Having created a web site, the first question that springs to mind should be “what’s next, what should I do now?”. But usually it is forgotten. For this reason – there are plenty of websites that are created and simply left without any effort to sustain them and upgrade its content.

The effect of this is that there are thousands of websites with out of date messages, text mistakes, old product prices, etc. Moreover, there are thousands of negative thoughts in users’ minds who notice this kind of internal negligence. The general solution to rectify this problem is to contact your web agency. However, what does it mean? Additional costs? Additional time spend on task creation, verification, corrections?

This doesn‘t need to be the case…A Content Management System or CMS allows you to manage your website yourself. You get a back end login area and with this you can add and edit your website’s pages, edit your menu, add links, images, videos, documents, etc.

Some CMS systems can be very difficult to use so it is important to get a user-friendly CMS with lots of functionality so managing your website is fun rather than a burden that you avoid.

Advantages of a Content Management System

  • Cost saving – you won’t need programmers or a web design agency to change the content of your website.
  • No additional costs – you won’t have to buy any additional software to manage the content of your website.
  • Just in time content – you can change the information of your website whenever you need. No more delays.
  • Time saving – all content changes can be made by the person who is responsible for this information. No more explanations to other people – No misunderstandings.
  • Content quality improvement – those responsible for areas concerned to their particular job can be responsible for updating that section of the site.
  • Happy clients – they can find all important information in your website at any time.
  • Easy to use – you can correct the content of your website with a few clicks of the mouse.
  • Reaction time to the market intelligence – it is only a matter of minutes.

Your business needs a great website design, there’s lots of good reasons…here’s 10:

1. Convenience for customers

Using the Internet to search for businesses and products is much easier and faster than any time in the past. Millions of searches are done everyday and it is commonplace for businesses to find their next supplier over the web.

2. Provides greater exposure
Your website will be visible to all your potential and current clients. You will no longer be tied to the limited geographic exposure of the golden pages or the phone book. Your customers in Ireland and all over the world, won’t need to visit your office or retail outlet to see example of what you offer nor will they need a brochure or other marketing materials posted to them.

3. Say so much more
You can say so much more on a website than you could in any print advertisement, golden pages, brochure or TV/radio advertisement. There are no space restrictions or time restrictions on a website, so you can say as much as you want.

4. Inexpensive, effective advertising
Your customers will have a better knowledge of your products or services, as they are able to research your products or services in their own time, instead of having to rely on a furiously paced TV or radio ad to gather the information they need.

5. Fulfils your brand promise
With a professionally designed web site that is an extension of your brand, your site becomes part of the experience of doing business with you. A professional image online will separate you from the competition as the supplier of choice.

6. Saves money
You can save money on printing and postage costs for brochures, flyers, specials, newsletters, and other mailings. When it comes to advertising we can deliver guaranteed targeted visitors to your site with an Internet Marketing campaign.

7. Always available
Your website is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When you are unable to answer the phone, you can be sure that your website is available to answer your customers’ questions for you.

8. Saves time
The time that you would have spent on the phone answering customers’ questions can now be used to invest in growing your business.

9. Creates measurable results
A web site allows you to track the number of visits and where they came from, e.g. an online advert or search engine. It can record the number of enquiries or online sales in the case of an ecommerce site, thus producing a ratio of enquiries to visitors which gives the conversion rate. With this information you can take steps to improve this ratio and increase sales.

10. It is easier to test new ideas.
The web allows you the quickest medium for publishing new ideas. With a content management system attached to your site you can create and publish new content within minutes at no cost. Within minutes new visitors to your site will tell you if your message is working or not. Additional tweaks to perfect your message can be carried out easily thus allowing you to test your ideas before committing to an expensive print campaign.

Many companies are spending significant amounts of money to launch their business on the Internet but how many of these companies are taking the right approach when it comes to building a memorable, positive brand image that online consumers will be attracted to over the long haul?

The key issue is this: Branding in the online world is far more than just transferring your print brand identity to the Web. Yes, it includes a graphic design image, but your brand on the Internet is more largely affected by the interactive experience you provide your users.

Everybody knows that the web allows you to build one-to-one relationships with your customers. What is more important is the quality of those relationships. Your web site’s ability to engage your customers and facilitate an ongoing relationship with them is the real key to successful branding on the Web.

It may surprise you to learn that each time a customer visits your web site they’re undergoing a branding experience. In essence, your site is your brand, and everything they encounter there – from the site design and depth of products or services offered to their satisfaction with your online customer service and shipping policies – all positively or negatively impact your company or brand image.

Your visitor’s experience on your web site will form an impression of how you do business. In short, if it isn’t done correctly, it hurts a company’s ability to gain and retain business through this channel.

Martec can assist you in aligning your web site with the promise that your brand stands for. To do this we take a lot of time to determine up-front what the objective of the site is and what your visitor is looking for when they decide to come to your site. We then create an experience that fulfils that user’s expectations to the letter.

Talk to us about your current web site and we’ll show you (at no cost) how to enhance your customer experience, fulfil your brand promise and win more business.

“An unprofessional web site can do more harm to your reputation than having no web site..”

Since you’re looking at this page you may be at a point where you are considering producing a web site for your business. Maybe you already have a site which isn’t working or you have heard stories from other business colleagues that a web site doesn’t work?

Unfortunately the power of the Internet to improve your business has developed a bad reputation because of the quantity of bad web sites that are in existence. The Internet is full of badly designed sites which have poor content and imagery, which are badly marketed, confusing and not linked to the overall marketing goals of the business.

We’ve been in the business of designing web site so long that we know what works and what doesn’t. We have seen so many sites that went from creating no enquiries to producing 2 to 3 good enquiries daily simply by combining good design, content and functionality which are aligned to the goals of the business.

Some web developers are principally design firms that concentrate on the “look and feel” of a site. Others focus more on the programming and technical aspects of each project, and offer less dynamic design approaches. Martec are different. We have excellent design skills and technical capabilities, but we also understand business. In fact our main aim is towards achieving the goals of the business and the design and technical factors come after understanding these.

Of course, there’s always someone who will recommend hiring your teen-aged nephew, who seems to know a lot about the Internet. While many small businesses have picked this option, for a number of reasons it’s the worst choice you could make.

Not to disparage teens – or denigrate the talent of anyone’s niece or nephew – but familiarity with HTML programming and/or graphic design won’t make up for the lack of experience most teens have with running a business. Consider this: Would you ask that young relative, however gifted, to develop your advertising, or write a brochure to be sent to customers? If the answer is no, then look for professional help with your Web site, too.

A website should be thought of as an extension of your marketing strategy and the persona of your business. It is the online equivalent of presenting your best company representative to your most desirable potential customer in order to show them how well you can deliver your brand promise and convince that prospect to trust you enough to allow further communication so that eventually they will get to know you and like you and do business with you. In the absence of this best company representative going in person to your prospect, you instead show them your website and say “this is us…this how good (or bad!) we are so do business with us…Please!”

Creating a great website that will become your best salesperson and truly represent your best abilities and qualities is an art form that takes many years of knowledge and experience in marketing, design, branding, sales, communications, technology, quality assurance and relationship building. It takes a talented team and experienced project manager to do it successfully and with as little stress as possible. You also need ongoing support (that you know will be there when you look for them!) so you can continually develop and grow your website to suit the changes in your business and the market.

In fact, if your goal is to save money, then in the long term you would be far better off to hand your marketing over to an experienced team and concentrate on the business you do best. Let them use their skills to free up your time, reduce frustration and deliver results to grow your business.

Remember, an unprofessional web site can do more harm to your reputation than having no web site, however, not having a web site means losing out on the potential business that it can bring if done properly. Contact us today for a frank discussion about your business needs. It doesn’t cost anything to get a proposal for the solution we would recommend to suit your business goals but it will cost you a lot if you get it wrong.

Your customers need to feel secure about shopping from you while at the same time you have to protect yourself from fraudulent shoppers using invalid or stolen credit cards.

To deal with the first issue; making your customers feel secure. You do that by building up trust. Trust is achieved through a number of factors.

  • Does your website look professional or does it look amateurish? Would you buy from a shop that looked untidy or unprofessional? The same applies to an on-line store.
  • Make sure that you explain everything to your customer in relation to availability, shipping, returns policy, guarantees, etc, everything that will put your customer’s mind at ease about you. Also, make sure that your have all your contact details on your site. It’s amazing how many web-stores forget to do this, instantly, alienating many genuine shoppers.
  • Ensure that you have secure payment facilities on your site. This will protect your customer’s credit card and other information from being stolen.
  • Finally, there are many organisations that will verify that you are a genuine business and that your site is secure.

 

Now, let’s look at how you, the on-line retailer, can protect yourself from fraud. If someone buys from your store with a stolen credit card number, it is up to the merchant to reimburse the holder of the card. So not only does the merchant lose the goods, they also have to pay out to the cardholder. Here are some ways to counteract this situation:

  • Make sure that you collect all of the customer’s details at the time of the purchase. If you’re a small operation you may want to confirm directly with the customer before processing the order. It may not be enough to do this by email, as it is relatively straightforward for someone to set up a dummy email address. Even though it is more costly, it may be better to phone.
  • Confirm the holder’s address with the Credit Card company and consider only shipping to that address.
  • Your secure hosting should check the credit card to ensure that the number is a valid one and get authorisation to debit the card. Many merchants process the payment from the card before processing the order. This avoids problems with credit limits or expired cards.
  • Finally, if you do suspect fraud, report it to your bank immediately.

The need to reserve corporate identity on the World Wide Web is becoming more important as public awareness of the Internet increases. An Internet domain name (e.g. yourname.ie or yourname.com) allows your email and web site to be addressed using your company name.

Even if you are not planning to set up a web site yet, we strongly advise you register your domain name. Simply, if you don’t register your name, maybe someone else will.

Domain name registration is inexpensive and if you are planning an Internet presence now or in the future, we can hold your names for ever, protecting against someone else registering it for their company. You will want to include this URL on any and all literature, advertising and correspondence from your company. You can also register more than one domain name and point it to your website.

You will want a professional URL for your website, it should be easy to remember and it should be easy to type. The longer it is, the harder it will be to type. Short and sweet is best.

Domain names have also become very important to your search engine rankings as search engines will rank a domain name with related keywords higher than those without.  Registering a domain name containing generic keywords related to your products and services is easier for people to remember, but it will also have greater resale value if you should choose to sell your business and/or website in the future.

Finding a good keyword rich domain name that’s not already registered can be quite a challenge; particularly if generic words are involved, but it’s well worth the effort. We are experts in finding keyword rich domains.

We can provide total support to get your site up and running and ongoing support afterwards. If you do not already have a domain name, then we can research and find suitable domain names for you.