Inside HOM – Hotel Online Marketing Blog

Want to be able to update your website without needing to hand over unnecessary dollars to your developers? You already should be! Aaron Darc explains how CMS technology is often online marketing’s best kept secret…

I’ve been creating commercial websites for over seven years, now. I’ve seen the digital marketing boom finally explode. The agency slogan of businesses needing to have an online presence is no longer a slogan – it’s a blatant reality. You’d never suggest any more that a business could be a serious contender without a website, no matter how big or small that business is. Technology has been the driving force behind this – as technology has rapidly developed, affordability has moved at lightning speed with it, allowing us to do more and more things online for less and less (both for the consumers who engage online and the businesses creating that engagement). In some ways, this has created greater opportunities for the online marketing and advertising industry – it’s certainly generated more clients – but this industry has been rather sneaky in the way it has kept some of the dollars it should no longer be privy to, by conveniently keeping some of the advances in technology away from their client base. Technology is all about control – and businesses can have more control of their online presence than ever before. But to many digital agencies, the more control you’re getting means less money they’re getting. Because as long as they have the control, they have the keys to your website. If you’ve already got a website, you need to know that you should be the ones holding the keys. And if you’re about to get a new website, or even your first, you need to make sure you get a deal that doesn’t put those keys in the wrong hands.

I’ve seen it, time and time again. A client has a website for a business that, as most businesses do, changes from time to time: new products are added, specials and sales are created during certain periods, or even something as simple as a change of phone number comes up. The website, now being the central experience for most consumers, needs to reflect this – the change needs to happen, first and foremost, online. But what do you do if you need to make a change? Can you do this, yourself? Or do you need to ring your developers or designers, and have them do it for you? If you’re the latter, you’re going to have to pay for this change – often, through the nose, for something as simple as a change of contact detail. And what’s the turnaround going to be? If you need to get info across short-notice – let’s say you have a downturn weekend, and you’d like to get rid of some rooms at special prices – how quick can your developers respond to this? And will they then take the opportunity to charge you even more for this short-notice? Probably. Because… well…. kaching, as they say. You’ve probably heard that noise before – faintly, echoing in the background, while you’re on the phone to your developer, asking if the change to your website can be made – and I’ll be blunt… it’s the sound of your lack of technical expertise being exploited. And unless your site needs to be a static flash-based design (it does have its purpose in some instances, but only in rare cases) then it’s a totally unnecessary exploitation in 2010, and all thanks to CMS technology.

CMS stands for “Content Management System” – it’s basically a “type” of website. The irony of CMS is that you don’t have to understand exactly how the system works from a technical perspective, because that’s precisely the technology’s point – that the end result is a website that a user can run and create themselves, without needing to understand the technical ins and outs. But, in a nutshell, CMS is a structure or a system, whereby the design of your site is placed over this system, as if fitting an exterior over a car. Part of this system is a user control panel – it’s the steering wheel of your site. You probably don’t understand completely how cars operate – you couldn’t build one, yourself – but you can drive a car without needing to understand every aspect of it. And CMS is the same. This control panel lets you effectively steer the website yourself – adding content, deleting content, creating new pages, pretty much whatever you need within the basic framework of the existing design.

So, how easy is it? This user panel means that creating new content is much like writing a word document or an email – or for those who use social media, like creating your facebook page. At Christmas, the younger members of my family took it upon themselves to teach my mother how to use an iphone. They tried, and they tried, but to no avail. She might as well have been trying to read a Jane Austin novel in Spanish – a language she doesn’t understand at all. In the end, quite frustrated, she gave up.

“But it’s easy – everyone can use them!” my (teenage) cousin laughed.

But it’s not easy to a generation who have not grown up with this kind of technology, and that’s the basic reality in the gap that still alienates business owners faced with competing in the online world. However, my mother has no problems updating her website through the CMS control panel. She might not be familiar with smartphone technology, but she has been writing documents and emails for the last fifteen years of her working life. That’s all it takes to use these websites. At HOM, each client gets a free training session with their new CMS, and I’ve never seen this go for any longer than half an hour. Any of our clients can call whenever they hit any potholes or problems, and we might get the odd cry for help in the week following; but I’ve never come across a single client who can’t grasp CMS within the first week of using their new website. And I’ve never seen a single client who wasn’t grinning, ear to ear, from finally having control of their own business online! Which is a nice change to the scene where, sure, the agency is grinning – but the client is grimacing, waiting for that ridiculous invoice to arrive!

To see the CMS in action, watch this demo…

BEWARE THE MYTHS!

There’s a good chance, however, that some of you have heard various explanations – excuses, really – as to why CMS technology is not the best option for your online business. These are often generated by the agencies themselves (go figure), or are simply lingering truths that were truths, once upon a time, but have yet caught up to current technological advances in CMS. Remember: what was not possible in the online world yesterday is usually possible today! So, let’s address a couple of the most common untruths about contemporary CMS website development.

Myth 1: CMS Systems are limited in terms of the design integrated with them.

Wrong. If you’re being offered a CMS system that has limitations with the design of your site, you’re not being offered a custom made system, but offered a pre-developed template. This saves your developers money, for obvious reasons, but it has little benefit to you. In these template CMS systems, the design structure is already created – you can choose images, logos, text, colours, etc, but they must be placed on an already determined layout. This will not only constrict your design, but you’ll end up with a site that essentially looks exactly the same as thousands of other sites… because it is. Correctly priced, these template CMS websites are extremely cheap – but there’s a reason for that – they offer much less than any other style of web development. Many agencies are quite fond of them, considering the labour time they save without any need for custom development; but this can lead to clients effectively being mislead, not understanding the simplicity and inferiority of these systems for the price their paying. Make sure you know what you’re getting – and that you’re getting an exclusively developed CMS website, integrated with unrestricted design.

Myth 2: CMS Systems offer poorer security and can leave your website open to being hacked.

Wrong again. Security issues with CMS systems only arise when you’re using an external system, large enough to warrant the attention of people bored enough to spend their time figuring out how to buck these systems – and even this is realistically a rare occurrence. As it is, these external CMS systems are again offering restrictions in customisation – so they have their own problems for a variety of reasons, anyway – but so long as you’re being connected to major CMS systems (such as WordPress, etc) you’re opening yourself up to every problem WordPress encounter. It’s very similar to the difference in security between Apple and Microsoft. What is the main reason why Apple computers are not subject to the same virus and spyware that Microsoft is? It’s because Apple ultimately has too little share of the market, so the hackers spend all their time targeting Microsoft, because they will ultimately wreak havoc on the most people. Using an exclusive custom made system takes you out of this firing line. Any other security issue is up to your developers – there are no excuses for your system not having the correct security systems in place.

Myth 3: Upgrading your existing site to a CMS system is too expensive, because it requires the entire site to be redone.

Not at all! If you’ve got an existing website that you’re happy with, as far as design and layout goes, but you’d like to have the control over this website that a CMS can give you, don’t be fooled into thinking this requires the dollars of a completely new website contract. The existing design of your website can easily be transferred to a new CMS system. Hotel Online Marketing will create a new version of your site on their exclusive CMS system, without incurring standard design costs of a brand new website! When you offset this development cost against being able to control a website that can instantly respond to your businesses needs – the very minute they arise – you’re not just saving money in the long run…. you’re making it!

Want a CMS?

So, if there’s a change you’d like to make to your website, but the cost of having your people change it is stopping you, ask yourself this: should the marketing and profits of your business be in the hands of another business who has effectively managed to take control of such a major part of your what offer and do? No. And if you’re not being told how this situation could change, why do you suppose that is?

Well, there’s the sound of those kachings again. Nothing wrong with the sounds of cash registers – but just make sure some of them are yours! Hotel Online Marketing now offer the most innovative and user-friendly custom CMS system within a very friendly budget spectrum. The customisation of this system means that no two contracts are the same – because no two websites should be the same – so if you’re thinking of making the move into the latest CMS technology and having an online business that is truly your own, give Sophie a call on (02) 90370393 and discuss how CMS can work with your particular needs. It’s your business. It should be your website, too.

by Aaron Darc