Kelly Robinson, Author at Kropmark Design

A good referral

September 10, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

If you network, you will certainly hear the phrase “a good referral for me is…” more than once. Networking is, after all, a way to help other businesses to succeed and to be helped in the process. I rarely bring referrals up in my own networking, as I prefer to allow leads to grow naturally and organically. However, this topic does give me an excuse to discuss who my clients tend to be and what to look for in businesses that might be helped by Kropmark Design.

Customers of Kropmark Design typically come to us for the following reasons:

You are starting a new Business

Most folks starting a new business today realize the necessity of a website and will make it one of their first priorities. The downside of this is that new businesses rarely have a lot of capital, causing some owners to make the mistake of getting a cheap (and cheaply done) web page design. Which leads me to my next type of client…

You are unhappy with your cheaply-made website

Although a website built through a free website builder will work in a pinch, most business owners realize quickly that there are significant drawbacks to these types of sites. For one, they rarely look as professional as a web page design should be in order to bring in finicky (discriminating?) clients. Second, many of these hosting providers will include only the most basic functionality in your website. Adding a blog, e-commerce or other advanced functions will often increase your monthly rate. These nickel and dime style charges begin to accumulate, and your “inexpensive” website becomes significantly more pricey. This process leads me to my next type of client…

You want to upgrade to a more powerful, flexible and functional website

The restrictions of a non-cms (content management system) website eventually will frustrate most business owners, forcing them to look at better website options. Why would any business pay a monthly charge for blog functionality on a cheap website when they can get a powerful and flexible website with an integrated blog for a one-time fee? Businesses that come to this conclusion will discover that a cms website provides the balance of good looks, adaptability, ease of use and power that other web page designs lack.

You are not getting found by the right customers

Many business owners have great websites, but they are not tapping into online clients as much as they should. These businesses ask for help with their search engine optimization, Google Analytics, or Google Places accounts. Some businesses need help creating quality print advertising or coupon offers.

You ARE getting found by the WRONG customers

Some businesses receive scathing online reviews that they previously did not know existed (Note: you can run your business with top notch customer service and still recieve bad reviews). These businesses realize the damage that negative online reviews can have, or they realize the positive impact that five star reviews of their business can have and ask Kropmark Design to help monitor their online customer feedback.

You want to market your business in other ways, but don’t have the resources

Many businesses want to tap into social media but don’t have the time or knowledge to do so. Some businesses come to Kropmark Design because they want professional print design and layout for their presentations, but they don’t have the proper software or ability to design it themselves.

So then, who are the customers of Kropmark Design?

Business startups
Growing businesses who need web page design or advertising help
Businesses who have at least ten customers a day and need their reputation monitored
Business that have a storefront, especially restaurants and retail

Kropmark Design enjoys working with other designers, marketing agencies and programmers who need additional design help but don’t want another full-time employee. Kropmark Design has also worked with many publishers in need of design, pre-press or production help.

We help other businesses to succeed. It is not just our mission statement, it is what Kropmark Design does and who we are. If you can relate to any of the above descriptions, trust us to provide a quality, high value product that is made with creativity, integrity and precision. We look forward to working with you.

Image by Comstock

Competition versus Collaboration

August 30, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

I do a lot of networking, and as you might expect I have run across many other businesspeople who are in the field of web design. Most of them are quite friendly, although I get the feeling that they wonder if I might take food off of their children’s plates some day. Although I have a great deal of respect for my competitors, these encounters have made an impression on me of the vast differences between competition and collaboration.

Those who are focused on competition see their counterparts in the same occupation as a threat. They may try to “one up” their competition at networking events when discussing their businesses, or even secure clients that are already in negotiations with other designers. They may not be receptive to working in collaboration with another business that they consider a competitor.

It’s my philosophy that in a town of 500,000 people there is more than enough web design work to go around, so I don’t really feel threatened by other Colorado Springs website designers. But there is an even greater desire within me to do something more than just make a buck, and that is to steadily increase my impact by expanding my network, my influence and my power to help other people. In other words, I believe in the power of collaboration rather than competition.

It is a basic premise. I once heard that one oxen can pull with only it’s own strength, but two oxen yoked together can pull significantly more than double the strength of just one ox. There is power in collaboration, whether it is on the football field or the archaelogical dig or in the world of web design. Because of this, I am always looking for other web designers to team up with who are talented and who share my view of collaboration. I also look for businesspeople who are open to strategic partnerships where we can work together on projects, and I’m developing some great relationships with other businesses because of this.

Ultimately, I believe that website designers who are collaborative are better at what they do. After all, isn’t design itself a collaborative effort between the client and the designer? The best designers are GOOD LISTENERS who hear what you have to say about your business and your marketing goals and put their own agendas aside in order to serve you. They will think about your competitors and your customers, and their designs will cater to the likes and dislikes of your market rather than their own personal biases. Designers that are prima donnas or who don’t comprehend that graphic design is driven by customer service miss the point and ultimately fail their clients.

Once, when I was employed full-time as a book designer (although most of what I did was art direction), we contracted out an illustration to a local Colorado Springs design company. The designer was given the text of a children’s book and asked to come up with cover illustrations based on the book concept. The result was an illustration featuring a cute little bee, which unfortunately had absolutely nothing to do with the concept of the book. When asked do justify the choice of a bee in the design, the designer responded by saying, “Well, I like bees.”

At Kropmark Design, our greatest satisfaction is helping other businesses to succeed. We do this by listening to what you have to say, by examining what your competition does well and does poorly, by analyzing what your customers are looking for and how to appeal to them, by communicating with you at every step of the design process, and by revising and refocusing until the final product is just right. It is a COLLABORATIVE process, not a competitive process. If you want to buy a widget, you go the the store and pay the price of a widget. No collaboration is needed. However, good web design and good graphic design grow from a working relationship between professionals striving to attain the same goal. Great Colorado Springs website design is what we do at Kropmark Design.

Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Gain CONTROL of your website – Ask the RIGHT questions before hiring a web designer

August 22, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

I have been researching “Top Questions to ask before Hiring a Website Designer” on Google. The results I have found are typical of ones that you would ask for any profession: What is the Price, the Timeframe, your Experience, Referrals, and your Availability? Some of the things I came across are web design specific, such as: Do you have a Portfolio, do you know the appropriate Programming Languages (HTML, CSS, PHP, etc), and do you understand Site Security? These are all great questions to ask, but it seems like there is one incredibly important question that is being overlooked.

This question is:

“Will I own my website, hosting and url and will I be able to make changes to the website on my own?”

What this VERY important questions asks is, “WHO HAS CONTROL?” Do you, the business owner, have ownership of your website, or does the website designer have this power (and do you trust them with it)?

The reason all these questions came about for me is because of a networking one-on-one I had this week. The colleague I was speaking with was meeting me for the first time, and he wanted to ascertain if I was a legitimate website designer or not. So he asked me whether I buy the domain names for clients or if I let them buy it themselves. My reply is that I usually have the clients buy their domain on their own, and only make recommendations of what url to purchase (so that it is SEO friendly) and how and where to obtain their own hosting.

This was a positive answer in the opinion of my colleague, because he has encountered crooked website designers who purchased the domain name and hosting for their clients only to abuse and extort their clients later. As soon as the domain name was up for renewal, these website designers would increase their prices to exorbitant levels. Apparently, they view their clients as sources of income rather than human beings.

As you know, there are people who make an entire profession of domain name reselling. Similar to a ticket scalper at a sporting event, these people buy “in-demand” domain names anticipating that a business might be willing to purchase them at inflated prices later. However, for a website design professional to engage in this type of activity is a clear conflict of interest.

It comes down to a basic question of ethics: Are clients only an avenue from which to gain money (self serving), or are they people who deserve your respect (serving others)?

It also frustrates me that some website designers force their clients to use proprietary programs for their websites. These custom-coded systems severely restrict the access that business owners have to their website, forcing them to pay the designer for any changes that need to be made. But why would a website designer force a client into a content management system that is accessible only to the designer, especially when there are so many reliable, universally supported open-source systems available to use? It may be argued that the custom content management system is more efficient for the designer because he knows the program so well. I would argue that this prioritizes convenience for the designer rather than prioritizing the goals of the client.

At Kropmark Design, we operate our business with integrity and look out for the interests of our clients. We will not purchase your domain name or hosting for you, unless you specifically request this. Although we do make web hosting recommendations and are affiliates of some hosting programs, we do not force our clients into any of these choices and are happy to work with any legitimate hosting company. And most important, we do not force our clients to use a proprietary website system that only we can edit. We only use well-supported content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. These systems allow you, the business owner, to make most changes to the website yourself without the need to pay us another penny. And if you decide to work with another website designer for future website modifications, these systems will allow that (although we would be sad to lose you as a customer).

In other words, we give YOU, the business owner, CONTROL. We know that if you are smart enough to run your own business, then you are also smart enough to manage your own website. Once your website is completed, we will train you in how to manage your own online changes and will give you full administrator access to every aspect of your website. We hand over the keys to your website when the job is complete, and any website designer who does something less than this is suspect.

Don’t forget to ask the right questions of your website designer. Make sure that you can own and manage your website yourself and don’t feel forced into any situation where you feel you lack control or are getting a lower value product from your website designer.

Images courtesy of Pixomar and Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Willy Wonka Websites

August 15, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

I have been singing Willy Wonka songs lately (and by the way, I came up with this idea WAY before Russell Brand did his horrible rendition at the Olympic Closing Ceremonies). Just like most Americans, I have also been watching the Olympics and cheering for the good ol’ USA to win some medals. This got me thinking about how these two disparate concepts might relate to designing websites, and believe it or not I came up with a moderately sane analogy!

Clearly, it is not healthy to eat junk food all day long. You may survive, but you end up fat and tired like poor Augustus Gloop whose gluttony caused him to fall into the chocolate river and get squeezed into a vacuum tube. I’m sure we would all rather be like the Usain Bolts of the world, physically fit and feeling great. However, this requires more time, more discipline, eating a healthy diet and working out regularly.

The analogy is that many businesses have junk food websites. What I mean by this is that business owners, especially when starting their business, cut corners on the health of their website design. They pay for a cheap 1and1 website or try to make their own site through GoDaddy’s website builder tools, rationalizing that they can upgrade to a better website once they gain more capital. However, most business owners either never upgrade, wait too long to upgrade, or go out of business before they can upgrade. Those that go out of business sometimes can attribute their lack of success directly to their poorly managed website.

They spend no time optimizing their websites to be found by search engines, and are therefore never found by their online customers. They don’t spend any time linking to their websites from all of the free directories and customer feedback websites that are available. They don’t bother tapping into social media marketing to expand their online presence. They don’t blog, they don’t include any lead generation forms on their website, they don’t do e-blasts… their website and online presence are malnourished and underperforming This is the junk food website.

On the other hand, business owners who give their website lots of attention, good nutrition and regular exercise will find their online presence becoming more healthy and robust. Feed your website a healthy diet of backlinks, using the online tools available to you. Give your website design yearly checkups with a trained web designer who can evaluate the levels of your on-site search engine optimization. Exercise your website with a weekly regimen of blog entries to keep your content fresh. Jog the memories of your customers by keeping in touch with them through regular emails. You will see your website winning gold in no time!

Heed my advice and don’t make me start an Oompa Loompa song on you. Uh oh, here comes one now…

Oompa Loompa, Loompa-Dee-Doo
I have another puzzle for you
Oompa Loompa, Loompa-Dee-Dee
If you are wise, you’ll listen to me

What do you get when your website is junk?
Too much free time, and your business is sunk
Call Kropmark now, get your business in shape
Websites and more with no red tape… just hard work and integrity!

Image from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory / Warner Bros.