As the green shoots of recovery begin to show through the credit crunch cloud that has hung over businesses for the past two years, we talk to Benjamin Benn, director of Silver Pride Software, about helping companies take control of their online marketing and finding new sources of business.
“Over the past six months, more and more businesses have been coming to me asking where they are going wrong with their current websites and how they can attract new business via their website. It wasn’t so long ago that we were a new business ourselves, trying to accomplish the same feat, so I can speak both from knowledge and experience. The answer from our point of view is simple – keep your website fresh and interesting and take more control of your online marketing.
Traditionally, content management systems (CMS) were reserved for elite businesses with huge turnovers. CMS systems, which required technical expertise, allowed users to make limited changes to certain areas of the website and were often difficult to use and navigate.
We at Silver Pride wanted to simplify content management and remove the barrier that seemed to exist between the websites of SME’s and large corporations, in order to even out the playing field and give SME’s a better chance against their competitors.
We wanted to develop a content management system that was as easy to use as a word processor, so that practically anyone could add, remove or edit the company website and keep it up-to-date with the latest news and information on their products or services. After years of development work, we came up with our innovative new SPARK web management suite.
By installing a content management system into your online business profile, you are effectively giving yourself the control to manage your own website and communicate directly with your customers. But having a website is just the first step in communicating with your existing and potential customers. In order to make them keep visiting the site and maintaining that communication, you need to keep your website fresh and interesting, so they have a reason to keep coming back to take a look.
It’s important when choosing any online website management tool such as a CMS or e-commerce engine, to make sure that this system is expandable. Is the website now organic? Can additional modules be created and made available as new services such as Product Management or Sales Analysis as required? If so, can all of these elements be maintained and supported under one administration login. If not, this will have an impact on costs, security and possibly integration with other systems moving forward.
Whilst our own content management system was designed with SME’s in mind, it works for a range of different size companies.
Nono 8 Bar and Restaurant in Derby was launched in November 2008. Its location in the heart of the Derby food and drink quarter made it the hottest new spot in town, but the directors were conscious of what they needed to do to keep its clientele coming back every weekend.
We worked with them to design an interactive website that allowed them to update the site with new events, photos of customers enjoying themselves, new menus and much more. We also included a feedback forum where customers could leave their own comments and an option to allow visitors to the site to sign up for an e-newsletter from the bar.
The response was incredible and gave the company the opportunity to really promote itself, communicate with its customers and easily update the site if the menu changed, for example.
Equally, our content management system has worked wonders for global recruitment company, Elan IT. We first met with Elan IT to implement an additional portal to their existing website to enable staff to log in. The company was really pleased with the product and has since met with us to discuss rolling the SPARK content management system out globally.
Whatever the size of the company, by implementing a user-friendly content management system, a website can become a useful online marketing tool to showcase what a company can do for its customers. It will act as a portfolio, provide another means for customers to contact a company and provide a platform for it to communicate news and services and products too.
In Business - November 2009