Here’s one of those really simple sites we like.

We like them because they’re easy and they work well.

It’s a site for a migration agent in Brisbane.

The site is for an old mate of mine who I trained with in nursing back in my distant, distant past.

A Tip on What Works

And I reckon that’s a tip on what works with sites – simple works.

Because if it didn’t I wouldn’t have done my mate’s site like this.

Get a nice, simple and clear web site, then market the hell out of it.

Just launched a new site for a brilliant tour/travel company here in Australia that specialises in trips to Bhutan.

A freshen of their site has really lifted things and James and Nicola, who absolutely love Bhutan, are delighted with the result.

See below for the before and after.

The Before

The Before - Bhutan.com.au - click for larger version

The After

The After - Bhutan.com.au - Click for larger image

Contact Bhutan and Beyond here for more info about taking a break in this amazing country.

Cheers

Brendon

The biggest part of our business is web development – that is we:

• design,
• develop and
• market web sites.

Sometimes we’ll do one of those 3, mostly we do it all.

Whatever the client needs.

One thing I’ve been aware of over the years is that this site isn’t a typical web developers web site.

There’s no real “Look at me, Look at me” stuff.

We used to pop up oodles of examples of sites and talk about why and how we did them.  But we soon stopped that after clients started getting emails from competitors saying they could do a better job.

To that I say the very articulate: Pfffffffffffffft!

But Here’s The Thing

But here’s the thing I’ve discovered over the years.

Most clients don’t give this site a second glance.

Now, that’s not to say that many web developers don’t get business because they have pretty web sites.  Of course they do.

What I am saying is that this web site resonates with our target market (generally) – that is businesspeople who just get on with it.

Who take action, who market their web site, who want less guff than many others.  Who want results.

That’s the sort of client we work best with.

That’s what any marketing should do – it MUST appeal to your preferred target market.  Not someone elses.

I’ve been doing some work on our little Hobart accommodation site today and giving a bit of thought to how an accommodation provider – be that a motel, hotel, hostel, whatever - should market.

1. Have a web site – obvious, but you’d be surprised how many businesses don’t have a site.  Update it frequently/engage your audience/have conversations.
2. Create a Facebook page (free) - and update it frequently/engage your audience/have conversations.
3. Have a Twitter account (free) – and update it frequently/engage your audience/have conversations.
4. Encourage and respond to Trip Advisor reviews (free).  Promote these reviews like this site does.
5. Add your place to Google Places (free).
6. Work your ass off to get a high search engine ranking for the terms people search for when looking for accommodation in your niche/area.  Here’s some tips.
7. Add Google Analytics (free) to your site – and review the very detailed web site statistics at least weekly.
8. Maybe try Google AdWords (can be tricky and bloody expensive) and see if you can get them working for you.

Do the above and your bookings will go up – guaranteed.

Cheers

Brendon

I’ve had a few emails and calls regarding this blog post about Google AdWords advertising from a couple of days ago.

The main question being how do you get campaigns so efficient.

Well, the first answer to that is start measuring what happens on your site.

Here’s an email I sent a client today (I’ve stripped out the identifying stuff obviously) – it might give you an idea of what you can do to measure the effectiveness of what you’re doing with your web site generally, and Google AdWords specifically.

===================================================

A note on how we can now measure the effectiveness of the web site:

In the AdWords campaign yesterday, we set up 4 pages:

*Action 1 thank you
* Action 2 thank you
* Action 3 thank you
* Action 4 thank you

and applied conversion code to them.

What this tells us is how many times the forms have been used as a direct result of the Adwords.

If you look at today (11/11/2010) numbers, you’ll see that right now (8.57 am) you’ve spent $41.25 for 4 conversions.
And you’ll see they’re all from the ******* campaign.
So each conversion has cost you $10.31.

Goals in Google Analytics

In addition to those conversion, in Google Analytics (Go to the Reporting Tab, then down to Google Analytics) we have set up ‘Goals’.
That is, each time these 4 thank you pages are visited is counted as a goal.

If you dig down a bit (by clicking Goals in the left side menu), you’ll see that for yesterday we had 12 goals reached:

* 3 for Action 1
* 1 for Action 2
* 5 for Action 3
* 3 for Action 4

Goals are different from Conversions in that Goals are overall for the site.
Conversions are the leads generated by only the Google AdWords.

Make sense?

Now importantly, don’t just count the conversions and goals as the end result.

You’ll also have telephone calls, word of mouth referrals, etc generating in from web site visitors.
And, very importantly, with the unique content and positioning of that content you’ll also benefit substantially from increased branding benefits.

=====================================

Hope that helps you develop a more efficient AdWords campaign.

There’s lots more to a great campaign than the above, but if you can measure the effectiveness of what you’re doing you’ll have the information to make better decisions.

Cheers

Brendon

An important (super important) consideration when you develop your web site is what’s driving the development?

• Do you want the site to look pretty?
• Do you want it to make sales?
• Have you got a goal of getting 10,000 newsletter subscribers within the first 2 months of operation?
• What’s your marketing plan for the site?
• Is your product or service something your target market will search for on Google?

Understanding that the site goals are what drives the development of your web site is one major key to developing a successful site.

The Simple Example

The simplest example I can give of this is this:

If one of the goals of your web site is to get 10,000 e-newsletter subscribers within 2 months then you’ll need your e-newsletter subscription on the home page of the web site, along with a range of incentives to join up the newsletter.

That is, of course, going to affect the development of the site.

If you’re developing your site based on just the design, then you’re doing it the wrong way.

Make sense?

Cheers

Brendon

If you’re not subscribed to Tailored News (you can by sticking your email address in the field top right of this page – it’s 100% free) then odds are your certifiably insane.

And yes, that’s a medical opinion from me ;o)

I’ve just sent out the latest edition titled “Marketing Disaster – $320 Per Night to Be Slagged Off!”

Tailored News June 2010

Newsletter & Blog Archives

I also have a bunch of old newsletters here.

And don’t forget you can check out over 7 years of Tailored blogs here.

If you don’t want to read 7 years worth right now ;o), you might like my 3 most popular posts ever:

1. How Miss Spinks Taught Me Everything I Ever Needed To Know About Customer Service At 8 Years Of Age
2. 8 Lessons I Learned From A Hooker
3. The No BS Way To Get A Job

Cheers

Brendon

And yes, take the post below as a hint that Facebook needs to be part of your online marketing strategy.

It’s a gimme.

Brendon