When preparing websites, we often have clients say they don’t want to put too much information on their site, because they “want people to contact us”.

The belief is that too much information means people won’t contact them.

But think of it this way: your website is often the first point of contact a customer will have with your business. If your website is helpful, you are being helpful. That creates a positive first impression, and first impressions count. The additional detail you provide can also eliminate enquiries from people who you really can’t help anyway, so that can be an additional time saver.

On the other hand, if the information on your website is overly brief and sketchy, a potential customer may well leave thinking, “That was a waste of time - it didn’t tell me anything!”

Having said this, every industry is different of course, but you really need to consider the end user’s experience. Will it be a good one or a bad one?

More specifically many have an issue with pricing.

Think of it this way: You’re walking through the supermarket and a certain biscuit company has all their goodies stacked up on the end of the aisle. It has cost them a fortune to buy that space for the week, not to mention the extra stock and the time spent in stacking it up.

But there’s no price on anything.

So, when you’re walking past with your trolley, do you put any of those biscuits in?

Chances are you won’t.

At the end of the day, people will want to know the price. So why make that information difficult to get?

And if you’re in an industry where pricing is a bit tricky or complicated, read this advice for a possible solution.

The recommendation?

Don’t let people walk past your site like a supermarket display without crucial information. Put enough there so they do stop, look around, and just maybe you’ll have a new customer!

If you’re anything like me, you receive a lot of email. Some days I feel like the only thing I’ve done all day is deal with email! Given the amount of other things that must be done in business, it’s easy to just put it in the “too hard basket” - but that can also be very dangerous.

I read this article on email and customer service about 6 months ago but while I was looking at some goals for 2008 I thought it was worth revisiting.

So how do you stack up in those figures? If I’m not careful I tend to find myself amongst the 70% who fail to respond within 24 hours. Definately something I’ll be fixing for 2008.

A good tactic is mentioned in Mike’s first point:

Automatically respond to all emails received: People will be more willing to wait for a reply if their initial communication has been acknowledged. Include a commitment to act on the issue and when you will respond fully.

I think people will generally understand if you can’t address the issue immediately - but it’s important to acknowledge the email and set an expectation of when you will be able to do so.

It also ties in to something I wrote back in 2004 about controlling your email (instead of the other way around!) - it’s as relevant now as then.

So, my top tips:

1. Choose when to check your email - don’t let your computer decide for you
2. As you’re going through your messages, fire up your diary (or whatever time management tool you use) and mark a time to actually attend to the task or issue
3. Respond to each email as soon as you read it (even if it’s only a brief response) - and at that point you can let the other person know when you’ll attend to is as well

Of course, if it’s an emergency you may need to deal with it straight away and all the above advice is null and void, but we don’t live in a perfect world, do we?

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a woman in the US has been sued US$220,000 for sharing 24 songs through a file sharing service called Kazaa.

That’s a lot of money for 24 songs, which ever way you look at it. Whether you agree or disagree, it makes you think twice about what you do online!

The Lesson

We recently attended a conference in Sydney called Web Directions, and one of the points made was that people will use the web in a way that they see fit. Not necessarily how you or I would design it for them. The record companies here are doing their best to resist the change that the internet has brought, instead of adapting to it.

Is that something you can think about regarding your business?

If it’s you against the world (which is pretty much the case when you’re talking about the internet) you can’t really successfully fight it. Instead of saying, “we don’t want our website to work that way”, think about how your customers want it to work. And enable them to do it. Because whether you like it or not, they will find a way. Maybe via a competitor.

It might mean some changes, but you’ll reap the rewards on the long run.

In the words of the Borg, “resistance is futile”.

We were contacted this week by someone for whom we had previously quoted on developing their website. They chose a cheaper option, which is fine (we all have budgets) but as it turns out the “cheaper” option was not really that at all.

Sure, the up-front costs were less. But then the unexpected bills started coming in. Not to mention hugely inflated web hosting fees.

When considering your options, it pays to look at the bigger picture. What are the ongoing costs? How much are updates going to be? Can you update it yourself?

To make matters worse, when the firm chosen to do the website found out that the hosting was been transferred over to us they turned everything off there and then. Website. Email. The lot. And they can’t or won’t tell us the details to access the domain name either, so we can’t even actually initiate the transfer!

Some things to check:

1. Make sure any domain names are registered in your name, with your contact details (not the web designer’s).
2. Find out how much is being charged for web hosting. Depending on how much space you need, anything more than about $300 per year is probably too much.
3. Double check before proceeding if there are any other ongoing costs besides these 2.

While we’re on the subject of domain names, we charge $90 every 2 years for a “.com.au” and $30 per year for “.com” names. See what’s available here.

A handy feature in Microsoft’s new Office 2007 is the ability to save anything as a PDF.

The tricky part is that it doesn’t come on the CD - you have to download it from Mirosoft.

It is an official Microsoft download - apparently it got separated due to threats from Adobe. Must keep those legal boffins happy…

Once you have downloaded and installed it, making a PDF file is as simple as using the Save As command. There will be an extra option in there for PDF or XPS!

Sending documents as PDF (whether via email or for posting on the web) is much more reliable as just about anyone can install Adobe Reader (if the don’t already have it), whereas not everyone will be able to open your Word/Excel/Publisher file and be able to see it as you do.

Microsoft Excel is a handy program - but have you ever tried to use a formula to figure out something a little more complicated than basic maths? Like the differences between dates for example?

Here’s a handy little reference guide - I’m sure I’ll be visiting this in future!

Think about your website in terms of a marketing exercise, not an IT exercise. It is, after all, a promotional/marketing/advertising tool. The technology doesn’t matter. If you were placing a newspaper ad, would you put it in the hands of a company that manufactures paper? Of course not!

A website is quite different from marketing via traditional media though.

• With TV, you’ve tuned in to watch a show - the ads interrupt that show
• With radio, you’ve listening to the music or talkback - ads interrupt what you’re actually listening to
• With newspapers and magazines, you buy them for articles/news/stories, and ads are placed around them hoping to catch your attention

If a client (or potential client) visits your website - it is their destination, not a something else that happens to be at their destination. Your website doesn’t suddenly appear whilst they’re doing their online banking or checking sport results. They have chosen to visit you. The same can’t be said for other forms of advertising.

Knowing that someone has chosen to visit your website, what are you going to offer them? The same old corporate “yada yada”? Is that what potential clients really want?

The most important thing you can do here is put yourself in their shoes. It’s also one of the hardest, as it’s easy to assume people know the same things about your industry that you know. This is usually not the case!

So how do you make a website a “destination”?

Each business is different, and every website is different, but in general terms you should think about the following:

1. Provide news or articles that help people understand your products or services better.
2. If you often get asked the same sort of questions, include answers to those questions on your website.
3. If you’re selling a physical product, provide photos - good photos that show detail.
4. If you’re selling something that has a strong emotional hook, offer something that the visitor can download and keep. Wallpapers or screensavers are good examples.
5. Provide calculators or other online tools that make a visit to your site really useful.
6. Ask for your visitor’s email address and send them a regular newsletter
7. And give visitors an easy way to interact with the website!

These are just a few general examples - our challenge is to find something that your clients or prospects will find useful, and then tell their friends and colleagues about. But it’s fairly safe to say that the days of just having a “web presence” are virtually over.

Your competitors probably have “a presence”.

How are you going to stay in front?