Years ago, you could go down to Wilson’s Hardware, on Main Street, and buy a new drill. After stopping at the soda fountain, next door, you took your new drill home and found out it didn’t work. No problem. You could just take it back and Mr. Wilson would be there, ready to make it right. That’s the way things worked, at least when wearing the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia.
Recently I came across the latest in what seems like a newly developed common practice amongst internet users – someone being wronged by a company and then taking their complaints to the web, in every possible way they can. In this case, the guy used Twitter almost exclusively – and his complaints were re-tweeted by countless other users, thereby spreading them to the far corners of the web.
By this point in time you’d be hard pressed to find someone who uses email and has a business on the web that is unfamiliar with auto-responders. Some may view them as a great way to seem like they’re, “on top of it” or to get out additional information to someone quickly. While there’s certainly instances where it might be a great idea to send an immediate response, there are reasons why you should think twice.
I’m sure some people out there might be amazed to learn that the JVM office isn’t VoIP, our number doesn’t ring to our iPhones, and we did indeed unplug the expensive PBX system we had and turn back the clock with a $15 answering machine. I’m sure some people out there are now wondering why a young, hip, technology-savvy company would choose to go all old school on the phone front.
WordPress has become one of the better content management systems for maintaining your website. We have been using the system for years and not only custom code our own design “templates” for it but have also custom programmed special features when a project required it.
You know you need that website or print piece so you’ve hired a designer and you’re ready to have them turn your dreams into reality. Or are you? In the 15 or so years that I have been working as a designer I have found that a percentage of clients really struggle when it comes to the actual design and making decisions on the project.
Just because a website is “launched” on the web, doesn’t mean you’ll be rocketed up to #1 in Google! This is why search engine optimization companies will charge you thousands of dollars to run campaigns for you. Even still, this is marketing we’re talking about and there are no hard guarantees that campaigns will be a success and get you tons of new customers.
A lot of companies bring in new clients based on their previous client list but this can be misleading. Just because someone has worked with a big name client doesn’t mean that they’re a more effective or better marketing company.
Recently a potential new client came to me and asked me to evaluate their marketing message. This included looking over their website, social media and pitch packages. In looking at what they have ‘out there’ I came to a really fast conclusion. Their message lacked cohesion
