Main Street Open

Working with non-profits on their websites, we commonly see two problems: (1) they have trouble generating content, they have no new information to put on their site, or (2) they are overwhelmed with content and their site is a jumble of unprioritized competing messages and announcements.

Both cases are painful for the staff, and discouraging for their audiences.

The Big 6

Interestingly, the solution for both cases is similar. Focus on the most important stuff. What are the six big events in the year that you need EVERYONE to know about? If you don’t have any content, start with these. If you have too much content, push everything else back and focus on these.

Maybe it’s not six, maybe it’s four, or maybe it’s eight. But the point is to focus on the BIG stuff and put resources on doing those right.

If you work for a church, your Big 6 probably include Easter, Christmas, Vacation Bible School and a few other church-wide events and missions.

In a non-profit you may have an annual conference, big fund raisers, and other large projects that support your mission.

A timely feature story every week of the year

Each of these events typically is promoted months in advance. If you have six events and you promote them on the home page of your website for two months each, you automatically have a timely feature story for every week of the year. With six good stories you can survive for a whole year. It’s not optimum, but it’s better than many churches and non-profits are doing now.

Focus resources

If you are short on resources, spend your favors and budget on these six stories. Get people working on them far in advance. Find photos from last year. You don’t need all the details in advance, the stories can evolve as details are confirmed, but start getting something ready to promote the next big event. If you have to pay someone to write or take pictures for you, these are the topics most worthy of spending your limited cash. If you can call in favors and twist arms to get volunteer help, these are stories to work on.

If you are swamped with content, make sure you don’t let the little things prevent you from properly covering the Big 6. Carve out time and budget to get these six right, and if you run out of time (which you probably will), let the smaller stories suffer. Everyone will be reading about the Big 6. Not everyone will care about the smaller events. If you have budget for promotion, most of it should be spent on these top events. If you try to spread a modest budget across a hundred items, probably none of them will get enough exposure to do any good. Focus on the Big 6.

Results

It’s hard to do communications in a non-profit. There is always too much work, not enough money, and virtually no staff. Volunteers are great, but often not very dependable.

In this world, prioritization is imperative. Usually the Big 6 will generate more results for your organization than the next 50 events combined. Keep your focus on getting the Big 6 promoted and see if that doesn’t help start a process that can be applied to the next level of your communications.

Frequently new clients come to us wanting to improve their search engine placement. They complain that their site doesn’t rank highly on the keywords they want.

When reviewing their sites, we often find they don’t even have those keywords on the site, or if they do, the keywords are embedded in a graphic where Google can’t read them. Sometimes simple copy changes can generate big improvements in ranking.

Another problem is wanting too broad of keywords. Google likes specialists. It’s a lot easier to impress Google with a whole site on “Motorcycle Insurance” than just “Insurance”. If you add a location to your “motorcycle insurance” as in “Denver motorcycle insurance” it’s even easier to get good rankings.

If you want to sell any kind of insurance, anywhere, to anyone, it’s really difficult to get enough traffic to hold a top Google ranking. If you are not a Fortune 500 company, it might be more realistic to target your search engine placement on more specific keywords.

Holding a top Google ranking can be complicated and expensive for some keywords, but often we can find solutions that are easy and affordable. Give us a call for a free consultation and see how we can help you.

The last step in launching a new website is updating the DNS pointers on the client’s domain name. Sometimes with churches and small businesses this leads to the realization that nobody knows who controls the domain name, or even who owns it.

This is important, your domain name (yourname.com) is a corporate asset. You need to manage it as such. I have seen churches and businesses forced to register new domain names and change their marketing materials because they find their current name is really owned by a former employee/volunteer/vendor who is no longer available.

Three things to review on your domain name:

1) Do you have access to the domain name?
Domains are registered and administrated by Domain Registrars. Some of the big players in this market are Network Solutions and GoDaddy. You should have an account number or username, and a password for your domain registrar. This allows you or your tech people to change where your domain points. You need to keep this information in a safe place where you can find it. If you don’t know where your domain is registered, find out.

2. Do you “own” the domain?
Even if you have the login and password, it doesn’t mean you actually “own” the domain. When a domain is registered, the person completing the registration enters the owner of the domain. If your domain was registered by an employee, a volunteer, or a vendor there is a possibility that they are technically the owner of the domain, even if you are paying the bill. You need to review your domain record and verify it is registered to your organization.

3) Are the domain contacts correct?
There are several contacts associated with a domain name: Registrant, Technical, Administrative, Billing. In many cases these are all the same contact. It’s important that at least Registrant and Administrative have a valid, current email address. These email addresses will get notices if the domain is transferred or comes up for renewal. If the billing notices go to an old obsolete email or former employee, your domain can expire (and someone else can buy it) and you won’t even be notified.

Take a moment to verify your domain information. Your domain name is a corporate asset, it should be protected and managed as such. Contact Main Street or your current web developer if you need help.

Five things you can check in five minutes...

It’s September. The kids are back in school, and many businesses and non-profits are ramping up for their busiest time of year.

It’s also a good time to review your website and social media. Many of your customers and new prospects will be seeing them in the next few months. Now is a good time to make sure they are up to date.

Frankly, is your website embarrassing? Here are five things you can check in five minutes:

1) Check the information on your website and social media. Is it all correct? Did any phone numbers or contacts change since you last updated the site?

2) Check the news. Is your last news article or blog post several months old (or years)? Does your site look like you went out of business months ago and nobody told the hosting company?

3) Check the mobile view. More and more people are using smartphones and tablets on a regular basis. Many are even using mobile devices for their primary internet access. How does your site look on a smartphone and tablet? Is is useable? Does it look professional?

4) Check the message. Does your site present the message you want today? Has your business focus changed? Do you have seasonal marketing messages that needs to be updated?

5) Check the style. Is your site design clean and simple — easy to view on mobile devices? Or does it look old-fashioned, like it was designed years ago when people thought you just couldn’t have too many graphics?

Now is the time to update your site before you get too busy. Your website will be the first impression for many of your new prospects this fall. Don’t let an embarrassing website make you look unprofessional and maybe even cost you business!

I was shopping at a big box store this weekend and remembered I needed new bags/filter for my wet/dry vacuum in the garage. Of course, the filters come in a dozen sizes and don’t say which size fits which vac.

No problem for me, I have a web browser on my cell phone. I know which model I have so I can look it up on the company’s website and make the purchase. No sweat, technology is great.

Except it didn’t work out like that. The company’s website didn’t load on my phone properly. I refreshed the site and got part of the page, including the button to lookup filters and accessories, but it was too small to select on a touch screen, and the rest of the page was jacked up anyway.

I tried for a couple of minutes, got frustrated and decided it would probably be easier to look at a new unit from a different vendor. Guess what? I can buy a competitor’s unit for almost the same price as a filter and bag for my old model.

Is your mobile website (or lack of a mobile website) costing you sales? More people are accessing websites from smart phones, and they are not just kids, they are business owners and professionals.

Check your website on your smartphone. Is it useable?