What Website Visitors Need From You |  |
- What Website Visitors Need From You
- 3 More Ways to Qualify Marketing Help
- Google Wants to Teach You about Internet Marketing
- Strategy Key for Spreading Small Business Message
| What Website Visitors Need From You Posted: 06 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PST Your website strategy boils down to figuring out what your current and potential customers want online and then meeting that desire. As more small businesses continue to launch or upgrade their Web presence, we'll have to learn a few things in order to maximize that digital migration.
Think about it, you would never sling open your business doors without preparing the inside and the team. You have to prepare your website as well and that starts with understanding what your current and potential clients want from you online and then giving it to them. In “6 Techniques to Improve Customer Experience,” Ivana Taylor says to:
Ultimately, your Web design is not about your favorite things. It's about clearly and simply relaying a message the connects with your visitors in 2 seconds or less. Your visitors what to know:
Think Different About Your MarketingToday's shoppers conduct serious online research and with all the apps available for smartphones, they can and will start that research while standing in your store. It's a digital world. And if you're in business, then you need a smart website of your own. Keep in mind, smart and fancy are not the same thing. Susan Reid in “5 Old-school Rules You Can Break When Starting Up,” says:
You can start small and smart and grow and upgrade your website organically. Just be sure to create a self hosted blog that sits on your own domain or looks like it does. The serious business owner should avoid the those co-cobranded sites like www.yoursite.tumblr.com, www.yoursite.blogspot.com, etc. They have their place in your website strategy, but not as your primary digital home. You main Web presence needs to sit on your own domain. When it comes to your website Ivana says:
You can check her other 6 tips in 7 Must-Have B2B Web Design Elements of 2012. In the meantime: Make it easy. Make it simple. Make it clear. Question Concept Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| 3 More Ways to Qualify Marketing Help Posted: 06 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PST After getting a whole bunch of Shares, Tweets and great comments on my previous post: "3 Ways to Qualify Marketing Help," I think it's fair to say that this topic is an important one. Clearly, it's an issue on people's minds. So, with that in mind, I'm continuing the topic.
I'd also like to say that while this topic is intended for small business owners seeking marketing help, I was pleased to see so many positive comments from other marketers. So, if that's you, keep reading and maybe you'll pick up a tip or two on ways to fine tune your current presentation. My first three ways to qualify a marketing resource were: 1.) Google them and see what you can find. 2.) Check to see if they have a LinkedIn profile. 3.) Read their website bio. My next three ways to qualify a marketing resource are: 4.) Find out how well they know Social Media: Sure, everyone's talking about Social Media. What you'll want to find out is how involved they are with it and how effectively they're putting it to use. But even better than asking them, do some simple online investigating. Some specific questions to answer are:
5.) Results: Ultimately, it comes down to this, right? And, yet, how many marketing firms truly have a lot to say about it? Well, they'd better if they want to be seriously considered. So, on their website do they display great testimonials and case studies? Just a couple or a bunch? The more they show, the more you might be convinced that maybe you'll be the next one. 6.) The Work. This may be the most important litmus test of all because you can't possibly consider anyone if you don't seriously like – or better yet, love — their work. So, when you visit their site make sure you give yourself more than enough time to review and fully digest their work. It'll be well worth the time you invest. That covers Part 2 of "3 Ways to Qualify Marketing Help." If you're finding these tips helpful be sure to check back soon. I will have some final thoughts on this all important topic.
From Small Business Trends |
| Google Wants to Teach You about Internet Marketing Posted: 06 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PST I don't know a single small business owner not actively looking for ways to get more from their SEO. We want trusted information focused on the areas we're not always too sure about like… search ads. Or how to decipher Google Analytics. Let's face it, as SMBs we're pretty swamped. We don't always have the time or resources to learn about everything. Instead, we want to know what we need to know and we only want to take in information we can trust. And that's exactly why SMBs may be interested in checking out the Learn with Google Webinars happening all this month. Yesterday morning Google announced its new Learn with Google Webinar program which is designed to share best practices across a variety of topics like paid search, mobile ads, display ads, YouTube and Google Analytics. Eight webinars were formally announced, all taking place during the month of March.
What topics can you expect tips on from Google?
Video. Yup, looks like all of the core areas that Google has been stressing that SMBs get more involved with in order to help grow their online presence. If you're a small business owner just starting to get your feet wet (or finally not ignoring) any of these important areas, you may want to sit in on these free webinars and get some best practice advice from Google. Also worth noting is Google's new webinar page which not only lets you register for the webinars listed above, but let's you access previous webinars that you probably didn't even know existed. Many of these Google webinars are targeted toward setting up and smartly using Google Analytics, which is pretty vital. If you're feeling 100 percent comfortable in this area, you'll definitely want to check these out. To make things even simpler, Google is allowing SMBs to download it's Learn with Google Webinar calendar to be automatically notified of upcoming webinars via Google Calendar. Wasn't that nice of them? I think it's really great for Google to these types of resources for small business owners to take advantage of. You'll almost always want to go beyond what Google is telling you and experiment on your own, but if you don't even know where to start or how to get going (and many of us don't) these types of programs are just the jump start we need. From Small Business Trends |
| Strategy Key for Spreading Small Business Message Posted: 06 Mar 2012 02:30 AM PST Success of your business these days requires the spreading of your message. There’s no need to share what you have to say with everyone. Just share it with the people who care. Here are some resources and ideas to get you started. Being HeardHow far will your small business message spread? Ultimately, this is the key question when marketing a business, because the more your message spreads itself the less work you need to do to keep it alive. No matter what message you’re sending about your business, be sure you understand how to make it spread. Seth Godin’s Blog When competition is a bad thing. Whether online or off, do you really stand a better chance trying to outdo your top competitors? Why not take a different approach? Carve out your own niche and stop worrying so much about the competition. Make sure your message stands alone. Monetized Selling Your MessageHow to ask for business. Of course, we all know the power of Facebook to share business messages. But how do we go about leveraging this powerful tool to get buyers for our products and services in the door. Selling your brand and your business on FB may not be as hard as you think. Entrepreneur Is you customer loyalty program really helping? Believe it or not, some customer loyalty programs aren’t such a great thing. Then again, some of these programs can really work to increase purchases and to help you gain insight into your customers’ preferences. The big question is, what kind of customer loyalty program do you have and why? Fast Company Reaping the BenefitsCommit yourself to gradual growth. The most important thing to understand about small business growth is that it requires ongoing effort. No matter whether your business is a simple Website or a complex product or service provider, success takes time and patience. Out of Your Rut Spreading the word with marketing and sales. If you really want customers for your products and services, you’ll need to get marketing and sales working together. Do you have the right combination to get the job done? Partners in Excellence Quality ContentStrategy as culture. To some degree, the culture you create when you start your business will define your message and how you communicate it. To build your company the right way from the beginning, here are some lessons you can take from one of the gold standards: Apple. Startup Professionals Musings Tweeting your way to success. Yes, we all know the power of those 140 characters when it comes to sending your message virally. Here’s the thing though. Too many tweets on the same subject could seem annoying or worse yet, spammy. If this is something you wish to avoid, be sure to follow some simple techniques. Basic Blog Tips InnovationSpreading your message with video. If you doubt the power of online video to transform your small business’s message, doubt no more. Here’s a post with plenty of reasons you should be crafting a video for your business right now. Rossiter & Co. Making your communications more Nimble. A new tool helps you unify your network and social communications all in one place. How would you use the power to unite everyone you want to talk to in one place? GrowMap From Small Business Trends |
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