Drooling Into the Keyboard

This weekend I whipped up a poster for Matthew Lewis, chef and owner of the Where Ya At, Matt? Cajun/Creole food truck, for his upcoming crawfish boil.



I think the crawfish Matthew will be serving won't be quite as difficult to eat as the one in this poster appears it'd be!

Click here to download the PDF, if you'd like to see the whole thing. Or, if you're just concerned about the crawfish boil itself and could care less about the poster (and I can't blame you): it's Sunday, March 27, 3 pm til they run out (get there early!) at Le Bon Ton Roulé* on Leary Way.

Matthew points out: "Yes, there will be beer!"

*Le Bon Ton is named for a New Orleans bar and is not actually a misspelling of "les bon temps."

The Importance of Specificity

The world is full of people; it's full of businesses, too. It's full of web designers and communications consultants. It's full of attorneys, spas, kitchenware stores, and landscapers.

Don't just be another business in the vast sea of businesses; don't make just another product in the wide world of stuff. Be specific about who you are, what you do, what you make, and how you do it. Consumers have a lot of choices: give them specific information about who you are and allow them to make an informed decision based on their needs.

I wanted to buy a bottle of white wine the other day and didn't recognize any of my choices, so I started reading labels. I read a lot about the winemakers, about the wineries, and even some drivel comparing a Riesling to a romantic evening. But there was nothing on any of the labels that actually described the wine. Was that Riesling dry, off-dry, or downright sweet? How was I to know?

Most consumers know what they want: it's our job to tell them what we provide. What harm would it have done the maker of the Riesling to tell us whether it was sweet or dry? If I'd been making Thai food, I would have been pleased to pick up a sweet wine and know with certainty that it would pair with my meal. If I'd been making pork cutlets with sauerkraut, I would have been happy with a dry wine. But instead of being allowed to make an informed decision, I had to leave it to chance whether the wine would pair with the food.

There's nothing wrong with trying to appeal to a large audience, but you can't appeal to everyone. Wines are sweet or dry, or somewhere in between, but they can't be both. Trying to be everything to everyone is what I call Generic Grasping. It might work with big business--they have enough potential customers that it doesn't matter--but for small businesses, it's flat-out dumb.

By telling customers about your services or your product, by removing the guesswork from their decisions, you greatly decrease the potential for dissatisfied customers. The maker of that Riesling left open a 50% chance that I would be unhappy with the product. If they'd given me more information about what I was buying, that percentage would be greatly reduced and would have been based solely on the quality of the product.

How can we use specific language and descriptions to allow your potential customers to make an informed decision? What other examples of Generic Grasping can you think of, and how could the businesses involved change their approach to provide the customer with better information?

Got My First Guinea Pig!

My friend Rhonda is an attorney and mediator, and to help launch my free web site evaluation service, I asked whether I could use her site as an example; she kindly agreed! Rhonda and I will be working together over the next few days to evaluate her current web site: her needs for it and how it's performing for her.

Rhonda has already answered the evaluation questions I posed in my last post, and I've developed a list of areas that I'll address in my assessment of the site:

1. Function: Does the web site perform its function / fulfill its purpose?
2. Emotion: Does the web site inspire the appropriate emotions in viewers?
3. Clarity of Design: Is it easy to read, easy to navigate, and intuitive to use?
4. Brand: Does the site maintain and promote the business’ brand and is that brand consistent throughout?
5. Content: Is the content clearly written, concise, and appropriate?
6. Attractiveness: Is the web site attractive? Is its theme and style suited to the brand of the business?
7. Uniqueness: Does the web site offer something that can’t be found elsewhere?
8. Search Engine Friendliness: Is the web site easy to find with appropriate search terms? Is it seeded with the right keywords; does it contain the right meta data and titles?

This is the process I'll go through with any client for the Free Web Site Evaluation. Then I'll take it a step further and give Rhonda's web site a makeover to show how a site can be improved based on the evaluation.

Check back soon! Ideas are percolating already.

Free Web Site Evaluation

You have a web site for a reason. Creating it required effort and expense. Is it doing what it’s supposed to do?

Limoncello is currently offering a free web site evaluation for existing sites. This is a brief process in which I’ll ask you a couple of questions about your web site’s function and purpose and how you think it’s performing for you; then I’ll evaluate it based on your responses and on the criteria listed below.

I’ll give you ideas on how your web site could better do its job and let you know what would be involved in getting the site to that point. Then we’re done!

You come away with a better understanding of how you’re using a key marketing tool, and possibly how you could use it better, as well as some insights as to what potential customers are seeing (or not seeing) when they visit your web site.

Evaluation Questions for You

What do you want your web site to do for you?

• inform customers about your business?
• drive customers to your store or restaurant?
• drive customers to contact you about your services?
• promote and/or sell books?
• create and/or promote your professional persona?
• something else?

How well do you feel your current site is meeting this/these objectives? Why?

Who is your target demographic? Put yourself in their shoes. Does your web site work for them? Does it appeal to them?


Why Am I Doing This for Free?

The obvious answer is that I hope you’ll find a few things about your web site that you want to change, and that you’ll select Limoncello to make those changes. But this process is also extremely educational for me. Small business owners and individuals are my target demographic, and this process will help me to understand some of their needs and perceptions regarding web design. So it’s educational on both ends—I should be thanking you!

So, thank you. Now, give me a call: 206.551.1980.

Back to Work

After a long hiatus dealing with my personal life and a 9-to-5, pay-the-bills job, I'm back to work full force on Limoncello. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be updating the web site, launching some special deals, and working on partnerships. Watch for free web site help coming soon!