The Washington Business Journal just named SiteWhirks one of the Top 25 Philanthropic Firms in the Washington D.C. Area.  These awards were given as a percentage of corporate giving based on annual revenue.  We are pleased to be named among such giving local companies and will continue to give back to those organizations that we see making a difference. 

A recent article in StartupNation highlighted the top things to look for when searching for a web development and design firm.  They listed experience in the industry as Number One.  We couldn't agree more, in our 10 years in this business we've seen lots of other website design firms come and go.  The firms with experience are here for a reason. Below is their complete list:

1. Experience in the industry: Seek web design companies that have a substantial amount of time in the industry. Companies that have been in business for quite some time most likely continue to deliver quality work. The industry itself will weed out companies that offer shoddy service and products.
2. Previous clients: Check out the company's client list. High-profile clients will show that the business is credible and reliable.
3. Client testimonials and feedback: Find out if the web design company provides client testimonials to learn about their own experiences working with the graphic design companies. Client testimonials will greatly help your decision making process and you may find out deal breaking information.
4. Punctuality and timeliness: Being on time becomes an enormous issue if you are trying to launch your website in a timely manner. Search for customer reviews to find out if certain web design companies have issues with timeliness and punctuality. Ask former clients about timeliness issues.
   

An April 2009 survey by The Discover Small Business Watch found that only 38 percent of small businesses with five or fewer employees even have a website. A full 62 percent remain "non adopters." And that number has decreased only three percent since 2007, when 65 percent of small businesses were not on the web. 

With a website being the most cost effective marketing tool in existence, build it right the first time and it keeps on working 24/7, why wouldn't a business have one, a good one?  In the U.S. there are 227,636,000 Internet users as of June/09, 74.1% of the population, according to Nielsen Online.  

Justin Kitch of Entrepreneur magazine said it this way, "It continues to baffle me why any small business wouldn't use the internet as an essential sales, marketing and customer relations tool. Establishing and maintaining a web presence is incredibly cheap and easy these days."

The point is, your competitor has a website and by not having one you're handing them that business without a fight. 

A recent article in Fast Company perfectly illustrates how too many hands involved in the creative process can kill the originality and the spark of a project.  We've seen this first hand many times, where our designers work with the original contact at a client's firm to create something truly stunning, but, once the project goes through the endless committee approval process what comes out the other end is a bland pile of words with a few graphics.  As the article points out:

"The biggest challenge to better design isn't getting better designers. The problem is organizational, and the hub-and-spoke decision-making process that was originally created to slash bureaucracy--that is, to create more decentralized decisions and less hierarchy. But the overriding weakness, which design thinking makes manifest, is that good design is necessarily the product of a heavily centralized structure. Great design at places such as Apple isn't about "empowering decision makers" or whatever that lame B-school buzzword is. It's about awarding massive power and self-determination to those with the most cohesive vision--that is, the designers. Those are the people with the best idea of what customers want. That's the essence of "design thinking." 

The solution; let a select few steer the project and you'll receive more creative and efficient results.  Think about it this way - the paintings and sculptures you admire weren't put together by committee.  Click here to read the full article.

Here is a great article from Fast Company about how companies use their web site to not only educate visitors, but also allow their visitors to educate them:

"Like the Wizard of Oz hiding behind his curtain, Procter & Gamble has for most of its history hidden behind its powerful array of consumer brands. About itself -- about the people and the practices that go into developing those brands -- it has retained a rather secretive air. Pay no attention to the corporation in Cincinnati, the company seemed to say. Instead, just watch as billions of consumers keep coming back to products like Crest, Folgers, and Tide.

But there's a new spirit of openness at P&G -- and it's most evident on the Internet. Just take a look at PG.com. A year ago, it was a stodgy, nondescript site where no one other than investors and job seekers had any reason to go. Today, when you log on to it, you see a consumer-friendly portal that proudly announces P&G's responsibility for "more than 300 brands you know and trust." On the site, you can call up a wealth of information about the history, structure, and operations of the $40 billion company; link to "tips and resources" on family, household, and personal care; and, most intriguingly, take part in P&G's efforts to create, test, and market its brands." Read more...

Below is another study supporting the notion that marketing during a recession is even more critical than during good economic times. Studies consistently show that most companies cut back on marketing budgets when business slows, leaving less competition in front of your potential customers. Companies that market themselves effectively during recessions can actually grow, and then, when the economy turns around, those companies are actually stronger than when the recession started.  

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA --For well-positioned companies, an economic recession should not prompt marketing cutbacks, but rather an aggressive increase in marketing spending to achieve superior business performance according to research authored by Gary Lilien and Arvind Rangaswamy of Penn State's Smeal College of Business.

The study finds that firms entering a recession with a pre-established strategic emphasis on marketing; an entrepreneurial culture; and a sufficient reserve of under-utilized workers, are best positioned to approach recessions as opportunities to strengthen their competitive advantage.

"Athletes often choose times of stress to mount attacks: strong runners and bicycle racers may increase their pace on hills or under other challenging conditions," the authors write. "In a similar vein, proactive marketing includes both the sensing of the existence of the opportunity (a tough hill and fatigued opponents) and an aggressive response (possessing the necessary strength or nerve) to the opportunity."

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." 
-- Henry Ford

A great way to separate your company from the competitors is with a call to action - something that asks visitors to make contact - a piece of candy.  For instance, if you're a heating and air firm, you can add a message such as "Over 80% of Homes Are Operating with Inefficient Heating Systems Costing You Money - Call Today For a Free Efficiency Inspection" right on the home page of your web site.  A message like this informs the customer, and gives them an immediate reason to call (please be sure any statistical information you provide is accurate, the sample here was pulled out of the air as an example).  The first question to ask is how far is your company willing to go in terms of the offer, how much time/effort are you willing to give for the promotion?  The next piece of the puzzle is tracking, you'll need to track how many of the leads that result from such a promotion turn into customers, this way you can gauge the cost benefit and if the promotion requires any tweaking or expansion. 

SiteWhirks launches SiteWhirks NonProfit web site development (http://nonprofit.sitewhirks.com/) in order to market our special pricing and services geared towards the non-profit sector.  As nonprofits serve special needs in society we strive to provide the types of dynamic websites that can help them make better use of the web with custom web software, smoother online donation systems, quality design and search engine promotion. 

If you already have an attractive website, one that instills confidence with visitors, here are a few affordable things that you can do that will not only bring in new visitors, but also keep your products or services in front of your existing customers.

1. Add a blog to your website:  You can have a blog added to your web site that will allow you to easily add posts about subjects that relate to your arena, things that would be of interest and inform potential customers.  A blog is a great way to naturally add new keywords and phrases to your site that search engines pick up on.  With Digg It!, Linking Blogs, and del.icio.us links other bloggers and visitors can easily help you spread that content to other blogs and posts when they find content they like.

2. Newsletters:  By adding the ability for visitors to sign up for an email newsletter on your website you can gather the opted-in email addresses of those interested in your company and easily send newsletters containing items such as specials, new products or services, and company news.  Email newsletters not only reach those who've signed up for them, but often times get forwarded to others, spreading your message even further.  An email newsletter is one of the most affordable ways to directly reach potential customers, and over time your email list will grow.  Two of the best email newsletter systems are ConstantContact.com and iContact.com.

3. Google Adwords: This program allows you to create an ad that appears on the top or right side of Google when someone does a keyword search that you've targeted.  Two of the best things about an ad campaign like this are that it's immediate and you can set a monthly budget.  Once you've setup the campaign it begins almost immediately and because you pay each time someone clicks on your ad, you begin to see the traffic results right away.  What this allows you to do is bid on keywords, so for instance if you're in the wedding planning business you can bid on the "wedding planning" phrase at for instance $1.25, then set your monthly budget at $500, and you'll know that in one month you'll get 400 direct visitors to your site.  You can also set your geographic area, so if you only serve Maryland, then you can set the ads to only be served in that state.  To learn more go to http://adwords.google.com - if you would like assistance setting up an Adwords campaign for your company just let us know.

Why? For these simple reasons:

• Anyone can make money in the good times, when starting a business in a downturn you learn to be aggressive and frugal, every move must count. This toughens a new business, hardens it by fire
• Everything is negotiable - services such as marketing and advertising are negotiable, equipment is cheaper, office rent is negotiable etc.
• Your competitors are likely hunkering down, they are cutting costs, deciding what may need to be cut next, this is a good time to hit the market hard with a new face, product, or service.
• 16 of the 30 companies that make up the Dow industrial average were started during a recession or depression. These include Procter & Gamble, Disney, Alcoa, McDonald's, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson.
• If you already have a company, this is also a good time to restart your company, refocus on what your company lacks, redo your image, marketing materials, rethink your advertising.