After stumbling across a plethora of untidy and uninviting websites (no client websites, I promise!) I thought I would share a few simple rules in gaining a little corporate credibility from your online business.

Your website is often the first point of contact customers have with your business so it is essential to make an effective first impression. Below are a few of the key ingredients that you should consider when developing a business website; they could make or break your online success.

1) Content

Keep it simple. Information overload = user boredom and disinterest.

The main objective you have is to keep the user on your website for enough time to effectively market your company. I suspect right now you are tempted to leave this page unless I was to do something dramatic like this:

• Start using bullet points to highlight key information
• Bullet points are like eye candy
• Look, I even threw in some colour to get crazy
• You’re still reading aren’t you?

You can revert back to sentence format, but it is important to break it up so your audience doesn’t become daunted by an enormous slab of cluttered and meaningless text.

2) Navigation

Again- keep it simple; don’t make users guess where to find things. A treasure hunt may be fun at Easter time, but it’s far from amusing when trying to find a contact number or a member login area!

It is also important to maintain consistency throughout the site, as well as a basic consistency with other website structures. For example, ‘Home’, ‘About’, Our Products/Services’, ‘Buy Online’, and ‘Contact Us’- these are typical navigation tabs at the top of the page. Don’t opt for anything radically different unless you need to. Leave the creative differentiation to the design and style of the site.

3) Design

Glitzy, cheap design is out- unless your have a website for My Little Pony products, in which case- glitter away!

Most importantly though, make it relevant to your company. Most businesses will require a corporate undertone to their website, achieved by simplistic design that is clean and uncluttered.

Impressive design can have significant effects on your business success so it is probably worth investing in a company with a decent design portfolio. Templates are a no-go.

4) Performance

Flash websites can be impressive, but keep in mind the download time they take the average user to view. It will be a complete waste of time if the user leaves the website before the site has even loaded.

5) Functionality

Make sure your site works. This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised at how many sites are under construction (for an excessive period), do not display properly, or cannot be found. Ensure you are with a reliable hosting company.

Less is often more with respect to providing user options within a website. Allow the user to easily do what they came to your site to do.

• Quick search
• Contact page
• Prices
• Services

These are commonly sought after functions. Make sure you know what your users want and provide visible access on the homepage.

6) Customisation

I leave this last only so it will remain in your memory. Customise, customise, customise. Don’t both having an online business if it is a standardised, template- inspired and functionally messy website. I can’t stress this enough.

Yes, I know I said to use a standard navigation so not to confuse your users; but every company is different and your website needs to cater directly for your user needs.

Visiting a new website, I would immediately exit if it failed to impress. Provide an original experience for your clients. Do not try and make one at home using your software template designed for personal blogs. I almost guarantee it will fail to impress- unless of course, it is for a personal blog!

If you manage to cover these 6 points within your website, you are on the way to achieving online success.

Everyone is all a flutter about twitter, blogs are the new news, and even Aunt Mildred is on facebook. Social media is taking over. So how can you benefit from social media by using it as a platform for new and clever marketing when everyone else aspires to do the same? Will we soon tire of it and move on to the next trend? Probably. But in the meantime, try using it effectively.

Here’s a tip about using any type of social media to market your company- make it fun and keep it interesting. In my research on social networking and other social media platforms, I rarely manage to stay focussed on my original brief. I either lost interest very quickly in the same old / same old techniques used by Tom, Dick and their less sophisticated brother Harry, or I become completely distracted by some ridiculous piece of information that simply amuses me. The last example of this was an article highlighting the latest cafe in Japan that operates by the patron ordering receiving the order of the patron before and so forth. It’s different, if not creating an unfair disparity on amount spent to perceived worth of received items! That’s what social media should be used for. Attracting attention with Japanese stories you ask? Maybe not, but it’s an easy tip to get started!

Seth Cohen wisely pointed out in his infamous marketing bible, ‘The Purple Cow’, that average marketing was missing the point-of-difference, the ability to be remarkable. A purple cow stands aside from the rest of the herd. Social media should be used as a platform to leverage this purple cow.

So how to nurture your purple cow online? Create, entertain, differentiate. Establishing a twitter account for your company and tweeting about new product launches and attempting a ‘subtle’ sell online will not do the trick. Don’t go on twitter or create a blog to trick people into an informative article that ultimately links back to your business services… well don’t do it often anyway! It loses credibility and your valued customers will discern the sales undertone.

The best way to gain attention and respect is to give away freebies. Not necessarily physical gifts, but amusing or useful information. Tell your market about a fascinating viral marketing trend taking place in Germany. Post an amusing YouTube clip. Respond to your audience’s posts and personal expressions. Be honest and connect. Erradicate the corporate expression and simply have fun. Once your followers, friends and subscribers like and trust you, your company has automatically gained credibility and people will be eager to find out more information.

Give it a shot- you may even enjoy yourself at work!

Alexandra Kenny, Marketing Coordinator

In a desperate cry to gain attention in a sea of competing marketing campaigns, companies are leaning towards a new kind of marketing- DIY. This involves an interactive participation from the public and has been extremely successful during the economic crisis in maintaining loyal customers.

The rise of consumer involvement began after the worldwide call to enter the ‘Best Job in the World’ contest. An initiative for Tourism Queensland which offered a six month reef caretaker position, where the successful candidate was paid to travel to the various island of Queensland and blog about their experiences. The campaign brought worldwide interest and awareness about the islands of the Great Barrier Reef to the world. DIY marketing at its best. Not only were people across the globe lured by the advertising campaign for the prospects it offered if they won, but the winner, a UK citizen, signed up for ongoing promotion of the Queensland islands in his blog, successfully reaching friends across the world.

Then there is Smiths chips campaign, ‘Do us a Flavour’; a competition to name the next flavoured chip. In addition to the chip being named after the winner, they also receive a handsome sum of $30,000 plus 1% of all future sales of their flavoured chip. This competition has yet to be finalised, but the awareness and active contribution in the flavour naming competition has drastically increased interest in a brand that has been recently flagging amongst new gourmet chip brands.

Perhaps the most intriguing case of all though is Kraft’s, ‘name me’ DIY campaign for Vegemite. This campaign involved a new flavoured Vegemite that was labelled ‘name me’. The campaign was not based on a prize competition but offered entrants the chance to contribute to an iconic Australian brand with a flavour name that reflected Australian culture. Again, it played on the active involvement of consumers but cleverly constructed an artful twist. The launch of the new Vegemite flavour revealed the winning name as ‘iSnack 2.0’, a play on the successful ‘iPod’ product in a supposed attempt to gain popularity amongst the younger market. The public outcry was so extreme, that Vegemite have quickly renamed the product to a far more suitable title, ‘Cheesybite’.

Successful marketing or unsuccessful marketing? I say successful. Kraft attracted a great deal of attention by conferring this unsuitable and unpopular name to its iconic brand; gaining greater appreciation for the new ‘suitable’ name when revealing it than they would have if it had been the initial winner.

Here, we can revert back to the old story of marketing strategies. Good marketing gains attention, but sometimes ‘bad’ or annoying marketing retains attention. It seems that Kraft have done a little of both, succeeding so well that they became one of the most discussed topics in twittering news around the world.

Is it a case of a recession-busting marketing tool, or are the world of marketers realising the potential of consumers to actively produce content as well as consume it?

In any event, I think it screams loudly that in times of marketing difficulty, engaging your customers is critical to survival. Don’t just impress them, involve them.

Alexandra Kenny, Marketing Coordinator

You can now access our website from your smartphone.

Click Creativeʼs mobile-accessible website is designed specifically for iPhone specifications, allowing you to visit us on the go!

Our intelligent software is designed to auto detect if a user is accessing a website from a mobile device, which will then redirect the site to the mobile version.

You can view our iPhone website below.

www.clickcreative.mobi

Why develop an iPhone website?

iPhones are revolutionising the way people communicate, interact and conduct business. Whilst it was once all-important to have an online presence, it is now equally as important to provide an accessible website to the next generation of iPhone internet users.

Consumers are using iPhones to search the internet for information, pay bills, purchase goods or services, seek contact information, make bookings, communicate via online programs and a plethora of other online activities.

Most website designs in Australia are not optimised for mobile phone viewing, which consequently deters users from revisiting the website. Click Creative place a strong focus on the usability of iPhone-optimised websites, to ensure an enjoyable and functional experience for end-user.

Developing a website that is compatible with iPhone display does not limit the site to a basic design and usability. Click Creative can provide you with a number of compelling features that a desktop web browser can support, including e-commerce functionality to make customer purchases even easier than before.

What does the future of the smartphone look like?

Consulting film, Ovum, predicts that smartphones will gain a global mobile phone market-share of 29% by 2014. The Apple iPhone alone has seen nearly 10 million handsets sold around the world, which will continue to increase. Within a few years, it can be expected that smartphones will be the predominate avenue for accessing the web. Social networking site, MySpace now attracts 70% of user access ‘off deck’, via mobile phones- a significant increase from its 50% mobile access just six months ago.

Now is the important time to stay ahead of technological innovation to meet the changing needs of internet users and improve your websiteʼs accessibility.

Optimise your website for iPhone display today by calling 1300 008 301 for a free consultation.

Alexandra Kenny, Marketing Coordinator

Online. It’s considered new media- exciting, mystifying, innovative- and yet a highly undervalued medium. Despite its comparative recency as a technological medium to reach an audience through, the internet has grounded itself as a persisting medium that can effectively provide innovative capabilities, as well as converging the domains of print, radio and television channels.

So why is the internet segregated to a separate ‘online strategy’, rather than assuming its well-deserved role within core business mix?

Online strategist, Laura Chisolm, claims that online strategy can yield considerable business success, but it is necessary to see a shift into the traditional sector of corporate strategy, rather than treating it as low-budget application (Marketing magazine: July).

Incorporating online initiatives into core business strategy is becoming increasingly important as the web evolves from an additional means of brand promotion, to a fully-functional medium from which to conduct business.

Successful companies are beginning to understand the power of online capabilities and are integrating an online presence with other traditional avenues in executing business strategy. Others that hope to employ the web as a cost-effective means, attributing it with less value, are unlikely to yield high levels of success.

Online business success is achievable and is an effective way of supporting organisational objectives- when adequately employed. A website should be considered from the customer perspective: in its ability to satisfy key customer needs. An intelligent website is capable of serving user needs without their leaving the website. When bill payment, bookings, product & service purchasing, feedback forms and company branding can be facilitated via a website alone, online success should never fall second to traditional strategy.

It is only when the true power of the online medium is understood across all sectors of a company, placing it within core business strategy, that it will succeed in delivering real business success.

Online: the beginning of a new tradition.

Alexandra Kenny, Marketing Coordinator