Before you change your strategy or completely redesign your website in 2010, you should think about how you want things to work first.

Here are what I would consider the most pivotal pieces to develop your site around:

• The concept of a website should get turned on its head in 2010.   Companies spend 90% of their "internet" time worrying about what is happening on their website when they should be spending 90% of their time out where the customers are -- blogs, other websites, twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc.

• As a marketer, you should be more concerned with getting found, and less concerned with getting found in search engines.  Don't get too attached to search. If your referral traffic is growing and quality is consistent, who cares whether it's coming from Google, Facebook or Twitter?

• Marketers stop worrying about "social media ROI" and just start doing it.   What's the ROI of putting your pants on in the morning?

• Your Blog  - Your blog shouldn't just be a shouting platform where you promote your own products and services. It should incorporate and portray the spirit of your industry.  You should put your time and energy into blog posts that share new data, break news or offer unique new advice.  Allow your employees to blog, build Before you change your strategy or completely redesign your website in 2010, you should think about how you want things to work first.
• Lights, Camera...Customers!   People are 7 - 10 times more likely to click on a video than text.

• Conversion Avenues (Offers and Calls to Action)  - Perhaps the most important part of your internet marketing effort is the method by which you actually convert leads.

• Site Optimization (SEO) -  Optimization initially tends to go hand in hand with any re-design that may be happening on your site today.  Start by thinking about what terms or keywords you want to align your company with.  You're then going to want to determine how to break out and build the pages on your site and optimize them with your relevant keywords on an ongoing basis.
 
• Keep in mind that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint.  Though your on-page SEO vision should be initially focused on the optimizing and building your site pages, also consider ongoing efforts such as how you plan to continually research keywords and develop content in order to generate inbound links.

• Will Your Business Be a Window or a Wall in 2010?  Become a Leader in Business Transparency in Your Industry.  Encourage customers to share their ideas and write about their experience with your brand in a public forum.

Do Your Homework
There are many web design companies in Asheville.  When choosing a website developer, it is important to do your homework because often having a poorly developed website is just as bad, if not worse, than having no website at all.

You Are Not Your Audience
There are only a few companies I can think of where the owner/ceo/primary stakeholder was a customer as well. Hair Club for Men comes to mind, and perhaps Mary Kay. Keep in mind your customers may not know your industry jargon, or share your appetite for information about your company. The front page of the site should target your primary audience.

A Website is Never Done
Recognize that a website is never done, it's just due: During the course of my career I've seen websites agonized over, built and then ignored. Make sure yours is built on a content management system and you have someone dedicated to keeping at the very least your front page current. People won't come back if you don't.

Think About the Elements of Your Website
To develop your company’s online presence, you are going to want a good designer, a good programmer, and a good writer. You may even need a photographer or videographer, depending on the vision you have in your head. That’s why you will want to consider a website development firm that can give your site everything it needs, soup to nuts, using their own team of professionals.

Know What You Want
Make sure you know why you want in a website and what you want your website to do for you.  Write down some short term and long term goals. Establishing an Internet presence for your business is an important step make sure you do it right! You need to have a clear vision before you start.

Surf the Internet
Compile a list of websites that appeal to you in aspects of: colour scheme, content, layout and other related design properties. This will help your web designer factor in your personal tastes and preferences into the design process and produce a website you're proud of!

Avoid Flash
It is quite attractive and very tempting but the truth? It is usually annoying to your visitors and EXPENSIVE!  Beside, flash websites are not SE (Search Engine) friendly. Try searching Google, have you seen a flash animation on a first-page search result?

Use a Content Management System
Content Management Systems take the effort out of writing web pages, just the same as word processors take the pain out of writing documents.  Content Management Systems (CMS) are great for both simple and complex sites alike.  They allow you to change your web message at a moment’s notice.

Focus on Quantifiable Results
Math is one of the few things in this world that we can rely upon to be undeniably consistent. Work with your team to develop results that can be tracked, evaluated, and, most importantly, repeated.

Communicate with the Designer
Remember that most web designers are good at what they do but they cannot read your mind. Send as many questions and instructions as you need to get across your message. Keep everything you talk about with your designer in writing or just keep notes. This keeps everything running smooth.

If you are a Do-It-Yourself person, here are a few money saving tips:

Cut Your Own Hair
If you can cut your own hair in the mirror, more power to you. Remember the Flowbee?  Fantastic haircuts every time!  Go ahead give it a try.

Cut Your Children's Hair
I still laugh at the time my wife cut my daughters hair in the bathtub.  She had the most beautiful mullet I've ever seen on a two year old.

Criminal Legal Defense
Every jury starts with a blank slate and as your own defense attorney you have the opportunity to teach them why you should win. Show them why the evidence is on your side and never underestimate the basic concepts...whose story is more believable; who couldn't keep their facts straight; are there gaps in the evidence presented by the State?

Eyebrow Waxing
Sounds simple enough:  heat wax, apply to hair, place strip of muslin on wax, pull skin taut, yank and scream!

Change Your Car Oil
You can typically save a few bucks by doing it yourself. Purchasing oil and a filter can cost $20 at a parts store. When done, be sure to safely dispose of the used oil and filter. Check with local oil-change places to see if they accept used oil, or locate a hazardous-waste recycling center.  That shop down the street with a $19.95 oil change sounds pretty good to me.

Make your own clothes
Sure, if you have a sewing machine, or want to pay $100 for one, or can use a needle and thread without puncturing your heart.

Build Your Own Website 
The Internet is a never ending source of information on the subject.  Recently, I've seen TV commercials for Intuit, the makers of Quickbooks, now offering websites for only $4.99.  Can your business really wait to see if this approach works?   I get calls daily from people who have taken on this task.

Are you confusing actions with results? If you’re already focused on saving money (a great thing!), why not focus on earning more and building your business? 

Some Things Are Better Left To The Professionals.

Web video is hot. Here’s some solid proof: YouTube is the fourth-largest site on the web and it boasts some 300 million visitors a month worldwide.* If you want to boost visibility and entice prospective customers and clients, a web video about your business—a brief film that’s distributed via the Internet—can prove a valuable tool.

Here are six ideas to help make your viral video a blockbuster:

• Keep it short—You’re running a sprint, not a marathon. Effective viral videos are tight—generally, no longer than two minutes, according to Nathan Egan, managing partner of The Freesource Agency, a Philadelphia social media consulting firm.
• Keep it focused—A viral video that doesn’t have a definite point quickly loses any potential grip. Before your make your video, decide precisely what you want to convey about your business. “There is a theme to viral videos. They can be humorous, clever or shocking,” says Egan. “Find your angle and brainstorm.”
• Leave the sales pitch on the cutting room floor—No one wants to watch a movie that boils down to a sales shtick. Make it fun or emphasize customer support, training or other topics that are more compelling. “Keep it light and entertaining and let it pique their interest,” says Lynn Mettler of Step Ahead, a Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, social and Internet marketing concern. “Send them to your web site for more information.”
• Coppola need not apply—An appealing viral video doesn’t have to shine with Hollywood glitz. “There’s no need to hire a professional. In fact, an over produced video can easily turn viewers off who may feel like they’re being sold to,” says Mettler. “Use a flip video-style camera and software such as iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to make edits and add music.” But, by the same token, don’t make the video so chintzy that it puts your business in the same light.
• Think about where you want to place it—Given its dominance in the online video market, YouTube is an obvious, proven destination. But investigate other sites that may be more focused on your audience. And remember it to share it via Facebook and Twitter.
• It’s nice to share—Viral video buffs pass films along to other like minded friends. Make it as easy as possible. “Allow them to embed it wherever they’d like,” says Mettler. “Add ‘TweetThis’ and ‘ShareThis’ buttons so people can share via social networking.”

The steps above can help you put together a viral video that gets results, ultimately facilitating and encouraging people to pass along your marketing message.

If your site isn’t already optimized for handheld devices such as cell phones, now is the perfect time to re-assess your site design and how users find your site through mobile search – particularly for B2C companies.

In October, ABI Research forecast that mobile sales of physical goods in North America would reach $750 million by the end of 2009, a 117% annual growth rate. Consumers are doing a lot more than purchasing downloadable cell phone ringtones and games from their mobile devices. These days, clothing, electronics, books and a host of other items are being purchased through mobile commerce. Additionally, social network participation through services like foursquare, Facebook and Twitter are growing dramatically, creating additional opportunities for promotion and traffic to the mobile version of your company web site.

When optimizing web pages for the mobile web, consider a few tips:

• Keep fonts in their most basic format
• Eliminate advertising to conserve screen space
• Take out images unless they are absolutely necessary
• Remove Flash, Java or any plug-in content unless absolutely necessary

Goal: More visitors and leads.

The reason you are redesigning your website is to impact your business, not because you are bored with the design or because your CEO wants it to be blue not red.  So, focus on the results you want.  More visitors, leads and customers.  Every decision you make should be focused on improving those goals.  Keeping that in mind, you might spend a bit less time worrying about the exact shade of reddish-orange on the callout background, and more time worrying about things that will improve your marketing results.

Avoid pitfalls. Inventory your assets, then protect them.

There are countless ways a website redesign can actually negatively impact your results. In fact, I would say that more often than not, website redesigns do have a negative impact on marketing results.  Your existing website has a lot of assets that you have built up.  These assets help your prospects find your website and help you turn them into leads and customers.  You need to find out what those assets are (great content, keywords you rank for,
inbound links to individual pages, conversion tools) and protect them carefully during the redesign.  

Spend resources on remarkable content that attracts and converts.  Not unique design.

There is a great article from Seth Godin about this.  He says “I’m going to go out on a limb and beg you not to create an original design. There are more than a billion pages on the web. Surely there’s one that you can start with? ...Your car isn’t unique, and your house might not be either.”  I agree.  Most people care about the content more than the design.  The design should be good, but that does not mean unique and expensive.

Create an ongoing content building strategy.

If you have more content, on average you will have more website visitors and grow your business faster.  A 100 page website will beat a 10 page website 90% of the time.  And a 500 page website is even better.  And if some of those web pages were written recently, that’s even better.  So, build a strategy to continue to add more and more content to your website over time.  Hint: Blogging makes creating content easy!

Enable conversion experiments.

The key to driving your conversion rate and the number of leads you get from your website over time is to constantly improve the effectiveness of your conversion tools - this usually means your landing pages.  If you build a completely static website and have to go to a consultant or IT person each and every time you want to set up a new landing page or to change an existing page, you might be limiting your ability to quickly experiment and improve.  I am a believer that some sort of system that lets you edit content and build landing pages without having to know coding is a good idea.  

Include a blog, RSS, landing pages, SEO.

Any website built today should include these basics.  They are not expensive, and they work.  A blog is a great way to create content on an ongoing basis, and to start to converse with your customers and prospects.  RSS allows some content from your website to be automatically pushed out to other websites and people, increasing the reach of your content.  Landing pages are critical to actually get value out of your traffic.  And SEO is not hard, and it really works.

Metrics: Visitors and leads.

We have come full circle.  If the goal was to increase visitors and conversions, then that is the metric we should track.  What does this mean?  It means if the CEO hates the new design, tell her to go pound sand and show her your improved lead conversion metrics.  If our creative director says he loves the new design, ask him to explain why you are getting fewer leads and why you should not change the website back to the old one. A business website is a business tool and should deliver business results.  Leave the works of art to the galleries
and museums.  Your career and your company will thank you for it.

Advertising that works isn’t about your capabilities; it’s about having readers perceive real value in what they get from you. The best place to start in creating a successful ad is with an offer. You should spend as much as 80% of your ad time developing offers encouraging consumers to get out and spend some money. The reason you use an offer as your headline is that 80% of readers never get past the headline. That means you’re spending 80 cents of every ad dollar on the headline. Make your ads count by putting the biggest benefit to your consumers in the headline itself.

The most effective headlines are those that either persuade the reader to delve further into your copy or take some other specific action. As you create your offer, think about the problems your customers have and how your product/service is the best solution. Some of the most effective headline types include:

• Direct—Create your offer and use it as your headline.
• Indirect—Play off your reader’s curiosity or present a situation that your body copy seeks to answer.
• Newsworthy—Look for ways to tie your products or services into solutions for current newsworthy issues (i.e., good for the environment, helps you save money in a down economy, etc.).
• How to—Headlines that promise to show the reader how to solve a specific problem.
• Ask a question—Promise to provide the reader with a specific answer to a compelling question
• Reason why—Lists often make good sales copy, but don’t work very well for shorter ads.
• Testimonial—Secure testimonials from customers in your target market to use as your headline.