Positives, in no particular order:
- The quotations on the bottom of each page help communicate the companies values and also create a sense of community, "people like us believe things like this".
- It's a really good balance between promoting fun electrical projects that will engage the maker mindset, but they aren't shying away from actually selling the components. Sales + Engineering. And those are often two mindsets that don't sit comfortably.
- It owns its nerdiness and goes all in on having a personality. 90% of websites I see have "professional and trustworthy" as their goal, but the result is generic, bland and boring.
- There's tons of learning resources.
- Uses video really well, I got sucked into a video about solar cells and the whole vibe reminded me of an old BBC tv show that helped you build a robot from a kit, decades ago. "It's hot and sunny outside, so I'm going to build a solar powered fan, here's how a solar cell it works" this is just a great way to learn, this is how we all wish science was taught in schools. There are 1000 other electrical component suppliers who would say it's not their job to do the teaching for the teachers, just to supply the components. But this is how you create a community that will keep coming back, because they just get so much value from the overall package.
- The founder is willing to promote her business. Magazine covers, interviews, videos. Most people don't want to face the scrutiny and judgement that comes with real publicity.
- There are only a few fundamental models for selling, one is the weekly marketplace, another is the travelling show. A merchant would travel from town to town and use some form of entertainment to draw a crowd, once they had the crowds attention, and they'd been warmed up (shifted their emotional state from the drudgery of everyday chores to something more exciting), then you introduce your product and its benefits. (Also the basic model of TV). And that's also the foundation of this type of business. A lot of effort is invested in the free "entertainment" side of the business. The regular fun and inspiring creative projects that the company puts out. (And I believe were the origin of the company, blog first, kids later.) Get people excited, create a crowd, then sell them a tool, amulet, map or weapon to help them move closer to their dreams. It sounds obvious, but most companies skip both the crowd and the excitement part.
- There's a nice segment from what looks like an external documentary about the company, on the about page. I thought it might be useful to roughly break down that documentary, so that people could make their own. If you look at it, there's really nothing technically difficult about it. Sit on a chair, looking slightly off camera and answer the follow types of question...
(Have anyone ask you the questions, one at a time, and edit them out)
What's your name and what's your company?
When did you start your company?
What does your company do?
Where do you do it?
How does your company make your customers lives better?
Who uses your products and where are they?
How successful is your company?
How did you get into this business, what's your background? Step 1, Step 2, Step 3.
Who are your heroes, who inspired you?
What's your company culture like?
What has been your biggest realization or lesson learned?
What's your best piece of advice you have for your customers?
Then film a bunch of B roll of you working, interacting with people, and around your city, and splice it in behind your answers to break up the images. Then add upbeat background music. Your own documentary in a couple of days!
That's all I have for now. There's a lot more that could be modelled from this site though, I think they're doing a great job.