The Diablog - it's Diabloglical™

You don’t know what you don’t know.

30 July 2010

Nobody knows how to do everything. It's better to be good at a few things than to be a hack at many things. A wise person accepts this, while a fool plows ahead into the darkness, acting on things without understanding, making a lot of mistakes along the way.

Here’s a simple example/ This actually happened to one of my friends. His dad was staying at his house for a while and wanted to do something nice as a grateful gesture. He found a bucket and a sponge in the garage and used it to wash my friend’s car. Here’s the problem: his dad doesn’t know anything about laying tile. If he knew how to lay tile, he would have recognized that a bucket that contains a sponge, trowels, a grout float, and a mortar mixer that fits an electric drill are all related items. More importantly he would have assumed that the sponge had been used to clean up grout and mortar. Dad just thought it was a miscellaneous pile of tools. The sponge looked clean, but it actually was embedded with sand. When dad finished washing the car, a circular scrubbing pattern was etched into the paint from bumper to bumper.

The problem with “winging it” is that making mistakes is unavoidable because you have no frame of reference. Even if you look back on past attempts to work outside your expertise in an attempt to learn from your mistakes, you’ll still make mistakes. You probably don’t even recognize many of the mistakes you made.

My advice is simple - you’ve heard this from me before. Do what you do, and don’t do what you don’t do. Applying this advice to business, someone who manufactures widgets for a living shouldn’t assume they know how to do marketing. They should get professional marketing advice. If they decide to sell their widgets online, they should get professional ecommerce advice.

For many businesses, the internet is unknown territory. Get professional advice, and get it before you take your first misstep.

Dialogs Professional Services can help you grow your business. Contact us before you make your next move on the internet.

Business success or failure is tied to how you work the web (part 2 of 2).

14 July 2010

I’m always surprised when I hear a company’s decision-maker downplay the importance of search engines. Google is like Oprah - if they like you and call attention to you, you will succeed.

Here are some common misunderstandings about how to build a successful web presence as it relates to search engines.

The only reason I need a website is to publish my phone number. This logic is flawed. It assumes that you already know everyone you will ever need as a customer, and you have given each one your web address. To compete and succeed, your website needs to bring you customers you’ve never contacted. These new faces will use Google (and other less popular search engines) to find you.

I won’t need to change anything on my website very often. We don’t get to make choices like that. Google calls this shot. Google equates content revision with relevancy. If your content changes, you must be paying attention to your message, and if you’re paying attention, your message must be relevant. If you never change your content, Google will move you down the list of search results, and you will never be found. I know it can be a lot of work. I know you will have to assign that responsibility to someone. You have no choice. Change your content (even by a little bit) every week. Google demands it.

A picture is worth a thousand words - all I want on my website is pretty pictures. Wrong again. A picture isn’t worth anything to Google. Google only cares about words. Specifically, there is compelling evidence that Google likes 350-500 words per page. Your website can be cool and have words. Tell your designer that. If this were easy, you’d be doing it yourself. That’s why your designer went to school - to learn how to create good design and meet all necessary criteria.

I know that search engine optimization (SEO) can be mystifying. That’s why you should partner with a creative agency that understands and has proven success in SEO.

Our Dialogs Professional Services team has seen a lot of websites. Plus, Dialogs includes an SEO toolbox that will help you succeed - see what Website Grader thinks of Dialogs.com. We’re happy to show you how easy it can be to work the web.

Business success or failure is tied to how you work the web (part 1 of 2).

13 July 2010

A strong presence on the internet is a non-negotiable necessity if you are going to succeed. Look at the Fortune 1000 list. Every one of those companies has invested in making their name known by as many people as possible. Lists like the ones published by Fortune make it easy to identify and analyze successful branding strategies. Use them as case studies to help you prioritize your own marketing decisions.

It can also be helpful to analyze businesses that are failing or have failed. We can learn from their mistakes. Unfortunately, published lists of failures are harder to come by. Keep your eyes open for faltering businesses. Perhaps you hear that one of your direct competitors has announced a layoff. Maybe you see that a retail store is going out of business. Notice if a nearby restaurant is always empty at lunchtime.

Pick one company that you know is succeeding and another that you know is failing. Ask yourself the following questions about both companies.

• How easy was it to find each company’s website? Did you already know their web address or did you rely on Google to find it? If you already knew it, try to recall how you learned it.
• When you read each company’s website, do you quickly and clearly understand what the company does? Is it an easy read, or do you find yourself skimming over copy and clicking through the navigation looking for something that holds your attention?
• Once you understand each company, can you find them on Google using logical but generic search terms? In other words, don’t just search for the company’s name - imagine that your are looking for whatever product or service the company sells, but you’ve never heard of the company.
• Does each company’s website convey professionalism and trustworthiness? Be honest about your ability to make this assessment. If you don’t have an eye for design, ask your creative agency to give you their opinion about the two companies’ websites.

I know that a company can succeed with poor quality communications, and a company with a great website still might fail, but if you run through this exercise a few times (pairing different companies each time), you should start to recognize trends that lead to success.

Our Dialogs Professional Services team has seen a lot of websites. We’re happy to show you how easy it can be to work the web.