The F7 Blog
Figureseven, Inc. has been helping businesses maximize their offline and online marketing efforts for over a decade. This blog provides insight, tips and advice from our experts to help you achieve your marketing goals.
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Figureseven, Inc.
615 South Street
Fitchburg, MA 01420
877-626-2771
The Old Lady and the Broom.
By Jeremy Daly, President, Figureseven, Inc.
June 16, 2010 in Web Site Management
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Del.icio.usLike most small business owners, I’m a busy guy. Add my two daughters (2 and 4) and my life gets exponentially more hectic. So to the dismay of my wife (and my neighbors), making sure my yard always looks good is generally at the bottom of my priority list. It usually takes me a few weeks of saying things to my wife like, “I need to pull those weeds from the walk” or “yup, I really need to trim back that rose bush” before I finally take an entire day and just work on all these things that have been building up for a month or more. I find that I do this with other things as well, like that stack of papers on my desk or the piles of clean laundry in the basket on my bedroom floor. The problem with doing these things after you’ve reached critical mass is that you only get about a week before the cycle starts all over, and your wife starts to complain again.
This is often the behavior of most small businesses when it comes to their websites. They know their site is getting stale and out-of-date, they know their customers and their staff are starting to complain, and they know that they have to do something about it! Then finally, after months of inaction, they make the call and get their site updated. And the cycle starts again.
Social Media Management
By Greg Czarnowski, Principal, Figureseven, Inc.
May 13, 2010 in Web Site Management, Social Media
A number of our clients continue to ask us how they can use social media to build their business. Here are 3 simple ways to leverage Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn relationships to impact the way that you do business:
1. Deliver Special Offers
Use social media platforms as a means of letting people know about special, limited time promotions. Message distribution is instantaneous, so you can really limit the timeframe for the availability of the offer and test the methodology while you’re at it.
Yikes! Your web site doesn't matter?
By Scott Devlin, Director of Business Development, Figureseven, Inc.
September 15, 2009 in Web Site Design, Web Site Management, Branding, Marketing
Can you imagine not having your television? How about your computer? Your cell phone? Your stereo? Food? Water? Air? Some of these things we need to live and some we could live without. I was recently speaking with a Director of Sales and Marketing, and in the course of that conversation she was telling me that business was still slow and that hopefully things would be picking up. I asked about what they were doing to drive business in this economy. She said that they had their sales people selling really aggressively and with some complementary advertising, they believed they would find success. It sounded pretty good.
The following day, I was thinking about our conversation and decided to check out her company’s website. For lack of a better term, it was “awful!” I called her up and asked her about it. She knew it was terrible and did not care. Huh? I couldn’t understand her apathy. I told her that her company’s website was more than likely the primary vehicle that potential clients used to gather information to learn more about her company. It was, at that moment, that she said the unthinkable, “We only have a website because we have to.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. We are in the middle of a recession and a Director of Sales and Marketing for a sizeable company was telling me that the look of and the content on her web site did not matter to her. This wasn’t her saying they had no budget to do something about it – rather, she was saying it didn’t matter. I asked her how her sales people felt about the website. She stated they were not happy with it, but, that it was just an excuse for them as to why they weren’t selling. I knew there was little I could tell her to change her mind that day and I believe that she will realize sooner than later something will need to be done.
Are you excited about your website?
By Melissa DeLorenzo, VP of Marketing, Figureseven, Inc.
July 9, 2009 in Search Engine Optimization, Web Site Design, Web Site Management, Information Architecture, Usability
If you’re not, can you expect your potential customers to be? Consumers use the web – this is a given. This is where they get their information. From news to what’s going on with their favorite sports teams to where they buy their goods – people find what they want on the Internet. The quality of your site is crucial to the success of your business. Here are five essential elements of good web design that are the most important to viewers.
Visual Appeal
Your site needs to be clean and attractive. A website is a visual medium and, simply put, needs to look good. Don’t let your graphics outshine or clutter your message – keep it clear but eye-catching, making sure your marketing message is at the core of your design.
Treat your website like your front lawn
By Scott Devlin, Director of Business Development, Figureseven, Inc.
June 25, 2009 in Web Marketing, Web Site Management
Do you treat your website like you treat your lawn or your dirty laundry? Unfortunately for many of you the answer is the latter. Let me put this question into perspective. If I go two weeks without cutting my grass my wife is complaining, the neighbors hate me, people who drive by point and snicker that I am “that guy” who doesn’t care about what kind of impression I am making. Whereas everyone pushes doing laundry off until it is convenient/necessary. If I don’t get to it today, it doesn’t matter because it can be done tomorrow. I may be wearing my second-best pair of pants and that shirt that’s starting to fray a little at the cuffs, but that’s ok. Hey, I can get by on that and at least I’m clothed!
One of the hardest things to accept when you are a company that develops websites is having your hard work turn into a rotten mess. Our industry typically works on client-initiated website maintenance requests. What that means is our clients call us when they need work done. Unfortunately, as time goes on, these calls happen less and less and oftentimes the website’s content becomes outdated, certain elements fall out of style and ultimately the site ceases to be relevant.
Can Google Find You?
By Scott Devlin, Director of Business Development, Figureseven, Inc.
June 9, 2009 in Search Engine Optimization, Web Marketing, Web Site Management
I heard an old saying this morning that got me thinking: if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? And that got me to thinking: if your website is online and no one can find it, does it really exist? Well, of course in both cases we know the reality, but if the question can be asked of your website, then you should think about how you can change that. These tips can bring your site to light.
- Content: Search Engines nowadays are scanning the content you have on your site. Previously, you could just update your meta tags and be set, but now the content you have on your site is more important than ever. You can’t fool the search engines anymore – the content must be quality and relevant to your customer. It is important that you set time aside at least once a week, but daily if possible
- Freshness: Search engines are smarter than you and I. You may think, “I have the greatest content on my website and it will get my website noticed.” At first it may, but if you do not have fresh content on your site, search engines will eventually stop tracking you as much. Many companies have started to write blogs to counter this.
- Structure: Ask yourself this question. When was the last time I read anything that did not have a compelling heading? You may have to think for a while. Be organized with your website. Correctly order things for your users and for the search engines. It will help.
- Well Coded Sites: Did you build your website yourself using some kind of template? Did your business have a company build your website without properly coding it? If that is the case, the coding may be hindering your ability to be found. Having a website that is properly coded can aid with visibility across multiple engines.
(As a side note, did you know that every website we develop is coded by hand? Just checking.)
The Importance of Lead Generation
By Scott Devlin, Director of Business Development, Figureseven, Inc.
May 4, 2009 in Search Engine Optimization, Web Marketing, Web Site Management
Today, more than ever, the manner in which a company positions itself online will determine how likely they will succeed in this continuously evolving marketplace. Cultivating potential customers has never been more challenging. Consumers, who once relied on brick-and-mortar establishments for their retail goods and services, now seek the best deals online and rely on the sites that can provide those goods and services at the best prices with the most ease.
Your website needs to generate leads, and if it isn’t, then it is not working for you. Here are a few rules to live by to turn your website into the lead generator that it has to be.
The Value of Redundancy
By Jeremy Daly, President, Figureseven, Inc.
April 30, 2009 in Technical Information, Search Engine Optimization, Web Marketing, Web Hosting, Web Site Management
To most marketing and communication types, the term redundancy often refers to “the part of a message that can be eliminated without the loss of essential information.” Verbose and needless repetition often waters down your core message and ultimately results in less effective communications. Bottom line? Don’t be too redundant!
But in the online world, redundancy takes on a whole new meaning. It’s not just a good thing to be redundant, but an absolute necessity. Below are a few examples of the role that redundancy plays on the Internet and the value that it adds to your business.
Welcome to the new F7 Blog!
By Jeremy Daly, President, Figureseven, Inc.
April 24, 2009 in Technical Information, Search Engine Optimization, Web Site Design, Web Marketing, Web Hosting, Web Site Management, Information Architecture
Since 1999, Figureseven, Inc. has been developing scalable, secure and reliable web solutions for businesses and organizations throughout the United States. Since we’ve been working with the web for so long, we thought we’d share some of our insights and experiences to help you maximize the value of your web marketing strategies and achieve your online marketing goals.
Over the course of the last ten years, Figureseven, Inc. has developed small sites for local companies like Butler Furniture and Halstead Insurance. We’ve worked with larger organizations like the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce and Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center to develop content managed, application driven web sites. We’ve worked on sites and built applications for the University of Massachusetts, Fitchburg State and Babson Colleges. We’ve even had the opportunity to develop web-based applications for multi-national organizations like CVS/pharmacy, NBC and Fox Broadcasting.
