Adnet - Building for Business

Well what do you know, I do believe we've actually pulled it off. A couple of hard grafting Saturdays saw the vision implemented. Not perfect, but good and there to be built upon. Check out the New Adnet Website, personally I'm very pleased. It captures the tone, creates the right impressions and the initial feedback had been varied and mainly positive. I think our web site is now making a positive contribution to our business rather than being a lacklustre placeholder. Thank you Fergal and Alan (and me) now back to the graft :-)

My colleague Fergal Byrne (Adnets Technical Director) has been a keen photographer since the mid 1990's and shows some of his work on his Dublin in bits website. He has always gone exclusively to Conns Cameras for equipment, film, prints and advice. Over the years he developed a great personal relationship with Bob and Mike which eventually led to Adnet developing Conns first website.

There was some early talk about ecommerce and selling equipment directly online, but after gaining some insight into what it is that Conns do right we realised that this was an inappropriate use of the web for their business. The secret to Conns Cameras highly successful business is Client Service. People go there for the excellent advice, the depth of knowledge and the quality of service. This key difference between Conns and the other camera shops in Dublin is becoming increasingly important as margins on equipment get tighter.

In keeping with the quality of service ethic that pervades Conns Cameras we decided to build a rich product catalogue and information resource and make it available online. This resouce is maintained by Conns themselves and includes detailed product information and links to manufacturers data. This approach has had a number of beneficial effects:

• The product database has helped make the website an excellent search engine trap, generating 40,000 plus page views from 7,000 to 8,000 visits per month.
• It provides a useful reference to existing clients and continues the excellent service ethic online.
• People print out pages from the site and visit the shop to continue the chat, often resulting directly in sales.
• Draws dozens of online enquiries every week.

From its initial launch in early 2002 to the present the Conns Cameras Website has made a significant contribution to a very successful business. The success of the website prompted the next major online development, the recently launched Conns Cameras Online Print Services I shall discuss this in my next blog.

The Story of Dave and Adnet

I met Dave in 1994 while working on contract for Digital in Galway. At the time Daves vision for the Yoga Centre was in its nascent phase and he was busy putting in place the elements he would later need to fulfil his vision. My own imaginings of the future were strongly coloured by the emerging World Wide Web and shortly after I left to become involved with Adnet, back in Dublin. Myself and Dave kept in touch over the years and as his yoga centre began to take shape in 1999/2000 we decided to put together a simple website for the centre.

We set-up an initial website for Dave and provided him with some content management software (CMS) and a little training. As an ex-tech himself Dave was well equiped to embrace the technology and set about building out the content of the website with course information, articles about yoga, and information about the leading teachers he was bringing to the centre. The strategy worked well, the search engines started to notice his site and the enquiries started to build.

The early successes encouraged Dave to invest some more in his website and the next two elements we decided on were to improve the visual and navigational aspects of the site and add an electronic mailing list function. This led to a significantly improved “Brand” image for the site and much easier navigation of the expanding volume of content. The content was also proving to be very attractive to the search engines and Dave’s traffic and enquiries continued to build.

By 2004 it had become clear that it was time to implement an online booking system to handle the volume of enquiries and take the paperwork, time and human error out of that process. This feature proved to be very popular with the visitors and has vastly improved Daves ability to manage track and analyse his course bookings.

In 2005 we added a teachers and course information database to the website. This is part of Dave’s ongoing efforts to Build Community keep his centre at the forefront of the Yoga community. This helps raise awareness for the centre among teachers (major influencers) and practitioners while being an extremely useful resource for both teachers and people looking for suitable yoga classes in their area.

Today the Burren yoga website has over a 1000 pages of content and gets typically 8000 unique visitor every month. Most of Dave’s course are booked out well in advance primarily through the online booking facility. Dave continues to work at his vision and we continue to provide expertise, support and maintenance for his website. If you are looking do something good for yourself and have an enjoyable and memorable break I have no hesitation in reccommending a visit to the Burren Yoga and Meditation Centre.

Question.......
How can a niche business, operating in the west of Ireland, become a centre of excellence and consistently draw clients from all over the world, with a modest marketing budget?

Burren Yoga & Meditation Centre

Start with a vision.

• A beautiful location.
• The best teachers from around the world.
• Excellent courses.
• Comfortable accomodation and great food.
• A memorable experience.

Building the Business

• Letting your target audience know.
• Making it easy to find and book a course.
• Keeping in touch with your audience.
• Repeat visitors and personal referrals.
• Community Building.

Working the Website

• Website Content.
• Online bookings.
• Electronic Mailing list.
• Teachers database.

A casual glance at most websites leaves most people unimpressed. The good looking ones are often difficult to use, and we quickly move on. If the website offers something we really want, we will often persist, despite its shortcomings.

A good website will:
1. Look well and project an appropriate impression.
2. Function easily and correctly.
3. Provide the visitor with something they want.
4. Add value to your business.

So what makes a good website, which particular bag of visual creativity and technical gimmickery makes the difference. The answers are as broad ranging as the businesses which the websites serve. Each business is unique and almost all businesses can benefit from a good website. The key to building a successful website is the quality of the process from which it unfolds.