Tandew Websites

Local Business Website Boost

Archive for April, 2010

The Customer isn't always right

Apr 26

Posted by mandresen in business | No Comments

Henry Ford once said, “If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.”

While it’s important to listen to your customer, you should also stay within your vision.  Ford also commented that history is not worth anything.  All people want is tradition, until you show them something untraditional that improves their productivty.  “We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.

So get feedback from your customer, but blend that with truly trying to solve the problem that exists in your original vision. Many of you started your business to solve a problem you had originally.  Is your problem solved?

Whether you are creating softare or silverware, be aware how the customer influences your product blueprint.  Remember, the customer is not always right, ’cause guesswhat, the customer might not always know what is best for them!

Tags: , , ,

The Gravity Problem

Apr 26

Posted by mandresen in business | No Comments

In your business, are you pretending gravity doesn’t exit? What I mean is are you building a business or feeding a hobby?  Many web businesses are postponing the inevitable; no profit. The book, Rework,  brings this point home by saying that many of these young companies create “a place where the laws of business physics don’t apply.” The book goes on to say that that this, we will deal with the profit problem later approach is like, building a rocket ship but starting off by saying, ‘Let’s pretend gravity doesn’t exist.’”   One could also say it would be like bungee jumping and pretending gravity doesn’t exist:

This is me (Matt Andresen) Supermaning from the highest jump in North America and no I am not Superman, a cord was attached.

Profit should be a discussion on day one, otherwise the amount you spend might as well be like playing poker without expecting to make anything (you are just paying for entertainment).  Services like ours assume you are in this to make a profit and use your time in the most productive way possible.  The only thing worse than spending time on a hobby when you think you are running a business, is to spend a lot of time doing this. Don’t be a workaholic! Probably my favorite point in all of Rework is this:

“Workaholics miss the point, too.  They try to fix problems by throwing sheer hours at them.  They try to make up for intellectual laziness with brute force.  This results in inelegant solutions.  They even create crisis.  They don’t look for ways to be more efficient because they actually like working overtime.  They enjoy feeling like heroes.  They create problems (often unwittingly) just so they can get off on working more.”

This does not mean you are not going to be working a lot of hours, it just means most people expect results just from working long hours and pretending gravity doesn’t exist.

Tags: , ,

Call to Engage

Apr 26

Posted by Andy in business | No Comments

(this blog is a reposting of an original blog article at AndyVaughn.com)

Most websites are designed to direct you towards a “call to action.” This may be a call to purchase, contact, subscribe, tweet, or download. “Click here” and your wildest fantasies will come true…

This is a very important component to brick and mortar businesses on the Web that need to quantitatively measure the number of contacts, revenue generated from each contact, and cost to acquire these contacts. For a digital downloads site, it’s an even cleaner and more direct route. Set up an Google Adwords campaign, measure the number of exposures, cost-per-click, clickthroughs, and the number of downloads or purchases. It’s a direct funnel with little wavering and clearly defined holes*.

The analytics funnel can be measured simply with numbers in, numbers out, and diversions along the way. 0-100% optimized.

What about blogs, online books in HTML, magazines, or art exhibitions and galleries? An argument can be made that for these types of sites, the goal is to get the user to engage more than it is to get the user to click, buy, or contact. If you are using a photo montage, slideshow, or writing thought-provoking blog articles, is your goal to ship the user away via a click, or to get her engaged, talking about your story, and believing in your vision? A “call to engage” is what this site needs. Design to lead the user into your story, captivate her with your photos, and rid the landscape of peripheral “calls to action.”

Most news sites follow a three or four-column approach to their website. This can be understood, as the news business model is tied around advertising. But, wouldn’t it be nice if you read your articles with big type, restful whitespace, and engaging pictures? Many follow the recipe, but forget that the signal gets lost for the noise when your reading one amongst four columns, and the highest contrasting elements on the page are the banner ads, trying to get you to click away and buy a cell phone.

The next time you redesign, consider if it would be most appropriate to have numerous and loud calls to action, or provoking and relaxing calls to engage.

*The attrition and loss of users along the way due to checkout abandonment, site bounces, or click-aways.

Tags: , , ,

Judo Solutions

Apr 16

Posted by mandresen in business | No Comments

I fell in love with this term after reading Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. A Judo solution comes from getting the maximum efficiency from the least effort. I will admit part of my love for the term comes from being a student of Judo for the last 5 years.  The art of Judo comes from using little effort to win.  You use the momentum from the person you are fighting to your advantage.  Judo literally means, “the gentle way.”  A successful student of Judo uses minimal effort in an artful way to win a battle.

This is me successfully using "minimal effort in an artful way" to throw my opponent. I'm the guy on the left.

How does this apply to you?  Many website owners spent significant time and effort to create a successful site.  Start from the “need-to-haves” and then work towards the “want-to-haves.”  Ask yourself, if I took this thing away would my website exist?  If the answer is yes, you might be focusing on the wrong things.  Look at everything you need to do and Judo it!  Don’t Judo chop it, however. Since, even though Austin Powers “Judo chops” things, chopping or hitting doesn’t exist in Judo.

“Judo-ing” something means you are making a decision.  Moving forward is all about making decisions.  Make choices that are little enough to be temporary, so that if you mess up it is easier to change. So go out there and Judo it!

Tags: , , , ,

Too much of a good thing

Apr 16

Posted by mandresen in business | No Comments

You’ve heard the phrase “too much of a good thing.”  Simply meaning excess can do you harm. This is how I feel sometimes about web analytics.  You plug analytics into your website because someone told you that you should and then BOOM so much data.  My first experience with this for my blog caused inaction.  This seemed like too much work.  I would rather live in ignorance than wade through the data swamp.

A nice comparison is your 401(k). USNews money states: “New research indicates that too many choices in a 401(k) may even lead inexperienced investors to take on more risk than they would with fewer options.”  When you are overwhelmed with information you can very easily make mistakes or not lose sight of what is best.  The article further states:

“A Rutgers School of Business, University of Texas-Austin, and University of Pittsburgh study found that many employees without extensive investment knowledge will choose a heavier concentration of stocks in their portfolio when confronted with more fund options. A large fund assortment more than doubled investment in stocks among those less knowledgeable, from 29 percent to 60 percent of the portfolio, and decreased bond fund investments from 46 percent to 26 percent. But more investment knowledge had no significant affect on people who said they had investing knowledge.”

While all of the analytics feedback can help some I think it hurts the vast majority if not used appropriately.  This is where Funneli provides clarity through informative tips and helpful nudges in the right direction.  Become a more informed user and learn about your website while (through Funneli) your website learns about you.

- Matt (your productive website advocate)

Tags: , , ,

Funnel This!

Apr 16

Posted by mandresen in business | No Comments

What is website success?  Every site on the web claims to be very different and in many ways they are, but unfortunately this “I’m different” mentality is used as an excuse to why they fail to use benchmarks or basic website analysis.

The secret to success is not focusing on how you are different, but how you are all the same; the desire for conversion. An e-commerce site converts visits to sales, an industrial site converts visitors to leads and a blog converts visitors to subscribers.

Unfortunately most websites and their marketing strategies miss the boat completely.  They measure success by Google rank or traffic, instead of conversions.

There seem to be two conversion camps: websites that too confusing and intricate to navigate and those too simple to attract qualified traffic.

You need funnels!  Think of your website funnels in a literal sense for a moment.  You are the pitcher, your customers are the water and the glass is your shopping cart, lead generator or subscriber sign up. Many websites think they are pouring from one pitcher to the next, but this is not really the case.  You are really pouring from a pitcher to a small opening that leads to a larger volume (like a beer or coke bottle).

The most effective way to do this is not just to start pouring.  While you will get some conversions, you will also miss out on a lot of opportunities and will find that you spent a lot of time filling that pitcher, just to hope most or all of it would go in that bottle.

Instead use a funnel, this may seem at first like a slower process, but nearly all of the water will fall into that bottle. Funnels are what ensures that a visitor will flow in the right directions for conversion. While this does make a lot of sense, implementing it effectively can prove to be difficult.

Using funnels can be easy, but consistent implementation of them can be anything but simple with sometime of simple automated tracking system.  If only there was something the most amateur of website owners/marketeers could use…if only!

Tags: , , , , ,