Turning Up the Heat

Summer is heating up, and so is business.

If you've visited our offices lately you'd know our business is literally heating up - the air conditioning gave up in the middle of the record November temperatures here in Melbourne. Thankfully it's fixed now. But I digress. What I really want to talk about is our economy heating up - the recovery talk is all but gone. Instead, the pundits say growth is the word of the day.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's semi-annual economic outlook says that Australia will record a more robust recovery than other nations. If you follow the market analysts, or hang on the outcome of the RBA's every meeting, it's no surprise. To put this into an online context, the Asia-Pacific internet audience is hovering around half a billion this year. Surely the road to recovery is paved with positive online experiences.

I'm biased. But I've kept the faith for 10 years, give or take, and this is a really exciting time for businesses who are on track online. Knowing what to do in the face of an overwhelming volume of online possibilities is all about getting the strategy right. Know thyself. Ditch the obsession with 'keeping up' and get the strategy right - the rest will follow. Bring us a strategy and we'll show you a plan - you get the picture. Now is a better time than ever to make changes, for the benefit of your customers and your business.

Engaging customers and prospects through the web offers a foundation for strengthening brand relationships and building customer loyalty. Trite but true. So, a few tips for the to-do list:

• Get in touch and keep in touch with blogs, forums and social networks. Use these tools, along with newsletters and regular email communications to remind customers that you're alive and kicking. Let them know you've been going through the same GFCitis, that you've come out the other side and that you can help. From there, keep communications timely and consistent. It's important to stay top-of-mind, but there's a fine line between regular conversation and spam!

• Add value and talk about it. Promote value-adds to your product/service offering. If you have a fantastic new offer, make sure you shout it out.

• Crunch the numbers and learn more about your target audience. Use your site analytics to provide users with more of what they want, but beware of assumptions. Offer users greater personalisation and more control over content through choice.

• Go to the source (see the assumptions warning above). Improve your users' online experience with their input - let your customers help you. Use online polls or surveys to ask for their feedback and what they'd like to see in the future, and follow through. Where possible provide an incentive for their collaboration.
  

Online design trends mirror the transformation of businesses. We're seeing contemporary minimalism at it's best - restraint, uncompromised functionality and magic usability with flashes of colour (see Hickory or Open Up to Mail). Avoiding information overload and visual bombardment is the key to this minimalistic approach. It's not all about the looks either. With many businesses holding their heads just above water, some deem it inappropriate to drape websites (or Christmas parties for that matter!) with excessive bells and whistles.

The office is finally cooling down now, but I'm not predicting business will - we've recently signed papers with some big players in the industry, and there will only be more exciting news to tell in the New Year.

The time is ripe for all of us to put the foot on the gas and drive new business for 2010.

Turn up the heat!