I am going to start this monologue with a question. Why do you want a website?

A lot of my clients contact me requesting a website. Not too weird, I guess, I do call myself a web designer. However, when I in turn ask my clients why they want a web site, they often give me answers like “because everyone else has one” and “because we need one”. Today, I’m going to discuss how a website shouldn’t be created just for the reason of existence, but to be the hub of your online marketing effort.

Throughout my work day, I stumble upon many failed attempts at online marketing. I look at websites that haven’t been updated with a single news story or blog post in ages. I follow companies on Twitter that tweeted twice the last year. I have “liked” firms on Facebook that hasn’t done a single thing with their followers to this day. In other words – a lot of wasted effort.

Many companies get stuck in this limbo where they have everything set up for them to make it big online – and no time to take advantage of them. They have a nice-looking web site, accounts on the social media networks and they have even set up Google Analytics to track the users that stop by their website. Often, in smaller firms, the person responsible for marketing is happy with his or her efforts by this point, telling her boss it now is just a question of time before customers will be clogging their inbox with orders and requests for their services.

Then times go by. Not exactly the response you were looking for, was it? I will be the first to admit that I have worked with clients that have gotten back to me after a few months, telling me that the web site I produced for them was a waste of money and time on their part – it’s done nothing to promote them as a company. So I navigate over to their site and find the newest blog post is “Welcome to our new website!” – the same one I put up ages ago. I ask the company about their marketing efforts, and they tell me this is it. Then I usually tell them what to do to make good on their investment, and a few months later, they are happy customers again.

So if you are a client in a similar situation – with a great looking website and no visitors – and no idea where to go from there, this is for you!

A website should be the hub of your internet marketing

That’s right – your company website should be the hub of your internet marketing efforts – not your only internet marketing effort. See – the most search engined optimized site in the world is not going to get you any visitors unless you get people talking about it! It’s great that you have a good looking website with all the newest bells and whistles, but without people knowing about it, it’s not going to do you any good.

What I mean with your website being the hub of your internet marketing efforts, is that it will be just that – where you want everybody to come. To get them there, however, is where the hard work lays. Think of your website as a shop – you want people to come in so that you can show them what you can offer! Here are some general tips on how to do just that:

Advertise!

Mind-boggling isn’t it? Advertising doesn’t stop being a useful tool just because you are online now – it actually became much better! Not only is online advertising cheaper, it allows you to advertise to a very specific group of customers. Let’s say you want to advertise with a search engine like Google or Bing! – your advertisement will only show up when people search for the keywords or terms that you have decided. In other words – you’re not marketing your luxury automobiles to 16-year olds, or your women’s shoes to men.

Another upside about online marketing is that it is very easy to update as time goes by. If you’re having a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign running, you can change the keywords and your ad itself as you go along with ease. If you need help putting a campaign like this – I’ll be more than able to help you out.

Use the social media

You might have noticed the increased presence of companies and brands on your favorite social network (read: most probably Facebook). There is a reason for that – it is a great marketing channel! Actually, it’s even more than that. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter allows the companies to interact directly with their customers, giving them special offers and even more special treatment as they went along.

Let me give you a great example. I stumbled upon a clothing brand on Facebook here the other day. I ordered some clothes from their website, and I wrote “thanks for your cool clothes and quick service” on their Facebook page. The next day, I had a friend request pending from their main PR guy, who wanted to thank me personally for my business. Today, this very brand is one of my top choices when it comes to clothes and the like. I guess I – just like most people – love attention :-)

Use your website (and others)!

When you order your website, and you request a blog, news features and what not, most web designers expect you to use them. Having a popular blog is a great marketing tool as well, because if you get a user to stop by your blog, chances are he or she will check out the rest of your web site as well. Give users great content, and they will pay you back with unpaid praise on their own blogs and social media accounts. The best marketing there is :-)

Another reason blogging on your website every now and then is a good idea, is that it gives your users a reason to come back – and by that re-expose them to your products or services. The search engines also like a web site that is updated every so often – so this is a win-win situation. The only cost is the time you put in – which can be as high or as low as you want.

Go multimedia!

This one is for the more ambitious companies, but then again, that often translates to the most profitable. Put yourself out there with a company video blog, podcasts, infomercials and funny twists on viral videos to promote your own business. YouTube and Vimeo is a great playground for these types of activities, and if you just invest in a handheld camera and some video-editing skills, you will get far. Perhaps your video will even go viral – with the right attitude, some good humor and a bit of luck, it might!

Use your customer base!

If you already have a solid customer base, using their information to generate repeat business is easier than you might think. If it’s a big group of people, invest some time and money in a newsletter. If your customer base is like mine – a select few – you might even want to write them personal e-mails from time to time, telling them about your new offers. Regardless of your approach, you will gain profits – sending an e-mail is pretty much free :-)

In other words, it’s a lot of hard work ahead of you if you want to play with the big boys of today’s internet. Whatever your goal is, you will reach it with the correct efforts and approach.

Good luck,

Kristofer

This is a very hard decision for me to make. All my clients know me as customer centric and glad to help out with whatever new project they are having in mind. However, for a time now, I have been rejecting offers or sending them to colleagues of me. Please send me a mail if you need good advice about where to turn – I am more than willing to refer you to trusted partners and colleagues of me.

If you are currently having a web hosting service deal with Sweetwater, please note that this will not be affected by this hiatus. I will simply not make any new web sites for the time being.

Kristofer

As an artist, Jessica likes to keep her portfolio interesting -and she was on a budget (like most up-and-coming musicians). Therefore I did something a bit different with her site, and implemented a flash template from GoTo. This way, I could get the web site online without breaking her budget, and make the interface as interactive as Jessica would like it.

My work here thus included setting up the template and domain, and do the copy writing for the site. I will also help her out with posting news and concerts in the future.

Here are some general advice that has helped me in the past, and you need to keep in mind:

1. Stock up in advance

Yep, that’s right. You need to do some pretty qualified guesses on how much merchandise you are going to be able to sell this month. Selling out halfway through this huge opportunity for profit will not only break your Christmas spirit, but it will also make for a worse user experience. You don’t want your customers feel like you can’t cover their needs, right?

2. Make sure your customers know what you have to offer

In order to create any sales, you got to spread the word. The way you do so, defines your brand to your customers. If you get a hold of a mailing list and send out tacky “SUPER SPECIAL EXTREME OFFER (just for you my friend)” mails, I am pretty sure the only visitors you’ll get were the ones that didn’t check their mailbox before going to your site.

When marketing for the Holiday season, it is important not to be stereotypical, nor annoying. What you should aim for is building up trust in advance, and merely give your clients a notice (either through social media, Google ads or other marketing channels online) about your unbelievable prices and pleasing gifts.

3. Incentives, incentives

Customers in general are lazy and picky. They want what they want when they want it, and in they way they feel most pleasing. Thus, to really prosper this holiday, you should give your users the best incentives – even if it means more work for you. These are some ideas:

• Free upgraded shipping on large orders
  Who doesn’t appreciate a bit faster shipping when your original shipping probably won’t make it in time?
• Complimentary gift wrapping
  That’s right. Get your gift wrap, tape and string out, and start wrapping. If you do a good job at it, your customers will love you for it. The holidays are way too stressful for people to wrap their own gifts – that’s why they love shopping malls with free gift wrapping desks!
• Extended return policy
  When you sell a product, you might have to accept a return or two – but let’s be honest, how often do you return a product to a web shop? To let your customers feel like they can for a bit longer, why don’t extend that 14 day return policy to a month for the holiday season? You probably won’t see a huge increase in returns, but you might see a rise in your turnaround.

4. Make it easy to buy more

When it’s check out time, make sure you’ve calibrated your webshop to propose a few more “totally necessary items” to their basket. I mean, that’s why gum is sold at all, right? So try your best to put your lowest-priced products next to the check-out button, and you might make a few more dollars. Also, if you make sure your customers save a few dollars on shipping if they spend $20 more (and make them aware of this fact), you can increase your sales even more!

5. Let everybody shop for Christmas!

You know, blind and disabled people shop for the holidays too. However, not all web sites are well put together for people with disabilities of some sort. Try it yourself, how easy is it for you to shop online if you use a screen reader? Invest in a accessible web site, and you open yourself up to a whole untapped market segment. This is like putting a wheelchair ramp into your physical store – if you make sure everybody can get it, you’re sure that everybody will get the chance to spend their hard earned money in your awesome store!

6. Impress for later

Lastly, it is important to think of future sales. If you give your customers incentives to buy at a later time (for example through calculated rebates and special offers after the holiday season), they will for sure come back for more. Also, you have to provide the best possible shopping experience for your customers. When you pack up the products, make sure to drop in a few candy bars, some product samples, some stickers for the kids and perhaps even a freebie. Your customers will love you for it, and your wallet probably won’t even mind. I mean, how expensive is a family sized pack of M&M’s really? The money will be back in your pocket before it shows up on your bank statement!

So I hope you’ve enjoyed this little guide to making even more money during the upcoming festivities. Now, make sure you load up on that Christmas food and don’t hold back – you’ll need those extra kilos (or pounds) for your January 1st diet anyways ;-)

- Kris

I am still testing out the different issues, so it’s not really launched yet. You can look at this as a beta of the finished site, I guess :-)

Until later

Kris

As a proud member, I took it upon myself to create a new web site and online presence for this 3000-member organization. Although the logo and the color scheme was provided, I created a design that would help students be updated on the current events, keep in touch with other members and to inform prospective members of the advantages of becoming an active part of the IEEC.

The web site is running the latest version of WordPress for its CMS, to shorten the development time. In addition, the web site is coded in HTML5 and with some fancy effects from CSS 3.

The web site, its content and the concept was all a part of a group collaboration, with me as the project manager. I did most of the general coding, while my team members helped out making interviews, writing articles and doing simple HTML formatting.

As a part of his career, he wanted a new web site to promote his personal portfolio of designs and sketches. We collaborated on the design, and I helped him create a stunning portfolio that showed off his portfolio to design executives. My work included designing a smart way to show off his designs in a restricted and simplistic design, as well as creating a custom made CMS to help him manage his own web site.

The fabulous people at Bislett Kebab wanted me to create their website, largely due to my huge interest in their food. As a trusted customer for almost a decade, they knew I knew what to present them.

The website is based on HTML5, and is currently still under development.

When she was getting ready to launch this last series of immaculate paintings, she wanted a new web site to go with it. My work included creating a logo, web site and custom CMS for her to update her online portfolio without any troubles. Tone was very happy with my work, and even gave me one of her beautiful paintings as a bonus for a job well done. It is currently residing in my small apartment.