We usually think red tape wraps mostly around Government. We don’t realise that our own business can be a victim of data for data’s sake.

There actually is a difference between data and information. In a fairlt general sense, data is information without contect. For example, 1970 could be “one thousand nine hundred and seventy”, “one nine seven zero” or “year of birth, Ninetenn Seventy”.

Whenever we collect data from a customer, it must serve a purpose. A couple of common misconceptions:

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• If you’re asking for date of birth, there’s no need to ask for age as well.
• If all your customers are from the same Town, State, and/or Country, is the information needed?
• If you can’t actually see a person sign a form, why ask for their signature?
• Name, Date of Birth, and Address are not good security questions – they are usually printed on any driver licence. Unless the licence is a photo id and you can see the photo, you cannot verify the person on the other end of the phone line.

The information you collect will determine the design of the form you create to collect that information. Be quite sure of (i) what you need to know, (ii) what you might like to know (for marketing purposes), and (iii) what you either don’t need to know (or if you ask for it, might turn the customer away) BEFORE you even start to design your collection form. It usually makes little difference whether the form is online or offline, the information you’ll need remains the same.

If you’re telling a good story, you want people to know about it. If your website is not optimised (we call it “Search Engine Optimisation”), the chance is that few people will find it. Search Engine Optimisation means:

• search engines discover you
• visitors find what they’re looking for
• your web page content speaks to your target market

If your website isn’t performing, if it’s not converting visitors to sales (or sales contacts, or whatever other measure you use) its wasting your money!

The internet gives you the perfect opportunity to tell good stories about yourself, your business, or your products and services.Potential customers no longer believe unsupported promises or notice “interruption” advertising. Your website gives you the chance to speak directly to people who are looking for the products and services your business supplies. People want to hear recommendations from others who’ve used your services. They want to be surprised, impressed, and in a position to tell their own stories about you to their friends and colleagues.

Your business MUST be remarkable. If you can’t be remarkable in the industry within which you operate, at best, you’ll grow at the same rate of the industry. There’ll be no giant leaps forward.

A good story might be about how your business started, the way a person might feel from dealing with you, or the cat that lives on the shop floor. Use your imagination! Don’t lie, make sure everything you tell your potential customers is absolutely true (because they’ll find you out eventually anyway), and place yourself as far away as possible in the market from where your competitors are.

Find those customers that are looking for something different. If they’re impressed, they’ll tell their friends. Word will spread, and before you know it, your competition will be trying to imitate you.

There is no guaranteed quick fix to gaining online marketing results. The technological aspect has defined parameters and capabilities, some of which are clear, and some, ambiguous.Search engines give some information relating to the algorithms they may use in returning search results, but in most cases, conventional theories are based upon reverse-engineering of what is believed the search engines MAY use for search listing purposes.

There are numerous online marketing opportunities that will have different effectiveness for different businesses and industries.

We can help you with pay-per-click advertising and promotion of your website. Pay as little or as much as you wish. It isn’t right for every website, but it’s certainly worth a try. Pay-per-click advertising is particulary cost-effective when your business or service has minimal online competition, relative to the potential sales value.

There’s great debate over the value of inbound links to a website. We can help you set relevant ones up, and help lift your page ranking.

Search Engine Optimisation and Marketing

Search engine optimisation (SEO) involves producing and maintaining a website that uses targeted keywords and programming code that is “search engine friendly”. The rules are unclear, and the goalposts often move, but one thing remains constant: use commonsense when designing your website and both your customers and the search engines will find you, and importantly, like what they find.

We know of proven marketing and sales strategies that go outside the usual thinking for how a website should look and feel. You can have a web presence without going through a web design agency and successfully sell your product on line. We can help make your web site profitable and keep you away from the hidden pitfalls.

Cost-benefit Analysis

There are more than purely perceived up-front financial considerations when you make a business decision. For example:

• the value of lost sales due to a cheaper, but delayed, delivery
• the extra administration tasks as a result of poor training
• your time that could be better spent on the golf course

With a thorough cost-benefit analysis of the possible options, the business decision can become suddenly blindingly obvious.

In any business planning activity, a feasibility study is an effective tool to assist in making a considered decision on the best course of action. The feasibility study can include a cost benefit analysis to evaluate the feasibility of proposed options on technical, economic, and organisational grounds. In so doing, the net presnt value of all options need to be accounted for, with an estimate of the period of time for which benefits will be returned from the initial investment.

One of the fundamental principles of business and economics:

T A N S T A A F L

or in other words…

There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch

When making a business decision, it’s important to determine if a proposed option:

• falls in line with the strategic objectives
• maximises the net benefit for the resources that will be used
• HAS a net-benefit
• has achievable timing considerations
• has acceptable ethical, moral, and/or legal implications
• does not affect cash flow in an unmanageable way
• has an acceptable risk and/or return (particularly in relation to external factors)