Help yourself avoid a bad return on investment and steer clear of an outdated business model. There has been a considerable shift towards digital media and away from traditional printed media. For most businesses today it is not enough to simply have a website up and running. Putting up incomplete, non-compliant, outdated, or incorrect information can do more harm than good for your reputation and your bottom line. Seek out information and get educated about the important industry standards, economic factors, social influences, and political climate affecting your business online. Know your target market, and seek out ways to connect to and engage with your audience. Decide how your business can benefit by carving out a niche in the online marketplace. When it comes to your online presence for your business, ask these questions. Is my website converting leads into actual customers? Is my website content relevant to my niche market? What can Search Engine Optimization do for my business? Do I need ongoing SEO services? How can I stand out in a global marketplace? What is natural search engine placement going to do for my online business? What am I really paying for in a quality web design service? How can I get the most for my money?
Is your business suffering from lack of online presence? If you have a web design or SEO service contracted out that is not living up to promises, you can do better! You want your website to convert potential customers into actual customers, and you need to have the right team working hard for you. Your business can attract more customers with the right design in place establishing you as the expert in your field from the get go. Once your SEO services and marketing plan have been implemented, your business should start achieving even higher search rankings with time. Websites can be like fine wine, they get better with some aging! A prescribed plan for maintaining or expanding your position should be discussed with your web designer and/or SEO provider also. A viable website is very much like any automobile, it is only going to go so far without tune-ups and maintenance.
Traditional percentage type marketing isn’t dead, but it’s dying. Nobody I know looks through the ads printed in the phonebook. What a waste of money! The new shift in marketing is toward about reaching your target audience through a more strategic approach than traditional advertising. Google takes what people are searching for and comes up with advertisements that might be of interest to the person. Facebook does the same using people’s group affiliations and personal information. People themselves give companies the green light to market to them if it is a product or service they may have an interest in. If you add or invite users to friend or like your page on Facebook, you can create content that invites participation from your public or offers special incentive to make a purchase. The name of the game is reaching out to your potential customers by designing a website that is easy to find, navigate, and provides direction on what to do next.
The economic climate has small business owners very concerned over controlling costs and trying to get the most out of their advertising dollars. Trends toward the Green movement have influenced business owners’ decisions and corporate social responsibility is scrutinized now than ever before in history. Social media has exploded in the recent years. More people are connected around the globe than ever before. As the speed of communication increases, so does the pace of transactions in the business world. The next generation of business owner is getting keen on Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It is also casually referred to as SEM or Search Engine Marketing. These are two different things in and of themselves, but whatever you call it, SEO remains an important piece of the puzzle in solving placement problems for your website. SEO covers a wide range of services including, but not limited to; content writing, keyword analysis, website architecture, website speed testing, and SEO health check. SEM is more focused on the overall marketing strategy. Your Marketing plan will lay out the framework and deadlines necessary to meet your goals for your business online. You know that haste makes waste. What good is having a site if nobody is looking at it? Google’s own statistics from 2008 show that 86% of user clicks are organic and only 14% come from paid search. Businesses need natural placement and SEO working together. Your marketing plan is better equipped for business if it covers more approaches to the customer and uses an agreeable amount of resources like time and money. A well rounded plan for marketing your business is a must in today’s fast paced business world.
Think about where your phone book is sitting now-a-days. I know some folks that use it to prop up a loose stair. Mine sits unused on my bookshelf, until next year’s comes out, and then it goes into recycling again. Others are used as kindling for the campfire or just plain thrown out. Most of us learned way back in grade school how to use an index and a table of contents to find what we want. Who is actually flipping through pages upon pages of advertisements in a phone book? The answer is, “Nobody I know.” Not many people I know use the phonebook to find what they are looking to buy. There is an app for that now. Smart phones, Ipads, mobile devices and broadband connection… there are more and more ways information is available to consumers. Consumers are able to make purchase decisions in minutes or seconds rather than hours or days. The public can sift through lists of competitors for a particular service and decide who they will call to get the job done. If you had bothered to put it up, the information would be out there for people to find, and if your business is not being found, someone is going to be taking care of your potential customer.
Today’s business owner needs to tread carefully in the wild rush to mine online gold. Beware of slick salespeople talking terminology that is foreign to you, telling you everything will be taken care of while sliding a contract over to you to sign. Work with someone you trust and feel is working hard to get you the results you expect for your business. Beware of companies that promise too much too fast. Any well-crafted plan takes professional care and disciplined, persistent effort to become effective. There are many companies selling SEO and web design services. Unfortunately, not all of them are selling quality that meets the needs of today’s challenges. Your business needs to take action on the results and opportunities unlocked by SEO to capture repeat business and earn good reputation. People would much rather conduct business with someone they know and trust: it’s called customer loyalty. For the business owner it amounts to following through on the promise or values your company stands behind. It is the reason why people go to the same coffee shop or breakfast place they have known for years. The customers know that they are getting what they went in for. Customers might know the waitress or waiter who gives them good service and like to leave their tips there. Small businesses have the ability to engage their customers while they enjoy their morning coffee in front of their laptops. A well laid-out, easy to navigate, and easy to find website shows your customers that you care about your business. It shows that you value your online credibility and want earn their repeat business and referrals through word of mouth advertising. When properly designed and maintained, your website has the potential to become a steady stream of new referrals, leads, and clients.
Fakers beware; people have no time for sifting through junk mail. Avoid negative publicity. Your interest is in generating genuine leads. You can’t afford the time or the effort of driving marketing campaigns that lack punch or purpose. If you leave your customers hanging, in the end you will have done more harm than good for your efforts. If you’re having trouble starting up with good ideas, try shooting straight by starting with something solid and repeatable. Your product or service needs to be able to keep its promise no matter what the job. For example, a slogan for a bakery might read, Fresh-Baked Daily. They might have a promise to back it up with a refund if their bread was not made fresh that day. People would know that they cannot go wrong in choosing this product. The fear of getting a not so fresh product is overcome by the guarantee. Let’s sum up what SEO means. If you want to achieve the same feeling of a trusted referral or a personal invitation to do business, but you don’t want the hassle of having to go around handing out the URL for your website to every person who might be a potential customer or client, then SEO is for your small business. Your business can reach out exponentially to as many people as you can imagine. SEO is about getting you in front of the right people at the right time. Customers become open to a sale for a time when they are searching out a particular product or service. You provide the direction, consumers find you easier, and tell their friends and family about their experience.
Through the power of social media, we are able to share thoughts and ideas instantly. We can share our experiences through posts, pictures, tags, tweets, and blogs and now we can do it on the go. More and more people coming out of college are job hunting by using Linked in and Facebook. In USA Today’s online article on 4-5-2011 about our workforce Laura Patrecca advises employers who want to hire the best talent out of college to brush up on their awareness of social media marketing and web presence. She goes on to quote Matt Lavery, the managing director of corporate talent acquisition says that UPS has adapted recruitment strategies to take advantage of what the web has to offer in terms of prospective candidates. “Younger people want to attach to you in a different way than in the past,” says Lavery. “They want to interact with you. They want to learn about you.” The same could be said about consumers shopping for different products and services. People want to connect with, and learn about the companies that provide their products and services. People identify with brands, value, and service. With social media there is a certain amount of give and take necessary to engage your audience and create discussion around your business. Other social responsibility factors can come into play here. For example, a company that donates a percentage of the profits to breast cancer research has that topic to create discussion around, and in turn create buzz around the business for its’ noble cause. It is a win-win situation for the business and the nonprofit teaming up to help each other. Another example is the green movement taking place now. Many US companies have tried to outdo each other in their efforts to show they care for our environment, in an effort to reach out and earn business from eco-conscious consumers.
Times are changing when it comes to advertising. We have been so bombarded by television, radio, online, and print advertising all our lives that we have become mostly immune to it. Print ads don’t get the kind of traffic they used to. Newspapers and magazines have struggled in transitioning into the online world. Many people would not spend extra to subscribe to an online newspaper, unless they really, really like the way they tell the news. Most others like me simply get their news online through yahoo or some other homepage with all the top news, weather, sports, fashion, and business headlines and articles that can be read at the click of the mouse. The numbers prove that more people are using digital media these days than traditional printed media. According to a major study done by eMarketer involving dozens of research firms concluded that the web and other mobile and digital devices hold a far greater share of the average adult’s day spent with major media. As Lisa E. Phillips, Senior Analyst at eMarketer points out in her article Trends in Consumers’ Time Spent with Media,
In 2010, consumers spent an average of 4 hours and 24 minutes each day watching TV and video, while being online for 2 hours and 35 minutes. Mobile devices received an average of 50 minutes’ worth of attention every day- the same amount of time allotted to newspapers and magazines combined. eMarketer expects that time spent with mobile devices will continue to increase, most likely taking time away from print media.
Remember that all web design and SEO services are offered at a price; and the saying still holds true, you get what you pay for. This is true of the website development and marketing industry. Do not be fooled by offers for free services, they will most likely be employed by everyone else looking to do the same thing as you, increase their business! Stand out from the crowd… by being yourself! Customize your design and develop your brand in a meaningful and personal way to connect with your audience. A good branding strategy includes living up to your company values. What are they? Are they about customer expectations, delivering a product or service that is memorable, or simply about honesty and integrity in business? Do you really know your target market? It isn’t about just being good, people expect you to be good or they would not be giving you the business in the first place. Your business needs to be established in a way that lets people know you are the expert in your field; you will work hard, honest, and live up to your promises.
Natural web placement is a key to your website succeeding. Organic website placement serves your business by getting you in front of potential buyers for your product or service when people are online searching for it. It takes the human brain a split second to decide whether to navigate away from your website or not once the person has viewed it. It doesn’t hurt to employ professional SEO services help you get to page one of the search engines and generating more traffic towards your site. It is still up to you as the business owner to provide better direction for your captive audience to become a customer. Special offers, deals, and sales can attract attention. Most importantly the consumer is looking for specific value and quality in their purchase. A properly designed website can achieve the results you want for your business. Natural placement, when combined with proper SEO services can achieve results locally, regionally, and nationally, and rank better in the top search engines.
Consumers will tell more people about the positive and negative experiences they encounter when making purchases today in record time. If I have a bad experience at a restaurant, at a store, or with a company, I can post it to my Facebook status instantly from my smartphone. This effectively alerts all my friends and family to beware of a certain seller or business. On the flipside I can tell them how much I enjoyed my purchase or the friendliness of the staff. These referrals both good and bad can make or break your business. People can and will make comments about your business’s online accessibility and navigability or lack of it. The key is to get on top of your game and get with the times and the ways people are doing their business. Remember the value and quality your company stands on and don’t forget that exceptional service begins with a smile and a warm greeting.
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