By now, most small business owners understand the important role the Internet can play in helping to raise and drive interest and demand for their products and services. With all the innovative online technologies out there, it’s easy to feel tempted to rush into things. Please, for the love of your business, slow down.

Before you worry about launching a Twitter channel or pitching a post idea to a local blogger, you need to take a step back and consider how online conversations might impact the reputation of your small business. PR blow-ups aren’t just a problem for big companies — there are risks for small businesses, too. Online engagement requires the same level of planning and thought you give to other parts of your business. Here are four tips for protecting your small business — and livelihood — online.

1. Research & Planning

Thinking through the details is the most important way you can start to protect your reputation online, whether you have a small bakery outside Detroit or a multi-national corporation. Ask yourself these important questions before you do anything:

  • What are my goals and objectives?
  • Who am I trying to reach? Where do I think those people are online?
  • What online channels or social media sites might be the right fit for my business?
  • How much time do I realistically have to invest in this?
  • Am I prepared for negative conversation about my products and services?

Use the intelligence you gather to assemble a plan, and think modestly to start. Remember, the goal is not to get on every social media channel out there. You should instead be contributing in the places online that make sense for you.

2. Monitoring & Listening

Like research and planning, listening to online conversations is a critical part of protecting your small business’s reputation. There are a couple of reasons why.

First, before you start communicating, you should know what others are saying about you, your competitors and other similar businesses. This background information will help you determine what you can share that others might find of interest or value. It will also help prevent you from sticking your foot in your mouth. If you open a butcher shop, you’d want to know the most influential foodie blogger in your area is a vegetarian before you shoot him an email about your new organic bacon, for example.

Monitoring conversation is also important because it will help you uncover complaints and other problems that you might not otherwise know about. This is directly connected to how you respond to negative comments, which we’ll explore in a moment. There are number of easy ways you can monitor online conversation, such as using a tool like HootSuite for Twitter and Facebook and Google Alerts for blogs and traditional media coverage. Mashable has a number of great articles with more information on how you can do this affordably.

3. Joining the Conversation

How you engage in conversations online will vary depending on the channel you pick, whether that’s Facebook or Foursquare. No matter what channel you choose, you can help mitigate risks to your business by planning ahead, being committed and showing transparency.

  • Planning ahead. Like newspapers and magazines, big companies often create editorial calendars for their online communications, aligning things like company events and press releases with messages on Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Your small business might not need an elaborate spreadsheet to schedule your updates, but you should look ahead and think through the news and information you might want to share in the weeks ahead. Try creating your own calendar every two weeks. After you give that a try, you can do it more or less frequently, depending on what works best for you.
  • Being Committed. When you join conversations, online communities will expect you to stick around. Oftentimes, people may have follow-up questions or new issues may arise. Don’t post something and disappear. Keep your editorial calendar current and keep checking back on old posts and respond again, if warranted. If you don’t, people will begin to see your online interactions as self-serving or lazy, and you will lose trust.
  • Showing Transparency. Lastly, always be transparent about who you are and what you’re doing online. This is extremely important. Whenever you join conversations, whether it is emailing a blogger, commenting on a Facebook post or responding to a comment about your business on Yelp, always be very clear that you are responding on behalf of your small business. In some cases, it may even make sense to include your email address so people who would like more information can reach you. Online communities hate feeling misled — even if it is completely unintentional. Above, you’ll see a great example from a small indie record shop in Cleveland on how to keep your community informed about important policy changes that impact them in a friendly, casual and professional way.

4. When Conversation Turns Negative

Before you hit the ground running with your digital communications plan, there is one last thing to consider: What will you do if people write nasty things about you, or even worse, an issue explodes that could deliver a devastating knock-out blow to your business?

The risks can be scary, but the good news is that by preparing in advance and following the guidelines discussed above, you can manage those risks. The most important thing to do when you receive negative feedback is to respond as soon as possible — and that’s true of almost any online channel. Below is an example from Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C. This is a successful response because it is prompt, open to the public and offers an apology to the customer for his inconvenience. There is nothing wrong with admitting a mistake or apologizing. Most people will stick with you if you work to make things right.

Our last point — and this is really important — is to be very cautious about deleting negative comments. By overreacting to negative discussion, it may look like your business has something to hide. This chips away at the community’s trust in you. You also will lose a valuable opportunity to change opinions. Thoughtful responses to negative comments are a terrific opportunity to engage your customers, help correct their complaints and potentially turn them into advocates. Don’t throw that opportunity away by simply making an uncomfortable discussion disappear.

Do you have more tips for small businesses looking to engage online communities? Let us know in the comments below.

Using its Exit Feedback technology, QuBit collected more than 18,000 comments about a range of UK retail websites and analyzed the data to discover the major issues that these sites face.

Here are the top 10 website issues that hinder retail website visitors from converting to customers, according to QuBit’s research:

  • Pricing: Pricing was the leading issue for consumers in their online purchase decisions. Transparency and accessibility are key for the online retail world, since comparative shopping is drastically easier on the Internet as compared with shopping in the real world. QuBit recommends crossing out previous prices or focusing on a “deal of the week” to satisfy price-conscious consumers.
  • Product descriptions: More than 12% of feedback was related to the lack of clear and complete product descriptions. Descriptions must be thorough enough to replace the knowledge of a sales associate. This is especially important for fashion retailers, as “the vast proportion of feedback found on fashion retail sites blames lack of sizing information as a primary reason for exiting the site,” the report reads. Materials used, origin of goods and sizing information are just a few details that retailers should consider listing.
  • Stock information: It is important that availability of products be communicated to website visitors early on in the purchasing process. If a product is out of stock, timely information about when it will be available is also important. Otherwise, users should be given the option to be notified once the product becomes available, or the site should recommend related goods that are in stock.
  • Site functionality: Users are frustrated when they enter a site with expectations of how it should function and are utterly disappointed. Key missing functionalities cited in this research included wish lists, in-store pick-up, personalized recommendations, guest checkout and product filters.
  • Shipping information: Shipping prices and times should be readily available. Lack of this information is likely to cause checkout drop-offs and complete abandonment of the site, the report explained. Offering international shipping and displaying shipping prices in destination currencies are two features likely to improve this problem area.
  • Images: People like to see what they’re buying before they make a purchase. High quality photography from multiple angles and with zoom capabilities is important for converting shoppers into buyers.
  • Discounts: Commenters point to not being able to find where to enter discount codes as a big problem when shopping online. Likewise, consumers seemed confused as to whether offline discounts could be applied online, and if so, whether the discounts applied to their demographic or purchase. We’ve all been there — exclusion lists are lengthy and can include details on countries, states, brands and even particular items.
  • Navigation: Consumers are accustomed to visiting large commerce websites, such as Amazon, that feature clear navigation — and they expect that same level of quality across all retail websites. Broken links within the shopping cart, lack of category pages in the main navigation and broken browser functionalities (such as the back button) were key issues cited by consumers.
  • Video: Product videos can add flare to a product page, and apparently consumers expect them, as the lack of videos was expressed as a major problem area on retail websites. QuBit pointed to Burberry as being a trendsetter in this area, as the retailer’s website presents a seamless experience of videos and photos.
  • Website speed: Slow loading times are of huge concern to retailers, as consumers simply hate waiting around for a website to finally show up. Retailers should benchmark their load times against those of their competitors and act accordingly.

Tips for Improvement

QuBit CEO and ex-Googler Graham Cooke told us that there are three main things that a retail website owner needs to look at in order to improve conversions:

  • Product information: “Are the descriptions on your site clear, concise and engaging? Do they tell the user what they need to know about a product? Have you got great images on the site and do you let people zoom in so they can really get the detail? The product information on a website plays the role of the store assistant in an offline store, so you want to make sure its performing at its best.”
  • Payment processes: “The checkout is one of the most likely areas where you’re going to lose customers, and there are some really simple things you can do to make this work better. Lots of retailers ignore really simple things, like enabling the display of payment information in multiple currencies or making sure that people have clear information about shipping costs.”
  • User experience: “We’ve all known for years that user experience is key to successful online retail, but it still pops up all the time as a major issue. Again, this can be [narrowed] down to relatively simple issues such as slow page loading speeds or site search, but they’re all costing you valuable sales.”

How does your business optimize its website for conversions? Let us know your strategies in the comments below.

Across the world, but particularly within the web design industry, the distributed agency model has gained widespread popularity. Centered on the idea of working remotely, more businesses are adopting the distributed agency model as a practical and beneficial alternative to keeping an in-house staff.

The distributed agency model, or “virtual agency,” as it’s sometimes called, is simply an agency that hires and collaborates with workers remotely. The team might be made up of full or part-time employees, freelancers, contractors, partners, etc. These employees might be spread across a particular city or over the entire world. In short, a distributed team is location-agnostic.

nGen Works recently closed its main office when it became apparent that the majority of its team lived and worked miles away. Founder Carl Smith wrote in the company’s blog:

“When we first started nGen Works we knew we ‘had’ to have an office for people to take us seriously … Because of our flexible nature and the requirement for nGeneers to live their lives on their terms, that old red beauty is only home to two of the 14 people currently working with nGen. We’ve held on to it for sentimental reasons, but now it just doesn’t seem to make sense.”

Then there’s Shane and Peter, an agency team of independent freelancers. Its website explains:

“Our team is comprised of freelancers all over North America (with a couple Europeans and Australians thrown in for good measure). They’re all independent business owners, and they’re all brilliant at what they do. They decide when and how they work. Our teams come together to tackle projects that are far larger than they could tackle on their own.”

Motivations Behind Going Distributed

Both large firms and small shops are embracing agency distribution for different reasons.

Large firms see hiring remote workers as a way to save on overhead costs and maintain a healthy bottom line. Also, the distributed model helps them stay competitive by recruiting specialized talent that is not necessarily local.

On the other hand, small shops and freelancers see the distributed agency model as a viable path to scale up and grow their business without investing too much or incurring debt. For a solo studio owner looking to grow, it’s more practical to partner with or hire remote workers than to invest in an in-house staff.

Benefits of Being Distributed

While every shop operates differently, there are a few key benefits shared by distributed agencies.

  • Low Overhead: Your business will save loads of overhead costs when it doesn’t need to pay for a large office stocked with equipment, utilities, commuting costs and more.
  • Unlimited Talent Pool: When you’re able to look for talent beyond your local area, you have access to virtually unlimited resources.
  • Happier, More Productive Team: When workers, particularly independent freelancers, are able to work their own hours, using their own equipment, without having to conform to an office environment and schedule, it can lead to a more productive operation.

Based on my own experience running a small distributed agency, I believe one very important benefit of this model is the people.

A distributed agency will have success with a certain type of worker — one who thrives in a remote collaboration setting. Remote workers are inherently self-motivated by their passion for creating outstanding work. Plus, they’re incredibly effective at communication and collaboration over long distances. Of course, not everyone is cut out for this, but you can certainly find enough remote work rockstars when you can choose from a worldwide talent pool.

How To Make it Work

The first step is to re-think meetings.

As many of us know, meetings are a common complaint of working in a large office environment. Often, they can be more of a sap on time than a benefit. The conversations had in these meetings can actually (and more effectively) be handled over a series of emails or chats. Jason Fried describes this concept as “Slow Time:”

“Slow time is ‘Maybe it takes two or three days to have this conversation. And we do it over periods of 15 minutes here, two minutes there, four minutes there.’ And that’s fine. It doesn’t need to happen all at once.“

Focus on team relationship management.

When your team is distributed across several time zones and, therefore, is not in direct contact at all times, it’s important to develop systems that tie everything together. Everything from networking with new talent across the globe, to developing working and friendly relationships all require extra effort in the distributed agency setting.

It might mean you plan in-person team get-togethers once or twice a year to build friendships and experiences that strengthen camaraderie.

Think about staying tuned into and engaged with the social media activity of your teammates, both in and outside of work.

Remain accountable at all times.

This goes for both managers and workers within a distributed agency. Everyone must go the extra mile to ensure that he’s staying available, providing updates and meeting deadlines. That means checking in with teammates to ensure they have everything they need from you. It means providing periodic updates on your progress — even if you haven’t completed a task.

Organization, accountability and personal interaction provide the pillars of a successfully run distributed agency model. Does your business qualify?

In a highly competitive business environment, good communication is the engine of success.

With social media so ubiquitous, much can be achieved… and overlooked. When sharing interests and experiences online is so easy, people put less effort into maintaining their relationships, thus shortening the average life of an interpersonal connection.

A close look at the problem reveals that minimal effort can turn contacts into veritable relationships. Basic practices such as attentiveness, courtesy and friendliness can make each of your connections more meaningful and valuable. The advantages may be apparent or hidden, and they lead to client loyalty, referrals and a healthy public image.

Here you’ll learn how to enhance your communication strategy and make the most of every connection by keeping a few simple principles in mind.

Can’t Do the Job? Offer Advice

Saying no to a job offer is okay, but that doesn’t mean you have to reject the client. If offering your services is not possible, then offer some advice. Expert tips are valuable. At the very least, the company will appreciate your willingness to help, and that’s good for your reputation.

Let’s say that your quote is higher than a prospective client can afford, and you have to turn down the project. If it’s a matter of doing a couple of hours of extra work, think about taking it on anyway; most clients will appreciate the sacrifice. If you definitely can’t do it, perhaps you could include suggestions (based on what you know about the project) in your email declining the work.

A wide range of website-building services could be useful for low-budget projects, but less web-savvy clients might not know about them. Here are a few you could bring to their attention:

  • Site2You is an all-in-one solution for setting up and maintaining a business website. It includes a user-friendly website builder, e-commerce functionality (if enabled), hosting and domain-name services and professional support, all for quite an affordable price (plus a free trial).
  • is a user-friendly Flash website builder. Both free and paid accounts are available. It’s an attractive option for non-professionals.
  • WordPress is a decent website-building tool as well. You could even refer the client to a WordPress theme developer who you know, thus doing them two favors in a turn. Good karma!

Don’t leave the client helpless.

Always ask permission before dispensing advice; people will likely appreciate your input, but less so if it’s unsolicited.

Instead of wasting time reviewing projects that you’re not going to do and dwelling on lost job opportunities, communicate with these contacts. They will be grateful and will keep your name on their shortlist.

 

Recommend People To Work…

…with you: You probably know what’s happening in the design world and, because of social networking, can see who is doing interesting work.

Make contact and build relationships with other design experts and specialists so that when a project that requires it, you’ll be able to suggest competent copywriters, developers or illustrators. You’ll increase the chances of the project’s success and, thus, contribute to your own professional success.

…instead of you: Hard work won’t get you every great gig. If you receive an exciting job offer but your schedule is already full, don’t get upset; you will make another designer happy by sending the client their way-and helping others feels good. Yeah, you’ll lose a great project and a potentially regular client, but that would have happened anyway, right?

Get the most out of the situation by serving as a link. (And remember: refer clients only to professionals who you trust.) Whatever the project’s outcome, your gesture won’t be forgotten; the client will likely look for an opportunity to return the favor.

Never underestimate the value of word of mouth.

By the way, you might also like reading Web Designer’s Guide to Copywriting Profits.

Create a list of competent professionals who you could recommend to clients. You’ll show that you have a comprehensive grasp of the field, which they’ll appreciate.

 

Set Up a Friendly Email Policy

Your handling of email can make or break your communication strategy. We don’t have to look far for examples: just count the number of important connections you’ve established and maintained via email.

If email is your main communication medium, then put a suitable amount of effort into managing it. At the same time, put reasonable limits on the amount of time you spend on it.

Here are some simple techniques to manage email effectively. They might seem obvious-and they are easy to do-but they still get overlooked.

Auto-Reply

Using an answering machine is hardly a personalized approach, but it’s better than letting clients and others guess whether their emails have reached you.

Before going off the grid, write an automated reply to inform correspondents that you will contact them upon your return.

Automated replies are also useful for those who are lucky enough to attract a high volume of inquiries (not counting spam, of course). But do not promise to get back to someone ASAP if you’re not sure you can. Sure, saying so sounds better than something like, “Sorry, I can’t answer every message because of my high volume of email,” but it will put people off if you don’t follow through on your word.

Fast Response

Answer your emails promptly and clients will love you for it. Seriously, do it. Composing a message takes only a minute. You might not be able to solve their problems in that email, but a quick response is still appreciated.

Showing your concern will distinguish you from the client’s other contractors and partners.

Don’t keep people waiting.

Make a Good Impression

When approaching someone for the first time by email, make sure your message gives the right impression. Always check your spelling, and use a friendly but dignified tone of voice. Include a tasteful signature, but make sure the message, not the signature, is the focus.

When you want to inform your client base about important news or remind them that you exist, you’ll probably use an HTML newsletter. Before designing one, investigate which email service most of your recipients use so that you avoid problems with rendering and display.

Here are a few tools and resources to enhance your email communications:

 

Give Thank-You Gifts and Offer Freebies

A thank-you email might not feel like enough for a long-term client. What about cool office knickknacks or t-shirts? Never wait for the client to show their appreciation first; if you have enjoyed working with them, go ahead and show it! People will be twice as ready to help you out in future if they feel appreciated.

Don’t use gifts to suck up, though. If you have failed in a project, a fancy present won’t make the client ask you back again. Sincere gifts and gestures can only strengthen healthy relationships.

Another great way to tighten the ties in your network is to give stuff away. You could design and share freebies for your blog readers or social network pals. And don’t be afraid to re-gift; perhaps you have unused discount coupons, gift cards or other promotional items that you won in giveaways.

Luck is a funny thing; it often happens that we only get for free the things we don’t really need. But what you find useless, someone else might benefit from. Why not put it to use? Don’t let a coupon expire or a cool but ill-fitting t-shirt lie in your closet unpacked and collecting dust. Give it away. The simple act will get you kudos and a lot of attention. Swapping less for more: sounds like a great deal to me!

Announcing a give-away on Twitter or Facebook makes re-gifting a zero-risk enterprise.

Don’t Forget About Live Communication

Most of your work-especially if you’re a freelancer-takes place online. You might not notice that you’re gradually shifting into virtual-only mode, because your friends and clients (and everyone else for that matter) are just an email, tweet or Facebook message away.

Don’t be fooled by the unlimited pseudo-connectivity. Digital communication does not replace actual socializing. A photo gallery of your college reunion on Facebook won’t feel at all like the real thing, and watching recorded talks from a design event differs vastly from the experience you would have had if you were there in person.

More importantly, by limiting your communication to emails, IM, online social networking and Warcraft raids, you might lose some social skills and erode your ability to consult, negotiate and talk with actual people face to face. That still matters.

You might also enjoy reading “A Life Guide for the Antisocial Freelancer.”

What might happen if typing becomes your main way of communicating with others. (Image: The Oatmeal)

A ton of books and resources explore the principles of effective communication. The techniques won’t always come naturally, despite being “social” in nature.

Basic qualities like attentiveness, courtesy and willingness to listen can do wonders. Incorporate them into your communication habits and you’ll gain empathy, appreciation and referrals from clients, peers and friends.

When communicating with your target audience, it’s important to understand where most people will see and hear your messages as well as where they want to see and hear them. As part of your targeting tactics, you should look beyond where your audience can hear from you and think more about how they prefer to interact with you. As an example, the majority of your target market may be on Twitter, but they may actually prefer to interact with you through Facebook. And if you know how your audience wants to communicate, you’ll be more successful engaging them in a two-way conversation.

This year Edison Research and Arbitron found that, according to US social network users who follow a company/brand in social media, 80% of respondents preferred to connect with brands through Facebook. This is a powerful statistic to consider when you’re creating your social media marketing strategy. Not only does Facebook attract the masses with over 750 million users, it is also how users want to connect with brands. As a marketer, you can be assured that you’ll reach a large and receptive audience through Facebook.

To ensure you’re getting the most out of your marketing on Facebook, follow these 3 steps to better leverage Facebook for business.

1. Share Your Content

Be active on Facebook by sharing various types of content to engage your audience in conversation. An easy way to share your content is to connect your blog with your Facebook account so new posts automatically publish to your Facebook page. When you do this, make sure you monitor the interaction with your fans. Don’t leave them hanging, and be sure to keep the conversation going and gather insights to understand what your fans want from you. This will help you decide which types of content your Facebook fans care about, and what to avoid.

2. Figure Out What Content Is Most Engaging

It’s easy to share your content through Facebook, but you should also be aware of what content is most successful for your business. Using Facebook Insights, Facebook’s internal analytics tool for pages, get a deeper look into the performance of your content. The Insights tool allows you to see your page interactions and monitors new and lifetime likes over time. It will also enable you to pinpoint which of your updates and posts perform well (and which don’t) so you can track trends and get a sense of the types of content you should post more of or avoid sharing in the future.

3. Segment (Then Target) Your Audience

On Facebook, you can now select which of your fans see specific types of content. When you create an update, you now have the ability to choose whether content should be public to all or viewable to only certain custom created groups. This is a great tool for marketers, because you can now create segments for your fans and then target them with relevant and personalized content, which research shows performs significantly better than content that isn’t personalized.

Your Facebook fan base is an incredibly powerful marketing asset. You should be aiming to grow the number of fans of your business page in order to continually expand your reach. At the very least, you should be looking to retain the fans you already have. But they already “Liked” your page, so you shouldn’t have to do much to keep them, right? Well, as it turns out, not only is this not true, but it’s actually a very dangerous assumption to make.

Last fall, Facebook came out with the “Unlike” button, which allows fans to unsubscribe from business pages. According to a recent study by DDB and OpinionWay, this button could have serious implications for your Facebook page, considering the study found that 2 out of every 5 Facebook users “Unlike” business pages.

A survey to find out why fans unsubscribe from brand pages revealed the following reasons:

Reasons for Facebook unlikes

In another study conducted by ExactTarget and CoTweet earlier this year, research revealed that the top 4 reasons for fans hitting the “Unlike” button were companies posting too frequently (44%), fans’ desire to get rid of the clutter of marketing posts on their wall (43%), content becoming repetitive or boring over time (38%), and that fans only “Liked” the page to take advantage of a one-time offer (26%).

With these daunting percentages, it may seem like the odds are stacked against you when it comes to retaining your Facebook fans. However, there are many things that you can do to avoid high “Unlike” rates.

4 Ways to Keep Fans From “Unliking” Your Page

1. Keep your posts interesting. The top two reasons fans unsubscribe from a page are because they’ve lost interest in the company or they’ve lost interest in the information the company is publishing. This means that your top strategy for retaining fans should be to publish interesting content. Don’t be repetitive or boring! No one likes to see the same messages in their news feeds over and over again. Facebook is social media, which means people are looking to have fun and read interesting things. Next time you write a status update or post a link to some content, ask yourself, “Does this sound exciting enough to make my fans want to read it?” If not, try to find a way to make it more interesting before you hit that “Post” button.

2. Publish relevant, valuable content. Not only should the content you publish be interesting, it should also be relevant and valuable to your fans. Make your posts informative and helpful. Think education, not marketing pitch. The point of content marketing is to establish yourself as a thought leader and educate your reader base, thereby enticing them to want to learn more about your product and offers. So don’t use Facebook for direct sales. Use it for engagement that generates leads.

3. Find a good balance for publishing frequency. Another top reason fans hit the “Unlike” button is because the company publishes too often, which gives fans of the page the feeling that they’re being flooded with updates. This can very easily become overwhelming and/or annoying, making it far more likely that fans will choose to unsubscribe from the page. On the other hand, though, 14% have “Unliked” a page because the company didn’t publish often enough. Publishing too infrequently leads the fans to either feel like there’s no point in remaining subscribed to the page, since they’re not getting any updates, or to lose interest in the company (and its page) and choose to unsubscribe. Find a posting frequency that maintains a good balance between these two extremes so you can keep your fans satisfied but still hungry for more. Which brings us to the final point…

4. Keep them coming back for more. The ExactTarget and CoTweet study we mentioned earlier found that 26% of Facebook users only “Liked” a business page to take advantage of a one-time offer. Running a Facebook contest or promotional offer can be a great strategy for attracting more fans to your page, but don’t let it stop there. Once they have “Liked” your page, keep them engaged. Give them more reasons to be excited they are fans of your page, whether it’s new offers, unique content, exciting company and industry updates, or fun games, quizzes, and contests. In other words, make your fans glad they found your page through that one-time offer, not because of that one-time offer alone.

There’s no shortage of ways to take advantage of a large fan base on Facebook to improve your marketing and extend your reach. So keep drawing in the fans, and once they’ve “Liked” you, use these tips to show them you’re too awesome to even consider “Unliking.”

Tidalwave in Take The Initiative and Create Your Own Projects

A tidal wave of ideas or bills (A) will motivate another creative nearby to foolishly open an umbrella (E) in a lame attempt to hold back the flood, causing what looks like a giant earring (H) to fall and pull the hammer (J) so it strikes a piece of metal (K), waking up the baby (L) who must be rocked to sleep (N) by a trained and poorly-paid dog (M), causing the attached backscratcher (O) to tear at your flesh until you decide it’s better to get off your rear and do something. Illustration by Rube Goldberg.

Your idea. Your dream. No one will do it for you. Even if you have to work at something non-creative — use the money to live, but make your dream the priority. Crappy job gets in the way of your dream? Find another crappy job! They’re everywhere and except for the slaughterhouse idea, they won’t drain your creativity. Have the idea? Now set your plan. Just like your previous boss who had always made projects go around and around, it’s finally time to make your own plan, knowing it will work better, and make it happen!

First, research who your customer is. Using Web sources or going to stores are the best way to find out some helpful examples of consumer habits (yes, marketing people never leave the office, they rely too much on figures supplied to them). See what people are buying and talk to them. I used to go to stores that carried products made by the company for which I worked for, and watched what people bought or didn’t and asked them why.

I would smile as I approached them, excuse myself and explain what I was working on and gathered their opinions. This is probably why my products sometimes sold very well. Know your consumer base!

Also, figure out costs and how you will cover them. You may need a loan or investors. What website and functionality will you need? Packaging, having stock, shipping, advertising, taxes? Is your dream project for you to start a business or do you want someone else to produce it? If you are producing it yourself, you can get a business loan, but you are about to take many, many risks. Get legal and financial advice next. It’s well worth the money and will give you the final tally of whether or not this will be your dream or nightmare.

If you are creating something to pitch to a company for their purchase or licensing a property (certain photos for calendars and cards, for instance), there are a similar but different set of rules.

Start with the idea and marketing, create a style guide and/or presentation. A friend of mine wanted to publish a graphic novel for a pitch for a property she was trying to sell but couldn’t afford upfront fees for an artist and writer and printer, so I told her to use a WordPress blog to post her promotional material that she already had and that would give her a great presentation — the easy way.

Research which company you think would want to take on the project. Again, go online or to a store and look around. Want to really impress potential clients? Ask the store’s permission to set everything up; take videos of shoppers and their answers. What better way to produce proof of a need and then give clients the means to fulfill it!? Let your imagination run wild! As with the man who was so excited by the contest he entered, stretch yourself creatively.

Found the perfect prospect? Do your research and find the people you need to reach. There are many business networking sites. Search the company and find people and their titles. Get addresses and phone numbers. Call the receptionist and ask her/him who is the head of marketing or if they have an R & D contact person. If they don’t know, ask to speak to the secretary of the VP of marketing. Maybe she/he can get you closer. Also, use your network. Do any of your contacts know someone you are trying to reach?

Sounds difficult? It isn’t really; just keep in mind that it takes a lot of persistence, patience, as well as a good sense of humor. Once you lost one of those, you won’t make it.

Tailor in Take The Initiative and Create Your Own Projects

Tailor (A) gives creative (B) a snappy new “power suit”, SO irresistible that the client (C) hugs the suit (D) causing it to hit paddle (E), smashing expensive vase (G) and wasting a perfectly goof head of cabbage (I). Further destruction reigns havoc (K – P), dousing all competitors with a toxic chemical (Q). Illustration by Rube Goldberg.

Writing a blog is an initiative. Authors have to come up with the idea, research it for presentation, get the approval and then write it and submit it. It’s initiative. As with what you may perceive as easy to pitch an article, most initiatives are simple!

All of my career I’ve had people come to me to relay that they have written a book and need a cover or images for the inside so they can send it to a publisher. I tell them they don’t need all that. Just send in the manuscript with a self-addressed-stamped-envelope (many publishers have digital submissions on their sites) and the publisher will choose cover designers and illustrators themselves.

Some people smile at the realization that their dreams were an easy step closer. Some didn’t believe me and insisted I design something for them (and draw, because I’m an “artsy-type!”). I look over the pages and tell them it’s an idea that shouldn’t be “set aside lightly”. They smile and then I tell them it should be “thrown with great force”. Some people want it to be done for them. Maybe it’s the prompting of a contest or a “might-as-well-take-it” project.

Would you rather be working on a low-paying project that is screwing you up at every turn or invest in yourself with the time put towards your dream project? It’s not hard coming up with an idea and creating the images, code or what-have-you. The difficult part is making yourself do it and then selling it and that’s where most people fail.

One of my recent favorite self-initiative stories was about an injured creative with time on his hands and a need for income. Dave is a designer at the Iconfactory and responsible for the ultimate Twitter icon Ollie the Twitterrific bird; he had broke his foot while playing soccer over the Fourth of July. That meant that the poor guy was relegated to staying off his feet at home. Rather than wallow in self-pity, he decided to use the opportunity to keep himself from going completely Rear Window and offer up his design skills to the large Web community — and successfully so!

Self-initiative is not easy for most people. Working for someone else provides a regular paycheck, security, after a fashion, and someone telling you what to do. No self-motivational projects needed. As one person commented on a past article on crowdsourcing,

“I recently participated in the LG “Design the Future” contest (yeah, I didn’t win)… but rarely do I get the chance to design a cell phone like product… it was a great exercise in creativity and it really let me flex my muscle… and they had some substantial cash prices (first prize was $20,000)… I feel like competitions like that are great for the industry. The rules were pretty relaxed and it really let people go hog wild and show off what they can do. Too often you’re forced to roll with the clients vision. It’s great to have a contest that let’s you be you.”

As I was arguing the pros and cons of crowdsourcing in that article, I just had to reply for his edification:

“I understand your point, but let me play devil’s advocate and explore another option. So you submitted something you really enjoyed designing and it stretched your creativity. You loved your final submission. You didn’t win and the client, I assume, owns it anyway. What if you had designed it but not submitted it and then sought out companies that might purchase the rights to the design? You would have taken a cue to create your own initiative and owned the product rights.”

Was the prize worth giving away all rights to the winner? What would the client have paid a design firm or freelancer to do the work? I’m guessing that the prize cost was considerably less than the one that would have run the company. So, who was the real winner? Which avenue held a better chance for him? The odds of him winning the contest and giving up the idea anyway without winning, or the odds of him being able to sell the design on the open market, or  maybe not, but owning it to try again? I can’t say.

Persistence in selling the idea and protecting it can be daunting. Even though, sometimes even an e-mail comes back right away that says, “I love it!”… and a check eventually arrives.

Many e-commerce sites these days tend to be loaded down with too much information on their landing pages. The reasoning for cluttered e-commerce sites is simple: the more information you can cram on the page, the more the user will buy. Unfortunately, web buyers are a finicky bunch.

Jacob Nielsen reports that web users are becoming much more impatient while shopping and browsing online. Instead of spending their time going to a site’s homepage and finding the content by categories or other product recommendations, most shopping is done by quick Google searches. If the user can’t find what she’s looking for right away, she’s gone.

It’s crucial to have simple web designs to allow the user to quickly find the information they need, especially if you are selling a product. If the page is cluttered with useless text, widgets or unrelated products, the site becomes meaningless.

However, it’s become a common practice to do just the opposite. e-commerce sites have taken this “scatter shot” approach of trying to slap the potential buyer with as many options as possible. Instead of making the landing page solely about one product, sites usually clutter the page with unnecessary information, ads and related products.

Less Products Mean More Focus

Many web companies forget the cardinal rule of e-commerce: Web shoppers want as little hassle as possible. Instead of hopping in the car and driving to the store to buy a DVD, it’s much easier to go online and snag it from Amazon in a few clicks. The customer is even willing to wait longer and spend more money if the shopping experience is simple and fast.

Applecom in How Simple Web Design Helps Your Business

Apple has mastered the art of minimal homepage design. If you go to their homepage, they’ll only show you three things:

  • A simple header navigation
  • One product in the body of the page
  • A few informational links about the featured product with images below the fold

Aside from the standard footer navigation, the homepage consists only of three parts. Here’s what you see if you click on a product link (like the iPhone).

Iphone-homepage in How Simple Web Design Helps Your Business

Even on the product page, you immediately see what the page is about: the iPhone. The product itself dominates the bulk of the page, and the surrounding information are apps and features of the new iPhone. But more importantly, notice what’s not on the iPhone page:

  • Unrelated products
  • Unrelated sidebar ads
  • Lots of copy
  • Clutter

Apple has effectively shown just enough information in a very pleasing manner. There’s nothing wrong with showing lots of information, as long as it doesn’t feel like a lot of information. You’ll also notice that all of the information, links and pictures are all centered around the iPhone and what it offers. There are no distracting ads or unneeded information about other products.

There are a couple of tried-and-true methods that any designer or web developer can take to ensure that the site layout doesn’t drive customers away with clutter.

  1. Only what you need.
    The biggest aspect of simple web design is only showing what’s needed to make the sale, and nothing more. This doesn’t mean that you can’t give the user lots of information. Just make sure they want to see more information. Apple uses “Learn more” links throughout the page to accomplish this.
  2. Reduce clicks. The less clicks it takes for a customer to buy a product, the higher returns. Don’t make them jump through hoops to buy your product.
  3. The “Grandma” rule. If your grandma (or any elderly person) can figure out how to buy a product for your site, odds are it’s put together pretty well. Unneeded information will turn Grandma away quickly.
  4. Reduce the number of columns. Each time you add a column to a page, the content is pushed into a smaller and smaller space. This puts less emphasis on the main product, and more on extra stuff the buyer isn’t really looking for.
  5. Give less options. There is an added stress put on web shoppers to make decisions. Ultimately, the buyer wants to think as little as possible when making the purchase. Displaying products in a way that eliminates extra thinking and decisions will streamline the buying process and give the customer more peace of mind.
  6. Keep it clean. A clean design keeps visitors happy. By taking the time to ensure that the layout of the site is aesthetically pleasing keeps the customer returning to the site.

Intuitive web design means thinking like a potential customer. Would you shop at your site?

 

What now?

 

Every website is going to require a different type of layout, design and copy to sell products. But designers can strive to do more with less by:

  • weighing every word
  • removing unneeded elements
  • using tasteful colors and whitespace
  • and limiting the amount of overall information the shopper sees at one time

Remember, online shoppers are a fickle bunch. They don’t “window shop”. They use search engines to limit their searches to a very narrow field. If they don’t like what they see, they leave. Site owners only have a very small window of time to capture the attention of the prospective shopper. A tasteful, clutter-free design that places the focus on the product (and nowhere else) will allow the shopper to find what she wants faster.

When design teams focus on the Usage Lifecycle, they take an approach similar to what a great salesperson would do. When a salesperson approaches a customer, they first find out where the person is in the sales process and what their ultimate goal is. When you think about your application as something someone is using or purchasing, it’s very similar to a sales cycle.

At each stage of the Usage Lifecycle, users have very different needs and questions. Can you talk about these differences?

When most people first come to your application, they are unaware of what you have to offer them. It isn’t so much a stage, as a starting point. Most people are in this stage: completely unaware of your product.

Each of the stages are separated by hurdles. The hurdle between the “Unaware” stage and the “Interested” stage is “Awareness”. When people are in the Interested stage, they have a unique set of questions. For example, they ask: How does this product relate to what I’m currently using? Will this product or service fit my needs? How does it compare with other products and services on the market?

Most startups need to focus on solving the challenges in the Interested Stage. The problems they need to iron out are Awareness problems. Startups must help users learn about the application, gain confidence, and get users started most effectively. In this stage, I recommend that teams focus on messaging and emphasize the value proposition of the application.

Typically, once users start interacting with the application, most of these initial concerns disappear and now they are Users of the application. As Regular Users, their concerns are now completely different. They are using the product to accomplish a task and fulfill their end goals. When they use the application, they have a different mindset. At this stage, teams need to focus on helping users accomplish their goals and move beyond just making people aware of the product’s features and benefits.

For me, this level of distinction is incredibly valuable. I’m more and more convinced this is where to focus: where users are in their lifecycle and environment. If you can understand this about people, you can help users more effectively.

(Here’s a full summary I’ve written on the Usage Lifecycle.)

What are the best practices you recommend design teams use to first start getting users engaged in a product?

There are a lot of small and effective strategies design teams can use. If your team knows ahead of time when you’ll be launching, I recommend having a beta phase or set up an invitation list to tell people about what you’re doing.

For example, at Performable, we asked prospects to give us their email address to contact them when we launched. When we offered this option, thousands of people signed up. This is a simple thing, but a lot of startups don’t do it.

Another great tactic is message testing. With message testing, teams design two or more home pages (or landing pages) for their application and see what message resonates better with visitors. Once traffic starts arriving at the page, you can easily quickly see which message variations convert the best. Conversion can be different things depending on your business goals, such as users giving you email, signing up for a beta, or signing up for the product.

This technique helps companies find out whether their value proposition is being communicated effectively with visitors. In almost all cases it can be strengthened. In some cases the initial message is the wrong one, such as focusing on a benefit that just doesn’t resonate with the target audience. There is a lot of action in the testing space right now and I’m excited to be a part of it.

A common problem with many applications is that people sign up and then never consistently use it. How can designers combat this problem?

Yes, I see this happen all the time. I call this phenomenon the “Getting Started” problem. This is when people sign up or register for your application and then don’t know what to do next.

To solve this problem, I often recommend that clients pre-populate the initial application page with content. For example, if you have an application that allows people to make a widget, it’s very powerful tactic to pre-populate with a widget already made. People are far more engaged when they get to see how the application works instead of starting with a blank canvas.

With the Usage Lifecycle, most of the solutions are relatively small solutions, but taken together, it really adds to a positive experience if you’ve gotten each step right. With your application, you can’t just have one cool thing happen with your product. It’s the sum total of interactions that make up a successful user experience.

How can design teams create passionate fans of their product?

This is a question I often get from marketing teams. They will often try and add social features to create passionate users. They’ll say, “Let’s offer more sharing buttons or more opportunities to share.” However, while putting a social feature in the interface may result in users completing the interaction more frequently, that’s not the right way to create passionate users.

The best approach is to make users good at something. For example, imagine you are tasked with designing an email marketing software, such as Mail Chimp, Emma, Constant Contact, or Campaign Monitor. The best way to get users passionate about these types of applications is to make them better at their jobs as email marketers.

This really has to do with focusing on the experience users have when they interact with your product and working on getting users good at what the application does. The best design teams focus on a single activity set and ensure that the product successfully supports these activities and makes them simple to do. Once people are good at using the product, they’ll talk about it and share with others. This will also be more authentic. Campaign Monitor is a great example of a relatively small team doing great things by teaching their users how to be better email marketers.

So, the best teams move beyond just thinking about what social features to add to their product. In your writings, you’ve said it’s really more about the personal value of what people are doing. How did you first come to that realization?

Many years ago, I had a conversation with a designer who was building an application for runners. At the time, tagging and folksonomies were the trend and I was really excited about the topic.

The running application enabled users to enter their running time. I’m not much of a runner myself but I was really excited by the social opportunities around sharing running data and the competition it would engender. Knowing that many people thrive on competing with others, I thought there was huge potential there.

But the designer of the app was adamant that I was missing the forest for the trees. He wasn’t all that excited about the social possibilities. While the application would let users share their running time online with others, social influence isn’t the real motivation for serious runners. The people in that market valued their own improvement much more than seeing what others were up to. While sharing was a nice side effect, the most important thing to runners was to see if they were faster than the day before.

This was an eye opener for me, as I suddenly saw this same mistake applied over and over in social software projects. For users, personal value comes first, it precedes social value almost all the time. I call this the Del.icio.us Lesson, named after the popular bookmarking site. With Del.icio.us, people were tagging articles and sharing with groups and there was a tremendous focus on the social aspect of it all. But most people didn’t use Delicious to share stuff with others. They primarily used it for bookmarking stuff for themselves so they could read later.