Posts Tagged ‘website’

How Can I Promote My Own Business Online?

So you’ve finally decided to take the first steps toward exposing your small business to the vast ocean of prospects called the Internet; or maybe you’ve had a website for a few years that was built by your neighbor’s cousin’s daughter’s boyfriend. The fact is that if you’ve been in business for more than a year and you’re serious about your future and the future of your business then you need to continue reading because this post was written with YOU specifically in mind.

There’s really no good reason for any brick and mortar business to NOT have a web presence. Even if you’re a one man operation and the entire business revolves around your particular expertise or specialty, you owe it to yourself and your clients/customers to put forth the best possible image that you can for your business. Here are a few more reasons why a website is essential to business growth:

1. 1. A website can make your company look larger than it really is. Positioning is crucial to success.
   2. A website exposes your products or services to a wider audience than local advertising possibly could. Branding is crucial.
   3. A website gives you the ability to stay in constant contact with your clients/customers through auto-responders.
   4. A website that has been properly optimized will have you appear as the authority in your niche or field of expertise.
   5. A website gives your clients/customers a venue to make suggestions or offer feedback for you to improve your business while they can remain anonymous.
   6. More interactivity equals more satisfied customers which in turn equals more profit for you and your business.

Once you’ve decided to move ahead with creating a web presence for your small business there are a few things to consider before attempting to D-I-Y (do it yourself) or even hiring someone to do it for you. Make sure that you have some things crystal clear in your mind before you begin the process and you will save yourself time and frustration later on.
Things that you absolutely should have in place before moving forward:

1. 1. A mission statement. (If you didn’t do this when you first opened your business, do it now)
   2. A vision statement.
   3. A clear picture of exactly who your audience is.
   4. Short term and long term ATTAINABLE goals.
   5. A positive mental attitude.

If you’ve taken the time and forethought to really get these thoughts and processes ingrained into your psyche you’re well on your way to successfully taking your business to the next level and beyond.

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• Why You Need An Internet Strategy Consulting Firm To Explode Your Business? (wealthyways4you.com)

How Do You Know When It’s Time To Take Your Hobby Online?

You’ve been crafting most of your life. You absolutely love what you do, but you’ve gotten so good at it that you now have a house full of parts, a garage full of finished product and weekends that are filled with travel to local flea markets and craft fairs. The weekends that you’re not away doing a show or a fair you’re at home working out the latest modification or changes to your product.

There comes a time when your hobby becomes more than just a hobby. If you spend more than a couple of hours a day doing an activity it qualifies as more than a hobby. Isn’t it about time that you started earning something back for all of the time you’ve invested? Besides, when it’s something that you love to do, you don’t consider it work.

Therein lies one of the keys to success in business; make a living doing something that you have a passion for and you’ll feel like you never worked a day in your life. It may mean learning a new skill set in order to sell your goods more efficiently or to a wider audience. Your potential audience is what will determine the future of your business. If you restrict yourself to only those fairs and flea markets that you’ve always gone to, you’ll limit yourself as to how much money you can actually earn while you’re there.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with getting out into your community and meeting the public that makes up your clients or customers. It’s a great way to network with other entrepreneurial minded folks and seek out resources and relationships that are mutually beneficial.

Ideally, wouldn’t you love to have a constant flow of your product going OUT of your door? If you had a system set up to sell your doll clothes or whatever your particular craft or skill may be, it would free up your time. You’d then be able to use more of your free time to network with other WAHM’s (work at home moms) and learn the business side of your “hobby”.

Sometimes all it takes is for just the right person to come across your website that is looking to fill the inventory of his stores with the exact item that you’ve been producing and “hoarding” all this time to make your life a true success story. But stories like this can never come true unless and until you make it possible in your life. Seek out opportunity. Network with like minded people. Work WITH your competition to mutual benefit, not AGAINST them (everyone suffers).

If you don’t already belong to on-line communities that focus on your hobby, niche or product, seek them out. Find out who’s making money doing what you’re doing and how they’re doing it.

Once you’ve made the decision to move (all or part of) your business on-line there are some things to consider. You can either “do-it-yourself” or seek out help. You have many options to consider. We’ll touch on those things in our next article.

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Getting it right, right from the start

Any offline to online transition consultant knows that the future sustainable relationship with a client depends on understanding the needs and expectations of the business actually in the process of transitioning from the offline world to the Internet.  It is extremely important to ensure that the right virtual presence is created.  Without a proper base from which to grow, no matter how flashy the site, the traffic will just not be able to sustain itself profitably.

The first and most basic task is to identify the actual needs of the business. If the focus is on the local community, and the business’s perceived role within it, there is no need to try to drive traffic from the ends of the world.  Similarly, any business that sells physical products strictly on reduced price structure has no real need to develop the persona of an expert in a given field.

But there are many times where the business is actually looking to expand and redefine itself in the process.  The Internet offers a wonderful opportunity to develop a “persona” that is completely different from the brick and mortar store setting.  In this case, the vehicle used to promote the expertise is much different from one that is displaying pure price point.

There are lots of ways to promote on the Internet, but the Home page is the most important.  The choice between blog and more standard website is critical.  Although a combination of both is often used, it is the focus of the development on one or the other that can spell the difference between success and failure.  As a general rule of thumb, if the information to be delivered is of a mainly static sort, maybe the business only desires an electronic business card.  Then the choice of the more standard website, with its ability to influence the way the pages are viewed in a somewhat structured way with the proper selection of menus and buttons, is usually the best way to offer exposure.

When the client has the requirement to build an aura of expertise, or a personality of sort is required, then this is most efficiently provided through the use of the blog format.  The blog is much less static and offers the ability to create a “web star” and hordes of followers.  This is something the more traditional website would have a difficult time providing.

You can have the best graphics and copy writing skills, but if the original platform for delivering the message is not appropriate, leading to a confused message and experience, serious problems will surface.  Even the best designed site will have problems delivering the original expectations of the contract if the experience is wrong.  Getting it right, right from the start is often the difference between success and failure in any project.

Consultants: Outsource Or Die

There is not the slightest doubt that consulting to offline businesses is the market niche to be in.  It is a major growth industry.  The potential clients have a wide variety of needs that need to be met.  Anyone who has some experience in internet marketing will be capable of meeting these needs.

However, consider for a moment the extent of the needs that you are likely to face.

• Your client will require a well designed web site that is properly optimized for the search engines.

• Your client will require an auto-responder and associated email messages

• Your client will need articles submitted on a regular basis to the article directories.

• Your client will need  video on the sales and contact pages.

• Your client will need a continuing program of education and support.

You may well think that you can provide these services on your own, if you have all the necessary skills.  That scenario may work out for your first few clients, but then you will find yourself shouldering an increasing burden.  The consequence of doing that is likely to be disastrous.  Your clients’ needs will not be met in the most timely and efficient way; you will start missing deadlines and making mistakes.  The long term implications of that are obvious.

Outsourcing is therefore a very sensible – indeed, necessary approach to take, right from day one.

The secret of success with outsourcing is to do your homework.

There are a large number of resources available to you, depending on what tasks you wish to have performed.

Let me use web site design as an example.  Determine the size and basic layout that is required for your client’s site, then get three sites designed.  It may cost you a little at first, but in the long term it will help you provide a consistent and reliable service.  This split-testing approach will enable you to gauge quality, turn-around time and interpersonal relationships.  It will also enable you to negotiate a good price for continuing work.

The same will apply for other areas of your client services such as article writing and video production.

In order to have long term stability and effectiveness in your consultancy services you will need to outsource as much of your work as possible.

So….outsource or die!

How To Add A New Dimension To Your Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is both a fascinating and frustrating activity in which to be involved.  The fascination arises because of the different skills that one has to acquire in order to be on top of the game as well as the challenges presented by the rapidly changing scenarios on the internet.  The frustration arises because of fierce competition and the constant battle to get growing streams of traffic to your website(s).

Therefore it is important to be on the lookout for new opportunities where you can beat the competition by being ahead of them.  The purpose of my article today is to alert you to a new field of opportunity where, if you take advantage of it, you will find a source of untapped riches that will swell the coffers of your bank account.  I am talking about being a consultant to offline businesses.

Do you realize that in the USA over 50% of small businesses do not have an online presence?  It is also reasonable to assume that the situation is very similar in other major countries.  The percentages may vary, but the real point to understand here is that there is a huge market waiting to be shown how to improve their businesses.

In addition to the above scenario you also need to realize that where small businesses do have a web presence, it is often ineffectual.  In other words, it is not bringing about increased business.

When you put those two scenarios together then you have a great opportunity to take your internet marketing to a new dimension.  You can become a consultant to offline businesses and to those businesses that have a website that doesn’t help generate new customers.

Consider for a moment this new dimension and what the needs of your prospective clients might be.

• They will need a website that is search engine optimized so as to bring in the maximum search traffic

• They will need a website that captures the email addresses of visitors so that there can be follow-up campaigns to convert those visitors to customers

• They will need an auto-responder that will send out the follow-up messages

• They will need a marketing plan for their business

• They will need advice about other tools and resources that may assist in the growth of their business.

For example, using videos on squeeze pages and sales pages.

Can you see the opportunities provided by this new dimension?

The opportunity is undoubtedly there and you need to get yourself organized and begin taking advantage of it.  It has been calculated that the scenarios I have outlined represent a multi-billion dollar industry.  It is therefore crucial to get organized and get in early and procure your share of this growth industry – online consulting to offline businesses.