Feb 10, 2010 by Lindsay Gower
At a marketing workshop I attended recently, the subject of web sites naturally came up. One attendee was feeling the pressure to create a web site for his insurance business. Although he knew he “ought” to have one, he was obviously reluctant (indeed, suspicious) about the need, the cost and the benefit.
His reasons for not getting a site boiled down to:
Web sites cost too much (and the quality of the work is “all the same anyway”).
He gets his business by word of mouth.
Today, I’m going to examine reason #1. I’ll address reason #2 next week. So let’s …
Jan 20, 2010 by Aaron Rubman
Until Apple’s release of the iPhone and accompanying App Store, Japan was more or less the undisputed leader in mobile technology and innovation. Roughly 90% of the population owns some form of mobile phone. Their mobile networks are faster and cover a greater portion of the country.
What’s more interesting, 8 years ago the breakdown of revenue from Japan’s mobile internet looked remarkably similar to the current breakdown of revenues for the rest of the world. These are just a small number of the many observations to appear in Morgan Stanley’s 424-page Mobile Internet Report.
Japan’s market anticipated the popularity of recreational …
Dec 9, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
Websites are tools, and the tools that endure are the tools that serve a purpose. Shovels are good at making holes, cars are good at moving people from one place to another. If you want people to use your website, it must serve a purpose. However, it is not sufficient for the site to serve a purpose for you, it must serve a purpose for whomever you want to use it.
What Purpose Should Your Website Serve?
And Whom Does it Serve?
There are any number of purposes a website might serve, but let’s take a look at some of the more common …
Nov 24, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
Redesigning a website is like building a new one:
Start with a purpose.
If you know you need a change, but can’t put the reason into words, try answering these questions:
“What do I want my new website to do that the old one couldn’t?”
“What do I want my new website to do better than my old website?”
Maybe you want your new site to reflect a new identity, perhaps you want to start selling products online, or you want to start an online community, or improve online customer communication, or reduce the turn around time between when you decide …
Nov 5, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
Last month marked the 20th Anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Awareness of this landmark date was a part of my inspiration to write my blog entry on using vacations and sick leave as a small business stress test.
At that time I suggested that business owners make contingency plans and run drills for all variety of business obstacles, including the possibility of bridge closures. Last week the Labor Day repairs of the Bay Bridge failed and we were faced with the longest closure of that thoroughfare since the Loma Prieta quake.
For five days …
Oct 26, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
Excuse me. I couldn’t help noticing that strange and interesting plant.
Unfortunately, we do not all work at Mushnik’s Skid Row Florists.
Putting a strange and interesting plant in your window (or on your website) will not drive web traffic all on its own.
If nobody passes your window, then no one can see what’s there, nor can they tell their friends and acquaintances.
What you need is an integrated strategy that both uses your website as an asset and uses your other assets to draw attention to your website. Here are some things to consider before working on your strategy:
Oct 20, 2009 by Marissa Berger
LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube… once only visited for personal use, these sites are now being used for business purposes. We all hear about them and see their icons everywhere. And, we feel out of touch or like we are dropping the ball if we don’t have profiles on all of them.
It is true that social media sites help business. But how? Most of the case studies we read about are about big business and their bigger than life social media campaigns. How can small business benefit?
The truth is—at least our opinion of it—that there are no step-by-step rules to follow …
Oct 19, 2009 by kellyv
Most small businesses know their business. They also excel at explaining how their business operates and probably have a supporting brochure that tells that story. This knowledge creates operational excellence. But, growth potential is found in identifying why customers buy, who is buying from the company, and how to connect with them; this is a reoccurring question for even the most passionate business owners. A marketing strategy is a foundation built on the answers to these questions, a strategy for success. Building a strategy can be simplified if it is broken into small components.
Moving past operational deliverables, a …
Oct 12, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
An important thing to remember when you go looking for your online market is that nobody can tell you more about your audence than your audience itself. With that in mind, here are five ways to …
Oct 8, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
In medical terminology, a stress test (or exercise test) can be any of a series of tests designed to measure how your your heart and lungs hold up as you put greater and greater demands upon your body. As a result of the Wall Street bailout, it has been increasingly common to hear of such tests being applied to various corporations. Mostly we hear about outside agencies performing these tests, but it is possible to conduct them upon your own organization regardless of its size.
For example, if someone takes a day off or is sick, either some tasks go undone, …
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