AWS Blog Post

Why Redesign Your Website?

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:16:00 GMT

Have you ever walked into a building and thought, "This place was probably really nice and new thirty years ago." The problem for business is that if you do work in an outdated, poorly managed office, you send the message to your customers that perhaps you are outdated and manage poorly. First impressions are vital, and they're usually visual.

That being said, just as it's important to keep your physical location up-to-date and in good shape, the same can be said for your website. However, while you might be able to go twenty years without remodeling your physical location, the shelf life of your current web design is probably only five years. Why is that? Because advances in design trends and website technology happen at a much faster rate than other aspects of your industry.

Advances in Technology

Remember eight years ago when everybody had a cool Flash website? Flash was all the rage, because everything could be an interactive, animated image. And then Google caught fire and SEO experts realized that Flash was horrible for search rankings. Then the iPhone came along and couldn't even see Flash websites. What Google and the iPhone started, advances in Ajax and HTML 5 have finished for Flash.

The fact of the matter is that if your website design is older than five years, it was built using old technology. It's going to be slower and less functional than a freshly coded site. A new site will be social friendly, search friendly, and mobile friendly.

Advances in Design

With advances in technology come advances in design. Let's face it, design trends are constantly evolving, and it seems that design trends in website design are more closely linked to design trends in the marketing and fashion industries. It's true: all those design geeks sit around looking at each other's stuff, and as such, what's "in-style" advances at a rapid pace. It won't be long before your cool redesign is dated.

Excuses, Excuses

So what's holding you back from a fresh redesign? For many businesses, it comes down to cost. It's hard to justify a redesign when you just went through that expensive process what seems like not-too-long-ago. However, you never stop spending on marketing, and you never stop spending on your infrastructure. Your website is important to both. Think of it as a vital operations expense.

Another excuse we hear is, "We don't get any complaints." Of course you don't. People don't complain when your store looks dirty, either. They just walk out and never come back. You may not be getting complaints, but you may not be getting the engagement possible with a fresh design, either.

Keep It Fresh

A good web design engages your customers and stimulates conversions. It's your online storefront. That being said, just as important as it is to maintain excellence in your physical operations, it's essential to do the same with your online operations.

Social Media and Scalable Relationships

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:09:00 GMT

Southwest Airlines is known to be one of the most successful airlines in the country. In addition to maintaining a great place to work and a great place to fly, they have also implemented a very successful social media strategy since 2006.

So how does Southwest manage it's active website which receives 12,000 hits monthly, and Twitter and Facebook accounts with followers over a million strong each?

With a team of 5 people.

You can read all about their successful strategy in this blog post at Innovation Excellence. Southwest employs a strategy that centers around actively and consistently listening to both their followers and what's being said in social media. And they are able to do it with a relatively small team, when compared to the huge volume of traffic generated by their online presence.

That's great news for businesses of all sizes: It doesn't take much to have a successful social media strategy. Social media gives you the ability to build, grow, and leverage great relationships with your vendors, customers, and future customers in a way that is manageable and scalable.

In the information age, we're seeing a move from the mass, corporate, you're-only-a-number approach to business back to the mom-and-pop, corner store approach. The internet gives mom and pop the power to reach a broad enough audience to survive and thrive.

Social media gives mom and pop the ability to have one-on-one relationships with a broad audience, just like you walked into the store and sat down with the owner.

Blogging for Site, Social, and Search

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:05:00 GMT

At Acumen, we prescribe a Site, Social, Search approach to your online presence. One easy addition to your web presence that helps improve the quality of all three at once is a blog. Kill three birds with one stone! What's so great about blogging?

Site: You fill your website with great information about your products, services, mission, vision, staff, etc. However, it's very static. A blog instantly transforms your site into a very dynamic, living organism. Your site now grows with each new blog post, and encourages regular, repeat visits, rather than just glances when someone is exploring your business.
Social: Blogging was perhaps the first social medium. Before there was Myspace and Facebook, their was Livejournal. A good blog encourages interaction, and it helps your followers to get to know you better. You can share your thoughts and experiences, which helps build relationships.
Search: The key to increasing your search rankings is providing a consistent sampling of relevant content. A blog is just that. It's an ongoing and growing farm of relevant keywords and established content. It might be the easiest way to increase your site's content in a way that has real, lasting, and genuine search engine results.

Blogging is not just for nerds and couponers, even though it seems they are the only ones who have time to blog. The key is to establish consistency. No, you're not going to dive head first into blogging and expect to post something every day. It's best to start slow. How about once a month? When you have that down, post something once every two weeks. Increase as needed. The trick is to do it consistently, and see what it does for your web presence.

Our Approach to Search

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:43:00 GMT

Our approach to search marketing is similar to most search engine optimization approaches used by companies across the country, however, we value a long-term strategy over short term success. The reason is that we feel short-term results do not guarantee long-term success.

What does this mean? Simply put, no gimmicks! For years, search professionals have been figuring out new ways to "trick" the system to help businesses quickly get to the top of the search results. The problem with these tricks is that Google is constantly updating their algorithm to circumvent the tricks.

In other words, the short-term trick can result in the long-term ban! Not good.

At Acumen, we prescribe a balanced approach to site, social, and search, and it includes an honest, true approach to search engine optimization. There are people looking for a site like yours. Good content, good keywords, and good links will help guarantee that the right people get to your site at the right time. It's a process that takes time and effort, but in the long-term, it's worth it!

Social Media - It's All About Relationships

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:33:00 GMT

Social media is all about building relationships. When you look at the genesis of social networking over the past ten years, at the core of its growth has been social and relational interaction. We have "friends" on social media, and we want people to "like" us. Even Google+ has embraced this concept by arranging social connections using social "circles". The language connotes relationship.

At Acumen, our approach to social media embraces this relational understanding. When we design a social media campaign for a business, it's not about fitting the business's marketing message or customer service strategy into a social media box. It's about helping businesses understand the relational power of social media, and how it can improve their business practices, top to bottom.

Can a business impact the bottom line using social media? Absolutely! Your Facebook page or Twitter account is a great place to find new customers. However, to really see the results you're looking for, you have to understand that social media isn't about who has the best message, but about who builds the best relationships.