Who knew the variety of businesses that needed websites? In addition to landscapers, home builders, municipalities and nonprofit organizations, we’ve developed websites for authors, eyelash extension artists, and exterminators. Recently, our team has developed a number of manufacturer websites for fabricating, processing, and converting companies.

Manufacturer websites complement salesforce

Manufacturing and production companies often rely on their salesforce to find customers. Wouldn’t it be nice for customers to find you, instead? A powerful, effective manufacturer website generates leads that pan out.

1. A manufacturer website is a recruiting tool to grow your workforce. 6 Tips: Recruit Workers Via your Website
2. Additionally, it’s a branding strategy to showcase your products and services. 6 Signs Your Company Needs a New Website
3. Lastly, a manufacturer website works 24/7/365 to reach multiple audiences. Target Audience: Websites that Hit the Bullseye

Manufacturer websites resonate with users

A manufacturer website needs to speak your industry’s language, but not just with technical jargon. Effective websites answer your customer’s questions, address their concerns, and offer solutions to their problems. Visitors to your website read the content and look at the graphics, saying to themselves, “Yes! This company gets it. This is exactly what we’re looking for!”

Manufacturer websites explain ‘Why?’

Instead of simply displaying equipment and explaining capabilities, a manufacturer website needs to show “Why?” Why do you do what you do? Why would people want to work with you? Demonstrate how your corporate culture and company philosophy defines who you are and what you do. Give visitors confidence in your brand with messaging that resonates with them

You and your fabricating, processing, or converting company:

• Will be taken care of
• Can trust us
• Will find us easy to work with
• Will be completely satisfied with our products and services

Time for a new manufacturer website?

Some manufacturers tell us, “We have a website already.” Well, just because you have a website doesn’t mean you’re using it to its highest capabilities. Is your website doing everything it can as a marketing, communications and promotional tool? You wouldn’t keep an old, outdated machine on the production floor, would you? Then why keep a tired-looking, ineffective website around?

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One of the best ways to get internet results is to speak to the struggles of clients and prospects. Then, explain why you do what you do and the solutions you provide. Sound easy? The team at Packerland Websites is ready to help. Contact us today for professional content writing and marketing services that get a response.

My dentist is at the stage in life when he works less. He’s easing out of the dental practice, and he hired another dentist to pick up the slack. While waiting for my appointment recently, I overheard one of his patients. She said she wouldn’t see any other dentist. Consequently, she doesn’t know what she will do when our dentist retires completely.

Professional Bios Foster Customer Loyalty

That type of customer loyalty indicates meaningful one-to-one relationships between consumers and service providers. How can a website foster these relationships? One design element is a professional bio. Basically, a professional bio explains who you are, what you do, and who you help. A professional bio highlights career and academic achievements. (Personal interests are optional, depending on your objectives.) Professional bios build a service provider’s brand image. Essentially, they build upon what’s shared on the About page.

Professional Bios for Service Providers

Service providers who work one-on-one with clients can benefit from publishing professional bios on their websites. These types of service providers include:

• Dentists
• Attorneys
• Massage therapists
• Real estate agents
• Insurance agents
• Hair stylists
• Personal coaches

Even website developers have professional bios! All of these professions involve personal interaction. Successful connections lead to customer loyalty. Return customers are the backbone of any business. In contrast, new customers are essential to growth. A well-crafted bio resonates with existing customers and piques the interest of prospects. Three Steps to Writing a Catchy Bio

Professional Bios for Organizational Leaders

In addition to service providers, organizational leaders can benefit from professional bios. Leaders in a for-profit or nonprofit organization build audience trust with bios. One example is the Oconto Falls Chamber of Commerce. Chamber members and nonmembers get to know the directors. Links to the director’s social media profiles and company websites encourage communication.

Achieving Your Website Goals

As you can see, professional bios actually do belong on websites. Professional bios are especially advantageous for service providers working personally with clients and organizational leaders reaching out to members and nonmembers. Packerland Websites will help you decide if professional bios are right for your website. First and foremost, we will consider your goals as they pertain to branding your organization and personnel. Contact us for a consultation today.

Today’s small business owners are swamped. We hear it all the time, “I’m too busy to design a new website.” “Our company is so busy, why would we need a new website? We have all the business we can handle.” I commend all of these hardworking business owners. I know exactly what they’re describing, because I’ve been in their shoes. Initially, I was crazy-busy building homes and currently, I’m crazy-busy building websites.

Benefits of a New Website

So, why is a busy time an especially good time for a new website? Because a website isn’t just a marketing tool to gain leads and sell products and services during the slow periods. A business site is much more than that.

Branding Tool

A company website represents the official voice and brand of the business. The text on a webpage explains who, what, when, when, how, and why you do what you do. The site shows consistent colors, logos, and mottos that clients recognize and trust. The site looks modern, opens quickly, and navigates easily, so the audience has a positive user experience. Visitors see a company that cares about its image, and consequently, cares about its clients, too. Users see a company that understands their challenges and offers them the best solutions.

Communications Portal

A website is a two-way communications tool that works 24/7/365. Today’s consumers search for products and services at all hours. Whether it’s early morning, after hours, holidays, or weekends, your audience can find and contact your organization. A website provides essential communication including:

• Contact form
• One-tap dialing
• Chat bot
• Testimonials
• E-commerce store
• Call to Action
• Content: Home, About, Products/Services, FAQs, Menu

Hiring platform

If you’re busy, you’re probably hiring. Although it’s difficult to find workers in today’s tight job market, digital strategies can help. Job seekers often review a company’s internet presence before applying. Thus, a website becomes a recruiting tool.

• Corporate culture – Showcase the benefits and experiences of being on your team
• Job posting page – List current openings is an easily searchable format
• Link to applications – Encourage job seekers to complete an application with easy-to-use navigation

Investment in the Future

Perhaps your business is booming. Your current site, although out of date, is working just fine. However, that doesn’t mean the website doesn’t need a tune-up. By investing in a new website, you invest in the future of your company. Essentially, you present a fresh look that’s modern, attractive, and user-friendly. Above all, you want to keep the momentum going. You want to stay busy and productive well into the future. It’s possible with the right business strategy that includes a powerful, effective website.

Contact Us

The Packerland Websites team knows time is money. We have people and processes in place to develop websites without overtaxing your staff. Busy organizations don’t look for ways to add more to their plate or stress to their workday. Wouldn’t it be nice to have our team take the lead in developing a new website that’s right for you? Contact us to get started.

So, you just built a great looking, brand-new website, but you can’t view it when you are at work. What’s happening? Well, there was a time we had to ask this question ourselves. If you have an internal server, there may be an extra hoop to jump through in order to view your organization’s website. Hopefully, this article will help you skip the learning curve.

Domain Name & Hosting

Taking a small step back, we discussed some helpful background information in an earlier article, 3 Basic Website Elements You Shouldn’t Overlook. Essentially, you have your domain name, which is like an Internet deed with a pointer to where things are at. Typically, digital information is stored on servers, which are specialty computers that store your information for websites, emails and other stuff. This storage is often called hosting. When something is hosted, the domain tells where it is found and connects everything together. This is called an A record (like the letter A). It is important that the A record is set for yourdomainname.com and the WWW as in WWW.yourdomainname. The Internet recognizes these as two separate domain names, even though as humans, we see them as one.

Internal & External Server

When you have an internal server managing your business and an external server where your website sits, there are two areas that needs pointing. The short cut is having a good IT person go to your internal server and point the website address to the external server on which it is sitting. An easy way to check this is to pull your website up on your smart phone, with the WIFI turned OFF. By using mobile data, you can check on your website without running through your internal server first. If it is still confusing, you are not alone. Even some IT people sometimes get tripped up on this hiccup. It is also important that you have an SSL certificate. You can read about SSL certificates here. An SSL changes HTTP to HTTPS. This change is for security and functionality.

Contact Us for More Information

IT can sometimes be frustrating for the average person. Sometimes, it is even frustrating for the IT person. We hope this article helps you diagnose and overcome this server challenge. Contact us for more information about servers, domain names, and hosting.

Everyone knows the power of word-of-mouth advertising, and an online review is word-of-mouth on a colossal scale. Reviews carry more credibility that advertisements because the reviewers are not on the payroll. Good reviews are a boon to your business, but what about bad reviews? What happens when your company is blindsided by a disgruntled customer who leaves a one-star Google review and nasty comments? The best response is:

1. Create a review policy
2. Respond
3. Show Empathy
4. Continue Conversation Offline
5. Bury the Review

1. Create a Review Policy

Every business should create a review policy. One of the elements should be which reviews to respond to. Responding to all of the positive reviews – although time consuming – acknowledges that you read and appreciate the feedback. Here’s an example of a response:

“Thanks for the compliment. We appreciated the opportunity to…”

Sometimes, it’s nice just to let the review stand on its own so there’s a string of positive reviews. Instead of responding to all, you may instead choose to respond to the bad reviews only. These should not be ignored. So, if you respond to one, respond to them all. When you don’t respond, readers may think your company is uncaring or the review is fully accurate and doesn’t require a response.

2. Respond to a Bad Review

Responding to a bad review is important, otherwise the audience might think the review represents how you do business. However, wait a bit before responding. Customers leaving bad reviews often lash out when they’re upset, so wait a couple of days. Then, create a response that is short and objectively acknowledges what happened, then offer to move the conversation offline.

Readers understand that there are two points of view in every scenario. Things aren’t always 100% perfect. Keep your audience in mind when responding, because essentially, you truly are responding to everyone who reads the review, not the reviewer. For this reason, you want to present your business is a good light.
Here’s an example:

“Our mission is to address clients’ needs while delivering value, building trust, and acting with integrity. We pride ourselves on these high standards and I can assure you that (address the bad review).”

3. Show Empathy

A strong comeback will turn people off. Especially if you’re in a service industry, you want to brand yourself as friendly, helpful, and professional. Attacking the reviewer is counter-productive. Instead, take the high road by showing empathy and recognizing the issue without restating it. When you show you care, you show a concern for this particular client, and consequently, all of the others you serve. Offer a way to resolve the issue reported in the review.

4. Continue the Conversation Offline

Close with an offer to the reviewer to continue the conversation offline. Here’s an example: If you’d like to discuss this further, please give me a call.” This cements your reputation for quality customer service. Remember, your response is meant for people reading the review, more than the reviewer.

5. Bury a Bad Review

Lastly, the bury. Because Google categorizes reviews by date, burying the bad review under good reviews will hide it. Additionally, several 5-star reviews will counteract the 1-star review. Email some of your clients to gather positive reviews. Thank them for their business, ask for a review, and provide a link to your Google account. It’s as simple as that.

Optional: Report a Review to Google

Another option is to report the review to Google (support.google.com) and request its removal. Generally, unless the post violates community standards, represents impersonation, or is a conflict of interest, the likelihood of removal is remote.

Protect Your Good Name

Customers read reviews before purchasing all sorts of products and services. A bad review requires a timely and carefully crafted response. Protect your good name by responding with empathy, objectivity, and a way to resolve the situation. Contact us for additional advice regarding bad reviews or assistance writing a response.

Sometimes we get the question, “What do I get for my hosting fee?” Great question! First and foremost, you get us – a dedicated, reachable team with customer relationship management software for tech support. Second, you get secure, reliable hosting of your website. Hosting refers to a program sitting on a server. A server is a fancy computer with critical backups and multiple locations. The server spins up a response when someone types in a domain name. The domain name is pointed to the server that the website sits on (called A record).

Silver, Gold, Platinum Hosting Plans

Packerland Websites offers three hosting plans: Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The Silver Hosting Plan is the most basic, yet it is still covers the critical elements that keep a website operating smoothly and securely. The Gold and Platinum packages are designed for organizations requiring tighter security and frequent edits. For the Silver Hosting Plan, Packerland Websites offers the following services.

1. SSL Certificate

Purchase, install, and maintain an SSL certificate for increased security and better SEO. With an SSL certificate and HTTPS security, a padlock appears by the website URL. This padlock assures users that they’re interacting with a secure website they can trust. Read our article about SSL and HTTPS.

2. WordPress updates

Update your website when WordPress updates. Your website is built in WordPress, a platform that is user-friendly and easy to customize. WordPress routinely issues updates that sometimes conflict with a website’s content and functionality. Occasionally, themes and plugins require updating to match the latest update. Our team regularly scans for updates and handles issues that pop up. Read our article about why we trust WordPress as our platform.

3. Back-up to Dropbox

Back up your website regularly to Dropbox to ensure its continuity. If a website is compromised by a malicious attack or goes off-line for another reason, Packerland Websites has a back-up available. We know it’s important for a website to work for you 24/7/365.

4. Content Management

Provide 90 minutes of content management per year. (Gold and Platinum hosting plans have monthly management.) Our team can help add a photo gallery, change a few paragraphs of text, etc. Content management requests are completed within four business days, although many issues are resolved much sooner. Send a support ticket, and our team will respond.

5. Security Enhancements

Make miscellaneous code updates and security enhancements behind the scenes. Packerland Websites recently implemented these cybersecurity measures:

• Required stronger passwords (foreign characters are not allowed)
• Hid the login page, since hackers often target login pages
• Reduced the number of wrong login attempts
• Added script blocking code to protect names, which stops hackers from determining the users on a website

In addition to the security of Silver, Gold and Platinum hosting plans, we offer cybersecurity services à la carte. Our daily scanner and auto virus removal has been popular at $9/month, because it comes with a virus removal warranty.

6. Blogging Platform

Offer a content management system (CMS) for blogging and page edits/updates. Showcase your brand by easily maintaining your own the website. We give you the tools and training you need, with printed, digital, and online tutorials and one-on-one training. View the tutorials.

Contact Us About Hosting

So, what do you get for hosting? Quite a bit. Most importantly, you get us, one of the best website building teams around. Contact us. We’ll put your website to work for you.