Valparaiso Magazine - Winter 2021
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tech for success | THE NEW AGE OF TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMERCE<br />
Joseph Skibbie,<br />
director of<br />
JRS MAR/COM<br />
along with<br />
business<br />
marketing<br />
super heros<br />
>> Every business<br />
needs a website<br />
Communicating online begins with a website.<br />
“An updated website is more important<br />
than ever now,” Barbauld said. “If you have a<br />
business, even if you’re not selling products or<br />
services online, you need a website.”<br />
“That’s whether you’re business-to-business<br />
or business-to-consumer,” agrees Molly<br />
Randolph, vice president of Barbauld Agency.<br />
A website serves as a communications tool.<br />
It not only tells about available products and<br />
services but also the latest news about the<br />
business, whether it’s a sale or a shortage or<br />
news about industry trends. Some companies<br />
use a chat feature to connect with customers.<br />
A chat bot can answer frequently asked<br />
questions. A “contact us” button should also<br />
be as easy as possible to find, especially on<br />
a mobile device. Customers want to know<br />
what the business is like, and responses to<br />
comments say a lot about the business.<br />
“When responding, don’t go negative,<br />
because that can backfire,” Nicholson said.<br />
“Be a fountain, not a drain. Respond to<br />
negative comments or reviews in a positive,<br />
solution-focused manner. And never engage<br />
in conversation that could be perceived<br />
as argumentative with anyone contacting<br />
your business on social media. Responses<br />
to comments and reviews are available for<br />
public viewing, and ought to be considered<br />
an essential means of providing a positive<br />
customer service experience.”<br />
Designing a website<br />
Metrics are another tool to use when creating<br />
an exceptional customer experience. “We’re<br />
able to constantly amend design elements<br />
based on the available data. For instance,<br />
should our Buy Now button be placed at the<br />
top of the page or under a line of header<br />
copy. These minor tweaks in user experience<br />
can have a major impact in sales conversion<br />
rates. Without the correct data measurement<br />
and analysis, you are missing opportunities to<br />
maximize revenues. Content can be<br />
measured in the same way. What topics a<br />
re resonating with your consumers? We<br />
can answer that with both web analytics as<br />
well as social measurement and e-Notice<br />
distribution tools.”<br />
SEO, as search engine optimization is known,<br />
is all about how to draw more eyeballs to the<br />
page and for a longer duration. It’s an everevolving,<br />
complex calculation. Marketers want<br />
to know where traffic comes from, how deep<br />
into the site they go, duration on a page and<br />
other details. Other criteria marketers look at<br />
includes how fast the website loads. “Speed is<br />
very, very important,” Skibbie added.<br />
“The website needs to be updated<br />
frequently,” Barbauld emphasized. “It also<br />
needs to be well designed. Designing a<br />
website is a multidisciplinary project. We talk<br />
about this often with our prospects.”<br />
Programmers are skilled at developing<br />
something that functions well. Graphic<br />
designers make things look their best. A<br />
marketing person who designs a website<br />
wants it to say, “BUY NOW” as a high priority.<br />
A copywriter can blog well.<br />
“At our company, we employ all four of those<br />
disciplines. That way, we design a website<br />
with the end user in mind,” Barbauld said.<br />
16 VALPARAISO MAGAZINE | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
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