content management


At Virtual Viewing, we work with companies and organisations of all sizes and in all sectors to develop websites that make the very most of the opportunities – and the budgets – that are available to each client.

We have worked with many of our clients over a number of years, building partnerships where we are able to combine our skills – not just in the technical aspects of development, but in using the in-built measurability of digital and online media to analyse online performance to offer recommendations that maximise the use of available resources – with our customers’ industry expertise to continuously refine and enhance their online presence.

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All businesses and organisations work in their own ways, and serve different markets with different goods and services, but they have at least one thing in common: a need to make their marketing budget work as effectively as possible. Your existing marketing mix may include: your own printed materials; trade, national and local newspaper advertising; direct mail and/or email campaigns. Embracing internet marketing can add a whole new range of channels: websites, search engine advertising, email campaigns, social media and much more. But the continuing responsibility of marketing budget holders is to balance spending in these areas to maximise effectiveness.

The percentage of your business that comes directly from websites or email campaigns will vary from one sector to another. A business selling goods online, for example, should make every effort (through email campaigns, search engine advertising and integrated use of social media) to drive as much traffic as possible to the website, as cost of sales online may well be substantially lower. The context may be very different for a consultancy, where the role of a website or an email campaign is more likely to focus on establishing brand positioning and values, making the latest news, offers and service details available as quickly as possible, providing information about services and including calls to action that encourage – and make it easy – for web site visitors – to make contact with appropriate points within the business.

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If your business operates in a crowded and competitive marketplace, how can you make sure your website really stands out from the crowd and serves you best?

The shortest answer to this question is probably “think it through”. Although we now accept the idea of the web being an interactive environment, too many businesses still treat it as a ‘broadcast’ medium – “here’s our online brochure, please admire it”. But there are simple pieces of sound advice that might help you to kick-start your thinking:

  • analyse the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors’ sites to – are they clearly laid out or cluttered, easy or hard to navigate and use, what features and functionality do they have (and learn from this)
  • focus on what your audience want/need to know about as much as what you feel you have to tell them: to engage them, it is your audience you need to address – you are not your own customer (and remember, they control they mouse)
  • play to your strengths – your web site is your ‘shop window’, and you need to present yourself in the best light.

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No doubt you’ve been party to many a conversation about presentation and image too; probably so many than any sense of ‘party’ is hard to muster. The role of visual imagery in presentation is as undeniable as the abundance of clichés in modern life. Like everyone else, you’ll also have heard the expression ‘a picture paints a thousand words’. But have you remembered the following line of the song: “then why can’t I paint you?”

Not all clichés are truisms, of course: this article couldn’t be summed up in a single picture. So why, on the web, are there so many clichés – in terms of content and use – when it comes to including imagery? Why, instead of painting a thousand positive or informative words, do so many images say ‘we went to a photo library’, ‘we took these ourselves’, or ‘we might be good at we do, but it’s not photography’?

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… but, please dear Lord, nothing borrowed or blue.” Weddings? In a web development blog? Have I been overdoing the coffee? What I’m talking about is web site content – and, more particularly, the words. It seems such an innocuous subject, doesn’t it? It’s just words, after all. Slap up the text out of the brochure, bung in a few press releases and bingo! Well, no actually. It’s not that simple. What is still known in some circles as ‘new media’ actually demands some old-fashioned skills from what our geekier friends used to sneeringly refer to as the ‘dead tree industries’.

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‘Content is king’ is one of those Internet developer mantras that we’re never sure if our clients can hear us humming to ourselves under our breath. But it’s always one that’s worth remembering: no matter how much multimedia distraction you lard on top, a website with no worthwhile content is always going to be a case of the Emperor’s New Website. If your website is going to be a window to the rest of the world, it’s hard not to paraphrase the proverbial teenager’s mother’s cry to something like “Do you really want your company going out like that?

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