Improve Communication With Existing Clients

Business experts have proven that repeat business is the most profitable, and the easiest to win if you communicate regularly with those valuable customers you already have! But how often do you interact with them? What opportunities are being missed to offer additional products or services to clients who already know and trust you? A website can be a major part of the solution, providing an online presence … 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Prospect For New Clients

It is no secret that today’s consumers are much better informed about their choices, thanks in large part to the availability of online information. Business and consumers alike routinely search the web to narrow those choices before they ever pick up a phone, get in their car, or place a call. You can’t even compete, much less win if you don’t show up for the game.

Plan New Products and Services

Research on the internet is simple and inexpensive. It can help your business expand markets, fine-tune offerings, improve customer service and identify new customer requirements. Use your web site to obtain valuable feedback and suggestions on how to improve your offerings. A free online survey can get answers to a myriad of marketing questions that would otherwise be difficult and costly to obtain. Just remember to offer something in return for their response.

Reduce Marketing and Advertising Costs

The average charge for a 3″ x 3″, black & white advertisement in a trade journal with a monthly circulation of 95,000 ranges from $850 to $2,210. The ad is inserted once. Of the 95,000 total readers that month, a much smaller percentage will be qualified prospects for your product or service. Compare that to a small website with a one-time investment of $1,495. Even that inexpensive site is:

• accessible to prospects worldwide
• available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• provides unlimited space for words and pictures
• searchable by anyone interested in your product or service

When was the last time you got that kind of return on a $1,500 business investment?

Should the most honest and accurate advice on any topic come from someone other than ourselves, we’ll gladly pass it on. No company or individual has a monopoly on knowledge! Here’s an article from such a source that provides a unique, highly practical perspective. The author’s style is (to use his own words) a bit brusque — but we believe the message is clear and very much on target. Click to read D. Bnonn Tennant’s article on choosing a website designer.

Not long ago, social media seemed so new and different that it was treated as an appendage of sorts, a kind of marketing that should be tried only by “experts”. While that view still exists to some degree today, it’s become clear to many that social media is no longer marketing’s new thing — it’s simply part of the way marketing is done today.

“Social Media For Small Business” by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing  [click to read] is one of the most thorough, well-written resources available on the topic. He provides easily-understood explanations of this sometimes confusing marketing approach. This eBook is primarily aimed at helping non-technical business people better understand the tangible benefits to be gained from social media marketing. Enjoy!

Reports say that by 2014, over half of the internet connections around the world will be devoted entirely to mobile devices; it’s hard to turn away from the facts and ignore mobile as an important marketing outlet. Having a clear, concise mobile website can distinguish you from your competition and become a useful sales tool — particularly for a small business.

For most people the mobile web will be their primary, if not their only, way of experiencing the internet. For a lot of businesses, that’ll mean designing for the mobile web first, and for the regular web second.

Peter Rojas, co-founder of Engadget and Gizmodo

Important Features

The people using mobile devices are often very different than those using desktop, or non-portable computers — they are a group that is most likely on-the-go, with shorter attention spans and a very specific reason to be visiting your mobile website. Having the right features on your mobile site is important to satisfy the needs of those mobile users. Here are some of the “core” needs:

• Get your phone number
• Get directions
• Determine your hours
• Understand what you do
• Get in touch with you

The priorities on a mobile website are also much different than those of a full website. On your full website it may be okay to tuck the phone number in the footer or on a secondary page, because it’s unlikely that a person wants to initiate a call from their computer. But if you’re on a mobile device, calling with a single touch of the screen might well be the only thing you want to do! Similarly, hours of operation are not as important when working on a desktop computer, but for someone who is driving and needs to see if you’re open, it’s critical to make them highly visible.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that a mobile website is a sales tool for small businesses; it is something that should entice, inform, and engage users. In “The ROI of Mobile”, Julie A. Ask identifies the benefits of having a mobile presence, and lists those for “Increased Consumer Purchases” as follows:

• Offering an additional channel for sales
• Guiding consumers to physical locations
• Influencing sales
• Increasing the number of store visits, transactions, or purchases
• Driving a larger basket size
• Helping you acquire new customers

Hidden Features

Basic features are not the only thing that will help you turn a mobile website into increased sales. Sometimes it’s the special features that separate a good product from a mediocre one. Some features in this category are:

• Analytics to track website usage
• Sufficient branding and visuals
• An easy way to find your mobile website

There is nothing worse than not knowing whether or not your hard earned money is being spent on something that is working, so it’s very important to have a strong analytics tool to help track it. And of course, your mobile website should carry over the same brand experience as the full website; it is not a very effective marketing tool if it doesn’t. The final feature mentioned concerns discovery … how do people find your mobile website? Because it’s such an important topic, I will dedicate a future article entirely to the topic of Mobile Search.

Retail vs. Virtual Small Business

Owner of Solid Grounds Coffee House in Northville, Teresa Berent, agrees that mobile devices will continue to play a bigger part in the future of her commerce.

With the barcode scanning apps coming out for everything, it will all go paperless — all discounts or coupons will be digital. I do have many parents or older customers who prefer paper, but that too will go away soon.

Teresa Berent, Owner of Solid Grounds Coffee House

We often encounter people who say, “I’m not a retail shop. How is a mobile website going to help me?”. This is certainly a valid question, since most of the features mentioned here suggest that someone is either walking or driving to your location. So let’s consider some other situations in which a “virtual”, or home-based small business might find themselves:

1. You are at a networking event, and want people to remember you.

If you hand out a business card with a QR code linking to your mobile website, people are enticed to find out more about you. There are a lot of benefits to being easily reached from a mobile device at large events with scheduled free time. If you can capture a lead “right here, right now” instead of sifting through a pile of business cards later, that’s a job well done.

2. Because you are not a place people can walk into, you need to be even more accessible online.

A mobile website can increase the number of people who connect with your small business, because your brand is now at the fingertips of every mobile device user. With a mobile website, people also feel more confident that, if they need help, or to contact you, they always have that connection in the palm of their hands.

Overpriced and Complex? No Thanks!

The last thing your small business needs is an expensive technology that quickly becomes too complicated to manage. There are many companies in the marketplace promoting a wide variety of mobile solutions, and it’s important to carefully evaluate features, suitability to your specific needs, and quality of user experiences. Should your have questions about mobile technology, we’d be happy to field a phone call or email.

The Beginners Guide To SEO was written by SEOmoz, one of the most respected and successful companies in the Search Engine Optimization field. This excellent tutorial covers all aspects of SEO marketing in depth, yet in a clear and understandable style. The most important aspect of this guide may actually be the chapter that corrects some of the popular myths and misinformation surrounding SEO.

We feel that business people and technical types alike can benefit from this information. We hope you’ll agree.