The Making of a Great Website

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - October 2010

www.gjep.org

Breaking news! The Grand Junction Economic Partnership was recognized in September as the International Economic Development Council’s 2010 Website of the Year, in the general purpose website category for a community of population 25,000-150,000. It is a tremendous honor, of course, and if you’ve visited www.gjep.org, this award will come as no surprise. The site quickly and powerfully conveys a sense of the high quality of life and vibrant business community that make this Grand Valley a wonderful place to live — and to grow a business.

If I had my own personal FAQS, near the top would be: What goes into a great website? It’s almost impossible for a business to operate effectively without a website — and yet so many feel that theirs has not lived up to expectations. Because GJEP’s website is successful enough to win an international award, I sat down with Kelly Marlin to find out what went into creating it. She’s GJEP’s business development manager. The process that Kelly laid out makes an excellent road map for any business looking to create or redesign their website.

Before the 2009-2010 revamp, the GJEP website had suffered the fate that so many sites fall victim to: It had become dull and dry and so loaded with information that the main point of the site had been lost. There were interesting articles, loads of demographic data, and community statistics, but the site’s most important job is to represent the Grand Valley as a fabulous community. It wasn’t doing that.

Kelly started her mission with several weeks of research on other websites and other communities to see who was doing what and what looked good. She started with basic Google searches for similar organizations and then refined the search to similar communities (i.e., the competition) and other economic development entities in the state. She ended up focusing on organizations and sites that have received awards for their success. She developed a list of elements that seemed to function optimally, including the way sites were structured, components that made sites visually interesting, and things that made the site look up-to-date. GJEP knows that a good economic development agency knows what is going on in the local business community, and the website should express that understanding. People want to feel comfortable spending time browsing the site, so colors and images must invite a pleasant experience.

With a complete marketing and communications plan in hand, Kelly started the development process with an RFP (request for proposal) to the web development community. Choosing among the responses was made even more difficult because the best proposal came from a firm outside of our Grand Valley community. Denver-based Atlas Advertising was selected because of their rich experience working specifically with economic development agencies.

In the first step of the design process, Ann Driggers (GJEP’s President and CEO), Kelly, and members of the Atlas creative team sat down and put all the elements they wanted to include on sticky notes. On a wall in the GJEP conference room, they developed a site map, arranging the notes into a structure of lists and tabs. They stayed focused on the important message and prioritized content appropriately. This kind of simple, yet detailed, advance planning is critical — and anyone can do it. Decide what content you want on your site, then create a map for how you want it to be laid out. Putting sticky notes on a wall is a simple and effective planning process.

The next step was up to the web developers. They built the site, made it visually interesting, created a data center for the community, and added tools to keep the site current and relevant to our community. The early drafts looked fabulous, and the GJEP team was thrilled. A social media strategy that included blogs and twitter feeds made the site connected and up to date.

Kelly writes the content for the site, aided by templates and guidelines supplied by Atlas that help ensure the message is well suited for online viewing. Each section is brief enough that readers don’t have to scroll down. Text is easy to read and search-engine optimized. Much of what GJEP wanted to say about the community could not be expressed in words, so pictures are used. Almost every page includes images, each personalized to our community. There’s nothing wrong with representing the Grand Valley with Mount Garfield and the beautiful desert cliffs. It’s the usual go-to strategy. The problem with this approach for GJEP is that there are no people, no activity, and no vital business community represented in a landscape. Kelly worked with Anne Keller and several other local photographers to come up with images that represent the life that makes the Valley a great place to do business. What was chosen: pictures of everything from mountain biking and skiing to manufacturing and business enterprises.

Once the site was live, some of the most important work began. A website can be a living, breathing organism. It’s critical to understand how people are interacting with it. Kelly monitors the Google Analytics weekly and adjusts the content to ensure that the important messages are in the most popular places. Kelly has found, for example, that most people will click on either the top or the bottom of a list, but not much in the middle. The most clicked-on tab is the leftmost tab, no matter what is there. Therefore, the most important messages are in the top of the list on the far left tab.

GJEP wants people to spend enough time on the website that they feel comfortable enough to call GJEP to learn more about our community. They have created a website that does exactly that through a highly effective process of research, preparation, strategic structure, and effective content. We can all follow that road map to success.

It’s Start-up Time

What we need right now are more start-ups. This downturn has every business grappling with how to thrive in an ever more global, competitive business arena. If you have a good idea that will get the creaking wheels of our economy oiled and rolling, now is your time to shine.

It’s exciting to see the Grand Valley showing some signs of life. This spring, Western Slope Economic Development agencies interviewed 82 businesses as part of an ongoing program called “Listening to Business.” Results were very positive, with 65 percent of the participating businesses expressing their intention to expand in 2010. These businesses also reported plans to create 681 new jobs and contemplate nearly $1 billion in capital investment. In addition, sales tax receipts, a loose reflection of consumer confidence, are finally flattening out in Grand Junction and rising in Fruita and Palisade. Mesa County Workforce Center reported 18 percent more available positions in July. Good news, right? Well, the counterpoint to reports of business growth is that unemployment remains high. Even with signs of business growth, jobs are hard to come by. This is a “jobless recovery.”

The phrase “jobless recovery” refers to the fact that this downturn has driven businesses to get very efficient and focused on the bottom line. Cash is tight, so they’ve gotten better at generating it. As a result, businesses have found ways to thrive without rehiring all the people they laid off last year.

On July 25, The New York Times reported that the 175 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index issuing second-quarter reports had revenue growth of 6.9 percent while increasing profits by a whopping 42.3 percent That means that profits are increasing seven times faster than revenue.  For example, Harley-Davidson’s profits have tripled over the last year, despite the fact that the motorcycle industry has been in steady decline for three years. Do you think Harley did this by raising their prices? No, they cut costs. In most cases, businesses have gotten very lean on payroll. And why shouldn’t they? If firms can make great products very efficiently, that’s job security for those who are employed and health and prosperity for the business.

People without jobs need a solution, and today it doesn’t make sense to wait for a solution to come along. With challenges, opportunity is created. Young companies (age five years or younger) accounted for 64 percent of gross U.S. job creation. It’s a good time to start a new business.

Are we seeing more start-ups here in the Grand Valley? The Colorado Secretary of State, Bernie Buescher, reports that since October of 2009 the number of new entities created (forming a legal entity being one of the first steps to start a business) has increased every quarter and by as much at 17 percent over the previous year. We also see this trend at the Business Incubator Center. The Incubator tracks hours spent working one-on-one with clients. In 2010, we are 64 percent busier than we were in 2009. We have spent almost as many hours with clients in the first six months of 2010 as we did in all of 2006. Yes, people in the Grand Valley are starting new businesses.

Start-ups are small, nimble, and focused on filling a need in the market, not just offering a skill set. For example, if you’re a bookkeeper and have been laid off, it’s hard to find a comparable position. Needs have changed, and your former position may no longer be available. The need for high-quality, skilled people remains, but the pain points have shifted. There are always creative ways to use valuable skills. For example, instead of looking for a job as a bookkeeper, you could start a company that provides virtual CFO services, helps companies to go paperless, or keeps accounts receivable within 45 days by maintaining positive relationships with customers. These are the same skills that were valuable in the old economy, just creatively repositioned to serve the needs of a new one.

Several positive trends are generating opportunities in the local market. The travel industry is in recovery. The Grand Junction Visitors and Convention Bureau reports that their visitor numbers are back up to 2007 levels and that lodging tax collection is on the rise. An increase in travel to the Western Slope has spurred growth in many local recreation businesses. Some types that are growing include outerwear, bicycle components, backpacks, and equestrian apparel. Another hot spot is in health care. Our housing is affordable again, making our wonderful weather, plentiful golf courses, and world-class hospitals an attractive retirement choice. Retirees translate into opportunities for health-care innovations like expanded medical offices, niche services, integrative medicine, wellness programs, and new medical devices — along with leisure time options. Lastly, there is a trend to return to traditional sales techniques. Gone are the days when just answering the phone qualified as good customer service. We have returned to a focus on developing a relationship with the customer. Sales staffs are re-learning to ask open-ended questions to engage the customer followed by closed questions to seal the sale. Dale Carnegie did know How to Win Friends and Influence People, and so should you. The opportunities associated with this are in social media (what I lovingly refer to as old-school relationship marketing on steroids). Whether with Facebook, where Grand Junction is trending at No. 2 in the state for usage growth, or Twitter, where Grand Junction is trending at No. 1, business is happening in social media.

With the local economy still in flux, success in this environment takes creativity and a strong connection to new trends. New jobs are being created by small businesses and innovative ideas. The new economy emerging from this downturn will be different from the old, and it’s critical to stay active and connected with current market trends in order to tap into the economic recovery.

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Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - August 2010

To learn more, here are some
links to relevant articles:

Start-Ups, Not Bailouts

How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

The Start-up Economy

Revitalizing the American Dream

Job Growth in U.S. Driven Entirely by Startups

Industries Find Surging Profits in Deeper Cuts

Artrepreneurship 2.0 — The Business of Art in a New Economy

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - July 2010

The star of a recent New York Times story by Alex Williams titled “That Hobby Looks Like a Lot of Work” is Yokoo Gibran, who quit her day job after successfully selling her hand-knit scarves and accessories in an Etsy shop. (See note at end of story.) The Times reports that she earns more than $140,000 per year knitting. That’s no hobby! And I started thinking about how artists can utilize the Long Tail economy to find customers and sell their art. We talked about the Long Tail economy last month (Strategic Marketing in a Long Tail Economy, GV June 2010).

Etsy’s mission “is to enable people to make a living making things.” What’s not to love about that? Companies like Etsy that are techie, fast-paced, web-enabled, and virtual can be used to connect us with real things in real life that are important — like art. With blogs, Facebook, and online marketplaces, there is no reason that talented artists in the Grand Valley can’t use these tools to create a great reputation and reach a viable niche market anywhere. The new economy is good for art!

The idea of artists as business people isn’t new. Cheryl McNab, Executive Director of the Western Colorado Center for the Arts, says, “Art has to be a business if you want to be serious about it.” Many artists in the community have worked with Linda Brotman-Evans and ArtSpace and Open Studio, where a mix of business seminars and studio tours can give artists the support they need to earn an income. 

Many Grand Valley artists have been successful here, but just as many have needed to go to other communities to find their niche. Art is as much about relationships (if not more) than any other business. In creating a business around an art product, it is critical to make that very personal human connection. Today, new media tools add to your ability to do this by allowing you to do it in a virtual manner.

So you want to turn your creative juices into a business. Where to begin? Let’s assume that you, the artist, are highly skilled and have developed an attractive, marketable line of products. Since your wonderful creations are in high demand, let’s get started with the business side:

1. Write a business plan.

You might think that a business plan is used only to get financing from a bank or other lender. This is not true. A business plan explains your goals, your path, your vision for your future. It can be creative — one of my favorite plans is in comic book form. In the process of writing a business plan, you take a good hard look at what you are going to do and make a strategy for how to make it successful.

2. Get the details right.

You’ll need to form an entity that is the business. Some types are: sole proprietorship, limited liability company, corporation, among others. You’ll also need to understand what expenses the business can expect and how your revenue will impact your tax liability. Developing a good working rapport with a CPA is a must. You should explore business insurance and create a system for tracking your products, sales, and expenses. This approach may be contrary to the artistic sensibility — you may be breaking out in hives at this point — but it is a necessary evil. Trust me: It’s not so bad once you dig in and find ways to do projections that are effective for your work style.

3. Identify your customer.

Start with a target customer. (Generalizations and stereotypes are perfectly acceptable here.) Prioritize; you get to select only one target customer at a time, so begin with the most likely group. You might say, “My creations appeal to all types,” but think of the person most likely to buy your work. Can you describe that person? Younger or more mature? Male or female? Urban or rural? Creative? Professional? Outdoorsy? Bluegrass music lover? Get as specific as you can.

4. Broad can be bad.

Don’t try to make art that is attractive to all people. People want art that speaks to them personally. If you take on too much, your product line will be all over the map. Find your voice and decide what you want to say. Focus on what you do best and know that with time and experience you can do and say more things. It’s a little like an introduction to a new person at a party: You don’t tell them everything about yourself in the first five minutes. You start with the primary thing you want them to know, the thing you think they are most interested in.

5. Start talking.

Make yourself known to the world through new media tools. A great starting point is the Grand Junction Commission on Arts and Culture’s new website. Artists, groups, organizations, galleries, and arts-related businesses can apply with Lorie Gregor for a landing page, a website to introduce yourself to the local market.

Open a blog and/or Facebook page and load pictures, articles, video, or whatever you want to say about your art. This is not a build-it-and-they-will-come tool. This is a way to find and talk to people who are interested in your art. Have you ever bought art from someone who was teaching an art class? That person probably said something that impressed you enough for you to open your pocketbook. You want make that type of impression on Facebook.

6. Make a shopping cart.

Your clients are going to search for art, whether through Google, Facebook, or a local gallery. Make sure that if someone wants to buy something, they can. Make it easy. Artists need to focus on where their consumers are looking to spend dollars. Today, Facebook may have more traffic, but websites are where people are looking for products and spending their dollars.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but it should get you ready to go. If you need assistance, call us at the Business Incubator Center — we’re happy to help: www.gjincubator.org.

• If you haven’t browsed on Etsy, you’re in for a treat. True, some of the creations fail to approach the level of art, but you’ll find lots that do. Visit www.etsy.com.
• The Grand Junction Commission on Arts and Culture’s new website can be a big help. Visit www.gjarts.org.
• Dianna Fritzler, our local Grand Valley art-marketing guru, used fineartstudioonline.com to develop her site. It is a clean, easy-to-navigate site and offers a selection of items from oil paintings for $2,000+ to prints for under $30.

Strategic Marketing in a Long Tail Economy

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - June 2010

 The Long Tail economy — it sounds so Silicon Valley, Web 2.0, business jargony. Is that really something the grounded, no-nonsense, dirt-on-our-boots Grand Valley community needs to be concerned with? Could be.

Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, introduced the term “The Long Tail” in 2004 to define the ability the Internet gives businesses to sell a viable volume of hard-to-find items to specifically interested customers. This model is in stark contrast to traditional sales strategies that center on selling large amounts of mainstream products to just a few clients (80 percent of the business to 20 percent of the clients). In Anderson’s book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (2006), Amazon and Netflix are highlighted for their ability to get more than 25 percent, and trending toward 50 percent, of their business from little, niche, onesie-twosie, independent-type products that are not available in mass-market retailers like Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Blockbuster. Matthew Breman of Cranium 360 urges us on, saying “In a Long Tail economy, there is plenty of room for unique products or services that have real value to take hold, grow, and become profitable.”

If this concept was trendy six years ago, why am I rehashing it now? Times are changing. Interest in using technology to communicate with customers has finally reached a tipping point in the Grand Valley. Blackberries and iPhones seem ubiquitous. In early May, media reports ranked Grand Junction second in the U.S. with the largest concentration of iPads. In addition we love Facebook; over the past 12 months Grand Junction trends second in the state of Colorado for Facebook search volume. Blogs, interactive websites, Twitter, LinkedIn, or whatever, businesses in the Grand Valley are getting engaged with the tools that drive the modern Long Tail economy.

Great — right? If your product is a nanocomposite coating, custom bicycle frame, authentic Native American flute, or handmade collage, you can throw up a website and sell to hundreds of customers all over the world — right? Well, yes, that’s true, but it is not that simple.

Selling hard-to-find items to specifically interested customers requires a very deliberate and carefully crafted branding strategy. In creating a brand — your brand being every way in which you come into contact with your customer — start with a clear picture of how you want your customer to perceive your business. In most cases, successful Long Tail products are driven by purveyors who have created a deep reputation as knowledge leaders/expert practitioners in their fields. Think about how to this get done: lectures, blogs, forums, classes, whatever is applicable to become a leader in that community.

A brand needs an image, a feel, and an attitude. It is a lot more than a logo; it is a manifestation of your culture. It is everything from the product, packaging, fonts, and colors to when and how the phone is answered. It is a look and feel that is consistent in everything the business does.

An image and perception are critical as you begin talking with your target customer. Find them, go to them, and speak to them. Attend conferences, comment on blog posts, connect using social media, or whatever works for you — just start talking. These conversations are going to be absolutely critical to making sure that your product is top-of-mind when your customers make their buying decisions.

Last step is your “storefront.” Where would your target customer look for products like yours? Independent retailers, trade magazines, referrals from trusted friends, or searching online … it all depends on where that client is most likely to look. Where customers are looking is where you need your products to be.

In many instances, Long Tail ventures will need to have a strong presence on the web. Andrew BE of Elegant Technologies is well studied in internet micro-niche marketing. BE explains that search engine algorithms have adapted to Long Tail thinking, which means that they are more specific, more pertinent. When consumers are looking for products or services, they no longer search for them in two to three keyword phrases; it’s gotten bigger and more specific. BE comments that “It’s not just finding a weight-loss solution anymore … these days, it’s a weight-loss program tailored for a 35-year-old computer scientist who plays golf on the weekends.” Businesses operating in the Long Tail need to be optimized so that their communications and their presence are ideally positioned to meet the special needs of their specific customer.

Matthew Breman reminds us, “If you have a unique product or service of value, there are plenty of opportunities to find an audience that is willing to not only listen to you but also spend.” So the challenge becomes locating and recognizing distinct target customers in the Long Tail without killing ourselves by spending too much time and money to reach them. The way to do this is to be strategic so that every step you take is part of a cohesive Long Tail branding strategy.

PRESS RELEASE

THE BUSINESS INCUBATOR CENTER
2591 B ¾ Road, Grand Junction, CO 81503 • 970/243-5242 • Fax 970/241-0771

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
DATE June 23, 2010
CONTACT - Chris Reddin (creddin@gjincubator.org) or Annalisa Pearson (apearson@gjincubator.org)
PHONE (970)243-5242

National Business Incubation Association Features Grand Junction’s own Business Incubator Center in “Best Practices in Action”

The Business Incubator Center is honored to be among 40 Incubator programs from across the world spotlighted in the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) “Best Practices in Action, Guidelines for Implementing First-Class Business Incubation Programs.” What are “best practices?” Simply put, best practices are the standard by which the industry measures itself. They are also yardstick for stakeholders to evaluate if the programs they support are robust and viable.

In the foreword of the book Dinah Adkins, NBIA President Emerita, states, “We believe that the managers of the programs presented here have striven for excellence. They have aspired to be more than “good enough.” Far from being prescriptive, the examples here show the creative abundance that has emerged from programs devoted to serving entrepreneurs in the “highest and best” manner possible.”

Chris Reddin, the Executive Director at the Incubator Center, comments that, “it is an incredible honor to be recognized as one of the best practices in the International Incubation industry. Our program’s strength has been built year over year, getting better with each new business. This best-practice acknowledgment comes from more than two decades of growing companies and strengthening our local economy. The community that has supported our organization for all this time should be credited for much of our success.”

The Business Incubator Center serves a mission to support the launch, growth, stabilization and long-term success of business enterprises. We measure success by our ability to guide entrepreneurs through sound business decisions and our positive influence on economic growth in the region. Over our 23 year history, this structure has generated powerful results, including:
• the launch of more than 235 companies,
• the generation of more than $146 million in revenue by these companies,
• the funding of 260 businesses in the community,
• the creation of 9,625 jobs, and
• the investment of $51.1 million in capital.
For more information please contact either Chris Reddin or Annalisa Pearson or go to www.gjincubator.org.
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