Posted by Eric Jackson | 3 Comments
“We Accept Bribes”
Yeah, we’re not ashamed. In the past two weeks, Keystone employees have accepted Jet’s Pizza, Cracker Barrel and Tennessee State Fair Award-Winning Cake from Metro Councilman at Large Tim Garrett and his wife Theresa. I’m pretty sure Theresa is the one who actually bakes the cake. How Tim stays so thin is beyond me. I think I really liked the first obscenely large piece I tried…so just to make sure I had a second one. I understand why it’s “award-winning.”
So if you think we’ve done something really well…maybe over-and-above the call of duty…or maybe you just want us to get off our collective duffs and do something right, we’re more than willing to accept food as a kick in the pants.
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Snail Mailbox
I admit, I still get a thrill when I get a real piece of mail via the USPS. It’s even better, when that envelope contains a check! As you business owners know, that thrill needs to occur often in order to keep your business up, running and prosperous.
Unfortunately, many of our customers have experienced something odd over the past few years. They send us payment to the same address they always use. A few days later, the envelope comes back deemed “undeliverable.” We’re at a loss to understand exactly what’s happening (we’re being gracious here).
Our solution to the problem is to secure a post office box. One less step, if you will. If you mail checks or other important documents to Keystone, please begin using this mailing address instead. Please note that the zip code must be used in its entirety (and that the first part does end in “77” instead of “75”). We also accept huge lottery checks here:
Keystone Business Solutions, LLC
PO Box 2288
Hendersonville, TN 37077-2288
If you’d prefer to get those frequent-flier miles or American Express points, you can always pay by credit card. Simply follow the instructions contained in the email you receive with your invoice.
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Pop, Jazz and Sizzle
I just might hurt some feelings with this one. And that’s ok.
When you go to the dentist, do tell Dr. Drillbit how to fill your cavity? Do you tell your mechanic how to fix your car? Do you think the Pope hovered over Michelangelo telling him to “jazz it up?”
So why do people hire a graphic designer, then proceed to tell them how to do their job? If we had a nickel for every time we’ve heard: “Yeah, it’s good, but it just needs to ‘pop’ more. Can you just ‘jazz it up’ a little?” Nothing makes us want to shove pencils in our ears more than the words pop, jazz, sizzle…
If you want to design your own website, why did you hire us? No. Seriously. Why? Buying a website doesn’t make someone a designer any more than standing in a garage makes them a car. Let me be clear before moving on with the rest of my bile-flavored tirade:
The vast majority of Keystone customers listen to what our designers have to say.
The reason they listen is because our designers have a reason for doing what they do and are ready to explain why “making the logo bigger” will not help our customer sell one more of whatever it is they sell. The designer has arranged the site content in a manner commensurate with the attention the content deserves.
If you’re thinking about hiring Keystone to build your new website, let me be clear:
We encourage our customers to tell us what information is most important to their success.
Additionally, we will listen to what you’ve got to say about design preferences. But be forewarned…there are better ways to do things than most of our non-designer customers have considered. It’s our job to be experts at designing websites that sell, not just look pretty.
So, if your number one New Year’s resolution is to rebuild your website, consider these few tips so you won’t become the “Client from Hell.”
- 1. Choose your designer based on their past work. Look carefully at what your prospective designer has done for their other customers. Unlike the stock market, past performance for designers typically will be indicative of future results.
- 2. Concern yourself with content, not design. Prospects and customers visit your site for information, not pretty pictures. They want to know where you’re located, what you do, how you do it, and what you’ve got to offer. They’re simply not there to be entertained, unless of course you happen to be an entertainer…and even then, your medium isn’t the web.
- 3. Know your market. We won’t be designing for you; we’ll be designing for your market. If your market is kids…is it really kids? In most cases, it’s the parent you seek. Understand this.
- 4. Have good reasons for your preferences. Making the logo bigger is never going to make your site go from good to great. If someone ever tells you “I’d do business with you…but dang it, your logo just isn’t big enough,” then by all means, I’ll eat these words…literally.
- 5. Trust your designer. After all you are paying for their expertise, right?
Posted by Eric Jackson | 0 Comments
Don’t Overlook Physical Security
I’m very busy; I’m guessing you are too. Every day brings a new distraction or task. It doesn’t get any easier. So how would you react if someone stole all your computers? Does that add to your workload? If you’re not prepared, it might make life easier…without your business data, you might just go out of business leaving you with nothing to do.
Is this a reality? Yes. In fact, it happened to BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST). On Friday, October 2, 2009, 57 hard drives were stolen from a remote Chattanooga facility leased by BCBST. Granted, BCBST isn’t going out of business, but few businesses could not withstand a theft like they experienced.
We frequently learn about businesses that don’t value physical security. They’ve never considered that their data could be destroyed by a natural disaster or even stolen. How safe is your data?
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100% of Zero
A colleague recently forwarded a blog post from Seth Godin, a ridiculously popular and successful marketing expert. Jason (in case you were wondering who it was) reads Godin’s blog frequently. If only more people did.
The post in question deals specifically with research that finds 80% of Internet music sales revenue comes from less than 1% of songs. In other words, 52,000 songs account for 80% of all sales.
So, why am I telling you this? There is a LOT of noise out there, and I’m not talking about the other 12,948,000 songs. The web is a highly competitive environment. You’ve got to work to be found…and even harder to sell. What are you doing to promote your business on the web? SEO, blogging, social media? Anybody can have a terrible, neglected website. Do something.
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