I have spent the morning going through a list of names and email addresses (don’t worry they were all given to us ;)) , and attempting to find out from them:

• A first and last name
• The company the own/work for
• What the company they work for does
• Where they are

I am shocked and amazed how HARD it is to find out simple information, and this is the stuff that they want me to know! From this tedious experience, I have gleaned a few general pointers:

If you are a small company, introduce yourself 

A lot of small companies try to pose as big anonymous corporations. I go to the "About Us" page and find it impossible to get any information about the person/people behind the company – it’s all feedback forms. What’s so wrong with telling people who you are? One of the biggest advantages of being a small company is that the company adopts your personality. Show me it.

Email Addresses Should Lead Somewhere 

Please use your company name in your email address instead of a random ‘nattyqh556@yahoo’ account. Not only does it make it impossible for people to find out more about you, you lose the ability to spark interest – I have lost count of how many times I’ve gone to a webiste because the company name in an email sounded interesting.

Your website should tell me what you do ON THE HOMEPAGE 

I think creative companies are the biggest culprits, what are you trying to prove by being all mysterious? Seriously if you wont tell me what you do on the homepage, I ain’t gonna search around to find out. Conversley, I feel a rush of love for companies in industries I know little about, but who explain themselves so clearly and consicely on the homepage I ‘get’ them immediately.

Don’t Pretend you’re a global company if you’re not 

It may sound good to look like you have offices in five different countries, but to me, it’s just confusing, and a major put off. If I want someone in my country, I want to see you’re here, not find out about all your virtual offices in far flung places.

Simple stuff, but if you want people to find out about you, you cannot expect them to spend hours digging, you’ve got to leave a trail everywhere you venture that leads back to where you want people to go.