You Need A Sexy Website Revamp

Garth Beyer

The design of your site isn’t as important to those who view it as it is to those who provide the content on it.

That’s the truth.

You can have a really ugly website your market audience still uses. You might think it has an extravagantly negative impact on their experience and if you could just have a sexy website revamp, you would attract more customers/readers/clients/subscribers. That’s just not the truth.

An ugly, but usable website doesn’t have that large of a negative impact on a customer (unless well designed websites are what you’re selling).

The real negative impact is on you and the team who stands behind the brand, the business, the blog.

How can you be comfortable publishing a professional and well-thought-out article on a website that looks janky? How confident can you be answering the phone and talking to people who got the number from your hideous website?

Yes, design to a degree matters to your target audience, but never as much as it matters to those contributing content on it.

 

Stay Positive & Your Site Doesn’t Just Showcase Your Brand, It Builds The Confidence Of All Those Behind It

For Some Safe Is A Selling Point

Garth Beyer

It shouldn’t be surprising there are safe products out there (safe, successful ones, mind you ).

Think of a clothing line that doesn’t want to be edgy, trendsetting or risky. Think of a business that has no true uniqueness about them. Consider a service that does nothing more than their competition does. Again, they are still successful. Think Craftsmen or Ford or Lands’ End. Safe is there selling point or so I’ve lead you to think.

The reality of it is you don’t need to take huge marketing risks or product design risks if what you’re selling isn’t the product. Perhaps you’re not really selling anything special. Perhaps you’re simply standing up for something.

Ford stands up for being tough.

TOMS stands up for giving.

Seth Godin stands up for… well, standing up.

If you don’t want to stand out, by all means, stand up for something. Playing things safe for nothing won’t lead you to success, but playing things safe for something larger than yourself will.

 

Stay Positive & What Do You Stand For?

Your Business Is Boring (Or Maybe Just You)

Garth Beyer

Before proceeding, I must note, personally, I never get bored. Bored is a choice, as you will read, whether you’re a business or an individual. I may find myself in a boring environment, but I keep myself entertained. It’s been three years since I said I was bored. Something I’m proud of.

The coffee shop I used to go to daily; it got boring.

The job I have; it’s gone down the hill to boring.

A big client I’m working with right now; the brand is boring. (…reason I have them as a client.)

I quit talking about an old favorite restaurant; boring, boring, boring.

I’ve let more friends I can count on two hands go; they were boring.

Dare I say, you might be boring too.

You might be boring if you’re not learning new tricks of your trade. You’re certainly getting boring if you’re playing things safe. Boring doesn’t just happen. Boring isn’t some sort of natural roadblock on the path to building a successful business. Being boring isn’t a prerequisite for making a breakthrough in the market. Boring is a choice.

You choose to avoid risks and stay in your comfort zone. You choose to remain out of the conversation of friends. You choose to show or, in most cases, hide your personality.

If you’re bored, what do you do? You do just about anything that will make you not feel bored, right? The same goes for customers, for friends, for clients. If you want to lose customers to your competitors (and fast!), be boring.

Do just about anything to not be boring and there’s no way you won’t be talked about, interacted with, referred to. Isn’t that your goal?

 

Stay Positive & If You Don’t Try (Something New), You Will Fail (By Becoming Boring)

What You Don’t Realize You’re Getting Paid For

Garth Beyer

Right now, as you’re reading this, you’re getting paid to ignore the trolls, turn your shoulder to the critics and shun the naysayers. Invite this belief into your world: you get paid to mute those who try dragging you down. I have yet to measure an action that receives more return on investment than ignoring trolls.

Concerned there’s an honest opinion that may help improve your work somewhere deep in the paragraph of disdain. Why not ask a friend to read the comment for you and let you know if they agree with anything. The thing about trolls is they will keep on trolling. The thing about friends is they can provide true, helpful criticism.

Ignore the trolls. Keep your faith, your motivation, your passion.

Listen to them. Lose everything.

It’s a downward spiral.

 

Stay Positive & You Can’t Please Everyone (Nor Should You Want To)

Appeal To The Masses, But If That Fails

Garth Beyer

–  Create a gadget for everyone to carry with them.

–  Write a cook book everyone can read.

–  Design a sweatshirt everyone will wear.

–  Build a desk everyone can use.

Good luck… However, if none of those tasks work out and you find yourself incapable of appealing to the masses, perhaps, just perhaps try some of the following:

–  Sketch something only a few may appreciate.

–  Design an app only a few will love.

–  Write a blog only a few will read daily.

–  Build nightstands only a few can get their hands on.

While scarcity practically multiplies your success rate, so does personalization. Make something only a few will love. I’m not sure where anyone got in their minds to be successful you have to appeal to the masses. I’m not even sure why some businesses and individuals make it an end goal.

It also pays to remember you can only stretch yourself out to so many people. Do you think you can appeal to the masses? Better question, do you even want to?

 

Stay Positive & It’s Okay Better If You Don’t

It Will Be There In The Morning

Garth Beyer

How do you feel reading the title? Does it make you cringe? Knowing the work you have will be there in the morning no matter how late you stay at the office?

Or is it a commitment to a work/life balance? Go ahead and leave work at 5, it’s okay, the work will be there in the morning. Make sure you have a life too.

Or does it invoke passion? Does it blow air at the fire in your belly? Do you go to sleep thankful for having something you’re passionate about to work on in the morning?

Let’s be sure we’re doing work that matters and work we love.

 

Stay Positive & No, There Isn’t A Difference Between The Two

 

Add All The Public Relations Curb Appeal You Want

Garth Beyer

You’re a realtor. If the house is a log cabin and you’re trying to appeal to a more modernistic Le Corbusier-type of consumer, sprucing up the curb, the walkway, the mailbox won’t do it.

Companies who are labeled with a target consumer, don’t often grab hold of someone new outside of the described (and perceived) demographic. (And that’s okay!)

Apple might pick up some 60+ year olds, but do they really contribute to the success of Apple?

Hot Topic might get a preppy teenager to come in the store by advertising polos, but is it a smart use of space for the possibility of reaching a different demographic member?

Lands’ End might try appealing to a younger generation of women, but will the advertising strategy work?

Many businesses throw themselves under the bus by trying to be something they are not, by trying to wiggle their way into the minds of a different demographic. What happens? They end up ignoring the strength of the tribe they already have. Curb appeal may grab the attention of difference consumers, but at the same time it confuses your current ones.

At some point you have to realize you need to create a new product to reach the new target audience (if that’s really what you want). At some point, no amount of curb appeal will attract the number of new customers you hope for.

My advice when you know you’re at the end of the rope, tie a knot.

Praise your current market. Instead of paving a new pathway to the house, add more to it. Give back to existing customers. If your business is a traditional one, drop the idea of a mobile app and revert back to rewarding those who share through word of mouth and refer you to friends.

Apple is successful because they admire the early adopters. Hot Topic is still open because everything is still black and they have CDs. Lands’ End will grow more if they create a referral program for consecutive consumers rather than telling 20-year-olds what they should be wearing (without changing the style of the product, merely its curb appeal).

I’m a PR strategist who prides himself in being honest. Can you get new customers? Certainly. Can you get the number of new customers you want (or will need once you start confusing your existing/returning ones)? No.

Sometimes it’s easier, better, cheaper to build a new house than to add to the curb appeal of the one you own. (Especially when the one you own is beautiful as it is!) Plus, it’s more fun to create a new product that fits the target audience you want than to stretch the fabrics of the current product. Sooner or later, it won’t fit your consumer base, and that’s when you crumble.

 

Stay Positive & Tie A Knot And Show It Off