How to get a website Quote

I get asked far to often... "have I been ripped off?", "I paid X for my website was it worth it?" - what can I say?

Today I am of the belief that the Internet is entering a different era, we're in a sort of bubble, without being in a bubble, there's a shortage of decent website designers and the Design Agencies are playing a bigger part than ever, squeezing out the little guy in the bedroom more and more.

And all that is before you've considered all the marketing, updating and managing of a website.  It all adds up to a mini-crisis for businesses wanting to get a website.

So when it comes to investigating the costs of a website, you have to turn the whole thing on its head.  What do you want?  You can't ask me if it was worth it, does it do what you want it to.  Does it bring in the sales, does answer the questions people are asking.  If the answer is yes - it makes no difference how much it costs - it was worth it.  If the answer is no - well franking even if it cost £200 it wasn't worth it.

And that really is the question - I have not come across any other industry that works this way... Money come comes into the equation if it produces a return, the actual cost of getting a website is - when you think about it - irrelevant.

I've seen quotes for £70,000 or more for ultimately a basic eCommerce shop... something that www.spotify.com will do for £25 per month.  I've also seen a £2000 website turning into a multi-million pound company.  The amount you invest makes little difference to the outcome.

The reason is simple - it's all down to your business and your content, ultimately a website is an extension of your ideas, a decent website designer (regardless of cost) will make something that does what you need it to.  So what makes or breaks a website is actually down to you.

So something to watch for when getting a quote:

• Don't be taken in by the hype - this is your business and the website needs to express your ideas, not the web designers or agencies.  Plan what you want and have it made to your spec.
  
  
• Get a website you like - because if you don't you won't brag about it - all to often if the client loses faith in the website it's a dead duck in the water - it will then remain on the clients todo list for years to come both harming the business and affecting sales.
  
  
• Get multiple quotes always - don't go to just one fabby designer, see who you like most and see if you're happy to work with them.  Price is one issue - but whether you can twist their arm into providing the website of your dreams is another issue.

And finally a personal note.  You'll get agencies at puff up your ideas, tell you if you do this X will happen and Y will be better, but it's better to hear the bad news, why are your wanting that - it's been done before, if you do it this way it will be cheaper/better.

Both views hold merit - but if you're a a new business then without doubt 'start small and plan to grow' - it is without doubt the best way forwards.

The Best Email Set Up Possible!

Anyone have any clues?  Email is prolific and vital to our every day needs despite hardly being changed for the last 20 years, but we're entering a new age.  Email is also wonderfully private yet open to serious misuse, so just what is the best way to set up email.

One of the inherent problems we all have is that Email is so unreliable, if your email goes down even for an hour, you hit the roof and generally feel disconnected from the world around you.  Steps need to be changed and better systems put into place, upgrades, back ups and very commonly 2nd, or 3rd reserve emails are set up.

It all makes things very complicated.  It's quite unnecessary:

1. KISS - Keep it Simple Stupid
   Stick to as few email addresses as possible... you don't need one for this and one for that, it just leads to confusion as you try to work out which ones is doing what.
   
   
2. Do Not Rely on Email
   If running and e-commerce website - then refer to the Database - because that's where your orders are keep.  Try and avoid depending on email for important information.  Email is inherently unreliable by it's very nature (see Spam note).
   
   
3. Clear Your Back Ups
   It's fine to have your emails sent to a back up email address - but clear them up periodically or it's useless.  Back up email address can build up GB's of data over time, it's all useless, out of date information.  I have seen accounts with 30,000 unread messages - no-one is ever going to read them... Back up should be limited to at most a single month's worth of email.  Remember all email is generally responded to or deleted.

Then there's Spam and perhaps more importantly the fight against spam.  Having Spam filtering and anti-spam software can easily lead to bigger headaches than it is often worth.  All your good message disappear into the Spam folder and friends emails become marked as Spam.

Increasingly the fight against Spam is also been dealt with at Server level, so Spam is filtered even before it reaches you, so email simple goes 'missing'.

The bottom line is that due to Spam (which accounts for more than two thirds of the worlds email) causes email to be unreliable as a communication tool.

So what is the best set up:  I'll explain what I do:

• I have 1 email address guyh@ncompass.co.uk
• I use Google Apps and Gmail is an exceptionally reliable email system
• I forward email such as accounts@ncompass.co.uk or info@ncompass.co.uk to my main email
• I channel all my email through 1 email address
• I do not bother forwarding or backing up
• I have never lost an email since 2003 (famous last words)
• I go through ALL my spam
• I have a back up email address ncompa@gmail.com - should I need it
• And sure I have signed up to loads of 'free' services like Hotmail and Yahoo - just in case, but I've never even considered using them.
• And finally - I am increasing using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to contact people.

So that's a few pointers on email - that might not appear very robust to people, but actually think about it and it's a lot more robust than it first appears.  I only have one email address to worry about, I am using a world wide first rate service from one of the worlds biggest companies, Google, I am taking into account the possibility that even Google might fail with my back options available to me and finally I am NOT creating any extra work for myself with having to 'manage' a back up solution.

To me that all sounds like common sense, but I'd be delighted to hear other peoples views and possible corrections I could make.

Some Interesting Scams

Facebook - we know it's big and we know there's money involved... but what are the common scams that happen on Facebook, apart from the potential obvious of someone stealing your password.

Facebook Scams are more common than we think:

1. Scam 1 - Like Farming
   This image has been seen all over Facebook accompanied with the instructions to like and type in a specific word like 'Move'.
   
   The concept is that every time you comment, like or share these image will be seen by all your friends who in turn comment like or share and then it will be seen by al their friends and so on... In a very short space of time this image will be seen by millions.
   
   The scam part is that the original poster of the image will raise huge credibility within the Facebook system, This will encourage more of his posts been shared more often and overall he will benefit from ore Page Likes, so compounding the problem. Then all he has to do is post a link to buy something or send people to a dodgy websites and the scam begins.
   
   The solution is of course never to respond to any posts that require you to take some sort of action. Read more here.
   
   
2. Scam 2 - Twitter Hi-Jacking
   It's a strange one because often you won't have given away your password - but you might well have signed up for appears to be a legitimate service that has given access to your Twitter account... Usually in the form of allowing them to write on your time line.
   
   The concept is that once someone has access to your Timeline they can spread their message to all your followers, the numbers make the mind boggle, but message like 'Find Out who wrote this bad blog on you' can zip around Twitter in hours and of course you want to stop it, so your respond.
   
   The solution is more simple, change your password and review any Apps that have access to your account, click here for more.
   
   
3. Scam 3 - Competitor Harming
   It agreed that buying Likes is a really bad idea, thousands of foreign based accounts with zero engagement value actually harms your Facebook efforts, if you do not engage Facebook mark you down, so you're far better off having fewer, but more valuable Fans and Followers.
   
   So why not buy fans for your competition.  Duff in your competitors efforts and usually actually excite them as they think they're gaining thousands of extra Followers.  Usually this form of Scam can be totally untraceable.
   
   The solution is extremely difficult, if this happens to you need to contact Facebook or Twitter directly or you could spend days deleting people.  I don't have a link to this scam, I just saw it being done to a Fan Page I know.

Ultimately all scams can be protected from by a combination of awareness and common sense... My number one tip for preventing Viruses on your computer is to shut down each night - being off line for 50% of a day will immediately reduce your risk 50%.  The same applies - sign out, watch out and don't respond to anything that looks in the least bit dodgy.

You're spending far to little money

This Blog is written primarily for existing clients and perhaps to give an oversight to prospective clients in the pipeline and then after that, we're not too worried who reads these words.  This allows a certain amount of freedom in what's written, so every now and again it's good to look at the same picture from a slightly different angle.

This Bank Holiday morning, we've just been through all the new articles on Google Reader checking out what's going on in the world of Internet Marketing and it's nothing short of staggering.  There is so much we could be doing, but simply do not have the beginnings of of the resources to do it. Clients could be spending 10 or 20 times the amount they currently spend with us now and every penny of it would be worth while.

Some examples just for you you think about:

1. Market Analysis - how much do you really know about the types of clients or customers you're targeting, our attempts to actually work this out is nothing short of lame.  In reality your sales would increase significantly if you were selling to the right people.
   
   You can now work out social classes, ethnic origins, financial capabilities, demographics, location, mobility, gender, family status, education absolutely everything...
   
   Imagine being able to market your ladies size 39 shoes to only ladies with size 39 feet, you can do it with the right research.
   
   
2. Design Improvements - which clients test their websites on their customers, in fact which clients test their own website periodically and then writes down a list of actions that would improve the system, I can give you the answer - zero.  It is notoriously difficult for a business to work out what is wrong with their own website and all too often the answer seems to be start again.
   
   But these days you can test everything, colours, photos, buttons, what you say, what you think, AB Testing, email testing, checkout testing, do more people buy using PayPal or some other payment system.  Guess shopping, enquiry forms, online quotes, every last detail can be tested.
   
   Examples abound, if you change the colour of a button from Green to Red you'll get an immediate 21% increase in people clicking that button.  It's proven adding PayPal as a payment option increases sales but about 18% on average.  You need to investigate the facts and make changes based on that.
   
   
3. Mobile Revolution - Everything is about Mobile now, problem is what does it mean, with so many platforms, sizes, phones, digital devices and things are definitely not going to get easier, but what choice do you have, if your website or internet efforts do not work on every device imaginable that equates to loss sales.
   
   The analogy here is equivalent to going on holiday to a Hotel that advertised 5 pools and a choice of restaurants in tranquil settings, but on arrival you find 3 pools under renovation and builders pneumatic drills going all day.  What do you do - you leave and more to the point you don't return anywhere near the place ever.  This is precisely what is happening with your websites.
   
   Something like 88% of searches for something begin on a Mobile Phone, if you's a result and it does not work, that customer will never return to your website on any device no matter how god your website.

So - where's all this information coming from and how do you work it out and what are your next steps.

The information all comes from your existing Statistics and more importantly your Social Media activity.   For 9 out of 10 so called 'free' services users are asked for personal information, then users are asked to share every aspect of their daily lives with those websites.  The result is that Facebook really do have a lot of data at their disposal and by and large they are happy to share it with you (for a fee).

Working all this out is then up to you, but tools abound in this area and are no longer in the domain of marketeers, they are available to anyone.  What is needed though is a very clear Marketing Plan, that outlines how everything you do fits together.  From that you can co-ordinate the plan and really make it work.

Your Next Steps
In reality the major next step is a radical reworking of your available budget for your website - true online success is going to cost money... but the returns are there for the taking with right approach.

Clients happy to spend a couple of hundred quid on a website, or perhaps invest a few hundred in some SEO or Adwords advertising are all very well, but the big returns and the big bucks are got those with bigger wallets.

You can look at this from the point of view of a new café opening... an entrepreneur will probably raise a bit of finance, from family, friends or a bank.  But would they have cardboard box tables, would the missing out the light fittings and leave bear bulbs, would they forget to pain the loo just to save money... absolutely not.

This goes further because if you think in terms of 'content' the new café would have a menu of sorts, tea cakes, breakfast croissants and so on - would they make these available to only some customers, or perhaps leave out sugar from all the ingredients?

All obviously not...  surely the same applies to a website.  If you want the website to be successfully, you need the money, you need the planning, you need the décor, furniture, light shares, you need to be on the right street, and finally you need the right content (the food and drink) that is really going to pulling in the customers.

You'll always be better than me!

I have to write these Posts as I think of them, so it's down tools for 10 minutes while I bash this out.

We work hard for our clients, we really do, we advise, strategise, implement, reflect, analyses, develop and push.  But then suddenly a client gets a Boost - what caused it... certainly nothing we did - ah yes, they were features on that mega website. I get it.

So what happened - for Clients the website is part of the sales and marketing mix, it maybe the most important part - but it is probably not the most influential part.  Getting noticed by a Newspaper, or magazine can bring in huge amounts of interest albeit for a shortish time.  Being spotted on a Blog, going viral, featuring in a video, being in the news, all these activities can lead to huge boosts in website and online traffic.

Some examples:

• Social Media - a client become so excited that he was going to start a social media campaign that he contacted some Bloggers he liked the look of, even before we started, he went from zero to over a million viewers in just a few days, his pictures went viral and from that we built a social media campaign.  My Point - the client did it, just by contacting randomly some websites he liked.
  
  
• Feature Press - a client (actually same story two clients) - were featured for their products in related magazines, both on and off lines... the result was for 1 client the featured product went straight to 'most popular on the website' within 3 days and for the other client they had their best eCommerce day ever.  My Point - the clients did it, they had their work featured.
  
  
• TV Show - for years we could not work out why almost a third of traffic was coming from a BBC speciality website - but when the show was on, traffic rose week after week, all that existed was a simple 'supplier' link on the speciality website... so nothing special, but people saw the show and clicked the links.  My Point - the client managed to get their products included in the TV show, resulting in a third of the web traffic for a number of years.

In all these cases, despite our plodding away at what we do, these huge boosts to their websites were caused by them.  The best we can contribute is that perhaps without us, they might not have been recognised in the first place.

A negative example:

• We've been doing SEO on a website that when made over 5 years go was excellent, but little has happened since, no new content, little innovation, yet we're still trying to win the SEO battle, recently the client was featured on another website and traffic rose and dropped back.  My Point - without proper input from the client we get stuck.

The old adage springs to mind, you get what you put in, frustrating as that may seem.  When you outsource something, be it Adwords, SEO, or your website content - you can only do this if you fully understand that your input remains extraordinarily valuable.  You still need to contribute.

We'll do the bread and butter, we're do everything that we can for you, but ultimately your business remains your business and what you with it has a much greater effect than what we can do.

Now, I am honestly not trying to cop out of any responsibility here, we're paid to do a job and we do everything that we can.  I just want Clients to understand why sometimes we cannot do more.

Keeping Records of your website Enquiries

I hope this is a worthy tip of the month.  Increasingly in my quest for returning true value for money I am focussing on measures of success using Goal and Conversion points.

Goals - these are successes within the process of gaining genuine sales.  All to often we do not have access to actual sales information.  A website can only gain so much interest before the company behind the website has to intervene and complete the sales process.

Conversions - these are the points in the process where we can see a noticeable action undertaken by the website user.  Again we as web designers can only get so far through the sales process before some else has to take over.

So we need to maximise the reliability and reporting for a website, at present we rely heavily on Google Analytics - where setting up Goals to measure conversion is relatively easy.  But we cannot track:

• Phone Calls - anyone who decides to ring with their enquiry
• Emails - if people prefer to click an email link
• Direct - if people decide to visit your shop, location or office

The only things we can measure are actions on the website. Here are common examples:

• Sales made via eCommerce
• Enquires and forms filled in
• Specific pages visited
• Specific documents (PDF's word etc) downloaded
• Others for example the time spent or the number of pages visited on a website.

More is better

Measuring more is better than less.  In website design in our quest for paying customers what matters most is what changes over time.  We not worried about things like gender, education, background, location.  ('thou we could be if required) - what we want to see and know is that sales are expanding.  And the more ways we can do that the better.

Actions to Take

In the past the typical action is the just get sales teams to enquiry 'how they heard' about an organisation.  That works, but is tricky and a lot of tracking falls through the net just because the sales team are trying to secure the sale.

But another action is to record ALL enquiries formally and properly regardless of where they came from.  You can then keep them updated and track the progression of a client.  This is known as customer relationship management or CRM.  And it's incredibly important to get this right these days.

So Options:

• Invest is a proper CRM - www.salesforce.com and www.netsuite.com are two of the best known CRM specialists today.  But we use www.zoho.com and it works extremely well.
  
• Keep a spreadsheet on Google Docs - for smaller business this is simple and straightforward... just a name and a few columns for each enquiry
  
• A ticket or help desk solution such as the one I have set up here http://support.ncompass.co.uk, it just allows you to record very easily what is going on.

Caveats

We all rely on email - and this is the most common place to store new enquiries for your business... but think about it, when was the last time you went through those enquiries and checked up properly on them.  Or maybe you just file them away automatically.

The problem with email is that it's useless, you lose emails, Spam gets in the way, filing relies on your memory to find them, you get confused about whose said what and you can't track phone enquiries.  Email is completely unreliable.

The solution is to be more disciplined about dealing with enquiries.  We have many clients spending hundreds of pounds a month (or more) and then complaining that sales are hard to come by (it's the economy) when actually a website might be getting thousands of visitors per month and dozens if not hundreds of orders.

A simple CRM solution would solve all this.

And as a final comment - they say the easiest sales is to your existing customers and that finding new customers cost vastly more than selling to existing customers.  So if you organise your sales leads you have a ready made marketplace for future sales.

If you want more guidance on what would suit your website best - please do call me.

Support Hours and Opening Times

I had an interesting call with a client this morning and as usual we were swapping ideas about the Internet and what it all means. But it gave me food for thought and I welcome your feedback.

In today's diverse society, it seems businesses never go to sleep, I love telling people that I was called up by one client at 11:30pm on a New Year Eve and asked 'what was wrong - why aren't people ordering', but that really is a reflection on our society.

24/7 is the favoured phase and the only time it ever varies is when e-commerce clients tell me their last delivery for Xmas orders is the 23rd December.

We've started working with Amazon and the consensus is simple if you cannot deliver within two days forget it.  I was also reading up on the so called 'Big Data' trend that is in currently sweeping the web industry (be glad if you've missed it) - and essentially the argument is that businesses need to get their house in order and offer true 24/7 round the click service if they want to stay in the game.

So where does that leave, you or even me.  Another favourite of mine is that I like to tell people that I get more emails on a Sunday evening than at any other time of the week.  Clients seem to lean towards giving their websites attention during this peaceful time, with the caveat 'can I get it done by Monday lunchtime'.

Another factor to take into account and there are many, is that competition in all our businesses is hot, if we stop, or rest on our laurels even for a day, then it is likely someone will snap up the business, customer loyalty is extremely valued by a small outfit like ourselves, but it has happened that because a key player has gone on holiday the business has been lost.

In truth, we've all got to switch off at times. It's as important to clients as it is to a supplier, the notion of 27/4 is fundamentally flawed, if I fire 20 emails at you over the weekend - I might look busy and that might look impressive, but really it's wasting everyone's time.

True value is in getting a job done, properly, in fact the fewer emails that fly the better in the end.  It shows greater understanding and greater trust between client and supplier and I for one think that is valuable.

So to finish off, these are the office NCompass Opening hours when you can expect an answer from us:

Monday: 9:30 - 13:00 and 14:00 - 17:00
Tuesday: 9:30 - 13:00 and 14:00 - 17:00
Wednesday: 9:30 - 13:00
Thursday: 9:30 - 13:00 and 14:00 - 17:00
Friday: 9:30 - 13:00 and 14:00 - 17:00
Saturday: closed
Sunday: closed
All times are UK times

Additionally - website hosting comes with 24/7 support should a website go down or not work... so please do not hesitate to email or call outside these times if you website is not working.

Now before I go a word of truth and expectation.  How this is going to effect things in reality, well it isn't, with all that competition out there and the need to talk to clients at any time of day, all this is meaningless.  We all work well into the evening and weekends, we have to.

So these times are actually Goals, Aspirations and Targets - the reality is we're here for you 24/7, but if you can leave it until a more suitable time that always goes down well.

And finally Wednesday afternoons - what's that about - well that's when I want to work on my own disastrous website - have you see it recently?