Website design is often in the eye of the beholder. However, no matter how great your current website design is most of the experts say websites should be updated every 3-5 years. Technologies change, your audience probably changes slightly and giving your site a fresh new look seldom hurts. With that in mind, we're updating www.aligned-marketing.com.

To get some inspiration for our new site I visited 9 "award" sites. These websites let me glance at a bunch of websites that the experts have decided are the best-of-the-best for various industry segments. I thought I'd pass the list along so you can see what the folks in-the-know are saying about website design. Please feel free to add to the list.

• Davey Awards: http://www.daveyawards.com
• EduNet: www.edunetconnect.com/awards/index.php
• Interactive Media Awards: www.interactivemediaawards.com/default.asp
• Internet Advertsing Competition: www.advertisingcompetition.org/iac
• Kasina's Awards for Financial Professionals: www.kasina.com/Page.asp?ID=493
• MuniNetGuide: www.muninetguuide.com/top_picks.php
• W3 Awards: http://www.w3award.com
• Web Marketing Association's WebAward: www.webaward.org
• Webby Awards: http://webbyawards.com

Steve
800-707-9150

The Issue
People are busy! So busy in fact that some smart companies have actually created tools to block or interrupt unwanted messages. Spam-filters and TiVo are two of those tools.

The Impact
The result is advertising and direct mail dollars are less effective. Clear communication and content that is valuable and interesting delivered through multiple channels are more likely to produce positive results. Every company needs to produce clear, concise and compelling content that engages, excites, and enables their audience to learn more about the company. “Click here” is my favorite learn-more device.

The Point
Before you (or anyone) can write compelling copy about your business you must have a starting point. That point must include your customer’s perspective of your value and an internal view of your value, just to make sure they’re aligned. it should also provide distinction between you and your competitors. My recommendation is to use personal interviews, website content and sales collateral, both yours and your competitor’s, and blind surveys to help define your point. Note, management’s opinions and your sales force’s claims are (typically) not the true voice of your customer. Each group has useful views but they’re biased. Hire someone without a vested interest in the status quo or a pet project.

The Focus – Blaze your Phrase
Owning the symbolism associated with your point is the optimum position for any company. Stated another way, you want to create focus on your point and a great way to do that is to own a word, a phrase or even an image. For example: That can be done through a product name – Post-Its (that's what you do with them), a company name – Disney (magic, happiness, entertainment), or phrasing “Save money. Live better.” – WalMart. Then, use and repeat, again and again.

The Strategy
Embed your message in everything you produce - use a one-message-many-voices strategy. Once your word, phrase or image is embedded in all your company messaging, it’s ok to allow slight variations in style, tone and context to appeal to specific markets or customer needs. Google, for example, is famous for it’s rainbow colored logo, as well as the interesting variations it produces around holidays. The goal is to insure that every customer contact, whether it’s through the sales force, your website, or just glancing at a piece of sales collateral, is rooted in your point and symbolism. You want the choir singing the same song.

The Bridge (between the present and the future)
Tactics vary. Using your sales force and traditional print collateral as communication channels to customers is fine. However, excellent website design, SEO techniques, and Web 2.0 technologies are needed to cost-effectively drive new opportunities and promote customer dialogue. Delivering clear high-value content through technology is cost-effective and it provides accountability. For example, we can tell you how many people visited your site, how they got there, how long they stayed, what pages they visited, when they left and much more. That’s a level of accountability that is not available through traditional print marketing.

The Result
Your sales team, your print collateral, and your website are aligned. Each delivers the same clear message, your message, and provides some insight into how you are different from your competitors. Any confusion about who you are and what you do is eliminated.

Some people blog to get their message out and differentiate themselves. What a fantastic idea!

Steve

Aligned Marketing had a fantastic ISA Conference in San Antonio last week. Our technology partner Doug Schust and I scheduled 16 booth appointments. Incredibly, we ended up meeting with 28 companies and approximately 70 people! Here’s what we learned:

With sales declines ranging from 20% to 40% (and more), ISA members are truly open to new ideas and straight-talk. Conservatism is out and traditional fixes, such as loading distributor shelves with products or running sales spiffs, are considered ineffective. That was an important lesson for some excellent companies to learn.

Our sales strategy to confront ISA members was driven by our belief that (1) communication to external and internal customers is average at best and (2) websites that don’t generate new business, that are just an expense, need immediate attention. I admit, we’re biased on this issue since communication and technology is what we do.

Many of the people we met with have built good websites but virtually none of them have done much with search engine optimization (SEO). In our view, it doesn’t do a company much good to have a super website if their customers and potential customers can’t find it. Many people were surprised when we showed them our small company was listed #1 on page-1 of Google.

Similarly, everyone expressed a need for new customers but only a few knew that 70% of all new product and services searches begin online and that 65%+ of those searches begin on Google. Further, 91% of searches are abandoned if the person doesn’t find what they’re looking for on page one or two of their search results. Everyone needs a Page-1 Google Strategy.

Most members said SEO and video technology is expensive, it’s not. If you’re NASCAR you can spend $50,000 (whatever you want) on a 60 second video starring Jimmie Johnson. We’ve created high quality videos for under 5% of that number. In today’s market, technology is affordable for any size company.

Best of all, it is always a wonderful experience to re-connect with old friends and make new ones. It was a great conference for Aligned Marketing and me personally. I truly feel blessed.

Steve