The pressure of deadlines

Deadlines looming and you might not meet them if you don’t start working faster? How I absolute HATE that feeling!

Last week, I felt this way a lot. Each minute of every single day last week, I had to jam-pack it full of as much as it could possibly hold – and then cram in yet more. It was intense! Minute by minute, I could feel myself working harder… and harder… and harder – rushing to meet deadlines that loomed one after another after another.

It’s at times like these that our true nature shines through, doesn’t it? When we’re under an insane amount of pressure. It’s how we choose to respond to such stress that defines who we are – and what others think of us! Are we the type of person who, when building up stress, takes the time to stop for a moment and regain some perspective? Or are we the person who lets some of the pressure leak out, when it inevitably lands heavily on a poor innocent nearby, often to their detriment? Because if we cause those around us to want to avoid us during those times when we’re ‘under the pump’, then they’ll always be wondering ‘what sort of mood is he / she in today?’. Trust becomes an issue, because there’s an environment of uncertainty. Not exactly the best of circumstances.

Yes, it’s a reflective entry this week, but this is a topic I’ve been thinking about for a while now – and last week’s incredibly enormous week led me to believe that I wasn’t the only one facing these sorts of pressures! So – over to you. Do you have any suggestions on how to cope, when life gets so busy that you feel as though you’re a bug on the front windscreen of a speeding train – holding on for dear life?!

CC Image courtesy  felizfeliz at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafimages/3144413361/

Lightbulb moment: Design for your audience

What’s the purpose of your website? Some might say ‘to sell our product’, others ‘to promote awareness of our brand’, still others ‘to be our online representative of our physical business.’
Each of these answers, although good, miss the mark in my opinion. Personally, I think that the purpose of any website is to interest, and then engage the attention of, its readers.
Yes, providing information is important. Yes, having that information logically organized, easily accessible, and coherent is important. But none of that matters if your visitors click away after only two or three seconds because of the poor choices made in your site design.

Which makes Hint Number One in ‘Successful Website Design’ : Keep your audience in mind!

Source: Uploaded by user via Ashley on Pinterest

It’s amazing how easy it is to forget this. How quickly we fall into the trap of thinking, “It’s *my* site, so I want it to look like this, and this; and show this, and this; and say this, and this.” All of which is fine, planning-wise, but it needs further development before your site goes live.
A little bit like ‘The customer is always right’, the online version should read ‘the needs of your website visitor trumps all’. If you’d like your business to grow, then you need attract new customers first and foremost, and (rating a very close second) keep meeting the needs of your existing customers. Both of these aspects need to be addressed by your website.
1. Attract new customers
Just like I asked you in “Is Your Website Layout Holding You Back?“, think about your own habits when you visit websites. What appeals? What frustrates you? Chances are, your likes and dislikes are fairly indicative of your own website visitors’ opinions. You probably appreciate a clean layout with easy to find navigation, and were annoyed by websites that included pop-ups, or highly animated banner ads in garish colours.

What is also absolutely crucial when you are designing for new customers? Make it obvious who you are, and what it is that you do! Is your business name and industry clear? How about where you’re located? Because if those facts aren’t immediately clear, then you’ve got quite a problem!

2. Meet the needs of existing customers

Existing customers range from those loyal people who have been coming back for ages, through to those who’ve just discovered you exist. Your website needs to clearly cater for the whole spectrum of existing customers. Perhaps you have new product releases? Or you are offering a new service? This information needs to be obvious – right on the homepage if possible – with links to more information for those customers who want to know more. A warning though – be wary of displaying too much information on your homepage, as clutter will turn away both new and existing customers.

So. Think, think, think. Forget about what it is YOU want to see, and step into the shoes of your customers. What do THEY need? How will you meet that need? Once you have the answers to those questions, then it’s time to look at Hint Number Two in Successful Website Design: Clear and Logical Navigation.

Is your Website Layout holding you back?

It’s often said that, in the online world, that ‘Content is King’. Those who hold to this opinion, believe that the most important aspect of any website is the amount and quality of the content uploaded onto it.

Well I’m sorry, but I disagree.

Source: stumbleupon.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

Think about your own searching habits for a minute. When you’re online, trying to find specific information, you click from link to link to link, checking out various websites to see if they meet your needs. In real terms, you visit half a dozen or so (at least!) websites – maybe even more than this, depending on the accuracy of your search terms in the first place. And because you’ve only given yourself a limited amount of time in which to find this information, every website you visit, (prior to finding the one that has the information you want, of course) you probably spend less than half a minute on. In fact, there’s every possibility that it’s a lot less. 20 seconds. 10 seconds. 5 – or maybe not even that long.

Now – think back to your own website. Does it capture your visitors’ attention? Remembering that you may only have 5 to 10 seconds (or less!) before they click away, is it the brilliant first impression for your business that you REALLY want it to be? Does the appearance of your website enhance your business image? Or hinder it?

I wrote recently about the importance of customer service. How image is everything – and reputations last longer than we’d like to admit. I wonder though, if sometimes we forget that our website also has a role to play in promoting our image. Your own website appearance – what image does it give about your business? Is it too cluttered? Too sparse? Is it covered with ads? Do you have clear About / Contact information, above the break (the point in the page where the visitor has to scroll down)? Or is your website expecting too much from your visitors – making them click around to a number of various places on your site, trying to find the information they need? Remember, the last thing you want to do is to frustrate a potential customer!

This post marks the first in a series ‘Designing a Successful Website Layout’. This series will show you how to optimize the appearance of your website, so that in those all-important seconds when a visitor discovers your site for the first time, they are impressed enough to stay; to read; to maybe click around a little bit. Or – even better – to return again.

Weekly review

Source: myrecipes.com via Cristina on Pinterest

This week has been quite a huge one. Not only did the St Paul’s poster campaign finish at Morayfield Shopping Centre, we also ran our flyer campaign through the Australia Post, to several thousand homes in and around the Caboolture area. Unfortunately, non-stop rain – and at times the odd storm or two – prevented the brick wall at the front of the school from being painted, so even though the 3D signage was manufactured and ready for installation on Friday, unfortunately that’ll have to wait until the weather clears. Meaning that it won’t be installed before children return next week. Oh well. Can’t win them all. Friday also saw several last-minute phone calls organising a newspaper ad campaign in two of the  local newspapers, so that’ll be some designing work to get stuck into, this weekend!

At St James in Hervey Bay students return on the 30th, so that leaves one more week for the newspaper enrolment campaign, which commenced last week, to take effect. Even so, there’s been quite a surprising amount of activity on the College’s facebok page, considering the term hasn’t yet commenced. But it’s great to see a school community so involved in engaging with their school through social media.

Online, both the St Paul’s website, the St James website, and GoodOldTalk have had tweaking done, ready for the explosion of activity over the next week or so. In particular, the newly created ‘Admin blogs’ on the St Paul’s website will be a marked difference to the amount of up-to-the-minute content on their website! The Bloxham Marketing website has also had a bit of a facelift, with a daily blog joining the regular tweets and facebook page updates. This week, posts focused on How To’s – firstly, how to successfully plan for writing a blog; and then, after my discovery of www.ifttt.com, an introduction of same and a How To – get started with ifttt in 5 easy steps. Alexander Tibbets, the “go-to guy at ifttt” continued to amaze me with exceptional customer service, topped off with an invitation to connect on LinkedIn. So now one of my 40 connections is one of the creators of ifttt! I impress even myself at times…

All in all, a very productive week. I don’t know about you, but I look forward to seeing what next week brings!

Your employees ARE your brand!

Last week I read a tweet by @jasonyormark , and ‘Your employees are your brand” was the headline. Of course, my curiosity was piqued enough to follow the link, leading me to a blog post about this exact topic. Interesting enough, you say. But so what?

Well, I’m sure that you could name half-a-dozen examples where you have been given absolutely crappy (for want of a better word) service by a company that you knew didn’t really give two hoots about your opinion. Those companies quickly get a reputation for such service, and this is probably reinforced by their policies, or lack thereof, regarding customer service. Often it’s the larger companies – and in the field of telecommunications, the reputations are generally particularly woeful. Recently I have had issues both with Telstra (Australia) and Google, and with both companies it was particularly difficult to get the problems resolved. Even finding a way to just *contact* google needed quite an excessive amount of research!

Also last week, another tweet led me to another blog post. The post mentioned the program www.ifttt.com – and again, I decided to explore for myself. I’m IMMENSELY glad I did, and shall leave my descriptions regarding why, to my next post, where I can give them suitable justice.

Suffice it to say, I used ifttt’s ‘Contact’ form to send some suggestions, expecting that my email would probably end up in such a massive pile of similar emails that a bot would eventually sort through them, and my feedback be compiled together with gajillions of others, summarised, noted and then maybe even passed through to someone who may or may not really care.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, to receive an email less than 48 hours later, from  a real person, addressing my specific concerns. Absolutely extraordinary!!!

Needless to say, if this is the ifttt.com company policy regarding customer service, their reputation will be high indeed!

CC Image courtesy WSDOT at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/5448801439/