Mid-Hudson Marketing

When we started in business in New York's Hudson Valley over 45 years ago, things were very different.. There was no Internet, at least not anything remotely like what we have today. There were no websites. There was no e-mail. What we had in Dutchess County was an incredibly difficult industry demanding mechanical precision, photographic excellence, artistic talent and innovative design. Based in Poughkeepsie, New York, every step of every process was exorbitantly expensive to produce and required many experts at every level to assure a successful outcome.

Today, we have cyberspace where anyone can do anything for practically nothing.

If you believe that, you are probably like most people. While the Internet has paved the way for many success stories, as some would prefer to believe, luck does not usually play a significant role. Knowledge and talent are still necessary but on a much larger scale, since the stage is now worldwide.

What makes a website effective?

An effective website is very much like an effective ad or brochure. It needs to have substance to keep you interested. It needs to delight you with technically sophisticated special effects, please you with innovative graphics, colors and design while providing you with intelligent, organized valuable content that keeps you reading and thirsting for more.

Whether the most complicated technical flourishes serve to enhance effectiveness or simply annoy the viewer by delaying delivery is greatly dependent on the speed of your Internet connection and the taste and empathy of the designer who is controlling your website experience.

Above: A Landscape Firm based in the New York Hudson Valley attracts big-budget business from its responsive website all year long.

What are the drawbacks of certain kinds of websites?

What complicates having a website is that not everyone will be able to view it in the same way, if at all. Since we are all dependent on what type of Internet platform we operate from, how fast our connection allows us to receive information and how advanced our computer equipment, browser and plug-ins are, the website experience can be limited by our differences. Frustrating to some, fabulous to others: that is the present state of website access. It is up to the savvy of the website designer and technical expert to circumvent such limitations by presenting a web experience that can be enjoyable to all. However, it is encouraging to remember that as each year passes, better and more affordable Internet connections are available to more people making this problem one of diminishing insurmountability.

What About Search Engine Optimization or SEO?

Without it, your website will languish in oblivion. With it, you will be the envy of all your competition. What is it? It is what every company aspires to: having their website ranked on the first page of Google search results. As everyone knows by now, it is a rare occasion when we ourselves venture beyond page one of search results when hunting for a product, service or information we desire. In addition to paid advertising for websites which are meant to be perceived as prime candidates for our clicks, page one of search results also contains listings of those websites which Google has ranked among the cream of the crop to provide the most satisfying, complete and reliable source of that which we have searched.

And how has Google decided this incredibly important phenomenon? Using algorithms which are constantly evolving as each day passes, Google ranks those websites that have original content of a high level of value based on visitor popularity; time spent on site; response to contact information or actual sales generated dating back to the earliest occurrences with the greatest number of repeat visits. What that means more than anything is that the content on your website must not be duplicated from any other source. It must be unique, correct and complete. Google places visitor satisfaction at the top of its list of priorities.

As for whether you need to invest in Google's Ads to buy your way onto page one of search results, there are many perspectives on this subject. First, when you click on one of those ads, many of which have set up systems where you become a target for their future attempts to engage your interest, these companies follow your "cookies" (your website identity) wherever you go for what sometimes may seem like harassment, especially if you are not interested at all.

On the other hand, Google Ads can be ranked in a way similar to organic (non-paid) search results, again based on the most reliable, complete and popular visitor experience. So the ads which appear at the top of page one, are probably some of the best sources for that which you have searched, despite the "cookie" annoyance. So, if you do invest in Google Ads, and are fortunate to be placed at the top of page one, people who click on your ad will be brought to your website which may result in a profitable relationship with your company. Again, the entire process requires your daily vigilance to monitor Google's assessment of how well your website performs when people click on your ad. This may require corrections to your ad or your website content to meet Google's parameters for visitor success, some of which may be based on an array of incredibly confusing and unreliable data, per Google's disclaimers. As with everything in marketing, you're on your own to figure out what the best route to success may be. (No one ever said this would be easy!)

What is a responsive website?

With the recent surge in popularity of handheld digital devices such as smartphones, tablets and other miniature computer formats, websites are now required to be "responsive," meaning able to be automatically adaptable to any size computer, laptop or mobile device, so says Google! If your website is not responsive in today's world, you will experience search engine discrimination resulting in less than optimal ranking. This can be fatal to businesses of any kind.

To many businesses who invested heavily in building conventional websites without proactively anticipating this mobile evolution, it seems extremely wasteful to have to rebuild a website that is now responsive at additional cost. The only justification is that the final search rewards will make up for the inconvenience. And if it is viewed from a different perspective, it is much like other technological changes which force us to discard our hugely cumbersome televisions of yesteryear in favor of today's far superior flat-screen wall-mounted units with high-definition resolution; or abandon our landlines in favor of a cellphone; or ignore the social revolution powered by Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other popular websites which have replaced face-to-face personal relationships, for better or for worse. Yes, some of these changes may be disturbing but the world is changing. Better get used to it!

What determines website success?

There are several components which contribute to website success: visual appeal, value and extent of content, ease of use and ability to elicit a response. Unlike an ad, a website is not just a brief presentation to whet your appetite for more information. A website is where the ad sends you to get the whole story, complete with every detail anyone could ever wonder about. This encompasses both photos or illustrations and descriptions of every product or service offered including features and benefits; history and profiles of business and its personnel; testimonials from customers or clients if available; directions to locations if pertinent; detailed contact information, as well as a way to easily email appropriate representatives. Some websites also include pricing and a way to order which is referred to as E-commerce.

Above: This locally-based company from the Hudson Valley has become an Internet sensation with Subaru and Toyota fanatics who purchase countless aftermarket accessories to improve their ride right from this responsive E-commerce website.

Working with eBay and Amazon

If you've used Amazon or eBay to sell products, you may think it's a piece of cake. However, when a client has hundreds of listings within a store structure, it's quite a bit more complicated. First, beginning with the necessity to register every product with a unique UPC or EAN code, Amazon requires you upload listing content via one of their many complex Excel listing templates. The beauty of this procedure, allows you to control many listings simultaneously when you want to set up a special sale, with beginning and ending dates, as an example.

With eBay, there is no current Excel template structure so placing listings on sale for a limited time is quite a bit more tedious. However, eBay is more user-friendly overall than Amazon. Still, both will penalize a seller for any errors or inconveniences affecting customers by imposing a lower seller ranking. The seller's rating is also affected by any negative comments or how many items a customer rejects/returns for a variety of reasons making the entire experience rife with seller risks. Managing this for clients is a daily challenge subject to inventory availability, product quality, error-free timely shipping and a host of other problems out of our control but still very much our concern for our clients' success.

Clients who have stores on eBay and Amazon use our services to manage the many variables to control sales success.

Working with National Franchise and Network Formats

Sometimes a client will be required to utilize a website format, hosting and domain registration regulated by a parent organization to which the client has joined. In exchange for a website structure utilizing the parent organization's logo and name, the client receives approved marketing wisdom and industry-regulated marketing elements meant to attract appropriate business. Within this tightly supervised system which must conform to laws and restrictions ordained by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the example below, our client was able to choose from a wide variety of website formats offered at dizzying cost levels within which he will need to provide his own custom content. This will be subject to close scrutiny for federal compliance. That is where we come in.

For the website shown below, we introduced concepts, visuals and text all of which was approved during strict compliance reviews.

Above: A client in the special education industry trusted our extensive experience representing similar clients and also working within the special education school system to create and write a large website.

Above: A real estate client utilized our services to create a user-friendly website which clearly presented all services.