CMS Web Solutions

A general rule for website copy is use half as much on a website than you would use in print, as people “skimâ€? website content.  If you have a company information website that is used for marketing purposes, ensure you consider how much information you want to provide to a potential customer. If you’re effective closing on the telephone, does it make sense to give visitors all the information and cut you out of the sales cycle? Doing so may cost you money. Hot prospects might be overwhelmed by the amount of your information and decide to “look at it another day”. (How many “favourites” have you never gone back to?). Or they might make their decision based on the website information provided…without you present to answer questions! Wetting their appetite may create a more effective lead generating website. Remember, your website is a tool that is part of your overall marketing strategy. It’s not just a brochure of information. Test, measure, adjust.

When it comes to marketing, if you don’t measure, you can’t manage. How much money have you thrown away through ineffective marketing?

One of the easiest ways to measure effectiveness is creating “offline” marketing campaigns (flyers, classified ads etc.) that drive visitors to your website. To check the effectiveness of the campaign review your traffic statistics through your hosting. Measure, adjust, measure again.

Welcome!

Lately I’ve been seeing a slow change in the way we can do business. The old ways still seem to work here and there, but the Internet is starting to change things. There is no right way, it’s more “let’s try this and see if it works”, “now let’s try that.” I used to be the kind of person who had an issue and I would go seek out some answer in some book. Lately there doesn’t seem to be clear cut answers. I figure it’s time to connect with the real business people out there, those owner managed companies like ours who have an ample amount of experience trying things, falling on their face, picking themselves up and trying again. I figure if we could share what’s really going on and keeping us up at night, we might be able to learn from each other. I look forward to future conversations.

I’m reading a good book called “the World is Flat”. The author talks about how technology is making the world flat. Individuals and companies are partnering all over the world to do things better and cheaper. Those that don’t start to take advantage of technology, innovate constantly and change their company quickly will simply be left behind. In my business we’re on the Internet all the time and see how companies are slowly taking advantage, but they are moving very slowly. Time to kick it up a notch or be left behind. It’s just beginning to heat up.

We saw Al Gores movie, An Inconvenient Truth It was excellent (we highly recommended you see it) and made us look at how to cut down our CO2 emissions. No more waiting for “them”, whoever “they” are, to do it for us. We signed on with www.Bullfrogpower.com and now 100% of our electricity generated through either wind or Hydro. It costs a bit more, but we’ll focus on cutting our consumption. Besides, knowing our websites are being built with renewable power is gratifying.