I love sushi. My favorite place is Wasabi at the Normanview crossing. The other day I wasn’t sure what time they closed so I decided to Google them. I couldn’t find anything, not a phone number, address, nothing. Now all I want is the basics; hours open, location, menu (with prices), God forbid a testimonial or two! Go ahead, try find them on the internet.
I know they can get all this done with minimal to no work at all on their behalf for $1,000-$1,500. So what’s stopping them? Probably the cost. But if the average person spends a minimum $10 it would take 100 people who found their site online and convinced them to come thru the door to achieve the site’s break even point. What would you do?
They could take it one step further and have pictures of everything on the menu (their menu is HUGE) or have a Sushi tutorial, teach me about it, give me something more than I’d expect to find on their site. But first things first get a site.
The amazing thing about this Wasabi is that it has a beautiful interior and is the most inexpensive in town (unverified) but a bento box here is $9.99 and it’s delicious! You can’t tell me more people wouldn’t go there knowing this and why not spread the word? Start a Facebook group when you join you get 50% off your next visit, then at random once every month that same offer is sent out to all the group members. It might just work, but first they need a site.
Your website is the story you want to tell the world. Do you have a purpose for each page on your site? Do you know who your intended audience is? What are you trying to convince them of when they visit your site? If you can’t answer these questions it becomes blatantly obvious when we view your site.
For the past five years the Paul J. Hill School of Business at the University of Regina has entered the JDC West competition. JDC West is the largest student run academic case competition in Western Canada which includes prestigious schools such as the University of Alberta, Asper School of Business, and Sauder School of Business. The complete list can be found here.
The Paul J. Hill School for the past three years have finished in second place. This is no small feat by any means and it truly shows the quality of students that the school is producing. For reasons beyond my comprehension you can’t find a link on the School’s website to this competition. Not just a second place finish, they also raised $21,390.12 for charity and the faculty is more concerned with course offerings? Something is awry. If I want to find out about programs offered I’ll search for them, they don’t need to be the first things I read.
For future reference; whatever you’re amazing at, whatever your organization’s claim to fame is, whatever you can do better than everyone else, please tell me on your home page or soon after I enter your site. I guarantee you’ll impress your audience much more by doing this than putting what YOU think SHOULD be on the site.
Congratulations to the 2010 JDC West team, you truly have achieved something astounding.
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