iQuantum eBook 13 Critical Mistakes

8/8/2019 iQuantum eBook 13 Critical Mistakes

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Your website has the

potential to be your ultimate

marketing tool, delivering leads,

sales and customer service 24× 7.

You can extend your market reach

into currently untapped blue oceans.

You can create powerful relationships

with your customers that generate

further leads through extensive online

networks.

All these benets are possible at a

fraction of the cost of direct marketing

Much can be achieved online. But very few businesses are achieving thedizzy heights of what is possible. Most scratch their heads, trying onetactic after another, spending small amounts which end up deliveringvery little.

The result is remarkably similar to marketing failures they have facedoine. So they reach the false conclusion that ‘the internet’ does not work in their market.

But they are wrong. Regardless of what industry or category you are in, it

is possible to reap massive results online. The top online performers areraking it in.

How do they do it? Is it luck? Are they paying top dollar for onlinemarketing specialists to get them to the top and maintain their position?

Real success online comes from research, preparation and commitment.And it starts with avoiding the 13 Critical Mistakes.

Executive

Summary



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Mistake 1

No research and analysis

The key to a successful web site is online strategy. It is only possible tocreate an e ective strategy with solid research and analysis. Don’t start to

build your website until you know the environment you are entering.

Even if you did some research when you set up your current site – it mayno longer be relevant. The online space changes quickly.

Start by answering these six essential questions:

What is going1. on within your market?How e ective are your competitors’ web sites?2.What is happening in your category in other markets?3.

What is happening in other categories that could be applied to your4.market?How can technology enable new processes or eliminate processes?5.How are customers searching in your category (ie: what keywords are6.

they using?)

Sound research will uncover the answers to most of these questions.

Case Study: SES

One of our clients – a highly specialised electrical engineering company – wanted a new website. Through online research we discovered therewere very few competitors in their space with well designed and SEOrich websites (they tended to be at, technical, brochure sites).

Within 30 days of launching the new site, Southern Electronic Serviceshad 90 enquiries via their website. They had not had a lead fromthe previous web site in 10 years. They now get the majority of their business from online enquiries.

Start your research with scienti

c accuracy

iQuantum has a proprietary method for benchmarking sites againstcompetitors and against best practice; enabling clear strategic thinkingto ensure online success. This will also give you an understanding of theinvestment required to succeed and the real returns that can be gained.

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Mistake 2

No strategy

A lot of business owners confuse strategy with tactics online. They spendbig on SEO or online advertising. The tactic is to drive high trac to theirsite. And it may work.

But what then?

What’s the point in sending loads of visitors to your site if you don’t knowwhat you want them to do when they arrive? Or if they get there anddiscover a bland, brochure site with no personality, no position, no calls toaction and no reason to engage.

Who has killer strategy in your category?

If you look at all the competitors in a category and no one stands out, youknow immediately that no online strategy is at play in this market. This isa golden opportunity. How can you di erentiate from your rivals? Howcan you stand out and be noticed?

If there are a couple of heavyweight players, the great think about onlineis that it is transparent. You can see what they are doing. And then devisea strategy focused around their gaps.

Case Study: Telecommunications

In any industry not known for marketing savvy, our client has beenbold enough to follow our advice and switch from the bland product oriented sites of the entire industry and go with a customer / solutionfocused approach. If you’d like to know more about this case, pleasecontact us.

Having a clear online strategy gives you a blueprint for deploying a rangeof online tactics to implement. There is nothing wrong with tactics per se,but they must come from strategy – not replace it.

Smart tactics will ensure your site is found by prospective and existingcustomers. Strong strategy will entice them to enquire, buy or engagewith you as you have planned.

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Mistake 3

The entire budget is just

the technology fee

If content is what gets you found by the search engines, and content

is what converts visitors into prospects, clients, members etc – why iseveryone so focused on technology?

Historically, we have relied on web developers to unlock the mystery of getting our businesses online. However, this would be like relying ontypesetters and printers to get you found in print. Or relying on cameraoperators and editors to get you found on the television.

Yes, technology is essential. But it is there to SUPPORT your content andyour business – not drive it.

Your website is not a photo-copier

Business owners usually treat their web site as a cost item in the balancesheet, about the same as a purchase of equipment. They check out threeweb developers, look at their sites, ask each for a quote and make theirdecision based on value for money. Website sorted.

But unlike the photocopier technician, the web guy starts asking you forcontent. What content? You know, stu about your company, who youare, what you sell, why people should buy from you.

No worries, I’ll get my personal assistant to put that together. He or shegets some of your brochures and other material together, cuts and pastes,there we have the content sorted.

WRONG. You need professionally produced content, either internally bysome amazing person on sta or by external people skilled at craftingyour message. Before they start, they need the research, analysis andstrategy for the site, which will determine the content, keywords, pitch,

tone and positioning.

The word on content from Google

“Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site rst.” That’s straight from Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. For search, for users, for online success: the answer is great content every time.

If you want a site that gets found and converts, you’ll need to spend lesson technology and more on content. Invariably the overall budget can bethe same, it is how and where you spend it that counts.

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Mistake 4

Develop the look and feel (design) before

the content strategy

Following the usual course of events, once you have selected your web

designer / developers, they will have a brieng session with you. They willask for some example sites you like. They will also ask some branding /positioning questions. These questions are all valid and necessary.

So too is the ensuing process of them presenting 3 designs and youselecting one or a combination of all three. But before you send themhappily o to design your site – keep in mind one thing.

A website is a dynamic entity, not a piece of print material

How it looks is lovely and important but is only one factor in youroverarching online strategy. Much more important are questions of:

Who do you want to visit it?How will customers engage with it?What is the focus of information and activity that will bring you greatestprot?

And it is TOO LATE to ask these questions once the design is in place.Some developers build sites in static HTML (which means you rely onthem for any changes and amendments). Some create them in a ContentManagement System (CMS) – which means you can modify contentyourself.

Either way, once the design is in place, you have locked yourself in to aset of templates and a structure that may be counter productive to youronline strategy.

Case Study: Investment Property

Our client had their site for 4 months. They had tried to save money

and do things on a shoestring. The design was done rst which would suit the CMS system that was selected. Once we’d done our researchand worked out the strategy to succeed, we have had to nd another

platform, which is search engine friendly.

The content has inspired the imagery of the site. Contact us and we’ll share the results with you.

A site designed without keyword, audience, market, competitor andcategory research is in danger of not being found – no matter how manypeople are searching and how good the site looks.

Content strategy must come before design.

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Mistake 5

Selecting the technology platform

too early

Often web developer selection is made on the recommendation of

a friend or colleague having a preference for a particular technologyplatform.

We must have ‘Joomla’ (an open source – aka free – Content ManagementSystem), or we have to have it written in ‘php’ or using Rich Internet Technologies like ‘Ajax’ or ‘Flex’. There are a number of technologyoptions, too numerous to mention here, but unless you have technologyknowledge – you are entering a mineeld if you are trying to compare‘apples with apples’.

Five technology questions to ask before you commit

What other IT systems does your business operate (and can they beintegrated into your online system)?Where is your industry headed?What emerging trends should you be preparing for?What do you want your customers to be able to do at your site?How much expertise do you hold in-house?

Addressing these basic questions will equip you well once you startresearching technology platforms and speaking with web developers.

Technology is often a case of timing

There may be a compelling reason to invest more than you think toextract operational eciencies, to serve your customers better in order toprevent defection to your competitors. You might be best to delay untila new technology is ready. Having advice around these issues to assist intechnology selection is critical.

A poor technology decision can cost you thousands. More seriously it can

prevent your website from being live, active and functional – leaving youwith no online presence.

Case Study: Brava Lingerie

We became involved in the project after the client had sort out several web developers, not the ideal time, it is much more ecient if we get involved at the outset. Initially looking for a new website applicationBrava wanted to integrate with their inventory system. The webdevelopers that had quoted systems for them with impressive proposals

did not include this functionality the way Brava had requested. They wanted real time data exchange so that the physical store and thewebsite sales came from the same database. One of the proposals had

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a throw away line – ‘data export by CSV’ which gave us a clue that they had not adhered to the brief.

Brava were shocked to fund out that this seemingly expensive proposal did not touch deal with this important element of their project.

Once we had done the online strategy work, we then embarked on

a search for vendors capable of providing the end to end solution aswell as vendors that had experience working within the inventory system that Brava had in place and interfacing with the web. Oncewe identi ed 2 or 3 contenders, we introduced them to the client and began a more thorough due diligence. The result has been the selectionof a developer with extensive experience delivering exactly what our client needs. We had successfully avoided a very big technology selection mistake.

iQuantum sits between the client and the suppliers of web services toenable better decisions making on web development and ongoing

marketing.



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Mistake 6

Assuming the web developer is strong

technically and with design

Most web development rms are small to medium in size. If you are

dealing with a large digital agency, you will have access to a wide rangeof expertise. But you will pay accordingly for this privilege, and you knowwhat – you won’t necessarily see a better result.

The truth about tech heads and creative’s

Web developers usually come from one of two camps. Technology orDesign.

The Graphic design oriented developer will be strong on design but may

ounder on the technical aspects of your project. Their creative mindsetwill help your site look beautiful.

But they may not have the attention to detail necessary to implementcomplex technical features or even advise you about your best technicalchoices.

The computer programmer on the other hand will nail the technicalaspects but may not be too creative on design. They can also be impatientwith the consultative side of things, favouring a ‘get on with the job’attitude.

Even when these companies grow and they employ sta with theseattributes, we have found the emphasis placed on the discipline of thefounder will be stronger.

The truth about your website is that it needs both sets of skills

So who do you choose? Maybe you have two rms, one design workingto a content brief, the other web developer to build the site. This soundslike it can create problems but if you have a strong central, business

driven consultant who knows your needs and priorities, it can work togreat e ect.

Case Study: iQuantum site (launched Oct 2009)

Deciding to no longer be the plumber with the leaky pipe, we created our 4th version of www.iquantum.com.aubased on sound researchand compelling copy. We then gave this to our advertising agency for the look and feel plus imagery. This was done to support the copy and engage the reader, I hope it has had this e ect on you. We then selected a web development company to implement the design. Our previoussite was created and built by a web developer.

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our old website and old logo & branding

iQuantum specialises in assessing technology and supplierappropriateness for client’s online marketing needs.



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Mistake 7

Over spending on the project

This might be music to the ears of most business owners. And it is adviceborn from hard learned lessons: don’t spend too much. Working out whatyou should spend and with who is a complex problem.

There are two traps business owners fall into when it comes tooverspending.

1. Choosing the wrong agency for your needs

We see web sites from big digital agencies costing clients $90,000 whichcan be produced at the same or higher creative standard for 10% to 25%of the price. The same applies to $15,000 sites that can be built for $3,000.

And in many of these cases, that gure ONLY covers the technologycost. It does not include content. That is left up to the business owner,who either has to struggle through or spend more money on keywordresearch and SEO content development.

Quality is crucial and quality does cost. But it doesn’t have to cost you theearth and you MUST know what you are getting for your money.

2. Choosing the wrong needs for your website

Research, plan and PLEASE consult a business expert about youronline strategy. Then you will know exactly what design, content andfunctionality features your site needs. Then you can source an agency andprice accordingly.

Real life overspend blunder

You may remember that the BBC attracted criticism from the media,government and consumers when their website build in 2008 ranapproximately $3.5 million over budget. There was much explanationand back peddling as to what had happened, but the bottom line was a

massive overspend AND a big drop in site visits. So even the best in theworld can make blunders when it comes to research and expenditureonline.

The ultimate issue is not how much you spend, but what will be yourreturn. What are the metrics by which you will measure success? Leads,sales, memberships, donations, subscriptions, trac? Do all of this work before you commit to website spend.

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Mistake 8

Under spending on the project

As with overspending, it can be just as much of a mistake tospend too little. When the internet was in its early stages, all

most businesses required was a few pages to give them an onlinepresence.

And then the online world evolved – as it continues to do so!

Your website must be a quality site that looks good, has greatcontent, performs well, is easy to use and serves equally valuable

purpose for you and your customers.

Calculate your spend according to your return

This sounds obvious but you would be surprised how many

business owners still separate their website budget from theiroverall marketing and business planning.

Your budget should be based on the return you want (or ispossible). Calculate the strength of the competition, the value youcan create and the time line to get to market (opportunity cost).

Spending a little more online can save large amounts in otherareas

How many sta hours can you save by using real time integration

with your inventory and accounting system?

More importantly, how much better will the customer experiencebe? If you don’t do something, how many customers will defectto businesses that make their experience every easier and faster

online?

Sound advice based on solid research and analysis will help youmake the right decisions and pay the right price for your valuableinvestment online.

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Mistake 9

Not linking to other software systems

in your business

No modern business can function without data. We all have an

accounting system at a bare minimum; this is totally driven byGovernment Compliance. MYOB or Quicken might be the extent of yourbusiness software.

If you have some other industry-based software, this is a good place tostart investigating online integration. Most software developers have webinterfaces or web connectors that allow you to transfer data to and fromyour web site. If these features are not available now, they will be sometime soon. Otherwise another provider will emerge with an e-enabledapplication.

Link the heart of your business to your website

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is (in my opinion) moreimportant than your accounting system. This is the sales and marketingview you have of you suspects, prospects and customers.

This is where your sales people input their new prospects, recordconversations, quotes and proposals, tenders – and record opportunitiesfor more business for your rm from existing and past customers andpotential new customers. It is where the customer service people record

any warranty claims, customer issues etc. It is the heart, the lifeblood, theepi-centre.

By linking your CRM with your web site, you can take leads directly fromyour site and allocate them to the appropriate sales resource. You canlink your email marketing system to your CRM and communicate to eachsegment in a personal way. You can then link to your accounting systemand import new customer data without the need for double entry and therisks that brings.

Going back the other way – your sales people will not be trying to sell toomuch to people that have long outstanding accounts with you. They willalso know which customers should have certain products that usually aresold to their customer prole type.

How can you make life easier for your customers?

Can your customers place orders online? Many businesses today havelarge customer bases yet take weekly orders by phone and fax. Wouldn’tit be great to have the customers place the orders online, with just a fewmouse clicks if they are repeat ordering. What if they could track theprogress of that order? Think of the eciencies you could achieve bylinking this information directly with the processing and dispatch sides of your business.

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A real time data exchange link between MYOB retails managers’ inventorysystem can allow you to modify your online stock delivery times orremove the item from sale. Orders and back orders can be placed viaMYOB and pick pack and dispatch can improve substantially. This willprovide improvements in the customer experience and savings to you inpeople costs.

Real life software integration success stories

We all know them – Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, EBay, Amazon. But it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that each one of these giant online successstories started with a person somewhere, sometime looking at what

people online wanted, looking at what was available and creatinga new opportunity by combining software applications with onlinesystems.

www.salesforce.com is one of the fastest growing software companieson the world. iQuantum uses this Customer Relationship Management

(CRM) system to track all of our customer and client interactions, all our web elds are mapped directly into salesforce (no double data entry).We have successfully helped many clients connect their web sites withtheir CRM and other internal software to improve eciency and savelabour costs going forward. (refer previous example of Brava Lingerie)

You might not be able to a ord all of these systems and connections now,but you should ensure that the system you implement for your web sitecan allow for these things in the future.



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Mistake 10

Not planning SEO before you start

the build

You will no doubt have heard of the term SEO (Search Engine

Optimisation). If not – welcome! Glad you could join us here in the onlineworld.

SEO is the process of onsite and o site (but still online) activities thatimprove the search engine results or natural (organic) results with searchengines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask etc.

These activities include keyword research, creating great content, creatinglinks back to your site and other things that ensure your site will be found.

It is also helpful for your site to get a high page rank. A high rankingwith the search engines can provide very protable streams of newbusiness for the successfully ranked companies. If these are currently yourcompetitors and not you, then it is time to act!

SEO on its own is NOT enough – no matter what anyone tells you

At iQuantum, we have found that developing the right online strategy hasa big bearing on how SEO is implemented. Therefore if you ask an SEOconsultant to work on your existing site, you are probably missing out onmany, many opportunities.

By understanding the market, the competition and what can be achievedonline, you can structure your site and your content to present the rightinformation to the search engines to improve ranking substantially. Thenyou need o site marketing to improve your online reputation to drivethis process.

Don’t be allured by talk of tactical experiments. You run the danger of testing every known online activity in isolation, burning through a hugewad of cash and eventually giving up.

The destination has to be a good one. How well does your site convert? There is no point driving trac to it if this doesn’t lead to conversions.

You will have directory companies such as Sensis (Yellow Pages), ReachLocal (Google Adwords), SEO rms (too many to name), Web Developers,email Marketers all selling you the magic pill that will solve your onlineproblems.

Case Study: Sales Training

Our sales training client was using an SEO company for 12 months.They were charging a modest fee, asking the client to try this tactic thenanother, with minimal improvement in ranking or trac. But morealarming was the leads generated did not improve.

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Using one of our tools, we can ascertain out of the 200 approx aspectsof the Google algorithm, which we needed to work on to catch thecompetition. This knowledge combined with a clear strategy and compelling content is now delivering handsome returns.

iQuantum sits between our clients and the web suppliers to assist them

make the appropriate decisions for their business based on investmentand return, would you like to have this knowledge?



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Mistake No 11

No plan for continual activity

on your web site

Many small to medium businesses, being time poor, tend to have a ‘set

and forget’ attitude to their web site. It was a chore getting it done (“we’renot even sure why we needed it”) and they don’t want to think aboutdoing anything more with it.

A very good reason for tending to your website regularly

When your site goes live, someone (usually the web developer) createsan xml site map of your site and submits this to the search engines. It letsthem know you exist and they will therefore send their robots to crawlthrough your site and index it.

By indexing your site, the search engine is taking a record of what yoursite is about. You can also nominate how often you intend to update yoursite, so that the robot (sometime called a spider) knows when it shouldcome back to review your site and record the changes you have made.

It can therefore display your pages if they t the search criteria set by theiralgorithm (the search engines’ secret sauce – how it works out which pageis best for the query a searcher has typed in).

Search engines like to see progress

The search engine would like to see a steady progression with a website. This is not change for the sake of change. It is content added on aregular basis to meet the needs of your audience. Additional pages, newproducts, newsletters, press releases, blog entries, video, case studies,testimonials etc.

If you don’t do these things, your competitor will and they will reap therewards.

If you are thinking: “My business is not that complicated, nor are mycustomers,” you may be right. Not all of these activities are right for everyclient. Getting the strategy right at the start is the key. Then you willknow what your competition is up to and you can make some informedchoices, perhaps you might like to lead the pack for a change.

Case Study: KWA Building Permits

Having a brochure site that was generating the occasional lead viaadwords was the limit of our clients online marketing. Once we had looked at the market and competition, we worked with the webdeveloper to build a site which re ected the business and engaged thevarious market segments they target.

We also identi ed with the client and area of frustration for their clients,

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completing ‘building application’ for their various projects. We had thedeveloper create a system for storing client information to eliminatehaving to ll out the standard information in these forms, saving theclients time, reducing errors or saving time having to clarify thingswritten poorly by hand.

Ongoing publishing is an issue for this client (time poor). Our

copywriters liaise with them regularly to create newsletters and additional pages, which is helping to improve ranking and engage their audience of clients and prospects.

Either commit resources to this internally or seek assistance fromprofessionals like iQuantum. We undertake copywriting services for manyof our clients in keeping with the strategy we have developed for theirsites. We set up and manage the newsletter database and distributionsoftware, write the articles and publish the press releases.



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Mistake 12

No eMarketing support for your site

Having a list of people that have opted in to receive information from youis a valuable asset. Much of the information you create (Mistake 11) canbe distributed to your past and current customers, prospects, suppliers

and partners via email marketing or emarketing.

If you have a CRM, even better, you will be able to segment your list andsend more specic information to sub-groups within your list. The moretargeted the message the more e ective the email campaign will be.

How do I build my list of people to emarket to?

The best strategy is to provide opt-in options for visitors to your site.Create something you can give them in return for their details (usually

just name and email address to begin with) and the implied permission tomarket this brings.

This eBook is a great example. Give something away to your prospects.In our case it is valuable information that if implemented will either savepeople loads of money or make them loads.

Some people are after FREE information to do things themselves, weare happy for them to do that. The majority ask if we can take a look at their business, their site and give them a realistic idea of what it willtake to succeed online; and then we help them get the strategy in place.It is a long-term relationship for us, so our FREE stu is a worthwhileinvestment.

Build relationship and trust through your emarketing

You don’t have to sell every time (we never do) when you send your emailcampaigns out. Just give valuable information on trends, case studiesetc that will build trust with your list. People buy from people they trust.You will be reminding them that you are still there doing great thingsfor others. If you are a retailer, specials, previews etc are certainly worth

experimenting with.

The best approach will be dened in the online strategy you developbefore you start.

Real life email marketing statistics

Check out these compelling numbers from USA market research giant,EmailStatCenter. As a direct result of receiving an email:

82% of respondents accessed their account via online customer service— Epsilon (Oct 2008)

71% of respondents researched a speci c o er online.— Epsilon (Oct 2008)

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63% of respondents clicked a link in the email to learn more.— Epsilon (Oct 2008)

66% of those surveyed said they had made a purchase because of amarketing message received through email.— ExactTarget, “2008 Channel Preference Survey” (2008)

No doubt we can create opt-ins that will help you build your list. Plus youmight already have a list of clients. We can also purchase lists from listbrokers based on proles of businesses or people (this is denitely an areato seek help with as you want to make sure you are purchasing a relevantand useful list).



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Mistake 13

No investment in engaging content

Content is crucial to being found and ranked well by search engines.Getting all that keyword stu right is essential. But unless we have a greatdestination, all this other e ort will be wasted.

How do we get our site to convert? Conversion rates achieved by yourcompetition are usually not readily available and mostly are closelyguarded. Therefore – how do you know what to do?

The research, analysis and strategy work iQuantum does – uncovers whatstrategy is appropriate for you in your market.

Understand what search engines are looking for

The search engine’s goal (Google, which has 90% market share inAustralia) is for their searchers to search once and nd exactly what theyare looking for. Therefore they want authority sites in each category (ormarket). That means the trusted sites will have loads of original content.Being a computer bases system, the search engine can identify copiedinformation straight away. It know when the original was rst published,therefore it is not possible to fake it.

Your copy is your calling card and conversion tool

Your copy needs to be engaging, it needs to speak to the reader in theirlanguage and be about the aspirations or problems, not about you andyour products. It needs to compel people to engage and take action. Andthey will do so based on how they feel, not what you say.

Content refers to text or copy, the written words on your site; images,diagrams or graphs, products to buy or view, video or audio.

Get creative with your content

You could build an application that allows for interaction with visitors,let them design their own house or garden or whatever – there could bedrag and drop options. Online calculators are very popular, mortgage,weight loss, nancial return, ROI etc. The only limit is our imagination.

Don’t site on the fence with your content, get to know your customersand create content that they will identify with. Polarise some of theaudience, you’ll attract the others.

If you have some great ideas to wow your customers and prospects, talk to us and we’ll help you get started to realise your dream of an authority

site than engages with your visitors and starts them on the journey tobecoming raving fans and loyal customers.

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iQuantum eBook 13 Critical Mistakes

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