Before I started designing websites, I had a conversation with a web designer about a project he was working on.

“I’m stuck!” he said with frustration. “The site is all there, I’m just waiting for them to get me the content!”

I thought to myself, “If you don’t have content, what do you have?”

This may be boring to you (it’s exciting to me), but the very first and most important phase of your website is like a writing assignment (but don’t worry, it’s not like school). Get a pen and paper and start writing down everything you want to say. What is amazing about your subject? What is unique? What are the details?

I tell my clients to just make a rough, sketchy list if they wish. i smooth it out and make it into finished copy, as part of my service. Actually, I prefer to do the final writing, since how you present and how you frame your communication is very important.

A website is text, copy, information. Everything else is decoration.

In the last few weeks, I’ve seen 2 different companies run banner ads on the Herald-Zeitung website, that led to websites that were “under construction.”

What’s going on here?

I’m going to go ahead and say I really like this Mac ad campaign from Apple Computer, Inc. The commercial features two men against a white background. One man represents a PC computer and the other man represents a Mac computer.

Mac: “Hello, I’m a Mac”
PC: “And I’m a PC”
PC: “What are you reading?”
Mac: “Just the Wall Street Journal, it’s nothing. Oh no no, ”
PC: “Oh it’s a review of you”
Mac: “Don’t read it”
PC: “Oh, it’s from Walt Mossberg, one of the most respected technology experts on the planet. Apparently you are the finest desktop PC on the market at any price. Very nice.”
Mac: “It’s just one man’s opinion”
PC: “I actually got a great review this morning too”
Mac: “Good for you,”
PC: “So we are the same”
Mac: “What was that in?”
PC: “The, um, awesome awesome computer review weekly journal”

The commercial is simple yet elegant, and quite effective in getting the message across. Obviously, the PC is represented as “nerdy, stuffy older guy” and the Mac is “cool, creative younger guy”.

The new ads have also been shown on the Net. You can see them here.

Local advertisers, you can be simple, yet creative in your cable TV advertising. Take inspiration from this commercial. (Let me quickly add that pulling off this commercial took awesome acting talent, plus a great, understated script. I’m not saying it is easy to do)

Update: I wanted to say that I am a PC user, so there is no bias in my admiration of this campaign. I guess I’m the nerdy guy.

Regarding my post below, I do not want to give the impression that I do not do search engine optimization. Our agency optimizes sites as best possible when we build them.

When there is an opportunity to successfully optimize a site, I will go all out to do it. Go to Google and type NEW BRAUNFELS ADVERTISING and see who is listed at the top (at least for now). Also, for one of my real estate clients, I discovered an often used search term with little competition, and optimized her site to rate at the top for that term. (I won’t give details, for obvious reasons).

When is search engine optimization too much to ask? The answer is when there is so much web competition and your business has a very general description. For instance, if you are in the mortgage business, I don’t think I can do search engine optimization for you. In fact I would recommend other avenues of marketing.

There is has been an ongoing debate about search engines and search engine optimization. For it, or against it? Expensive, or low-cost solutions (not a good question, it all depends on the competition)?

What do you think is most important? Figuring out the latest way to outsmart the search engines, or running your business in the best way possible, making your website customer friendly, and building a loyal following?

I tend to agree with Seth Godin’s opinion (this is an old post).

Just to be fair, I will link to a rebuttal of Godin here.

Valid points on both sides. What I would want people to know is this…

(1) How you run your business is most important. (2) In many ways, it’s just going to take good old fashioned advertising to build your web traffic. (3) Search Engine Optimization may be right for you, but good service in this specialty is going to cost a lot of money. Anything that’s cheap or automated is not worth it.

First, I want to say that our local radio station, KGNB/KNBT, has some real talented people (DJ’s and Sales) who produce some real nice commercials. I am impressed.

There is a commercial that I find very annoying, and, it is not from our local talent. It sounds very much like an ad agency commercial, either regional or national. It is meant to be funny, but, it is not. Especially after the hundredth time you’ve heard it.

Planning a radio commercial? This is advice from old, old advertising cranks (not just me): Don’t try to be funny! Funny radio is great, but it can only be done by top, super talent, and the script has to be really funny. Also, consideration must be made in how often the commercial is played each day.

Be powerful. Be jolting or interesting. Most of all, be effective in getting your message across. But, beware of “funny”. It is very hard to do a funny radio commercial, that doesn’t end up being extremely annoying and unliked (perhaps hurting effectiveness).

I have not mentioned the company running the commercial I referred to. But, the fact is, I don’t think I can recall the company.

In the late Eighties I was doing graphic design and advertising work on a part time basis, while trying to change careers. I was trying to leave the engineering/drafting world, and get into the advertising world. That means I would answer ads and send resumes, and pretty much hear nothing from the companies.

In 1991 I went to work for a printing company. I had determined that printing companies might be somewhere at the start of a career ladder to a major advertising profession. I had the good fortune to work for a very talented printer, who taught me a lot about preparing artwork and film for the press.

I was determined to go back to school, but first I went to a private career counseling business to get advice on my future. They gave me a strange little test and told me, point-blank, to be a lawyer! I thought that was weird then, and I still think it’s weird today. When I returned to school, I took the school career tests, and “lawyer” was nowhere near the top.

I was telling myself that I would not pursue graphic design or advertising any longer, but I always ended up in the college library, poring over advertising books. One day I came home, completely on fire to start an ad agency. My wife was quite shocked. In June of 1993, I left the printing job. My wife and I started working on ad agency plans, and by November we had clients and work.

I had managed to stumble into the right groove, for finding work in the New Braunfels and surrounding area. I was a “print man”. When most of my friends thought about advertising, they thought of glamorous TV and Radio work. Our agency did none of that, with a few exceptions. We did newspaper campaigns, brochures, and direct mail. It was the foundation, the practical solution, that most businesses needed, no matter what size they were.

As we were happily moving along, feeling confident in our print focus, we would hear excited talk now and then, about a strange new thing called the Internet, and the World Wide Web. The “web” would soon creep into the everyday conversation of business people. It was the “new thing”. Some thought it would be the “thing” that would replace all of their marketing needs (this was how Internet and web salespeople used to push it at the time).

There is one thing the Web did for certain. It took away the old rock-solid, can’t-miss print business market. Of course, it isn’t completely replacing print, but, today a businessperson usually thinks of getting a website first, whereas ten years ago, it would have been a brochure.

Today, websites make up much of our agency’s work, along with brochures, print ads, radio commercials, and some cable television. During my “print man” days, I could get very excited while talking about print advertising. I knew all the wonderful things that it could do. These days I am very excited about the ever-evolving Web and the possibilities that it brings. Of course, it is hardly an advertising medium. It is more of an important structure for a business, just like an office building, staff, etc.

This is my first post on this blog. I hope you add this blog to your favorites and visit it often. You may find something that will help you with your business. I will be writing about business advertising and communication, and whatever smart or whacky things I come across in this enterprise.