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Question for Teachers, Educators, and Students at WebDesign.com

Many different kinds of people participate in the courses at WebDesign.com.

We recently realized we have a number of teachers and students (both college and high school) who attend our webinars. This is very exciting!

Since you are in the official, traditional educational realm, we’d love to hear about your experience with the webinars at WebDesign.com.

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below! And thanks!

  • How did you hear about WebDesign.com?
  • How are you using what you learn?
  • What has been the biggest benefit you’ve experienced as a result of attending webinars at WebDesign.com?
  • Are there particular classes that have been especially helpful? If so, which ones, and why or how have they been helpful?
  • What would you say to someone else like you (teacher or student) who is wondering whether they should consider attending the free live webinars and/or joining WebDesign.com?
  • If there were 1 or 2 things you most want to share with your peers, what would it be?

Let us know by leaving a comment.
Thanks!!

How to Prepare the WordPress Backend for a Client

When you’re setting up a WordPress-powered website for a client, you should customize the backend of WordPress to be user-friendly. If you don’t, you’ll be setting your clients up for failure and enabling them to mess up the site. So make things easy on yourself and easy on your client—customize the backend.

“Preparing a Site for the Client” is an 80-minute webinar that will show you how to customize the backend of WordPress and make it user-friendly (dare we say fool-proof?) for your clients.

We’ll cover:

  • Backing up your site.
  • Using a dashboard “skin.”
  • Customizing the footer.
  • Changing the logo.
  • Hiding the update notification.
  • Modifying the favorites dropdown.
  • Disabling meta boxes.
  • Removing various items.

And plenty more. It’s a helpful lesson that can add real value to your web services. You can access this webinar as part of the WebDesign.com premium membership, a wealth of web training resources that will boost your skills and help you attract new clients and do more for your current clients.

Tailored Login is a new plugin released since this webinar was offered. It provides an easy way to customize the login page – either to brand it for your client, or with your own brand and information. The Tailored Login plugin is available as part of the PluginBuddy Developer Suite (best deal).

One Great Business Strategy

Are you heading up a web development firm that wants to improve your bottom line? Then here is one great business strategy to help you.

RESPOND.

One word that gets missed on too many opportunities.  One action that people love and expect.  One thought on how you can differentiate yourself from the thousands of other design firms or entrepreneurs all fighting for customers.

It seems simple but one of the biggest complaints I have heard over the course of twenty years is that a potential or existing client would like a timely response to their inquiry, their question, or their needs.  Even if you are not interested, don’t know the answer, or cannot fulfill their request you should have the decency and courtesy to respond – with something…just acknowledge them.

You can make a fan and great impression with this strategy — or not.   It’s really up to you!

The WebDesign.com Bookshelf

mktg-books

Today on the WebDesign.com live show, Cory and James talked about conversation, content and community. They also recommended a lot of books that have really helped us build a community around our products and services. Here is the list of books and their Amazon links.

The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation and Earn Trust

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone

Raving Fans: Satisfied Customers Just Aren’t Good Enough

The New Community Rules: Marketing On the Social Web

There’s No Hiding on the Web

The other day I took my car in for a routine oil change and tire rotation. No big deal. Then the service guy calls me over and points out that the tires I replaced a year and a half ago—the ones with only 22,000 miles on them—are nearly worn out and need to be replaced.

Isn’t that just the way it goes?

The service guy blamed it on not rotating the tires frequently enough, which just isn’t true. He gave me an estimate for new tires that I’ll have to swallow at some point in the near future—but not right now.

When I got home I went online and started doing a little research. Something seemed fishy—tires should easily last 40,000 miles. And a little research was all I had to do. One Google search later and I’d stumbled across a common problem of uneven tire wear for this particular make and model. Across the automotive blogs and forums people were complaining about the same issue. At least I’m not alone.

Armed with that knowledge, I contacted the service department at my dealership to see if anything can be done. A growing mob of disgruntled customers isn’t something to dismiss lightly. I’m not expecting miracles at this point (especially with my car past the warranty), but it’s always worth asking.

That’s the power of the web. There’s no hiding. If your product or service has a defect or a major failing, annoyed customers will share that information, find each other and demand you fix the problem. Their ability to organize is incredible. If you think you can hide or ignore the problem, you’ve got another thing coming.

Address problems head on. Don’t try to bury your mistakes and pretend they never happened. Be honest and up front with your customer service and you won’t get burned.

Your Website Needs a Business

Your business needs a website. That’s important. But even more importantly, your website needs a business.

You can’t just slap up your name in cyberspace and call it good. You need to have a clear and specific strategy for how you’re going to use your website to help your business.

You need a plan:

  • Educational Marketing – You could use your website to education potential customers about your industry. You offer insight and knowledge and build trust with potential customers.
  • Customer Service – You could put your site to work as a 24/7 customer service representative. Pack your site with instructions, FAQs, tips and anything that will answer customer questions. You could pair it with the more immediate response of Twitter or other social networking sites to give it a more relational feel and answer questions that don’t fit the standard mold.
  • Offering Value – You could offer extra value on your website with special deals, coupons, or incentives your customers can’t get anywhere else. Amazon offers value by being cheaper, easier and having a wider selection than any brick and mortar bookstore. If e-commerce isn’t your thing, maybe you’re offering free resources that give customers value and establish a lasting relationship.

Whatever you do, make sure your website has a strategy. The last thing you want is the digital equivalent of a phone book listing.

Educate Your Customers like Apple

I am a Mac fanboy. I bought my first Mac in 1994. I’ve had at least 4 of them, plus 2 iPhones, an iPod, and even had a Newton. So you could say I’m extremely fond of their brand and their awesome products. In fact, most of the WebDesign.com team works on Apple computer (thanks for lowering prices, Apple!).

In the past couples of years I’ve seen Apple’s popularity increase drastically, just judging from the number of tech conferences I’ve been to where I’ve seen a flood of Apple logo lights everywhere in the audience.

And here’s an even better example …

The other day, I was talking with an older gentlemen who was at our house to fix our air conditioning and he noticed my Mac laptop sitting on the couch and told me how much he loved the one he got.

For the next 10 minutes, he went on and on about how much he loved his Apple and how many awesome things he could do with it.

He said he was old-school and didn’t know how to “work a computer.” But his wife bought him a Mac for Christmas last year … and he began to tell me about Apple’s One on One personal training, which I knew existed, because I see customers getting help at their little workstations every time I walk in an Apple store.

He told me that for around $100 he could go in once a week for an hour at a time for a whole year and ask all his questions.

Here’s the Apple website’s description of the program:

“There’s no better way to get set up, get trained, and get going on your new Mac than with a One to One membership at the Apple Retail Store. We’ll transfer your files from your old computer, teach you the basics in face-to-face training sessions, and guide you through more advanced projects as your skills grow.”

If you do the math, Apple could lose money on that endeavor IF someone took advantage of all 52 hour-long sessions. But you know a minuscule percentage actually do. The others probably use 4-5 hours I’d guess, but they all have the peace of mind that they aren’t on an island not knowing how to use their new computers.

The $100 cost is an insurance program for those customers.

But for Apple, it’s so much more. Apple knows the value educating of their customers.

For training like this, they could theoretically lose money – but ultimately my A/C guy will never buy another brand of computer. He’s hooked, he’s trained. And people love familiarity, especially with computer software.

Apple bought a lifetime customer.

They have made the second sale, and the third, and on and on. He’ll also be telling everybody he knows about great Apple is and how easy their computers are to use. He’ll insist they buy the One on One training.

(And, by the way, I’m sure it also saves Apple a ton in support costs because they are doing it in the store and not through a call center!)

Here are some ideas I had thinking through how we are going to educate our clients here at WebDesign.com that you could put to use in your own business:

  • Tutorials - this has long been a value of mine, writing articles that inform and teach and also creating step-by-step video tutorials that show our clients how to use our products; we are currently building our tutorial library of tutorials as I type
  • Live Seminars – we’re working on new office space where we can bring in local clients and prospects to our offices in order to teach them online marketing with websites, social media and more
  • Webinars – we’re going to do the same online through webinars – where people all over the world can come and learn too
  • Free Downloads – currently we’re offering our 7 Keys to Successful Websites ebook. Ebooks are extremely effective, affordable to produce, and easy to track, but you can also offer audio and video downloadable resources like podcasts
  • Blogging - blogs are one of the best online educational marketing tools available – they allow you to build relationships with clients while educating them in your area of expertise; our blog is our primary tool currently for educating our prospective customers and will always be a foundational facet of what we do

How are you educating your customers and clients?

Your Own Platform to Counter Complaints

In many ways the Internet is like the Wild West. Anybody can say or do practically anything they want. That sounds like an incredibly great freedom, until you realize the potential downsides for your business. The Internet gives a platform to every disgruntled customer.

Once upon a time an angry customer could raise their voice and slam the door on the way out. You could try to make amends, but if it didn’t work you could just shrug your shoulders. At worst they might tell their friends, but it would usually die down.

Complaints Go Online
Now those angry customers can go online. They can spread their grievances to anyone who will listen (and even some who won’t). There are countless sites that post user comments, giving voice to the frustrated, whether their complaints are justified or not. Those complaints don’t just disappear, they stick around. And trying to control those complaints is like herding cats. Good luck: You’ll need it. A jilted customer could even take it much farther than an angry comment and post an entire site slamming your business.

Complaints could even take a political tone as customers critique your company on a variety of issues, from unfair labor practices to animal cruelty to environmental damage.

Your Own Voice
So how do you respond? The beauty of the freedom all these complainers have online is that you have the same opportunity to speak. It’s a good idea to respond to some of these negative comments and reviews that show up on other sites, though you have to remember that you’re dealing with disgruntled customers who may not ever be assuaged. But in many cases humbly addressing an issue and offering an apology can do wonders.

But perhaps the best thing you can do is counter those complaints with your own site. Your own site doesn’t have to be the Wild West—you can control the conversation. It may not be wise to completely ignore complaints, but you can use your site to fairly address concerns and focus on the positives: emphasize how you resolved complaints and shine some light on rave reviews and happy customers. Above all be honest and transparent.

Having your own website gives you the platform to counter these complaints and the ability to have some control over the conversation. Without a website you’re ceding the conversation to someone else.

A Website is More Than Advertising

When you’re looking at your marketing budget it’s important to remember that a website is more than advertising.

Advertising is usually a one-way street. It’s one-way communication from you to potential customers. Think about the standard forms of advertising—radio or TV commercials, billboards, print ads, even the guy on the corner holding a sign. They’re all one-way communication with little regard for the customer’s interests, preferences, time or general sanity. As such, advertising gets ignored. Even worse, it can be dismissed as annoying.

While advertising can be effective, it has many pitfalls and is often on the outs today. Unless you’ve got multi-million dollar Super Bowl ads, nobody asks to see your advertising. Customers don’t want to be yelled at or interrupted.

Customers want a conversation.

That’s what a website can offer. It’s more than advertising. It’s communication. It’s connection. It’s interaction. Assuming, of course, that you take the effort to do that (see Do More with Your Website).

People visit your website because they want something. It’s not an interruption—they’re seeking you out. So give the people what they want. Give them the basic info they’re looking for. But a yellow pages ad does that, so do more. Answer questions they didn’t know they had. Offer updates and discounts and insider info. Make it dynamic. Make it change. Let’s see a yellow pages ad do that (see Flexible Marketing for Your Business).

A website is ultimately about communication, so make sure you’re communicating.

24/7 Customer Service through Blogging

Most consultants and businesses leaders spend inordinate amounts of time and money in quest of that next customer. The cost of acquiring a news customer is high. But there is something that is more costly, that’s the cost of losing an existing customer.

Think for a moment. What is the lifetime value of just one of your customers? If they spend just $250 with you per month, that’s $3,000 per year in your bank account. Maybe a $250 dollar customer doesn’t sound like much of a loss–but lost customers add up (or, rather, subtract) very quickly!

Lose that one customer and in the course of just five years that’s $15,000 dollars off your bottom line. Ten years lost with a customer would cost you $30,000.  If you lost just ten customers in ten years that’s $300,000 that is out of your life. Ouch!

Keep Customers with Good Customer Service

If you are talking to a single customer, you are talking to a person who represents a sizable portion of your total income. Better be nice to them! Think also of the time, money and energy you spend to acquire customers, if you lose an existing customer, you lose the investments you made getting them on your client list.

You can’t afford to lose your customers. Don’t exchange the existing value they bring to your consulting practice in quest for the unproven value in customers you don’t even have yet. Have a balanced prospecting plan that also includes high-quality attentive customer service.

Good customer service adds up to profits at the bottom line. If you pay attention to your customers, instead of ignoring them as most business leaders do, you will have a much stronger consulting practice. Good customer service helps you weather even the toughest economic times.

Add Value to Your Customer Relations In-Between Sales Calls

Blogging can help you improve your share of customer as you also work to increase your share of the market by creating a value-added customer service channel your existing customers can use to stay in touch with you. When they subscribe to your blog feed and hear from you in-between sales calls, you stay on their minds.

You can use blogging to promote their interests too by talking them up to your other readers and linking to their products and services. If your customer’s also blog, add them to your blog roll, chances are high they will reciprocate and you will have access to some of their readers too. Even if your customers don’t link to you, you are still deepening your relationship with your valuable customers.

The good part of blogging is your blog can work even when you are not working. The 24/7 presence of your website on the internet can “be there” to answer your customers needs anytime they are ready.

Often you clients are too busy to make a call during office hours, but might check your site when they are on the road. Maybe they are held up in a lay-over at the airport, or they could be killing time in a hotel somewhere bored stiff wanting something good to read. Why would they read your blog and not the best business sites? Because you may be the only one blogging who really understands their market. You’ll have the power of niche marketing that the big business websites and blogs can’t compete with.

If your blog provides value to your customers, they will read it and will gratefully use the information from you. In the morning, when they quote you in a presentation of their own–you will become a valuable partner to them. And they will not soon forget it.

Get More Frequency of Contact with Customers and Prospects by Blogging

One of the best marketing values of blogging is the repetition of (free) contact availed to you thorough permission marketing.  In promotions you have a constant problem that people don’t want to be interrupted with messages they didn’t ask for–it’s getting harder to connect with the people you want to reach because there is so much media clutter. The only way to stand out in the crowd, is to be an invited guest. Permission marketing.

What you need to get in advertising is “reach” and “frequency”  to close the sale with your target audience. You generally have to reach people nine times before they decide to act on your message. According to Jay Conrad Levinson the Father of Guerrilla Marketing to reach customers once, you have to send your message three times. So if you reach them once, you have sent the message three times. Twice is six times. Three is nine, etc. To reach someone enough, you almost have to effectively send your message 27 times.

Once someone you “reach” through social media is connected to you as a subscriber, they give you a limited amount of permission to market to them. Provided what you do in terms of marketing isn’t a strain on the relationship, they will stay with you the 26 more times they need to help them to decide what to do about you.

Existing customers can use your blog as a way to connect with you and will browse your blog looking for answers to their questions, or will express their needs by commenting on your blog posts. A blog opens up a two-way conversation with your customers that puts them in touch with you in a way that also shows how you are available to meet their needs.

Serve your customers both new and old though blogging for a more profitable consulting practice.