Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

I realize there are millions of people out there that don’t live online like I do (but that’s how I make my living and it’s fun). However, in my travels around small-biz ville, I often talk to people who are disappointed in their sites and ask for some quick pointers. The following is a pretty typical conversation. (Don’t feel badly if you recognize yourself in the Small Biz Owner below. We all sometimes don’t know what we don’t know. But, it’s never too late to learn!)

MS: “So, what’s your web strategy?”
Small Biz Owner: (Silence)

MS: “Moving right along. What do your analytics reports show?”
SBO: “What’s that?”

(I explain, including free code and reports from Google analytics.)

SBO: “Oh, I don’t think I have those.”

MS: “Okay then, so when was the last time you updated your content?”
Small Biz Owner: “Um, updated - you mean since 2003? But I don’t know HTML.”

MS: “Well, these days you don’t have ‘to know html.’ We’ve come a long way since 2003. Have you talked to your web developer about a new site with a Content Management System?”
SBO: “He told me that was a waste of money.”

(Having by now heard the name of the web developer, I stay mum. The guy’s a nice man and “everybody” likes him, including me. He’s just stuck back in about 1995 both technically and from a biz perspective.)

MS: “Have you talked to your web developer about starting a blog?”
SBO: “He told me blogging is a fad. Besides I don’t have time.”

(I stay mum, Nice Web Guy really doesn’t grok the Web and it’s not going to do the SBO any good for me to diss Web Guy. Plus, that’s just tacky.)

MS: Have you thought about changing your URL?
SBO: “URL? What’s that?”

(I explain)

SBO: “Oh, well the name of my company is Bob’s Bait Shop and Poodle Grooming Salon, so I thought we were really lucky to get BobsBaitShop_PoodleGroomingSalon.biz and we also snagged ‘ws.’!”

(I do my best to not blurt “WS? WTF?” Then, I do a quick riff on how people look for things, including “.com” for businesses. “ws” stands for Web Site, which GoDaddy calls “catchy.” But, “catchy” isn’t going to translate into web traffic. Remember, GoDaddy wants to sell you “ws.”)

SBO: “But…but, my web developer recommended that one, and it only costs $35 a year!

MS: (Noticing that SBO is looking distinctly uncomfortable) “Well, let me know if you’d like some recommendations - I’d be happy to recommend some reading and different web developers.”
SBO: “I’ll think about it.” (Double times it to the cash bar for a refill.)

And, then there are those poor souls that hired an ad agency to do their web site. Those people, I follow to the cash bar and buy the refill. I’ve yet to see a site done by an ad agency that worked. (If any of you out there know differently, let me know!)

So, if you’re disappointed in your site and want to really think about it, here are four sanity checkpoints:

1. Don’t abdicate responsibility. Most web developers/designers are techies or graphic artists, with very little business knowledge or experience. It’s not up to a code jockey contractor to make your business a success. It’s up to you.

2. Grit your teeth and get a little techie. It’ll help you know what to ask when you go to the web developer. And, you’ll be able to separate the Web hobbyist from the Web biz pros. (Tip: Do your URL research first, and you can register a domain for a lot cheaper than $35.) I’m by no means “technical” but I grok (most of) the basics and can do a bit of coding (helps me find problems, understand how the Web works.) And, I read a lot - it may seem like gibberish the first time (or three) I read a techie’s blog, but then as I keep going, it starts making sense.

3. Don’t treat your web site as totally separate from your business. You wouldn’t build and furnish a beautiful new office…on a back road…and then never visit it, now would you? Yet this is what many people do with their web sites. They build it, never spend any time on it, and somehow expect people to flock to it. The other common scenario is people throw up the equivalent of a cardboard lemonade stand with crude signs and expect big bucks.

4. If it’s broken, it’s broken. This is a tough one if you’ve already sunk major money into it. But, if it’s a really awful site, the best thing you can do is start over, from scratch (with a web biz pro - not a low-cost web wannabe). For example, one potential client nearly screamed when I told her current site was beyond repair - no amount of “fluffing” would help. “BUT, I ALREADY PAID $10,000! You’ve got to be wrong!” Nobody likes to think they made a bad, stupid decision, but we all do it. The key is learning from our mistakes.

Related Posts:
Small Biz: Make Time For Web Marketing
Five Reasons You Can’t Blame IowaNM Web Developers
I Don’t Have Time To Play On The Computer.
Don’t Hire An Ad Agency To Build Your Web Site.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and feel free to disagree! Debate is healthy. I moderate all comments, though, so it may take a bit for yours to show up. Thanks for reading!

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, web marketing, web sites, web site development