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May 18, 2009 By 2 Comments

12 Tips for a Great Chamber / Economic Development Alliance Website Design

At SpinWeb, we have a particular interest in helping local communities thrive and flourish using the Internet.  For this reason, we love working with municipalities and agencies within, which includes chambers and economic development alliances. I have been researching both chambers and economic development alliances recently in preparation for an upcoming project and I’ve noticed that though they have different objectives, the two entities can often co-exist in the same website and be very complementary. So what are some ways a website for a chamber and economic development alliance can serve the community?

1. Publish a user-friendly online sites and buildings database. Make sure it is easy for interested businesses to research locations in your community via your website. You want to attract new business, so be easy to work with by giving businesses the tools they need to get information fast and allow them to search on detailed attributes.

2. Invest in a high-quality image. Your website represents your community and should be attractive and modern. Chambers and economic development alliances with beautiful websites make the community look like an attractive place to live and do business.

3. Offer educational and networking events with online registration. By offering events and classes, you not only promote networking in your community, but also increase the skill level of your local work force. Be sure your website clearly lists your calendar of events and offers online registration, which increases attendance.

4. Offer an online Chamber Marketplace to promote commerce. Allow chamber members to create online profiles and place projects out for bit to other chamber members. Then, allow members to submit bids on those projects via your website. This encourages commerce between chamber members, as well as increases the value of a chamber membership.

5. Include social media links to make information sharing easy. Make sure that your sites and buildings, jobs, news, projects for bid, and events all include a “share” option to make it easy for site visitors to post your web site information to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networks. The easier it is to distribute your content, the more likely it is to be seen.

6. Publish an online employment database. Stimulating employment in the community sh0uld be a strong objective for your website and one great way to do this is to offer an online employment database. Allow chamber and/or community members to post job openings on your employment database and offer candidates the ability to apply online for those jobs. This creates an easier way to connect jobs with candidates and increases the value of your site. Don’t forget to include a “share” button to make it easy for site visitors to post jobs to their social networks.

7. Invest in search engine marketing to attract businesses. A great chamber and/or economic development alliance website is only useful when someone finds it. Be sure your community is found by creating targeted keyword campaigns that attract the right visitors to your site.

8. Promote notable local businesses via an active press room. Recognize your local businesses via your website by publishing regular articles that feature local businesses. This keeps your website full of fresh content which has a positive impact on your search engine rankings and helps your local businesses get more visibility.

9. Publish a video podcast featuring local businesses. A podcast is easy and inexpensive to set up and is a great way to promote members of your community. Send an intern from your local university out with a video camera once a week to a local business to do a 5-minute “spotlight”. This gives local businesses a chance to get exposure when they might not otherwise be able to afford advertising. It’s also a recruiting tool to help attract businesses to your community since it shows that you are committed to supporting them once they arrive.

10. Sell products online. Many businesses in your community would like to sell their products online but don’t have the resources to do so. Help them out by offering to sell their products online for them via your website. Additionally, you can also sell city/community-branded merchandise online, such as clothing and other items. Build your community’s brand while adding revenue!

11. Auto-bill your members via self-serve online tools. Make it easier for chamber members to renew and submit payments by allowing them to log in and manage their accounts via your website. Be sure you accept credit cards and e-checks. This not only reduces barriers to renewals, but reduces administrative expenses in your office.

12. Publish a great e-mail newsletter. Send out your email newsletter on a regular schedule and highlight community events to increase attendance.

Whether your chamber and economic development alliances are using separate web sites or integrated into one site, these tips will help add value to your online presence, attract new businesses to the community, and help local businesses grow and flourish.

Filed Under: Design, Lifestyle, Marketing, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , , ,
May 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Top 10 Information Architecture Mistakes (Jakob Nielsen)

Every now and then, Jakob Nielsen publishes a great article that really hits home and embodies all the rules we are trying to explain every day as we create web sites for our clients. Take a moment to read this one:

Top 10 Information Architecture Mistakes

It’s a great review of some of the little details that can make the difference between a mediocre website and a great web site.

Filed Under: Design, Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , ,
May 3, 2009 By 1 Comment

7 Ways Manufacturing Companies Can Increase Sales with a Great Website Design

At SpinWeb, we love working with manufacturing companies. So much opportunity exists to help them utilize their websites more effectively to facilitate growth. Many of today’s manufacturers, however, are facing significant challenges in utilizing the Internet to increase sales. So what are some things that make a difference?

1. Invest in a great design. Image matters. Companies that make great products need to present a strong image and the corporate web site is the place to do it. A great image can make the difference in lost or closed sales when prospective customers are performing the “sniff test” on your company to see if you can deliver.

2. Present your catalog online. I’m not just talking about a PDF download. I’m talking about having a full-fledged interactive product catalog that allows your customers to search, browse, and research your products online. Products should not simply be listed on a page, but should be part of a true product database so that individual product listings can be sent to prospective customers electronically as a link or via social media. This speeds up the sales cycle and gives your sales team better support as they present products. If possible, include video demos.

3. Collect leads. Manufacturing websites should be asking site visitors for names and email addresses so that email communications on new and updated products can be delivered. This keeps prospective customers in your funnel and improves your chances of reaching them when it comes time to buy.

4. Facilitate an ecosystem. Manufacturing companies can benefit a great deal from creating online communities that their customers can use to communicate with each other and share knowledge. This helps build value around your company’s brand and improves retention. An ecosystem can be an online forum, an extranet, or even a Facebook Group.

5. Utilize search engine marketing. Most manufacturing companies are not investing very heavily in search engine marketing. This opens up a huge opportunity for those who do. By investing in targeted search engine marketing, smart manufacturing companies can ensure that their products show up at the top of the list when prospective customers are doing reasearch online. This can make the difference between lost business or closed business.

6. Distribute documentation. If your products come with documentation that helps your customers better understand how to use or implement your products, post it on your website – all of it. By driving your customers back to your website, you are reinforcing the value of your brand. It also allows you to eliminate or reduce printed documentation, which saves money. Online documentation can also be updated in minutes – a huge advantage over printed documentation. I’m not referring to PDF downloads, I’m referring to an online database of documentation that your customers can search and sort easily to find what they need. This makes you easy to do business with and improves retention. It’s also a great sales tool because prospective customers can see how easy it is to get the supporting information they need about your products which reduces anxiety.

7. Increase your PR efforts using Social Media. Manufacturing companies should be investing in PR to increase brand awareness and tell a story. Social Media is a great way to extend your PR efforts. Press releases should be listed on your company website and then distributed via Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This improves your search engine rankings and encourages others to re-distribute your content for you. Make sure your website content includes “share this” buttons to facilitate easy distribution by site visitors.

Many manufacturing companies are not taking full advantage of their company websites to leap ahead of the competition which means that the ones who do will have a significant advantage. Support your sales team and your customers with a great website and enjoy greater customer loyalty and increased sales.

Filed Under: Design, Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , , ,
April 28, 2009 By 1 Comment

B2C Company Using Social Media? Follow the Lead of Eventful Florals.

I love seeing our clients do creative things using social media. I noticed Eventful Florals doing something interesting recently that I thought was a great idea. They are offering a 10% discount to anyone who becomes a fan of Eventful Florals on Facebook. This is great because their customers feel great about getting a special deal, while Eventful Florals now has a growing list of permission-based contacts who have opted in to receiving updates via the fan page.

Additionally, Eventful Florals is distributing “daily tips for the modern bride” via Twitter, which is also awesome. Brides-to-be will follow to get wedding planning tips (very valuable info) and Eventful Florals gains a captive audience of potential customers. The updates are also posted to the fan page.

Kudos to Eventful Florals for being innovative and using social media to build value and grow brand awareness with permission marketing.

Oh, and they have a nice web site, too :-)

Filed Under: Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,
April 11, 2009 By 2 Comments

The death of the webmaster

Ok, not literally… perhaps another title might be “The re-assignment of the webmaster” but that doesn’t sound as dramatic. In any case, I still see a particular trend on this subject that bothers me. SpinWeb works with a lot of associations which are typically led by a board of directors and sometimes assisted by a staff. What I still see in many cases is the old-fashioned concept of the traditional “webmaster”. The webmaster is typically a single person within the association, either a volunteer or a staff member, who is in charge of updating the association web site. This person may have special technical knowledge that makes him or her qualified to write the code necessary to make changes on the site. All changes go through this webmaster and only he or she holds the keys to web content.

This structure is antiquated and problematic because it creates a bottleneck that delays content updates. If all updates are channeled through one person, then the association’s web site is in a very precarious position. The association’s web site should be the most current and most active communication tool in use and key leaders in the organization should be able to post content in real time without having to channel it through a webmaster.

The more enlightened model that I like to recommend is that associations manage their web sites via a mature Application Suite (also sometimes called a Content Management System) that allows multiple board and/or staff members to update the association web site in real time. News, events, and other information can then be managed by those people who actually create the content. For example, SpinWeb creates sites that allow association boards and staff members to give “keys” to specific people throughout the association that allows those people to update content within their areas. No special technical knowledge is required… only basic computer skills. We have created sites in which the entire board of directors has control over website content and can make up-to-the-minute changes 24/7, which allows them to react very quickly and communicate to members in a timely fashion.

If your organization is still in the world of channeling website updates through a “webmaster”, please talk to me. There is a better way :)

Filed Under: Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , ,
April 8, 2009 By 1 Comment

Symmergy Clinic Web Site Launched: Need Chiropractic or Electro-acupuncture?

At SpinWeb, we recently lauched the new web site for the Symmergy Clinic. Dr. Ken Golden opened this clinic a few years ago and I must say it is one of the most awesome medical offices I have ever been in. The interior design is modern, high-tech, and very cool. Various genres of music play throughout the office each time I visit, including jazz, classical, and other ambient blends. The technology is very slick and overall, it feels less like a traditional yucky doctor’s office and more like the sick bay of the Starship Enterprise.

Aside from all that, Dr. Golden is a great chiropractor who uses a blend of traditional chiropractic and electro-acupuncture to treat all sorts of conditions. He did wonders for my tennis elbow.

The new web site allows Dr. Golden to distribute an email newsletter containing health and wellness tips, publish articles to a blog, and post a calendar of seminars complete with online registration.

It’s great to see a local Indianapolis chiropractor embracing the web to grow his practice and provide more value for his patients. Check out the Symmergy Clinic at:

http://www.symmergy.com

Filed Under: Design, Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , ,
March 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Network of Women in Business Embraces Smart Online Tools

Today, SpinWeb launched a shiny new web site for the Network of Women in Business, also known as NOWIB. The site is located at www.nowib.com. I am thrilled to talk about this client because it was such a pleasure to create this site. The team at NOWIB was great to work with and everyone was always respectful and helpful the whole process truly felt like teamwork.

It’s also very exciting to see a networking organization like NOWIB really take advantage of our tools in a really smart way. For example, NOWIB is using the Membership module to store, manage, and bill members. This allows members to log into the web site and manage profile information, as well as pay bills online. It allows NOWIB to set up paperless recurring billing for members which saves huge amounts of time. They are also using the Events module for online registration, as well as Email Marketing for a great email newsletter. The NOWIB saw the tools that we recommended and embraced the technology to really take the organization to the next level.

The great new design was also fun to do! The new look and feel is cleaner and easier to navigate and helps NOWIB project a much more credible image to prospective members.

We at SpinWeb are grateful for the opportunity to work with NOWIB and I am very happy to see the new site online. Thanks, NOWIB!

Filed Under: Design, Marketing, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,
February 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Euro Motorworks Named One of 2009′s Top Ten Automotive Repair Web Sites

Stories like this make me so happy I could just shout! I got a letter from Gloria Heath (VP at Euro Motorworks) letting me know that her web site was named by Auto, Inc. as one of the Top 10 Best Automotive Web Site of 2009. Creating this web site was a wonderful experience for us and the team at Euro Motorworks has been an absolute joy to work with. I could not be more proud of them.

A press release from SpinWeb on the topic can be found here:

Local Automotive Repair Shop Receives National Recognition for Outstanding Web Site

Thank you to Gloria, Terry, and the team at Euro Motorworks for partnering with SpinWeb. Congratulations!

Filed Under: Design, Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , , ,
January 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Reduce Anxiety to Increase Sales

I came across a great article recently titled Reducing Customer Anxiety About Products on Product Pages that described how to increase conversions on your e-commerce site. Though this article focused on reducing anxiety with e-commerce sites, it was a great piece of advice for many different types of web sites.

Successful businesses need to have a professional, attractive, and functional web site. This is fairly accepted by most people. However, how much time do we spend on crafting that site so that our potential customers feel safe and comfortable when interacting with our businesses and organizations on the web? I often see sites that spend lots of time on Flash or beautiful imagery but have very little content to tell a story or teach me how their products will benefit me. Non-profits and associations are also guilty of this – if I join an association, what can I expect as a member? What are the guidelines? What’s the benefit for me?

Here are some ways to reduce visitor anxiety when he/she is exploring your web site:

Create a Thorough FAQ. The FAQ seems to be a lost art and many sites either don’t have one or post a useless one that doesn’t really answer anything. A good FAQ should get inside the head of your constituents and address the common concerns that most people have about your product, service, or organization. This helps reduce anxiety and increases the level of familiarity that sites visitors have with your organization.

Utilize Case Studies. Case studies are a powerful tool that can dramatically increase the level of trust you have with your audience. Tell stories about how you solved a problem or eased the pain for your customers and how they benefited from working with you. Stories about other customers are much more effective than self-promotion.

Explain How You Are Different. Your competitors are all saying the same thing. They are probably using vague marketing messages centered about “customer service” or “quality”. Be different: tell your customer how you provide customer service. Explain why your quality is superior. Then, go a step further and explain how it will benefit your customer. These are the things your customers are asking as they explore your web site.

Your customers and constituents need to feel safe before they work with you. Don’t keep your stories in a black box. Ease their fears and anxiety by anticipating and addressing these concerns up front. People want to work with companies and organizations that are transparent and honest, not mysterious unknowns. Reduce anxiety and increase your sales.

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: , ,
December 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Notice: The IT Department Does Not Handle Your Web Site

As I work with companies to create or update their new web sites, I frequently encounter a misconception that I find puzzling. It seems that many companies are of the mindset that their IT departments should be 100% in charge of their web site. Not so… in fact, Marketing should be the group overseeing or at least very involved in the corporate web site. Most IT departments are overworked as a result of supporting infrastructure and workstations and don’t have the time to devote attention to the company web site nor should they take on all these responsibilities.

The old-fashioned way of building web sites did involve getting messy with custom code and building custom “back end” interfaces and also involved hosting sites in-house. Today, however, there is no reason (with a few exceptions) for companies to build, host, and maintain web sites in-house. Modern web sites should be built on a content management system or application framework that removes the need for custom coding and messy development. When we design and deploy web sites at SpinWeb, we focus on the marketing and business development aspects of the site, rather than the technology. The technology should operate seamlessly in the background, leaving us free to be creative and focus on business goals.

This means that IT really should not be the only group with a role in the design, deployment, or management of the web site. Today’s modern tools allow the marketing team to handle all these activities with ease. This leaves IT free to provide better support for systems that is within the scope of their training. Everybody wins.

Are there exceptions? Absolutely. At SpinWeb we recently deployed a new web site for a prominent local credit union and we were working directly with the IT team and it was a very successful project. This was because the IT team saw the value of outsourcing the technology related to the web site and opening up control to Marketing, thus providing better service. When this is the goal, it’s a win-win for everyone. I would say that in this case, the IT team was wearing a partial Marketing and Communications hat during the project, in addition to IT responsibilities.

Remember that a web site is a marketing and communications tool – typically not an IT project.

Filed Under: Design, Marketing, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , , ,
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