Websites? It's a minefield out there ...

Why you should have a website

In today's every changing and dynamic world with social media and mobile taking the world by storm it is vitally important that you have a website - it is your shop front to the world and ensures you are found before your competitors.

If you're not convinced that you need a website, then take a look at this short video which shows the power of social media and mobiles. Courtesy of
Social Media Revolution 2015. https://t.co/kNtab6IRUv

There are many variables to think about when setting up a website and the one that springs first to the minds of most people is "what will it cost me". There are many other variables

1.  Should I build it myself - is it difficult?
2.  Should I get a company to build it for me - sounds expensive!
3.  How will I market it - oops hadn't thought about that!
4.  What about Google Analytics - how does that work - do I need to do anything?
5.  What about managing the site - what's involved there?

... and it goes on.

 
In this blog I'll only be talking about points 1. and 2. above, but will discuss the remainder in a future blog, so do come back again.
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Overview

It is difficult for people who haven't been involved with the design or development of websites and website costs to get a feel for what is involved and the costs incurred.

My question to you would be "How much time can you afford to be away from your business building a website when it's not in your skillset?", then decide what you can afford; what your business needs to achieve and within what timeframe. Then decide on the best way forward.


There are many "build it yourself" websites such as 1&1, Wix, Google, etc., many of these are excellent for first timers.

Also some of them are completely "free" and some charge a one off or monthly fee, so what's the difference?

Well, generally with free websites you will have to purchase a URL - that's the website address that you will be known by e.g. www.mywebsitename.com. Some companies offering free websites charge to have own branded URL and the cost of this will change from company to company, but generally around £10 per month. Others will give you a free URL - such as http://yourwebsitename.my.free.website and then give you the option to upgrade to a monthly plan for your own bespoke website address - depending on your selection this can be between £6-£20+ per month

 
So as you can see, just to build a "free" website will cost you up to £120 per annum before you've put anything on your website.


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So what an average cost of a website build?

I've put together some scenarios below that will give you an indication on what to expect for your money.

 

Basic Website - self build from FREE to upwards of £50 per month

A Basic website is generally fairly static; this means that the data isn't updated very often so there is minimal changes to be made to the site but showcases you and your services/products. This type of site can be self built.

Self build websites are usually template driven - you get a set of different templates to choose from, add pictures and text and then upload them to the internet - simple? Well not always, sometimes you will need to know basic coding or graphic design to customise the templates to suit your requirements.

If you are keen to do-it-yourself then these out of the box solutions are usually highly configurable and worth spending some time on.
 

Intermediate Website - developer build from £2,000 - £5,000, plus annual maintenance and support costs

Alternatively, you could get your website built by a developer. The development company will work with you to assess your requirements - what you want the website to do, whether you have a particular style in mind, interactive requirements such as a blog or market place.

If you want to have the ability to manage your own website once it has been built it may be better to have a CMS (Content Management System) site - this will enable you to work within a template - but one that has been designed especially for you. This type of site will be more expensive, but is more flexible.

Custom Website - developer build from £12,000 to £100,00 plus annual maintenance and support costs

Then you would move into the larger sphere of custom designed websites. where the whole site is designed, developed and delivered to your own specific requirements. Custom websites are time consuming to build taking many months and a huge amount of technical knowledge, experience and expertise.

Custom sites run upwards from £12,000 to over £100,000, but give you control and flexibility in the design and layout, allowing you to move content and add additional bolt-ons such as social media, blogs, ecommerce, full content management and document storage. Examples of complete custom designed websites are Amazon and Facebook.

If you want to check out what other sites are saying about website costs, here are a few to get you started:

• Atilus
• The executionists
• WebpageFX

There are many others and it pays to research what will suit you best. Alternatively give me a call and I can help guide you through the maze!

 

 Come back again when I'll discuss more on marketing and analytics.

The way we work has been changing dramatically over the past 10 years.

Collaborative Working

How many people could imagine working without the internet? Cloud computing is now in its teens and looking to come of age in the next couple of years. By then most people and companies will use cloud services for most of their IT requirements, it cuts down on overheads, is secure and available 24/7.

Paper is by and large becoming obsolete due to the changes and improvements in paperless technology such as customer relationship management and electronic document management.

Customers want to access information immediately whether it is banking, booking appointments, shopping or working remotely. We want and need access to our data now!

The rise of Facebook, Twitter and now Google+ has seen the way we market change dramatically - we are bombarded with information, but how do you store and retrieve your information?

Are you still paper based?

• Surely it is an ineffective and inefficient means of storing your precious information?
• What would happen to all your paper if there was a fire or flood?
• How would you operate without that information?

Many companies have already started looking for different means of storing and retrieving information electronically, not only does this safeguard your company but it makes it more efficient as information becomes available to your staff and customers instantly, staff are empowered to work remotely, which is ideal for sales staff, business development managers, marketing teams and home visitors to name just a few.

It enables colloborative working through file sharing, it's secure and meets regulations on data protection, document storage and destruction.

If you would like to find out more about:

• reducing your carbon footprint
• the paperless office
• cloud based or hosted computing
• cloud based performance management

call us on 01732 848374 or 07800 945116

email: dawn@dawnrussell.org.uk

www.dawnrussell.org.uk - RevolutionISing your business

The Information Power Hub - the value of information

Who would have believed 10-15 years ago that we would have such a vast array of information available to us at the touch of our fingers? We no longer need to step outside our doors to read a book or research data (does anyone still use a traditional library?); to shop: from high street stores to Amazon and eBay; Social Media: FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and now Google+; to find information: Google, Bing, Wikipedia, etc. 
 

Look at how fast Facebook has grown and how much it is now floating for – in the region of $100m – purely on the strength of the information it holds on users – their location, ages, likes and the power of its advertising. Latest information shows that if Facebook were a country it would have the highest population in the world!

Without a doubt information is power and without information your business cannot run –information on customers, suppliers and staff is exceedingly valuable. Many organisations still haven’t caught onto this fact - they would be more, efficient and effective if their information was available instantly. How much time could your business free up if you enabled staff and customers to access their key data at a touch of their fingers – how many more satisfied customers would you have?

Information is still stored in filing cabinets, spreadsheets, Word documents and obscure databases – all of which are out of date as soon as they are produced.

What do I mean by company data – well an example is a company that appears to have a diverse set of information or requirements such as a spreadsheet of contacts, they also have 1000s of images, their website needs updating and they need some short videos produced and published on the internet of various types.

Management may not realise that all of these items are “data” related and can be managed through data cleansing and centralisation.

1. Spreadsheet data can be cleansed and transferred into a central Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to enable tracking of contact information and to make sure the data is not duplicated through the creation of multiple spreadsheets. The CRM can be linked to a mailing provider and used to market to and collect information from stakeholders, clients and potential clients.
2. Images can be categorised, sorted and stored in a central database and retrieval made easy through the implementation of metadata. Images from the central library can be easily sourced for the website or any other marketing campaign online or off.
3. The website is a source of data for the CRM; subscriptions to mailings, requests for information, surveys etc and people can disengage from mailings automatically too. Using a CRM linked to the website data is kept up to date automatically.
4. The video production is for short films to be added to the website, but the video itself can be stored in the image database which makes it easier to find and use for any publication/promotion purpose. 
5. By using a portal (access point) customers can also see and manage their own accounts (look at Amazon and Bay)

As you can see once information is centralised it becomes more effective, efficient, saves you time and therefore money. Information is the power hub of your business – use it wisely.

For more information on how centralised data can help you give me a call 01732 848374 or email: dawn@dawnrussell.org.uk

How do you get staff onboard with change?

Instilling change within a business is always challenging - you may have people that are reluctant to change and others that welcome it with open arms. The challenge you face is to bring on board those people who are reluctant and this may be the fact that the work "has always been done that way", "why challenge the status quo" and there may also be a fear of redundancy.

To mitigate some of the negativity that is created through change ask some of those people who are may be feeling disenfranchised / disenchanted to be part of the change process (ask them to be part of the team) show them the benefits of the changes that are going to be implemented ask them to help you map processes (the "as is" as well as "the future") - they in turn will see where the project/programme is going and the benefits that it is going to reap. How it may free up their time from bureaucracy to work on more important aspects of their role.  And very importantly don't try to railroad or bully - you will just have barriers put in your way.

The people that you bring on board can then become the ambassadors for their areas of the business and take back to their teams/departments what they have learned from being part of the team and promote the benefits and positive aspects of the change.

As ambassadors people feel involved and have a “can do” attitude, they can feed back concerns that team members may have which can be addressed as soon as they arise so that they do not fester, become rumours and then obstacles that cannot be overcome.

The greatest challenge of any project is the buy in from the stakeholders – the people within the business are your greatest asset - they know the business intimately if you manage their expectations (and your own) your project will be a success.