Skiilight Blog
Archive for May, 2008
Driving traffic to your site? You’d better have something for them.
Marketing is a form of communication. You (the business owner) desire to communicate with your customers (and potential customers). You may be speaking to your customers already, but are you communicating?
Getting to know your customers means listening to your customers - and knowing to whom they listen. You may think to yourself, “We have a website. Its lists what we sell. We put it at the bottom of our ads. What else could our customers possibly need?”
If you sell a product and your website says something to the effect of “come in to our store and browse our products” – you’re already a step behind. Take a look at your competition. Are they selling something that you’re also selling? Are they selling it online? If the answer is yes, you’d better get with it and start competing for those dollars. If the answer is no, you’re in the perfect position to get the jump on your competition.
Your website is your storefront to the world. If your customer is researching online, more often than not they are prepared to buy online. That means your website visitor probably became a customer at your competitor’s online store moments after visiting your site. Why? Because you don’t have e-commerce!
Even though your product may be sold at a lower price on Amazon.com, keep in mind that you may be in the position to offer brick-and-mortar services like person-to-person customer service, in-person returns/exchanges and a friendly face to greet them when they walk through door. These are all things a seasoned marketing professional can accentuate in your marketing communications.
At Skiilight, we know that recognizing your strengths, identifying honest weaknesses and assessing the competition are the cornerstones to any successful, business-driven marketing plan. If you need an independent eye and a jump start to your business efforts, we’re just a phone call or e-mail away.
Become an Innovator and Everyone Will Follow
Bill Gates and Paul Allen shared a bold goal in 1975, “A PC on every desk and in every home.” 20 years later, Microsoft had grown into one of the largest computer companies, and 30 years following one of the most respected and valuable brands in the world.
Without a vision, your company is treading water. Do you have a real mantra? Are you committed to growth? Are there aspects of your marketing plan that are spinning its wheels (or even worse, on cinder blocks in the back yard)? Do you even have a marketing plan?
If you’re answers are defiant yet cloudy, we like you. You should be defensive – it means you’re passionate. You want to succeed, but you haven’t set a lofty goal. Without lofty goals we would be accepting of mediocrity. Take a look at these innovators who had bold ideas:
- 1916: The first self-serve grocery store opens in Memphis; a Piggly Wiggly,
- 1947: Self-serve gas station introduced by George Urich in California,
- 1967: London-based Barclays bank opens one of the world’s first ATMs,
- 1995: Alaska Airlines sells a airline ticket over the internet for the very first time.
A recurring theme there is self-service; one of Time magazine’s “10 Ideas that are Changing the World.” By bring self-service into your marketing plan, you’re empowering your customers and streamlining productivity within your organization.
In a previous post, I gave examples of web applications that would help you do whatever it is that you want to do (kind of our mantra here at Skiilight). Take a look back and see if any of those ideas fit into a current need of yours and let us know. We’re ready to improve upon the way your customers interact with your business. Set the customer service bar high and consistently pole vault over it.
Improving customer service begins with your website
…and not in the way that you think, either. What first comes to mind would be to improve your contact page. Closing the feedback loop is the easiest way to give your customers some satisfaction. Even more important is the need to have someone answering those emails. If the feedback loop ends with a customer’s email sitting in an inbox never to be checked, well then you’ve angered another customer.
The real point of this post is to bring to your attention the need for quality web applications. By using applications on your website to keep customers informed, you immediately cut the amount of time your paid employees are using to answer requests that could have been answered on your website.
If you’re a busy company with workers who are already stretched to the breaking point (that means most businesses out there) you can improve your outreach by utilizing web applications. A few examples:
- Create press releases on-the-fly and have them displayed immediately on your site
- Find the best people by using an HR application that allows visitors to create a profile to upload their resume and cover letters for future positions
- Use that same HR application to email visitors when that dream position becomes vacant
- Allow your employees view sildeshows, download photos or create captions from this year’s company holiday party
- Use that same application for the photos of your new office location opening or even to announce the arrival of the administrative assistant’s new child
- Contribute to and pull from an already existing knowledgebase to deliver content to your customers
- Broadcast your site via RSS (like this blog) so topics can be read at the leisure of others wherever he or she may like
- Post interactive maps so that your customers can find you on their terms (and without leaving your site)
- Publish a blog to make your business thoughts public and establish a more personal connection to your audience
- Build a following with e-mail newsletters sent directly from your own domain rather than going through a third party.
Put the power of interactivity in the hands of your visitors and see important metrics like pages visited and visit duration rise. Meanwhile, watch your employees waste less time explaining how to get to the office or telling someone that a position has been filled.
Skiilight is dedicated to building your brand into self-sufficency. The last thing your company needs is a tether attached to it. By embracing smart technologies your company will succeed in ways you may not have thought possible.