Website Woes

What makes a good website?

This is the latest question I have been torturing myself with, while analysing the day-to-day workings of the IF website. It needs to be"sticky" and no that doesn't mean coating it with Honey, but ensuring the IF website is customer friendly and interesting to as many visitors as possible.



I feel like I am back at school and Google Analytics is the teacher you always wanted to impress.



2009 Website Report Card



Bounce rate = C+

Pages Visited = B-

Stickyness = C

Customer Loyalty = C



Hmmm must do better!



Personal Statement



My aim for 2010 is to improve our customer service via the IF website. Not just for our UK customers but worldwide as we now sell our proucts in over 67 countries (we have been busy this year so A* at least for that!)



Some ideas so far...

Request a Call back facility

Updated Stock Figures

Currency Selection (Stirling, Euros and Dollars)

Online Surveys



I am starting a Digital Marketing Diploma in January 2010.... watch this space!

To buy or not to buy?

I forget the number of times I have stood in a Bookshop, usually at a train station or airport, killing some time and thinking to myself...to buy or not to buy? I will no doubt have a book in my hand which I really want to read, so what stops me making the purchase?

It is the offer which comes with the book. Buy one, get one half price.
Now instead of spending £7.99 I am faced with spending over £10. I don't have to, but I feel cheated somehow if I don't.

So what do I do? Normally I look around to find something else I really want to read...the problem is now there is too much choice. I can never find another book that I want to read as much as the book in my hand. The outcome? I put the book in my hand back and I leave the store having purchased nothing, thinking to myself I will pick it up at a later date.

If the offer had been buy one get one free...more tempting getting something for free!
Or if the original book had some money off...wonderful!
Even if there had been no offers to be had, more than likely, that store would have made a sale.

Too much choice leaves us baffled, confused and with underlying doubt in our minds. Have we made the right decision? What if this book isn't very good and I have wasted my money (more than I wanted to spend anyway). Will I be forced into making the "wrong" purchase?

What I want in a shop is the ability to make a clear and snap decision. Less is more, I want choice but I need to be guided towards making that purchase (but without knowing it!)

The choice is clear. Give the customers the option or bogof!

April is National Poetry Month!

Choosing an all time favourite poem is extremely difficult, but it would probably be by Philip Larkin, Spike Milligan or Lewis Carroll (please don't make me pick just one!)
However Shakepeare's Sonnet 116 is absolutely my favourite poem to read aloud as it allows me to fully appreciate and admire the beauty of the English Language.

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments.
Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

You don't need to be a genius to work out what poem is our favourite here at IF. Perhaps the company was named in honour of Rudyard Kipling's masterpiece? Perhaps we should really try and be more original with our choice (sorry)...but its a classic and we can't resist!

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

5 Reasons why I have not bought a Sony Reader/Kindle.. (yet)

1. I love the smell of books. I would probably splash out on an e-book reader which could duplicate that wonderful smell as you flick through the pages. Perhaps someone will create an air freshener for me? Maybe we could make one!

2. I do not want to risk dropping my expensive e-reader/phone or any other electronic device in the bath. I love reading in the bath and it does not matter if the pages get wet. When I go on holiday I also cover my books with sun tan lotion and greasy paw prints...not good!

3. I love book jackets and once in a while taking a break from my book, turning my book over and admiring the cover art.

4. Books are part of my home and remind me of who I am and where I have been.

5. I do not want to fork out £200+ before I have even bought any books! I am a Yorkshire lass and you can buy an awful lot of books for £200!

I am open to anybody who has bought one to convince me to do the same. After all I am fully aware at the environmental benefits to not chopping down trees and the benefits to people who are long-sighted.

Interesting comparison between the two main players Kindle vs Sony Reader!
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/11/amazon-kindle-v.html

New Holding Page!

Hurrah! We now have a holding page set up which precedes the arrival of our new website, it is all very exciting!
You can now order a catalogue or contact us via the website holding page...
http://www.thatcompanycalledif.com/

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Twitter

Just what AM I doing...?

40 Years of the Very Hungry Caterpillar

Congratulations to 40 years of Eric Carle and the Very Hungry Caterpillar, which is quite possibly, the most popular children's picture book of all time.

According to an interview in the Times, Eric Carl owes his success to a hole punch! I wonder what I could do with a post-it note?

Google has paid tribute to Eric Carle today and it made me smile when I saw it on my homepage- it is fabulous!

It was certainly a favourite of mine (my mother tells me she had to read it to me at least five times a night before I would drift off!).

In the Bookseller today there was a picture of the window display at the children's bookshop Tales on Moon Lane. Sadly I cannot find a pic of this online but it was filled with Eric Carle goodies!

Here is a list of my top ten picture books for children and adults alike!

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

2. When a Tiger who came to Tea

3. The Nickle Nackle Tree

4. The Gruffalo

5. Where the Wild Things are

6. Peepo!

7. Hairy McClary from Donaldsons Dairy

8. Olivia

9. The Tadpole's Promise

10. Angelina Ballerina