Make sure you are an educated Web design client!

Sorry I have been away so long–it is good to be back. As usual, my goal is to make sure each time you read my blog you receive important information.

Let’s face it–Things are tough all over. Getting and keeping paying customers is a full time job, and we are all fighting for the same business. That means we have to be more creative in how we attract clients.

Most businesses now understand the benefits of e-commerce or e-business. But putting a website up is not going to guarantee success. You have to put a lot of thought and preparation into what you what your site to do. It is also important to listen to your web designer. The person or persons you hire to development this most important marketing tool is also there to advise and educate you on what your site needs in order to its intended job–capture attention and keep customers coming back.

Jerry Bader’s article in “Entireweb Weekly Newsletter” (January 15, 2009; ISSUE #510) this month expresses so eloquently the fine points of Branding for the web that I have included it here in two installments. He begins with a 4-Step Branding Plan…

The Plan – 4 Steps To A Website Brand

Do you have a plan?

Most companies spend a considerable amount of time, energy, and money planning what to do and how to do it.

Let’s say you need a website, so you develop a plan, present it to a bunch of website designers, and get quotes or proposals. You’re not going to get caught with your pants down like the last time by some nerdy geek, you know the skinny kid with the scraggly beard, whose techno-babble gave you a headache, or the bizarre young lady dressed in Gothic chic with the black lipstick and tattoo to match – yikes, no thanks, not this time, this time you got a plan.

Human Motivational Optimization

You read all the blogs on website design, you know all the ins-and-outs of search engine optimization, and Google Adwords. No one is going to pull a fast one on you. You know your business, your market, and your needs. Or do you?

How much do you really know about how real people interact with your website? How much do you really know about what we call Human Motivational Optimization? All the stats, logs, and number crunching analysis that forms the basis of many website development plans does not truly give you the visceral understanding of how to connect to an audience, and isn’t that what you want your website to do?

So maybe your plan is the wrong plan; it’s like planning a trip to Home Depot to buy a cabbage; it just doesn’t make sense. So how about a plan that does make sense, something simple, understandable, easy to implement, that is if you hire the right people to do it. But before we tell you the four steps to creating your very own Website Branding Plan, let’s talk about Don LaFontaine.

Every Company Needs A Movie Trailer

Chances are you don’t know who the late Don LaFontaine was, but you’ve heard his voice many, many times. Don was the most famous and influential voice behind thousands of movie and television trailers. He had a distinctive deep, gravelly voice, and a writing style that reinvented the entire movie trailer format. But why should you care? Simple.

Movie trailers are the ultimate elevator pitch, a short memorable performance that compels you to action, kind of like what a mission statement is suppose to do, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning, or rather, the end.

Branding Starts With Thinking Backwards

Most people like to start a project at the beginning and work their way through until they reach the end. Makes sense, or does it? If you don’t start with where you want to end-up, it’s unlikely you’ll ever get where you want to go.

Remember our cabbage? Planning a shopping to trip to Home Depot because they got cool stuff, doesn’t help if what you want is a cabbage.

Branding is no different. If you don’t start with how you want your audience to think about you, they will probably never think about you at all. So now that we got that straight let’s start our plan where it makes sense, the end.

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.sonicpersonality.com, and http://www.136words.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.