It’s been quite a few years since we Denver Broncos fans have gotten to see our team play in the Super Bowl. And we’re certainly psyched up; my whole family can’t wait to watch the magic happen. I found myself wondering this week: what has worked this season? What has finally made the Broncos one of the two best football teams in all the world again?

For many people, two words come to mind: Peyton Manning. Certainly that’s a big factor. It’s undeniable that he’s been a great gift to the other players on the field. But beyond Manning’s record-setting season made up of near-flawless play (not to mention his remaining a quintessential class act, both on and off the field), I think the real factor in their success is Team.

The fact is, one man doesn’t win the game. It takes a team. One of the reasons Peyton Manning is such a great quarterback is that he really knows his teammates, and he leads the team in a way that caters to each one of their strengths.

As many sports movies would show us, what makes a team successful is more than hard work or talented players or a great coach. Whether you call it “team spirit” or camaraderie, there’s something magical that happens when a team pulls together to work toward a common goal, and the net result is a whole that is far, far more than the sum of the parts. This year, the Broncos are a cohesive Team made up of the best-of-the-best in their profession, and this is what is responsible for their success.

When you think about it, a website is a lot like a football game. There’s no way one person can build a really great website; it requires a lot of people with different skills working together. But I know of a lot of website projects that have failed when someone merely brought together a group of talented individuals. For a website to be really successful, it requires a Team.

As I look toward the Super Bowl and ponder the Broncos team, I am reminded again why I really appreciate our team at Cumulus. Each member of our team is committed to a common goal (in our case, building high-quality websites that drive real profitability for your business), and we are made up of the highest-caliber “players” in our respective fields. As a result, we have a unique team spirit, a high trust in one another, an unparalleled commitment to smart planning, and near-flawless execution. Without our Team, we would not be the best in the business.

Whether you’re pulling for the Broncos or the Seahawks this Sunday, I wish you a great weekend!

To your success!

I was at a book sale a few weeks ago (one of my favorite activities), looking through a stack of business management and marketing titles that caught my attention. As I was putting some of the books back on the shelf, I suddenly realized that the books I had just decided to purchase were mainly chosen based on the cover design and the typesetting of the pages. All of the books may have had great content (that’s why the titles got my attention), but I did not choose to buy all of them.

As hard as I fight it, and as much as I want to believe otherwise, the experts tell us that most of our decisions are based on (or at least influenced by) highly emotional reactions to subtle, subliminal cues. In his book Blink Malcolm Gladwell talks about the research of Louis Cheskin, who discovered that changing the packaging of a food product actually changes how it tastes. (Yes, hard to believe. It’s in chapter 5 if you want to check it out for yourself.)

This is also true in the case of your website. One study done in the UK found that when people distrusted a company, it was based 94% on the design of the website and only 6% based on the content. Professional design is critical to establishing trust with a prospective client.

I had a friend who told me his website was not important, that no one would make a decision based on such an unimportant thing. Then a few days later he was telling me about how he was considering two vendors for a big purchase, but it was a really easy decision for him because one was clearly the better vendor “because their website was so much better than the other company’s.” I simply asked him, “Did you hear what you just said?”
If your company is a book, your website is the cover. Is it one that people will want to “read”?

To your success!

I often get asked by clients how long it takes to build a website. Of course, that depends on a lot of variables, but the thing most people don’t realize is that actually building the website is usually the easy part.

It’s sort of like writing a poem. Most of us could sit down and type up a poem (or write it out by hand) in a matter of minutes. However, a good poem – one that earns the author a living – could take weeks, months, or even years to actually write. Most of that time is spent thinking, and a lot of it is spent crafting and tweaking the language.

In the same way, there’s a lot that goes into building a website that can function as your #1 employee, BESIDES building the site. Things such as planning your marketing strategy, crafting your ideal message, turning that message into an interesting story, creating your visual branding, designing the user experience and site navigation, planning your search strategy, thinking through all the site requirements, and putting together all the materials. Then, and only then, should you build the site.

Once in every life someone comes along, and builds you a website that was almost like a song…. To your success!

One of the things I talk about in my upcoming book is that a good website is well-designed in four dimensions. For a website to be successful in actually making money for the business, it should be well-designed visually, verbally, functionally and technically.

No one person can be excellent in all four of these areas. Hence, the best websites are built by a team, not by an individual. And not just any team, but a team of people that are each really good in their respective areas.

Too often I see a site that is good visually, but not functionally, or a site that is laid out well, but has all kinds of barriers to getting indexed on Google. And yes, there are sites that are done poorly in all dimensions….

To your success!