In recent years  customers have come to expect more from their online browsing experience.   This has caused a change  in the standard for company websites.  A dynamic web site contains content that is continuously updated,  a design that is eye catching and inspiring which will give the consumer  a new online experience with every visit.

Maintaining Dynamic Web Page With Content

Maintaining a web sites content can be time consuming and can cost you money.   However, with our content management systems and Web Maintenance Plans,  even the least technical users have the ability and functionality to maintain dynamic web site content .

Content management systems give you the freedom to create dynamic web page content “in-house” rather than needing a third party.   You will easily be able to :

• Create  content schedules that automatically adds or deletes items.
• Update your events calendar, company news, or job openings.
• Add Pictures to your content to keep your website dynamic in appearance.
• Add dynamic data to all of your pages and keep your website fresh and inviting.

Our content management systems put you in control and give you the ability to maintain a dynamic web site.

Don’t have the time to do it yourself?  Ask us about our Web Maintenance Plan and Search Engine Optimization Plan!  Our trained and experienced staff can do it all for you.   Maintaining a dynamic website through design and data can be very time consuming.  Our staff is experts in many fields and we have created a team that can work to ensure your dynamic website stays attractive to all of your consumers.  Central Mass Web Design has helped many clients to maintain dynamic websites throughout Massachusetts and beyond, including Fitchburg, Leominster, Worcester, Cambridge, and Boston.

Want to view some of our recent works?  Check out our online portfolio to see our many designs, and request a website design estimate today.

Many people and business owners do not think that tradeshows are website traffic drivers.  Let me dispel that rumor for you rather quickly they are.  While tradeshows are setup to attract new business for your organization, you are handing out printed and promotional material (that should have your web address on it).  In all business expo’s you will find that these tradeshows are not meant to sell your product or service at the booth.  The attendees are actually there to collect information, have a quick discussion, then do further research.  As a business owner, you are there for the exposure.  If you sign an agreement while at a tradeshow, I would be stunned, and that would be a bonus, but it is not the norm.  

When the attendees return to their office with a stack of business cards, they tend to go through the cards and keep the ones that made and impact on them and that they may have a need for.  This is where the attendee will view your website.  They are still doing research on your company and your product or service and they need to be able to quickly find you on the internet.  In most cases, the attendee will simply enter the domain name located on the materials that they received from you.  However if they search for your company name, you had better come up in the top 3, or they will get your competitions website, and you may have very well just lost an opportunity for business.

Understanding your website analytics can assist you in understanding what tradeshows you attend produce more traffic in the week following the event.  You should track this to the best of your ability.  Ideally you won’t know if the folks are tradeshow people, but you will know if you have spikes in your web traffic within days after events.  If you only have 2 spikes per year and you only attend 2 tradeshows per year, then you can obviously tell that the spikes are a result of your tradeshows. 

We have seen this with some of our customers that attend tradeshows and I can tell you with 100% certainty that there is a correlation.

In conclusion…Pay attention to your website statistics to gauge the results of your tradeshows and make sure you have your web address on all your printed and promotional materials!

CMWD Named All Star

Central Mass Web Design, Inc. is named a Constant Contact 2008 All Star in recognition for our “Excellence in Email Marketing“! Congratulations to the CMWD team! Constant Contact writes, “…That’s why we are proud to designate you as a 2008 Constant Contact All Star! You’re part of a special group of our customers that we want to thank for setting a great example for other email marketers. Congratulations!”

CMWD has used Constant Contact for some time to communicate with our clients and with non-clients who wish to stay updated on latest news and trends. We have advocated the use of building email marketing lists through Constant Contact to all of our clients and have witnessed great results. We look forward to continuing our work through Constant Contact to better inform our customers. If you would like to learn how to use Constant Contact to drive business and better inform your clients give us a call! We will be more than happy to help you integrate a Constant Contact account of your own into your website, and help you to start to enjoy contacting your customers, as well as gaining new clients.

`Kimberly Veautour

Alex Goldman of InternetNews.com writes “Salesforce Taps Into Twitter”, he goes on to say, “Customer contact centers have moved far beyond the phone, says Salesforce, embracing Facebook, Twitter, and other Web applications.”

Read the rest of this entry »

NIELSEN REPORTS , SOCIAL NETWORKS & BLOGS NOW 4TH MOST POPULAR ONLINE ACTIVITY, AHEAD OF PERSONAL EMAIL .

For months I have been on the social networking to grow your business band wagon.  We have personally seen the effects of its use here at Central Mass Web Design.  Now Nielson, www.nielsen-online.com has produced findings that show Social Networking and blogs via the internet is the fastest growing online category and is growing twice as fast as any of the other sectors.   Today, March 9, 2009, Nielsen released a report proving Social Media and Blogging are growing at a staggering rate.

Member Communities ( which includes Blogging) grew over 5 points in the past year, placing it above e-mail, and showing a growth of more than double any other.

Reports also show that time spent on social networks has increased globally by 18% in the past year.    Do you know what your employees are posting on their Facebook and Myspace accounts?  Do your employees know what you are posting on yours?

I recently gave a presentation to a local networking group on the benefits of using LinkedIn to grow their business and networking.  Part of this presentation talks about researching prospective employees via internet and social networking tools like LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Presentation

Time spent on Networking and Blogging sites is growing at over 3x the rate of all internet growth.  So much time is being spent on social networking sites it is eating into the time spent on other websites and activities.

The average age of online Community Networking Site Member has changed. Facebook started out as a service for university students but now almost one third of its global audience is aged 35-49 years of age, and growing.  Almost one quarter of all Facebook users are over age 50.

This is the way of the future, and I encourage you to get involved and grow with the times…before they leave you in the dust.  You can see the Nielsen report, in its entirety at http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/nielsen_globalfaces_mar09.pdf

Central Mass Web Design has actively been pursuing this avenue, and helping our clients to understand their Online Media presence.  All companies should be considering their Online Media presence when thinking about their website SEO.  Stay tuned for more information, on how to make MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook work for you!

Kimberly Veautour

If you are not using an online newsletter to drive website traffic and possibly sales, then you really need to look at your overall marketing. Your website is not the “Field of Dreams”, people are not just going to show up because you decided to build it. You need to market your company in a cost effective way and drive people to your website. The best, and most efficient way to do this is by sending regular email newsletters. I have mentioned this before at seminars that I give and I see peoples eyes open up really wide. When I tell people about the traffic we get to our website after we send a newsletter, they seem surprised. Well certainly, I can understand how people who are not all that familiar with websites and web tracking can be surprised. But having done this time and time again, I am very successful at it and I share my thoughts and Ideas with other business owners (especially here in the Boston Mass area) about how they can do it too.

One common complaint is that the company doesn’t sell a product online. NOT TRUE. You may not transact business online, like take a credit card number, however, your website is ALWAYS SELLING your companies services. Your site is your 24 hour full time employee that is always working for you and you need to feed your site some traffic.

I would be happy to share with you my secrets to getting more spikes in your website traffic. Just call me. But start with this one tip. Schedule some time in your calendar over the next 4 weeks. Schedule 1 hour for that entire time. Meaning you have 4 weeks to have a 1 hour meeting with yourself. In that 1 hour meeting, figure out what you want to tell someone, and don’t copy the text from your website. You need to really dig deep. Share some insight, make the information valuable. During this self meeting, create a list of items that you want to share with the public. This bulleted list is the start of your email campaign. Now, to ensure success, you need to have 12 items on this list. Dig Deep, you can find them. If you struggle to find the 12 items, then use Google to find similar companies and figure out what they are talking about on their website. List those items. Once you have the list, you can now begin to determine what your text should be for each item and you can now begin to focus on the details of each newsletter item.

Remember, you can always call me for some advice. I can be reached at 978-632-5300 x111.
When you do call, be sure to tell me that you read this article.
Matt Ward

When you spend over 3 Million dollars on a 60 second ad, you had better do it right, and Godaddy did it AGAIN. Last year they set records for driving traffic to their website on the day of and the day after the 2008 Superbowl. Just wait for the numbers to come out on this years ads. They ran 2 ads in 2009 and both of the ads were “incomplete”, meaning they mentioned their website to see the remainder of the ad.

Buzz
Godaddy loves creating a buzz and they do just that with their close to the edge commercials built with major suspense. Tomorrow, it’s likely that they will be the talk around the water cooler.

Brand Awareness
If you are going for Brand Awareness, then running and commercial during the Superbowl is the best option for you. It’s the one TV program that Americans actually want to see the commercials. Many companies use this forum to create major brand awareness. Others also use it to sell products and services, but few actually focus on that. Godaddy did just that.

Bob Parsons…..YOU ARE MY HERO! You create a buzz, you drive people to your site, and they buy, it’s no wonder you didn’t go public….it was probably the best move you made. Good Job.

How can you make your business act like Godaddy?
Start by making your ads drive traffic to specific pages on your website then create those pages to communicate, inform, and convert visitors into calls and sales. It’s not rocket science, it just has to be done, and someone has to do it.

In bad economic times, many companies will hide in their office and avoid marketing. To them, there is no reason good enough to spend money on marketing. While customers may stop calling, emailing and buying during a recession… they do not stop listening, watching and looking. Websites are being viewed, newsletters are being read, and direct mail is being opened. You need to look at why you advertise in the first place. You do it to generate more business! When your competitors start withdrawing their marketing budgets and scaling back their advertising costs, you should take every opportunity to pounce! What happens if you cut your budget but your competitors do not? They get your clients!

Let us look at the findings of a few studies completed over many years on this topic:

McGraw-Hill’s Research study of over 600 Businesses stated that “In 1981-1982, businesses that maintained or increased their ad spend averaged higher sales growth during the recession and in the following 3 years. By 1985, sales of the businesses that maintained or increased their ad spend during that recession actually increased sales 256% over those that had cut back on advertising. Aggressive recession advertisers increased market share 2.5 times the average for all businesses in the post-recession.”

An American Business Press (ABP) and Meldrum & Fewsmith study showed that “sales and profits can be maintained and increased in recession years and [in the years] immediately following by those who are willing to maintain an aggressive marketing posture, while others adopt the philosophy of cutting back on promotional efforts when sales appear to be harder to get.”

The ABP/Meldurm & Fewsmith 1979 study covering 1974/1975 and its post-recession years found that “Companies which did not cut marketing expenditures experienced higher sales and net income during those two years and the two years following than those companies which cut in either or both recession years.”

RESEARCH HAS SHOWN TIME AND TIME AGAIN COMPANIES THAT ADVERTISE CONSISTENTLY, EVEN WHILE IN A RECESSION, HAVE INCREASED PROFIT IN THE LONG RUN.

How do you accomplish this?

1.) Develop messaging that explains how your product is needed during these harsh times.
2.) Build a message of value. Focus on the bang for your buck.
3.) Target the right clients.
4.) Maximize word of mouth and free advertising.
5.) Advertise on the internet, build a web presence, and make sure your website has new innovative content that is SEO friendly.
6.) Develop an email Newsletter, very low cost way to keep your clients informed of new products or specials.
7.) Increase your advertising.
8.) Spend time creating effective ad designs.
9.) Build your brand.

There is no doubt about it. Even though people are afraid to use the word recession, it is out there. With major corporations cutting back and laying off, it makes it even scarier. During this time you can establish a web presence that will stand the test of time, and be there when it is needed. You do not want to be the one trying to build your marketing campaign while everyone else that stayed with it, is now building their client base.

The good news is, this will all come to an end. The economy will turn around, and sales will increase. Keeping a positive attitude is essential! Then ask yourself…. When this turns around where do I want my company to be??

Kimberly Veautour

Acknowledgments:
“How Advertising in Recession Periods Affects Sales,” American Business Press, Inc., 1979
ABP/Meldrum & Fewsmith study, 1979
McGraw-Hill Research Laboratory of Advertising Performance Report 5262 New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986.
Forbes.com
knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu