New Address. Same Home
I have a new mailing address. Unfortunately, a new place doesn't go with it. But our post office insisted on the change—some belt-tightening measure, I'm sure. In any case, effective immediately, please address all correspondence to:
JC Harris
c/o JCHWebDev
PO Box 13094
Seattle, WA 98198
Marketing Vs. Web Development
This time I want to take a minute to talk about one of the differences between 'marketing' and 'web development.' I call this example 'Two Audiences'. Many of you call me to build or somehow improve your web site, but that's not what you really want. What you want (or what you should want if I may be so bold) is to sell more stuff! There is, of course, a world of difference. But it's easy to lose sight of that and focus on the vehicle rather than the destination.
Say you meet someone on the street who wants more info on something you offer. But you're both in a hurry. You don't have time to talk, or even give them your e-mail address. All you can do is shout, 'check out my web site!' as you run for the bus. And hope for the best.
But doing that implies several things:
a) They can Google/Bing you or your product and you're easy to find (Good SEO.)
b) If there is information they need? It's right there (Good navigation.)
c) And once their need is satisfied, they can easily take action (Good design.)
d) But in my view, we're still not done. Because once they got through all that, they deserve a bonus. Something valuable they didn't expect. Something that enhances your credibility and makes them want what you've got even more than if you'd just given them the 'data' on the street. Something that makes them want to come back.
Does your current web site do that? Or does it make people work just to find what they need for that one 'transaction'?
You Know What They Say
When you meet someone for the first time, you make judgments. We all do! And every time we meet again, we keep doing it! Your web site is no different. Every time people visit your web site (or even just go from one page to the next) they are judging you as well as your products and services.
It's often very hard to keep this in mind because very few of us can look at anything about ourselves the way others do. It's always interesting to me how clients can instantly see the flaws in other sites but not think the same applies to their site. And I'm not talking about the 'pizazz' of a nice looking home page. Yes, the initial attractiveness needs to be there, but study after study has shown that people will give extra 'bad' marks to sites with an especially 'pretty face' but that falls down in terms of usefulness. Humans tend to value consistency highly in our interactions. To put it one way: we expect things to taste about as good as they look. (If you have less than great content, it's actually better to have a somewhat more 'modest' look.)
Your Other Audience
Now, here's the twist: there is second, equally important audience that is constantly visiting your site and judging you by very different standards. That audience is of course the search engines: Google, Bing, et al. And unless you spend a lot of time doing research (like me), the stuff you place on your web site, which look so great to 'humans', will not look so great to the machines.
This also has been studied to death and it's been shown time and again that sites that look equally attractive to humans can rank quite differently depending to 'the machines'. I like to think of this as like those science shows which try to show you how some animals see colours we can't. The search engines 'see' and value things in a very different way from humans. And you need someone who has that kind of vision or you really are in the dark!
The Destination Versus The Journey
So you have two audiences to please and obviously pleasing both audiences should be your goal. But too often I see sites that don't get there for the following reason.
So many people use the phrase, "it's the journey that counts; not the destination." Well, with web sites, that's just not true! What derails many projects is that there is a strong tendency to get sidetracked by popular 'tools', design trends and a lot of myths. What it takes to deliver a satisfying experience goes far beyond any of those individual items. That's why I offer help with marketing; the 'web' part is just the vehicle we use. It's the destination that counts: more visitors; more referrals; more sales!
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As I always say, I know you're busy. Hopefully my occasional nags help you think about how you can get more benefits from your e-marketing. But even if you don't have a thing for me to work on at present (shocking but possible) just drop me a line anyway and let me know how things are going; web-wise or otherwise. It's always good to hear from you.
Wishing you a sunny and prosperous summer!
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