An exciting website for an extremely exciting new event!

The fantastic WildFox Events approached Sunstar Creative to build a website for The Glencoe Marathon, a new extreme running event; not for the faint-hearted. This is no ordinary marathon. It covers some of the roughest and most stunning countryside Scotland has to offer and this being their first year, there was a mountain of work to create a website worthy of such an amazing challenge.

The website had 3 main objectives:

• Entice and excite people to register
• Provide a lot of important information in a nice, compartmentalized fashion, so website visitors can get to the information they want and need with minimal clicking (read: hassle)
• Integrate an online registration system, whereby the WildFox team could easily manage registrants, take registration fees and sell additional services related to the marathon

In addition to those, the website needed sections for sponsors and beneficiaries of the marathon, namely Project Northern Lights (whose website we also had the pleasure of building in tandem with the marathon website); an excellent initiative to give disadvantaged youths in Scotland an opportunity to take part in a broad range of outdoor activities.

As it was the first year of The Glencoe Marathon, we had to excite people about something that has not happened previously. Fortunately, Wildfox Events were able to provide images from other events they manage, which was excellent, as the WildFox team have a style all their own. Over an above this, the decision was made to put a lot of focus on the incredible landscape in which the marathon is taking place. There are marathons everywhere, but none in and around The Devil’s Staircase. Photographer, Keith Brame provided just the right images to create the right mood and one was used for the main background of the website. It said in no uncertain terms, “The Glenoce Marathon. Enter if you be worthy!”

As with all our projects, if we can find existing technologies to provide required functionality, we do so. Budgets are limited and available resources should be used to their greatest effect. And the website for The Glencoe Marathon is no exception. Integrating and customizing the fantastic event plugin Event Espresso into the website literally saved thousands of £££s, meaning we were able to spend more time and resources on creating the look and feel of the website as well as strategizing the best way to present the fairly large amount of information to website visitors.

As mentioned above, the website required a small e-commerce section for additional services available for purchase. As these were so few in number, it simply didn’t make sense installing an ‘all singing, all dancing’ e-commerce systems into the website. So, using the excellent Gravity Forms plugin (a favourite of ours), we created simple order forms with ‘products’ that integrate with PayPal, allowing for a streamlined purchasing system. Simple to fill out and simple to process orders. Just the thing!

There are great plans for the website in year 2 of the marathon, so we are very excited at the prospect of building on what is sure to be one of the UK’s most talked about extreme events. Who knows, maybe Sunstar might lace up, limber up and take on The Glencoe Marathon 2013!!

How easy is it for you to answer that question? I suspect on the face of it, probably quite easy. The answer is probably one or more of the following:

• I want more sales
• I want to get leads
• I want to sell my products online
• I just want more customers
• etc. etc.

With the exception of the third, who doesn’t want all of those things?!? I know I do. So, in order to refine and flesh out what you expect from your business, you have to ask the question, “How you expect your website to achieve your goal?”

The reason I think that this second question is so important is that while it may well be easy enough to say what you expect from your website it’s not nearly so easy when trying to answer how it’s going to get there. Once you have answered that you are in a much better position in reassessing the answer to the first question. Let’s flesh this out a bit.

Say you want more sales. And you want your website to pull its weight on achieving that goal. Ok, that’s fair enough, but how does it actually ‘do’ this?

• Can people order directly from your website?
• Do you or your sales team use it to supplement marketing ‘tools’?
• Do you have a portfolio of previous word/clients to build confidence and credibility? If so, how comprehensive and how is it updated, and by whom?
• Can you use your website for ‘upsells’? If so, how does this function? Prominent phone numbers, simple order forms or even e-commerce?

These are just a few ways your website can increase your sales and all of them require thorough consideration, planning and appropriate implementation. So, although in the example above, “I want to increase sales”, is a perfectly reasonable question to ask but on the face of it, it is, often the easy part.

I’m going to explore the various way in which you can identify the right expectations, and steps to take to ‘get there’ in upcoming articles. In the meantime, I want to know more about the expectations you have of your website, as well as some other questions, so I created some simple polls for you to share your perspective. And of course, please feel free to leave a comment should you want to share any thoughts on the subject or have any expectations you think I should have on the poll.

At the core of the brief for this website was to create a dynamic hub for this online farm directory, which included the website and social media platforms.

Fundamental to the success of this project was the ‘ground up’ creation of a directory that drew information from one easy to use listing creation editor and displayed that information in multiple locations throughout the website for the benefit of visitors. This included:

• Farms
• Products
• Location maps
• Seasonal data relating to products

This had to be integrated within a fresh and stylish design, that did not overwhelm the visitor. Additionally, the client needed to be able to maintain the website and directory with the minimum of assistance, so the directory system had to be both comprehensive and very user-friendly.

For the new website, the homepage is layed out so the large number of sections are displayed in a clear, uncluttered way, allowing visitors to not only find the sections most relevant to them but also an opportunity to notice other areas of interest they may wish to explore, such as the various blog and latest news sections. This gave website visitors incentive to revisit the website regularly, thus building a strong online community around the organization.

The old website, was intimidating to visit and confusing to navigate around. The home page had no focus, lacked any clear call-to-action and simply overwhelmed website visitors with too much information. All information was static i.e. it had no database functionality. This resulted in very little interactivity with the information for the visitor and for the client which meant any changes had to be done manually throughout the entire website. Very time consuming indeed!

Using a custom built search function, visitors can search via a range of criteria, with the results being presented in a clear, visually appealing listing page, where general information can be ascertained, with the option to explore the listing in more detail.

The listings page for this project draws and presents information from the central directory database, in a fashion similar to other highly effective listing websites such as real estate and automobiles, with key areas of interest such as:

• Name and contact details
• Accreditation and certification
• General description
• Images and photographs
• A comprehensive list of products sold
• An interactive Google Map

The client required the directory to be divided into geographic regions. So, in addition to the map on individual listings pages, we created regional maps pages with pins linking to the individual listings within the website. This allowed website visitors another avenue to search for listings of interest to them in addition to the farm directory page and product/produce page.

One last item of interest for this project was the In Season section. This page displayed a table of products and their respective availability throughout the year. As with all the other information displayed for the directory, this data was added via the listings creation system we created for this project, so could be added to or edited when required by the client themselves.

Call us today on 01738-560-935 or get in touch here to discuss your project today.

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Social Media is NOT some craze or fad that will shove off any time soon (if ever, the way things look). It’s not a bunch of boring folk talking about what they had for breakfast. What it is, is a business tool that allows you to communicate with your potential customers by engaging them in what service/products you provide, in a way that bares no resemblance to the old days of print ad et al. Picture this:

Mr Smith (I know, I know, why are they always Smith), a building contractor, has just found his way on to Twitter after some lovely Social Media expert persuaded him to promote his business there. Of course, Mr Smith’s first objective is to get people to talk about HIS Business, surely that’s the goal isn’t it? But Mr Smith has also just ‘let go’ of his accountant and now desperately needs a new one (don’t we all). Enter Mrs Jones (I know, I know. Smith; Jones. How inventive). She happens to be an Accountant, who has also recently met with a talented Social Media expert. Mr Smith finds Mrs Jones through a recommendation from a fellow Twitterer (actually Tweeter is the correct term, but they are new, so let’s forgive them), and hey presto! Mr Smith has a new Accountant. Mr Smith and Mrs Jones are both very happy. How nice!

It’s not necessarily hard to make contacts on Twitter and asking for a recommendation of a service can get you great responses. Not only that but it goes much deeper. Down the rabbit hole we go…

Back to our two happy tweeters. Now what has happened in all of this unbeknownst to Mr Smith and Mrs Jones, is that while they were having their back and forth re their respective needs and haves, everyone else who are following them are seeing this conversation too. So now all of Mrs Jones followers know about Mr Smith, and all of Mr Smiths followers know about Mrs Jones. The seeds of connections have been planted and new branches can start to grow. Now THAT’S how to increase brand awareness.

Social Media is one of those things that so many businesses say they don’t have the money or time to invest in, but will still throw hundreds, nay thousands on the diminishing returns of print advertising that would, maybe see a return of 1%.

Times have changed and our company voices need to be heard on different platforms; Social Media platforms.

Why ask what appears to be such a simple, seemingly self-evident question? Well, I think it goes to the core of some of the major problems small businesses contend with on a daily basis. Much of the time spent as a small business owner (SBO) is trying to keep the dozen plus plates spinning that make up all the ‘stuff’ of their business. It surely can’t come as much of a surprise that the SBO loses sight, if not actually forgets, what he/she is doing every day and why they are doing it.

The next paragraph runs a serious risk of coming across a bit cold, possibly even unromantic but bare with me, some nice fuzzy stuff will come later (I hope).

A business is (primarily) a framework in which one generates profit and increases wealth through the exchange of a product or service. Is that all a business is? Absolutely not. But let’s bare in mind this primary function of business before we progress any further. Why? Because, without that clear understanding from the outset and being able to recall that ‘anchor’ from time to time, your business, in the words of Michael Gerber, “…becomes a job. And the worst job in the world”.

Your business is there to serve your needs; not the other way ’round.

I’m not totally sure how clear the point I’m trying to make here is but as someone who in the past, found himself working REALLY hard, putting in HUNDREDS of hours each month, I noticed that an occasional peering above the parapet would show that a. I was getting seriously burned out and b. I was not really making very much money. I had stopped owning a business and traded it for a over-working, underpaying  job. Nuts! This in itself is a recipe for disaster but put that situation smack dab in the middle of one of the worst economic climates in generations and it became clear it was downright insane to carry on that way.

Ok, so where are we:

1. A businesses primary function is to generate a profit
2. Working on your business not in your business is a much more preferable place to be
3. Times are tough

Brilliant. That’s that sorted. Let’s move onto fixing the environment.

No, wait. We’re not done yet are we. Ok then, next time, let’s get explore why I made such a big deal about the business/profit point.

Click here for: Surviving Tough Economic Times: Part 1

Really tough.

Some might (rightly) say, really REALLY tough.

Fine, we’ve established that fact (well, more asserted it but this isn’t an academic paper so let’s not be pedantic), now how do we move forward? How do businesses, both small and large move in a way that keeps the business alive and more importantly growing. This isn’t going to be easy and there are no magic bullets but what are the alternatives? To shut up shop? Go to the wall? To keep your head down and do what’s always worked in the past, regardless of what’s ahead?

I don’t know about you but none of the above has any appeal to me and that’s why I took steps several months ago to reassess our company in light of the climate we now find ourselves in and restructure how we do what we do without meaningfully changing what we do i.e. our products and services. And you know what, it’s working.

Before I go any further, I want to make clear, this is not some self-aggrandizing effort to brag about my awsomeness. It’s an attempt to impart some thoughts, ideas, hell even a bit of positive thinking so we start, maintain and grow our businesses in what has been in the parlance of my adopted home, Scotland, “at bit of a shocker”.

Also, I really want this to be a 2, 5, 10, 100…… way conversation. Let’s share ideas, challenge principals and generate solutions.

Lastly, I’m going to be writing these articles more ‘on the hoof’ than as part of a grand plan, as I want them to be more fluid; more in response to how the conversation and ideas develop.

The modern world was built in no small part because of specialization and the free exchange of ideas. So, do what you do well and join in the conversation.

If you’ve been on the home page of our site (if you haven’t, go there now, I’ll wait), you will have noticed one of the slides contains the above line. If you aren’t struck by the importance of those two short sentences, then read on. If you understand the importance of those two short sentences but don’t know what to do about it, then read on. If you think I’m just a really interesting writer, thanks, and read on.

Having relocated Sunstar Creative half way around the world, I have had cause for readdressing my own company’s inbound marketing strategy and thought I’d share that refresher with you, byway of a series of posts on this extremely important topic for all business owners.

I hope you find some useful tips, insights and ideas in these posts that will help you in tackling your own companies inbound marketing strategy.

Image source: blog.hubspot.com

So, you’re a business owner and you need sales. It doesn’t matter what you’re selling: widgets, haircuts, security software, websites, you don’t have a business without sales. How do you get those sales? How do you keep ‘em rolling in? That, dear reader, is the primary objective of marketing. Marketing is all about spreading the word in order to get people to buy what you’re selling. Let’s quickly list off some tried and tested marketing strategies:

• telemarketing
• direct mail
• print advertising
• TV ads
• tradeshows

All of these have one thing in common: they are all outbound marketing.

I’m not suggesting that these methods have not and in fact, are not successful. They are. I’ve used some of them and they’ve worked for me…some of the time. They’ve also cost me a lot of money over the years. Here’s the rub, those methods are, like it or not, becoming less and less successful. One of the main reasons for this is people are getting very good at blocking these marketing methods out. Think about it; you’re one of those people aren’t you. You leave the room to make a cuppa when tv commercials come on; fast forward through them using your Sky+, TiVo…whatever. You get a dump of mail through the letterbox and spend not a second on anything that isn’t a letter from your gran, or less enjoyable, the gas bill. Straight in the recycling bin, probably thinking, “what a bloody waste of paper“. And forget about sending unsolicited emails. Aside from being illegal and frankly annoying, it’s a sure-fire way of your business taking a vertical drop in the eyes of your prospective customers.

What do I do? Oh lordy, what do I do? I hear you ask.

Set up a Facebook and Twitter account and watch the leads roll in and the cash register overflow with large denomination paper money. Er…no. There has been far too much uncritical scrambling on the part of business owners and social media ‘gurus’ alike to get everyone riding the social media wave. Hang on a minute David, doesn’t your company offer social media services? Sure do. I think social media is a very important component to virtually every business. What I don’t believe is that all the marketing woes of, particularly small business owners, will be solved simply by tweeting an interesting article you found on StumbleUpon and getting friends and family to ‘Like’ your business’ Facebook page. Reality is much more demanding than that.

In my next post, I’ll get stuck into going about creating an ‘overall’ marketing plan. But in the meantime, please feel free to tweet; particularly about this blog post. See what I did there?

After an enjoyable and successful few years in beautiful Victoria, BC, Sunstar Creative has spread it’s wings and is expanding all the way over to Scotland, home of Pip, our ace business & marketing consultant and adopted home of yours truly.

In the short time since setting up the ‘Scottish Office’ (is that ™ by the government?), we have met some fantastic and interesting business folks, whom we are very excited about building some strong relationships with over the coming weeks and months.

• ASI Outsourcing
• Event FX
• Lets Network Perth
• Kacey LTD
• Martin Ward Photography
• Two Cats
• Catkin Press
• Linda at Xango Juice
• GWR Consulting
• Douglas Buchan (@ACN)
• Caroline Winn (@Ascent)

We may not have the weather here in Scotland but, dare I say it, things are looking bright.

It is completely in line with her business name (Namaste Inspired) and her work as a yoga instructor.

Thanks to Liz Dunich for doing such a great job at marketing herself so I have something neat to write about!!

The first part of the talk is about why anyone and everyone can benefit personally from using location-based social media, especially Foursquare. The second part is yours-truly speaking about why businesses and business people should jump on board. The finale is the future of location-based social media and that’s the part that really floors people (myself included!).

Grab a glass of water or a cup of Jo and take a break (I bet you’ll learn something!)