Is it time for a new website?

Is your website getting old? When is it time for a new website? We discuss the lifespan of a website and what makes it age. We also see when it is time to actually go ahead and redesign your website.

This is the video transcript:

Hi guys welcome back to The Marketing Techy and today you’re going to learn something about websites and how they age.

Okay so I get the question often. When is it a good time to redesign my website or to refresh my website? How old can a website get before it gets to be too dated?

Now there’s a couple of different things we have to look at:
Firstly the technical side of it. So if you’ve got a really old website, some of the software, some of the plugins, some of the things that you use on that website. Even the HTML that’s in there could be dated and it might be starting to break your website for modern browsers, modern computers and modern cell phones or mobile phones. Okay so the technical side is one side. If things are starting to break or getting to be slow or unusable or not user friendly it’s definitely time for an update to your website.

Secondly if your website is starting to look dated so maybe in your industry the other companies are refreshing their websites often and now your website actually looks dated compared to some of the other websites in your industry. Maybe not even in your industry because design trends are always evolving after a few years your website will just look old. Another thing that you have to look at is if it’s not displaying well on mobile phones. If things like buttons and menus are too small to really touch on a mobile phone screen or if it’s not user friendly on a mobile phone then it’s definitely time for an update to your website.

A general rule of thumb is if you’re in a cutting-edge technology sort of space with your company or if you’re in the design or fashion industries then you would probably redesign or refresh your website look and feel about every two years. If you’re not in a cutting-edge fashion or design industry you might be able to get away with every three to five years. Places like guest houses or restaurants maybe could get away with every five years if they’ve got a really classic, nice looking website. So anything between two and five years. That’s the life time for a website.

The good news is if your website is WordPress based it’s not starting from scratch when you’re going to do the new redesign. You can keep all your content your blog posts your photos. Everything that you’ve accumulated on your website inside of WordPress we can still use and we just change the look and feel and you’ve got a brand new website, but it’s only the way it looks and feels. It’s not what’s behind and that is WordPress and all the other software and plugins that you’re using so we just check that everything is still supported that everything is updated that it’s still secure that nobody can hack into your website. Things like that and then on top of that we change the look and feel and you’ve got a brand new website. Okay and it’s a lot more cost effective than starting from scratch and designing a new website from scratch because you get to move a lot of your old website over. As I said it doesn’t look anything like your old website because everything on top that does things like color schemes, layouts, fonts, font sizes, where everything goes, all of that you can customise within WordPress. So basically the options are unlimited as to what the new website looks like, but you can reuse a lot of what was on the old one. Okay so that saves a lot of time and money.

I hope that answers your question. if you’ve got any other questions feel free to comment or to contact me with your questions. I might make another video or just answer you directly thanks for watching this one and stay tuned for the next video.

 

It is easier to lose money with online advertising than to make money

Online advertising explained.

It is easier to lose money with online advertising than to make money. We look at Facebook Advertising and Google Adwords to see why people are losing money with these.

Questions I often get:
– How to advertise on Facebook?
– How to advertise on Google?
– How to do Facebook marketing?

Transcript

Hi guys welcome to The Marketing Techy. 

Today we are going to have a look at why people are losing a lot of money with buying online advertising.   

Ok, let’s have a look at my screen here. Basically you need to have leads to make sales to make profit. Alright. So leads are inquiries about your service or your product. Some of these leads will turn into sales and sales or a part of your sale will result in profit for your company. That’s really the only reason to have a business.   

Okay, so this is what we are after: leads. One way of generating leads would be online ads. There are various other ways of generating leads and some in my opinion are a lot better than others.

Online ads in my own business and with most of my customers: I see that online ads actually is not the bulk of where the leads come from. In some cases up to about 50% of new leads for my customers or for companies come from online ads. If you spend a lot on ads then that percentage will go up. So if you’ve got a business and you are spending a lot of money on online ads, you could get 80 or 90 percent of your leads from these ads. In my opinion there are cheaper and better ways and in most cases I find that online ads count for about five to about twenty percent of new leads for my customers and myself.

Okay so, online ads: you can buy online ads in a lot of different places. The two biggest ones right now would be Facebook and also Google. So first let’s have a look at Facebook. What does Facebook do well? Facebook knows people so because Facebook knows people in the sense of Facebook knows what my hobbies are, what music I listen to, where do I live, when am I traveling, what company I work for, all these things Facebook knows and I could target people with ads based on that.

Google. Google does something that we call timing very well so Google can get the timing really, really well when it comes to placing an ad in front of someone. So when somebody is searching for a specific product or service or something related to a specific product or service then I could show my ads to them. So they could be searching for a plumber in their area. I could show them an ad for plumbing services. Okay so the timing in Google is really good.

Google knows less about people than what Facebook does and with Facebook getting the timing correct is a lot harder than with Google. Some product or services will do better on Facebook. Other products or services will do better on Google.

Now the issue is: especially on places like Facebook. Facebook will show you things like: So you’ve posted something about your business, or a photo, or something about a product. Then Facebook will usually show you something like you could show this to 20,000 more people for X amount of money. Okay, and that’s in a lot of cases where it starts. Yes, you can show your ad on Facebook and Google to a lot of people you could potentially show your ad to millions of people if you wanted to and you have enough money. That’s unfortunately not the only thing you have to do.

Things you have to keep in mind is:

  • What is your marketing strategy?
  • Who is seeing this ad?
  • Are you targeting them correctly?
  • Are the correct people that are actually interested in your product or service seeing your ad?

Otherwise you’re paying for this ad and showing it to people that’s costing you money and they’re not actually buying. You would often find that people are buying ads on one of these two platforms and they are not getting leads or sales.

Okay so yeah unfortunately the reality is: I see companies that are wasting a lot of money with online advertising. Now the question is: can it work? The short answer is: yes absolutely. If you monitor your ads. If you’ve got a good strategy. If you’ve got a really good website and landing pages where you’re sending people from your ads. You could get new leads. So a new lead would be somebody either calling you and inquiring about your product, so that you can actually follow up with them. Emailing  you or filling in the form on your website. Or actually looking at a product page where they would be able to buy something directly off your website.

All right, so that’s a new lead and unfortunately what we’re seeing is the trend is people are advertising right here and they’re never getting the lead and obviously they’re also not getting the sale. Okay so they are spending a lot more money on this side and not making the money back on the other side. Allright, so that’s a recipe for disaster.

How do you do this well? You look at your analytics. You track these ads. You make sure, that at least on a weekly basis, you’re monitoring them. Seeing which people are clicking on them. Which ads are doing better than other ads? Making decisions based on this. Starting new ads. Stopping some of the older ads. Making sure your wording is perfectly correct in all of your ads. Changing wording in these ads over time. Changing photos. Making sure you’re using the correct photos. Making sure basically that you’re getting the absolute most from these ads that you possibly can and that along the way you are converting as many people as possible into actual sales at the end.

Okay, so yes, you can make a lot of money by sharing your product or service to people at the correct time, but the flip side is you can lose a lot of money if you’re not monitoring these and making sure your strategy is correct when it comes to buying ads online.

I hope this helped. If you’ve got any questions feel free to contact me or comment on the video. You can contact me on Twitter or by email. I’m happy to answer any question about this. I’ll see you for the next video. Cheers. 

 

The truth about social media followers and your business

The truth about social media followers and your business.

Follower count is just one of many metrics. Don’t focus on vanity metrics.

Measure what matters with analytics: leads and sales. Marketing your business is not just about getting more social media followers for your business, but actually getting more leads and making more sales.

The reason you have a business is to make sales. Make sure your marketing strategy is driving sales and not vanity metrics. Have a great overall strategy and then use social media to accomplish that strategy.

Make sure you have a targeted, engaged following on social media that actually are interested in what you offer.

 

Growing small business in South Africa in 2017: It is not about you, but about who you can help

Growing small business in South Africa in 2017: It is not about you, but about who you can help

Your potential customers are being bombarded by advertisements every day. The trick is not to demand their attention, but rather to earn it. Don’t make your marketing about you. make you marketing about helping your potential customers.

In a world where people are really good at ignoring advertising you have to stop broadcasting and start helping. This is the start to generating more leads and making more sales in 2017 in South Africa.

Help people. Don’t be selfish. Create and share.

Help people. Don’t be selfish. Create and share.

Effective modern marketing is not about forcing people to buy something they dont need. People are tired if companies trying to sell them the next gimmick. They are also better than ever at filtering out advertisements and sales pitches. 

If you want to be successful this year this is what you need to do:

  • Define a specific target market.
  • Find out where their attention and time is spent online.
  • Interact with them, get to know them.
  • Find out what their problems and struggles are.
  • Help them. Give advice. Support them. 
  • Don’t be selfish.
  • It is about them and how you can help them.
  • When they are ready to buy, they will remember who helped and supported them.

Do you need help? Do you have any questions? I am happy to answer them. Contact me today. 

Tell a story. Share an experience. That is what modern marketing is all about.

Tell a story. Share an experience. That is what modern marketing is all about.

Tell a story. Share an experience. That is what modern marketing is all about.

Modern marketing is not about branding. Very few (very large) companies can afford to just raise brand awareness. Modern marketing is also not about being pushy and just trying to sell your product or service.

If you really want to build a long term relationship with a potential customer you have to share stories with them and help them. As the saying goes: People buy from people. Be a person. Be helpful. Share. Tell a story that people can relate to.

In todays business environment many businesses try to be (or end up being) faceless, professional and corporate. Be the exception, have a personal touch. Don’t be afraid to show behind the scenes glimpses of your company. Potential customers relate to these stories. Don’t be just another business competing for their attention. Be unique. Be yourself.

Marketing does not fix a business. It only amplifies a business. If you have something special, marketing will let more people know

Marketing does not fix a business. It only amplifies a business. If you have something special, marketing will let more people know.

Marketing does not fix a business. It only amplifies a business. If you have something special, marketing will let more people know.

If there is a flaw in your business marketing will also amplify that. Marketing is not a silver bullet that will fix a business that has an inherent flaw.

What marketing will do: If you have a sound business and you can sell your product or service to someone in person. Marketing will help you find more of those people who might be interested in your product or service.

Make sure you have a good quality product / service at the right price and with great service. Then only expand on your marketing.

 

This business is not taking on any new customers. We are slowly winding down as the owner has moved to the USA.

The Marketing Techy