4 Reasons Every Business Should Have a Website
1) People use the Internet like they used to use the phone book.
I used to tell small business owners that it didn’t matter if they had a website if most of their business was local. But now almost everyone uses the Internet to get information – even local information. So be there or beware; people who are searching will find other local businesses rather than yours.
2) A business website gives your business legitimacy.
People expect businesses to have their own websites, just as they used to expect businesses to have a real physical business address. Not having a business website raises questions in customers eyes. Are you a technological naif? A stick-in-the-mud? Or such a shoestring startup that you can’t even afford to do this? All things you don’t want people thinking about your business!
3) A business website gives you another marketing channel.
Having a business website gives you an automatic Internet presence. Think of it as a billboard on the ‘Net. Instantly you have another chance to introduce people to your products and services and another way for people to find you. (Of course, how many eyes your billboard attracts will depend on your conscious marketing efforts to get people’s attention, such as Search Engine Optimization, blogging, using social media, and online advertising.)
4) A business website gives you another opportunity for data collection/lead generation.
For instance, getting people to write their email addresses on pieces of paper and handing them in at a physical storefront is hard. But getting people to type their email address into a box on a website is much, much easier – especially if they perceive that they’re getting something for it, such as a newsletter, a special report or an ebook. And once you have the email address, you have another way to reach your potential customer.
So a business website is now like the business card – a must-have for any business.
If you don’t already have one, get started with How to Get and Register a Domain Name, the first step to getting your business online.
Posted by Susan Ward
Do You Publish Your Email Subject Line to Twitter & Facebook? Consider Changing It…
Here’s a quickie! I’ve been looking at a bunch of people who are doing a great job publishing their email marketing campaigns out to the web with a hosted version of the email, then using the subject line as their content for Twitter and Facebook.
For the most part your subject line is a great thing to publish, but here is something to think about when you do this. Think about all of the people who see your Tweet but don’t know who you are, what it’s about and don’t want to click on your link.
I’ve seen some of the following Tweets come through recently:
- March Newsletter
- Check Out Our Sale
- Best Buys for March
- Let’s See Your Collection
These are all fine subject lines for an email campaign, especially if your email From Label is recognizable to the list you’re mailing and they are expecting your message.
However it’s a bit different when you put your message out to Twitter and Facebook. There are people that might not be a customer, or be on your list. Heck, they may not know who you are. It’s a perfect opportunity to introduce yourself! You might try this on for those that don’t know you:
- March News from the Hingley Foundation to Cure Ailments
- Check Out Our Jewelry Sale
- Best buys on dog food for March
- Let’s see your collection of antique cocktail shakers
So your subject line is a great START, but make sure when you use your email marketing subject line in your social media campaigns you include your company name or the message you’re trying to get across.
Posted by Janine Popick on Vertical Response
A Guide to Do-It-Yourself Market Research
No matter what you are selling, the first thing you need to do before anything else is “figure out the consumer” of your products and/or services.
This is your target market and the more detailed your profile of your potential customers, the better chance you have of developing a marketing campaign that they’re going to see and pay attention to.
So before you do anything else marketing-wise, you need to learn about your target market, their likes, their dislikes, what makes them tick, what they think of this and that, how to reach them… you need to know as much as possible about them so you can shape your marketing message to be as appealing to them as possible.
It all starts with market research. You can hire someone to do it for you or you can do it yourself. This Guide to Do-It-Yourself Market Research will get you started.
Defining Your Target Market
- How To Find And Sell To Your Target Market explains how to use market segmentation to zero in on the folks who are most likely to buy from you.
- Writing the Market Analysis provides a research guide for working up a customer profile.
- Writing the Marketing Plan – A step by step guide to develop a successful marketing plan, either as part of a business plan, or as a stand alone.
Posted By Susan Ward, About.com Guide to Small Business: Canada
How to Become a Heroic Business Blogger
Ready to add more to your bottom line from business blogging?
What you need is a hero.
You likely already know that business blogging is not about blatantly self-promotional posts. Your focus should be building your authority and credibility with compelling content that provides true value. Over the long term, this strategy will easily convert a good percentage of readers into paying customers.
Even then, you’ll likely pitch the benefits of working with you or buying your product outside of your regular post stream. That’s why business bloggers need to be paying attention to Roberta’s landing page articles, because that’s where you’ll be sending people for more focused selling.
Is it ever okay to do a bit of “selling” in a blog post? Absolutely, but your best bet is to do it in a way that doesn’t come across as selling. The good news is that the technique you can use is one of the most potent forms of selling around.
Confused? Let’s take a closer look at the bad, better and best approaches.
Bad: Blatant Self-Promotion
Any kind of copy that focuses on telling people how wonderful you and your company are is doomed to fail. And even though the web is littered with bad self-promotional corporate-style websites that don’t work, there’s never been a better example of how poorly that type of content works than on a blog.
All great copy focuses on the prospect, and all great blogs focus on the reader. You’re wasting your time telling people how great you are, because odds are no one will care enough to decide whether to believe you.
Better: Customer Testimonials and Media Blurbs
As I’ve said a couple times before, what other people say about you is more important than what you say about yourself. This is the foundational aspect of linking and the backbone of social media.
Testimonials and media mentions are important because of the concept of social proof. We all, to vary degrees, look to others for indications of what to do and how to behave. Social proof is the basis of buzz, word-of-mouth marketing and fashion trends, but it’s also an important aspect of our day-to-day lives. We avoid sensory and information overload by looking to social indicators for judgmental heuristics that help us make decisions.
However, outside of a focused attempt to get someone to take immediate action (like order a product or call you), testimonials are not very compelling. Simply regurgitating what someone has said about you is not nearly as interesting as it is when it’s read somewhere else. In short, testimonials do not make good blog content.
Can we do better?
Best: Hero Stories
What’s a hero story?
A hero story is similar to a testimonial, except that it transcends praise and becomes a compelling, engaging narrative that your readers can directly relate to. Instead of you or your business being the center of attention, your customer or client is the “hero” who solves a problem utilizing your solution.
Here are some key characteristics of the hero story:
- The story is not about you or your company
- The story is about your customer and how they solved their problem
- First, introduce the hero
- Next, introduce the problem
- How did the hero solve the problem?
- What did the hero learn along the way?
- What specific results did the hero achieve?
Woven into the story, of course, is you and your solution. But you’re really just an “extra” who supports the hero. You want the hero to speak to your readers and prospective customers in terms they can relate to. Or in other words, a hero makes you look good in ways that are difficult for you to achieve yourself. People will tune out your own horn-blowing, but they’ll love a good story with a protagonist who conquers challenges that are similar to their own.
A Hero Story is Simply a Good Story
The key, of course, is a good story, and a good hero story is just like any good story—it contains drama, obstacles, conflict and resolution. And the key to writing a good hero story is to be engaging in your presentation.
You need to add some flair and a great hook to your story. Imagine yourself at a cocktail party with a small crowd of people gathered around to listen to you. Are you going to offer some drab, monotonous recitation that bores people to tears, or are you going to tell a wonderfully animated tale that keeps the crowd engaged and hanging on your every word?
I think we know which approach works better. Now, just write that way.
Posted on www.copyblogger.com by Brian Clark
How the iPad Will Change the Way You Do Business
Early reviews have been tepid, but Apple’s latest still demands attention from your business.
On April 3, Apple’s long-awaited tablet computer, iPad, hits the streets. Despite the initial mixed reviews it received when it was introduced, there is no denying this new device will change the way you do web business.
I’ll get to exactly how it’s going to do that in a moment. But first, let’s take a quick look at the iPad, and its key features.
An Overgrown iPhone?
When images of the iPad first came out, many observers called it an “overgrown iPhone”–an obvious comparison, because it looks so much like Apple’s popular smartphone, and shares so many of its capabilities. Like the iPhone, the iPad allows its users to send and receive e-mail, surf the Web, play music and videos, store photos, and download utilities and games from the iTunes App Store.
It also allows user to read eBooks via a reader built into the device — making it a direct competitor to Amazon Kindle and other e-reading devices on the market with far fewer bells and whistles. However, the iPad is being marketed as more than just a tool for consuming online content. Apple has revamped its iWork suite of applications to work on the iPad as well as standard Mac notebook and desktop computers. You can use “Keynote” to create multimedia presentations, “Pages” to create word processing documents, and “Numbers” to create spreadsheets. And you get to do all this via the same simple touch-screen interface that iPod Touch and iPhone users love so much.
But Who’s Going to Buy it?
When Apple introduced the iPad, a lot of tech geeks were disappointed. The iPad didn’t have a camera, and it couldn’t make phone calls–two big iPhone features. And it doesn’t support any sort of Flash-based programming, which puts off many designers and programmers.
But when you consider what the iPad does do, it soon becomes clear that the device just isn’t meant for hardcore tech geeks. The iPad target audience is clearly people who spend most of their time on their computer doing leisure-type activities, including browsing the web, reading books, watching movies, consuming online content and interacting on social networking sites.
More specifically, the iPad is going to hold huge appeal for:
- People who don’t like computers: The iPad’s touch-screen interface is exceptionally easy to use. Anyone who has ever got lost moving from program to program on their computer is going to love Apple’s new tablet. Key demographics fitting this description include middle-aged people and senior citizens who enjoy e-mailing friends and family, surfing the web, watching videos, and sharing photos–but hate all the hassles associated with a regular computer.
- People who travel: The iPad is a smaller, more lightweight alternative to a traditional laptop–which makes it ultra-portable. This ensures that people will take their iPad to places you normally wouldn’t imagine taking a laptop. Imagine being in a restaurant with hungry kids–kids growing restless and fidgety as they wait for their meals. Why not distract them–and save your fellow diners some frustration–with a movie or game on your iPad?
- Students: Kids are used to lugging around backpacks crammed full of heavy, expensive textbooks–textbooks that are used for one course or semester, and then never opened again. As more textbooks get converted into an iPad-friendly format, students will flock to the Apple Store to purchase this tablet in droves.
So What Does This Mean for you?
Even if you have no interest in ever buying an iPad yourself, you need to pay attention to how Apple develops and markets this device.
As the iPad and other tablet computers become more popular over the next few years, the amount of time people spend consuming online content is going to explode. If you want your internet marketing to take advantage of this emerging trend, then you’ll make sure your website provides them with the kind of appealing content they’re looking for.
Make sure your site has a blog that features regularly updated articles your target audience will find useful and entertaining. You can even create videos to satisfy their desire for multimedia content. And as your business grows, plan to include more interactive social media features on your site. These features are the most effective way to encourage your users to pursue an ongoing relationship with you and your other customers, and form a community around your business.
Finally, consider offering e-books. They’re easy to produce–you can hire writers and designers to create professional-looking eBooks for you, or do it yourself. And they fit into all kinds of objectives:
- Main product: Great if you’ve got an info-heavy site, and they’re almost 100 percent profit once you’ve paid for the initial production.
- New stream of revenue: You can add e-books to your site to complement what you already offer. They’re a good upsell or standalone product.
- Opt-in incentive: They’re cheap to produce so you can offer them free.
- Sales tool: Use them as an online sales rep, to demonstrate the value of your product. eBooks can contain text, video, audio, graphics–the whole multimedia deal.
As more people use devices like the iPad to access information online, e-books are going to become increasingly popular and widely used. Even now, the demand for good books to read via electronic reader outweighs the supply. If you want to take advantage of this new electronic information gold rush, the time to act is now. So what will you do to make your business more iPad-friendly?
Posted on www.entrepreneur.com; written by By Allen Moon
Video: Social Media Marketing and Integration
By now, we clearly see the impact of social media on business performance. In this video, check out direct results of social media marketing on some well-known brands.
Posted on youtube.com
How “Built to Sell” Could Help You Become a Millionaire
I first heard about John Warrillow’s “Built to Sell: Turn Your Business into One You Can Sell[1]” from Anita Campbell. She had gotten her hands on a super-early preview copy (still spiral bound) and had stayed up all night reading it. She was so excited about this book, that I begged her to give it to me so I could take a peek too. 
Well, I finally got my very own hard-back copy in the mail last week. Now I can finally tell you all about this short, easy and entertaining book that will get you thinking more profitably about your business.
“Built to Sell” is actually an allegory-style business novel. Personally, I like these kinds of books. I have an interactive learning style and reading a book that gets me involved in the characters really helps me to integrate the lessons in the book. It’s almost like taking a spoonful of sugar to get the medicine to go down.
“Built to Sell” Is More About Building Systems Than Selling Your Business
“Built to Sell” almost reminds me of Michael Gerber’s “The E Myth” series. When I first picked it up I thought that it didn’t apply to me – because I don’t want to create a franchise, nor do I want to sell my business. But those frameworks are just there to teach me the much bigger and more profitable lesson that a systematized, turnkey business is not only more valuable in the marketplace, but more fun, easier to manage and less stressful than the alternative.
The primary purpose of any business is to make money. Another goal for many is to support a balanced life for the owner – and for the employees of that business. “Built to Sell” will guide you through the process of creating a business model and system that allows you to do exactly that – create a business and not just busy-work.
Is “Built to Sell” Autobiographical?
John Warrillow [2] is an entrepreneur. He’s started and sold four companies, so he knows a thing or two about what it takes to build and sell a business. As soon as you start reading the book, you’ll see that it isn’t really autobiographical. It’s an amalgam of John’s experiences and the lessons he’s learned over time.
In fact, don’t make the mistake that I did and focus on the “story” part of this book. There are details in the book; such as the fact that Alex, the main character, was able to sell a logo package for $10,000. That completely spun me out because I’ve never run into a small business that was eager to spend $1,000 for a logo, let alone $10,000! But that ISN’T the point.
It’s Not About the Service – It’s About the System
“Built to Sell” succeeds in teaching a most valuable lesson: it’s not about the service, it’s about the system. Running a business without a turnkey process and system is like taking a 300 pound dog for a walk. Who’s walking whom?
In the story our hero, Alex Stapleton, owns an advertising and design firm. He is a “victim” of his business. He has clients that jerk him around and don’t pay on time. He loses sleep wondering how he’s going to pay his staff. He doesn’t always like the projects he gets. And, just when he’s sure he’s going to make a change – life hands him the opportunity of a life time. Will he take on a client that’s handing him lots of money for work not in his area of strength or will he stick to the lessons he’s learned and build a life and a business and not just his top line.
Ted’s Tips For Building a System.
Ted Gordon is Alex’s mentor. Ted has bought and sold several companies and he holds the key to Alex getting everything he wants out of the business.
Here are just a few tips that I got from the character “Ted”:
- “Being a generalist forces you to hire generalists and your offering will be average at best.”
- “If you run a service business that’s highly dependent on a single client who depends on you personally to tend to their account and you compete with a lot of other players who provide similar services – your business is virtually worthless. Make sure that no one client comprises more than 15% of your revenue.”
- Define your service as if it were a product. “Productize it” That means that you describe your unique service process as features that are unique to you.
- If you’re selling a product, you can create a flat fee as a price and get paid up-front.
- “Prove that you’re serious about specialization by turning down work that falls outside your standard service.”
I could go on and on because there are many wonderful, practical, easily implementable tips in this book.
Read “Built to Sell” For Sanity and Profits
It might seem counter-intuitive to you to actually focus on a tighter service offering when the economy is on a downward spiral. But the message of focus, specialization and systems that Warrillow preaches is spot on.
If you’re currently running a service business that totally depends on your being there, then you have a lot to learn from reading this book. Implement just a few basic principles and you will see immediate improvement in your profitability and your sanity as well.
Pick up “Built to Sell” [1] and by this time next year – you will have your very own money machine!
Posted By Ivana Taylor On March 13, 2010 @ 9:05 am In Business Book Reviews
[1] Built to Sell: Turn Your Business into One You Can Sell: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0986480304?ie=UTF8&tag=smallbusin0b3-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0986480304
[2] John Warrillow: http://builttosell.com/
Cool Tool of the Week: Promotions for Facebook Fan Pages
Promotions for Facebook Fan Pages is an application that lets you “create and launch interactive promotions and marketing campaigns on Facebook Fan Pages within minutes.” I like that you can create promotions with different formats such as contests, coupons and giveaways, giving your Facebook Fan Page visitors a better chance of engaging with your page.
The cost is reasonable;$5.00 per campaign for a Basic account and $25 per campaign for a Standard account. There are also Premium and White Label accounts available.
Posted By Susan Ward, About.com Guide to Small Business: Canada
Monthly List Building Ideas – 5 Ways to Build Your Email Marketing List
In an attempt to give you 5 new ways to build your email marketing list each month, here are new ideas you can put to work for your business.
1. Use Facebook – Each week send an email through Facebook to your Facebook fans and friends asking them to join your list. Direct them to the website address where you have your opt-in form hosted and entice them to sign up by giving them a discount or special offer. If you have a Facebook Fan page you can put an opt-in form right on the page! After they opt-in to your list, direct them to a coupon page with a code or offer a print out, or send them a separate email-only discount as a follow up email.
2. Use Twitter – Each week Tweet to your list that you’ll give something of value to those that join your list. Use abit.ly link to send them to your hosted opt-in form and track it.
3. Use What You’ve Got – Export your list of personal friends and business colleagues who know you from your Outlook, Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo! accounts. Then send everyone an email from you personally asking them to join your list. Link off to a hosted version of an opt-in form so you can track them separately. Don’t forget to include the value they’ll be getting from you, like discounts, coupons or information that is exclusive to them. And since you know them, chances are they’ll join pretty quickly.
4. Use GroupOn – If you’re a in retail or in a local service business give a Groupon discount. GroupOn is a new and quickly growing service that gets your offer in front of tons of people. The way it works is that you give your discount ONLY if a certain number of people take you up on it in a given amount of time. Then make sure you ask for their email address in exchange for their discount. Best part? You give Groupon a percentage of the revenue, so it’s nothing out of your pocket up front. We like them because they use the power of email marketing to get the word out.
5. Use foursquare – Give a discount each time a customer buys something from you and shows you they mentioned your business on foursquare on their phone. This means that they’re telling everyone in their network that they’ve just visited you or talked about you. Give a BIG discount to your “mayor” each month and ask them for their email addresses. More on foursquare.
Do you have any experiences with any of these?
Posted by Vertical Response on March 02, 2010
