Those of you who know me well know that I’ve dealt with my fair share of customer service snafus and have dealt with them in a relatively aggressive manner. I’m not the type that gets bad service and lets it slide.
I’ve always considered sharing stories in a blog. I even launched a short lived website called the Consumer Ninja. I’m now considering sharing a few on this site. When I have a little extra time, I’ll post a few. Until then, you can read some of my business reviews on Yelp.
My latest project was completed for a local Speech Language Pathology group in San Diego and Chula Vista. Their website at www.speechtreetherapycenter.com was converted from a GoDaddy Website Tonight implementation to a robust WordPress platform. The migration required a complete rebuild of the site and several template customizations including incorporating branding elements from their corporate identity. The site was also fully outfitted with a Search Engine Optimization overhaul.
After several months of writing requirements, reviewing workflow and shaping navigation we finally relaunched a completely new sandiego.org on June 30th. The site sits on top of a completely new Sitecore content management system and looks as slick as it works.
Now to tackle the Sitecore learning curve. The interface is pretty user friendly and straightforward, though I’m eager to dig into the inner workings – especially since we’ve customized quite a bit.
Once we get the site up on its feet and working smoothly (every site needs fine tuning post launch) we will begin our list of site enhancements – all the stuff we wanted to launch with but had to prioritize.
Check out the newly redesigned site at www.sandiego.org.
I’ve recently completed my latest project, a website for OP Insurance. The newly formed insurance company was seeking a professional looking, yet affordable website solution. The site was built using WordPress along with a theme template that I customized per their needs. A custom graphic design header was also integrated into the site. Check out the live site at www.op-insurance.com.
I’ve made a new (and what’s seemingly annual) commitment to post more thoughts, observations and insight on Twitter. You can follow me on Twitter @nadershatara.
I recently completed building the San Diego CVB corporate blog at connect.sandiego.org. This blog serves as a news portal for the San Diego hospitality and tourism community. The blog was based on the News Press template and modified extensively to fit the organization’s needs. Check it out at connect.sandiego.org
Though my blog is updated very infrequently and I strive to keep the content related to my professional career, I want to share some exciting personal news. My wife gave birth to our first child four weeks ago on April 26th. Fatherhood so far has been an incredible, indescribable, positively life changing experience. We’re very blessed to have a healthy and happy boy.
A few weeks ago I bought a computer from Dell. I had been a subscriber to their email offers for quite some time, because they had great offers so I waited patiently for the right one. Dell’s email offers arrived in my inbox pretty frequently but I found them tolerable. After my purchase I thought to myself they can now stop sending me emails. But they didn’t. Which was ok, because maybe I wanted to buy some accessories, or software or even a TV. After all, I’m a loyal consumer, right? Apparently they’re not aware.
I chuckled to myself for the past few weeks as I received promotional emails for more computers. I gave them the benefit of the doubt – maybe I’m an IT professional who buys several computers. Today, I received an email for a deal on the exact same computer I bought which hit the head on the nail that Dell, as great as a computer company they are, does not know email marketing.
Considering I had to login to their cart to make my purchase, and considering I used the same email they message to as my login, shouldn’t they make the connection that I just bought a computer and I will likely not buy another one tomorrow? If it were a sandwich shop or a dry cleaner, I might want to make another purchase tomorrow, but I might not buy a new computer for a couple years.
I’m not saying they should stop sending me emails. There’s a huge opportunity for them to send me more emails promoting the things I am interested in. They know which product I bought, so why not send me an email with a deal on accessories, or software or peripherals? I received nothing and I do need to purchase some accessories for my new machine. Coincidentally, my cart on competitive sites is full of those accessories.
The problem with email marketing, is that for some reason companies refuse to learn to do it right. Email marketing has been around for several years now. The email marketing tools available are extremely sophisticated and email marketing is still a very viable method to reach your customers. So why don’t companies, especially large companies, do it better? I’ve noticed that some companies do it well and have been for quite some time. The rest of you sleeping giants need to wake up.
I’ve posted an updated resume. A PDF of the document can be downloaded here.
I’m going to make another attempt at posting to the blog regularly. I will primarily be posting items related to marketing, online marketing or technology – all items of great interest to me. Though I currently have three other new blog projects in the works, the variety in content strategy is definitely helping boost my expertise in developing effective online content. Lets see how this goes.
