Forrester expects online retail sales to increase to $109.6 billion this year from $89 billion in 2004. Including travel sales, total e-commerce revenues are projected to grow to $172.4 billion from $141.4 billion.
Australian online sales will hit $10 billion (up from $6 billion).
I've been a regular viewer of 'The Apprentice' - the much hyped Donald Trump (the web site is terrible - jerky, huge video with difficult navigation) centric 'reality' TV show for 3 series.
Until now. You see, here in Australia it's coming to the conclusion of Series 3. I switched on last night to watch but couldn't stomach more than 5 minutes.
The show is now so contrived, so twisted with product placement and endorsements that it has no credibility with me. I get the sense that it's not a 'real' show anymore - it's simply a show with actors (and Editors) trying to create tension (even if none is present) and trying desperately to mention the latest corporate sponsor.
Australia's Most Successful Show - Not
I read an interview not so long ago where Trump proudly boasted the show is Australia's most popular. Ummm, not exactly. I'd say barely 2% of people would watch it.
The vast majority of Australians perceive Trump as a bit of a joke. They can't believe anyone actually takes this guy seriously. And they can't believe he actually believes the stuff that comes out of his own mouth.
It's a show whose time has come and gone. I understand they're not going to prolong the agony anymore and have ditched Trump/he walked (the thing is with a guy like Trump, you never know what the truth is. There's so much spin on things that it's sometimes hard to tell).
I'd Better Go
Anyway, I'd better go. I have a meeting with a Very Important Business Executive about a deal that's going to Change The Way the World Does Business.
By the way Trump, you and your show: "You're fired!"
(The lesson here? I'm really not too sure. One lesson Trump has taught me is that if you say something convincingly enough people will believe it - but that's not really a good thing.)
To the inexperienced eye the photograph below may look like a cheesecake with a slice taken out, the empty bowl of one B. Sinclair after eating that slice and a box with a Xerox Phaser 3110 cartridge inside.
You'd be wrong. Completely and utterly wrong.
This Is Not A Cheesecake
Your eyes are playing tricks on you.
What this is a photograph of is this: brilliant marketing.
Absolutely Brilliant Marketing
I buy the Xerox cartridges from Xerox themselves in a local suburb called Bundall.
When Mel or Jo have been the ones doing the buying, they buy from Discosource - a supplier who sells them the cartridge AND throws in a free cake of their choice.
I think the guys at Discosource are a little cheaper than when I buy direct from Xerox, but that has never worried me.
And the reason it has never worried me is because Discosource's service has been crap, appalling and pathetic.
We've ordered the cartridges before with the explicit understanding they'd be delivered within 24 hours. The cartridge wasn't. I can't remember how long we waited for the cartridge, but it was way too long.
And the cake Mel and Jo ordered didn't show until the day after that.
All I Want Is The Cartridge For The Printer
All I want is the cartridge. They didn't deliver on their promise so I'll never use them again. If they fail me once, I figure they'll fail me again.
But Here's What Happens
Anyone in the company is empowered to buy anything they please if they need it to help the business. Pretty simple philosophy.
They know I won't buy from them again (Discosource rang up one day asking if we need a new cartridge and I told them No and mentioned I thought their service was crap and I'd never buy from them again).
But here's the thing........
* Discosource ring up every few weeks to see if we need a new cartridge * Discosource send through a fax order form every month or so promoting their cartridge and cake deal
And here's what happens in the office:
* Mel usually answers the phone * Discosource have placed themselves top-of-mind for Mel in terms of supplying cartridges
And then there's this bit: Mel loves the offer of the free cake. Every chance she gets she buys the cartridge from Discosource.
She doesn't care they I don't want to deal with Discosource.
They've addressed her needs so she buys. This is what they've done:
1. Kept in touch
2. Developed the relationship
3. Provide relevant value adding to their target
4. Gotten the target to buy
That's brilliant marketing. Which shows, I guess, that brilliant marketing can cover for having bad service.
But it would be better if the brilliant marketing was backed up with brilliant service.
I drove 100km back from Brisbane last night to the Gold Coast and dropped into a local pub to listen to a band and have a beer.
There was a group playing called Soul Tram (or something similar).
These guys were supposed to be quite good. But all I heard was screeching, feedback and an awful sound as they struggled with audio you had to hear to believe.
The lead singer tried to work his way through what was an embarrassing night, but even his valiant attempts couldn't save the disaster that was their show.
Destroy Your Brand/Band
In music, as in business, 1 really bad performance can spell the end.
The performance was so bad that the band should have stopped. What they did do was try and struggle through - a noble gesture.
But a gesture that gave their fans an hour of ear-splitting agony and a bad taste in their mouth. What Soul Tram did was damage their brand/business/potential even though they tried to do the right thing.
Everything you do/say/write/wear/sing/drink/eat/etc impacts on your brand. Make sure it's consistently great. 1 disaster can cost you dearly.
I talked in an earlier post about the site we've just redeveloped that has been generating some excellent sales.
The first sale took 35 minutes about we launched it, there was 3 sales within 17 hours.
At the end of the first 24 hour period there was 6 sales.
And that's for a site that has had 0 sales in the 6 months previously!
The sales have continued to pour in via the web site and the client is ecstatic to say the least (he's had to employ an extra person top cope with the sales).
Now Is The Time To Ask
We use testimonials quite extensively in our business and ask all clients for a written one. We use them in a few different way - in a promotion pack, on our 'Brag Wall', in mail outs, etc.
Now is the time to ask this client for a testimonial. He's thrilled with his site, it's working fantastically well and generating huge sales.
He'll write an excited and heartfelt testimonial now. If I wait 6 months the initial excite will have worn off and the testimonial (in my experience) won't sound half as good.
Testimonials Build Trust
Testimonials build trust in your clients. They like to hear of the success of others because that proves to them that you can do what you say.
Speech Survey
When I do a public speech I generally ask for the audience to visit a special page on our site and see examples of what I speak about and complete a short survey.
If the audience member visits soon after the speech that are highly likely to complete the survey. If some time has elapsed then the completion rate is much lower.
And you also get nice comments like this: "The best guest speaker we have had for a long time" - which is from an audience member at yesterday's Caloundra speech.
Nice comments like that give me a bit of confidence for when I next speak.
I've just driven 200km home from a place called Caloundra, a seaside town north of where we are. My dad lives at Caloundra so I drove up last night and stayed with him before we went to the function - Caloundra Rotary - this morning.
Because my dad hasn't seen me speak before he tagged along to take a look and provide me with some feedback.
You see, my dad's a veteran public speaker (probably the best speaker I've seen in action) and could give me the sort of feedback I need to make my speaking better.
It's always good to get an independent analysis of what we do (by that I mean all of us) so we can make our business better.
I guess the most effective way for a business to get some feedback is twofold:
1. Look at your sales - if they're going up you're doing the right thing 2. Do a survey - ask your customers and prospects how they think you are doing.
In the newspaper on the weekend I read about a hoax painting displayed at the British Museum for a few days. Apparently a well-known "art terrorist" (called Banksy) had placed a painting of a caveman pushing a supermarket trolley. It was titled "Early Man Goes To Market".
The painting was stuck on the wall with double-sided tape in a gallery of artifacts from Roman Britain.
Banksy then bragged about it on his web site, the painting was quickly identified and removed.
2 Aspects Here
1. I'm in Australia and I have now heard of the British Museum and their art exhibitions. That's good for the Museum.
2. If the Museum staff had of left the painting up I can just about guarantee that their visitor numbers would have reached record levels for that exhibition as people came in to take a look at the fake piece.
Opportunities Galore
And then the Museum could have invited Banksy in, maybe had a debate about the merits of 'guerrilla' art like this and generally examined the artwork for it's artistic merit, etc.
Maybe interview the artist for their inhouse magazine (if they have one), do an online audio interview for their web site, develop a series of promotional posters based on the fake artwork....the list goes on.
This was/is a tremendous opportunity for the Museum to generate huge amounts of interest. I guess it's a case of ensuring the 'fit' is right - maybe with a guy who's been described as an 'Art Terrorist' the fit isn't quite right, but it would be worth considering.
Hi. One of my bigger roles in the business is to keep generating new business. One of the best ways to demonstrate our expertise and experience is through showing off awards we've won.
One award I haven't mentioned much is this one:
Best Book on Web Design 2004
That's my award for the Best Book on Web Design in 2004. The book has been a terrific success (it's for web developers running a business) and sales are well over $1 million.
Thanks to those who have purchased the book. I'm glad it has been so positively used by so many and has been a help.
We launched a site tonight that we've been redoing for a client. His previous site (not done by us) hasn't made any sales for at least 6 months.
We redid it and launched today.
35 minutes later the site had its first sale.
Developing sites that work is what web development is all about. Not only does a site have to look good, it has to provide the right solution for the visitor.
Only then is it an asset and not an expense.
Edit added 20/5/05:
It's now been 17 hours since the site launched and it's made 3 sales.
Quite a bit is from the user-experience perspective (the only true measure of the effectiveness of "Does this web site do what it is supposed to?") and he manages to keep the e-book free of unwanted guff.
Click here to check it out - well worth a read for people interested in getting a web site and the people who develop them.
Hello. I found this on one of my favourite blogs the other day (Seth Godin):
According to C|Net and The NPD Group, the number of listeners to radio has declined by 4% against the previous year.
In the same time the study showed that online radio station listeners have increased to 53.5 million this March, up from 45.3 million a year ago.
That's almost a 20% increase!
Seth makes the point that once cars have the equipment to receive Internet radio radio numbers will drop even further.
People will be happy to pay to listen to radio shows that are of interest to their specific tastes. Radio, as we know it (with Shock Jocks, commercials, inane conversation, etc), is dying.
My thinking with this has always been that the clients pays for the site so we should assign them the copyright of the site we develop. Seems simple enough.
I then had a slight change of mind in an effort to provide better security for our client's web site and to be better able to grow my business - read my thoughts on that here.
We do search engine optimisation for a lot of sites. And some of them are fantastic sites. Best in their category.
But achieving a top 10 search engine ranking for competitive key words (that is, a word or phrase that gets searched for a lot) even for excellent sites is a lot of hard work. It takes time, patience and expertise.
So I know that the sites that come up # 1 or 2 or 3 etc aren't necessarily the best sites. Quite often the best sites won't even be in the top 50.
I know that.
But Here I am.....
But here I am. I'm searching for an mp3 recorder to record my speeches using a Tie Pin microphone (I'm thinking that if I can record the actual speeches, I can listen later for some quality assessment of how I really went).
Anyway......I've been searching. I'll check a site out thoroughly before I move on. And what I do is only check the top 3 or 4 results (if that). If I don't find what I'm looking for I'll try another search term.
That's crazy. I know (Through my experience) that the best sites don't necessarily come up # 1 or 2 on the search engines. But my mind assumes that.
Typical Man
And when I don't quickly find what I want I move on. Typical man - no concentration!
(I prefer to think of it as 'gatherer' mentality!)
The point is: search engine rankings (and high search engine rankings) are critical to online success.
I look through the search terms people find this site through every day. As you'd imagine (because of my kit), a fair few searches are done on my name.
I noticed yesterday someone found this site through searching for "Brendon Sinclair negative".
That would be, I assume, someone searching for a negative comment about me or the kit.
That review of me to see if there is anything the person needs to know before buying the kit or dealing with me is understandable. It's good business. Because in business you need as much information as possible to make the best decisions.
How Can We Use The Above Information
I remember when I bought a house in Hobart, Tasmania a few years back being pleasantly surprised when the Real Estate agent took me through the house and point out the problems and faults.
"Bit of torn carpet here, needs painting there, etc Nothing too major.
This had the effect of increasing my trust in the agent enormously and, subsequently, we purchased that house.
Maybe Tell Prospects About The Bad Stuff?
Perhaps we could show our prospects the bad stuff:
* The negative reviews * The negative forum posts * The more controversial issues
(If you want the dirt on me probably the best belting I've received online is here.)
That way we/me/you can address the issue from our perspective and, hopefully, provide a little balance.
Is the IT Department the right one to take care of your company's web site? I think not.
I rang a prospect yesterday and ended up speaking with the IT Manager. The company had allocated the function of web development to the IT Department. The IT Manager wasn't interested in redeveloping the company's web site.
Web Sites Are Not About Computers
I got thinking that the IT Manager shouldn't have anything to do with the web site. You see, a web site isn't an IT function. It's a marketing/sales/branding/PR thing.
One of the things I do is write an email newsletter that goes out to 130,000 subscribers.
Called the SitePoint Tribune. It goes mainly to web developers and web marketers - mostly in the US.
I wrote an article in it last week where I said "There are many different ways to skin a cat."
I've received 6 responses criticising me for using the phrase. My favourite one is:
"As one who has two pet cats in my household, whom I consider to be near and dear to my heart, your repeated references to skinning a cat are, at best, repulsive...............I'll never read a SitePoint newsletter that I won't have a bitter taste in my mouth....."
Who said people are too sensitive these days??!
Missy Takes A Break
And below you'll see the latest member of staff here in the office. Missy is my 11-year-old son's kitten. Just 7 weeks old she was dumped a few weeks ago and has found a home with us.
My wife brings Missy in to work each day - this photo was taken a few minutes ago as she sat in the chair in my office.
Looks like a good lunch to me! (Note: I'm kidding. Relax!)
Missy takes a break from the frantic pace in the office
How much do you charge for your product or service? Do your customers value the product or service you provide?
On Monday at 5 am my 74-year-old father set off for his daily 5 km bike ride to Kings Beach at Caloundra, Queensland.
Once there he swam his 50 laps of the pool (1,000 metres in total).
He jumps out and runs from one end of the beach and back (another 1,000 metres or so).
Then it's back on the bike for the 5 km bike ride home.
Every Single Day
My dad does this every day. Has done for 18 years. Every single day of the year regardless of the weather.
He's A Fit Old Guy
My dad's a fit old guy. So it was a bit of a surprise on Monday when he got home, had breakfast and promptly collapsed.
He woke up in the ambulance.
Testing showed heart pacing problems and he very quickly had a pacemaker inserted. He's fine now, back at home and itching to get the okay to at least be allowed to put his arms above his shoulders (you can't do that for a little while after having a pacemaker inserted).
What Would You Pay
How much would you pay for the lifesaving medical care of a loved one?
Most of us would say "Anything" or "All that I've got".
And that's because we value the service being provided. Not because it's expensive to provide (although medical stuff is of course), but because we value the life of our loved one.
Customers Need To Understand The Value You Provide
Customers need to understand the value you provide, especially for high priced items. So part of your sales and marketing strategy must be the education of the customers.
I can see some major opportunities for domain name resellers here in Australia as the Fat Cat of the industry stumbles over its pretty clumsy feet.
Click the Play button below for my 3 minute audio view.
Cheers.
Brendon
P.S: 2 things here: # 1 - is it possible to have an "audio view"??? (Yes, I do have a way with words......not) and # 2 is "Boy, do I have a sleepy voice or what!"
I've had a meeting today with Karen, a successful businesswoman in my local city. Karen wants to develop some web sites as part of her ongoing business strategy.
Now Karen is smart. In our discussions Karen basically said "I don't want to hear how you do the site, I just want solutions."
And that's the perfect situation. And it really focuses us on what we do.
You see, we don't develop web sites really. We provide solutions to marketing issues.
When your reviewing your web site needs, focus on what problems the web site will solve. Approach it like that and you'll get a great site that does the job for your business.
Part of our services include marketing web sites. This includes, of course, optimising web sites so they appear high up in the search engines for the 'right' key word or phrase.
After a number of requests we've added Search Engine Optimisation Review to our services.
For $600 we'll review your web site and write a comprehensive report on the state of your site (and why it isn't achieving the search engine rankings you want and a specific list of action to take to get those higher search engine rankings).
As part of our ongoing development we're looking at incorporating video into web pages for a whole range of reasons.
With more and more people getting broadband, video is beginning to make sense for a lot of web sites. And I can see it (video & audio) being of great use to a lot of sites now and in the future.
Now this is going to sound stupid. But I see it a fair bit. So I'll write about it.
The biggest cause of overspending on web sites is when the client underspends.
Because when a person/company underspends they waste all of that money because they should have spent more to get a decent web site that does what it needs to do - get found, get visited, make sales.
The Most Common Reason For Web Site Failure
It's the most common reason for web sites failing that I see.
The web can and should be a big part of the overall marketing/distribution mix for many businesses. To do its job the web site needs to be developed effectively. And that costs money.
(The other big killer of businesses I see is the company that spends all of their money on product development and set up and leaves nothing - and I mean nothing - for marketing. The client somehow expects their product/company to get in front of the entire target market for a couple of hundred bucks. It can't happen.)
** Winner Web Design Library - Best Book of the Web Industry 2004 **
The Web Design Business Kit is a compilation of everything Brendon has ever done and every document he has ever used to build and grow his business!
It contains two huge ring-bound folders with over 700 letter size (8.5x11) pages, plus a CD-ROM which has everything you need to build a thriving Web Design Business...
To find out more about The Web Design Business Kit click here
