SiteCaddy Golf Blog

Streamline Your E-Mail

E-mail was originally intended to provide a simple means of communication between two people. But in the 21st century it’s double-edged sword. It’s both a business lifeline and an unwieldy monster. Start to reconsider how you use e-mail, unchain yourself from your inbox, and improve the way you manage your business.

Not a Total Business Solution

Think about all the ways you use e-mail beyond communications. If you’re like me (or how I used to be) then probably for project management, contact management, file storage, task tracking, event scheduling, sales pipeline, news feed… and much more. Start to find purpose-built tools for these tasks and you will be surprised at how much you can improve your business processes.

Requirements

Two requirements for the tools we choose to ensure they will serve us well into the future.

We need collaboration. Most e-mail accounts need to remain private for legitimate business reasons. But that privacy means that most of what goes into your inbox gets hidden from your team forever – unless you take the time to share it with them. We will only consider tools that promote collaboration.

We need mobility. You no longer just work at your desk. You might work from four different devices during the course of your day (desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone) and our tools should be accessible from all devices.

Sales Pipeline

When new business enquiries arrive (new tour group, new student) be sure to immediately get the core data out of the e-mail and into your CRM (and sales pipeline system if you use one). Otherwise if business is going well, earlier opportunities will get pushed down your inbox, forgotten, and lost.

Task Management

It’s too easy to forget important tasks if they are stored in e-mail – even if you do flag, star and categorise them. There are great task-tracking tools on the market like Evernote.com and Astrid.com. At SiteCaddy, we use Zendesk.com to create tickets for all tasks related to client requests and Jira.com for all internal tasks.

File Sharing

Never store files in e-mails. You can’t search them, you can’t share them, and it will slow down the operation of your e-mail software. If you are the only one that needs the file, then save it to your computer. But if the file needs to be shared, then use a tool like Dropbox.com or Drive.google.com to store files in the cloud and make them accessible to team members.

Conversation

When a conversation gets into some length or includes more than two people, consider conversation management tools like Hipchat.com or Campfirenow.com. These tools not only allow you to share ideas, but also to connect assets like files, tasks and schedules with the conversation.

Project Management

Conversations, files, tasks… they are often part of an overarching project. Let’s say you’re finally going to build that extension to the clubhouse. Messages and files from contractors, members, regulators… nightmare! Project management systems such as Basecamp.com and Trello.com can help you to combine everything: collaboration, conversation, file and task management, scheduling, and much more. There is some overhead involved in getting used to it, but I would never touch a large project without a system like these.

Unsubscribe

Of course the easiest way to manage your inbox is by reducing the number of e-mails you receive. If you do not read e-mail from a certain source, then unsubscribe. You can always join again. And most publications offer RSS feeds in addition to e-mail. Unsubscribe from the e-mail, and read the news online using an RSS aggregator: most browsers either have them built-in or offer them as extensions.

Embracing Change on the Internet

The pace of change on the internet is amazing. The web changes every day, and is itself an agent for change. Get comfortable with the notion that everything online is transient. This does not mean that you should give up or be sloppy – it means that your online marketing strategies should incorporate this fact and act accordingly.

We Do Not Know the Future

Not that long ago, the concept that every business must have an online presence was new. A few years later, and social media is the “must-have”. Now – it’s mobile. I do not know what will be “the next big thing”, and neither do you.

Start Lean, Then Build

Many modern entrepreneurs embrace the “lean start-up” methodology. For the sake of brevity we can summarise: get the smallest, leanest version of your product or service to market quickly and inexpensively. Apply this concept to your online initiatives. Get lightweight versions of your site, app, advertisements, etc. out the door quickly, gather feedback, and then improve.

Make Small Mistakes & Move On

Also in the “lean start-up” methodology is the notion of “failing quickly”. Too many businesses burn too many resources trying to build the perfect solution, but if it fails – there is nothing left in reserve. It is better to try something small and simple, see if it works, and if it fails – learn from the mistakes and move on. Think of an online advertising campaign for your club. It is very difficult to know what copy will work and what will not. Instead of crafting the perfect ad, get a few online quickly, see which works the best, drop the rest and continue.

Create Loose Connections

In the past, your connections could be stored neatly for future reference –in a Rolodex, a spreadsheet, or a CRM. But with the advent of social networking, and especially sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, it’s impossible to properly track everyone that intersects with your business.

Don’t worry about it! Make tons of connections. You won’t have time to properly store every one of them, and some you may never need. Don’t let that stop you from expanding your network. Start to think of yourself as potentially being connected to everyone on the internet.

Messaging

As your connection pool grows, so will your volume of inbound messages. It’s impossible to properly process every message that you receive. Remember that e-mail was created as a very lightweight communications tool between individuals, and was never intended to track conversations and projects.  It was never intended to archive critical information, ideas and documents.  

In my next blog post (will add a link here) I will provide alternative tools you should consider to take some pressure off your e-mail system.  But in the meantime ask yourself - "am I using e-mail for simple communications, or am I using it for tasks like project management, document storage, CRM and more"?  The answer is probably yes.

Website as Hub

Previously I’ve written about how your website should be the hub of all online activity. That sentiment applies well here. As long as you keep your business website well oiled, it will not matter if Facebook collapses and another start-up explodes. Your website is the one piece of your network that you can control.

What Is Important?

I’m not suggesting that you rush sloppy work out the door. Your brand is critical, and is never to be degraded. But accept that the web is constantly in flux, so make sure your website is always tight, and for everything else keep your efforts fast, light and intense, and understand that it’s better to have lot’s of tiny failures than any one big one.

Using QR Codes for Your Golf Business

What is a QR code?

A QR code (Quick Response code) is similar to bar codes found on food packaging. But QR codes are easy to create, and can be used to encode any type of alphanumeric data such as a website/e-mail address, coupon code, or special offer.

You’ve probably seen QR codes, even if you weren’t sure of their purpose. For example – that’s a QR code next to this paragraph, and it translates to www.sitecaddygolf.com, our company website.

Why use QR codes?

Even though it feels like everyone is online 24/7, the truth is that your customers still spend the vast majority of their time in the real world. That time might be spent walking your fairways, hitting balls at your range, or sitting on a train on the way to work. QR codes are a great way to help these people “remember” your information when not in front of a computer. They might not be able to remember your website address, but if they can snap it with their smartphone, they can come back to it later.

QR code encoders

A QR code is an image. This can be displayed online, printed on paper, attached to products, or even stitched onto fabric. To create the image you need an encoder. There are many free encoders available online, and a search for “QR code encoder” should yield a long list. The encoder at http://goo.gl/ffS8a is simple and provides enough options for most users. As an exercise, enter www.sitecaddygolf.com into the URL box and press the Generate button. You will get an image that looks like the one at the start of this article.

QR code readers

Almost any smartphone with a camera will include a QR code reader to un-encode your images. Most smartphones know when you have taken a photo of a QR code, and will launch the result in a browser automatically. Don’t worry about explaining this to your customers. If they know what a QR code is, they will know how to use it.

Uses for QR codes in your business

The sky is the limit! Starting with the obvious, QR codes will work well on any printed materials. Business cards, brochures, letterhead, envelopes, etc. And if you’re working with a print company to run an Ad in a magazine, on a bus, or on a bathroom wall, you greatly increase the chances of conversion with a QR code.

For golf clubs, you can also add them to scorecards and yardage books. Every page is an opportunity to promote your business.

And for pros and retailers, affixing a QR code to all your golf merchandise can both have a practical benefit for you and add value for your customers. Perhaps provide the customer with your customer service policy or more information on the product?

A search for “QR code uses” will provide plenty food for thought, but you have to love the Guinness pint glass at the top of this list: http://goo.gl/xcXd1.

Future-proof that QR code

Remember that a print version of a QR code might be around for a long time, so don’t use a temporary URL. Either take the easy route and direct traffic to your website home page, or use an URL like www.mybusiness.com/QR and swap new content into that location as necessary.

The Hub And Spoke Approach

All golf businesses will have to continue to generate more content for the internet. Not long ago, only the company website (and maybe blog) demanded attention. But in 2013 the web’s voracious appetite for content will continue to grow. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, App… how can any business cope with the ever-growing demand?

Most small-to-medium sized businesses cannot keep up, so you have to be smart in allocating resources. This means focusing on some channels over others, and finding ways to maximise impact with minimum time spent.

Hub and Spokes

Your website must be the centre of your online universe. There is no other channel that can replace it. Even the best Facebook pages and blogs are no substitute for a well-designed website.

Think of your online presence as a wagon wheel. Your business website is the hub, and each of your other channels is a spoke. That’s an oversimplification of course: the different components of your online presence will have connections to each other and to other websites. But the simple image of the wagon wheel can help you to cut through the clutter and remember where to focus.

Keep the Spokes Simple

Don’t allocate significant time on other channels such as social media until your website is solid. That’s not to say you should ignore them. It takes only a few hours to set up accounts for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. But if you have limited time, keep them very simple and redirect traffic back to your website home page. For example, a Facebook page for a golf club might just have a logo, a paragraph about the club, a number of links to the home page of your website, and a clear link to the tee-time booking engine on your site. As long as you don’t include any time-sensitive information on your Facebook page, you won’t have to invest any time in keeping it up to date.

All Roads Lead to Your Home Page

Until you have more time to dedicate to the various spokes in your network, make sure all spokes are clearly redirecting traffic back to your website. For example, a golf club will usually have some special tee-time or membership offer that requires promotion for a limited time. In a perfect world, the content manager could publish the specials to the website and all the spokes, and then remove them from everywhere when they expire. But that requires more time, and the chances of leaving expired content on your spokes greatly increases. Better to keep your website updated, and have your other channels simply include a link to your site.

The Benefits of Focusing on Your Website

Driving all traffic to your website saves time and money on more than just content publishing. It makes it easier to measure your traffic in one place, to discover any problems, and to integrate more dynamic features such as e-commerce and order tracking. The more of these complex features you spread around your spokes, the more time you spend maintaining them.

Tools to Save Time

Many content management tools allow you to republish your content. For example, our SiteCaddy (SiteCaddyGolf.com) system allows the news you publish to your website to be republished to your Facebook and Twitter accounts at the same time.

Summary

In a perfect world, your business could dedicate many hours each month publishing content on all the sites in your network. But if time is short, make sure your website is rock-solid and steer all traffic from your network to the site.

About Me

As Founder & CEO of Green Island Interactive and SiteCaddyGolf.com, I’ve worked with golf clubs, golf pros and golf related businesses for close to 15 years. I look forward to sharing my knowledge and experience with you and receiving your feedback each week.

Make Online A Priority

Welcome to my new column on harnessing the power of the internet to improve your golf business. And whether you're the General Manager of a club, an independent golf professional, the CEO of a golf retail business, manager of an association... or simply an interested member of a club - I hope everyone will get something out of this series.

To set a solid foundation for the articles to come, I would like to revisit a post in my blog from a few years ago. It received a positive response, and I believe helped a number of our clients refocus their online strategy. In this post I discussed the importance of setting your online sales and marketing as a priority, and practical steps anyone can take to make it so. From the responses the article received, I think many readers realised they were only scratching the surface in terms of their online potential.

The Transition

For younger readers, the concept of using the internet for sales, marketing and communications is obvious. You've had your own laptop for as long as you can remember, you text your friends more than you call them, and Facebook and Twitter aren't new tools that need to be learned - they are a core part of communications in your circles.

But for those businesses and careers that started when print, radio and television advertising was king, there has been a gradual transition from traditional sales and marketing techniques to the adoption of the online equivalents. Golf Clubs - for a variety of historical reasons - have been sometimes late to adopt modern technology, even when the internet is such a powerful tool for selling to a global market in a cost effective way.

If you feel your golf business has been slow to make the transition, consider a few simple facts:

• It's not too late - you can make up ground quickly.
• If you don't know how, it's easy to find people that can help.
• The internet can level the playing field between small and large businesses.

The Meaning of Priority

Every business has different goals and resources. A 36-Hole golf resort has a large capacity to take on new customers, and possibly a large marketing budget to match. An independent golf pro, on the other hand, has a far more modest budget and a limited number of lessons that can be taught in a month.

I am not suggesting that a small business should mortgage the farm to invest in online sales and marketing, or try to keep up with the Joneses. But if your online sales and marketing tasks consistently get bumped down your to-do list, and if your online budget is made up of "whatever's left over at the end of the month" then it's fair to say... online is not a priority in your business. That needs to change now.

A Look In The Mirror

Since the meaning of priority is different for every business, determining if online marketing is a priority at your business is largely a matter of self-evaluation. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself.

Budget

In terms of sales and marketing, brand awareness and exposure, what percentage of your budget is earmarked for online initiatives?

Staff

Does your business have a team or person dedicated to online sales and marketing? Are responsibilities clearly allocated in terms of online tasks? Note: If you're a single-person business such as a golf pro, it's perfectly acceptable to be the designated internet person.

Skill

Do you or your business have the skills required to adequately use the internet to promote your brand? And if not, do you contract outside professionals to do the job properly?

You are the best person to analyse the answers to these questions. If you honestly answer these questions for your business, you will instinctively know whether you are on the right path. But answers like the following should raise red flags:

• We don't have a dedicated online budget. We allocate funds as good opportunities arise.
• An intern in the marketing department is responsible for online marketing. These university kids know Facebook and Twitter better than we do!
• We don't have access to anyone with experience in online sales and marketing, but most of it is common sense. We learn as we Tweet!

And then ask yourself... if online sales and marketing is a top priority, and your team does not have the budget, time, staff or experience to use internet effectively as a marketing tool, then how can you expect to compete with other businesses that do make these resources available?

The simple answer is you cannot - until you align your business priorities with the modern business practices.

Practical Steps

If you're not happy with the answers to the previous questions, then here are a few simple and practical steps you can take to turn things around.

Allocate Time and Money

The act of creating a schedule and allocating funds will focus the business. If you're a larger business that already has an online marketing budget, then this is the time of year to consider increasing your budget for next year. If you're a small business, then strive to use the internet to cut costs, and use the savings to increase your online marketing spend. And if you're just one person with no budget - then the internet is a great place to use sweat equity. It doesn't cost a cent to consistently promote your brand on free websites, a Twitter feed and a Facebook page. And ensure you allocate time in your calendar every week / month to review and manage your online activity - this is absolutely key! 

Appoint a Web Czar

Someone in your business needs to have final responsibility for your online initiatives. Online tools that allow multiple users to manage one account encourage the distribution of labour - and that's a beautiful thing. But someone needs to make sure that all communications - even the ones flying out on Twitter every hour - are on message. Someone needs to make sure the home page of the website is not promoting a Christmas special in April. And if you work in a business where roles turnover frequently (e.g. the committee members of a golf club) then the Web Czar is responsible for creating a succession plan, ensuring it is updated, and effecting the transition from one Czar to the next.

And if you are a one person business, then congratulations - you've just been appointed Web Czar, and you should take the role seriously.

Fight the Status Quo

If you work at a traditional company (such as a well-established golf club or hotel) or a bigger company, then it can be difficult to move at the speed of the internet. Initiatives need to be reviewed, communications need to be proofed, and costs need to be approved. This is not a great match for the internet, where new opportunities arise every day, and trends come and go quickly.

Don't give up. Try to streamline the approval processes. Push your online endeavors as a priority. And don't go overboard - remember that big, traditional businesses got to be big, traditional businesses because they made a lot of safe and smart decisions over a long period. That's something to be respected. Work within your company's structure to make change happen.

Play With House Money

Gamblers at a casino love to win early, because then they can wager their winnings and not take on any risk. Do the same with your online marketing initiatives. If you are faced with resistance when trying to increase your marketing budget, make a deal with the person holding the purse strings. Ask that at least some of the profits from your online endeavors are re-invested in online marketing. This will force at least two positive results: the bean counters will be forced to take notice of online profits, and you will be forced to measure the results of you online spend.

Get Skilled Up

Online marketing is a bit like professional golf. Anyone can take a few lessons and call themselves a pro. But there is a huge difference between a golfer that can shoot level par on their home course on a Tuesday morning, and the pro that shoots a 68 under pressure from the back tees on a Sunday afternoon.

If you have a great team of marketing professionals that knows your business and your customers, then there is nothing wrong with getting them skilled up on internet marketing techniques and keeping it all in house. But remember - the internet moves quickly, and today's skills are tomorrow's history. Consider bringing in outside help from professionals - even if only to get your started down the right path and for occasional check-ups.

Start Simple, Measure Results, Get Encouraged

There are many reasons why online marketing might not be a priority for your business: not enough budget and time, lack of skills, no Czar to pull it all together. But I suspect one key reason often flies under the radar... people do not know how to effectively measure the results of their efforts. And without a measuring stick, it's difficult to justify an increase in budget and training. But perhaps equally importantly, it's hard to "get excited" about online marketing when you're not sure if it's working.

Here are a few simple suggestions...

Measure Results from the Start

It can be difficult to keep up with all the channels available to promote your business online. Website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, SEO, SEM, AdWords... how can you even keep up with all the work that needs to be done, much less figure out how to measure all the results?

The answer is - if you are a small business with finite resources - you can't. Not right away at least. So instead, focus your efforts on one channel, but don't consider yourself skilled-up unless you also know how to measure results.

For example, if your focus is on your website, then make sure you have a good visitor tracking tool attached like Google Analytics. Understand how to log into the Google Analytics account, and how to interpret the top-line numbers. You need to know that if you spent an additional 50% in time on updating the website this month, that you see some sort of bounce in your visitor numbers or effectiveness over the next month.

When you feel you know BOTH how to use a tool and effectively measure the results of your actions, then feel free to move on to the next tool in your arsenal.

Trends

You can't worry about every number and piece of data. If you found out that your website had 10,000 visits last month, you might think "that's pretty good". If you found out that you had 50,000 the month previous, you might say "something is seriously wrong".

If you don't have all day to pour over your measurements (and most people don't) then just spend a little time looking at your trends. Did my visitor numbers go up or down this month? Did I add more nesletter subscribers this month than last month? These trends are usually more important than any one point-in-time number. The trend will tell you if you are spending your time effectively, and raise red flags when there are problems.

Conversion Rate

The term Conversion Rate is often associated with e-commerce sites, where it represents the ratio from visitors to sales. But a conversion (or goal) could be any desireable action, and it's different for different businesses. For a golf club, a tee time booking might be considered a conversation from a visit to a goal, but so too might be a new subscriber to a newsletter or a download of a membership form.

As you start to make your online programmes more of a priority and increase your online spend, make sure your conversion rate is satisfactory. If you spent 1K on online advertising to drive traffic to your website, but converted no visitors to sales, then there is no point in increasing your budget. First figure out why your online activity property is not effectively converting visitors, and then go back to increasing your visitor numbers.

Summary

In this first article in the series, I am looking to establish the fact that online sales and marketing must be a top priority for your business.  If it is not a priority, there will not be a budget. If it is not a priority, time will not be allocated. If it is not a priority, you will not succeed. 

In future articles I will discuss different tools and techniques your business can use to better promote your brand online. But in the meantime, please take a few moments to ask yourself these tough questions, and make a true committment to online promotion in 2013. It's never too late.

Responsive Websites, Mobile Websites, and Apps. Know Your App from Your Elbow!

The move towards the mobile web is in high gear, and soon more people will access the internet (and your website) via a mobile device than with a computer or laptop.  In the last 12 months, I've fielded a lot of questions from clients about creating an app or creating a mobile website.  But I've found that many times when someone asks about building them an app, what they really want is a mobile site, or vice versa.

And this is not surprising.  Everything you hear these days is app, app, app!  It's a new frontier, the language is not familiar to everyone, and it changes from month to month.  This post does not intend to make the reader an expert in any of these topics.  But hopefully if you read this, you will have an understanding of the different options available for making your content available on mobile devices, and the advantages of each option.

The Problem

While smartphones and tablets (and some day your refrigerator and toaster) usually have web browsers built-in that can surf the web,  most websites designed in the last 10 years do not work well on mobile browsers.  There are many issues involved, but it basically boils down to two:

• The site was not designed to fit on the small screen
• It's hard to interact with the site without a mouse and standard keyboard

So what do we do?  Do we have to invest in completely recreating our website?  Do we have to create a separate site specifically for mobile?  Do we need to take on the expense of building and maintaining an app?

The answer is... maybe.  But don't make any decisions until you know your app from your elbow.

Responsive Design, Mobile Design, and Apps

As the mobile web has progressed, so too have techniques for presenting a better user experience on mobile devices.  In this post, I describe 3 common solutions:

• Responsive website design
• Mobile website design
• Apps

This post does not cover all the details of these topics.  My only goal with this article is to make you feel like you understand the most important options, and have a feel for which ones might make sense for your business.

Let's define each of these options in the context of a practical example.

The Example

Let's say that the home page of your business website has:

• A main menu with 7 items/links
• A photo slideshow that runs from left to right
• A 3 column layout, with menus in the left column, content in the middle, and a few widgets in the right column with news headlines and event listings

Let's keep it as simple as that for now, and see how this home page works on different devices.

Responsive Website Design

The concept of responsive website design is not new, but it's gained a lot of traction over the last few years as mobile web use has skyrocketed.  The principle is simple: the design and content on your website should respond to the screen/device on which it is displayed.

So looking at our example home page, if this website was not designed to be responsive, what would happen if a customer viewed it on a smaller screen?  The answer is... we're not sure.  It might mean that on an iPhone, the site visitor can only see a fraction of the website at any one time, and they have to frantically scroll around the screen to get to certain menu items or read an article.  Or maybe on an Android device, they can see the entire screen, but it's been shrunk down in size so much that it's very hard to read or use the buttons and links on the site.

By contrast, if this site was designed to be responsive, it would actually reconfigure itself according to the size of the screen on which it was displayed.  So for example, on a very big screen it would show in all its intended glory.  On a slight smaller laptop screen, perhaps it would still display nearly as normal, but the size of the photo slideshow would be slightly reduced, and the center column with the content would be slightly reduced, so that the balance of the site would remain in tact.  But then on a really small screen - such as an iPhone - the actual configuration of the screen would change automatically.  The main menu items would stack one on top of the other (vertically) instead of left to right (horizontally).  The photo slideshow would be replaced by a single small photo.  And the 3 columns would be stacked on top of each other, so none of them would need to be reduced so much in size as to be unreadable.

This sort of automatic reconfiguration of a site to best suit the needs of different screen sizes - that's responsive design.  And it can work differently for each site - many of the decisions are left to the designer.  What's important is that without having to put in the effort and expense of designing a separate site specifically for mobile platforms (not to mention the associated maintenance costs) the one site will work well (or at least pretty well) on any screen size.

Mobile Website Design

A mobile website is built from the ground up to suit small screen sizes.  Typically a mobile website:

• Has a simple, icon driven home page
• Has a reduced set of menu options, always stacked vertically
• Has a reduced set of functionality compared to a full site
• Does not feature photo slideshows or animations

The key here is that when I say mobile website, I do not necessarily mean a different website.  Any good website will be designed so that the content and the design are separated, and this means that you should be able to present the content on your website as either a responsive site or a mobile site - without having to maintain 2 separate sites.

When I think of mobile sites, I often think of airline sites.  Airlines are big companies with deep pockets, and there is a margin on each ticket sold.  The process of selling an airline ticket on a website is complex, and involves calendar widgets, seat charts, and menus of price options.  Airline customers are often travelling and therefore often accessing the internet via smartphones.  It makes sense that airlines would want to present their customers with a good mobile shopping experience.

Take a look at the difference between the mail Lufthansa website, and the mobile version:

• http://mobile.lufthansa.com
• http://www.lufthansa.com

The mobile version of their website is not just a modified version of the main website, it's a completely different and much simplified user experience.

Lufthansa Site, Full

     

Lufthansa Site, Mobile

Note: The customer should not need to know the URL for the mobile version of a website - the web server is typically configured to automatically display the right site based on the visitor's device, and then the website should usually give the visitor the opportunity to switch back and forth between mobile and normal website.  That way the visitor gets the recommended experience by default, but they can choose a different experience if they like.

Apps

An app (short for application) is not a website.  Sure - it might look and work just like a website, and it might feature the same content as on a website - but it is not a website.  An app is a lightweight application that is designed specifically for mobile devices.

Apps are great for delivering specific functionality that suits the mobile user.  Online banking is a good example.  If you wanted to check your bank balance on your bank's website on your Android phone, could you do that?  Sure.  You could type in the URL for the website, login with the little keypad, login again since you typed it wrong the first time (if you're like me), navigate to the page with your balance, and then make an appointment with your eye doctor because you just realized you're not 18 anymore.

The same experience with your bank's app would probably be more like:

1. Launch app and sign in.
2. Press huge button that says "Check Balance".
3. Look at your balance.
4. Congratulate yourself for being so cool - treat yourself to expensive espresso on way to work.

So in this example of an app, I did not show anything that is not already available on a web site.  So what's the difference?  There is a lot of overlap between apps and websites, and the differences are often subtle and confusing.

So rather than spending another 1,000 words on trying to provide more distinctions between mobile websites and apps, let me make a broad generalization... if you are a small to medium sized business, and unless you have a really good business reason for doing so, you DO NOT need to take on the expense of creating your own app for your business.  I repeat - at this time, most small to medium businesses do not need to build their own web app.  There are web platforms on the market that will take your existing web content and create an app for you!

Summary of the Differences, and What You Probably Need

Let's start to wrap up this post, summarize a few points, and make a few practical suggestions for your business.

Responsive Website

All new website designs should be responsive.  If you have a budget for expanding your business online, then you should be looking at upgrading your existing website design to a truly responsive design.  This is something you probably should look at.  A well designed responsive website will provide users on almost any device with a good experience.

Mobile Website

As you continue to expand into the mobile market - and you should aggressively plan for this in 2013 - you can then look at a mobile version of your website.  You probably will never need a mobile version of a website if you have a simple brochure website.  Save your money and put it into online advertising or a fancy espresso machine for your kitchen.  But if your site features complex interactions such as reservations, tee-time bookings, or e-commerce carts and checkout processes, then a mobile version of your website will probably provide your members/customers with a better experience, which will lead to a better conversion rate, which will mean your mobile investment will pay for itself quickly.  And it's certainly a good way to get in front of your competition in an area that is growing explosively.

App

I would not steer anyone away from having an app, I would just not recommend developing an app yourself.  What I would simply say is that your first question should be... "do I really need an app, or do I really need a responsive/mobile website"?  Remember - even in a mobile world, your website is still the hub of your online universe, and all the apps and feeds and tweets and posts should be directing traffic back to it.

How Am I Supposed To Manage All This Stuff???

You're not.

You already have a day job.  And a website to manage.  And your Facebook page, and your Twitter feed.  And there is always going to be "the next big thing" that you have to spend time on.  Unless you have a big IT department of a big budget, you have to draw the line somewhere.

What you need is a single platform that will automatically provide you with:

• An option for a responsive web site
• An option for a mobile web site
• An option for an app

In a perfect world, these things should be done for you, and leverage all the content and functionality you have put into your website.  If you try to manage a dozen different online platforms for your company and you don't have the resources, you will end up with a dozen really bad online platforms.

What We're Doing for Our Clients at SiteCaddy

Here at SiteCaddy, we're throwing heavy resources into mobile development for our clients.  

• All new client websites are being designed to be responsive from the ground up, and all older design themes have the option of an upgrade to a new responsive framework.
• Releasing mobile versions of all client sites
• Releasing apps focused on e-commerce, bookings, and communications.  
• Releasing an app that will help clients manage their accounts from their softphones.

All of these services will be integrated, and controlled from the one main account.  No need to juggle content from mulitple sources - just focus on your company website, and the SiteCaddy platform will automatically present it in the correct format for your visitor's needs.

So in other words we'll take care of the responsive design, the mobile site, and the apps - and our clients take care of their business and their content.  The way it should be.  And we're not the only company that will be providing these types of services - so find a company that does this work for you before you look at taking on these challenges yourself.

Summary

I hope this article - if nothing else - gives you an appreciation of the subtle but important differences between responsive websites, mobile websites, and apps.  As with anything on the web, don't get overwhelmed by it - just learn enough to be able to make an informed business decision.  You don't need to be an expert.  Choose a platform that will provide you with mobile options for your visitors, and ideally an app for more complex processes, and then enjoy that espresso while it's still hot.

Feel free to contact us at SiteCaddy any time if you would like more information on how we help businesses get online and go mobile.

Make Site Management Easier with a Solid File Rotation Strategy

This is one of those things that is totally common sense… when you spend your life managing websites like I do!  ;-)  But I see our clients make this simple mistake quite often, and I thought it warranted a blog post.  The good news is - it's really easy to make this change and make your life easier.  And perhaps a little SEO boost to boot.

Let's say your golf club has an annual catalog you prepare each year with current membership rates.  The marketing manager sends you an e-mail with this year's copy and asks you to upload it to the website and update any links to point to the new file.  The file is named something like:

annualpricecatalog2012.pdf

That's a perfectly logical name for a file, and for your colleague working with the file on their computer, it probably made sense for them to name it that way so they could easily distinguish one year's catalog from another.

The tempation would be to do the following:

1. Upload the file to the server
2. Change any links to point to the new file

But there are a number of problems with this strategy.  First of all, any of your members or guests that might have bookmarked a link to the old file will have their link broken.  The same would be true of previous e-mails you sent out with a link to the old rates.  And search engines that were trying to help you by storing a link to your file?  Yep - all broken links as well.

I always recommend to clients that for files that need to be used constantly but will get updated on a regular basis, that they NOT put the date in the name of the file.  For example, you could name the above file as follows:

club-name-membership-rates.pdf

Now each time your colleague asks you to upload an updated version of the rates, you simply delete the old one and upload the new one to the same location.  This arrangement has two great benefits:

1. It's a lot quicker for you because you don't have to spend time changing any links to the file.
2. No broken links!

Plus - just for a little SEO juice - I put the business name in the file name and separated the words with hyphens to help search engines better recognize the content of the file.

Archiving Old Files?

What about if you do want to keep previous versions of a file when you upload a new one?  For example, maybe you are uploading a PDF version of a newsletter, and on one of the pages of your website you have links to all the older versions. 

No problem.  I would recommend a structure such as the follows:

• Give the current version of the newsletter a consistent name such as "newsletter.pdf"
• Create a folder on your site named something like "/archive"
• Rather than deleting old newsletters, simply move them to the archive folder and then rename them to something like "newsletter-201210.pdf"

That way you can still send out unbreakable links to the "latest" version of your newsletter like the following:

http://www.mysite.com/.../newsletter.pdf

But also create links to your archived files like:

• http://www.mysite.com/.../archive/newsletter-201208.pdf
• http://www.mysite.com/.../archive/newsletter-201209.pdf
• http://www.mysite.com/.../archive/newsletter-201210.pdf

Best of both worlds!

Author's Note

As a big believer in the power of proper content management, I generally try to take most content out of files where it's hard for search engines to find, and place the content directly on the web page.  But there are circumstances where files like PDFs are right for the job.  For example, if you need to provide your visitors with a form they need to download, print, sign and mail... that may well be a job for a PDF.

In this article I am not suggesting that you use files such as PDFs as a replacement for good content on the pages of your site that can be more easily accessed both by your visitors and your search engines.  But for those times that you do need to use files on your site, I hope this strategy saves you some grief and time!

A Simple Formula for Online Improvement

At a recent trade show where I had the opportunity to speak with clients, I had a sense that some were overwhelmed with choices. They believed in the power of the internet, and as clients they had the ability to manage their online presences... but where should they focus their efforts when there are only so many available hours each month? Website, SEO, SEM, social networking, newsletters, e-commerce... I felt like some people were paralyzed. There were so many things they could do, they ended up not doing anything. I think we all have that feeling in our lives sometimes!

Pardon me in advance if article states the obvious, but after that trade show I felt that sometimes we all need to simplify our goals and get back to basics. For those that are not sure where to focus their efforts, the point of this article is to:

• Estiablish key measurements for website success
• List some very simple tasks that can be completed in just minutes
• Demonstrate how measuring your results will make you feel empowered

To act on the advice in this article, you need 3 things:

• The ability to update your website and other online channels (e.g. Facebook)
• The ability to view the visits to your website with a tool like Google Analytics
• A desire to improve! ;-)

If you're using Site Caddy, then you have everything you need, so let's get started.

Goals for this Article

The next time you find yourself with a small block of time to spend on your online sales and marketing, I want you to feel like:

1. You know how to invest your time
2. You can easily pick a quick task and get it done
3. You know how to measure your results

A Simple Formula

The point of this article is to simplify things, so let's look at a very simple formula for success:

Success Rate = (Positive Actions) divided by (Visitors to Website)

First, let's define a "positive action". When a person goes to your website and does something that is good for your business, I would call this a positive action. Some of these are easier to measure than others. Examples would include:

• Booking a tee time or a lesson
• Request membership information
• Buying a product
• Submitting a contact form or gathering contact details
• Viewing directions to your location
• Sharing your information with friends (e.g. via Facebook)

Perhaps some of these outcomes are more positive than others, but every one of these actions might eventually result in a benefit to your business.

Reviewing our simple formula:

Success Rate = (Positive Actions) divided by (Visitors to Website)

If 1,000 people visit your website this month, and 50 of them take some positive action once they get there, then your success rate is 5% - and that's not bad.

Note: In a strictly e-commerce environment, we would consider your conversion rate to be the ratio between sales and visitors. But even if you are selling products on your website, there are other successful outcomes from a visit to your site (if even just brand awareness) and I prefer this broader approach.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water...

Obviously we are shooting for the highest possible success rate. It's a waste if we have 1,000 people going to our website every month, but only 2 of them do something we want them to do.

If we have enough people going to our website but only a few of them are taking a positive action...
It would indicate that we need to improve our website. Make it easier to navigate. Give our visitors clear direction. Encourage them to do what we want them to do - perhaps even incentivize them. Make sure the site is updated and looks professional.

If we don't have enough people going to our website in the first place...
Then this is an online marketing issue. We need to improve our visibility with search engines. We can get proactive and run online ads. We can make sure the people in our business are aware of our website.

OK - So What Should I Do?

In the last section we established that our goal is a high success rate for website visits. But let's simplify things even further. Let's forget about the success rate and say this:

• If you get more visitors to your website, you increase your chances for positive actions
• If you improve your website, you increase your chances for positive actions

Hmmm - wait a second... by that logic, almost anything you do will improve your online success? Yes - that's right - if you get more visitors, or improve your website and other online presences, you will increase your number of positive outcomes. And for those that feel that this logic is just too simple, then you've probably been overcomplicating things. And your competitors that have been steadily doing the simple things are probably passing you by while you wait to figure it all out.

If you are buying my logic, then you now know what to do. Do anything. Anything will help. And if you want a little inspiration, I have a list of little things you can do.

Pick One and Get Going

There are thousands of things you can do online to improve your business. To make it easier to choose, here is a list of tasks you can complete in a short amount of time and at no cost:

Very Quick

Just have 5-10 minutes to do something positive for your online presense? Here are a few tasks that will only take a few minutes:

• Create a Twitter or Facebook account
• Post something on Twitter or Facebook with a link back to your site
• Post a news item or event to your website
• Review your website analytics to make sure you're going in the right direction
• Review the results of your last e-mail or SMS blast
• Review your website home page for out-of-date content - change if necessary
• Add a link to a friendly business on your website, and ask them to link back to you
• Add a couple of contacts to your online database

Quick Enough

These tasks should not take more than 15-20 minutes to complete. Remember - we're not always seeking perfection, we're looking for small things we can do on a regular basis to make some positive impact:

• Make sure there are clear directions on your home page
• Prune your list of contacts
• Start a new e-mail blast message - save for later if no time to finish
• Start a new page on your website - save for later if no time to finish
• Add a new product to your online catalog
• Learn something new - how about AdWords?

Not As Quick but Still Important

Have a half hour to dedicate to your website?

• Create and send a monthly e-mail blast
• Review your entire website for anything out of date or inaccurate
• Review your entire product catalog and make any updates necessary
• Review other sites on the web (in our out of your sector) for good ideas
• Create and post a special offer or discount
• Get creative!

More To Come

These are short lists, and there are hundreds of other quick tasks out there. I will continue to update this list as I think of more quick tasks, and please feel free to post comments to this article with your own ideas!

Measuring Results Makes It Fun

In this article we are talking about little things you can do to:

• Get more eyeballs on your website
• Get those visitors to take a positive action

But let's face it - little improvements can be boring, and not necessarily inspire us to stick with it. Think of someone on a diet. It's logical that if they trimmed just 10 calories from their intake each day, and exercised for just 5 minutes per day, over the course of a year they would save themselves thousands of calories and get a little healthier. But the pounds would not come flying off, 6-pack abs would not miraculously appear in the mirror, and the chances of being self-motivated enough to maintain the new regimen would be slim.

Modern dieters have many tools at their disposal to stay encouraged. They can keep a chart of their calories, share tips online with other dieters, get precise measurements from scales, work with personal trainers, and so on. These little tricks can help each person to stay on track and reach their goals.

For me, website analytics (visitor reports) are the trick to staying motivated with your website. First, make sure you have easy access to your visitor numbers. Find out how many people are visiting your site, and how many visitors are going to the pages you want them to visit. This is the equivelent of a dieter stepping on the scale on New Year's Day - getting a baseline and setting some targets. Make a note of how many visitors you've had in the last month. Estimate how many of those visits have resulted in a positive outcome. That's our baseline, and our goal is to gradually improve on those numbers.

If you continue to make small improvements, you should see your numbers continue to make small jumps forward. And this can be all the motivation you need to keep going, and the proof you need to believe in what you are doing. To say "wow - I really can do this". Hopefully it will also encourage you to realize that the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.

Summary

Feeling paralyzed by the number of things you could be doing to improve your business online? Break through that paralysis by identifying small tasks and completing them as time allows.

Remember that any small improvement that will either get more visitors to your website, or encourage those visitors to take a positive action, will have a beneficial result for your business.

Sure, get bolder as time and budget allow. But on a day-to-day basis if you're not sure what to do... just do something!

Related Links

• Site Caddy Help: What is Google Analytics?
• Site Caddy Help: How Should In Interpret My Google Analytics Report?
• Blog Post: The Little Things that Lead to Online Success

Grow Your Mailing List by Enabling the Subscribe Feature

If you would like visitors to your website to be able to subscribe to your mailing list, follow the instructions on this page:

http://help.sitecaddy.com/mysitecaddy/site3/helppeopleenable.htm

Enabling the subscribe feature on your website is a fantastic way to build your mailing list and it happens automatically through Site Caddy.  Once you enable the Subscribe button, your visitors can click the Subscribe link in the Page Tools section, fill out a form with name and email address, and their information is automatically added to your People Caddy list.

When visitors subscribe, they are automatically added to a group in People Caddy called Subscribers. This way you can tell them apart from other members, customers or staff.

But make sure if you do enable your subscriber list that you use it! These are customers and members that are interested in hearing what you have to say. Make sure to keep them in the loop- even a simple mailshot once per month or per quarter to alert them to special offers or interesting news.

The Little Things That Lead to Online Success

Recently I posted an article to this blog discussing why you should make your website a priority and simple steps you can take to make that happen. I was encouraged by the reader response to this post! I received a number of emails from clients saying they realized they had been treating their online marketing as a chore rather than an opportunity, and that they had already started to make changes.

I hope this post is a suitable companion to that article. Let's assume for a moment that you have now made your website a priority for improving your business' sales and marketing. How are we going to take our new-found passion for the web and convert it into practical steps we can take to make it happen? And assuming of course that you're not a web guru, and you don't have a 6 figure online marketing budget!

The Bad News: There Is No Silver Bullet

I would like to tell you that our Site Caddy system (or a comparable service on the market) is the silver bullet: a magic wand you can wave to achieve total success on the web without any effort. I would like to, but I would be lying.

There are many tools on the market that give you the ability to achieve success on the web, but they cannot do the work for you. They do not know your unique selling points as well as you do, or speak the language of your customers and members. They simply help bridge the technology gap between what you are trying to say (marketing) and how you are trying to say it (the internet).

The Good News: It's Within Your Reach

It has been my experience businesses that succeed online do so not because they are breaking new ground with technology or breaking the bank. They are simply being creative, being consistant, and doing all the little things it takes to be successful onlne.

For the rest of this post we'll look at a number of tips and suggestions- the "little things" you can do to improve your online marketing. And none of these little things require:

• A large budget (most require none)
• More than a basic level of computer skills
• A lot of your time

And if you're making your online marketing a priority, then surely a few hours is not too much to ask!

Make It a Priority

Yes- I'm repeating this one more time.  I know it seems obvious and boring, but if online marketing is not considered a high priority, then the simple steps outlined below will not happen- at least not consistently. Online marketing is easy and cost effective- and your competition knows it.  So get inspired, get off the fence, and dive in.  It's not too late.

Do It Yourself

If you would prefer to spend money rather than time on your online marketing, there is no shortage of web companies that will be quite happy to build, manage and upgrade your site. But when each update you make to your site incurs a charge, you will be less likely to update your site on a regular basis. The more you put into your site, the more it's going to cost.

No one knows your business, your customers, your products & services, better than you. The more you have control over your marketing (both traditional and online), the better you represent your business and respond to a changing environment.

Our Site Caddy system is one of many services available that help you to manage your online marketing without need for outside assistance. And once you discover how easy it is, you'll never look back.

Don't Be Afraid

When working with new technologies (be it a website, point of sale system, or telephone network) it's easy to become overly cautious- sometimes to the point of paralysis. But most modern online marketing tools (whether for website building, emailing or advertising) are designed for the average business user. They are backed up (so there is little chance of permanently losing information) and provide ample opportunities to review drafts of your changes and test versions before going live.

So if you're fearful of technology- get over it! Sometimes the best way to learn something new is to try it- and even make a few mistakes. I can assure you:

• Everyone else makes mistakes as well
• Your customers/members won't mind the occasional honest mistake
• You won't break the internet!

But if you're a cautious person by nature, here are a few areas where an ounce of prevention is worth its weight in gold:

• Know who to call in case things do go wrong. They eventually do for everyone.
• When sending a bulk email, always send yourself enough tests to confirm you are satisfied with the end result.
• Review your site on a regular basis- especially the home page.
• Security is always a must (see more below). Emails are not secure, and credit card numbers should not be stored.

Learn the Basics

There are actually only a few tools you need to be comfortable with to work effectively with your computer and the internet.  If you can come to grips with these concepts and tools, you can compete online:

• Email
• Web browsers
• Resizing photos

I will follow up with another blog post shortly that gives simple recommendations for getting up to speed with each.

Start Simple, But Get Started

It's great to have lofty aspirations for your web presence. But too many people either postpone starting on their web presence, or overly delay the release of their website, while striving for perfection.

Building a web presence is different than printing a flyer or creating a television ad. You don't have to get it perfect the first time. And as long as you have the ability to update your own site, there should be no difference in cost between starting with something simple and building over time.

Another tangible benefit to starting simply is the fact that you leave yourself plenty of room for improvement. Often times people invest all of their "web time" in getting the site ready for the grand opening, then don't update it for months at the most critical of times- when everyone is looking at it! Instead try to plan on a regular series of small updates, instead of one massive attack.

So find a few hours, make a start, be creative, and get something live as quickly as possible. You can always improve it tomorrow.

Be Creative

Creativity and elbow grease can more than not offset any lacking in online marketing budget.

Don't be afraid to be different. Not every website has to look like Amazon.com or eBay, and your customers will expect your online marketing to be an extension of your bricks and mortar personality and identity.

And how can a small business compete with the major online superstores like Amazon.com? Perhaps not on price or selection, but you do have a number of advantages they don't:

• Better knowledge of your products
• Better understanding of your customers
• The ability to connect to a local audience
• The ability to target a niche

Here are a few creative ideas you might try:

• Run a contest on your site
• Place an event listing for your town on your site
• Post photo galleries from events hosted by you or your community
• Ask customers or members to contribute to your website
• Reward visitors for signing up to your mailing list

So don't be afraid to be different or creative- but try to remain consistent.

Consistency Instills Confidence

You must be vigilant in your approach to online marketing. Updating your site 2 or 3 times per year for major events is not enough. Starting a monthly newsletter is a great idea, but your subscribers will become frustrated if it turns into a bi-annual affair.

Again, building a successful online marketing presence is not about dropping a bundle of cash one time on a flashy website. It's more about using what you have effectively and consistently.

And don't become frustrated if your website does not pay major dividends the same month you launch it. Too many people get discouraged when the launch of a new website does not create an immediate return on investment. Building an effective online presence takes time and effort, and it will take more time to find your audience.

Here are a few tips to help:

• Make your own website your browser's home page so you see it every time you go online
• Set reminders for yourself to update the site regularly
• Choose one person at your business responsible for keeping things moving
• Always look for new ways to leverage your website
• Always look for new opportunities to build your mailing list and improve communications

You must strive to create a loyal community that will get in the habit of returning to your website often, and the best way to do that is to offer regularly updated content.

Social Networking is Free and Effective

If you're not interested in social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace- that's OK. Don't feel like you have to use them. But they are free, and these sites receive millions of hits every day. If you can direct just a few of those visitors through to your website, it's time well spent.

I recently posted to this blog with links and suggestions for using social networking sites as a part of your online marketing strategy:
http://bloggolf.sitecaddy.com/2010/10/using-social-networking-for-fun-and-profit.html

Everything OK?

You should expect that the web company you work with will ensure that your website remains functional around the clock, that your email server is always ready, and that support is available when you need it. But there are many problems that they cannot anticipate or solve without your notification. For example, a virus on your computer might cause your email software to have problems.

You should take responsibility for making sure that all aspects of your online presence are working on a regular basis. For example:

• If you suspect any problems with your email, simply ask a friend to send you a test, and do the same with them.
• Check the home page of your website at least once per day to make sure it represents your business properly.
• Test orders or bookings on a regular basis. Make sure you are receiving the notifications you should be.

Monthly Plan

Let's wrap things up by taking all of the advice in this article, and turning it into a simple monthly plan that takes only a few hours (and zero budget) to implement.

• Daily x 5 minutes: view your home page, confirm email is functional
• Weekly x 10 minutes: make some noticeable update to your home page
• Weekly x 10 minutes: add one news item and one event listing to your site
• Weekly x 10 minutes: learn something new about your email or web browser
• Monthly x 30 minutes: update the special offers on your website
• Monthly x 30 minutes: send an email newsletter/digest to your mailing list
• Monthly x 60 minutes: research other websites, and implement campaigns based on the best ideas you have seen

The total time required for this plan? 4-6 hours per month. Of course this is a simple strategy that might work for you, but we would encourage everyone to devote even more time to their online marketing. Look for ways to replace traditional marketing costs such as print ads, postage, and your time, with more cost effective online alternatives.

Summary

More often than not, being successful online is not based on big budgets and techinical wizardry. Focus on:

• Making your online marketing a priority in your business plan
• Taking control of your web presence
• Getting over your fears of technology, and ask for help when you need it
• Learning the basics, and leaving the rest to the experts
• Starting simple and building over time
• Being creative, but being consistent
• Utilizing any free tools that exist such as social networking sites
• Taking responsibility to make sure everything is working properly
• Putting a plan in place and being vigilant

And have some fun! The internet gives every business, no matter how small, an unprecedented opportunity for expression. The days of relying on your son-in-law or neighbor's kid with a computer degree to manage your website and fix your email are gone. Take control, learn the basics, have some fun... and get online!

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Site Caddy blog- a place for Team Site Caddy to tell you more about what's going on behind the scenes, new features coming to Site Caddy soon, and the best ways to get the most out of your accounts.

For each blog post, we look forward to your comments! And feel free to tell your friends- the more the merrier.