We were able to design, develop and launch their new website with a very quick turnaround, in time for a large conference that Vicki was attending. When it comes to affordable web design, we work hard to deliver results in a timely and efficient manner.

Vickie B. Rudd Website Features:

• Customized design to match previous branding
• Custom rotating slideshow on home page
• Toggle bars for more information
• Boxed information
• Downloads
• Custom thumbnail images
• Custom contact form
• Customized side bar
• Search box

Check out the website redesign by Wilson Media Consulting

In our world of email, smart phones, and social media, a personal phone call is rare. And rare means an opportunity for you to stand out as a small business.

Easy Way to Beat the Competition

If you aren’t already, make personal phone calls to your customers. This is a quick and simple way to connect with your customers and look better than your competition. It may seem easier to send an email, and I personally love to have the documentation of email, but to compromise, follow your emails with a quick phone call check-in:

It’s easy. It’s quick. I don’t do it all the time. I just want my customers to know that I care enough to talk to them. There’s something about a 30-second conversation that can really breathe life and enthusiasm into the professional relationship that can sometimes be so distant and cold.

I wish I could say the same for some other local North Idaho Web Designers. My goodness, I’ve been seeing some of the “affordable web designs” they’ve been publishing, and I feel bad for their clients.

Just because you can’t afford a $3,000-$5,000 website shouldn’t mean that you only deserve a plain looking website that looks like an old template from 10 years ago. You should still be able to have a website designed for you that looks expensive.

What Makes a Website Look Cheap?

I would LOVE to show you some local examples of websites that look cheap, but I don’t  think that would be fair to the businesses or the designers. Here are a few things to avoid:

Just text on the home page (other than a “header” with an image)
A home page with just a paragraph or two of text is so boring! The content area of your home page will look pretty sad if there’s only a couple sentences with a sidebar containing a search box and your contact info. Where’s the call to action? Where’s something cool that makes your business look modern?

Even if a web designer is donating their website to a non-profit, there’s no excuse for delivering poor design value. You can’t donate a piece of crap and say it’s ok because it’s a donation. Even free or discounted websites deserve to look good.

Typo in the menu
The menu is something that’s on every page, and it needs to be simple, clear & professional. Having a typo on your menu is like spelling the name of your business wrong. It’s just bad. Very bad.

Text, text and more text
Humans are visual, so if you’re just giving your website visitors text to read, your website is going to look very cheap. And boring. And plain. And…well, sad.

What Make a Website Look Expensive?

We include all of the following features in ALL of our website packages. So even if you can’t afford the expensive websites other designers are trying to sell, you can still get a sweet looking website for your business. There’s a bunch more we offer and can include, but here’s a good sampling:

Rotating images on the home page
People are visual by nature and want to see something visually appealing and impressive when they come to the home page of your website. A rotating slideshow is a simple (aka cheap), quick and easy way to class up your affordable website.

Google Map on the “Contact Us” page
If your business has a physical location where your customers can go, you should have a Google Map on the “Contact Us” page. This is visual, easy to use, and makes your website look better than just listing the address. Also, it’s free and easy to add.

Appealing Layout of Images
Expensive websites will have nice visual images on almost every page, so it’s important to add images to your website. However, be sure you are doing some website basics with your images: resize them for the web, lay them out consistently, use white space purposefully, and basically – just make it look good!

Does your website look expensive?

There’s a lot more that goes into making a website look good and function well. Take a look at your website and ask yourself if it looks expensive. Or if you’re doing your research and looking for a new web designer, consider the ratio of how good their websites look to how much they cost, and ask yourself if you’re getting a good value.

Some of the services we provided included:

• Website design
• Home page rotating content
• Content organization
• Menu architecture
• Video integration
• Layout customization
• Social Media profiles
• Widget customization
• Setup additional support website
• Insert contact forms
• Email accounts
• Format testimonials
• Website training

Coeur d’Alene Web Design Solutions

Here’s a summary of the services we provided:

• New Logo Design
• Customized Web Design
• Image Slider on Home Page
• Content Development
• Portfolio Gallery
• Contact Form

Sean and Tracy Henry were great to work with at Rock and Water. If you look at their portfolio, you will see some of the impressive work they have done. I would highly recommend doing business with them, as they are professional, smart, great communicator, fun and just overall great people to work with.

Question #1: Does your website have a blog?

If YES, skip to Question #2. If NO, call your web developer, IT department, or us immediately! Blogging is an easy and effective way to add quality content to your website, which will help drive more traffic and links to your website (which in turn will help your search engine rankings).

In 2012, if you don’t have a website, you don’t really exist. And if you don’t have a blog, you don’t really care about your website.

Question #2: Are you updating your blog regularly?

And by regularly, I don’t mean once a year. All business owners are guilty of getting too busy to even care what’s happening on their website or blog (yes, even us!). If that sounds like you, don’t hesitate to assign your staff to updating your blog.

Even if you work in a non-office setting, you can still get your staff to write about your business. If you’re running your business right, your staff are experts in the field. SO, give them an assignment to write one article a month about an industry-related topic of their choice.

Some ideas to give your staff to get them (or you) started:

• Current projects you’re working on
• Advice for troubleshooting a common problem
• “Best of” products/services your business or customers should use
• Employee Celebrations (weddings, births, anniversaries, holiday parties)
• Customer/Client celebrations (something great you did for your customers)

The potential topics are endless. Once you start assigning these to your staff, you may be surprised at how easy it eventually becomes for them. And if you’ve built your website on an easy platform (like WordPress), you can quickly show your staff how to add blog entries themselves.

Don’t feel bad – only 48% of local web designers and marketers are blogging

Out of the 25 web designers and marketing agencies we consider “the competition” in North Idaho, Southern Idaho & Eastern Washington, only 48% have a blog on their website. Really, web designers, really? We wonder how some of these agencies can give advice to their clients when they don’t follow it themselves. The point is, we all have opportunities in our business to grow and improve. Blogging is an easy improvement to accomplish.

Don’t be scared of writing – get some initial support

Many of our clients are scared to write for the public. They consider themselves “better talkers” than writers. Guess what? That’s ok! We can actually help you learn how to turn your talking into a quick blog article. We can even write the articles for you if you like until you get comfortable doing it yourself.

Over the next month, we’ll be sharing some of our new goals with you, but in the meantime, I’d like to encourage you to set some New Year’s Marketing Resolutions for YOUR business.

I recommend starting by asking some simple questions:

What’s working?

What isn’t working?

What your vision of your business? (the “perfect world” ideal)

Your goals and resolutions need to fit YOUR business. If you want some help creating a comprehensive strategy for improving your business in 2012, please get in touch with us today. We offer an hour of free consulting for all new clients (no obligation & it does NOT have to be just about websites as our specialty is developing business strategies).

31 Business & Marketing Resolutions you may want to consider for 2012:

Test, Measure & Analyze
You can’t improve what you don’t measure!

Be more social
Don’t just have a bunch of social media profiles. Pick one and maximize it this year.

Improve your website
Whether it’s a new website, a redesign, or just updating your content – improve your website.

Optimize for your location
If your customers are local, then your marketing and business solutions need to be targeted locally.

Update your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts
Don’t just stick to what you’ve been doing in hopes that it will continue working. As Google and other search engines update their search engine algorithms, be sure you’re keeping up with what they’re looking for. And if you were cheating a few years ago, take the time to make it right this year before you get penalize for it (if you haven’t already).

Make sure your website works on mobile devices
If your site doesn’t function properly on mobile devices, you’re losing a big chunk of customers.

Incorporate video on your website
It’s really not that hard to do, really. In fact, our owner has a bachelors degree in video production. So I guess it’s time we add this one to our list of resolutions, too.

Be more responsive (and be quick about it)
Every email, phone call, text message, @tweet, Facebook comment, etc. deserves a speedy response. So get on it.

Increase your email list
How are people getting on your email list? Is there a better way to attract and maintain that list?

Write a “Best of” blog for your industry
Show everyone what an expert you are and share some of the “best of” topics in your industry. It can be the best providers for a service your customers typically need, the best tips from or for customers, the best customer moments of the past year, anything. People love reading articles that are the “best of” something. If you have an idea but aren’t comfortable writing, contact us, we have staff members with college degrees in writing and years of experience in writing for the web.

Create a newsletter
Use a 3rd party system (we actually have a pretty great one that we use), create a beautiful design for your newsletter, set up a schedule and stick to it.

Use screencasts for how-to videos of computer/online tasks
Screencasts are a great way to show your customers how to do something on their computer as they get to visually see where your mouse goes, what to click, and what to do. These are pretty easy to create and add a lot of value to your instructive blog articles.

Evaluate your website’s navigation
Does it make sense? Is it logical? Is it easy? As you add more content each year, it’s a good idea to evaluate your website’s navigation to see if it’s time for a “menu facelift” to help your website visitors get around more easily.

Find out what your competitors don’t like to do – AND DO IT
A pretty fast way to get an edge on your competition is to discover what they don’t like to do (or aren’t doing…or aren’t doing well), and do it. And do it awesomely. What are they neglecting or overlooking? Create a list and pick one to get started on (it might be something on this list of resolutions).

Give your customers more than they expect
One key to providing exceptional customer service is to communicate very clear expectations, so your customers know exactly what to expect. And then give them something more. It’s a really easy way to please and impress your customers so they keep coming back (and will send their friends your way, too!).

Develop a strong key word strategy (and climb the ranks in Google)
When customers are looking for something specific, they’ll be using a search engine to find the answer. Identifying the key search words and phrases your potential customers will be looking for is critically in getting them to find you.

Build more inbound links to your website
Quality inbound links are important to search engine rankings, and the best way to get those links is to create a lot of great content that others will want to link to. Don’t try cheating by hiring someone to get a bunch of inbound links. Some of those methods  are “illegal” in Google-land and get you knocked out of the search engine world completely. So do it right.

Write more educational blog posts
Your an expert. Your staff are experts. Take this year to get everyone involved in adding to your blog. It’s a great way to educate your clients and get more quality inbound links (see above).

Add a “Call to Action” to pages & posts
What do you want your website visitors to do? Get them to do it by calling them to action with a powerful, eye-catching “Call to Action” – like a big button, easy-to-complete form, or specific link.

Utilize and optimize landing pages to convert browsers to buyers
Landing pages are pages with focus. They are simple, clear and quickly get visitors to complete your call to action.

Use A/B testing to optimize your landing pages & email marketing
There is always something to improve. Make every effort better each time you do something so that your business will continue to grow!

Understand your customer conversion funnel
Before you can improve something, you have to truly understand it. What does your customer conversion funnel look like? Take the time to experience your business from your customer’s perspective and experience so you can understand what the funnel is to buying your product and service. Once you understand the funnel, you’ll begin to see where the holes are and you can make improvements to your processes to help those customers make it to the final buying conversion.

Create & enforce a social media policy
Set clear expectations for your company on when, what, and how they can use social media. Make it clear and move forward together.

Integrate all of your marketing efforts
It’s vital that you move forward together as a company, in the same direction. Everyone has to be working from the same plan, so to make sure your marketing efforts are integrating (to avoid contradictions, redundancy, or off-target tactics), create a clear marketing plan with specific marketing strategies (with measurements & owners).

Google Maps/Places
Update your Google Maps/Places and encourage your customers to write positive reviews about your company. It’s easy to get positive reviews when you provide great customer service. Note: you can currently only be listed on Google Maps/Places if you have a physical storefront.

Start guest blogging
Your an expert in your field. Write a great blog post and ask other popular bloggers in your industry if they will share it with their readers.

Old-Fashioned networking
There are lots of free networking groups out there. Join one. Attend. Add value to the members and provide great referrals to others. In-person networking can be a valuable tool, especially in the digital age (this may be one of those items that your competition just doesn’t like doing).

Stay current with online marketing changes
Don’t get swept away by the many trends that come and go, but dedicate some time each month to read up on the latest changes so you can be informed. A lot of our clients really don’t have time for this, and that’s ok. Our job is to stay abreast with changing marketing strategies. If you work with us, we keep you current while you focus on your job.

Create a mission statement for your blog
What are trying to accomplish with your blog? Create a mission statement, share it, and work on sticking to it so that all of your blogging efforts are aligned with your overall mission.

Attend a trade show
Yes, trade shows can be expensive. But if this is something your competitors have cut out in lieu of all online marketing efforts, this is a great opportunity for you to sneak in and snatch some new clients. But don’t just attend a trade show. Plan for it, prepare, and create some beautiful graphics to impress and grab your potential customers.

Host a seminar
Online education is great, but sometimes customers need a hands-on demonstration. So invite your current and prospective customers to a seminar where you can share some valuable information to improve their lives (business and personal).

 Have questions? Not sure what some of these even mean?

The following is a sampling of some of the services we provided:

• Private login
• User/Subscription management
• Customized home design & setup
• Stock photo management
• Video upload & embed
• Sidebar customization
• Document download/upload management
• Testimonial page design and setup
• Custom survey

Adding your photo to your website is a great way to reassure your customers who they’re working with. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, your clients or customers will be interested in seeing who they’re doing business with.

Having your photo on your website will help attract new customers as well as maintain relationships with current customers.

Recommendation: Get a professional photo

It’s worth the extra cost to present a photo that represents your professionalism (as well as just looks good). We work with several great local photographers. If you’d like to get your professional photo added to your website, contact us today and we’ll get your photo up within a week to help you start earning more business!

I meant to add our photo to our website almost a year ago, and it was just something I kept putting off. Don’t let this happen to you. Just get it done TODAY, right after you finish reading this!

Whose pictures do you add? Although we work with several freelancers and other part-time employees, we chose to just add our picture to the website since we’re the ones our customers interact with the most (as the Owners & Managers). However, if you have a small team that repeatedly interacts with your customers, don’t hesitate to add them to your website, too!

North Idaho Web Designers and Marketers
How many are using this simple marketing strategy?

I was curious to see how many other local web designers included their photos on their website, so I evaluated 25 other local web designers and marketers. It’s always good to see what others in your industry are doing so you can evaluate whether it’s a good idea, if a strategy will give you a competitive edge or if there’s something you’re missing that you need to start doing.

Results: 27% of local Spokane and Coeur d’Alene Web Designers use a personal photo on their “About” page

7 out of 26 Web Designers and Marketers in Coeur d’Alene and Spokane have added a personal image to their website page that talks about the company, the people, etc (The “About Us” page).

What does this mean for us? It means that we have an opportunity to take a competitive edge over almost 75% of our local competition. Now, something small like this probably won’t result in a HUGE increase, but a marketing strategy should include a bunch of small things. Those small things add up over time and contribute to the bigger picture of attracting and retaining as much business as possible.

Do you feel more comfortable working with someone if you can see their picture beforehand?

If you send out invoices for your services, you may be wondering if you’re including too much information or not enough. We recommend small businesses add as much detail to an invoice as possible.

Detailed Invoices – CONS

• Customers may get distracted or overwhelmed.
• You will spend more time creating detailed invoices.
• Requires you to track and document your time accurately.

Detailed Invoices – PROS

• Customer feels positive about their experience with your business, knowing they were accurately charged for your services.
• Customer gets to “see” all of the services you provided, many of which they wouldn’t be aware of (most of our clients are impressed with all the work we provide, not realizing how many details go into developing a website or initiating an effective marketing strategy).
• You won’t accidentally double charge because you can look back and see exactly what was completed and invoiced.
• When it comes time to evaluate the need for increasing prices, needing new employees, or other time/money issues, you can look back through invoices to see where you made/lost money or spent too much/little time.

Invoices don’t matter to my marketing/media strategy, do they?

Invoices are critical to your marketing and media strategy!

Every time you come in contact with your customers, you have an opportunity to build or break your reputation with them. Invoices are a critical part of your marketing and media strategy because spending money is typical a sensitive issue with just about everybody. If you fail on this part of your process, you won’t be getting repeat business.

Keep customers happy by keeping them fully informed of what they’re paying for and why.