Website as a sales tool
Use your small business website as a sales tool.
I was recently involved at a local bridal show - related to a project I am working on. A couple of things simply floored me. First off, it was very interesting to see what kinds of businesses came out and took part. Some you would expect, some you might not. But I was blown away at how few of these businesses actually had a good website. I mean, it is not rocket science to build one, nor does it cost a small fortune to outsource a nice site. I understand that not everyone can build one but this is part of your marketing efforts.
For example, there was an event planner there. To my knowledge they don’t even have a website. I have looked for them online and can’t find them. Nor do they have a site listed on their business card. Their email address is at gmail.com. Painful really.
Another company had a beautiful display at the show. The are a business that rents out portable shelters. So if you want to have an outdoor reception, you call them, they bring in a big tent and set up your deal. Their business is named All Shelter Sales and Rentals, which unfortunately is not completely what they do. They had a beautiful display at the trade show offering complete catering equipment, location decorating and so on. Their website does not do justice to the different types of services and products they offer.
Here is what we do. You see, our website at starsluxurylimousine.com is used daily right within our business. Maybe someone finds our info in the phone book or from some advertising and they call us. They are looking for a wedding package. Great, we have 3 different wedding packages they can choose from. But instead of trying to explain what these are over the phone, we just simply send them to the website. Go check out our website and give us a call back (now, of course we take their contact info in case they do not call us back). We do this for a couple of reasons. First, you can’t explain the 3 packages over the phone and what the differences are. People can’t remember that many details all at once and it just ends up sounding like gibberish when you are done. So, this is all clearly laid out on our website - it is easy to find and easy to understand. Secondly, we want people to go to our website. It looks good, it displays our limousine very well, it is a good website and we are proud to have it. If people go to our website and then to our competitors, they will book with us. We want them to go there, call over another family member to say “hey, come see this site” and we want them to bookmark it for future reference.
Now, when people call back after seeing the site (most of the do, by the way) they are ready to book. Very few questions are left to answer and we have had people that call use, go check the site, and call right back ready to book. Now that is a great feeling - and a great use of our website.
Tags: internet marketing, niche marketing, article marketing, internet marketing tips, website optimization
Build the Website
So, how can we build a website? Well, there are a few options here. You could hire some kid to do it on the cheap, but really, this is your business we are talking about here. You don’t want to do that. You could outsource it completely, and this is a good idea if you really have no clue on anything related to building websites. I would rather see good money being spent with a good marketing company than to try and skimp on this. It will affect your bottom line.
For me, I do have experience in this and could have even coded it by hand if I wanted to but I chose to use Wordpress. Wordpress has become my favourite way of building sites. It is fast, easy and can be set up very well for SEO. Maybe I’ll do a post on that down the road. But for now I am using wordpress with the Corporate Theme put out by StudioPress. In fact, the exact same setup as on themarketersmind.com. I like the Corporate theme - it has a good layout that is easy to navigate and presents a simple, yet nice site. I love the Featured Content Plugin they integrate as well. It can take a bit of customizing if you want to change the menu or things like that.
OK, platform and theme selected. Now create the site. So, let’s think about the goals of this site. We want to come up in the search engines of course, we can to present a very professional image to anyone who goes to the site and once people come to the website, we want them to call us on the phone. At the end of the day, all of our business will be done on the phone. We can’t offload that to the website. There are special requests that people have, questions they need answered and so on. We can put as much info as possible on the site but eventually they need to call us on the phone. So the goal of the site is to presell our company and lead to a phone call.
Now we post all the info we can think of on our site. We listed different packages we offer, obviously our contact info and definitely lots of pictures. This business is one that has to be visually appealing and we want our site to show off our limousine.
Tags: internet marketing tips, website optimization, Jonathan Hook, internet marketing, niche marketing
New Marketing Project Underway
I know it has been a while since we did a lot here on TheMarketersMind.com, that is about to change.
I figured that instead of just relaying theories an ideas to you that it might be interesting to watch a real business being developed.
So, I have a new - from the ground up project that we are going to work on. We are referring to this as the limousine project. Here is the background…
I recently took over an existing local business. This is a very local, service business. A limousine company - www.StarsLuxuryLimousine.com. Almost as basic a company as you can get. We have one car, I got a few leads, company name, existing website and phone number.
Go time…
For me, first and foremost (obviously) is to get the website in order. The site that they had was not bad but for me, that is where marketing starts. For me a website is a good place to organize your marketing and refine your copy.
Tags: internet marketing, affiliate marketing, internet marketing tips, Jonathan Hook, website optimization
Is your website mobile?
I recently got myself a Blackberry device. I have only had it for a few days now but am falling in love with it. I really enjoy the fact that I can look things up online without having to wait until I cam back in the office. What I have noticed though is that some sites come in very well on the mobile browser. Others do not. So, this got me to thinking that I need to pay attention to sites that we build in the future.
Is your site mobile friendly?
Make sure that as you design your website or order it built by a design firm that you make sure it is mobile friendly. Certainly this means keeping flash to a minimum and certainly don’t build the whole site in flash - mobile devices can’t render flash - at least not very well. It wouldn’t hurt to put a browser detector in and separate code for the mobile browsers. you have to remember what the purpose of your website is - likely it is for people to find out about you and make sales. So keep in mind these mobile browsers and that you want to cater to them. There is no point in having a website that can’t be read, that doesn’t help your business grow. It is one of those things that you might not think of if you haven’t had the experience. I hadn’t thought of it until I tried surfing on my mobile device. But more and more people will be using these in the future - so it does matter a lot.
Tags: affiliate marketing, website optimization, Jonathan Hook, internet marketing, niche marketing
Different Types of eCommerce Sites You Can Create
Are you interested in eCommerce? It is the wave of the now and the future. Technology allows businesses to conduct their transactions online as another way of doing business.
What can you do on an eCommerce site you ask? It is not just for sales. Depending on the base of operations for your business, the site can be used for a variety of purposes which you will find out about in just a few minutes.
Virtual Storefronts – These are the sites you see when you are looking to shop online. With a transactional site like this, you can do everything in one place. It gives new meaning to “one-stop shopping.” Shoppers can shop a virtual store much like they would a physical one.
Menus allow them to choose product categories and narrow their searches. Once items have been selected, they can be placed in a virtual basket or cart. When shopping is complete, they can checkout with the cashier and get confirmation of their purchase.
Many types of products are sold on virtual storefronts. You are only limited by what you can practically deliver to your clients and still make a profit for your business.
Information Sites – Here, the goal is making the sale but not on the website. Companies with physical stores can use this type of site to advertise for their products. Large corporations utilize this type of site to gain interest in their product.
One of the main reasons that people surf the Internet is to find information. Let’s say that you wanted to buy a car but didn’t want to spend the entire day and half a tank of gas driving to dealerships. Instead, visiting informational sites for cars can assist you in your car purchasing decisions.
These sites provide content on the products, like cars, that they sell. Visitors can see pictures and/or videos of the products as well as descriptions, pricing and location information.
Marketplaces – Have you heard of eBay? Unless you are a hermit, you probably have. In a marketplace eCommerce setting, a middleman brings sellers and buyers together to transact business. Items for sale can be purchased directly or through a bidding process as with eBay.
In this arena, there are several businesses working in one area at the same time. Because it is the virtual world, there is room for expansion into bigger spaces as your business grows. The beauty here is that much of what you will need to do to get prepared for eCommerce is laid out for you.
Food for thought: Know what type of site you want to begin with. Online businesses can use one or more of these types of sites to flesh out their business and be visible to the maximum amount of consumers.
Tags: affiliate marketing, article marketing, website optimization, niche marketing, Jonathan Hook