I checked my Facebook profile today, as you do, to notice that links to my websites have been changed to “no follow”, whereas previously before they had been ordinary links.

I actually wasn’t surprised by this until I checked a few other of my friends pages out to notice that they still have their nice links.

My Profile

Another Profile

Just me or anyone else?

.. update (1/11/07)

Seems it’s a generic update and I caught it in the middle. But, seems like a sensible shift for Facebook creating No Follow links. Good while it lasted though.

Right, think big picture here, if you will…

What is the purpose of building a house?

Of course, it’s for someone to live in.
Okay, okay, try this…

Why do people run businesses?

Well, ultimately, it’s to make money. If it doesn’t there isn’t a business.
So…

Why do we market our businesses?

To get more money into our businesses to make money.

Big Picture Strategy

I ask these questions because to me, they are the most relevant ones to ask for.

A conversation I had this morning started off about an e-mail marketing campaign and what colours should be used, etc. (the usual design stuff) and ended up, thankfully, at the question of…. what is the end goal of the e-mail marketing strategy? What is the client trying to achieve - short-term and long-term?

And, when you get down to how the e-mail list could be segmented to make more specific sales messages ONLY to the people who want them, and that the content is not actually hitting the right spot… you realise that the colours are just as way to achieve that.

You could get even more bigger picture and ask if it is even relevant - does it create anything tangible and does it add to the whole marketing and PR strategy.

With the increase in use of broadband by consumers and the talk of video on demand, etc., I have the feeling that some people building websites are taking the whole streaming thing too much from granted. And, also, assuming that all their users have broadband in the first place. Two thoughts to go along with this:

Reach

Last week I was in Pervolia, Cyprus, and had to access the web through my mobile phone connection. To keep the costs down and the speed up, I turned the graphics off in my Firefox. I was amazed at how many websites I couldn’t use because graphics were being used as navigation with no ‘alt’ text behind them. If I can’t see them, what chance has a search engine spider got of making sense of these websites?

Overload

We are working on a project for a client where they have requested a video on a page to automatically run. This means two negative things for them:

1. The person viewing the website has an unnecessary element, a video, forced on them - 6mb in size.
2. Their website becomes slower, delivering a web page just over 6mb in size and this eats up their bandwidth allowance.

Sometimes, it’s just the information that people want. Sometimes, the bells and whistles get in the way.

Another online services for creating forms in HTML - Wufoo - discovered via Drew McLellan.

Life is getting so much easier when it comes to building websites.

Have you ever found yourself having a conversation with a prospective supplier and thinking that the ‘marketing’ story doesn’t correspond with the reality of what they are?

It’s a situation that happens a lot, but luckily, less and less with the advent of the Internet and the ability to find out the actual story from other people.

No longer do consumers (and your customers) have to rely on what you say, they can find out about you from other people, online databases, etc. and the truth will out you.

It doesn’t mean to say you shouldn’t have a marketing story, as long as it is true, or at least in keeping with what your company is in reality… after the honeymoon period, so to speak.

Don’t end up with a mis-matched date

When people talk about their favourite books or films, some may quote Shakespeare as their favourite, when in truth it’s really Harry Potter.

For instance, imagine filling in a dating agency application with more ‘high-brow’ answers so you can impress your future dates. You’ll either end up with someone who really is into that stuff and you won’t really get on, or you’ll end up with a person who also likes to embellish. Do you want a dishonest customer really?

It happens a lot in business too. Why not just go after the relevant customers that fit with who you really are? Be truthful and you will soon start to appeal to a ‘better fit’ customer with a relationship that suits you both.

Don’t say you are a web agency with offices in India, if it’s really just you in your back bedroom. There is, after all, a market for you… and it’s actually quite a large one if you get your marketing message and pricing right.

A great book to help get you started creating your story is Seth Godin’s All Marketers Are Liars.

This is an introduction and overview, rather than a big long technical document about RSS. That can be found here, amongst other places.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.

Imagine taking some information and being able to distribute it online so other machines and software can easily make sense of it. A bit like when someone has an Excel file and exports it as tab separated text, so they can send it to someone else who doesn’t have Excel. It’s the same principle and uses a language called XML. That’s as technical as it gets! It’s a file format for ‘wrapping up’ information.

Who use RSS now and why?

Lot’s of people use RSS to distribute news, product updates, etc. and it has mainly grown in popularity due to the fact that most blogs can distribute their content as RSS automatically. For instance, the feed for this blog is wrapped up nicely through a piece of software called Feedburner. You can see it very basically through this link.

The reason RSS works so well is that when you update your database, or add another blog post or news item, the RSS feed updates chronologically straight away. This makes it especially great for distributing news. Think one of those ticker tape screens at the stock exchange. Anyone subscribed to your feed hears about it quickly.

So why does a small business need to embrace RSS?

Quite simply - you are offering your customers a transparent way of choosing to let you communicate with them (you may want to re-read that). It’s about who controls the flow of the marketing message.

Take traditional marketing for instance. As a consumer, you hand over your details to a company (or they take them) and then they send you marketing messages. Some are relevant, some are not, but, even though you are the one that controls your own purse, you don’t control the flow of the message.

Mr Marketer is driving the marketing bus… he repeats his message to you on a regular basis so you don’t forget him, whether you like it or not and, nine times out of ten, you can’t tell him to stop.

And, before you know it, lots of different marketers have your details and your are receiving lots of marketing information that you may not want. Some of the marketing companies also share your details increasing the number of different marketing messages you get. Lot’s of buses, in lot’s of directions - lots of messages - and you want to get off! You want some control…

RSS and control

RSS may seem like the antithesis of marketing as it gives you a way of communicating whereby the customer holds the keys. If you don’t treat them nicely, they can clear the communication channel and you’ve lost them as a marketer.

Take a Blog for example. Your Customer may find it by accident, decide it is worth reading, then subscribe to the RSS feed. They haven’t had to hand over any e-mail details or address, or how many people over 16 live in their household. They’ve just pressed a button and next time your blog says something new, they will hear about it.

As consumers (your customers) have wised up to the wily ways of marketers, they are much less likely to hand over their information in the first place, so they love the control. There are two key reasons for this:

1. People don’t trust marketers because at the end of the day, they are trying to sell them something and history tells them that they are not to be trusted.
2. The internet has made so much information so widely available that very few companies are really that unique anymore. So a consumer can quite easily pick and choose who they buy from. If it’s not you,they can quickly find another.

As the consumer it’s great - you are suddenly driving your bus of marketers around. You have control.

Working harder, smarter and more effectively

As a business marketing itself, it doesn’t seem like a rosy picture. But, one of the great things about supplying information to your customer base as a news feed using RSS is that you get to show off the things people buy from you, namely expertise and knowledge, and people can pick and choose whether they take note of each story or not.

People who read RSS feeds (and Blogs) tend to skim read anyway and pick out the stories that relate to them (a bit like the way you may read a newspaper or magazine) so as long as your overall message stays relevant to them, they shouldn’t have any problems sticking with you.

This should also encourage you to work harder on your message, keeping your subscribers (customers/audience) happy and potentially attracting new people who relate to your message along the way who buy into you.

This is an important point, especially in small businesses. How many times have you heard the phrase, “I am buying into you, just as much as the company”?

Conclusion

Many marketers still can not come to terms with letting go of control and the power the consumer has. I’ve even had a meeting with a marketing guy who wanted to phone each person when they unsubscribed from his e-mail newsletter to find out why. No wonder consumers have become suspicious.

Whether you use RSS as a Blog, or simply to distribute your company news, it is a very cost-effective way to create a marketing channel. A place where people can buy into you and your message on their terms.

Navigation on your website is important - we all know that. As are ‘call to actions’ in the right place. One other aspect of a website that can often play a very important part in the user experience is their comfort in knowing exactly where they are on your website at any time.

This is usually done with navigation and sometimes breadcrumbs (the little bit of nav at the top of the page that shows you where you are).

A website like Amazon does this extremely well considering they have millions of products - you know where you are all the time. And it can be done on any site with a few levels of navigation.

Before you wonder whether it is worth the effort, let me tell you about a man I have followed to work every day this week. He has his satellite navigation displayed proudly in his window. He knows where he is, he must do, he does it everyday, but he still uses the system for a bit of comfort.

And, driving around the town I live in, he’s not the only one.

Jakob Nielson, the Usability Guru whom many of the web community listen to when he speaks has a good post about wasted words this month.

Don’t go wasting valuable word-count or ‘fluff’ when most people want to cut to the chase.

• What? (What will users find on this page — i.e., what’s its function?)
• Why? (Why should they care — i.e., what’s in it for them?)

I used to use a companies website home page content as a good example of this. I blanked out their name so see what they have to say about themselves…

Our Product Range
xxxxx has a vast product range on offer, giving our customers the very best choice. By offering a wide range of products, we are confident we have the right solution for you. Our aim is to focus on our customers requirements, so we can use our knowledge and expertise to provide the best product to improve your lifestyle.

Sounds good doesn’t it? Do you want one? Even if I told you that they sell mobility scooters?

I know nothing about cars. In fact, it’s fair to say I feel intimidated when I go to a garage, which is something I had to do today and it wasn’t pretty.

The mechanic knew his stuff but everytime he answered what was wrong, he stopped and looked expectantly at me. He didn’t notice that I didn’t know the next question and it was uncomfortable for me. Add on the fact that every person in the garage had about as much charisma and customer service technique of… well… most english shop assistants on a Saturday and you should get my drift of the situation.

When I demo web ’stuff’ to people, they sometimes say, “treat me as if I know nothing because when it comes to the web I’m just stupid”.

It doesn’t mean they are stupid, they just feel uncomfortable in the presence of someone else talking about something they may not have much confidence, or experience with.

That said, many websites do exactly the same as my mechanic. They leave dead-ends and questions un-answered. This tends to backfire with the visitor feeling they are doing something wrong. This may be because you are seen as the expert (you’re the one with a big clever website) and it may be their own lack of confidence or experience.

Now, there will always be a place for some websites to detract people; it’s an affective way of filtering customers but, how many people take that feeling of ‘feeling stupid’ with them when they give up and go somewhere else because they just can’t understand your website?

I am trying to build a list of marketing companies in my area for possible partnerships and am amazed at how unfindable some companies are on the web.

First I used Google, but was bombarded with online marketing companies, not geographically localised, so I headed to Yell - which has been surprising useful. Then, using Credit Safe (to make sure they were a correct match financially) I headed back to Google to find the exact company name, even using the post code and/or address.

Man, I can’t believe how many of them didn;t come up in the listings. What chance have their customers got?

So, if you have the same problem… try this on your website (replace the bold bits):

Create a Title Tag

On your contact page create a bespoke title tag with your full company name (or the name you are known by). In your HTML between the <head> tag and </head> tag add the following:

<title>company name - town</title>

Create a Meta Description

Again, on the same page, between the same tags, create the description:

<meta name=”description” content=”Contact details for your company, a what you do in town, county” />

Create a Heading

You could also make sure the heading of your page (the main title that people see), which is usually the first bit oif text after the <body> tag, is tagged up using <h1>Contact Details For Your Company</h1>

Signposts Drive Traffic

Remember, you are not just helping yourself, you are helping the people actually trying to find you!

By the way, if you are based locally to Basingstoke, in Hampshire, Surrey or Berkshire and you are a marketing agency or a PR agency looking to hook up with a digital design agency with online marketing skills, why not contact me.