Website projects can be overwhelming for the uninitiated, but they don't have to be.
When engaging a development firm, the two parties are agreeing to work together to create a finished web product in a certain amount of time for a certain budget. There's a lot of interdependency to deliver all those things as expected, and it can be easy for things to go wrong.
This week's newsletter is about going "Back to School," so I'll start with a short bit about school.
It wasn't long ago that I was in school. It's interesting to me that I've spent two-thirds of my life in school, the majority of my time up to this point. But a person twice my age has spent two-thirds of his life out of school, his time defined by what he's done since. It's a funny thing to think about—school becomes less relevant as you get older, to the point that school has almost no relevance to a person in their 90s. Crazy.
It's not often that I have to justify or explain what I do for a living, thank goodness. The advancing prominence of digital marketing has meant this industry is no longer relegated to the ropes, taking rib shots for multiple rounds just to wear down opponents. The downside is that I'm particularly baffled when I come across a business that still views the web in parochial, even dangerous, terms.
This happened last week during a discussion about a company that relies on the decidedly aged technique of in-home sales. They pointedly refuse to allow any type of online marketing, thinking it cold and impersonal—not to mention a threat to their business model.
By now, you've probably heard about Amazon's infamous wolf shirt and its hilarious customer reviews. After all, more than a few media outlets have picked up on the story; it's attained that mythical "viral" status folks talk about in awed tones. The kicker? The shirt's manufacturers are getting the last laugh—because sales have shot up 2,300 percent since the story broke.
While conducting research for our last newsletter about surefire ways to irritate customers and prospects, I decided to conduct a small experiment on my marketing brethren. We're generally good at telling our clients how to reach customers, but what happens when we're the customers?
