The Web in Sight

E-commerce is such a wonderful thing. I fully intend to have much of my Christmas list items delivered directly to my doorstep, thereby avoiding the cranky and unskilled Atlanta drivers in their last-minute rush to find must-have items for Christmas morning.

The world-wide web provides everyone with a viable avenue to sell their goods. Written a how-to book but can’t find a publisher? Sell it on the web. Hit upon the perfect design for an apron to sell to stylish, at-home gourmets? A web site can perfectly display your wares. A photographer looking to visually capture your audience? An online portfolio can be at the world’s fingertips in a matter of a few hours.

Which is probably why I am often asked the question:

“I know I need a web site, but where do I begin?”

Business web sites range from the very basic to the wildly flashy and entertaining. You can land somewhere in the middle without paying a bundle of money.

There are three critical factors to your web site: the writing, the design and what I like to call “making it click.” There are many folks out there that think they can handle the writing and designing part themselves, and just part with the money for the web site technician.

Please do not become a member of that delusional mass of write-and-design-it-yourselfers.
Unless you are a writer, pay someone with marketing communications writing experience to write your site. Not only will they make sure the words connect with your audience and influence them to buy whatever it is you are selling, they can also ensure the copy helps build awareness with the search engines so when a potential customers “Googles” your product, your web site will appear like magic - and suddenly they are just one click away from…..

Your beautifully designed site. That’s right, I highly recommend you fork over the cash to a qualified graphic designer to layout the site. It’s the difference between looking like an operation out of someone’s garage and being a business that knows its appearance affects consumer confidence. My point is your web site takes the place of a brochure, and if you have a professionally designed web site it makes an important difference.

The last one is a little easier. Either you know how to set up a site on the web or you do not. No imagining “hey, I can figure this out.” If you know how to set up a web site, fantastic – get busy. Otherwise, find a good web site tech to set it up for you at a reasonable price.

Now that I have that off my chest, if you are a do-it-yourself kind of person, Go Daddy has a “build it in a night” web site tool that seems to be pretty user-friendly and is definitely worth checking out. If you have a web site that will need frequent updating, ask your web site tech to set up the site in Dreamweaver and purchase the Contribute companion software. Contribute is user friendly, even for the most technologically challenged, and will allow the administrator (you) to make changes to your site and publish them directly to the web.

My parting, pre-Thanksgiving word of advice is in the world of small business, it is critical to know where to invest your money. A well-written, well-designed web site is a sound investment … it’s your calling card to the world.

Short and Sweet

My children attend school today from 7:45 a.m. until 11:05 a.m. in what is called an “Early Release Day.” The students and teachers have a compressed schedule, which means they do everything they would do in a normal school day, but in much shorter spurts of time.

My days (and the days of most women, whether or not they have a career or kids) are always compressed. These early release days remind me of when the girls were infants, and my husband and I knew we had about 7 minutes in which to consume all meals before someone needed to be fed, changed or held.

So today’s blog entry is compressed, because I have 8 million work-related things to do before the girls get home. Once they are home, I’ll switch over to mom-manager mode and start doing laundry, helping with homework, buying warmer clothing to wear to swim practice and tennis lessons (for the kids, not me) and prepping for the Thanksgiving holiday.

I would like to officially propose an Early Release Day for adults. We’d be done with work and household duties at noon, with the remainder of the afternoon open for lounging and play. For that matter, I’d like to propose Extended Sleep Days, in which we’d catch up on the sleep we’ve been missing.

Does anyone else have an idea for an official day they’d like to propose?

I’ve gotta run – there are some short and sweet children I have to get from school.

Believing

My girls are getting to the age where pretty soon, an enormous man in a red suit whose main form of transport is a herd of flying reindeer just isn’t going to make sense. So I’ve been trying to decide how I am going to explain Santa while making sure the magic of Christmas stays intact.

A close friend’s mother explained to her years ago that Santa is a part of the spirit of Christmas, and as long as you believed in the spirit of Christmas …. well, the big guy didn’t have to exist in the physical realm. What mattered was that you made up your mind the magic of the season was what counted, then the other parts of Christmas (like gifts under the tree on Christmas morning) would take care of themselves.

And so it goes with believing in something so much more important – ourselves. Nearly every week I get an e-mail or phone call from someone, usually a stay-at-home mom, seeking information on getting back into the work force. Almost always they ask for specific information (“how do I create a web site? or “how can I brush up my writing skills?”), and I know what they really need is a little “You can do this!” push from someone who has already taken the leap.

What I wonder is why when we moms step off the career ladder to do the important work of raising great kids, we start losing confidence in our professional abilities?

What we all know deep down inside is that we’ve never had a more difficult negotiation than when our two-year-old really, really did not want to share, or seen our crisis communications skills on better display than when our four-year-old collapsed in a fit of fury at the grocery store, or more kindness and patience extended when we hadn’t slept for two days straight and still got up, made breakfast and got everyone dressed.

Remember those toughest of days when you were at home with a crying baby and a little cubicle at a downtown office seemed like an oasis?

Taking the leap to working from home, or starting a business, or creating your ideal work-life balance doesn’t seem so hard now, does it? So the next time you feel your confidence wavering about whether or not you can pull this off, remind yourself that you’ve already shown you have the grit, determination and skills to do anything you decide to do.

That’s the spirit!

I'm Amy Mac, and I Approved This Message

Just when you thought people clamoring for your vote had come to an end, I am here to say …. not so much.

As you might have noticed at the top right section of my blog, the Amy Mac blog has been nominated for the Best Blog Ever. How exciting! How exhilarating! How annoying for those of you who tried to vote then gave up in a fit of frustration because of technical difficulties!

I promptly emailed the folks at the Bloggers Choice Awards and informed them my faithful followers were having trouble voting for a variety of reasons, including not letting you sign up for an account, and then not letting you vote once you did get signed up.

Here’s the direct response:

Without knowing what accounts they are trying to access, I really can’t tell you much. Please have them contact us with the email they originally used to sign up to the Blogger’s Choice Awards so we can further research – Karen Allen, director of Customer Love.

You can email Karen at Karen@bloggerschoiceawards.com if you are having trouble and I know she’ll solve the problem. And no, I did not make up her title to be funny, that really is her title.

One of my successful voters said she had to sign up for the account then log back in before she could vote, so try that trick, too.

So, please don’t give up! The current first-place blog has only 47 votes, and I know we can do way better than that. We’re smart, we’re tech savvy, and we are determined! No one can stop us now! (Are you humming “I Will Survive” in your head?)

So follow this link, and we’ll share a bottle of virtual champagne if we win!

A Gap in (Advertising) Time

A few weeks back I read an article about the Gap eliminating its television advertising for the remaining months of 2008, and their plan to shift to “traditional and non-traditional” marketing tactics.

I will miss the Gap ads this holiday season. Remember the ones from a few years back where the models danced choreographed dances to festive holiday music? I loved those, and bought a few sweaters and pairs of mittens because of those catchy commercials.

So why the sudden turn from traditional advertising? The answer is simple: it is expensive to run television advertising consistently enough to reach your target audience effectively. Really, really expensive when you factor in paying an advertising agency to concept the commercial, make the commercial (and all that entails, from paying the models, stylists and photographers to scouting and paying for locations), to paying for the “spot” – the actual advertising air to run the ad during The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America and Grey’s Anatomy -- and any other show the Gap’s research reports its target market is watching.

So exactly what does “traditional and non-traditional” marketing tactics mean? Most likely they will be launching a full-scale publicity campaign, complete with publicity events with high-profile celebrities, giveaways -- and I’m keeping my eyes peeled towards the Oprah’s Favorite Things show. Whether or not they actual land one of those coveted spots remains to be seen, but they’re good marketers over at the Gap. And the smart marketers are pitching (and have been since July) their little hearts out to Ms. Winfrey’s producers.

While I’ll miss those fun commercials, I’m glad for the reminder for all of us small business owners. What reminder? That a giant advertising campaign isn’t necessary to launch an effective marketing campaign. And while smaller businesses are unlikely to hook a big-name celebrity to promote our products in the press, a few news releases can go a really long way toward building your brand in your community.

Let’s all stay tuned on who has the best holiday commercials this holiday season (my money is on Target. You?)

Happy Holiday Marketing!

Sprinkles and Caffeine: What Every Voter Needs

I have written before about the importance of tying your publicity efforts into the current headlines, and today I witnessed a perfect example of how three companies (and I am sure many, many more) are taking the Election Day headline and using it to their advantage.

The question of the (election) day: what do donuts, coffee and ice cream have to do with the election? And, no, the answer is not “the new president will need caffeine and comfort foods to deal with the stresses of his new job.” But that was an excellent guess.

The answer is … if you are voting in this election, swing by Krispy Kreme for a free star-shaped donut with sprinkles, hit your local Starbucks for a gratis cup of coffee, and stop at your local Ben and Jerry’s for an on-the-house scoop of ice cream.

None of these companies has a direct connection with the election, public policy, voting, candidates, or drawing party lines – but each received a high-profile mention on The Today Show. Connecting their product with THE headline of the day will drive traffic into their stores, will likely increase sales, definitely saved them thousands of dollars in advertising, and is building goodwill with lots of Americans who’ll need a little boost after standing in line for hours to do their civic duty.

In the south we advise our children never to ask someone how old they are, how much they weigh, or for whom they will cast their vote. All I know is that I’m old enough to vote, so I did. And I will likely weigh more after a scoop of ice cream and a donut. And I’ll probably be up late watching returns, so I’ll wait until this evening for my free cup of coffee.

Happy Voting!