If you’re like many small business owners lately, the economy has got you in the slumps. Things are slow. Business is hurting. The future looks grim. How can you afford to do any extra promotion in a time like this?

It’s not that you have to cut promotion; it’s that it’s time to be more cost-effective in your marketing strategies. If the economy is headed for a recession, we have a choice… dig deep and cut marketing, which will result in a negative downward spiral as fewer new clients are exposed to your business… or choose to fight!

You can fight by improving your marketing and the cost effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Now, what does that mean? That means taking time to stop and consider if your advertising dollars are being well spent or could be better spent elsewhere. Are you running a radio ad that costs hundreds of dollars and plays only a few times in a day? Are you running a costly newspaper ad that will only be seen by readers of that day’s paper before they’re on to the next issue? Internet display ads generally cost about the same amount of money, but offer a considerable difference in visibility. Read the rest of this entry »

Time for a Website Redesign?

Take a look at your current website. Does it accomplish your business goals? Does it bring you customers? Engage the site visitors? Are the calls-to-action effective? Have your business goals changed or shifted since the site was last updated?

Your website design should not only be inline with your business goals, but it also should help you accomplish your goals, whether it’s increasing sales or getting more people to sign up for a newsletter. If this is not the case with your website then it’s time for a redesign.

Technology changes fast, a lot has changed in the past few years and that includes computer monitors getting bigger, and the newer sites are designed wider to take advantage of this. Bigger monitors give a business the opportunity to get more information on a page and larger photos as well.

Many things have changed on the development side of things as well. Photo galleries, navigation techniques and the way things are coded are all much different than 4 or 5 years ago. The techniques and programs used today allow for a much smoother user experience, with faster loading pages (check you site – does it take more than 2 seconds for all the images to load?) and easier paths to get to where a visitor needs to be.

A few signs that your site may need a revamp are:

1. You have a flash intro. While these were popular for a few years (for no good reason), these make the most important page on your site – the homepage - unreadable by the search engines. They are also slow loading and a general nuisance. Did you notice they always have a “skip intro” option? There is a reason for that - users want to get to your information and get what they are looking for, not see slow loading animation.
2. Small old looking photos – When making sites years ago, designers had to take in account that not everyone was on a broadband connection. Some users were using a dial-up connection which loaded very slowly. Businesses did not want to lose dial-up users so designers used smaller photos to load quickly. But now the majority of people on fast broadband connections. You can now have large photos that showcase your business (For search engine purposes you still need to be mindful of file sizes, but there are ways to include great looking images).
3. It’s costing you money to update. You have to call the company who made your site every time you need a text change. Big things have changed on this front. There are many Content Management options out there that let business owners and employees easily change content. We have been using Abobe Contribute successfully.
4. No Search Engine Optimization. When you had your site made, did the company even mention SEO? If your site was designed several years ago it might not take advantage of the ever changing search engines optimization techniques. Today, any decent company should offer basic SEO on a new site.
5. Millions of visitors, no leads. Are you getting traffic but you’re not hearing from anyone? Contact us - we can help make that happen.
6. Millions of visitors, millions of questions. Are you getting a large amount of phone calls or emails with questions about your business? Perhaps some of these questions could be answered on the site, saving you time to do more important things. Create an About Us page or perhaps a FAQ - great pages for both search engines to spider and users to enjoy!
7. My personal pet peeve: Animated GIF’s, sounds and music that start automatically. I am a firm believer in that nothing ever should automatically start on your site, whether it’s music, sounds or video. Annoying people never works.

Take a look at your site and go through this checklist. If several of them apply to your site then it’s time to contact someone (or us!) to talk about redesigning your site.

Web Designers Trip to Chicago: A List Apart Web Design Conference

In October, the design team from Mannix took a trip to Chicago and learned that Chicago style pizza is not nearly as good as anything the east coast has to offer!

While there, though, we attended a web design conference called “An Event Apart.” Collin, Jennifer and I (who are web designers and developers here at Mannix) were lucky enough to attend this event — which covered everything from web design to web standards and featured some of the biggest names in our field as speakers.

As designers and developers, we are always looking to grow and learn, because just sitting back and going along for the ride is not an option if you want to be successful in this ever-changing field. Things change fast, and you have to be willing to keep up. And that’s what this event offered: many speakers a day who spoke about all things web related. It has us really motivated to keep learning, which in the end will produce better sites and projects.

This conference got me thinking a lot… thinking about how to better plan client sites as well as our own. It got me motivated to work as a team even more than we currently do. We tried the strategies we learned on one of our own sites, inviting everyone in the office to critique a design.  Almost everyone shared something that they thought would enhance the design and make it easier to use. And in the end, I think we will be able to offer a better completed project. I hope to continue to involve many employees’ opinions on client’s projects as well.

They had many of the industry’s top people — Eric Meyer, Andy Clark, Jeffery Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria and my favorite speaker, Jason Fried.

In Fried’s discussion, “Beyond User Interface Basics,” he talked about usability and the way pages flow and interact. He talked about the small things on page having a bigger impact than one might expect. He stressed that we should make the design as easy to use as possible. As a designer, I think I can use much of what he talked about and apply it to every design I do. I already liked simple, clean, easy-to-use websites that let you get the information you need as quickly as possible, and he really spoke to this. It got me to really think about the placement and reason for everything I place in a design.

And on the flight home, I was thinking of the conference and applying it to things here at Mannix.  I realized all the things we offer as a company (SEO, Design, Advertising Opportunities, etc) and the importance of really letting people know what we offer. This complete package can really help someone’s business be more successful. It’s one thing to have a website, but a lot better if that website is well designed and getting traffic. We are a complete internet marketing company, with all employees bringing their own slice of experience to a project. Having such a diverse group of employees is a huge advantage for us and the client.

Overall the trip was great, we learned a lot, and it got us thinking and motivated. Although we were in the conference all day, we did get out and see Chicago a little. It seems like a great city, and we’re all excited to go back again next year.

If you are creating an ‘About Us’ page on your website, you may be confused as to what to put on this page. Don’t be afraid of this blank canvas - embrace it! Think of this page as an extra area to voice why YOU are the best at what you do, while also personalizing this space to make others feel welcomed. Even though you may be a bit reluctant to write about yourself or your company, know that this page could potentially increase your conversion rate. Intrigued? Ok then, read on.

Let’s be serious here, when you think ‘About Us’, you may think boooring. But, for those actually clicking on the About Us page, they really are interested in YOU and want to get to know you a bit more. Don’t play hard to get, rather showcase your product or services and give the user what they want. Provide detailed information about your company, highlight some stats, provide customer testimonials, or simply talk to your client. Know your audience.

Unfortunately, many businesses just create a quick blurb about their company or themselves and simply post it on the page, missing a host of not only bragging possibilities, but also excellent search engine optimization opportunities that this page presents. Especially if you have a small business, this page can give you added weight when it is utilized as an SEO tool rather than just an informational page.

There are several things to keep in mind when you are creating your ‘About Us’ content:

• Meta information: Always create keyword-rich titles and descriptions, and choose relevant keywords just as you would for any page of your site. Create stickiness to these tags, enhancing catchy clickability.
• Keywords: This is a good place to include some keywords that are not your most high profile. Work them in logically and make them flow.
• Linking Building: Linking with anchor text to some of the dominate pages is key. The ‘About’ page lets you create prominent links to deeper pages, such as your Directions page, your Site Map, Contact Us page, etc. (And don’t forget to link back to your ‘About’ page from other locations throughout the site!). Facilitating movement and flow within your website will ultimately help your user’s experience.

For small or medium size businesses, it is often true that less is more when you are creating content for this page. Be brief, focused, stay succinct and make it fun! This really is a perfect place for you to showcase what makes YOU unique and explain what your strengths are.

Still need help? Contact the SEO team at Mannix Marketing, Inc.! Good luck and go ahead, brag a bit

Looking for another great website stats tool to use? I found one that is free and gives you unique data that other stats tools may not…

Quantcast.com is an easy to read tool that allows you to get a glimpse of who your website audience is! Find out your visitor’s demographics, their geographic location, age group, education and more. Learn what other sites your audience likes and how your competitors are doing. The best part: Quantcast is simple, clear, updates on a regular basis and can help you better tailor your website to your actual audience.

So what are you waiting for? Simply go to Quantcast.com, type in your web address and quantify yourself!

Don’t believe me? Our clients certainly think so. Check out what they have to say about the Internet Marketing job we do. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Pretty convincing, right? A large list of detailed testimonials from actual customers. If you don’t have testimonials on your site you are missing out on a great opportunity to promote your company to clients and to the search engines all in one.

Why Testimonials

Here’s how testimonials work for you with potential clients: it gives others a chance to sing your praises for you. What’s more convincing… me telling you how great my company is, or a national business owner giving specifics on how we helped her business to double their revenue? Of course it’s the latter! Any time you have the opportunity to have someone else do the selling for you, let them.

And what about the search engines? How are testimonials good for your placements? One reason is that if you have a testimonial page, that page will typically be a well trafficked and well linked to page. People love to find out what similar people are saying. Other ways in which they help with the search engines is because the text used in the testimonials are the words from actual clients. This means that this is how they speak, which probably means this is what they will use to search for a product or service like yours. And since these phrases are all over the testimonials page, there is a good chance you could have a solid ranking for what people are actually typing in with their search queries.

How to Get Testimonials

Do you remember the last time a customer said something nice about you or your company? If you do, great. If you don’t, you do remember that once upon a time a customer has said something nice about you, right?

Either way, it’s important to document customer quotes and testimonials, no matter how short and sweet the accolades seem. If, for some reason, you don’t seem them flowing in on a daily basis, be proactive about it. Email or call your customers and ask if they would be willing to offer a testimonial. If they’re happy customers they are usually more than willing to send over a few sentences on your behalf.

And just as important, get permission to use the quotes from the customers themselves. (At least get permission to use the quote. If you can use the person’s company and name that is even better.) Even though it gives you a warm feeling to know that a client thinks you are great, it doesn’t help your business much if you cannot share it.

Where to Put Testimonials

Once you have a bunch of testimonials, what do you do?  The first thing I do when I get one is to place it in a master testimonials file, complete with quote, provider, company, date and what permissions we have for it. I use an electronic file, but a print file would work just as well. The reason for the file is that you never know when the quotes might come in handy in addition to your website (print materials, referrals, radio, …).

Speaking of your website - where on your website should you place them? I recommend having at least a master testimonials page with all the ones you have gathered. After that, I find it helpful to sprinkle the throughout the site. The bottom of pages or on the right side seem to work well, but it will all depend on the design and content of your site and page. Whatever the case, making sure people can see them and that they are relevant to the page is very important.

So, start gathering your glowing testimonials, place them on your website and let others do the selling for you!

Last week we talked about the importance of photographs and how images can really enhance your site. This week we’ll talk about the most important aspect of your site: the content. Creating keyword rich, enticing content is oftentimes overlooked. Fresh content is not only important for search engine optimization, but it is crucial to the overall user experience.

In the initial stages of website design and development, it’s best to hire a copywriter to produce all your content, however, that might not be in your budget. If hiring a copywriter is within your budget, you could create an outline or flowchart of the major talking points/criteria you would like as a focal point. Or, the other option is to write the content yourself. Do not override this option if you have the time and writing ability, because you know your business better than anyone.

If a copywriter is providing content for your site, they still need to know about the business and what sets it apart from the competition. Providing this can be one of the biggest struggles for some clients, so getting things rolling with just a little direction (even if it’s just an overview or talking points) provides a great starting point for focused, factual content.

For the “Do-It-Yourselfers” out there, here are a few website design tips:

• Don’t skimp on content: Explain who you are and what you do - don’t assume that people already know this. It may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised to know that many people do not make it as clear as pie.
• Stand Out: Why are you better than the next guy? Explain the advantages of your product or service and entice potential clients your way.
• Maintain a Focus: It’s recommended to focus on one topic per page - don’t try to explain everything all at once. Each web page should have a focus (and, in general, each page should focus on different keywords).
• Enhance Calls to Action: Make it obvious - when you are lucky enough to have site visitors who actually read your content, make sure they know exactly what to do when they are on your page - Book a Room, Call Us, Buy This - make that conversion  happen!
• Proofread It! Make sure to proofread your content before making anything live. Grammatical and spelling errors are turn-offs and make a site look unprofessional and “fly-by-nightish”.

One thing I like to tell clients who are hesitant to spend money on copyrighting is, if you’re spending thousands of dollars on a site design and development; why not put some of that towards some sort of copywriting.

It’s like buying a car with no engine. All you have is a car that doesn’t go anywhere. Sure it looks like a car, but it’s not doing what it’s designed for. Same goes for your website. It will look great, but might not contain any quality information and that’s what users ultimately come to your site for.

And for folks with existing sites, it can’t hurt to take a fresh look at the content and see if there is anything that can be enhanced. Or, look at any opportunities to update the photos which can help freshen up older designs.

When having a new website designed, one aspect I often see clients overlooking are content and photos. Many clients see these as not as important as the actual design. As a designer I would like to believe that, but without these two key components you may be stuck with a good looking site that doesn’t have any real substance. A great design is just half of the puzzle - without quality content and photographs that visually describe what sets your business apart from the competition your visitors may struggle to find out why they should use your services or visit your business.

Let’s talk about photos. They are often a critical part to a design and give the website designer something to start with. They also offer site visitors quick visual cues of what a website is about before they start reading. As the old saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

It’s also a great idea for any business to take photographs regularly throughout the year. Why not? It doesn’t take long and you never know when you will need one, whether it’s for a website or other marketing materials. It’s a lot easier to just pull from a collection and pick out photos when you need them, rather than running around and taking photos all at once.

It’s especially important for some industries, like construction businesses, where they only have access to the work site when working on the project. Having a collection of photos of past projects help greatly in showing website visitors the type of work that a company does. Taking before and after shots are especially effective and this is impossible to do once the project is done. If a business has special events (sales, group events, trips, etc) taking photos can be used on new sites or even added to a current site to show visitors recent happenings.

While professional photographs can look the best, don’t discount the work a closet photographer can do. Digital cameras take great photos these days and often are very suitable for use on a website. The other option is stock photos. But oftentimes, these look like, well, stock photos and you can end up searching for hours looking for that one perfect photo when it could have just taken minutes if there were a photo collection to choose from. Stock photos do work for certain industries, but they do not work well for some, like construction, restaurants, hotels and other similar industries.

When you bring these aspects into the beginning stages of a design you’ll end up with a site that not only looks great, but works well for getting your message across – all the things needed to get people into your store or using your business.

Next week check back to read about the other most overlooked part of web projects - unique content.

Have you ever tried searching for a local business in your neck of the woods and you simply just can’t find it? Kinda frustrating, huh? Sometimes,  searching locally isn’t always a walk in the park.

So, this new cafe (which opened it’s doors about a month ago) is super cute, has great food and is located within walking distance of where I live. This past weekend, I tried looking up the menu online to show my friend who came in from out of town. Did I mention that I was super excited to bring her here, as it’s a chic little boutique cafe that I just knew she’d love.

Anyways, I ventured over to my trusted search engine, plugged in “glens falls restaurants” and hit enter, waiting for a list to appear. Hmmm, nothing but a laundry list of directories to weed through. Let’s try this again, “glens falls cafes”…nada. I think Am I spelling this wrong? Surely, a brand-spankin’ new restaurant must have a website! After all, what is this - the 1990’s?! Sigh…

I finally gave up and typed in the actual name of the gourmet cafe and found it way down on a long annoying list of restaurant directories. Danggit – no website! Not a very good user experience, that’s for sure.

Getting found locally doesn’t have to be so cumbersome. Luckily, this can all be solved if businesses follow a few quickie tips for getting found locally in the search engines.

Top Local Directories to submit your business, write reviews or rate others:

• Online communities, such as Yelp.com, Saratoga.com (if local) or Albany.com (if local) to review, rate, rant or rave
• Local Directories offering free or fee based listings: InsiderPages.com, CitySquares.com, MojoPages.com, and TrueLocal.com

Submit to Internet Yellow Pages:

• SuperPages.com
• YellowPages.com
• Switchboard.com

Submit to Local Directories in Search Engines:

• List your business/website in the local business section on Google, Yahoo or MSN! It’s free and you are even given the opportunity to add photos or write reviews.

For more information, check out this post by Aaron Wall. Hope this information helps you to locally, get found on the web!

What is RSS?
You may find yourself asking this question from time to time, “What does RSS mean?” First of all, RSS does not stand for Ragu Spaghetti Sauce, although it technically could be your code for Wednesday night’s dinner name. “Kids, tonight we’re having an RSS feed.”

RSS refers to the following XML encoded formats: “Really Simple Syndication“, “RDF Site Summary“, or “Rich Site Summary“. Are you even more confused? Basically, RSS is an easy way to get regularly changing web content. Many news sites, portals, blogs and other online publishers syndicate their web content as an RSS Feed.

Why should I use RSS?
RSS is the solution to the problem for people who regularly check their favorite websites for the latest content. It allows you to easily stay connected to the sites you are interested in by receiving their latest updates. Add in multiple websites that you frequent and it’s easy to see that RSS saves you time. You get the information you want from the sites that you want… all in one location!

How do I get started?
A feed reader will give you the ability to subscribe to the RSS feeds of your choosing. There are many different choices of RSS Readers available depending on your preference or computer platform. Some popular feed readers include FeedReader and NewsGator - plus, there are several online feed readers available: Bloglines, Rojo, Google Reader, Pageflakes and My Yahoo are a few of the popular web-based feed readers out there.

It’s pretty easy to sign up for a feed reader. Once you choose your reader, now you’re free to search your favorite sites to see if they offer content syndication, and add their RSS feed to your feed reader. Look for a small icon (”“) with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available. It’s that simple.

RSS Links: Mannix Marketing’s Example RSS Feeds

• Mannix Blog
• Saratoga News
• Albany.com