It used to be having a website was a novelty; now having a website is a marketing necessity. A website is probably the Number One piece of collateral you should develop for your program.  In my line of work, websites are a big focus for clients, and rightfully so.

But now, more than ever, it is the wrong time to have a website built by your sister-in-law’s brother’s pet squirrel. Here are the import elements and considerations to factor in when thinking about starting your program’s website:

• The Foundational: Please, for the love of horses, DO talk to several website development vendors before starting. In addition to finding a widely divergent array of prices, you’ll find some alarming differences in capability. Some vendors are heavy on the technical side, with no professional visual artists or graphic design capability. Others might look good but have poor back-end software.

• The Functional: It is very expensive to go back and retrofit an existing website. Think ahead now so your website can handle the things you want in the future. Most people today want the ability to change content on their Events page, or add photos to the News section. These folks need a Content Management System (or CMS), integrated onto appropriate pages. Some will eventually sell manuals, T-shirts, or products on their site, and need to plan a shopping cart function. Others want to have a blog.

• The Visual: strong visuals and proper navigation, appropriately and strategically thought out, are enormously important on the Internet. It’s very easy to spot an amateur job from a professional job. Invest in professional visuals so they can be an accurate reflection of your program.

• The Verbal: the effectiveness of beautiful visuals is instantly destroyed by poor written content. Just like the visual, invest in professional writing so that your program is accurately and intelligently presented, with all the right pieces. These pieces include a strong tagline, benefits-driven key message points, language tailored to your customer, and the right balance of information/call to action. And don’t forget to integrate the search engine optimization tactics: keyword saturation, meta tag development, etc.

There are so many other things I could tell you about website development...the latest trends in software, the latest studies in readership style and readability, or the latest trends in layout and design. But hopefully this will get you started

The Riding Writer,
Brenda Dammann

Hey guys! Last week we talked about getting started on your website. Here are some specific resources to help you turn your ideas into reality!

Very low budget: Start with a blog! It’s a great way to build an internet presence, they’re easy to set up and use, and you can modify all of the content yourself. Check out sites like www.wordpress.com, www.blogger.com and www.typepad.com.

Low-medium budget: Consider a DIY (do-it-yourself) site. www.GoDaddy.com has a program called Website Tonight that is very popular. Also check out www.webpowertools.com for a low-cost but professional looking alternative. Another great resource is www.elance.com where you can get bids from people all over the world for your project.

Medium-high budget: Hire an experienced website designer! Personally, this has been my choice over the years and it’s yielded terrific results. It’s more expensive financially but it’s often less stressful to turn it over to an expert. Shannon and I both use www.totsie.com –they create exceptional Plone sites (you are able to manage the content yourself) for businesses around the country. Or if you want to hire someone in your community, check out your local Chamber of Commerce. If you hire a web designer, be sure to shop around and get several bids.

I have coached dozens of clients through the process of creating a website. If you need support, give me a call for some coaching! Good luck!

Hey everyone!

I'm so excited for our Monthly Teletopic Call on Websites next week (April 22nd at 4pm Eastern, if you haven't already heard! Click here & scroll down to learn more). I've been immersing myself in information about usability and navigation of websites for the past month or so, and can't wait to share what I've been learning with you!

One of the main problems I see with websites (and with most marketing material, including brochures and videos) is that they are often written from the perspective of the business or organization, instead of written for the the user/reader/viewer.

When we sit down to develop our website, we think of all the information we want people to know about us. But oftentimes viewers never read all that material, even if it's well-written. Instead most people who are on the internet come to your site with a very specific need or question they are asking.

Think about how you navigate when you are on the web. When looking for something specific, like the answer to a question, how do you search? Do you find a webpage and read every word on the page, hoping and trusting that somewhere on that page will be the answer to your question, or do you instead skim and scan, looking for subheads and bullets that will tell you if this page will even answer your question?

Research (and my own personal experience) shows that we do a lot of skimming and scanning, and not a lot of sitting down with coffee and reading the whole website page by page. We grab and go with information on the web. And the design of our websites needs to reflect that fact. Hence Usability and Navigation have become my buzzwords here in the office.

So, of course, I'm now in the process of redesigning the Horse Sense website, actually splitting it into three sites to improve usability and navigation, and to help avoid confusion. Keep up with this redesign process for me and for Horse Sense on this blog and on the telecalls. I always love helping people learn from my mistakes!

Happy Trails,

Don’t have a website yet? You need one!

Over the past year, I’ve read several articles that point to the fact that most Americans are now using the internet as much as they are watching TV, if not more. Wow! I think it’s safe to say that if you want to be successful in business in the long-term, you’ve got to have a website because that’s where consumers are going to make their buying decisions. Sure, networking and advertising and other traditional marketing methods are important. But having an internet presence is key to establishing both visibility and credibility which lead to profitability!

Here are a few simple steps to get you started.

1. Buy your domain name. Visit www.godaddy.com for the cheapest domains on the web. If you're not sure exactly what you want, buy a few for just one year. That way, you'll have some choices.
   
2. Research other websites of your competitors. This includes other EAP and EAL practitioners (in your community or around the country), but it also includes other similar service providers in your community. Make note of what you like and what you don't like about their sites.
   
3. Sketch out your initial ideas of what you'd like to put on the site. Consider your target market--who are they and what do they want? how can you help them to solve their problems? Be sure to include descriptions of your services, photos, testimonials and what action they should take next.
   
4. Consider your budget. Decide if you want to try and create the site yourself or if you want to hire someone else to do it for you. There are costs with building a website and then also hosting it and maintaining it. Factor all that into your planning.
   

Tune in next week, as I'll share resources for low, medium and high budget websites!

The marketing professionals (like Brenda the writer for Horse Sense) told me that a website is not only important, it is essential marketing. As it turns out, I had about a half dozen clients that contacted me as a direct result of just simply having a website (several from out of state), and almost all of my clients and competition have checked out the site, and given good feedback. It has given me a level of professionalism in the marketplace, and a resume to show the entire world. Here are the essential pieces of a successful professional services website:

Home: This should be a really fast snapshot of what the company is with logo etc., it should not be wordy but provide easy navigation to the rest of the site

Services: What your company provides

About our Clients: Who your clients are, and how you work with them

Case Studies: What you have done for your clients

Bio/Staff: Who the people are behind the company, and their background

Contact: Don’t forget this one! Your phone and email should be on every page, with one page dedicated to it. I have used this many times when I forget someone’s contact info.

Lastly, don’t forget that this is marketing…you get out of it what you put into it. Good luck on developing your website!

Mike Sowinski, CFO Consultants

Visit Mike’s site at www.cfoconsultants.net