In an attempt to practice what we preach and to keep our website and it’s content fresh and up-to-date (see our post, How old is your website?) we’ve added some new pages and features over the last month or so.

We have added a testimonials page, where we get the chance to shout about the good comments we’ve received from our recent clients. We plan to update this regularly each time someone says something great about us. I think the ones we have on there at the moment are fantastic and hopefully it will go some way to show prospective customers how friendly and approachable we are, as well as how well we will perform for them.

Check out our Testimonials Page – HERE

Rainbeaux Media becoming more social...

Also, we’ve recently added the abilty to be able to leave us a comment below our Blog posts just by being logged in to Facebook. This is a great new feature which means you don’t have to leave us any details or register with us to be able to comment. This will make it so much easier for you to leave us a comment, if you so wish. Try it out and let us know what you think!

Office in a Box Website

The truth is, advertising on our local buses on main routes and on Manx Radio isn’t necessarily as expensive as you may think, but by becoming a member of ‘Office in a Box’ and signing up for a 12 month membership you get all these benefits, and many more, thrown-in as part of the package. The company’s slogan ‘GET CONNECTED’ will become very apparent once you join.

It should go without saying that the website is fairly comprehensive (we’re biased, we created it!) and will give its members many additional benefits and ways to do business together. It will also give each member the ability to market its business to the rest of the island. The perfect partnership between online and offline marketing strategies, giving each and every member the best of both worlds.

So, if you’re a small business on the Isle of Man and like the idea of some of these advertising opportunities, as well as networking events and more, visit the website for more information or send an email Richard or Mark on info@officeinabox.im

However, we don’t think that this is a good enough reason really…

You see… we’re not only a Web Design & Web Hosting company, we’re into Social Media… and in a big way! We Monitor, Post, Blog, Tweet, Update, Like and generally engage on all the various platforms for our customers… all day… every day. That’s how we earn a living!

So, back to the heading and you can see that we’re not doing a very good job of it at the moment. So we’ll try to do better over the coming months and update you with lots of information that you’ll hopefully be interested in.

If you have any specific topics you’d like us to write about or a question you’d like answered in the coming months, drop us a email to: info<at>rainbeaxmedia.com or leave us a comment under this blog post and we’ll do our best to answer them soon.

I visit many websites that have the copy-write stamp in the footer dating anywhere from 2010 to as far back as 2005 and beyond! This is not at all good practice, as a website that looks out-of-date and unkept will certainly not instill confidence in you current or potential customers who thought it was a good idea to have a ‘sneaky peak’ at your website before picking up the phone… that phone call might not ever materialise after a glance at your website.

Take a few minutes to have a look at your own website (wait until you’ve finished reading my blog first, of course!) and ask yourself if you would buy from that company, and if there’s anything you would change about your site. If there is, do it, immediately. Every day you leave it you may miss that one big customer.

Now… I said I ‘was‘ going to write a blog based on the importance of keeping your website up-to-date, because whilst doing some research on the topic I came a across this post which I thought said what I wanted to say very well. So, take the time to read it and please feel free to leave me your thoughts and comments below.

Stop Treating Your Website Like a Broken Old Boat

Thanks for reading!

The are also lots of websites offering free templates or wizards and hosting services too. These are fine if you’re running an amateur page for a youth club or as a general hobby or interest of your own, but you absolutely should NOT be using these sorts of services for your business. Here’s why:

Reason Number 1:

I’ll start with the obvious answer… they look unprofessional!

If you are a business or a charity who relies on your website as a marketing tool or a ‘shop window’ (why else would you have one?) then you really should invest some time and money on your website. Many businesses happily pay for an article in a local, or national magasine or newspaper, at great expense. These types of advertisements are generally professionally designed for you by the company that’s looking for your business.  These types of things typically become bedding in your rabbits hutch within a week / month, or at best, three months. When it comes to websites, Businesses seem reluctant to dedicate the same sort of time and investment either to a new website or even an update of their current site, even though the cost of this usually does not exceed a single page spread in said magasines.

Now, I’m not saying that we should all dedicate our entire marketing budgets to our websites, but a more balanced approach to actively promoting your company via other types of media would be a good start! For instance, making you web address more obvious in your offline marketing campaigns should push interested parties towards further information, then a cleverly designed and an inviting home page that coaxes prospective customers to ‘read on…’ is a much more cost effective way of getting your message across than spending money on a full page spread in a magasine every month. Your website is where you can say as much as you like about your company, services, products… and it won’t cost you any more if you have a little to say or a lot to say, and it will only cost you a fraction of a monthly full page article to update your web pages on a regular basis. This in itself helps show the world that you are fresh, current and up-to-date, and it’s fair to say that potential customers will be of the opinion that if this area of your business is fresh and up-to-date, the chances are so are your company’s practices and procedures.

Reason Number 2:

Can you be found?

Template websites are by their very name, templates… They are generic. This means it has been design by somebody who knows nothing about your business. If a developer know nothing about you it is very difficult to design a website that suits what you do. Generic website are not picked up or indexed very by search engines and this in turn means that you will not be found if people are searching for services within your area of expertise and location.

Reason Number 3:

Unnecessary time and effort!

In order to fully customise a template so that it ‘fits’ your company properly, a developer must do an awful lot of work. it is not a case of simply adding your pictures and some text and off you go as there is usually some element of the template that the customer doesn’t like. This usually leads on to customising the template… this basically means picking up somebody else’s work, somebody who you do not know and generally will never meet and have no way of contacting, which of course means you cannot facilitate any sort of hand-over or find out any information about the template without doing some investigating.

At this stage a developer has usually spent so much time on the project it would have been easier to develop the website entirely from scratch so that it was designed to the customers needs in the first place.

Again, I’m not saying there isn’t a place for templates… if a customer sees something that they like, or a general style or colour scheme then that will save a web designer dreaming up something that the customer may not like.

By going to a reputable company who can design you a website specific for you needs you will get so much more bang for your buck. Many are passionate about what they do and will happily meet you for a coffee and talk with you about any ideas you may have and then be able to give you some idea of cost.

‘Brochure’ website are by far the most common for businesses. All they need to do is show others what you can offer them, but they must do it in a engaging way. This sort of website does not need to be expensive even when designed from scratch.

With bespoke websites starting at around £350, Rainbeaux Media can offer you exceptional value for money. Why not drop us an email to arrange a suitable time to meet over a coffee, or call us on 01624 611757  to have a chat about your requirements.

The event took the participants around all the Lifeboat stations on the island with an extra dip thrown in for good measure! This swim alone raised £10,000 in 2010. This is one of many events organised over this period.

The itinerary was as follows:

9.30 Board the Bus for Ramsey – 1st dip 10.45
11.15 Depart for Peel – 2nd dip 12.00
12.20 Depart for Gansey Bay – 3rd dip 13.15
13.45 Depart for Port St Mary – 4th dip 14.00
14.30 Depart for Port Erin – 5th dip 14.45
15.00 Depart for Douglas (outside the Palace Hotel) – 6th dip 15.40

We turned out at Ramsey and Peel to cheer them on. Pictures can be found on our facebook page – facebook.com/rainbeauxmedia

Rainbeaux Media was proud to sponsor Alistair in the dip who had the shakes very badly after getting out in Ramsey and couldn’t hold a cup of tea!

All proceeds go to SOS Day, the RNLI’s largest fundraising day. Until next year…