rong>Business Site Is Today's Standard
Only a few years ago, you could ask a business person if they had a website and not be sure of the answer. Today, a website is a "must-have", and a good website can make or break the business. In many cases your website is the business.
The problem with many websites is that they are built like print ads. They have an "About us" page, "Services" page and "Contact us" page that are informative but do not address the customers' need or solve their problems. This approach worked just fine in the 90's and early 2000's. Today, however, a website must have a presence; it must be built as an office or as store, just like the one you occupy, and no less valuable. Consumers are much more educated today and are faced with a tremendous choice of providers who also are offering great products and services. To succeed, you must transform your website into an exciting, inviting place of business, and you must ensure that the customers have more than enough reasons to click on the "Buy now" button. To accomplish this goal, stay tuned to the rest of this lens.
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Web Reputation
If you don't have a positive web reputation, or customers can't find much about you on the internet, your best marketing effort will not be very effective. Customers may come to your website, but if they are unsure of the quality, the safety, or the value of your product and service, they may leave just as fast as they came in. Trust is a very important factor in consumers' web purchasing decisions.
Make sure to take steps to build up your web reputation by posting testimonials, product and service reviews, by writing articles, linking relevant sites to your website, and attracting well-regarded individuals or organizations to endorse you.
Track what customers are saying about you. Tools like Google Alerts will allo
Search Engine Ranking
They've Got to Be Able to Find You
Being found in the first page in Google has become so important that in many cases it can make or break your business. The battle for ranking is fierce and the ranking can change over time. They key to obtaining high placement is in having precise and useful keywords and getting valuable backlinks. Mastering this can take quite a bit of time so unless you are a search engine guru, it pays to hire someone who can help get your site to show up early in the results.
However, being near the top of the organic (natural) search is no longer a guarantee for early positioning of your website. What has changed? Two things, AdWords, and Local Business Center (LBC). AdWords are Google's "sponsored" links, where you pay per click to advertise your business. Local Business Center (LBC) is a free (for now) Google service, where your business name, phone number, and website is listed, and a map of the location of your business, and others like it is listed. Often, the sponsored (advertising) links, and the Local Business Center appear BEFORE the organic Goggle search. So, it is possible that a free LBC listing can beat you to the punch. All your efforts to be #1 in the organic search can be fruitless.
Make sure your efforts are on all three. At the same time, be sure to "play by the rules" and don't obtain backlinks by spamming forums, boards or websites. This not only can hurt your web-utation, but might even get you thrown off the search engines you're trying to woo.
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Internet Marketing
Get The Word Out!
Search engine success alone is not enough. To bolster visibility, you need to create other enforcing mechanisms.
Start an ad campaign to show your ads along with the "natural" or "organic" search results. List your company in search engines maps and relevant trade sites that have a page rank of 5 or higher. This helps increase traffic and create a consumer "top of mind" state.
Utilize social media to get the message to consumers. Twitter, Facebook and bookmarking sites (Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon) are great ways to share information. Do you occasionally offer coupons to customers? Start a campaign with Twitter that gets people to spread the word about your business, offer them the coupon in return for their publicity. Get creative!
If you need some quick tips, there's plenty of videos on YouTube of guys sitting in front of a camera droning on about the tips and tricks. YouTube - Internet Marketing Tips
Give Them a Reason To Stay or Come Back
In depth descriptions, articles a valuable information will keep them coming back for more.
If your business is selling office supplies, you won't get very much business if your customers don't know very much about the product. Provide detailed descriptions, enlargable pictures, multiple angles and product reviews that give prospective buyers a solid idea about your product or services.
In addition, give the visitor useful and valuable information to keep them coming back to your site. If you are a dentist, offer information about dental health or tooth whitening they can use; if you are a contractor, offer information about things the customer can do themselves to maintain their home. The information must be valuable, actionable, and easy to follow. You can also provide links to useful sites or compile information from multiple sources.
If you have a consistent stream of information, consider adding a blog to your site. Particularly, something that readers can subscribe to with an RSS reader. Keep in mind blogging is a serious commitment - no one is going to subscribe or come back if they notice updates are sparse and invaluable. There are many articles, videos and podcasts that help with blogging for business.
Engage and Reward Your Customers People want to interact and feel appreciated.
We live in a new age of social engagement and networking. People like to express their opinion, have their voices heard, and contribute to the choice of products and services. So, ensure that your website has a place for submitting feedback. Polls and forums are great tools to empower consumers because it enables them to express their opinion about a product or service.
Don't forget that everyone wants to feel valued and appreciated for being a loyal customer. What are you doing to reward customers' loyalty? Start a customer loyalty and appreciation program. It could be as simple as earning points towards products and services, discounts for repeat business, vouchers for third-party products, or even free stationary and supplies.
Incorporate this appreciation program into your social media campaign by encouraging fans of your business to "follow" or "friend" you on social networks. Offer them something for their dedication.
President of BusinessWays and CompuWays
