I’ve only been blogging for a couple of months now but I’ve seen the benefits and I’m definitely a believer. Because we track everything we do, we can directly attribute a significant increase in our web rankings on Google to our blog efforts. Jerry, who manages our Web, IT and SEO and Robin who heads up our Promotional Services are also frequent bloggers on our site.

From my perspective, there is no shortage of marketing related topics to write about. I find it somewhat therapeutic as a matter of fact and enjoy putting my digital pen to paper as a regular part of my weekly ritual. At this point, we haven’t seen direct comments in response to our blogs but they are being read and shared. As we gain more experience in this venue and with time, we hope our efforts will be helpful to others and that eventually we’ll get more interaction and collaboration on the various subject areas posted.

This past 4-day week we had two sales leads that materialized as a direct result of our web marketing. One where we weren’t the right solution (company was looking for canned newsletter content) and one that was right up our alley and turned into an appointment. Not all that significant maybe, except that 1 branding/web appointment for us can turn into 20-50,000 dollars of immediate work and a customer for life.

In the B2B environment, I believe getting your web ranking higher organically is (at a minimum) like having another full time sales person on the road and at a fraction (3%) of the cost. Similar to adding a new sales person it takes time to see the results. In this past economy it can be 6-9 months before you see the benefit…but there are soft benefits in the meantime. Now more than ever, the purchasers of your services are forming opinions of your organization based on your presence on the web. Your message needs to be clear; your look professional and when someone searches, ending up on the first page in your category doesn’t hurt.

Like a song or a painting, there are an infinite number of approaches you can take to create your company website. Continuing the comparison, there are karaoke and paint by number methodologies that you should steer clear of. Why? We believe your web  (now more than ever) is the front line of your marketing and should have a personality and message that truly depicts who your company is today and why customers should pick you over your competition.

The more recognized the brand the more you can concentrate on information and functionality. In our case, building sites for the B2B world, our customers are well known but in smaller circles. With an emerging  change of the guard in decision makers (younger, more educated, more  internet savvy and increasingly more female) we feel injecting some clear messaging and marketing spin is a critical ingredient.

Within our transportation niche, customers put online management tools and real time visibility ahead of everything else. They feel the need to compete with big integrators like FedEx and UPS and many put their website on hold for years until this functionality is in place. As much as these online tools are now a necessary part of doing business, I think this is a mistake. Here is why…

First. Your website makes an impression on several  markets. Existing customers, potential customers, existing and prospective employees, partnership opportunities and possible strategic alliances. Your web development approach can address all these elements now while your back end functionality is being developed. When they are ready to marry up, we’ll arrange the wedding and your IT department can take a well deserved honeymoon. The “front end” can work for you immediately and needs to be developed independently anyway….why wait?

Second. Your customers could use FedEX or UPS now. Why don’t they? In the same way you can’t offer the same level of online functionality (they have 30,000 people in their respective IT departments)they cannot offer the same level of customization and personalized service that smaller companies excel at. That’s the slingshot that can bring the giant down. Keep it loaded.

Third. Your customers ‘ requirements are as unique as a top ten song or a Picasso.  There is a reason you exist. Recognize that uniqueness and speak to it. With the help of a well developed site and the latest search engine marketing you can pull customers in that need your brand of service. It’s not immediate, it may take 6-9 months to see results…but it’s time well spent.

When developing fixed width websites, there was always some kind of width standard in place. Back when a majority of users were using a 800×600 pixel screen resolution, we would design our websites at 770 pixels. All of the fixed width sites that we develop now are at 960 pixels (for 1024×768 resolutions), and it will probably stay that way until later this year, were we’ll re-evaluate at what new standard we will develop websites for. According to W3Schools and NetMarketShare, there are still 20%-25% of users out there that utilize a 1024×768 pixel screen resolution, and anywhere from 1%-3% that utilize 800×600. In fact, 1024 by 768, is the leading screen resolution according to NetMarketShare. So when developing a website you don’t want to alienate over 1/4 of your visitors by having them do side scrolling in order to get to content. We know that 1024×768 is in decline. Around the same time next year, there will be probably less than 15% of people utilizing 1024×768 or lesser resolution.

So the question becomes, what is the next “standard”?

If you had asked me this question a couple of years ago, I would have answered without hesitation, as the next resolution for 4:3 aspect ratio screens after 1024×768, is 1280×1024. Things were a bit simpler to figure out back then. Over the past decade, the most common screen resolutions were 640×480 (VGA), 800×600 (SVGA), 1024×768 (XGA) and 1280×1024 (SXGA), that is, until widescreen (16:9 aspect) monitors came along. Along with the widescreen monitors, we saw an explosion of portable devices such as laptops, netbooks, tablets and even cell phones utilizing the new aspect ratio, and varying  screen resolutions such as 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1366×768 and the list goes on.

So when it comes to developing the next standard consider a width that is divisible by 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 16. A year ago, Cameron Moll gave several suggestions for the next ideal width on his blog, being most comfortable with 1080. This is the most likely resolution that we will switch to.

Keep in mind though, that not everyone will surf the web at full browser width, so the 960 pixel standard may stick around for a while. In addition to this, many big sites such as Yahoo!, Youtube, CNN, and the majority of corporate websites are still designed for 960. If you wish to make your website design slightly more unique, you may want to experiment with unique backgrounds that extend the limitations of the 960 design space. In the meantime, we just might upgrade to 980, which is the upper width limit for 1024×768.

Happy Web Designing!