At one point, the advice I followed and the advice I passed on to others was the idea of having one product per website.
That was all anyone ever did because we knew at that particular point in time it was what worked best. It still works that way today, but the way people view information, the way people accept information and the way people have been exposed to information has changed.
For example, if you go to Apple.com, they don’t just have one site exclusive to the iPod. They don’t just have one site for the iPad or even the MacBook. They have a portal. They have multiple products all listed on the same site because they’re creating a brand.
Apple is not just branding the product; they’re branding the primary company, which is Apple. Apple is the main umbrella and everything else falls underneath that brand.
I’ve always realized it was important each product I have support a bigger brand— and in the beginning, it was software. For example, I had eBook Generator, eCover Generator and PopUp Generator listed underneath the Generator software brand.
I knew I needed to have the primary company and then the individual products, but we listed products on separate pages and were successful with it.
As time went on, certain things came into play. Google started treating individual sites differently, and they started treating those sites as bridge pages. A bridge page is designed to generate traffic and ultimately get the sale, but the order is processed on another site.
As I saw that happening, I knew the direction we needed to move into, but was hesitant because I was trying to figure out who I was, who my company was and what we did. What I was running from was the idea that my company shouldn’t be based around me. If a company is based around an individual, what if that person dies ? What do you have left?
That was always my thought. What if something should happen to me? Can the company go on without me, the individual? Then I came to accept the idea that I am the brand, I’m the product.
So, I said let’s just go with it and accept it. We brought everyone in and sat around and talked about what we were going to call this new company. We ultimately came up with Armand Morin Network.
My vote was for Armand Morin Entrepreneurial Network, so the acronym would be AMEN, which would have been a whole lot better but no one else on the team wanted to go with that.
We came up with the idea of Armand Morin Network and decided everything we offered would fall under Armand Morin Network.
We then condensed everything into one site, which took an entire year. Since then things have changed enormously. We have more focus and a clearer understanding of who we are as a company and what we do, but most importantly is all the traffic we drive is now sent to ONE place and not split between multiples options.
Is it perfect, and are we done? No way. We’re still making modifications. In fact. I just had a conversation with my team that it is the time to bring our brand up to date. That’s an ongoing process that will never end because as times change you have to be able to change with that.
That’s the key. Don’t get stuck in running your business the way you did 10 years ago. Times have changed, your market has changed and you need to change with them. So. look at what’s happening in your business and ask yourself if it’s time for a little change. It could make a world of difference.
