Week Four- Target Market for Common Sense Flooring, Inc.

Week Four Target Market

We are a flooring company specializing in concrete surface preparation and wood flooring installations. Angie’s List (an online review based membership service) provides the bulk of leads. This is great, but ultimately, we need to drive our own traffic.

My specific target market are home owners who have recently listed their property for sale and are not receiving strong enough offers. We plan to provide “sellers” a basic interior upgrade (paint, flooring, staging etc.) to help increase the sellers opportunities and meet the buyers expected needs when purchasing the home. We would also inadvertently provide a quicker turnaround time for realtors for their commissions (who could eventually refer us to their other listings as well).

1.       The simplest client I can think of resides in track housing.  Most of the time it is easy to identify the values in a track and determine its asking price based upon recent comparable sales. There are usually two reasons why these homes go unsold.

a.       They are financially under water and need to sell high or

b.      The home has been a rental and it has been cosmetically abused.

2.        Most of our clients range between 45-65 years old, married, two children (usually in college), makes over combined 100K per year, educated with a graduate, PHD or MD, mostly Caucasian, Indian or Asian, and researches us and our services well in advance through social media sources (Angie’s List, Yelp, Thumbtack, Google etc.).

3.       Our potential customer can be found online by days listed. What I hope to compile is enough data to design a matrix for determining what is the best time to approach homeowners with a direct mail piece introducing who we are , what we do, and what is in it for them should we do business together. A simple face to face meeting could provide all the details and I could determine if the relationship makes sense to pursue it. 

Week Three- The two websites you use or visit frequently

http://commonsenseflooring.com/

Why are they effective?

 The Common Sense Flooring brochure site is both mobile and desk top friendly. It shows the face (literary) of the company and a gentle (but relevant coastal background). Also, the website has Job site images, (visible) recognizable top material brands and an easy to follow menu.

What specific principles of good design do they include and why?

Some of the classic designs on the site are shown in the “going green” and “gentle blue” colors which are weaved throughout the pages which reflects the brand (long before these colors became popular and then became a cliché).

What makes you come back again?

The content on each page is sufficient enough to answer basic concerns, (which reduces bounce rates) yet still leaves the potential client interested in knowing more (hence the consultation option).

What could be improved?

The site is stagnate. It hasn't been updated in years and one of the manufactures listed is out of business. The basics are there but it needs work. For example, it would ranked higher on Google if it were linked to other sites (which requires code writing and patience). An immediate solution to the problem would be to update the site and include Word Press in the background. By doing so the site could be easily be maintained, updated with new ad-ons and content.

http://loveyourhomeblog.com/

Why are they effective?

It’s organized, concise, and reads like a candid conversation anyone could jump into. The images relate to the subject matter, and the verbiage is kept to around 600 words. Therefore to me, it’s a decent blog.

What specific principles of good design do they include and why?

I like the orange, gray and charcoal black colors in the header. The site is built out to the edges of the page yet the content isn't crowded. It just feels like a fresh, current blog site.

What makes you come back again?

The site is technical enough for professional use, yet understated for non-technical enthusiasts to participate as well.

What could be improved?

The brand is invisible, it has only has 10 posts and it hasn't found its grove yet.

Week Three Aesthetics, Design, & Branding

http://www.gforceracecars.com/

What are the three potential problems for visitors.

The first area of concern I have with the site is the pop up (*featured products). Its distracting and unnecessary for most race enthusiasts (unless you have ADHD).  The second issue I have is that it scrolls down the page forever. This makes me feel like I’m following a “comments page” thread. Thirdly, the black back ground may lead you to believe that is what the client wants to see (to evoke an emotion of strength and speed) but I have personally spent time in the pits (Ed and Erice Hill) and the team focus leans more on points, stats, equipment consistency, etc. which should be framed as a graph with an easier back ground to see (less black).

What could be improved on this website and why?

I would create a matrix of the run times, track conditions, modification tweaks and results (expectations) of the day.

Choose two points and identify what they have done right.

The photography (color and clarity) and the “tool” YouTube links are spot on.

How does design, aesthetics and branding impact your reaction to the websites?

The template design is decent, but is isn’t broken down into separate content pages, it’s more like a comment thread. The aesthetics (images) are clear (which you would expect to see race cars racing). The branding tells me that these drivers go fast and endorse tools that are race proven (support) and universal enough for an everyday ASE tech to own and use.  My reaction to the site is mixed, there is nothing unique about it, so it blends in rather than stands out (of the crowd).

http://www.richsoil.com/raising-chickens.jsp

What are the three potential problems for visitors?

Three potential problems with visitors could be that the content is too busy (therefore, needs to contain only a paragraph per topic and then linked). Each new title could use an image (to support the thought or idea being shared) rather than being dog piled together down the thread of the page. Also, the images themselves are inconsistent (meaning that they are pull together from to many sources, themes, and resolutions).

What could be improved on this website and why?

The web site needs to feel a little more commercial (or updated) primarily because the narrator provides face to face instruction (for her students) and desires an online presence to be viewed.  

Choose two points and identify what they have done right.

1). The placement of The Respectful Chicken Harvesting (toward the bottom of the page) made a lot of sense to me. This YouTube video as a is by far the most emotional (and informative) perspective I have ever seen regarding this subject. As a side bar, It really made me pause and think just how detached most of us are when it comes to eating a vertebrate (therefore, it got me thinking—good job Chris).

2). The second area of the site I really liked was The raising chickens graph. Why? Because the grand summary was simple to navigate, quick to understand, and easy to make decisions from it.

How does design, aesthetics and branding impact your reaction to the websites?

The design doesn’t feel professional enough so the colors could become distracting and increase the bounce rate. Also, the site could become encumber some to a new comer (not fully understanding what questions to ask and where to find them). Finally, the branding isn’t that consistent (images are from too many different styles which again, could make it distracting). But overall, my reaction to the site was good, only because I like chickens.

Week Two Communication Links

Find examples of 5 business websites and the social media they are using. 

Post a list with the business name, the URL's, and the social media they are visibly using [links on their website]

Common Sense Flooring, Inc.

http://commonsenseflooring.com/

http://loveyourhomeblog.com/

http://commonsenseflooring.blogspot.com/

Host Gator  

http://www.hostgator.com/

http://blog.hostgator.com/

http://www.hostgator.com/apps/wordpress-hosting

http://www.linkedin.com/company/hostgator.com

https://plus.google.com/+hostgator/posts

https://plus.google.com/+hostgator/posts

http://hostgator.tumblr.com/

Social Monkey

http://www.socialmonkee.com/

http://www.reply2colin.com/

Pingler

https://pingler.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pinglerdotcom

Fiverr

https://www.fiverr.com/

http://blog.fiverr.com/

Difficulty communicating with a business?

Week Two Communication

Difficulty communicating with a business?

Yes, I have an ongoing love hate relationship with one of my suppliers that would end in triumph if only the owner had a true sense of how poor his inside sales rep were (at doing their job) and how little they cared for the client.  For example, (this is actual dialog I tell clients) “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith, please forgive the wholesaler that  I am sending you to because they do not provide service and could care less if you purchase from them,--but they do have competitive pricing if nothing else.” ”Please do not get mad and walk out-- it’s an employee ran business”.  So, if we’re looking at Social Media as a potential short term solution,  I would propose (to Ed the owner) to  launch a customer satisfaction forum (and have business professionals (buyers) participate in the thread. I think the comments would be overwhelmingly brutal at first, but eventually it could provide valuable insight that may help lead to policy changes (and possibly better revenues). Also, long term Social media usage could gauge the heartbeat of the buyers more responsively before it becomes  a negative reputation.

Social media suitability: personal or business?

We it comes to publishing business content online, I choose YouTube. The reason for this is that it  shows our processes and capabilities in action that are sometimes difficult to express in text. One of my goals is to attend VidCon in Anaheim  and meet with Philip Defranco (or his staff) to learn more about how to incorporate comedy into our brand. The other hurtle is to better understand my editing program Pinicale 17. Also, I have not been successful with voice overs and I'm not comfortable as the subject in a video (I just freeze up). But that aside, someday I will learn to romance the camera and post a series of "How To's" videos that can contribute to my industry.

LinkedIn is another business source that I have spent time building my profile on. This helps me stay connected to other professionals and updates me to any changes (such as career paths).
Facebook is a split (between business and personal) because I only use it for business purposes, but most of my friends and family members use personally to stay in touch.

Pinterest is great for photos and logo ideas?

I personally do not have a lot of experience with non business or personal social media channels so it's actually hard for me to comment on them, but I would say Twitter is probably great for personal use (like an on going thread). And Flickr is another great way to share photos if you're using Yahoo.

Week One

Hi Everyone,

I picked this template primarily because it has a more feminine touch to it. Most of our wood flooring clients are moms who are looking to know more about the real cost of an installation and the time it takes to complete the project. This template feels soft and safe to me and hopefully projects the right image for us.
The layout is easy on the eyes and I find the humming bird in the background is not too distracting, therefore to me its not bad for an introductory template.

I would however add a few additional colors such as turquoise, sea foam or light gray. This may give a little more dimension to the template and enhance its appeal?

Eric