Dress Your Website for Success: Choose the Right Colors

Have ever logged onto a website and immediately thought, "This is a nice website?" Whenever I come upon a great looking website, I have high expectations that my actual experience with the company itself will be a good one. There are a number of elements that go into making a great website. From the basics, such as using the right fonts and point size, to custom features like e-commerce with FedX or UPS delivery and social media integration.

While you may not be able to add much that your web developer doesn't already know in terms of your website's functionality, you should work closely with your designer when it comes to creating the look of your website. If you're going to build your own website, be sure to get lots of feedback from others using a blind test. In my last post, I talked about the importance of choosing the right color for your personal brand. And as you may have already guessed, color is also very important in creating a website that your potential customers will find appealing.

It can be tempting to take the position that "It's my business, I'm paying for the website, so I'll choose the colors that I like for my website". Big mistake. Your website is not for you, it's for both your potential and existing customers. Remember, research shows that people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.

Take several things into consideration when selecting the colors for your website such as the type of product or service that you offer. Are you selling high end fashion jewelry or cakes? What gender are you targeting? Will there be more men or more women, or about even? Does your market expect a company like yours to be more conservative or less conventional? Perhaps your company is a combination of things such as a high end bakery for the weight conscious? Take a long hard look at your company and your market, but careful not to use too many colors.

And don't work yourself up over this. Yes, researchers, color theorists and marketers all agree about the relationship between color and psychology, just remember, this isn't an exact science.

For lots more information on selecting the right colors for your website, read Special Report - Color Attracts: Increase Your Sales by Choosing the Right Colors by Connie Casparie. The 25-page report provides a step-by-step method for selecting the right colors, and includes a helpful chart matching types of businesses and color schemes.

What colors would be really hard for you to use or avoid on your website?

Insecure About Your Marketing Communications Strategy? Don't Be

The clients that I usually work with are small businesses and non-profits. My experience has been that when these clients are ready to spend money on advertising or marketing, they are ready. They know what they want to do, though not necessarily how they want to do it (which is why they hire a professional). About a year ago, I began noticing something that could present a new challenge--prospects and clients have become much more knowledgeable of marketing communications strategies.

For years, I've encountered clients that are very knowledgeable about leveraging traditional media, but now I'm finding that more than a few are knowledgeable about social media, mobile media, cloud based environments, apps, SEO and yes, even the importance of content. Which in and of itself is a good thing.

Naturally, when your bottom line is the bottom line, you want to make sure that every investment yields a return. You want to take advantage of opportunities to increase sales, retain existing customers, engage new ones or whatever your goal happens to be. But I suspect that some prospects are not just interested in maximizing their resources or getting the best return on their investment, but are feeling a bit like David in a world of advertising and marketing Goliath's. Mainly because there are so many strategy options, and they don't want to miss out on using them.

A good case in point is a former client from a few years ago (who I'll call Mike). Mike recently expressed an interest in working with us again. He said he really liked our work, but this time around, he wanted to expand his marketing mix. Mike is very much a hands-on guy. When we last worked together, he was involved in every aspect of his campaign. Which is great, he's a very smart guy. But during our recent conversation, Mike talked about things like "integration" and "multi-platform" marketing. And how certain he was that "having an app will bring in lots of business", and most importantly, how we needed to "do whatever they're doing now that works."

It's the "whatever they're doing now that works" that prompted a series of follow-up conversations with Mike. I needed him to know that we'd love to create a marketing strategy that compassed it all. But I also needed Mike to think more about his business, his market, his clients and his budget. My point was that what works for large corporations that are trying to reach massive numbers of consumers, or even small companies that offer very different services, won't necessarily work for his business (small and local).

I know he immediately understood, but remained unconvinced. Mike believes that his growth is directly tied to having a market communications strategy that encompasses as much technology as possible. He wants to do what industry publications, marcom bloggers and other so-called marketing gurus say must be done in order to have a successful campaign.

I don't agree. I still believe that first and foremost, successful campaigns have a few irrevocable elements. First the business owner must have extensive and realistic knowledge about their business, their brand, their market, their marketing/advertising goals and their budget. The people they hire must soberly take that information, interpret it, build upon it with research, develop strong messages, possess the knowledge to choose the appropriate channels, and the ability to measure effectiveness.

It's not that I have a problem with new media, technology or clients who know what they want. But I can see a new challenge emerging where potential clients that have been sold on the idea that they can't win without employing the latest marketing trend, will have to first be sold on the idea that successful campaigns are built on good old fashioned foundational elements.

As for Mike, he'll likely go with a company that will give him what he wants. They'll probably burn through his budget pretty quickly, but at least he'll be trendy.

Are You Really Thinking Outside the Box?

It's Friday night, which means it's my chance to engage in a little random thinking (and just think, Friday night used to mean club night). But these days, it's how I indulge myself in a little personal luxury. This may seem like a small thing to call a luxury, but actually, it's not. Random thinking is thinking about...whatever, sans the pressure of decision-making or prioritizing. A random thought that I just had is "what does thinking outside the box really mean?'

I know what it's supposed to mean; being creative, unconventional, even fearless. But it seems that this phrase is used all the time. At work, bosses are always saying things like, "you need to think outside the box" or "around here, we think outside the box". Advertisers tell us to think outside the box and buy their products. Politicians promise to think outside the box to find solutions. It just seems that everyone is thinking outside the box, or at least they're claiming to do so.

But how much outside the box thinking are we really doing? Has the term gone from being a call to creativity to nothing more than motivation speak for employers? Or another one of Madison Avenue's successful catchphrases? Or just a people-pleasing platitude spoken on the campaign stump? Of course I'm generalizing, because there are certainly companies, both large and small that enjoy successful breakout marketing and advertising campaigns. A great example of an outside the box ad campaign is the Old Spice commerical series. It was a bold move to abandon the old captain, in favor of a sexy, semi-clothed, young man (of color). The creatives behind this ad didn't even make the product the focus of the ad. And of course their shrewd use of social media catapulted the ads into the stratosphere and atop many industry lists as being the best ad of 2010.



But success stories don't happen because of some declaration of outside the box thinking. I'm convinced that true outside the box thinking is demonstrated when we conceive new ideas, methodologies or strategies; resist fear in our planning and execution, and show true courage by being committed to them.

Just a random thought.

Best Practices for Success in Social Media

It's been nearly 14 years since the first social media site appeared.  According to information experts Danah M. Boyd of UC-Berkeley and Nicole B. Ellison of Michigan State University, SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles and list their friends.  Today, while the list of social media networking sites continues to expand, there remains little in the way of formal social media etiquette.  That is, until now. Digital marketer Sean Rusinko has written The Social Media Constitution, which he offers as social media governance for digital marketers. Here's the preamble:

“We the People of Web 2.0, in order to form a more perfect online community, establish relevance, ensure user-friendliness, provide for fresh user-generated content, promote related web content of our peers, and secure the Blessings of inbound links to ourselves, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Social Media of the Internet.”

Rusinko's social media constitution also includes seven Articles that encompass key behavioral ethics that can be quite useful for anyone wishing to make a positive impact in new media.  Read more.