Is your business slogan working for you?

In his book, 101 Secrets to Building a Winning Business, author Andrew Griffiths states that despite trends that come and go in marketing techniques, the tag line or “catch phrase” never seems to go out of style. He does point out that a business should, from time to time, reassess the effectiveness of such wording to avoid the message becoming stale.

To this end, I decided to create a “tag line” that would work for my business and this required some thought as to what message I wanted to convey in a few short words.

With a little brain storming, I came up with a few points that are important in the marketing of my business:

• Rusty Mango Design proudly markets itself as a quality website provider in the Cassowary Coast region of Far North Queensland.
• Cairns has a number of competitors however there is only one main competitor in my local region.
• My sites are affordable as I am a sole operator and my business does not have the overheads of the larger companies.

Using these points, I have decided upon the tag line “Quality Website Design on the Cassowary Coast”. I wanted to avoid saying that my websites are cheaper than the competition as prospective clients may also read this as a sign that my work also looks cheap.

Now that I have the slogan, it will be displayed prominently on the RMD website and on any correspondence with my clients. I may change it tomorrow if another slogan “pops” into my head and is more appropriate however that’s the nature of this type of marketing and making the change is no great problem.

For evidence on the changing slogans that can be used in a marketing campaign, take a look at Queensland Tourism’s latest effort. Only last year, the slogan marketed around the country was “Queensland – Where Australia shines”. This was plastered on TV, magazines and internet advertising. After a reassessment was made necessary by the floods and Cyclone Yasi earlier this year, Queensland Tourism adapted the tag line to include “Nothing Beats Queensland”. To residents of the State, this has a double meaning: It clearly states that you must come to Queensland because there is nothing else like it and that, despite the natural disasters that we have endured, we are bouncing back better than ever.

Another example of a catch phrase change is that of Tourism Victoria. A couple of years back, the tag line they used was “Victoria – On the Move” which was fine until someone realised that Victorians were leaving the state at a rapid rate and maybe the “Move” part of the slogan wasn’t so great after all. During a recent caravan trip around Queensland, I saw their new slogan plastered on Victorian number plates: “Victoria – The Place to be”. Now I don’t whether my judgement was determined by the number of Victorian caravans on the road but I believe this tag line once again fails to work. If Victoria is “The Place to be”, why do so many Victorians drive their caravans north and spend three months of the year in Queensland? Maybe a different catchline would have been more appropriate for their number plates.

As demonstrated, slogans can allow prospective clients to form very quick opinions about your business so you need to get it right. Grab a pen and pencil, write down the key elements about your businesses and see what you can come up. Make sure you show the slogan to test audience first and gauge their opinions. If it doesn’t get the message across as intended, try again until you get it just right for your business.

Be Consistent

I’m sending out the wrong message. I know I shouldn’t but I am. I can’t help it – there are only so many hours in the day and with clients asking for updates and new sites to build, I just don’t have a choice. I’m just hoping that prospective clients will understand and come to Rusty Mango Design anyway.

What am I talking about? You’ve read this far and want to find out? Well, it’s quite simple. I’ve gone and designed a new logo for my business. The old one was looking a little dated and a few critics told me, in no uncertain terms, to go and make another one. So I did and I’m quite proud of the results. Only thing is, the logo now needs to be inserted on all my stationery and my website. The website is done, took care of that one over the Christmas break. And the email and invoice stationery, that was a piece of cake. It’s the business cards – I just can’t get around to them.

In business, it’s very important to send out a consistent message to your clients. They need to know your brand and how it operates. Clients need to know what to expect from your service every time. Imagine a business boasting about its five day delivery guarantee which only works half the time. Not much of a guarantee is it? Or the business that promises one price to one customer and a totally different price to another for the same service.

A brand is no different – McDonalds has made the Golden Arches known all over the world because those two yellow curves are on every single piece of advertising and wrapping that the company produces. You know exactly what to expect when you visit McDonalds. The food may not look like the pictures in the advertisements  but if you find the Golden Arches anywhere across the globe, you know what you are going to get.

My message is mixed at the moment. If I hand out a business card to a prospective client with my old logo on it, they form a mental image of my business – even with that small card. Then they visit my site with the new logo splashed across the top. Confusion can arise about my capabilities as a graphic designer – why the two logo? Doesn’t this guy care enough about his own work? True, with a name like Rusty Mango Design, I highly doubt that people will think they are at the wrong site. But it is still important to keep a consistent message out there with my brand.

I’ll get right onto it…. watch this space….

Plugins – Expanding your CMS

As my clients know from personal experience, my CMS of choice is actually the blogging software, WordPress. As the program is continually updated by its developers, it is emerging as a great base for a Content Management System.

My reasons for choosing are based on two simple facts: –  it is easy to teach my clients to use and it has a fantastic community supporting it.

Part of this community is the developers who create the “plugins” to expand its capabilities. I have found that almost any website can be built using WordPress ranging from real estate sites through to social networks.

In this post, I would like to highlight five of the plugins that I have used to expand the abilities of a WordPress CMS. I have also listed some of the sites on which I have used these plugins: -

Google Map Press

This plugin adds itself to every Edit page within the CMS. By simply typing in the address of your target, you can create a map on any of your posts or pages. Perfect if you are highlighting various businesses and would like to include directions. Site: http://www.casco.org.au/

Watermark Reloaded

I found this one recently whilst developing a site for a photographer. When the plugin is activated and set up, all images that you upload to the site automatically get watermarked with your desired text. This can act as a deterent against the download and unauthorised use of your photos. Site: http://www.innisfailphotography.com/

Simple Lightbox

The Simple Lightbox automatically adds itself to any galleries on the site and creates a beautiful transition allowing the viewing of full images and navigation through a slideshow-style interface. Site: http://www.innisfailphotography.com/

Shailan’s Dropdown Menu –

A life-saver of a plugin, Shailan’s Dropdown Menu can be incorporated into any site’s design to allowing the addition of menu item in both horizontal and vertical menus. Site: http://www.warrinainnisfail.com.au/

Business Directory

Allows the automatic creation of Business Directory listing that, once approved by the site administrator, appear on site in selected categories. Site: http://www.tourismbowen.com.au/

Engaging your Website Visitors

In 2005, blogger Jeff Jervis had a hardware issue with his Dell computer. In good faith, he did what all consumers would do and contacted the company in order to have the part either replaced or fixed. After a number of failed attempts to have the problem rectified, Jervis wrote about his issue with Dell on his blog, using no uncertain terms to let all his “followers” know of his discontent with the company. Within days a storm of support built up around Jervis and gradually evolved into the website “Dell Hell”. Thousands of disillusioned Dell customers began airing their views on customer service and product quality. Soon, the level of animosity had reached such a level that Dell could no longer ignore it.

Dell has learnt a great deal from this consumer uprising. Not only has customer support improved dramatically but Dell has also launched two “blog” sites of its own. Direct2Dell allows customers with problems, like Jeff Jervis, direct and instantaneous access to support within Dell itself (not outsourced) whilst Dell Ideastorm has been created so that customers can tell Dell what they want from the company. As a result of paying attention to the negative comments from places such as Dell Hell, the Dell Company has transformed itself into a market leader that listens to its customers. Improvements are evidently still possible as Dell Hell has a number of members who continue to blog onto its forums.

How can a small business use this information to improve customer relations and service?

1. Research your business and industry on a regular basis.

Regardless of what industry your business operates in, someone will be blogging about it. There are thousands of blogs out there – chances are at least one of them will be relevant to you. Search for what people are saying about your service or brand.  As Jeff Jervis says in his blog, honest and unbiased feedback “beats any focus group”.

Make time to get online and find out what people are saying about you and your business / industry.

2. Converse with your customers.

Open up a conversation with your customers. Allow comments on your blog or create a following of clients in Twitter. Use Facebook to keep clients updated on the developments and news of your business. There are many opportunities online to keep clients in the loop – guiding your brand.

Visit IdeaStorm as a perfect example of how “use” customers to build a better company and maybe get some great ideas for free.

3. Keep your blog and online content up-to-date. Above all, be honest with your customers.  Dell’s major issue came from not being up front with its customers and it caused a rebellion. If you are up-front with your clients about your services (and occasional problems), you are less likely to suffer a backlash when things don’t run to plan.

Before creating my own server, I used Digital Pacific as a host for all my sites without exception. Why? Because Digital Pacific kept me in the loop at all times. Not only did they provide excellent customer service, they were honest about outages and would often let me know when planned outages were to occur.

Deter the Theft of your images…

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way” – this old adage is very true when it comes to protecting your web site images from theft. There are a number of ways to deter potential thieves however with each of these methods, there is also ways around them:-

- Watermark your image with your name or web address across the actual image itself. This is probably the most effective way of protecting your work however it is done to the detrimant of the image itself. Painstaking work is involved to remove this watermark.

- Digital Watermarking involves the adding of a unique code to the actual code that makes up the image. This is the language that your computer reads in order to reproduce the image. The process of Digital Watermarking can be done on your own computer or you can trust a specialised company to do the job for you.

- Disable right-click on your web pages. An oldie but a goodie. Anyone who wants to copy your image can no longer simply right-click and save it to their hard drive. However they can still print-screen and take it that way – just takes a little longer.

A new reverse search engine allows you to search the web for your own images that may have been reproduced on other sites. Tin Eye operates by uploading your image or typing in its web address. The program then searches the internet looking for that image. If it appears on other sites, they will be listed in the results. If one of your images does turn up in the search results, you can contact the offending site and ask them to remove it. Any refusal to do so, you may need to get a solicitor involved.

Avoid being “Ripped Off” by your Web Designer

There’s always the chance of being ripped off when you operate over the web but with a couple of steps to follow, you should be able to weed out bad web developers and find someone who can create your online presence.

• Online communities such as Connect2Mums, and especially the new Mumpreneurs Network, are a great place to meet with other people who have been in exactly the same position as you. Open a conversation with your fellow members and find out about their experiences. Chances are, if a web developer has performed admirably for another Mumpreneur, they will likely do a good job for you.
• Visit the Web Designer’s website and look for the portfolio. If the work there appeals to you, then contact the designer for a no-obligation discussion and quote. * Check around for prices but remember, cheapest is not always the best. Be wary of designers who use templates. Imagine paying to get a “unique” site only to find 200 other sites look exactly the same as yours.
• Testimonials on a designers site can give you an insight into the quality of service. If you feel comfortable to do so, contact the businesses that have made the testimonial for more information. Most of them will gladly talk to you about their experiences. The best relationships I have had with my clients arise from those I gain through “word of mouth” referals.

Feel free to contact me if you having any questions about the service I can provide to you as a Web Designer. I will gladly refer you onto any of my previous clients if you wish to find out more about my customer service and design experience.

Five steps to help conquer the Google Beast

There are literally hundreds of search engines on the internet. However, millions of users each day insist on using just one of them – Google – the “Big Kahuna” of web search with over one trillion indexed pages (according to their official blog).

There’s a fair chance that your site has been indexed already, somewhere in there. But are you getting noticed? Are you in the first few search returns when your potential customers come looking for you? Are you at least on page one of the search results?

You need to get your site regognised by Google, not just indexed. Read on for some helpful hints to give your site a boost in the rankings.

Step One – Be unique

Right from start of your business, ensure that you stand out from the crowd. Selecting a name for your business is difficult however avoid using a name that clashes with other businesses or popular phrases. For example, a jeweller probably shouldn’t call himself “The Lord of the Rings” (copyright issues aside). Try typing that phrase into Google and see what happens. His site would never be found. Of course, searching isn’t just done by business name but you do need consider this factor as one method of search used by your clients.

Step Two – Use Keywords

When writing the copy for your site (the words that appear on screen), be sure to sprinkle some key words throughout the text. Keywords are the words that people type into a search engine. When looking for a restaurant in Innisfail, I might type “Eating Out in Innisfail”. Or if I am after a mechanic in Tully, I could type “Car Maintainence, Tully”. Sit down with friends / colleagues and brainstorm the type of searches your potential clients might make and add these into the copy for your site.

Step Three – Get Linked

Google loves your site more when it is well connected. The more sites that link to you, the more important your site becomes to Google. Ask your suppliers, friends and business partners for reciprocal links on their sites and you can provide them with a link on yours.

If a very important site links to you, you actually inherit some of that importance according to Google. Example – if you are a small motel, try to get links on the major travel websites. Not only will you gain exposure but your Google ranking will receive a boost as well.

Step Four – Don’t upset Google

Google can get cranky if you try to cheat the system. Even if you are using the above steps, you still need to be careful not to upset the “Gods of Search”.

Keywords need to be mixed with your content. Some sites have pages purely dedicated to keywords that have been hidden by making the font the same colour as the background – viola, invisible keywords. Not good according to Google.

In addition, add links to your site in a natural way. If Google notices a huge spike in the number of links to your site, once again, it can get cranky. You may not get blacklisted for these infringements, but do you really want to risk it?

Step Five – Get in the experts (SEO)

If the above steps have been done and you still languishing somewhere off the first page of search results, call in the Big Guns. Search Engine Optimisation has evolved into an entirely separate entity to web design. SEO experts know how to tweak every part of your site to gain ranking within Google. They also monitor your site over a period of time, checking search terms and changing content to ensure that you get a better result. For my clients, I recommend Sue Wickes, a SEO and Social Media professional based in Mission Beach – www.suewickes.com

By taking note of the five steps here, your site is on its way to an improved ranking in search engines. Just remember that Google does change its search algorithm from time to time therefore you will need to check back and tweak your site continuously to ensure that you keep appearing on page one.

KEEPING IT FRESH – New Years Resolution

A website can say a lot about a business. As a regular user of the internet, if I see a poorly designed site, it automatically makes me question the ethics of that particular business. If the content of a site is exactly the same day after day, month after month and even year after year, I sometimes wonder if the organisation is still open. And I probably would not visit that site again.

Return visitors are very important to a successful website. It is a sure sign that people are interested in what the site is selling or the information that is being provided. If the content of the site is of high quality too, visitors will refer or link others to the site boosting site numbers even further.

As they say “Content is KING”.

What you do as a site owner to keep your site fresh with new content?

DO – Add a blog to your site if you have the time to update it and something worth saying. My new years resolution is to add new content to this blog every two weeks. I simply don’t have the time to commit to more frequent updates but this also means I have more time to develop blog ideas.

DO – Make sure your content sticks to a theme relevant to your business. If you run an IT business include reviews of software, your latest specials and user tips. Don’t blog about your Persian cat or your fishing trip to the reef.

DO – Link to other sites that would benefit visitors and their relationship with your business or organisation.

DO – Get a guest blogger for your site occasionally.

DO – Add an image gallery of your clients. One of my customers requested an image gallery on his site where he displays photos of the various business cars that use his motel.

DO – Give away a freebie or discount voucher. If you are a photographer, have a monthly calendar with one of your photos to download and print.

DO – Send out emails to your mailing list to inform of site updates (watch the spam laws though!).

DO NOT – Copy and paste content from other sites and pretend that it is your own.

DO NOT – Use automated content creation unless it is reliable and links seamlessly with your site (advertisements for other business should only appear if you receive something in return).

Think of your website like a physical shop – you want people to return again and again. They will do this if there is something worth returning for.

BE x DO = HAVE

The class life algorithm "BE x DO = HAVE" has probably appeared in countless blog posts before. But who has sat down and worked out their Website strategy using this simple mathematical problem as a basis?

I am a big fan of Brad Sugars, the founder of ActionCOACH. Unfortunately, living in Innisfail, I have never had the opportunity to see one of his business motivational tours live. So I was pretty happy the other night to find a registration link on the Brad Sugars Website allowing me to watch his "Business is Booming" tour video. Three hours long, Brad takes the viewers (and his live audience) through the various reasons why businesses should keep striving through the global financial crisis.  I spent a couple of nights watching the video and taking notes so that I can apply them to my own work at Rusty Mango Design.

One of the points that Brad raises in the video is the paradigm "BE x DO = HAVE". Using an example from the video, a simple use of the math could be "BE Awesome x DO Awesome = HAVE Awesome". Pretty straight forward until you realise that most people live this particular algorithm backwards, thinking that they must HAVE something before they can BE something.

I got to thinking to thinking – if this can be so easily applied to ones life, can it be applied to the success of your Website? It may not be as simple as Brad Sugar's application but read on…..

If you are a business supplying a product or a service, the end result of creating your Website must be to "HAVE more business". That's the final desired result. How do we get there?

The first part of the algorithm is not about the Website – it's about your business. To effectively use a Website to generate business, you must have a product or service that would benefit from online sales. The local doctor probably doesn't need a Website to sell his services. On the other hand, your local florist could make a lot more sales simply by getting online. You need to research your market and find out what your clients and potential clients want.

BE a worthy online business.

Once you have done the research on your clients, now comes the hard part. Do you have site that will satisfy their requirements? Sit down with your web designer and plan out a strategy – Who is your target market? How do they shop? What do they look for first in a site? What is their preferred method for purchasing? Will the aesthetics of the site appeal to them? How do we get them to keep coming back? This is where a good relationship with your web designer is very important. They need to understand where you are coming from and what you hope to achieve with your site.

DO create a site that works for you.

Keeping those two elements in mind throughout the design process, you can arrive at the desired final result.

BE a worthy online business x DO create a site that works for you = HAVE more business.

It is a little different to the way that Brad Sugars describes it but the principle is exactly the same.

If you would like to see the Business is Booming video by Brad Sugars (ActionCOACH), go and visit http://www.businessisboomingtour.com/video/

I am not affiliated with Brad Sugars or ActionCOACH although I did go to school with him at Sunnybank High many years ago (I love to name drop occasionally!!)

Using WordPress for a CMS

My first experience with a CMS was using Joomla to maintain the website of Innisfail State High School. Let me say that Joomla is an excellent program and a very powerful CMS. However it has one major drawback – a very steep learning curve. When a client approached me to create my very first website with a built-in content management system, I was very hesitant to say yes and build one using Joomla knowing that the client would struggle to maintain it. I looked around for an alternative and found out that WordPress, a blogging solution that I had been using on my site, had evolved into a very useful CMS.

Wordpress was very attractive from the word go because it is free to download. Anyone can use it on their site with no royalties to pay. The main drawcard however is the massive (and I mean MASSIVE) library of plugins available to "extend" the WordPress interface. You can add just about anything to your site – ECommerce, photo galleries, extensive navigation menu, graphing tools, etc. You name it and I'll bet someone has written a plugin to satisfy your needs. Plugins are also mostly free however you may need to pay for some "premium" ones.

WordPress is fully-customisable using CSS so you can take a bog standard template and convert it into your design without too much hassle. Take a look at my sites and you'd be hard pressed to tell me which ones are WordPress-based (except for the giveaway LOGIN link at the bottom of the page).

WordPress is very easy to use. I customise each site to suit the individual client but on the whole, adding content is like created a document using Word. You want to add a page? Click add page, add some info, click Publish and it is done. Want to change a page? Same deal. Images can be loaded via WordPress and stored on your server too.

Rusty Mango Design supplies each of its clients with a tutorial booklet that we have written to help make using WordPress be as simple as possible. Of course, we can also talk you through in person or on the phone.

Sound interesting? Just what you need for your site? Want to know if you can convert your old site over to a WordPress CMS?

Give Greg at Rusty Mango Design a call or an email today.

Greg's Top 5 Add-Ons for WordPress

White Label CMS: This plugin lets you customise the look of the WordPress Admin and control the types of items displayed. A good one for the web designer who can set it up so that a client can't click on a button and "nuke" the website.

AWS Easy Page Link: Adds a functionality to WordPress that should have been included in the very first build – the ability to link up all the pages in the site without using confusing Permalinks.

TinyMCE Advanced: Adds Word-like capabilities to the text editor – styles, tables, undo buttons etc. Makes changing text, images very easy to do.

Mappress Google: With this plugin you can insert Google maps onto any page you desire, complete with zoom buttons and informational tags.

WP Ecommerce: Turns your site into a functional eshop where you can sell anything you like including downloadable items as well as physical items such as clothing, books, etc.