Joe Zusin's Blog

Best Customer Experience

joezusin — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:17:55 +0000

Most retail businesses who have a brick and mortar store front spend extra efforts to make their customer visit an enjoyable experience. When you visit a winery tasting room the staff is trained and knowledgeable about the wines. Their visitors are welcomed and any questions are answered and the wines are displayed with pride. Then when they leave they depart with a good feeling about the wine they purchased and look forward to sharing this experience with their friends. This experience dose not happen in a vacuum. The winery staff plan this and practice this so that it becomes second nature.

Now when you visit their website this is a whole different story, most pages are vague and the customer is on their own. It is presented with flat photographs and dry text, not the same personality that the winery visit presents. Why should this be the norm? With the same forethought put into the brick and mortar visit the website should be enjoyable as well.

Unique landing pages can help customers who arrive at your site find what their looking for. With the proper insight the customer can be channeled through your website to find things that they are interested in. During their checkout the same care and understanding can be displayed making sure all their needs are met. Perhaps giving them a token for a free sample on their next visit to your brick and mortar.

A memorable visit either to a winery or a website will inspire customers to return. The better the customer experience the better the odds of making the sale.

Joe Zusin, SEO Analyst
Joe Zusin is currently involved with several Internet ventures including web design consulting. Joe also contributes articles on business, and other topics. His current website shows SEO analysis techniques.

http://www.sierraseo.com

Why do we visit a website?

joezusin — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:42:28 +0000

The other day I attended a meeting where we were reviewing a company website the discussion was intense for the need for a complete redesign and new look for the company. The key people felt that a new look would solve all the problems of sales and marketing. A new look would draw customers and their dollars.
On my way back from the meeting I began thinking why do we visit a website?

Service: We do our banking and pay bills. Some sites offer services for doing business.

Shopping: We buy things and compare prices. Or we just shop.

Research: We find information, news and sports. What’s new.. Or we shop

Entertainment: Watch TV watch movies Play Games, or several other things that fall under entertainment including shopping.
I included shopping so many times because I know several people who consider these categories their domain when shopping.

So if we consider these to be the key factors when we visit a website in what category will your website fall.
Think about your customers once they know you and do business with you why would they want to visit your website? If they already use your service (and its not web based) why would they want to revisit your website?
The answer is: They would visit if you provided new product or service information. If you provide a way for customers to check their order status or shipping information. Provide news on your company’s innovative products. Basically putting fresh information on your site will draw customers to revisit and lead to increased sales. Even if you sell your products online you need to have a draw. This can be achieved with sales, discounts or providing timely and new information related to your product or service.
Remember if the new look includes repackaging the old information you customers will see right through it and not return. Keep in mind why we visit a website Service, Shopping, Research, and Entertainment.

Joe Zusin is currently involved with several Internet ventures including web design consulting. Joe also contributes articles on business, and other topics. His current website shows SEO analysis techniques.
http://www.SierraSEO.com

Did you see the rise in sales or did you miss it?

joezusin — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:05:40 +0000

In the past six weeks there has been an increase in traffic to online wine sales websites. These sites include sites like wine.com, did your wines increase in sales? Also traffic to wineries have increased over the same period, did you see more traffic to your website?

You should be monitoring your website traffic every week. You should check and see if what you are doing is working. You want to make sure you are not loosing ground. If your competitors are gaining ground and your site is staying stagnant or decreasing in traffic you should find out why.

An easy way to monitor your website traffic is to use Google Analytics. Not only is it free you can get useful tips on how to increase your traffic. When you place the Google Analytics token on your web pages you open up a whole new world. Google allows you to see how people find your site as well as how many new visitors you receive.

If you want to find how the wine industry is doing you can visit www.sierraseo.com/wine_info.html . Every Friday the website is updated with charts that show wine industry traffic and consumer interest. You can compare your traffic to others in the wine community.

We can help you setup your website with Google Analytics. This process should take less than an hour. Send us an email and we will give you a free estimate on the cost.

It is important for you to know what your website is doing compared to others in your industry. Don’t miss the wave.

10 Essential New Years Resolutions for Winery Websites

joezusin — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:23:37 +0000

Want to really get your winery website off the ground and sell you products in 2011?
Then here are 10 important things you can do that will make your sales jump.

1. Start using Facebook every week.

Facebook is a valuable tool. Your customers use it. You should start and continue to use Facebook on a regular basis. Sit down at your computer 30 minutes twice a week and write about you business at the winery. Everything you write about may not be usable however, you will find some of your insights to be of interest to your customers. Later on your customers will be more than happy to post their pictures on your Facebook page bragging about their experience at your winery. Please don’t forget to thank them.

2. Twitter about you winery twice a week.

Twitter is a interesting and fun tool for many wineries. Once you start using it you will find more uses for it. Start by reading some posts and get the feel for how people communicate. I don’t mean the “I am eating lunch” post. Go to some of your competitors twitter sites and read how they post and how people respond. There are a few sites that do a great job. Take note of how frequently they post and how they use this medium to engage their customers.

3. Make your website user friendly.

Be available to your customers don’t hide behind the website and not be available for comments or questions. If your site uses Flash as part of your program get a redesign as soon as you can. Because as a general rule Flash loads slow and has little or no information in it that can be used for search engines to categorize your website.

4. Make sure every page has a title.

Take a good look at your web pages and verify that each page has a unique title. This by itself can improve your visibility on search engines. Verify you have unique titles on each page by looking at the top of your browser on your computer screen (next to the Internet Explorer Icon) when you change the page the title should change.

5. Describe your unique quality on every page.

Unique descriptions on every web page is another important search engine prerequisite. When you use these page descriptions properly you give your website a chance to be found because of your unique wines. Please don’t miss this opportunity.

6. Take you video camera and make a You Tube video.

This simple process is a big missed opportunity. Video tape everyday operations of moving cases, racking, bottling, tasting, testing, and selling. Each one of these presents an interesting and unique aspect of your business. These do not have to be professionally productions, they can be recorded on a hand camera doing the best that you can. Your customers will appreciate the effort and you will gain new customers who see them and get to know your operation.

7. Ask your customers to comment about you on Yelp.

This is so simple and gains so much PR for your winery. Ask you customers who tour your winery to write about their visit on Yelp.com. This will help people find out about you. When people read about the experience more people will visit.

8. Write a blog once a month about your Winery.

Before you skip this idea as impossible hear me out. You are the one who knows your wines and winery operation better than anyone in the world. Just try writing 250 words about one small segment of your business on your computer once a week. At the end of the month read what you have written and see if just one of these stories is worth sharing with the public. Do this for three months and see if you have something. I will bet you will find more than 5 articles worth publishing in a blog.

9. Follow a wine blog and make a relevant comment on that blog.

This process will help you with #8 and will make you more aware of things going on in your industry. Find 2 or 3 wine blogs and read them daily. Get a feel for how these people write and watch for awhile to see who posts comments to these blogs. Soon you will see what incites lots of interest and what passes with minimal comments. If something strikes a cord and you feel the urge to comment leave one.

10. Develop and use a customer email list.

If you have an email list that you receive from customer sign up sheets in your tour area or from sign ups directly from your website send out information to these lists once a month. If you know your customers birthday send them a special email. As far as subject matter there should be 12 things of interest going on at your winery including crush, bottling, Thanksgiving and Christmas to name four. Now you only need to find 8 more. I am betting you can.

Have a Great New Year! Work on your customers and your business will increase.

http://www.sierraseo.com/wine_info.html

Using Social Media For Social Media Sake

joezusin — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 16:17:49 +0000

Sometimes its easier to write about how things are done incorrectly than it is to write about how to do things right. Well today I am going to take the easy way out.
After spending the past month reviewing winery social media sites I have a head full of examples of how social media is used completely wrong and in some cases detrimentally to the website they are trying to promote.

When using social media and posting to a Facebook page for your company, please post something relevant to your site or product. So many times people will post things that have nothing to do with their products or service. It is obvious that some of these posts were made because they had to post something. These regurgitations should be avoided. You have opened a virtual gathering place for your friends treat it accordingly. If you had your friends over for a visit would you just say things because you have to say something? Probably not, you would think be fore you spoke and would try to engage your friends in conversation. Well this the way you should treat your social media friends as well.

Don’t ignore your social media community. When post a appears on your Facebook or Twitter page acknowledge the post with a response even if its just a “Thank You”. Try to remember how you felt when you said something and no one responded.

If you have the urge to post to your social media site just because you need to, and it is a burden, you just want to get it over with - don’t do it. Step back rethink your plan and maybe today is not the day for a new post. Just answer any posts that are there. Put your post off for another time when you have something to say. Your friends will appreciate it and you will have a following who look forward to hearing from you.

Wineries and Social Media Study

joezusin — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 18:06:43 +0000

We completed our study of wineries and their use of social media. For our sample we used California wineries that produce 20,000 cases or more. In the study we included Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, and Yelp as qualifiers for using social media.

Our survey found the following:

In the category of wineries producing 20,000 cases to 50,000 cases 44% used social media.

In the category of wineries producing 50,000 cases to 100,000 cases 54% used social media.

In the category of wineries producing 100,000 cases or more 56% used social media.

The wineries that participated in 3 or more social media programs had the most traffic to their websites.

Wineries that participated in only one social media program did not have very good traffic statistics. However they did have noticeably better traffic than wineries that had no social media programs.

The Successful social media programs had frequent postings and personal invitations from the winery staff. It was obvious the people working the programs enjoyed their work and frequently thanked their customers for their posts.

There is a more detailed report available it is free and can be requested from our website.

The report breaks down the most active social media programs as well as specific sites that use these programs.

Why Do Winery Websites Miss Opportunities

joezusin — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:18:59 +0000

Over and over again you find wineries letting their websites be managed by companies who do little to promote them. We analyzed three companies who advertise that they have experts who handle their SEO and will take care of the winery’s website. After examining each site we found glaring errors in 95% of the web pages. Some of the problems we noticed were no title for each page or no descriptions. These are seemingly small errors that can effect your websites standings in a big way.

One such company bragged on their website they could do everything for you for $1,500 per month after closer examination it showed their customers had the poorest traffic and worst SEO. When you pay $1500 per month for SEO you should see improvement each month with increased sales and traffic.

A good SEO company will talk to you monthly about what your winery is doing for campaigns this month as well as into the future to plan your website layout. You should be getting reports showing traffic and sales correlations. You should see changes to your website to catch trends.

Why did I pick winery websites? Because I see many wineries doing great work in social media and in some cases it is not returning what they expect. After examining what may contribute to the problem we find poor SEO to be number one. Search engines either can’t find them or are unable to categorize them. Social media is not just about followers on Twitter and Facebook it is about capitalizing on the traffic and converting. Did you know that those followers make your website more attractive to search engines and should make the traffic on your website improve? Some websites have a disconnect with their social media and search engine traffic.

We will make you this offer to give you 3 SEO improvements you can do to your website for FREE! We will need to limit the offer to the first 50 winery websites who apply.

If you are paying $1,500 per month for SEO we should not find any problems.

This is risk free what have you got to loose? If your web page has everything right you are a winner. If we find 3 missed opportunities and tell you what they are for free, you can pass the information along to your SEO firm and you still win.

Take the challenge its FREE.

Decisions, Decisions

joezusin — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 15:11:21 +0000

What should I do to increase my business online? Do I use “Social Media” or do I redesign my website? Do I send out more newsletters?

The most obvious answer is you should not keep doing what you are doing now because it is not working for you.

Social Media is an all encompassing term that includes Twitter and Facebook. Please don’t start these now if you looking for a fast return for your invested time and money. If these two programs are working for you by all means continue. But there is more to Social Media than just Twitter and Facebook.

Bloging is a very popular Social Media format. However, before you start a blog read and participate in ones from your industry. Get a feel for the venue. Leave comments and don’t forget to reference your own website. After you get comfortable start your own. Remember blogs are free and easy to setup. This will give you a chance to become recognized as an expert in your field.

It may not be necessary to redesign your website. You may only need to drive traffic to it.

Newsletters need to be sent once a month. You need to be consistent and send them on the same date each month.

The decision to something different will give you a different result. You can’t do the same thing over and over and expect any change.

Joe Zusin, SEO Analyst

http://www.sierraSEO.com

Have Twitter and Facebook Or Use Twitter and Facebook

joezusin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 13:06:37 +0000

After reading the article “Vine Talk: Facebook gains popularity in wine industry” you would think the that the wine industry has suddenly used twitter and Facebook because the economy is down and the use of social media has increased their sales. In it they state “More than 80 percent of 109 grape growers, distributors, retailers and other wine experts in the California who were questioned in a survey by the Wine Industry Financial Symposium Group and the University of California-Davis Graduate School of Management said they were using Facebook in their business, up from 46 percent in 2009.” This assumption is not the reality.
Having reviewed hundreds of wine websites each month the reality is most of these wineries have dipped their collective toe in the social media pool. Most sites have not maintained their social media presence and do not have the time or staff to maintain this type of communication.
For a business Social media is a commitment and it takes time and effort. Your return may or may not be worth it, this is a subject for another article. Just because you have the social media icons on your website does not mean you use social media.
It would be more important to survey how many wine industry websites have actively interacted with social media in the last week? I believe the response would be less than 10 percent.
There are wineries that use this medium very effectively. Their daily communications draw consumer into the winery culture and convey an effective personal interaction. These types of consistent communications are necessary to maintain a relationship with your social media fans.

http://www.sierraseo.com

Orphaned Websites

joezusin — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 10:41:59 +0000

I have been reading lately about what I call Orphaned Websites these are sites that poorly designed and written that just sit there and nobody sees them or visits them because they don’t know they are there. It happens all the time we have grand ideas for our websites we set them up and forget them. Not realizing they were poorly formed and never developed into productive citizens of the web.

The next time you decide to update or revamp your website setup dates to follow up to verify your web pages are producing what you want and intended. Setup goals and objectives what you want to see from your website. You may want a sales goal to sell so many dollars in product in six months. This does not mean pie in the sky objective but realistic numbers you should attain. Hopefully you have some existing data that you want to improve on. Follow the progress of you site and make sure its fresh. If things are not going the way you intend make changes to get them right.

There are simple inexpensive things that can be done to improve traffic and sales on a website it does not take a complete redesign to make a website work for you. I will tell you a little secret I work with two successful customers that have the same basic design for more than 10 years and continue to make money from their site. Sure business has been down recently but business is still being conducted on these sites. Old customers as well as new enjoy the offerings of these companies. I guess the point I am trying to make here is if you redesign your website it does not guarantee you will get business. Remember if you keep doing what your doing and only 300 people per month see your site now and you redesign it you will probably still have only 300 people a month see your new site.

What you need to do is make sure the correct SEO is embedded into your web pages and an effort is made to keep your site fresh and relevant.

Joe Zusin, SEO Analyst