I had the opportunity today to listen in on a proposal for phone and internet service for one of my small business clients. What amazed me was how the salesperson did not listen to my client. They were offering phone and internet service with a bunch of bells and whistles that did not interest my client – for the same price. In fact, in the end, a switch would have cost my client more because of the costs involved in moving their web site and reconfiguring their email accounts.

Are you listening to what your clients want?

I saw this van driving down the road today. You may not be able to see the tag line on the back of the van, but it says “Life Just Got Easier”. Whew, I feel better. Although I’m not sure how life got easier or what Mac Gray does.

A little research online and I learned that “For over 80 years Mac-Gray has been a leader in the commercial laundry industry.” On the web site, the logo is coupled with the phrase “Intellligent Laundry Systems” which gives me a little more insight. However, this van offers me no clue as to what Mac Gray does or how they may be able to make my life easier.

Examine your external marketing pieces. Is it clear what you do? If not, I suggest you modify those pieces.

I can’t stress enough how important a good domain name is for a company, especially a small business. Competition out there is tough enough. Don’t make it even harder for your customers to find you by having a less than memorable domain name. At this point in time it may be difficult to secure yourbusinessname.com. But take a lesson from Zip Dry Cleaners and find  a .com that is memorable and not too far off. They use 321zips.com. Brilliant!

Domain registrations are cheap so secure similar and alternate names for your business as well. Washington Sports Clubs is part of a large company that also owns New York Sports Clubs, Boston Sports Clubs, and Philadelphia Sports Clubs. Their main domain is mysportsclubs.com. However, they still have failed to secure mysportsclub.com which was only first registered in 2003 and is up for sale. When I used to frequent their web site to check class schedules, I could never remember which domain was correct. How happy would I have been if the proper site popped up whether I included the “s” or not? Daft!

Why is there no spot on LinkedIn for my maiden name? I am not sure how my collegiate friends are supposed to find me. I am guessing that it was designed by a man who wouldn’t even think about this.

After this post, I found this issue discussed on another blog. You can find a band-aid for the problem here.

Update April 2009: I’m not sure when they did it, but LinkedIn has added a Maiden Name field to the Profile settings. Thank you.

I saw this van on the road today. If I hadn’t taken this picture, I would not have remembered the domain name. What struck me was the name makes no sense to the average motorist who may see this van on the road. In doing a little research, I learned that Wiygul is the last name of the owner and also the name of some of their other shops, however, they do own restonautomotive.com so why not put that on the van? It is simple, easy to read as the van passes and easy to remember. If they are trying to rebrand themselves as Wiygul then I would have included that business name on the van instead of “Reston Automotive”.

Compare this to the ThinkRabies van. I don’t even know the name of that business, but you can bet I will remember the domain name and they will be the first people I look up in the event I need to get rid of an animal.

I heard a radio ad today for the National Day of Prayer. What struck me about the ad was the domain name they referenced – ndptf.org. Now, this stands for the National Day of Prayer Task Force, but I only learned that after going to the site. After a bit of research, I learned that they own nationaldayofprayer.com and it links to their main site. My question is simple, why would you put the ndptf.org domain in your radio ad when nationaldayofprayer.com makes so much more sense (and you own it)?

I recently sent a survey to the ladies who attend my monthly networking luncheon and asked them what they think we should use as a domain name. I left a space for the respondents to enter their own ideas along with giving a few options. The name of the event is the Great Falls Women’s Business Luncheon. Over half of the respondents chose the domain gfwbl.com, however, a few of my wiser attendees entered in greatfallsbusinesswomen.com which is the name I ultimately chose. Internally, I do refer to the luncheon as the GFWBL, but to business women trying to find our luncheon, greatfallsbusinesswomen.com is not only a clearer domain, but it includes keywords.

What aspect of your marketing only makes sense to you and your employees? Should you change it?

I still don’t understand marketers. I can’t tell you the number of emails I get that I have subscribed to and would be willing to read if they were not just an image. I received an email today from the Dallas Cowboys. The email is just an image, no other text at all. It is probably a beautifully designed image, but my Outlook is set up to block images unless I tell it otherwise. Since I am on dial up (long story), I don’t download the images. If this email had some text giving me some idea what products were on sale and at what price, even if they had a link to a web site, I may have clicked and not sent it directly to the trash.

Are you thinking about your recipients when you create your email campaigns or just doing what is easiest for you?

A dear friend of mine sent me an invitation to join Mamasource.com. The email invite said that she had planted a tree for me so I was intrigued.

On the registration page, it said that for a limited time when I look up Moms I know on Mamasource and invite non-members to join, they will plan a new tree for every Mom who joins through Trees for the Future, a non-profit organization. Great, I thought. Then, I continued reading…

• This program is limited to newly-registered members, and this page will be your only opportunity to participate — both joining Mamasource and all trees planted are 100% free.

So I skipped this step and went on to the next page which had some free offers and said…

• These FREE special offers are only available to new members of Mamasource, and this will be the only time you will see this page.

I don’t know you yet as a site so I don’t trust you enough to send other friends to you. It is wonderful that you have added this incentive to join your social networking site, but why do I have to do it on the first page of my experience with you? Why can’t we get to know each other? If you need to limit the number for some reason, then limit the number I can send or only give me 30 days to add people with the tree offer.