Orange E-Business Advocate

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Incorporating Design into the Process

Here is an an interesting article talking about the difference between strategic design and production design.

Usability = Sales

Just read a decent article at ECommerce Guide that talks about simple usability enhancements that improve sales.

Blogging Good for Business

In case you needed encouragement to start your own blog for a small business:

Inc.com: Business Blogging on the Rise

The take-away is that because small businesses can adapt their marketing strategy very quickly due to their size and lack of decision-making overhead, blogs can be a very powerful tool for trying out new ideas and grabbing customers' attention away from larger companies that cannot respond as fast through their old-school marketing channels.

No Bulls!

No Bulls!
Originally uploaded by dxbutterfly.

I found this great picture in my Flickr RSS feed. I love the fact this it is orange.

So there you have it everybody. With OCEA, there is no bull, only expert advice.

Websites for Free

It's becoming harder and harder for a custom website design and development shop to stay in business. At least one that caters to other small businesses who have tight budgets and aren't really aware of what their options are.

If cost is your primary concern, a free website you can have.

But if you want a killer website design, or someone to be a true advocate of your specific needs and how the web can fulfill those needs, you need to turn to a professional.

Orange County Trust: Try Harder Next Time

I just received an email from Orange County Trust, the local bank in this area, telling me about the "ease and convenience of Internet banking." For the record, I like Orange County Trust as a bank, but I am really disappointed with their online efforts. I have tried to register for their online banking service many times over the past few years, but have never experienced any success.

Here is the email:

The ability to view your accounts online is a powerful tool in staying on top of your finances ANYTIME and ANYWHERE - check your account balance, view up-to-date account history and more.

We invite you to login to our Web site and experience the ease and convenience of Internet banking. If you have any questions about your new Internet Banking service, feel free to call 845-341-5000 or email octc@frontiernet.net.

Orange County Trust Co P O Box 790, Middletown, NY, 10940 845-341-5000

If you would like to discontinue receiving helpful reminders about our online services, login to our web site, click the User Services tab, and select "Marketing Preferences" under the User Preferences section.

This is a perfect example of a company that does not "get" the web. The first major problem is that nowhere in the email is a mention of their website address - how do they expect me to register? Or more importantly, remove myself from their mailing list? All email correspondance of this nature should include a one click unsubscribe service.

And don't state the obvious; if your customers have an email address, they understand that their online banking account can be accessed anytime and anywhere. In fact, online banking should be a GIVEN for any bank these days, not advertised as a nifty service or extra perk.

From a marketing perspective, this email is terribly weak. The from address is simply octc@frontiernet.net; most likely, the email address assigned to OTC Co. the first day they signed up for internet access with Orange County's local ISP, Frontier Communications. If I hadn't attempted to register for an online account before, I wouldn't have even recognized the email address and marked it as spam. The message leaves so much to be desired... why not go into further detail about the features of the system, explain the steps involved in registering, and outline the benefits to online banking that a customer can't get any other way?

And lastly, a little design goes a long, long way. There is no corporate logo in this email, or photos of the branch, or even screenshots of this wonderful online banking system that would make my life much more convenient. A little more effort would achieve significantly better results.

Reputation with Search Engines

If you are paying for someone to optimize your website for search engines, and waiting anxiously for results, believe them when they tell you these things take time!

How to keep URLs clean

For the web developers...

A while back, I talked about the importance of URLs. The other day I came across a site that echoes some of my sentiments in that post, and explains how to use a technique known as URL Rewriting (lots of thanks to Apache's mod_rewrite) to achieve cleaner, more memorable URLs.

Reaction to Yahoo

I was invited to Yahoo 360 today (in its beta phase, you need an invite from an existing member to join). After a quick tour of its features, I have to say I am impressed -- looks like they have done a good job with their user interface. It is certainly geared for their base of existing users, but at the same time incorporates the up and coming technologies and best practices on the web (blogging, social networking, rss feeds, and so on). I believe we are going to see a lot more "average" internet users adopt the notion of social networking thanks to this service. Let's see what happens next.

Stop Being So Obvious!

One of my main concerns when I started this blog was to avoid stating the obvious - I wanted to make sure OCEA was providing a valuable service, and building up a useful base of knowledge for its clients (and potential clients) to draw upon.

People aren't stupid; we can all quickly identify information that is junk. At the same time, consumers respond well to clever marketing, and the sharing of information that somehow meets their needs or sparks an interest in them.

As such, it bothers me that OCEA continues to receive junk marketing from American Express. I'm disappointed, because I had high hopes for their OPEN: Small Business Network, yet they continue to send me letters and emails with useless content:

Using your American Express� Business Card instead of checks can help give you more time to pay since your Card bill typically isn't due for several weeks after receipt. This month just give it a try, and see all the ways your Card can help make doing business a little easier.

Really now. Please stop insulting my intelligence with this obvious statement!

It reminds me of those TV shopping channels, where the salespeople have to kill time and come up with a thousands more reasons you should buy the product they are showcasing. "It has a 2.2 Ghz CPU, so you can download your email faster!" What?

So, now for my obvious conclusion: Keep your marketing communications concise, and don't waste your customers' time. When you have a great new product or service, or some truly clever tips or discounts to share, that's when you should send out emails and promotions. Otherwise, leave people alone - they'll be more inclined to listen to you later when you really do have something good to say.

(Came across this website content writing guide while researching this post. Hope you find it useful!)

Leadership and Courage

I read an inspirational post on FastCompany.com today about leadership and courage. A great quote:

You can't build anything great in life if you're worried about failure. When you worry about failure, you put your energy in the wrong place. You end up focusing on escape routes and contingency plans instead of success. And you kill the passion and drive you need to bring your creative ideas to life.

Fear of failure is probably the main reason why most people don't start their own business venture, or why a fledgling business never grows into a success. Focusing on the future and fueling your enthusiasm for dreams is the best way to make them a reality - have the courage to make great things happen!

Other blogs talking about leadership.

Building a Better Local Business Directory

ClearSpanMedia, a web development and marketing company serving the greater Houston, TX area, has put together a noteworthy portal site called CommShout (Community Shout).

CommShout is portrayed as a place for Houston consumers to find listings and information on local restaurants, theatres, hotels, and other services. It features a very clean user interface and the site is structured in way that is highly search engine friendly. However, the only businesses listed are those who are paying ClearSpanMedia for a one page ad. While it's likely that these businesses are seeing moderate results from a boost in search engine traffic due to CommShout, how beneficial of a resource is this for the Houston community as a whole?

OCEA is developing a portal site for Orange County, NY, where businesses can list themselves for FREE! This would be similar conceptually to the Google Local Business Center but exclusive to Orange County, so that it can be a true resource for the community, both businesses and consumers alike.

Why do we want to do this? Because we're Advocates for the local businesses of this area. We also want to make it easier for consumers in the region (especially those who recently moved here) to find quality, trusted, and respected businesses that are part of Orange County's history and continue to provide great products and services. At the same time, we want to empower local businesses to use the web to its fullest, and hopefully use OCEA to make their online presence a reality.

If you are interested in having your business listed in such a directory, please contact us at advocateoceagroup.com or call 845.742.8102.

Technorati Tags: directory, orange-county-ny

Yahoo Comes Full Circle

As if I didn't have enough things to keep track of... Yahoo announced its new social networking site, Yahoo 360, which I predict will give a lot of the other sites out there a run for their money.

What makes Yahoo different? Their 165 million registered users who have already enjoyed countless other features on this portal site. Plus, I think Yahoo's services will strike a cord with a broader base of users, whereas personal sites like Friendster and MySpace, or even business sites like LinkedIn and Ryze, are focused on the more hip and savvy users and tend to alienate the masses.

As a small business owner, also be aware of some of the features Yahoo plans to roll out, which could directly affect you:

Recommendation Lists (books, movies, products, etc.)
Link sharing
Business ratings and reviews

Google: Calling all Business Owners

Today Google announced a new offering, called the Google Local Business Center, enabling business owners to add, update, or remove their business listings from Google's index. It is an absolute no-brainer to add your local business to Google's index - it is like getting listed in the Yellow Pages for free! I highly recommend visiting the link above and registering your business.