Part 2 – (EastEnders started small like this)

Actually, in the light of two cliché-cringing sites I’ve re-written in the last three weeks, if you haven’t really characterised your brand, I would advise that you don’t start a website.

Or, reconcile yourself to some soul searching of your product or service and set this plan:

What exactly am I selling?  (note: this is my income not a hobby. I’m not a geek spouting drivel to impress others with knowledge. Follow Sir Isaac Newton who said, ‘Watch this – Clunk – Ouch – Simple’. (Or words to that effect.)

If you cannot simply relay your story so that others can relay it for you, STOP and take stock.

I have challenged lots of customers with the theory – ‘If you were able to advertise your product through a London Bus campaign, and you were given five words to characterise your product on the side of the bus, what would those words be? ‘

(Send me yours, I’ll comment politely and I will send you a free pack of tasty marketing tactics – with no strings.)

paul.sampson@ignition4business.com

Reason – unless on a London bus side (or a website)  you can tell people what you do in five words, why or how will they remember? They’ve got a lot of things – and several thousand other marketing messages a day – battering their brains for attention.

Your website needs to tell people they’ve come to right place – quickly – and that can be done in seven different ways – which we’ll look at over the next few weeks. Let me know if you want to catch the next blog.

www.ignition4business.com

We’re often asked that question when we talk with clients – some have been in business for years, others are new on the block. Some say that they ‘ought’ to have a website because their competitors have them, therefore they should follow.

If you have or need a viable business, remember that the world and his wife are in control and demand access to your proposition. Why? Because the internet gives 24/7/365 access to nearly all knowledge and if you’re not in the stalls, you’re not at the races.

But….

1. Be sure that you’ve characterised your product clearly.

2. Be sure you’ve understood – is your proposition business to business or business to consumer?

3. What are the benefits, advantages and the product qualities? (in that order)

4. Don’t forget that design is centre stage and must be treated with the respect it deserves.  A designer with the vision to understand and frame your  brand with a logo is worth his or her weight in gold.

Try not to compromise and definitely avoid college kids ‘doing graphic design and media studies’ who can ‘knock you up something’ as your logo. By all means ask them to offer something speculatively, but be careful in treating it seriously. Your logo is the characterisation of your product and demonstrates a style. It creates an air, an attitude, a start point and a form of art that people will recognise, become familiar with and may even grow to admire and like. Ask Google, Apple, P&O, Nike, Macdonalds, etc.. as to how important their logo is to them. (Nike paid very little for that neat little swoosh.)  ’Ah, but they’re the big boys,’ you say. Well, exactly the same rules apply to you.

A website needs planning – why are you creating this medium and who is it pitched at?  Then use design, movement and video clips to entertain and give practical visual demonstrations of the explicit and implicit advantages and how you do what you do. Design breathes life and character into a flat concept and starts to give personality to a product or service. It creates autonomy and separates you from those who cannot characterise themselves.

5. You need engaging content written properly, but beware, Richard Hill says that writing your own copy is like doing your own surgery – bloody, messy and sometimes fatal.

6. May sure you take good advice on “optimisation”. The right words in the right place so that you are spotted. It’s a science and we work with people who are great at it.

Why do you need it?  Ok, if you wrote and published a book that never left its packing case at the bookshop, would it sell?  You need to fish where the fish are, right? If your line’s not even in the water, you won’t catch fish. (Dach, metaphors, don’t you love ‘em?)

If you don’t invest in a proper website, don’t do it at all! You’ll be doing yourself a disservice. You may well need £2-3,000 to make the right impact. Work with a webbie who understands code not just templates. He should really have a background in IT and design.

Make sure you take ownership of all domain addresses- not the webbie –  and that the he or she is building a you content management system, that is, one that you can change yourself.

If you’re not sure… call us … it may not even cost you much to be convinced!

Ignition4Business.com building websites not pretty wallpaper books for real sales enquiries.

Selfridges take weeks to hatch concepts for each of their windows, facing Oxford Street, or other.

Then they re-design their shop window from a plan using skilled designers to calculate every square inch, even if it’s just white space.  Every window reflects the season in a work of art. Always with effective results and, more often than not,  stunning effect.

It amazes me that when people set about their producing their little product ‘baby’, their website, they don’t think like a Selfridge, or even beyond their own imagination.

I’m not a designer and I don’t try to be one. But I do understand Brand. I fully acknowledge that logo design and then website are centre stage, bang in the spotlight.  Unless Selfridges designs  shop windows with product content to drive sales by creating ideas and desire, why should they bother?  Just hang up a black curtain in the window with a note saying, ‘It’s much brighter inside. Honestly.’

Unless a business designs its website as a shop window, inviting in all reasonably interested parties, however will it get past first base?

Like I say, I’m not a designer. When I need stuff designed, I hire someone who has impressed me, with the right credentials and a varied portfolio showing a real variety of treatments.  DIY is not an option.

When filling your shop window, you’ve got 3-5 seconds to make an impact.

Don’t DIY. You’ll only see it for yourself and you’ll be pushing, not pulling.

for more, drop me an email…   paul.sampson@ignition4business.com

What’s the point of having a pram without the baby? The pram may well have all the bells and whistles but without the baby, the content – the personality – why bother?

A website is like that. What’s the point of a website without any content? It’s a bit like a book without words or illustrations. Do you ever read a boring book?

Do your customers want to pour over weak content that sounds like a 1960’s shop proprietor rather than being interested in your product or service with the benefits well-explained?  Hey, they don’t have time to waste; there are too many time other pressures on your readers. You need to earn the right to engage readers’ interest.

At Ignition4Business we brand your product as we write. We’re not just copy-writers, we write the content in the best tone for the brand and from the perspective of your preferred reader.

Try this typical example: “Welcome to Jones and Jones accountants. We have been in business for 15 years and offer a full range of professional accountancy services from tax to vat. If we’re boring you already please contact us and we’ll apologise profusely.. and do you know, we even bore ourselves with this drivel?”)

We’re not knocking your website; we haven’t even seen it yet, but doesn’t it make sense that once readers have been drawn to it, once they’re entertained, they may even agree they’ve come to the right place? If they like what they see, they’ll call you.

You need to invest in your website, with great design, making sure it’s optimised and search word optimised and use video clips.  But without great content, what is there to read?

This is your 24/7/365 open-all-hours intelligent shop window.

The smartest show windows are designed, not filled. ©