0ur Review of Web Sites | ||
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WEB SITES SPECIAL ISSUEWe've now been running web sites for our customers for three years, that makes us ancient and wise in web terms! We thought it would be interesting to look at what those web sites have achieved and how they have matured.
Our own web site of course, logging over 20,000 visitors a month this is a very active site. We receive visitors from all over the world. Now of course many are coming to read and use the masses of information we provide (over 1,000 pages now!) relating to Windows, NT, Unix or Uniplex and the many other topics we cover. This clearly shows the benefit of VALUABLE CONTENT. Particularly on the Uniplex side, there is nowhere else you can get the same level of information, hints and tips. But also the free downloads help, as does the easy subscription to this newsletter. But we also regularly take orders from around the world, including from Australia - which lets face it, is as far as you can get!
Schumachers are a UK company who make scale model racing cars for "big boys" and professional racers. The site provides an on-line catalogue and orders can be placed on- line. The biggest puller on the site is their Q&A forum. Here Schumachers users can talk amongst themselves, sharing tips, hints, asking questions and getting answers. Over 600 people a week *RETURN* to these pages, they are regular visitors and of course Schumacher can drop product launch announcements into these discussion pages. Since Schumacher launched their site they have gone on to secure a significant grant to enhance the web site and make it suitable for a full multi-media delivery and ordering system, including CD-ROM as well as internet.
These three sites were all kick-started by Centreline. We created them a core site, and quickly turned their materials into web pages and now they have all taken over the management of the site and continue to update them. Why would you use this route? Well, simply its worthwhile having the initial page structure and templates professionally designed. This ensures full browser compatibility, efficiently designed pages, and a reliable base from which to build. However, if you intend to make many updates to your web site, then there comes a time when may be cost-effective to bring the maintenance in-house. However, this is not always true, there are still issues over training, skills and methodology to be taken into account. You may recall that Hart DC was the first council to publish minutes on-line. It is interesting to see even 3 years on that there are still very few councils doing this. In a recent Radio 4 interview Bournemouth said that their web site was a major factor in bringing in tourists and investment into the Bournemouth area.
A site worth a visit if you are a wine buff. Riverside Wines specialise in En Primeur wines and have just gone on- line with this years Bordeaux' These wines are expensive and sell to collectors around the world, but clearly the cost of web marketing is trivial to reach buyers in Japan and the US which would have otherwise been out of reach by conventional marketing. Incidentally, Riverside Wines also have very classy corporate gifts, based on fine wines and whiskeys. Definitely worth a look for your corporate christmas gifts - but why not surprise one of your favourite customers now?
A gallery run for the benefit of its own members operating out of Worcester. Bevere Vivis are able to load and manage their own diary of events and news items despite little technical knowledge (forgive me Heather!). Again, this simple mechanism lets Bevere Vivis keep its pages up to date and their readers returning, as well as offering an opportunity to show off their special prints and postcards collections.
Our community site covering Worcester Town and County continues to grow its user base. Like many sites it underwent a slow start but has now built up a respectable traffic. This is an important point, don't believe the hype about 1,000 of visitors banging on your door waving wads of money as soon as you go on-line. It doesn't work that way. Web sites, and the traffic to them, take time to build and mature. That's one reason why we've been encouraging companies to get on the web as soon as possible. The longer you have been on-line the more traffic (and hence customers) you generate.
Energy Advantage provide systems which cut the costs of electricity supply using Combined Heat and Power systems and Peak Lopping (using your own generator when 'leccy is expensive). Now this is clearly not a product for everyone, but by establishing their web site they are able to show themselves as experts in the field with a strong track record. Also, since their field is relatively esoteric it also means that they turn up well in the search sites, since there are very few competitors for their technical terms.
OK, so you make steel palisade fencing, in fact your the UK's biggest manufacturer of the stuff. Now, it isn't the most exciting of products and it has a stunningly low margin. So just how do you find new markets? Since launching themselves on the web Paramount have started shipping steel fence to the US and the Middle East and they are receiving leads from all over the world. In an industry with a lot of small players, Paramount are able to show that they really are the biggest in the UK by using the web site to establish their credentials on a world wide basis.
1) Having a web presence is low-cost marketing 2) Web sites really do market around the world 3) Web sites take time to mature - start now 4) Traffic is not the ultimate measure - happy customers is what you want 5) Not one of these organisations has reduced its web budget or backed away from the web 6) Most of these companies have plans for future developments and making the web a far more integral part of their marketing and selling. 7) Tools such as discussion forums, question and answer add a lot of value to your site, but take relatively little effort for the returns you get. 8) Yep, it does seem work!
This month Gateway 2000 announced it is dropping the 2000 from its name, not wishing to be associated with the millennium bug. That's the trouble with having 2000 in your company and product name. Office 2000 from Centreline 2000. Just what are we going to do in 18 months time? Well, for one thing we might make it rich when Microsoft offer to buy the name Office 2000 from us, since I noted the other day that they were using this name for their next Office release. Anyway, answers on a postcard (or an e-card) for alternative names for Centreline 2000 please.
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Centreline 2000 - Uniplex, Unix, Windows and Internet Arle Court, Hatherley Lane, Cheltenham, GL51 6PN Tel: (UK) 01242 255 000 |
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URL: www.c2000.com/papers/nw_980706.htm © 1995-2001 Centreline 2000 Last Updated: 6th July 1998 |
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