RE: Advertising (Hopefully List Appropriate)

I'm glad this came up, since it's been on my mind lately.  What would you
say to a web designer who, instead of critiquing the design and offering a
redesign, offered a service that the company and web designer needed?  Not
to replace or insult or offend the original designer, but perhaps offer
something that would enhance the whole site.  Let me give an example, since
that's not too clear.

Let's say that one of the services I offer is to make a site's copy US or UK
specific.  So many times while I'm surfing around, I'll see a beautiful site
by a designer who is really skilled.  The navigation is great.  The
architecture is simple and complete.  Everything looks wonderfully
professional, until you read the content and find it full of grammatical
errors and idiomatic mistakes.  I've often wanted to contact them, but never
did, fearing the Spam Gods.  I wonder if they are getting the business they
would deserve to get if they had copy that was correct.  Sometimes, I've
ached to contact them!

Other points:  I was once contacted by a firm that had looked over one of my
sites and found a broken link.  Not only did my client never see the e-mail,
but I went in to fix the link and found that the linked to site was just
temporarily down!  I didn't consider it spam, but I didn't consider it
professional, either.  Not only was it rude ("We could make your site
actually WORK" when the site did, in fact, work) but it was also lazy on
their part not to recheck that link before they sent their mail.  It was
wasted time on their part.

On the other hand, I have been contacted before from web designers who have
a different skill set than I.  Let's face it, there are a lot of different
technologies in web design and no one person can be good at all of them.
They didn't offer to work against me, but with me.  It was a sort of "You do
this well, and I do that well, so if you ever need THAT, I'd like to work
with you."  I appreciated that.  It offers my clients another option if I
ever need it.  That e-mail went right into a Save These folder.

So, I think if you handle it correctly, it could be a good marketing tool.
If you don't, though, you've blown yourself right out of the water.  I think
this might fall under the "Do Unto Others" rule of business.  If you want to
enhance another web designer's skill set, that might be OK.  If you want to
take their buiness away, think again.  Many times, you only have that one
e-mail to make an impression.


Missy
MBScott(at)d-assistance.com


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
[mailto:owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org]On Behalf Of Noteworthy Web Designs
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2001 9:20 AM
To: Trevor Lockwood
Cc: Business & Life Coach Maria; Nathan Lyle; hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
Subject: Re: Advertising (Hopefully List Appropriate)


SPAM or no SPAM, it's just not a good marketing technique. In the long run,
I
think it will hurt him. It would certainly hurt him with other designers.
They
don't need to be antagonized. Look how much we consult each other just on
this
list. You never know when you're going to need to support of a "competitor".
Plus, who's to say that a certain design isn't what a customer wanted? There
are plenty of times I tried to convince a customer that a certain design
just
wouldn't work, to no avail. I lost them.........but, they didn't attract any
traffic, and some of the sites (and businesses!) no longer exist. It wasn't
just the site design, probably, but the customer's attitude that caused them
to
go out of business. If a design he deems ugly was by customer choice, he
ain't
gonna get a sale there!
Also, it smacks of solicitation, which is considered unethical in many, many
types of businesses (you'd get in serious trouble if you tried this in real
estate!)

Trevor Lockwood wrote:

> Maria
>
> I wouldn't describe Nathan's approach as SPAM, especially if the emails
are
> sent, and addressed individually. It is advertising and client seeking.
Are
> we to stop Coca Cola billboards, junk mail, adverts in newspapers and
> magazines? You added a lovely piece of SPAM in your email to Nathan -
> urging us all to look at your site, use your services.
>
> Nothing really wrong with that unless you then accuse others who are
trying
> to do the same, but in a way that is more directed.
>
> Perhaps Nathan is not being 'cool' enough with his first approach. It's no
> good telling people they have got it wrong, praise first, bite later once
> you know the fish is truly hooked.
>
> Trevor Lockwood
> www.author.co.uk (that's my bit of SPAM)

--
Karen Stafford
Noteworthy Web Designs
"Websites Composed with Jazz"
Web Design,Hosting,Search Promotion
http://www.noteworthydesigns.com

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