http://www.illusionmedia.co.ukhttp://www.illusionmedia.co.ukIllusion Media, providing expert web design and bespoke software development solutions, based in the UK, working with organisations of every size. View more to find out about our exciting range of development services now!en-gbFri, 10 Feb 2012 04:27:08Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:27:08http://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/May-2010/Hello-John-got-a-new-motor$8.iceA friend of mine is a finance specialist. He is John Graham and he runs Alba Asset Finance. We meet every Wednesday as part of a business group, 25am , in Norwich. There are up to 30 attending business owners and we have breakfast and chat about whatever fills our brains on the day. This week John mentioned an experience he had which I am familiar with as someone with a very distant background in motor vehicle sales.  It is a financial issue and I will not cover this in detail as I do not specialise in this area but an overview is as follows. (If you want specialist advice ask John) He had met with a prospective client to discuss the purchase of a commercial vehicle. The client was aiming to purchase the vehicle from a supplier and was being offered the sale at a 0% finance rate. Excellent you may think as the finance is free. This, I know from experience, is never the case as the money must be made up somewhere. And in this case that was correct as the vehicle was being sold at retail price. Now John was able to source a vehicle at a discounted price saving a minimum 30% to the client in hard cash but as the finance was listed at 3.9% this was appearing unattractive.  In essence the purchase would have been substantially cheaper in real terms on 3.9% as opposed to 0% finance when assessing the ‘whole life cost’ of the transaction. This meant that the client would pay a lot less for the same thing. Ideal you would think but do we always understand the detail when we purchase something and do we always understand fully the ‘Whole Life Cost’ of it. This is true of many things and websites are no different. In assessing the suitability of an online presence for your business what do you consider? The look? Technical development? The company building it? Nothing at all? It is not always easy to know what you may not understand but if you are to get value for your money you must learn or trust in someone to advise you.  Websites are not easy to cost although they may be easy to value. There is no set price as you can pay anything from £0 to..well anything at all. So how do you determine a Whole Life Cost in this scenario? I think that first it is important to understand what you are looking to achieve with any website or online presence. Is it just an online brochure to your business that will provide information to existing clients? Are you aiming to attract clients to the business? Or is it going to be managed as an online ecommerce store? These are all different entities as they can work differently from each other and contribute to your business in different ways so you must ensure that what you buy is what you need. They may also process visitors in a different cycle so this must be done correctly as losing a customer online is a very quick procedure. Alongside this, as in the vehicle example above, you must ensure the ‘Whole Life Cost’ suits your needs. It is somewhat pointless to spend out in money and time to develop a project that only lasts a short space of time as it does not do what you want it to do. This is not uncommon in the world so when you do buy ensure you buy wisely and don’t be lured immediately by what may appear to be the deal that fits.  If you would like to know more about the efficient purchase of vehicles (including savings of over 30%) I would suggest that you get in touch with Alba Asset Finance If you would like to know more about the purchase of an online presence for your business we have that one covered so please do drop us a lineFri, 28 May 2010 10:59:00http://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/May-2010/Hello-John-got-a-new-motor$8.icehttp://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/May-2010/The-Great-Rock-$4-Roll-Swindle.iceI was surprised recently to learn that a couple of friends had individually been scammed by ticket sales websites for gigs they were aiming to go to. As both of them are very online literate I did not expect that they could be duped to part with their hard earned so easily. Or maybe I was being somewhat naive to the skill of the scam websites. I was then listening to a radio news item this week regarding the very same subject and the alarming scale of operation. The discussion centred on the obvious ease with which you can set up a scam website and coerce cash from unsuspecting punters. Well this is no surprise but as a relapsed regular gig goer I was not as aware of the scale of opportunity that existed and this led me to thoughts of online safety across all areas of transaction. Of course the ability to set up a website and appear to be something you are not is no new fact and looking secure and trustworthy can be achieved also, but how do we protect our money before we pass it across the virtual counter? Government guidance from websites such as Get Safe Online offers good guidance www.getsafeonline.org and there are some easy follow basics such as Does the website offer full contact details including a genuine address and phone number? Where required can you see the padlock symbol and does the website display ‘https://’ at any point in which you are providing debit or credit card details? Are terms and conditions clearly detailed and what are they? How are they protecting your privacy and dealing with any of your personal data? Regrettably it is not always this simple to check as there are issues here. For instance a website that displays a https:// address indicates that it has gained an SSL certificate to transact securely within an encrypted connection. This merely indicates that the traffic between you and the website server is encrypted and that the server is who they have claimed to be. But this does not guarantee the honesty of the certificate registrant. There are various certification companies in the market who use different methods to check the validity of any registering company or person. Sadly there cannot be nailed on guarantees here. You can also click to check the validity of any certificate but you must still be aware of the above caveats. If the website displays contact details call them and speak to someone to try to gauge who they are if you are unsure. If there are no contact details then it may be wise to look elsewhere. If terms and conditions are detailed what protection do they offer?  Do you feel comfortable with them? Gig tickets can be difficult as most reputable companies will charge at point of purchase but may not ship until the week before the gig so be aware of how the purchase works and what you can do if it fails. Most quality and honest websites should detail how they use your data and how it will be protected so these can also be checked. If unsure do not buy. The Data Protection Act does offer levels of protection so check for conformity and inclusion. One way to check out a website is Google. A search of the company name and details may show some comments or details from alternate websites and it is possible sometimes to locate content that identifies scams and issues that others may have experienced. You can also check the age of a domain, country of host and these may indicate possible hoax websites. If a domain is only a few months old and the website hosts outside the UK in certain countries of ill repute these may be warning signs. A good rule of thumb is to not buy if you are not sure. There is no reason why an online sale should be different to an offline one. Use your judgement as you should anywhere else. If it seems shifty and dishonest don’t part with your cash. And if you are not quite sure then get more information and seek further advice. The difficulty is that what may seem like a once in a lifetime offer to see your favourite band at a reduced price, becomes somewhat more expensive if you never get your tickets. So if it seems cheaper, quicker, better than everywhere else ask yourself why. It may be that it is genuinely so but at least verify the reasoning as a few extra minutes checking  could be worth it in your wallet.Thu, 06 May 2010 12:31:00http://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/May-2010/The-Great-Rock-$4-Roll-Swindle.icehttp://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/April-2010/Web-Source-East.iceIt was a first for Norwich; a day-long web conference with industry leading speakers, taking place at The King’s Centre venue in the middle of the city. While boldly and questionably advertised as, “The most amazing web conference ever held”, the day promised at least a few interesting insights given the variety of topics covered by the eight speakers. The line-up included a mixture of ages, experiences and professions, with some local to East Anglia and others travelling from further afield. Recognisable and impressive names such as web designer Elliot Jay Stocks, user experience professional Cennydd Bowles from Clearleft (.Net magazine’s Agency of the Year 2009) and copyrighter Relly Annett-Baker sat amongst lesser known web strategist Joel Hughes, team leader/developer Dave Ashenden and amateur speakers Alan Hamlyn and Dan Gates. Alan Hamlyn opened his talk “SEO Magic” with a clip from The IT Crowd. While amusing and arguably relevant, the audience was left wondering whether they were about to view the episode in it’s entirely, but the talk soon picked up and pages of notes were scribbled at all tables. Alan covered the basics of SEO before banishing a few common myths, but the area of most interest, which generated much chatter at the end of his talk, were the tips and tricks he shared. XML sitemaps were a no-no, the justification being that when a search engine spider reaches the sitemap it need not look any further through the rest of the website. Straying into grey hat territory, Alan demonstrated a website which contained a small amount of text near the footer that he changed on a daily basis, causing search engines to assume that the entire page had been updated (he advised using this technique only for a short period of time). Relly Annett-Baker’s talk included twenty-seven lolcats across her slides and covered the undervalued topic of website copy. In the summer of this year Relly will be releasing a free copy and content guide ( http://poppycopy.uservoice.com/forums/41048-designers-developers-copy-and-content-guide ) to help developers and designers use more meaningful messages in their work. It will serve as a reference point when creating form validation messages and deciding between labels such as ‘login’, ‘log-in’ and ‘log in’. The unequivocal highlight of the day for me was the last speaker on the list and author of the book "Sexy web design", Elliot Jay Stocks. Presenting "Stop Worrying & Get On With It: Tips and Tricks for designing for the Modern Web", his slides had been carefully designed and included the controversial statement, "Validation is irrelevant". Elliot argues that while validation can help to pinpoint mark-up errors, it is also possible to build a wholly table-based layout with a complete lack of semantics that will validate. Conversely, some of the progressive techniques outlined in his talk will not validate but he impressed upon the audience that this is no reason not to use them. The slide stating "10% of users today will be 100% of users tomorrow" urges developers to use progressive techniques not only to offer a richer experience for those using modern browsers, but to also future proof their work. Even if these enhancements reach only a small percentage of users today, this number can do nothing but grow with time. Techniques such as the CSS3 border-radius method of rounding corners will not currently be visible to those using Internet Explorer, and as an aesthetic enhancement this may not be considered too important, but I believe a balance needs to be struck between clean, progressive code and backward compatibility. This is entirely dependant on the purpose and audience of the website. These concepts were covered further in the Q & A portion of the day, which took place during "no show" Dean Hunt's slot. When questioned about the use of warning messages directed to those using older versions of Internet Explorer, Cennydd Bowles pointed out that the majority of IE6 users work in the corporate division and are unable to change their browser - a warning message would serve little purpose other than to frustrate them. Elliot thought a message would be acceptable, but better used on a personal project rather than client work. I attended the Web Source East conference to gain inspiration, ideas and knowledge from the speakers and in that respect I was not disappointed. The quality of the talks and slides varied (spell check really is essential) and I thought some of topics could have been covered in a little more depth. Despite this however, I came away with several new and important concepts, in particular, a strong desire to become better acquainted with HTML5/CSS3 and to spend less time getting a website to look pixel-perfect in IE6, the dinosaur of the browser world. I thought the ticket price of £50.00 was good value and I will look forward to attending again next year.Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:04:00http://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/April-2010/Web-Source-East.icehttp://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/March-2010/Stand-Out-from-the-Crowd.iceIt is well known that when you browse on the web that you don't give companies the same time and attention as you would if you perhaps saw a brochure or visited their shop. Statistics show that you have around 5 seconds to capture a web user’s interest when they visit your website. Design plays a huge role in getting users to stay and browse. The overall visual look of a website should be telling visitors a number of things in an instance, namely what industry sector you are in, what the key areas of your business are; especially anything that is unique to your company. You should also be setting the tone for how you converse with your customers in the real world, design is your voice online to communicate whether you are serious, quirky or laid back in the way you do business and connect to those around you. You can also use design elements to create subconscious tick boxes to help users make the quick decisions about whether your product or service is right for them. Does your company or organisation only work in a certain part of the country? A map showing these areas highlighted would instantly inform customers of whether they are in your catchment area. Do you sell online? A prominently placed basket icon or shopping cart area informs a user they can buy online without the need to visit a shop. Do you want users to visit your shop? Lots of things can be created visually to subtly influence decisions. A big contributor to online sales is also whether a user trusts your website enough to enter their card details. There are obviously elements in the browser window to let users know that it's secure, but a nicely laid out website which has obviously had time spent on it is often taken as an indication that elements working behind the scenes are also in proper order. So when all these elements have been accessed by a user and your website has been championed as one of the 2 or 3 suitable businesses to return to, you need to ensure they will remember your website. After a very quick Google search and some fast paced browsing, a user may not even remember the name of your business. It will be the design elements that will help them find you again. To be effective in this, it is extremely important to assess the design of your competitors’ websites after deciding that you would like a new design. Certain industries tend to have set looks they follow, ever wondered why all computer industry websites are blue with a web 2.0 gloss about them? Why follow the trend? It is important that you have key elements in the design which place you within the sector, but you need to be able to visually stand out and be memorable. A strong secondary colour could be enough to define this but if you can start using design elements that are unique to your company, that competitors wouldn't use, it will start to set you apart from the rest. If you can replace your logo with a competitors and your website still looks ok, it may be that your design isn't working hard enough! When starting a redesign try to speak to the designer working on your project direct. If the time is taken initially for the designer to understand your business and what you are trying to achieve from the website, they should be able to guide you on the best look and what elements you need. Don't be shy in asking about why things have been organised or presented in a certain way, there is often an explanation for what each device is doing. With the introduction of content managed solutions where clients can update much of the website themselves, it is important to understand what your website is conveying to its users. Design templates and website guidelines can be produced in much the same way as brand guidelines can be for print, if you want to ensure your website looks in tip top condition moving forward.Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:45:00http://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/March-2010/Stand-Out-from-the-Crowd.icehttp://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/March-2010/The-Marketing-is-changing.iceFirst we just had the internet, a great place to go and see things you had never seen, even on television. Companies and individuals alike then discovered that they could sell things to people so they would place products and services on a website and wait for those orders. This however was not enough, as customers would not always find you, so Google kindly invented Online Marketing. A marvellous way in which to guide people directly to your website and all of it’s wonderful aspects, using mind bending techniques and offers of free things. The online market space became awash with companies trading products and transferring information using various methods of enticement and product placement. You could buy words before people even thought about a word to type into a search bar, you were able to read the minds of your customers and present products before them that they did not know they needed yet. Content on a website was massaged and manipulated to ensure a steady stream of enquiring clients. There were many forms of marketing to engage an audience with on site optimization, pay per click, emarketing, affiliate campaigns and many others. And then came Social Media. Like a wave of change there was no longer the need to wait for the phone to ring. You could now run out into the street with the phone to grab those eager customers. Online content could be sent all around the world to tease the buyers. Soon companies were sending video clips to social networking sites for millions of people that they had never met to watch and be amazed by. Blenders were blending things that had never been used on Masterchef before just to sell things. People were reading about a celebrity's toilet trip with excited anticipation. Everyone was quickly logging onto Facebook and Twitter furiously to tell the world anything they wanted and blogging became a new form of communication that could replace talking. So what do you do if this arena of massive world dominance has not yet touched your corporate world? It is the case now that the online space has now become available for you to deliver content to an audience alongside more traditional methods that attract market to your website. There is a lot of scope here as every website will have an amount of unique intellectual property, therefore resulting in a unique amount of content. It is important to understand that there are a world full of users out there in internet land that want, even need to see what you do and how you do it. Content is developing as a firm and viable asset and if you are not out there trading yours, you can be guaranteed that your next best competitor will be doing exactly that for you.Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:47:00http://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/March-2010/The-Marketing-is-changing.icehttp://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/November-2009/The-Big-Event.iceI have been fortunate enough to attend two very different but equally large scale events in the past month. The first was Internet Retail in Hammersmith and most recently Destination Growth at Duxford. Both events were well worth the ticket value and also were benefitted by a very high quality line up of speakers. Internet Retail, as the title may indicate, is a leading event in Europe aimed at the online market space populated by those of us who are engaged in the sale of products and services. As would be expected the speakers were industry leaders and from companies very heavily involved in this area. Speakers during the day were key representatives from  Zappos,  John Lewis, Google, Omniture, Reebok, Harvey Nichols, Asda, Waitrose, Argos and lastminute.com. A pretty impressive line up I am sure you would agree. Testament also to the event that if you are going to learn from people then choose those who have something to teach. At Destination Growth the event was organised by EEDA and was an opportunity for business leaders from the Eastern region to meet, network and chat while being educated by another very high quality line up of speakers. The headliners were Lord Sugar, Greg Dyke and Michelle Mone. As if these individuals were not enough, and for my part the show stopper was Michelle Mone a truly amazing character, they were ably assisted by a number of other leading entrepreneurs from businesses locally and nationally. Again this was an extremely high quality line up of people top learn from. So events then.  Should you go and if so to which ones and do you attend or do you exhibit. I think there are a number of things to consider when assessing the merits of any event. The obvious starting point is of course to centre on the key events in your industry or market space. There is always one, or many, and they can be found relatively easily from Google (or other similar brands.......) or trade publications and so on. Once you have found the event or exhibition that is of interest, then you can decide whether you are a delegate or an exhibitor. There are of course a few points to assist you with this What is the cost of exhibiting and can you afford it? (There is not only the actual cost of the floor space but also whatever you display, travel, hotels, meals and so on) Who will be going as delegates? It may be that exhibiting is a requirement in your industry to be seen, but it is also vital to grab some contacts or new business as well as filling your clients with wine and cheese. Who do you staff the stand with? Personally I would always go with those who do this for a living so that would be the sales team and then maybe marketing. Technical representation is useful for deeper conversations but do not load a stand with techies who cannot talk. Better staff with talkers who cannot tech. I have been to many shows and walked past stands to be ignored by the people on it. This is why you are there - to talk. What do you look like? Larger companies will have teams of people who manage this for them. You may not. If you do exhibit ensure you look good. Your stand must be attractive, easy to understand and welcoming. If people do not want to come and chat you may as well have stayed at home. Also the staff on the space must also be well presented, approachable and for your sake confident. They are there to sell the company and will be little use if they cannot. If you attend as a delegate what is the point? Why are you going to go? If it’s a day out of the way of your boss then fine. But if your requirement is more directed then it may be useful to consider what you what you want to achieve. It is possible to attend events and meet new contacts and get business. You can do this by visiting in event networking or simply paying attention to the name badges or simply saying hello and what do you do then? Speakers. I have attended events just for the speakers as they are very interesting and you can go and learn from those who know what you do not. It is also likely that a good speaker will attract a good audience so you have more opportunity as a result The competition. Events can also be a great chance to go see what others are doing in your market place.  I have never done this of course, but you could go covertly and be sold to by your main competitors to gauge their approach and service. It is also the opportunity to see what is new in your space. All companies want to show off the sexy stuff when they spend some cash on going somewhere to be surrounded by potential buyers. Whilst it is imperative to consider the advantages and disadvantages of attending events and exhibitions I would always recommend going to them. They are good ways to cover a large number of opportunities in a small time scale and space and hopefully get some serious advice and guidance from those who teach and inspire. It is also worth looking at location websites for the main venues as these will list all events and you can choose the ones that may work for you. Happy exhibiting or attending!Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:28:00http://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/November-2009/The-Big-Event.icehttp://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/October-2009/Networking-or-Not-Working$8.iceNetworking is an increasingly excellent way to develop your business but is also an excellent way to waste a lot of time doing nothing useful. It may be that productive networking is an art and there are different levels of involvement. There are however some useful tips or thoughts to consider around any opportunity for networking and these are detailed below Why are you going? – may appear obvious on the surface but you need to consider this. Do you want business directly from an event, are you looking to meet useful movers and shakers. You may find that any networking event is full of sellers and not buyers. Who do you want to engage with? – Different events may attract different types of businesses and you must ensure you get this right or risk disappointment. It is also important to determine who you are talking to as there is a big difference between the business owner (who can write a cheque) and the employee (who wishes he could write the cheques) Do you really know what you offer? - This is an area of apparent confusion for some businesses as they often struggle to detail their offering in a way that can be easily understood. Most people would like to be told simply what you do and more importantly what that means to them. How will you get chatting? – Are you confident and outgoing or shy and reserved? Big difference and if the latter do you have a colleague or partner who is better placed to go instead. Networking, regardless of type, is all about introduction and chatting so a very simple intro works best. It can also be polite to ask the recipient about themselves first to promote conversation. Not only can this be relaxing for them but also allows you to qualify a need for what you do. Where is the get out? – If you do end up with the 32 nd life coach of the night be confident enough to move on if there is no benefit. If you just want to grow your contact base talk to everyone but if it is business you are after do not be afraid to move on from those you will not do business with. It is also useful to think about where you go as well as what you actually do. There are many different networking groups and organisations that offer lots of different types of events. As well as location, there is cost and customer value to consider. You can attend events with Chamber of Commerce, Business Link, BNI along with many other local or national event organisers. There is also the ability to network online with ecademy, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, zoom and many others. Above all ensure that whatever you do you understand fully why you are doing it and what you expect to gain as a result or you will indeed be not working as opposed to networking.Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:34:00http://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/October-2009/Networking-or-Not-Working$8.icehttp://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/September-2009/It-really-is-a-numbers-game.iceIn business there is one thing that has to take precedence over all others, the Numbers. If the cash does not work, the business does not work. Plain and simple with no exceptions. There is no escaping this issue regardless of the type of business that you may run. It is important in any business setting that you manage your costs very closely and that this allows you to sell your product or service and make a profit in the middle. This is highly relevant currently, when so many companies are facing difficult times. Within the digital arena it is especially apparent as it is easy to allow development costs to get far too close to a selling cost thus eradicating your earning potential. Web development companies can sometimes be very creative and gifted but lack business expertise and not get the numbers working correctly. When you are developing websites or any online project there are a few pointers that may be worth attention. Scope (or what do you want then?) This really is the start and the part that could make or break the project. It is also the part at which you need to determine who is paying for what and why. It can be useful to commit to an outline cost to a client prior to any scope but it is important that whatever is scoped is then passed to the client in the invoice. It is apparent that there are projects out there that are ‘part owned’ by the developing agency as they have built more than the client asked for or was quoted for. Brief Ensuring the team understands fully the project requirements can save money and use time most effectively. It is also relevant to correct delivery of the project to the client and therefore best return of cost to the business. More time spent here can result in less time overspent anywhere else which equals a healthier bottom line for the business. Design Whilst it may be very exciting and creative to picture the colossus of websites it is vital to only deliver what has been requested. It is also key to remember that what you picture the client will want so no great additions in design that haven’t been costed for delivery and invoice. Build This happens. Client calls to discuss project, speaks to development team and suddenly remembers they want their new puppy to make the tea and solve global warming as well. Kindly development team add this in as they like to do what they are asked. This can result in a low budget/high value end product that nobody wants to pay for Sign Off Everything must be signed off. It is useful to ensure a sign off is conducted at each stage of any project as what they sign they can’t decline. Not only can this enable the client to be comfortable with progress and continuity it will as well allow you to be confident that they will pay the invoice at the end. Project Management It is fair to say that good project management should eradicate most of the above. Constant communication and management is important in any team and having the services of a strong and well qualified PM will hopefully ensure projects do not overspend. The above is intended as a quick overview and not a complete guide. The important point is to be aware and be managing correctly. If you are not comfortable with numbers get someone else in the business to do this or use your Accountant. It is simply far too important to get wrong as numerous companies nationally are sadly discovering right now. A successful business is based on good profits in a well controlled cash environment and not just turnover. Getting cash is simply not enough; you must get the right amount and manage it properly when you have it.Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:26:00http://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/September-2009/It-really-is-a-numbers-game.icehttp://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/September-2009/Your-customers-are-waiting-online!.iceEvery day tens, hundreds, thousands of potential customers are searching for your products or services on the Internet. They are out there waiting to engage, enquire and spend. But are you where they are? Not sure? Well you can easily find out. You can utilise simple and available tools like Adwords Keyword Research Tool to type in key words or search terms relevant to your business offering and this will tell you the number of individual searches for that term. Or, more importantly, the number of potential customers wanting to buy what you sell. Let us take an easy example like ‘iron bed’ and ‘iron beds’. In May 2009 these terms were searched for 8,100 and 4,400 times respectively. That is 12,500 prospective customers searching for what you sell (if you sell iron beds of course-like our good friends at Feather and Black www.featherandblack.com ). Interested? Well you can use factual investigation to determine who buys your product and, as the above example shows, you can identify how many searches there are. Use this for all key terms related to your business, regardless of what you do, and you are starting to develop an online strategy. In line with this, you can investigate and detail who currently buys what you sell. What makes your typical customer; age, sex, likes, dislikes and so on. This information is vital to allow you to start to target the exact demographic that represents your ideal customer. From here you can look at where your ideal customer may be most represented online. For instance, if your research indicates that your ideal average target customer is 35 years old, lives in a 3 bedroom house and drives a blue Ford Mondeo you must start to consider where you can find these types of people. Arenas like Facebook are great for this as online profiling will allow you to place your product in front of your ideal customer You can drill down to as niche a result as you like but remember, all levels from the top may be buyers so do not distance them and these are just averages but can assist in targeted marketing. Are there products that your target market already buys and you could develop relationships with those providers to cross sell to each others customers? You can even gauge how much approximately it may cost you to get the customer. The tools will also outline the cost of key terms and therefore how much an enquiry or sale may cost you to get onto your website. This allows you to plan what will work best relevant to your business model and profit margin. How much is a new customer worth to your business? You can access the free Adwords tool here https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternalTue, 01 Sep 2009 11:28:00http://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/September-2009/Your-customers-are-waiting-online!.icehttp://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/August-2009/I-want-a-new-website-please.iceSo you need a website or the old one your company props up against the cupboard wall needs a refresh as it doesn’t seem to do very much anymore. Where do you start? Well I guess a quick search on Google or similar for web companies, design agencies in your area may be a good start. (I think a company selling web services that cannot be located on the medium that controls 85% of all web searches may miss a tick on the suitability list). Another way can be to follow the trail from a website you like to the agency that developed it as most will include a link to their own website. What do you need to know when looking? Look at the companies own website and see what you think. What work have they completed previously? Whilst this would not represent your new website exactly it will give you an indication of the types of design styles they may follow and the companies that they may work for already. It is always good to meet with the company and discuss your needs. If you need to meet with more than one then do so and also be sure to ask why you should use them. If they cannot identify their strengths, and the benefits of using them, then maybe another tick gone. Look to gain testimonials from other happy clients as well. Be sure to ask whether you can speak to any current clients. A large part of any online project will be your input with content, images, page titles, navigation needs and so on. You must be ready to add your involvement as projects can stall as the client does not provide relevant detail when needed. It is always important as well to ensure you only use good quality images as many good websites can be ruined by inferior pictures. It is important to think about what you will want to do with your website once you have it as it may suit your business better to have a Content Managed System or CMS  as this will allow you to update your website content as and when you need to. As a part of any successful website is fresh content this is certainly worth considering. It may also be better for you financially as it may reduce the need to pay your agency to update the website for you if you can do this yourself. There are large variations in types of CMS as well and this will subsequently vary the amount of editing and amendments that you may be able to manage within the business. Another area of relevance is cost. Website costs can vary greatly and the way in which you pay may differ also. Do you pay a fee for the total development of your website prior to going live or is it more convenient to license the CMS from the development agency. (Illusion Media took the decision, when developing the new Imagine CMS platform, to license the product and therefore make it more affordable to all) With a licensed product you may also get maintenance included so there are no ongoing costs for online development other than a fixed monthly fee which may make the system more attractive to you. If your company sells products do you need to think about developing an online store or ecommerce website to allow this? Whilst this may add additional cost to any project it is another opportunity to create a revenue stream for the business. There are other considerations such as delivery but if you are already selling and despatching products this should not be a problem. Overall there may be a lot to consider but it is important to make the right choices as it can be along time being wrong for you. It may also be useful to engage with funded organizations such as Business Link who have people locally to you who can offer you advice and guidance regarding the online arena if you need it. If you would like to discuss your needs with us here at Illusion Media we would be happy to do so. You can email me if you wish at brian@illusionmedia.co.ukFri, 21 Aug 2009 12:04:00http://www.illusionmedia.co.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/August-2009/I-want-a-new-website-please.ice