North Port Florida Web Design
If you live in the North Port, Florida area, you know that the economic downturn has had a very powerful impact on our community. As a community that thrived on new home construction and a strong real estate market in the first half of this decade, residents and business owners alike have seen a significant downturn over the last three years. It is very possible that this is the worst stretch of economic struggle this community has seen in its 50 years of existence.
As a longtime resident of North Port and a local business owner, I understand the struggles in the marketplace. Every day I meet with business owners in the North Port, Venice, Port Charlotte areas. As the owner of a website development service, my job is to help small business owners increase market share with an effective web presence.
In the 25+ years I’ve spent in the marketing field, I’ve learned that maintaining or increasing advertising budget levels during economic downturns is necessary in terms of protecting market position.
- Companies that fail to maintain market share during an economic downturn will see current and future sales jeopardized. Maintaining that market share costs much less than rebuilding it later on.
- During an economic downturn you must maintain a strong advertising presence. If your competitors cut their budget, you will automatically increase your market share.
- Advertising through both boom and down times sustains your brand recognition.
When times are good, you should advertise; when times are bad, you MUST advertise. Advertising in an economic downturn should be regarded not as a drain on profits, but as a contributor to profits and insurance for the future.
In this day and age, an effective website is more important than ever. I’m not talking about the static, never changing web technology of the past. I’m talking about a dynamic website that you can control and update without having to own any special software or without any tech savvy knowledge. If you can type a letter, you can update your website.
The internet is changing every day. More people are looking for local businesses via the internet than the yellow pages. A website is no longer a value-added marketing tool, it should be the centerpiece of your entire marketing campaign – because it works 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week, unlike all of your other marketing tools.
In 15 years of developing websites for companies worldwide, we have continued to stay current with industry trends. This is a major advantage to our customers, because they get the latest technology available.
It’s time to bring your marketing systems and your website into the 21st century, or suffer the consequences of being surpassed by your competition.
Integrity Technology Group develops websites for clients worldwide from its base in North Port, Florida. We can be reached in the local area at 941-876-0198 or nationwide via toll-free 1-800-621-4299. Visit us on the web at www.integritytechgroup.com.
John Delaney
President/CEO
Integrity Technology Group LLC
The Death of the Clueless Web Designer
As I sit and write this story, I can’t help but be reminded of the words of one of my local competitors. I won’t dare paraphrase her statement… I’ll just post it in its entirety. The company name has been removed to protect the innocent guilty. Here it is:
“If you have a business, you need a custom website! Your web site needs to reflect your own company identity. Beware of templated sites produced by so-called designers using these templates. All websites at *** are custom designed, hard coded and convey your business style. Having your website designed by *** will help you meet your goals of success and service. Stand out amongst the competition with a crisply designed site that portrays your company in its best light.”
Let me start by saying that I completely disagree with this assessment. Designers like this, stuck in the 20th century, do their customers a huge disservice by not keeping up with technological advances in web development. They make their clients slaves to them when it comes to site modifications and additions. It doesn’t surprise me that a review of this designers work shows many web sites that haven’t been updated in as little as 8-months and as much as 2+ years. Is it possible that these clients are benefiting from their web presence? While it is possible, it’s highly unlikely.
In the early days of the web, most sites consisted of a few HTML pages. As the web has grown, HTML hand coding has become antiquated technology. While knowledge of HTML is valuable, using it as primary web development technology is too complex, tedious, and gives web site owners little or no control of their website content. Even worse, the process of search engine optimization using HTML is a painstaking task.
What I could only define as “the blind leading the blind,” too many business owners are spending hard earned money on sub-par websites designed by clueless web designers. In the case of the aforementioned competing designer, let me address the statements.
- “If you have a business, you need a custom website! Your web site needs to reflect your own company identity.” – As opposed to reflecting another company’s identity? But, what about using WordPress? A small, local business owner could have a website up and running in about 2-3 days – optimized for search, tagged for the cloud and fully operational – all without a single stitch of hand coding.
- “Beware of template sites produced by so-called designers using these templates.” – Ouch! How about beware of the web site that you can’t update yourself? Content management systems like Joomla, TYPO3 and Drupal; as well as blogging programs like WordPress deliver clients a web site structure that allows them to concentrate on the most important part of the site – its content.
- “Stand out amongst the competition with a crisply designed site that portrays your company in its best light.” – Nothing makes your web site stand out like not changing it for eight months, or two years. It doesn’t have to be that way. Content management systems give web site owners complete control of their sites and the ease-of-use removes the wait time and complexities that typically bog down the site update process.
As 2009 begins, I am laying down a challenge to the many clueless web designers stuck in the 20th century. Get a clue people! You are doing your customers a huge disservice by developing bad web sites. I suggest reading the following book:
If you don’t get a clue and learn the inner workings of new web development techniques, you won’t know what hit you when your customers start going elsewhere.
Are You Utilizing LinkedIn?
Building a business takes outstanding management skills. The gift of managing time, money, people and their skills can help you grow your business. Online tools like LinkedIn can help you make connections with future employees and service providers, without spending a lot of time. It will most certainly help your business grow.
People use LinkedIn as an online resume. Members create profiles that provide a snapshot of their professional background – where they work currently, past work history, the businesses they own, and even the side businesses they run. So, if I am checking someone out, I visit LinkedIn because it’s usually the most streamlined place to scan professional qualifications.
LinkedIn is also a way to connect and establish relationships with new people, and expand and reinforce existing relationships. So what exactly can LinkedIn do for your business? Use it to:
- Expand your contacts. The right contacts can help you grow your business, whether you need to find business partners, suppliers or customers. Place a link to your LinkedIn profile prominently on your website (perhaps on the About page) and/or on your blog. That will encourage people to become one of your LinkedIn contacts. In addition, answer questions on the LinkedIn Answers network. Giving someone valuable information makes it easy to strike up an online conversation and from there build a relationship.
- Stay connected with existing business networking contacts. You’ve invested precious time in developing business contacts through networking –don’t let those contacts evaporate. Using LinkedIn, you can keep track of people you’ve met at in-person events or at trade shows – or people you’ve only met online. LinkedIn offers profile photos, letting you remember the person’s face even if you haven’t seen them in a while. Also, if you need an up-to-date email address for one of your connections, you can find it on LinkedIn.
- Draw traffic to your website and blog. You can link to your website and blog from your LinkedIn profile. Adjust your LinkedIn settings to notify your contacts whenever you update your profile. Then update your profile once a quarter and LinkedIn will send out a notice to remind your contacts to come see what’s changed. For instance, if you redesign your website or add a product line, you can update your profile and your contacts automatically will be notified.
- Get PR visibility. Many bloggers and journalists have LinkedIn profiles. While it may be difficult to get their attention by “cold call emailing,” try getting introduced to them through LinkedIn. You certainly do not want to spam them or annoy them. But connecting through LinkedIn is a low pressure way to start developing a relationship. Later on, after they “know” you, they may be more receptive to hearing about your online store, particularly if you serve a niche market or have distinctive merchandise.
- Reinforce your business brand. Your LinkedIn profile will include your company name. You can even include detailed information about what your business does as well as your products and services. Some savvy entrepreneurs include their URL as part of their name and title so that it appears every time their name is displayed on LinkedIn. These actions reinforce your brand at no cost to you.
- Hire service providers, freelancers, independent contractors and employees. LinkedIn is excellent for finding or checking out qualified help. All you need to do is request an introduction through an existing contact.
- Conduct market research. The collective wisdom of experienced business people is powerful. If you are exploring new price points, for instance, you could ask a question on the LinkedIn Answers network. You can also search extensively on LinkedIn and identify competitive data that way.
LinkedIn is a valuable and enduring tool. Some early adopters may have moved on from LinkedIn to the latest shiny object. However, most mainstream entrepreneurs and professionals still use LinkedIn actively.
