Should you Fire your Website?

So you employed a sales person who just isn’t bringing in the deals you were expecting, maybe they don’t always arrive on time or their appearance just seemed a little….. er… downbeat…. you would have something to tell them, wouldn’t you?
Maybe they are hard to find, even when you looked in all the usual places. Going to their home address, you discover that what they had to say was just a bit dull or even worse, there was a coming soon sign in the window…… well you would fire them…. wouldn’t you?

Your website is often the first point of contact with clients or customers. It needs to represent the very best aspects of your brand, product or service.
Take an objective, unbiased, good hard look at your website and imagine that it’s a person, an employee.

So how did that go? what would you say about your choice of representative? See any similarities to the person in this introduction?

Perhaps you chose your web designer based on price not experience. You wouldn’t hire a top sales person without first looking at their CV and results with other businesses…. would you?
It’s always a good idea to take time to look over a designers previous work and ask many questions about each project. At Avalanche Creative, we offer a free 45min consultation to make sure that both parties are equally happy to have a long term working relationship.

Just like a great employee, your website is a long term commitment that needs to change and grow with your business, so you need to find a creative partner that understands your business almost as much as you do.

“We’re a bit like a great recruitment agency who go out of their way to find you that perfect key member of staff and then continue to train them so you get the very best from them” – Andy Warrington – Creative Director

A well designed and constructed website, works harder and longer than any staff member, at a fraction of the annual cost. Your initial investment needs to be adjusted, directed, updated and developed regularly to get the most back for it, Just like any good sales team.

So…. are you ready to fire your website?

- The aluminium easel for Coffey Environments.

Avalanche aspires to unique solutions with useful and practical applications. Take for example the case of Coffey Environments: their mobile roadshow travels remote regions of Papua New Guinea communities keeping them up-to-date on local developments that impact on their lifestyle. Avalanche was able to provide a solution which greatly enhanced Coffey’s activities.

– Coffey aluminium easel in action.

The requirement was for a durable presentation system, and as Coffey Environments was conducting a two week roadshow moving through the Papua New Guinea highlands, durability was a priority. The two week roadshow would produced a great deal of physical stresses on equipment, and the display unit would need to withstand the harsh climate  and other physical conditions of the region. Typical physical challenges included variable transport like four wheel drive vehicles and helicopters, extreme humidity and heavy rainfall. Also the easel would need to be able to handle forty presentations, with up to four presentations a day. The importance of providing this information to highland communities is highlighted in the level of economic interest the natural resources of the region presents.

Coffey’s information campaign focuses on the Frieda River Project, located in Sandaun Province, Western Papua New Guinea. FRP extracts copper and gold and is a large scale metal deposit. An Xstrata Frieda River Ltd study in 2008 estimated that mining would produce 190,000 tonnes of copper and 295,000 ounces of gold per annum. Highlands Pacific and XFRL are two businesses with a strong interest in developing exploration in the Frieda River Project. They expect that by early 2012 a feasibility study must be completed in order to help facilitate project financing. So clearly much rests on the nature of mining development and how it will be managed, including environmental values.

- Coffey presentation to PNG highland community.

To assist Coffey in its information program, Peter from Avalanche Creative conducted research and material acquisition and came up with a heavy duty aluminium easel prototype. The easel met the need of displaying 10 x A0 size posters. The fabrication needed to be durable and user-friendly featuring easy assembly, light weight construction and easy poster page movement.

The easel system was a great success, with Coffey requesting another two units be produced for use on future road shows.

After a Tennessee police department let its website expire, the site was snatched up by Brian McCrary who uses it to gripe about speed cameras. The site shows a smiling cartoon police badge clutching greenbacks. It also posts gripes from those who’ve been caught speeding.

So remember to keep your Domain registration up to date!

In the great 90′s Domain grab, a whole load of Domains were grabbed by web prospectors or Cyber Squatters as we once called them. This has made it much more of a challenge to find ‘Good’ available domain names, but it’s important to know that you spend less to market and brand descriptive URLs.  Remember that you need to appeal to both Humans and Web Robots, so a good web address needs to be memorable, easy to spell, simple to say, hear and read, but most importantly your URL should be descriptive and relevant to your product or service.

Just like any post gold rush, there is always a gem laying around if you know where to look.

“I’m often amazed at some of the domain names that still haven’t been taken and equally frustrated by domains that have, but just sit there with a coming soon notice”.

The key is to do a bit of creative thinking and make a mind map of descriptive terms, and then just test the availability on a domain shopping site. If your a location based business, then narrowing down your search by using the location name i.e. (AvalancheBoronia) will inversely widen up your opportunities.

“Brand creation is a big part of what we do at Avalanche Creative Solutions, we go through a long and painstaking process of name creation and then cross referencing with available domain names as well as Business and Trade mark searches. Sometimes we strike gold and sometimes we have to go back to the creative thinking stage”

Sites like www.godaddy.com offer ‘Domain Auctions’ but this can be initially expensive. Look at premium domains – you will pay more initially but thereafter the cost to renew is exactly the same.

Please let us know what you think about this article

The Worlds first Hybrid Bus

The working title ‘The Worlds first Hybrid Bus’ was our creative starting point, and although we were going to be recycling the battery image, the overall style of communication or voice, had to be more exciting and prompt the imagination.

On a creative level, the word ‘Hybrid’ conjures up an image of a strange cross breeding experiment. An exciting chimera from a sideshow tent.

“Roll up, roll up…. come and see the Worlds first Hybrid Bus. Wonder at it amazing electric powers. Be the first to ride this fantastic breakthrough in technology and the environment…”

Visually we went with the image of a weathered sideshow advertising poster, using dynamic Victorian poster typography. Creating an A3 poster and internal cabin decal posters to encourage passengers to ride the ‘The Worlds first Hybrid Bus’ and a call to action to come and visit the website to discover more.
We created an online virtual book using a Flash based flip book with great page turning transitions. The book explained how the technology worked in a very visually interesting way. Our recommendation has been to produce a printed version for secondary schools, so watch this space.

A bit dramatic perhaps but loads of fun, memorable and a great way to introduce our team and what we do.

*psst! We’re growing this year and adding a few more team members! Stay tuned*

To view in all its glory, you will need a pair of 3D (red green) cellophane glasses.

If you’re interested in seeing one in the flesh, please contact us and we’ll send one out!