Websites are easer to get wrong than right
11th February 2011

Most businesses of a certain size believe they need a website . Most businesses are right to believe this. Websites, if done well, are very effective marketing tools. Rather too often they're not done well and they run the risk of doing harm to brands.

In its simplest form a website is an online brochure. That doesn't mean we should forget the rules that we wold normally apply when developing any other marketing activity. Vz, target market, brand positioning, consumer insights, messages, a good idea, execution, relevance, response and quality.

A good website is never a cheaper way of producing a brochure - especially if it's done badly with poor thought and creativity. Then it's real cost will be to the detriment of the brand and its sales and profits.

A good website should never be static - even if if the product rarely changes. You waste your money if you build a website that is too complex and expensive to update. An unchanging, or out of date website sends the wrong signals about a brand and it will also fail to be found by search engines and therefore prospective customers.

A good website should have an easy to use Content Management System (CMS) so that it can be constantly refreshed and revised to provide rewards for re-visiting and to encourage extended exploration of its pages.

So you've got a good website. Now begins the hardest and potentially most expensive part: Making it visible to search engines and customers alike.

Social Media Networking - magic bullet or gimmick
10th February 2011

There is much discussion about Social Media Networking at the moment and like most things new it is hopeful, enthusiastic and all too often wildly inaccurate. Social Media Networking (SMN) is not some magic bullet marketing tool. It is a new way of reaching your target audience(s). It's also not true to say it can be used for free. The media of social networks may be free, but someone has to spend the time writing messages, articles, responses, blogs, monitoring etc. It could be the most time consuming (expensive) part of your marketing armoury.

However it's true to say it is potentially very exciting because it offers a rare opportunity to hold a dialogue with some of the more influential members of your brand's equivalent of the Barmy Army! Most marketing is essentially a monologue, even that which has an enticing response mechanism. SMN is based on providing a location for a conversation that can involve many people and can offer an opportunity to get potential and existing customers involved in dialogue about things that, hopefully, relate to your brand.

Think of it as another marketing tool (so make sure you will reach enough of your target audience, cost effectively) and allow for much planning and hardwork and then pile in and see what works! But don't get involved unless you intend to do it properly and stick at it. It won't happen overnight.