Web Critic

So Poulters lost another large client and the business caved in. What great business skills did Poulters ever possess? Having looked at the Poulters website, www.poulters.com we can see that their knowledge of digital is close to zero. Who else would put up an all flash site that is inaccessible to nearly 50% of corporate customers? Why oh why is that then? It’s because so many corporate servers do not have flash installed…it stops the staff looking at YouTube all day! The Poulters website was truly awful…inward looking artistic nonsense.

I read an email from them to a mutual client about doing “the search engine marketing” bit after the site was launched. They also bundled SEO into this as an afterthought. Just in case anyone still thinks SEO is a “bolt on” product after launching the website, you are wrong. It is done at the beginning of the process. SEO is also not a technical or code “trick.” It is many other things including good copy writing, accessible sites and plenty use of the YOU word. My industrial website with over 140,000 visitors per year is still number 1 for all my chosen key phrases after 6 years and I haven’t refreshed it or changed it in anyway. So watch out for “we’ll refresh your website”…it could be a disaster delivered by an ex Poulter digital employee.

Print or flat media experts can’t do web media…it’s different…that’s why traditional Ad agencies struggle. For the millionth time…”pushing old marketing messages through the new medium of the web does not work!”

So Poulters, sorry to see you go but you had it coming.

Till soon,

Yours digitally,

TWC  

As an example…an online clothing website.

1. The copy is centred around the features of the product…no lifestyle or aspirational copy.

2. No Calls To Action  (CTA)

3. The page titles are the same…written in blue at the very top of your monitor.

4. No staff photos or “Helpline personnel” on the site

5. Using your bank’s payment gateway, not your own customised one.

That’s just 5 mistakes but Jo Public and Jo The Ad Man are very creative and continue to come up with new ways to make a mess of websites.

If you think it’s like print or even a bit like print and you think this web stuff can’t be that difficult, call me and tell me that you have been more successful then me. 9 out of 10 web sites are suffering from an Internet Tragedy and Google can tell you what that is.

Stop mucking about and get some proper advice! Or you can always stick knitting needles in your eyes, it’s nearly as painful as having a lousy website but it’s not as expensive.

You have a choice.

Till soon…

TWC,

I saw some questions the other day about sticky websites.

Sticky websites are great and do stop people leaving too quickly. Yes, they have given the user a good experience and probably they will come back…you can always check your site stats to see how many of your web visitors have bookmarked your site.

Sticky websites are really good for social networking sites (web 2.0) and product or service researchers. Lead generation websites are for product buyers and this is when you help them to select a product, pay and go. Typical drop out rates between Add to basket and the Checkout  are over 50%…that’s more than 50% of your visitors leaving their basket in an aisle and legging it out of the door! Maybe the checkout was sticky! It happens a lot…poor design of the checkout area is almost standard on many websites…just when you have got the customer to select a product and put it in their basket, you blow it! …Why? Often it’s because the E-commerce techies and web designers can only see it from a position of Recall, not Recognition. That usually means poor usability and high drop out rates. Stickiness keeps them there but it’s a lot of other factors that get them to spend or take an action…and that’s when you have a successful commercial website!

Some parts of a site should be sticky for researchers and social networkers and some parts need to be slippy, quick and easy for the product seekers.

You can’t justify any investment in a website without the promise of a financial return.

Yours profitably,

Till soon,

TWC

My cousin sent me this. I think it says it all really…

1. Teaching Maths In 1970 A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?   

2. Teaching Maths In 1980 A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or £80. What is his profit?

3. Teaching Maths In 1990 A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100. His cost of production is £80. Did he make a profit?   

4. Teaching Maths In 2000 A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100. His cost of production is £80 and his profit is £20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Maths In 2008 A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of £20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers. )

6. Teaching maths in 2018 …just so long as it is universally accessible by all races, creeds and colours it’ll be just fine…well…fine for all those wooly thinking idiots in charge of education but of little value to the next generation.

Yours Knowingly.

Till soon,

TWC 

OK, the answer is NO!  Now, what’s your question?

Heard this before?

Just how much authority is placed in the hands of the company’s telephone receptionist or first point of contact in a company? Too much! How can they filter out unwanted calls from the interesting callers? It’s just not possible as they don’t have the wit or knowledge to get it right.

So many company staff continue to live in their protected world without change, if they can. They remain unaware of new ideas, new products and new opportunities. It is these gatekeepers who effectively prevent the company from discovering anything new. What a shame for those who say NO.

I called a company the other day who had a NO gatekeeper…so I called their competitor (who had a neutral gatekeeper) and offered them  the same opportunity. The first gatekeeper didn’t even listen. Their competitor recently enjoyed tens of thousands of pounds worth of free PR (on Radio 4) and now enjoys an increasing number of new customers.

Listen, learn and benefit…or of course you can listen to the expert at the pub who always knows the truth, the comfortable truth.

Can companies please put someone intelligent and open minded on the phone please before the NO word kills your company.

Try the YES word soon…it’s great for business! Go on, try it now…it doesn’t hurt.

Yours optimistically,

Till soon,

TWC

So you are now looking at this page and thinking that it’s my website called Web Critic.

In many ways you are right and no doubt you will like or dislike the look and feel of the site. The only error that you can make at this point is thinking that it is a website. It is NOT!

You are only looking at the image of the website. A website is the code and structure that is written behind what you see. Google and all the other search engines rate you on what they see in the code, not the image or anything that you see on your monitor. But if you click on View- Source from the menu bar at the top left of the screen you will see the code…now that’s a website!

Subjective opinions based on image will never be a reliable method to determine the likely success of a web project but there are plenty of people that do…and that’s why 9 out of 10 websites will never bring a commercial success.

Marketing personnel with no practical knowledge of the www really do need to listen to advice and find out about the very large power in a website. It’s not just about image, it’s about words mainly. Image is a given…it’s the  written offer that’s important to a product seeker.

I trebled my turnover in 4 years with just a website. Try and speak with someone who understands web success instead of appreciating pretty images of yourself and your company. Failure is truly ugly.

Call me if you are serious.

Till soon,

TWC

The heating oil industry strikes again; or rather the heating oil suppliers of Yorkshire. I got a call from a senior and well known personality at Radio 4 asking me to provide the names of reliable companies in Yorkshire to meet with and speak with about heating oil, the price and pensioners.

Simple enough you would think….basically heating oil has gone up nearly 40% in 12 months and the media want to know what suppliers are doing about easing the burden on pensioners. I called 2 companies, one near Wetherby and one near Harrogate. They are both large providers of heating oil to both town and country users. I told them that a well known journalist (household name almost) was coming to see them. I was offering them the chance to get their name on Radio 4 at the correct time of night when pensioners listen. How nice to be able to get your company name heard by all those lovely prospective customers! But you would have thought that I had asked them to strip naked on TV.

Excuses for doing absolutely nothing ranged from “We aren’t fully prepared for that kind of meeting” to “giving him a lift back to the railway station is asking a bit much isn’t it?” Anyway, one of them finally agreed to look after him.

My experience with these naive individuals was rather liking watching rabbits staring at car headlights. I understand the journalist had a good day, in spite of but not because of.  It was also very sunny on Wednesday! Is saving money and cost cutting ruling everything? Imagination, creativity and spotting an opportunity has been stifled over recent years.

Brilliant, I will survive!

Till soon,

TWC

If you speak with the manager and the assistant manager, tell them that you are a journalist (well, a web critic anyway!) and you would think that a complaint would get handled correctly.

Not so in Harrogate at O2 anyway. I bought a new phone, told them I was planning a big trip to Europe and didn’t want to pay a big bill for calls and texts. Simple enough you would think.

Got a bill for £314.74 for the month of September so I went back to the shop and explained the problem. 3 more trips to the shop, 4 months later….no news! No news at all in fact. I spoke with both Sarah and Matt. Just another case of really lousy customer service.

Buy somewhere else I say! And I hope all the staff  find new jobs really soon. 

“See what you can’t do, O2 !”

TWC

Q: How much slower do you read with your head up? A: 25%

So reading online is more difficult than reading print with your head down. Who reads online? Not many, we scan when online. We are actively seeking specific information. We don’t read cover to cover.

Putting up entire newspapers to read online will never work. Putting forward options (in a correctly formatted email) to find out certain specific pieces of information that are in a newspaper or magazine will work.

Delivering old messages through the new medium of the web will never work…like petrol in a diesel car.  I got an email today which had Active X in it so I got the usual warning but opened it all the same. It’s hard enough to get a plain text or HTML email opened so who uses Active X…a suicide publisher?

Anybody who believes the web can provide a straight substitute for print has failed to understand why the web is different and why today’s information seekers want it in a different format. The web is a pull medium, not a push medium.

Poor publishing quality…is this why so many newspapers are going bust? No, it’s because their customers are already ahead of the game and have gone online with their ads. So it’s catch up time for newspaper owners! But you will only catch them with a new offering, not an imitation of an old offering.

Till soon,

TWC

It is difficult to believe that this actually happens. In the world of domestic heating oil suppliers, there are departmental managers and sales staff that should be weeded out and publicly humiliated for total incompetence.

Imagine this…you send an email enquiry to a company selling heating oil explaining that you have run out of oil, live locally and would like a call back as soon as possible. 4 days later you are still waiting for a call….the house is freezing, the children are blue with cold and the Aga won’t work because there is no oil.

So you ring them up and explain that you needed some oil last week…” Oh, I was out of the office that day”  What! Nobody covers for this person and checks her mails? Worse than that, I was told that usually everybody gets a call back within 7 days. 7 whole days without a call and then you expect to get their business…how are things in Fairyland?

The whole point about web enquiries (web based sales leads) is that they are hot, very hot indeed. The customer is in “buying mode” so call him back quickly before he goes elsewhere….we are talking minutes, if possible. The web is different, so try and understand it and take advantage of it. Sales leads are the life blood of a company especially in the highly competitive market of heating oil, a commodity product that is very price sensitive. So please,  just try and give that little bit of exceptional service to customers. It is likely that your price and product alone will not be sufficient to win that order.

Just ring them back quickly…it’s as easy as that! Unless you really don’t care if your customers are freezing!

Till soon,

Warmly yours,

TWC