Season 3 Episode 0 -- Launch With Words is Back & The Season of the WebDev
00:18.97
Bridget Willard
Hey, hey it's your friend Bridget here and I'm back Season 3 with the Launch With Words podcast all for small business owners and understanding why you need writers, why you need a website, and I'm happy to say this is the season of the WebDev. I will be interviewing WebDevelopers who build and rebuild and relaunch websites and launch websites and of course they launch them with words talking about their challenges and how they work with small business clients in order to make you. Small business owner more informed in the process just a little update I am back in Texas Corpus Christi in the Coastal Bend we went through our first tropical storm Harold and I'd like to say that everything's okay here. Had a great time at the farm in Wisconsin 100% 5 stars would do it again. I loved being on a farm with rare breed chickens bringing life into the world. I did have a couple of funerals and I will always miss Fernando, the three-foot tall Indigo Gigante chicken. He was my chicken dog. So yes I have started the Launch With Words premium content packs with various service-based industries.
01:49.41
Bridget Willard
Including roofing, general contracting, residential contractors, plumbers, and also care homes and chamber of commerces in order to help you – the WebDev – build and launch a website that works. Right out the gate without having to depend upon your clients or ChatGPT – [sad sound effect]. But it's all great and wonderful until you see the volume that AI spits out at you. Which still needs to be edited [sad sound effect] not published ready. But that's enough for that. There is a new mini-pack out. It was released this last weekend for WordCamp US it is the WebDev SEO Mini-Pack. Three articles written just to your small business clients about why SEO is important why your website is important to SEO and other great topics. You can find out more on the Launch With Words homepage just click to the SEO WebDev Mini-Pack and you'll find out more. So I just I'm so excited to help my friends who build websites in WordPress. Even if they're also doing headless or some other kind of thing like that you know.
03:17.39
Bridget Willard
One of the things that's really important to our businesses is streamlining our workflow. Getting all the technical, technical stack ready your tech stack your technical dependencies ready so that you can't just go. You know I took a part time job at TJ Maxx and it's so awesome I love love love being able to be with people. Um in the afternoons and evenings after I've done my client work because you learn a lot of things in retail. That are completely applicable to eCommerce. One of the things is what makes the line go slow a lot of customers complain that the line at TJ Maxx is really long. And I'm always correcting them like oh that's not long. You aren't here when the line was all the way down the shoes and wrapped around you know or that wasn't long. You should have been here on Mother's Day. So it's that what managing client expectations. And so I'll say oh you got to remember there's a cart in between you and every customer. Um, but I also think of it from a systems perspective. So what are the things that makes the line long at TJ Maxx one of them is this inefficiency with exiting after checkout right? What is that? UI
04:48.12
Bridget Willard
What is that UX? What is that experience that the customer has after they're done checking out? Do they exit the way they came or do they exit or in the same direction as the line snaked around in what we call the queue line right? I don't know why it's called a queue line because queue means line. But whatever. Ah so I I have seen when I'm at registers 8, 9, 10 that customers there going backward in order to exit on the TJ Maxx side to the Home Goods side because I work at ah at a dual store. That shaves off 30 to 60 to 90 seconds off of the next customer getting to the register and you multiply that by 11 registers and you have essentially a traffic jam. So apply that to the digital world. What is happening as a touch point as the experience is that a frustrating experience for the customer. Okay they spent $100, a thousand dollars, three hundred dollars whatever they spent – now as they leave your store is it a frustrating experience? How do you apply that to your eCommerce transaction? Are they just you know they click a button and then they sign up and then what happens? Is there a blank message that comes up or do you redirect to a personalized Thank You page with a video?
06:21.69
Bridget Willard
Do they get a follow-up email? Is it generic? Are the words on your follow-up email the same as on the thank you page which is the same as what you promised? A lot of times we edit our product pages or our landing pages. We edit the language for it. But then the follow-up email is like what? I didn't know I bought that, you know? You need to test all the things and look at things that make the experience of checking out. Applicable. That's one of my favorite parts about being in retail is you're right there on the front lines of commerce This idea that we're only going to shop online. Well that's fine and good until you buy a shirt that's an extra large but it's a little kids extra large – you know who you are Facebook Marketplace person. It's True. So You really people want to be there and the other thing I've really learned from being in that situation and having that job. Is that people shop because they're Lonely. It's something to do. You have someone to talk to – especially being at the jewelry counter and one of the best things a salesperson can do in retail is greet their customers.
07:52.43
Bridget Willard
So sometimes I substitute for the day people instead of working at night and I'll be like hey how's it going? They walk in how are you happy Sunday are you going to watch football? Whatever. How are you doing how's Monday shaping up and they're so surprised. But it makes a difference because their face lights up. So how do you apply that to your website? Are you greeting people when they reply when you um are on the platform formally known as Twitter when you're on X are you greeting people? Are you replying to tweets? Are you replying to your Instagram and Facebook posts your Linkedin posts are you doing outreach are you replying to other people's posts. That's one way of greeting online and then there's the training so retail's whole hr strategy is attrition much like the North’s strategy in the Civil War. Oh we got more people to die than you so it's fine. Like let's hire 60 people. We know 30 will quit, 10 won't show up, and maybe we'll get a good 12 to 15 employees for Christmas. This is how they work. It's that's the that's what I've noticed. Right? And so you have this half-life of training. So the people who have been there for six months maybe don't or have learned something wrong, but now they're helping employees 3 generations after them. So it's that onboarding experience.
09:25.79
Bridget Willard
Onboarding training. Whatever you want to call it. How is it for a client to onboard with you. You've done it so many times as the store manager as the assistant manager right in that leadership position is your agency, you've done it so many times over and over and over again that maybe. You still have clients that don't understand what you're talking about.. Maybe they don't realize that they need to write the content that goes on their website or they at least need to give you information so that you can have the content written whether you write it or you hire someone. To write the content that goes on their website. I've found that working with people from a social media marketing and copywriting standpoint that many small business owners do not know – and raise your hand if you're listening – do not know that a website rebuild or a website rebuild does not include the content. This is why I came up with Launch With Words because you know there is ah a gap there right? There's a frustration point for the customer. Who expects you to build a website with all of the content on it including pictures that you're supposed to magically get from wherever I don't know what they think but also the WebDeveloper is like okay well why isn't the website up. Well, I'm waiting for you.
10:57.62
Bridget Willard
I'm waiting for you to give me the content or I'm waiting for you to stop revising the content which is another problem or you gave me the content but I need to write it for the I need to interpret that language that you gave me into language that's appropriate for the web because writing for the web is not the same as writing for an essay. Or writing for a proposal or writing for an invoice or writing a speech or talk and those kinds of things. So let's let's explore together this season and if you haven't been watching or listening to this podcast. Andt know what you had watched There's no video if you haven't been watching this podcast feel free to go backwards I don't gate my content I don't have a Patreon page. Um, if you want to tip me, you can tip me at my gmail address. But what I'd really like you to do is think about these things that will make you successful make you more successful audit your process audit your checkout process. How ah do they come to you? How do they check out from you and um, also.
12:11.40
Bridget Willard
Just to let you know WebDevs. There will be another mini pack coming out in September of 2023 for e-commerce another three blog posts series. They'll be between seven hundred and fifty and a thousand words they are going to be written by humans. Myself and maybe Warren Laine-Naida and it'll be focused on writing as if we were you to the small business owner. Why eCommerce is important, what they need to optimize their eCommerce, Etc, etc. Etc. So I can't wait to hear your feedback I can't wait to dig into the interviews I've already been reaching out on Twitter DMs with some developers I know to still build websites if you have someone you suggest feel free to DM me on Bridget Willard, @bridgetmwillard on Twitter or X whatever you want to call it. Um, yeah, just send me an email
[email protected] I would love to know who you would like to hear from who is a WebDeveloper who specifically works with small business clients. And you know I wouldn't do this podcast except that I really believe in you. I know you can do this. Sometimes you just need someone sitting next to you saying, “you know what, you got this. You got this. Let's just recheck the systems. Let's, you know, do a little pit stop – put air in the tires, change your oil. You're good to go. All right I'll see you in the next episode.
