Showing posts with label public relations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public relations. Show all posts

Friday, July 23, 2010

When Small Doesn't Mean Small

I just finished reading a recap about the Ad Age Small Agency Conference held in New Orleans recently. One of the discussions that permeated the conference was “how to replace the term small.” Everyone seemed in agreement that the word small gave the connotation that the agency did not have the ability to provide the client with all the services needed to do a first class job of communication. In some cases this might be true, but in many cases, the “small” agency is faster, more creative, more affordable, and just as darn good as the mega-agencies at providing services for clients.

Imagery is small. We are also what we term “virtual.” We don’t have fancy offices that increase our overhead. We can provide all the marketing services needed by clients – research, strategic planning, all the advertising and public relations services including creative and media, web and social media services, and a few other things that our larger competitors don’t touch, like custom training programs, meeting facilitation and custom secret shopper programs. The client has access to what she or he needs, when she or he needs it, without having to pay for the overhead of "all those people under the same roof."

How can we do it? We have a network of exceptional professionals that we bring in when the client needs the services.

Are we free? No. Are we cheap? No. We’re cost effective. Let’s face it, folks, no one gives her time and talent away. Do we get results? Yes. And we have clients that will tell you that.

Our clients are small to medium sized businesses and non-profits. The small business and non-profit clients used to think they couldn't afford an agency. We convinced them that they could and been partners in their growth.

We might be small in numbers "under the same roof," but we’re mighty in creativity, experience, skills, and abilities, and we know how to get the job done excellently. Small can be a good thing, even in the agency business.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

There is Hope for Customer Service

Finally!

Today I got a response to my letter to the president of JC Penney.

A very nice person called to assure me that JC Penney took customer service seriously and that my glasses would not only be replaced, but my warranty on the lenses would be good for a year after I get the replacements and they were also sending me a gift card. She also assured me that she would follow up and give me a call when the glasses were ready for me to pick up.

Frankly, I don't need any gift cards, although I won't turn it down. I am, however, very happy to see that the company responds to complaints and wants to keep customers satisfied. The sad part of all this is that it took a letter to the president of the company to get action, which means that they need to do some employee training!

I know the economy isn't good, and usually training is one of the things that companies scratch from the budget under such circumstances, but management should think twice about NOT training employees in customer service skills. The lady who contacted me on behalf of JC Penney said that one call to a regional manager from the local employees could have solved the problem quickly. I'm sure the local employees would have been happy to get me off their backs with a phone call, but it didn't happen.

Marketers... make sure your company is doing its best in customer service and protect your "customer lifetime value!" All the advertising dollars in the world can't un-do the damage that results from bad customer service. And be happy if customers complain. You'll have the chance to fix the problem. If they just walk off and don't complain, you don't have a clue that there is a problem.

I'm waiting for JC Penney to follow through.

Monday, April 12, 2010

AT&T and Verizon are Wising Up!

In the email news I received today from Advertising Age, the online publication reports that AT&T is dropping its whiny response to Verizon's "apps and maps" campaign for a more positive campaign concept. I'm not sure what "Rethink Possible" means, but at least AT&T seems to have gotten the message that spitting contests don't do much for the average consumer.

The article also says that Verizon is expected to shift gears to a more positive campaign message.

This is a good thing! Maybe the two communications giants will give us some solid reasons to buy their brands instead of acting like kids having a playground spat.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

A Letter to the CEO of #139 on the Fortune 500...

Well folks, after no attempts by the J.C. Penney personnel to keep this long time customer and card holder happy, I finally had it today.

I've called and called about my lost glasses and all I get is the answering machine at the J.C. Penney optical department in Mobile. I've left messages asking for the department manager to call me back about my glasses. No call backs! No nothing!

So I just finished a letter to Mr. Myron Ullman, President and CEO. It will go in tomorrow's mail and should be in Plano, Texas by Thursday or Friday. Perhaps Mr. Ullman will get the picture. If not, I'll know that the problem is company-wide and that J.C. Penney is too fixated on door busters and one day sales to care about customer lifetime value, which can be computed in dollars and cents. Just ask Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart knows its customer's value in terms of sales and profit dollars over years of buying, and teaches its employees how much bad service can cost the company.

Obviously J.C. Penney hasn't taught its employees as well as Wal-Mart. That could be why the company must have a "sale" every weekend.

Nor have the J.C. Penney employees been monitoring the web for any "bad news." If they had, they might have answered my blog quickly, like Abebooks.com did. "Abe" gets an A+ in "net savvy", and has redeemed itself on the customer service front! I will return to the Abebooks.com site for purchases in the future. Not so with J.C. Penney.

J.C. Penney, you just failed the marketing 101 midterm. I hope you do better on your final.

Marketers, keep an eye on your company's customer service and take action to protect that "customer lifetime value!" Train employees in the art of customer retention. It's as important as any of the "p's" in the marketing cycle!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Funeral Services for Customer Service on Hold...

I've cancelled the funeral service for customer service in respect to our online book order problem. I got several emails from Abebooks.com and from the book seller who shipped the book. And the book arrived within 4 days. So we have no quarrel with Abebooks. I even got a comment on the blog posting from Abebooks. I can appreciate the fact that the book site and seller made things right. The book seller does need to make sure that his email response is correct from now on, though. It is a bit disconcerting when you pay for expedited shipping and get an email saying that your package is coming via Uncle Sam's pony express.

I haven't cancelled the funeral for J.C. Penney's customer service, though. It's been almost two weeks since the local store said I would get a new pair of glasses to replace my now long lost pair. I haven't heard a word since my last call to them. And I'm keeping notes on dates, times and what has been said.

You would think that a company of J.C. Penney's size would respond at least as fast as our online book buddies at Abebooks. Not so. And I guess they don't have anyone who monitors the Internet for things that are being said about the company. I'm not sure how large or small Abebooks is, but I'm sure they don't have the corporate hiring power of J.C. Penney, and yet they obviously monitor the blogs on the Internet.

Good for Abebooks.com! Bad for J.C. Penney! Perhaps I should offer them our services in public relations and customer service training.

Thanks for restoring my faith in techies, Abebooks.com (especially Scott)! Perhaps you need to offer your services to J.C. Penney, too.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Customer Service Died an Unnatural Death!

No wonder my blood pressure is high. I've been caught in a customer service nightmare with several companies. Companies are not paying attention to what employees are doing to ruin reputations and chase off customers! Shame on you, marketing professionals! Customer retention is of utmost importance!

Incident number 1: J.C. Penney Optical - last year I had my eyes checked and bought new glasses at J.C. Penney Optical. This was the second time I decided to use them. The first time, I has a very good customer experience and bought glasses without pressure to pay a fortune for things I didn't want or need. This time, the buying experience was good again.

However, I paid for insurance on my lenses so that I could have them replaced if they got scratched or damage, so when that happened around the first of this year, I took them back and asked to have them either repaired or replaced. The women who were on duty were trying to deal with lots of customers. It was obvious they needed more help. I dutifully waited until I could get service. The sales person was nice, but distracted. She said she would send the glasses back to the lab and call me when the lab had an answer about what they could do.

Several weeks later, I hadn't heard anything about my glasses, so I called. The person who answered my call had no idea what I was talking about and asked me to call back when the optical department manager was in. I kept calling back. The optical department manager wasn't in each time I called. I finally got her. She said she would check on my glasses and call me back. Some time later, she called back and said the glasses should be shipped to the Mobile store within that week. I called back several times and finally was told the glasses had come in. I went to get them on a Friday. The frames weren't the same. The glasses didn't have Transition lenses. The glasses made my vision blurry. But the sales person assured me they were my glasses and that I should go home and wear them for a few days. I went home, tried again, got sick to my stomach, and took the glasses back the very next day to complain. They weren't my glasses. The girl who took them said she would leave a message with the manager. I wrote the message - explaining the mistake. Since then, I have called, gone to the store and done everything in my power to get them to either give me the right glasses or give me my money back. The last time I was in, I was told by the clerk that I had to get permission to get a refund on my glasses. She was too busy talking on the phone to someone and laughing it up to treat my problem with any concern.

My next step... I think I'll write to the CEO of J.C. Penney and complain. But first, I'll blog.

Incident number 2: Abebooks.com - I ordered a text book I needed for teaching my Marketing Management Class at Spring Hill. I ordered expedited shipping (2-4 days) and was charged about three or four dollars more for it ($7.99 to be exact). I just got notice from Abebooks and from "The Book Place" that the order had shipped, but the shipping notice said it was shipped standard mail (4 - 10 days). So I emailed them back and said I had paid for expedited shipping. I got a reply that made no sense. "We are sorry you haven't received your book yet. If..." Nothing about my payment for expedited shipping, or graciously saying they would refund the difference. That's the last time I'll shop on Abebooks.com and I'll be sure NOT to recommend the site to any students, professors, peers, friends... you get the picture.

I guess companies don't bother to explain to employees that in lean economic times, the employee's job and the future of the company may very well rest on customer satisfaction and customer retention. And the employees obviously don't give a hoot about customer satisfaction once the customer has been fleeced out of the bucks.

So we must hold a funeral for customer service. It's dead. Though I don't think it's buried yet.

March 12th - Addendum: The latest from Abebooks.com and The Book Place... I received an email saying that the notification template that was used was wrong and that my order had been shipped per my payment and request for expedited shipping. So we have closed the book on this one, I hope and I'll be expecting to get the book soon. One thing I can say about the customer service for these two providers, they do answer email quickly. And that's a good sign! Maybe customer service isn't totally dead. Maybe it can be revived.

(Imagery Marketing Consultants can produce and facilitate custom customer service training programs. Contact Imagery for help in training your employees how to retain customers through excellent service.)

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Guest Blogger: APRs take PR to Heroic Proportions

Our guest "Phlogger" this week is Michael Tullier, APR, director of external relations for the Auburn University College of Education.

It doesn’t take a superhero to fend off reporters and save the CEO in distress, but in today’s fast-paced world of public relations, there is a group of professionals with the demonstrated “powers” needed to be successful. Some mild-mannered, some daring – but all equipped with the knowledge, skills and abilities demanded of the public relations profession – these professionals certainly don’t keep their Accredited in Public Relations identity a secret.

Professionals don’t earn their APR through exposure to the yellow sun or the bite of a radioactive spider. Each builds on book smarts and practical experience and approaches the process with different expectations. But since “deliverables” in our profession are critical, pursuing Accreditation results in power-packed benefits for professionals, employers and the profession as a whole.

Combining introspection and education. Accredited professionals have reported through surveys that the APR process is reflective, introspective and knowledge-expanding. And while we celebrate those employers who require the APR as a requisite for employment or financially reward those who achieve this milestone, a vast majority of APRs find contentment in the personal rewards Accreditation offers. Through a process that 96 percent of APRs surveyed find valuable, 96 percent would recommend to a colleague, and 93 percent feel assessed the skills needed to succeed in the profession, APRs acknowledge the credential for building confidence and credibility while expanding their knowledge content.

Gaining marketplace credibility. Accreditation is not a new concept to corporate America. Manufacturers, educational institutions, medical facilities and the like seek the integrity that comes with their industry’s or discipline’s accrediting endorsement. Should it not make sense that companies would seek the same in their hiring practices? Consider that the human resource industry itself has, not one, but two distinct accrediting levels for human resource professionals. Accredited public relations professionals demonstrate their commitment to mastering – and continuing to develop – the knowledge, skills and abilities, or KSAs, desired by today’s employers. The APR credential also helps employers clearly and effectively evaluate one’s qualifications when compared to applicants from other professions who see public relations as a chance to “try something new” or to take their career “in a new direction.”

Defining the profession. The Accreditation process benefits our profession by bringing structure and definition to it. As part of the Universal Accreditation Board’s 2003 effort to redesign the APR process, APR leaders sought a better understanding of what our profession entails and what it takes to be successful in today’s PR environment. And guess what? It didn’t reveal necessary characteristics like “being a people person.” It created clear delineations between the tactical and strategic practice levels, emphasized the professional’s counselor role, and clarified that public relations doesn’t “just happen” – it is a deliberate, ethically based executive function with measurable results.

Accreditation in Public Relations has prepared – and continues to prepare – professionals to lead by example in our industry and in our associations. Within the nine participating organizations of the Universal Accreditation Board, you’ll find within these associations’ top volunteer and paid leadership levels Accredited professionals equipped to advance the opportunities for their fellow professionals and our profession. As a result, those who have demonstrated an intricate understanding of our profession and their own professional practice are imminently qualified to see our industry into the coming decades.

I’m not suggesting that “APR” comes emblazoned on its own red-and-blue spandex outfit, part of a gadget-ridden utility belt or with powers sufficient to gain you a title role on NBC’s Heroes. What it does, however, is empower professionals in a manner each finds befitting their personal, professional and volunteer expectations. For professionals eager to distinguish themselves in today’s marketplace, Accreditation in Public Relations offers a means of garnering positive attention and that “second glance” in a way that wearing a cape to work never will.

Power up today at www.praccreditation.org.

Michael Tullier, APR, is director of external relations for the Auburn University College of Education in Auburn, Ala. An award-winning public relations professional with more than 15 years of experience as an organization’s chief public relations counsel and spokesperson, Michael achieved accreditation in 2003. Tullier served as chair of the Universal Accreditation Board in 2008 and is its current immediate past chair. During his UAB tenure, which began in 2005, he has represented both the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and Southern Public Relations Federation (SPRF).

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Guest Blogger: What is Web 2.0? Interactivity and Social Networking are taking over!

Our Guest "Phlogger" this week is Deborah Geiger, APR, of Content Fresh LLC

Are you running Web 2.0? A dramatic shift has occurred worldwide on the Internet that will impact your business whether you follow it or not.

Web sites of the last century were diverse, and one common characteristic was that content was driven by the corporation. Polished and informative brochure-style sites contained loads of information on company history, products, purchase information, and other static business information and resources. Researchers from institutions, marketing and sales divisions of corporations and information sources loaded the Internet with information and valuable content.

The new Internet, or Web 2.0, is driven by individuals.

A Wikipedia definition: "Web 2.0" refers to what is perceived as a second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications. Examples include social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups and folksonomies.
[Citation: Web 2.0. (2009, July 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:14, July 10, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_2.0&oldid=301344373]

While companies are still posting and adding content in scores, the change is in the fact that the majority of what people say online is no longer managed by corporations or their staff. Millions of people share information daily on social networking sites, such as Facebook (over 5 million members) and Twitter. In fact research shows that searches for social networking has FINALLY surpassed porn!

“According to Bill Tancer, Hitwise's general manager of global research, Web searches for social networking sites have finally surpassed searches for pornography.” [Source: Gina Hughes: The Techie Diva, blog, Yahoo Tech!, Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:39PM EDT]

By enabling and allowing information sharing and collaboration, the Web has become a shared “application” where the content begins with PEOPLE, not business or companies. Smart companies are joining in the conversation by adding corporate blogs, joining Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and more.

Leading edge are letting their customers post actual messages and receive feedback in real-time on their sites. It takes guts to allow your customers to post their true feelings about your products on your Web site, but the companies that do this are seen as sincere, honest and businesses where you will want to spend your money! Are you ready to give it a try?

Deborah York Geiger, APR, owner of Content Fresh LLC, maintains a blog at www.geigerpoint.wordpress.com. With 20 years experience in marketing, public relations and business, Deborah writes about technology for business professionals. For more information, visit www.myfreshcontent.com.

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SPRF (Southern Public Relations Federation) is conducting a survey about use of social networks. If you are an SPRF member and have not taken the survey, please use the link below and take part. And if you do not belong to SPRF, please take the survey anyway. Here's a link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6V1DTiyALEIcBDa6IIdTbA_3d_3d
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Check out this link! http://www.buffalonews.com/145/story/751819.html

It will take you to a story on the benefits of using a virtual ad agency. Imagery Marketing & Research Consultants, Inc. is a virtual agency... And we would love your business! We've got years of experience and loads of expertise. Check us out at http:www.imagerymarketing.com

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Search Engine Woes Part I

SEO, SEO… What the Heck is SEO?

According to Wikipedia:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

The acronym "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.

Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or Spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

So how do I get “SEOd”?

We are constantly being emailed about optimizing our site (which we have already done, and we do for all our clients). I had one “gentleman” tell me we had to hire his firm because no one could find our site on the search engines. I asked him how he found us. Obviously, he had been on our site, since he knew we existed, had my company email address and the company phone number. He couldn’t have found us in the Yellow Pages, since we’re not there.

Watch out for these companies that contact you by email and tell you that they can produce great results for you. These spam emails are about as useful as the emails that you get on “male enhancement” pills.

Your webmaster or mistress should understand keyword optimization and build it into your site in the design and development phase. If you have hired someone to build your site, ask them if they understand SEO before the process begins. And listen carefully. If they promise you the moon and stars, be skeptical.

If you already have a site, check with your provider and ask them if they have optimized your site. Ask them how they did it. If you don’t hear anything about keywords and site structure, then you may want to investigate companies that do search engine optimizing. But be careful. There are plenty of SEOs out there that do underhanded and unethical stuff that may get your site removed from the search engine indices (as stated above).

If you think you need SEO, check with people you trust to find out who they recommend. Talk to your ISP. Talk to Internet design firms. And be wary of the “SEO” song and dance. Don’t let anyone promise to put you at the top of the Google search. Nobody can promise that you’ll end up as number one on all the search engines.

Questions to ask:

* What experience do you have in my local area? Nationally? Internationally?
* What are your most important SEO techniques?
* How long have you been doing SEO? How long has your company been in business?
* Are you putting me in paid advertising or actually optimizing my site?
* How do we communicate? Will you provide me with detailed information about how you intend to optimize my site and the reasoning behind your plan? Will you provide me with a written plan and list of keywords?

If you don't have an Internet site design and maintenance firm, check us out. http://www.imagerymarketing.com

Next time – Avoiding practices that could get you banned from the search engine indices.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

What is PR and why do we need accredited PR Professionals (instead of spin doctors and flacks)?

Several years ago, one of my classes at Spring Hill College created a campaign for Public Relations which was intended for use by the Public Relations Council of Alabama. In the advertising and promotional materials prepared for PRCA to use with Alabama businesses and organizations, the class used an excellent line to explain why businesses should hire accredited public relations practitioners. I think their sentence says it all:

"We could spend an entire day explaining what a trained public relations professional can do for your company, but we basically help your organization build and protect the relationships that count."

PR must be a conversation with those "publics" with whom we must maintain good relations. Any means to carry on that conversation should be utilized by a smart practitioner. So in a way PR is connected at the hip to marketing communications, advertising, and others, but must also maintain a distance in order to be the conscience of the corporation.

And in these days of “AIG Bonuses”, all types of corporate greed and layoffs like we haven’t seen since the eighties, our corporations need a conscience!

Check out our interview on “Virtual Agencies”:
http://www.americanentrepreneurship.com/2009/02/28/expert-q-a-%e2%80%93-virtual-marketing-agency-benefits-for-small-businesses/

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Public Relations versus Advertising

Our guest "Phlogger" this week is Mary White, MA, SPHR.

Many people have the misconception that publicity and advertising are the same things. While both publicity and advertising can play important roles in an organization’s overall marketing plan, they are very different. The three primary differences between publicity and advertising are (2) control, (2) cost, and (3) credibility.

Control: Advertising is a controlled form of communication, whereas public relations is uncontrolled. When you run an advertisement in a print publication, you purchase a specific amount of space on a page to run in a particular issue of the publication. You may even be able to specify that your ad be placed on the top left corner of the sports page. You control the content of the ad as well.

With publicity, you don’t dictate when, where, or if your promotional messages ever see the light of day. You can send a news release to a print publication, and the editor or journalist who receives it might see value in it and print it in the next issue. He or she might really find the information appealing and interview you for a cover story. However, your news release might just as easily end up in the garbage can, depending on its relevance, timing, or a number of other factors.

Cost: The control that you get with advertising doesn’t come without a price. The reason that you can specify when and where your advertisement will run is that you pay for the space, airtime, or bandwidth that it occupies. You are able to control the content because you also pay to have the advertisement itself created. Some advertisements can be produced inexpensively, and others are very costly.

When you are trying to generate publicity for your business through public relations efforts, the only cost is the manpower that it takes to create the documents that you send out to the news media and the costs of delivering or shipping. It is much less expensive to send a photograph and a news release to a magazine editor than it is to create a 4-color, camera-ready magazine ad.

Credibility: With advertising, you are able to make sure that the exact message that you want appears in the media exactly as you have specified. When consumers see an advertisement, most of them are aware that it is a paid promotion. Some consumers tend to be a little bit suspicious of advertising messages for this reason.

However, when your local newspaper runs a feature article about your business as a result of a news release that you sent to the editor, consumers generally don’t stop and think that the story started with a promotional message from the company. A story in the newspaper is generally considered to be much more credible than an advertisement in the newspaper. The reason for this is the third party endorsement effect associated with having someone outside your company saying good things about it.

The best marketing plans include a mixture of advertising and publicity. It’s important that you understand the differences between these two forms of communication so that you can make sound decisions about the ideal mix for your organization.

About the Author: Mary G. White, M.A., SPHR is the Training Coordinator for Mobile Technical Institute & MTI Business Solutions (http://www.mobiletechwebsite.com), where she specializes in human resources, management, and marketing training. She teaches open enrollment classes for MTI, provides on-site corporate training, and frequently speaks at conferences and association meetings. She is also the author of 101 Successful PR Campaign Tips in the LifeTips book series. MTI provides a variety of consulting services, including IT Training, certification testing, HR consulting, and custom database development. For free career and business development tips, see http://www.DailyCareerConnection.com and http://www.DailyBizSolutions.com.

Check out our "Blog of the Month": http://www.hyku.com/blog/

Monday, February 16, 2009

Why should you have a website?

At the end of last year, about 153 million people were online in the United States and about 10 million are expected to adopt the Net this year. (eMarketer)

More and more people are looking for services and products on-line than every before. Peoples' habits are changing. People move to a new area and very often rely solely on the Internet to learn about the new area, research and find out who to go to for what. Many people research and find their homes and jobs over the Internet. Most people are coming to expect that any professionally run business will have a web site. With a well-designed site your small business becomes a real player both on and off the net.

Add your Web Address to your stationary; business cards, other advertisements and you'll have visitors knowing exactly where to go for answers to their questions and where to send their friends to for great service.

The more people know about you and your company the greater the chances you have for attracting new customers. More is generally a good thing when running a business, unless you're talking about expenses!

Why should you have a website?
1. With a website, your business is open to the public all day, every day. Limited office hours and different time zones won’t hinder your customers’ ability to visit your business through your website. You can reach those people at any time of the day or night.

2. It’s a marketing piece that you can change instantly. A website can be like an online brochure or catalog to promote your business. But, unlike printed materials, you can change your website anytime to reflect new developments, featured service or product offerings, or just give your business a new look.

3. A website presents a professional image. A professional-looking website can help instill confidence in your customers and give the impression that a small business is a larger one. A website is a necessity by today’s standards – your customers expect you to have one, and they expect your web presence to reflect the kind of company you are.

4. Give your customers instant gratification. Customers and clients don’t always have the time to wait for more information – they want to get answers right away. With a website, they can find out the basics about your business, but you can also offer them even more – like downloads, samples, photo galleries, videos, news stories, links, or other content that will give them more information and keep them interested in you.

5. Promote your business and make yourself known to your customers. A website can help give your business more awareness among your customer base, locally, nationally and even globally. More and more consumers use the Internet as a research tool when searching for the best product or service. Without a website, you miss an opportunity to promote yourself and let your customers know who you are, what you do, and why you’re the best choice for them.

Imagery Marketing & Research Consultants designs and maintains websites for small businesses and non-profit ogranizaationsat affordable rates. Contact us today if you need our services!

(Resources: ClearTech and Jireh Communications)