:: Volume 5, Issue 6 - July 2005 ::

1. Editor's Remarks

In the summer months, we often join work colleagues outside the office in an annual get together. Think of it as the warm weather equivalent of the company Christmas party. It may involve a BBQ at a colleague's house, but it may also be your turn to provide the setting this year. This is your chance to make a good impression and make sure you stay in touch with everyone.

There are many similarities to operating on the 'Net, but while they all seem to concentrate on the technical side, a website should be business first and a technical object second.

Stay tuned over the next while where we will explore great ways to build and promote your business online.

2. Feature Article

The Web's Biggest Secret

By far the biggest mistake that many websites make these days is that they do not attempt to stay in touch by way of capturing their visitors' contact information.

If 1000 visitors come to your site and 5 make a purchase of $10 each then 1000 visitors yield $50 on average.

Now let's say we offer a newsletter like the one you're reading now to stay in contact with your customers regularly.

Now, if 1000 visitors come to your site and 5 make a purchase of $10 each then 1000 visitors yield $50 on average on the first visit. If, of these 1000 visitors, 100 sign up for your newsletter, and over a period of a year, 5 people of these 100 make a purchase of $10 each, then over a year, 1000 visitors actually yields $100 on average.

With these numbers as an example, that's double!

Sure, it takes effort to publish a quality newsletter that your subscribers will want to receive, but at the end of the day it could be well worth it.

In time your list becomes even more valuable because these people come to know you and respect you as an expert in your field which even further increases the chance that they will buy from you.

And if a customer has bought from you in the past, the chance of them buying from you again in the future is even higher (provided of course that they're happy with their first purchase).

Let the list building begin ...

To learn more about how Globi Web Solutions can help you expand your own email newsletter campaign, go to http://globi.ca/newsletter.shtml

3. Web Site Tip

Finding Yourself

When searching for a new product or service, more and more people are using the Internet to locate the goods and services they need. Are they likely to find your website? One way to find out is to put yourself in their shoes.

If someone hasn't heard of your company, they won't be searching for you by name. Instead they will use words describing the information they need or the problem they have. If they are looking for eco-vacation packages in Mexico, for example, they'll enter those words as the search criteria. They might be typing in 'web hosting', 'fitness studios', 'motivational speakers', or 'children's bookstores', rather than company names.

If you enter the problem you solve into the search box, does your website appear at the top of the search results or even on the first page. If not, how far down the rankings are you? You should also type in your own company name and see what the search engine comes up with. Are you in first place or close to it?

If you can't find yourself, no one else will be able to either. Your website needs some improvements if it's going to work effectively for you.

4. Marketing Tip

The Personal Touch

Remember 'word of mouth', that all-important, yet hard to quantify form of advertising? In a high tech age, it's often all too easy to forget the things that made the business world go round in years gone by. Despite the advantages the worldwide web brings, don't neglect the personal touch.

You have a website, do the majority of your communications with clients via e mail and even have an auto responder on your site. Your website statistics tell you where customers are coming from, along with an indication of who you should be marketing yourself to. You may even have stopped having brochures printed altogether. It's all so easy, yet don't abandon business mixers, after hours Chamber of Commerce meetings, taking valued clients for lunch and good old fashioned networking. They all still have an important role to play and if you do it right, it may even be what sets you apart from your competition.

5. Web Site Faux Pas

Banner Bedlam

Some websites seem to be nothing more than a vast array of banners, not to mention the ones at the top of the page. Banners can be complex, take time to load and often only serve to turn off any surfer if they need to wait for them to appear. The last thing your site needs is a 'banner farm', even if you have a large collection of affiliate advertisers on your web pages.

If at all possible, it's advisable to employ a minimum number of banners or implement a rotating banner that allows a new banner to appear each time the page is visited or refreshed. So ease up on the bombardment of banner marketing, give your visitors' eyes a break and they'll be more likely to stay a while to explore your site.

6.globi Client Case Study

Challenge:
The Darrow Company caters to a mature, more senior clientele who are not particularly internet-savvy.

Solution:
Globi assessed the client's visitor demographics and their need to make informed financial investment decisions. Globi in turn created a clean site design and navigation that promoted valuable content over heavy graphics to satisfy this mature audience.

Benefits:
The client's site visitors now enjoy an easy-to-read site with resizable text and navigation, no distractions, and valuable information that immediately inspires trust with the visitor.

7. Feedback

"Our website is now updated. Just to let you know that we are very pleased with the result and the smooth service provided by Globi. Thank you very much. We will need your service again in another 2-3 months."

Marlies Cortiula - CormaEnterprises.com

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

Hey - share the Wealth!

People you care about could be benefiting from the wealth of information on new and solutions on the Web. So help them by forwarding this issue of Globi Web Solutions Newsletter!

Privacy

As our subscribers, we respect your privacy and will never make our mailing list publicly accessible.

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.

Reprint Permission

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.