Ah, the summer. A time traditionally devoted to being outdoors, vacations and generally taking it easy. But before you decide to put things on the back burner for a while, what about your website?

As employees take a break, your office may never be fully staffed for the next six weeks or so, but your website continues to work, all day, every day. Sure, take time to be with family, organize those company picnics and camping weekends, but don't neglect the business. You decided to have a website developed to help you to stay in touch with your customers. Don't forget to make sure your message is still getting across and reaching the right people. This summer could be exactly the right time for you to take a look at your on-line marketing strategy.

Is email getting out of hand? How many messages do you have when you open the in-box each morning? When you receive a long-winded message, do you sometimes hit the 'Delete' button rather than having to navigate through content just to get to the point? And how many emails do you delete without ever reading them at all?

Despite the vast amount of irrelevant, or often simply unwanted, material we all receive, the good news is we are actually getting better at communicating effectively via email. Including links within your email is great way to shorten a message and not overwhelm the receiver. You can grab the client's interest and then retain it, by directing them to the articles, documents or company information they are most interested in.

Make it concise, keep it simple and use links. That way, the recipient won't be reaching for the delete key the next time your email arrives.

Hey, who's the new kid on the block?

Meet Rick Dang, one of Globi's newest additions to the Team!

A remarkable Web Developer, Rick Dang combines strong technical communication and documentation skills, with a great work ethic. Rick continually exceeds job expectations and always has the client's best interests at the forefront of his thinking.

By far the biggest mistake that many websites make these days is that they don't attempt to capture their visitor's contact information. Let's take a look at what such a site may miss out on. For example, if 1000 visitors come to your site and 5 make a purchase of $10 each, then 1000 visitors yield $50 on average.

However, what if you offer a newsletter to help you stay in regular contact with your customers?

Now, if 1000 visitors come to your site and 5 make a purchase of $10 each then 1000 visitors yield $50 on average on first visit. Let's suppose of these 1000 visitors, 100 sign up for your newsletter. Then over a year 5 people out of those 100 make a purchase of $10 each, Over twelve months, 1000 visitors now yields $100 on average, double what you were getting before!

Of course, it takes effort to publish a quality newsletter that your subscribers will want to receive. Yet at the end of the day, it could be well worth it. In time, your list becomes even more valuable. Your clients will come to respect you as an expert in your field, increasing the likelihood they will continue to buy from you. They may also tell others about you, increasing your share of the market still further.

It's a common belief that a website represents a magic wand for every type of business. Some companies spend a small fortune having a website created, then are completely disillusioned when a lack of traffic to the site translates into poor sales. Why did we spend all this money, they ask themselves? Isn't the internet our shop window to the rest of the world? Maybe we don't even need this thing after all?

Very often, however, limited website traffic is an indication of a lack of promotion and short-sighted marketing. If you spend good money producing flashy brochures for your business, wouldn't you hand them out at every opportunity?

Your website falls into the same category. If you don't tell anyone it exists, no one will visit it. Consequently, you'll have little traffic with no sales. Offline marketing is just as important as online marketing. Make sure your URL is on all your hand out materials such as business cards, brochures, letterheads, envelopes, pens, and also prominently displayed on any company vehicles. Once your website coordinates are in the public eye, the traffic and sales will follow.

Want to know the quickest way to annoy and lose a potential customer from your website? Just change the way they navigate from one page to the next, get them turned around a little bit, and maybe for good measure have them click through at least three 3 steps in order to access the information they were originally looking for.

Want to know how to make a happy visitor, who keeps coming back to your website? Simply ensure that every page of your site has the standard navigation in exactly the same place and have all information easily accessible.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Yet it's a fact that there are a tremendous number of websites out there that seem to go out of their way to make life difficult for their visitors.

Just received an exciting order - from New York! They love the site, and have ordered glassware. Thought I would share my excitement over my first international order with you. Thanks!

Lorna Littlewood, Littlewood Event Coordinators Inc.

Have a question or comment? Email us: feedback@globi.ca
We're always happy to hear from you!

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Until next month, we remain your humble messenger to the internet.

Globi Web Solutions
1023 - 12th Ave SW
Calgary, Alberta, T2R 0J5
Phone: (403) 229-3800
E-mail: admin@globi.ca
Web Site: http://www.globi.ca

Copyright © 2010 Globi Web Solutions. All Rights Reserved. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced in whole or in part without the inclusion of Globi Web Solutions' Reprint Permission below.

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Although this material is subject to copyright, please feel free to reprint this publication, in whole or in part, in your company publication, in training, presentations, or wherever you feel this would be of benefit. This also holds true for members of the media. All we ask (actually, we insist) is that you use the following credit line:

Reprinted with permission from Globi Web Solutions, a leading Website Design and Development Company based in Calgary. For further resources and information, go to globi.ca. Copyright © 2010 Globi Web Solutions.