 

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Permission To "Spam" Your Customers?

April 26, 2011
Written by: Bernie Harsevoort

As marketers, we need to understand the laws around Canada's new anti-spam legislation. While anti-spam laws state that expressed consent must be received before a business may add someone to their email marketing list, it seems that does not always apply when it comes to a business to customer relationship.

The FISA (Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act) allows for 'implied consent' in some cases. Included in these circumstances is "the person who sends the message, the person who causes it to be sent or the person who permits it to be sent has an existing business relationship or an existing non-business relationship with the person to whom it is sent." Furthermore, the Act state"… the person to whom the message is sent has disclosed, to the person who sends the message, the person who causes it to be sent or the person who permits it to be sent, the electronic address to which the message is sent without indicating a wish not to receive unsolicited commercial electronic messages at the electronic address, and the message is relevant to the person's business, role, functions or duties in a business or official capacity."

If you managed to make it through the above paragraph, let me paraphrase. It seems that a business is fully within their rights to send messages (ie. enewsletters, promotional messages) to customers as long as the customer has disclosed their email to you and has not indicated an objection to receiving such emails.

While I am certainly not a lawyer, I - and the marketing community - understand the FISA legislation to allow businesses to continue to use email as a marketing medium without 'expressed consent' from their target recipients.

For more information on FISA and Bill C-28, please visit
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ecic-ceac.nsf/eng/h_gv00567.html.

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April 15, 2011
Written by: Bernie Harsevoort

If there is a saying I've heard more than any in the last year, it's "we need a Facebook page". For many clients, I ask them to rephrase that as a question: "Why do we need a Facebook page?"

While I certainly don't want to undervalue Facebook or the social media realm in any way, it is often a misunderstood and misused medium. The seemingly most common reason for 'needing' a business Facebook page is "because everyone else has one."

Back to the question. Do we need a Facebook page? What for? As with any marketing media, you need to have a plan. While Facebook can and should be a very useful medium, you need an engaging content strategy to make the effort and investment worthwhile. And, let's not minimize the difference between engaging content - and just content. Providing dull and routine 'status updates' on your Facebook page can hardly be classified as constructive communication with your clients. The information communicated through your Facebook page to your customers should empower, inspire and/or involve them.

There have certainly been some creative and revolutionary examples of businesses using Facebook, but at this point they are in the minority. If you are considering a Facebook page for your business, consider the following questions:

1. Will you be committed to updating your Facebook page with relevant
information on a regular basis?
2. Will your content inspire or provoke a user to respond (even if
it's controversial)?
3. Will your Facebook page include any interactive elements for user
participation?
4. Will your content be unique?
5. Will it empower your customer to provide useful feedback about your
product or service?

If you can answer positively to two or more of the above questions, please call. Tell us you need a Facebook page.

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April 6, 2011
Written by: Bernie Harsevoort

With the continued popularity of smartphones, more and more businesses are launching either a mobile website or application ("app"). For many that have not yet waded into the mobile pool, the question is which route to take: mobile website or app?

While virtually any website can be viewed on a smartphone browser, if the website is not built for mobile it will be difficult for the user to read and navigate. A mobile website is just how it sounds: a website formatted for viewing on a smartphone browser. A mobile app is
software developed to run on mobile devices (ie., iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile).

As the smartphone world is still in its infancy, neither solution alone is perfect for reaching all your customers. If budget wasn't an issue the optimal solution would be to do both. However, if one needs to be chosen, which is it? Ultimately, that depends on your target audience. Apps are great when you have a segment of loyal customers who interact with you on a regular basis and want a fuller experience on their mobile. However, unless there is sufficient customer demand, an optimized mobile website is often your best bet.

Allow me to briefly summarize the pros and cons of both.

First, let's look at developing a mobile app. The main advantage of building an app is the user experience. A properly built app gives a developer greater control over the way text and images are displayed, as well as the use of sounds and videos. In addition, GPS, camera and "shake" functionality can all be baked into apps. It also provides full time access, even when wi-fi or 3G is unavailable. On the downside, mobile apps take longer to develop than mobile websites and you will need to create multiple apps to reach a your full audience. Apps also require a level of trust from your customer as they have to download and install it.

A mobile website is usually quicker to implement and less costly than developing an app. Note that due to the wide variety of handsets available, you may have to optimize your website for more than one phone and/or screen size. A mobile site is accessible on any device with a mobile browser, including non-smartphones, as most of these have some form of WAP-browsing. The negative of a mobile website compared to an app is that although all smartphones have browsers, most of them are very simplistic and cannot handle the same complexity and dynamic behavior as browsers on a PC.

If you are considering a mobile website or mobile (or tablet) app for your business, or have any questions, we invite you to contact us.