Category Archives: Small Business Online Marketing Strategies

Marketing your small business online can be an effective way to market your products and services.  It can also be an enormous waste of time and effort, especially if you are using the wrong online marketing strategies

First, your design, writing, and offer all have to work together.  Poor copywriting, bad design, and painful user interfaces can all drive away your hard-won traffic. Using social media to shout at people can also drive people away (instead of drawing them in).

Get tips on the right way to write for the web. It’s different than writing for print and you may have to toss out some of the rules you learned back in school.

Small businesses make plenty of other online marketing mistakes, such as using too much jargon, or concentrating too much on a pretty design, instead of usability. Hard to use designs are just as bad. If visitors can’t use your site, they will leave.

And, of course, there’s landing pages.  Landing pages are your 24/7 sales team.  They’ve got to answer all the questions you can’t answer in person.  If they’re not working, neither are your sales (or your profits).  Learn the most common landing page goofs and how to correct them.

When is it Smarter To Have Two Web Sites?

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round niche and square nicheWhy do you have a web site anyway?

Once, they were somewhat exotic, but now most businesses consider them as necessary as lights and telephones.

Why?

Your web site is your introduction to your customers. Your web site should reflect your niche(s) and appeal to “your people,” (the kinds of clients you want to attract) rather than trying to appeal to everyone.

Are multiple niches OK?

It’s OK if you have more than one business niche, or more than one business, as long as they fit together. You can start with marketing to brides and expand to new moms. Or work with both elementary schools and law firms. Elementary schools and law firms have little in common, but it works if you’re providing the same service to both (say, IT consulting or graphic design work).

However, there are some things that just don’t belong on the same web page (or even the same web site).

Divorce lawyer and bait shop?

Do not offer your services as both divorce lawyer and bait shop on the same web site.

Sauerkraut and ice cream are both great. Just don’t mix them together and expect the result to taste good.

People seeking a divorce have different problems and questions on their minds than people who want to go fishing. One needs to know about separating assets, possibly alimony or child custody. The other is interested in fishing line, rods, reels, and which bait attracts a particular kind of fish.

If you’ve got two wildly different businesses, separate them. Have one site for the bait shop, and another for the legal services. It’s not only confusing to put them together, it’s poor marketing.

Domains are cheap. You can buy one for $10. Hosting is cheap too. Try Hostgator (use this link and I get a reward).

Get an opinion

Think  you need two sites?  Not sure?  Post your niches in the comments and find out.  I’ll answer your questions there.

Photo:swanksalot

What a Giant Squid Can Teach the New York Times About Publishing

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giant squidThere’s a big fuss about the NY Times’s decision to start charging for access to its Web site.  Many people, including me, are upset.

We started out paying for the paper (through a subscription or newsstand), then it went on the web, the price dropped, and now we’ve been trained to expect it for free.

The paper version is losing money – and so the online version must earn extra in order to cover the costs of printing and distributing the dead-tree paper. The bandwidth isn’t the problem.  The paper and distribution is the problem.

Build a Community

The giant squids I’m talking about aren’t actual squids; it’s the nickname for the leaders of Squidoo (an online free publishing platform).  Squidoo gives people the chance to share their passions, make money for charity, or run a business – for free.  You make a page, called a lens, and connect to  selected affiliate sites or your own.  If someone buys something,  you make money.  Or, it goes to your favorite charity. There’s a community to answer questions, show you the ropes, and welcome you.

Add Free Prizes

Squidoo has “free prizes” – badges for people with great lenses, awards for best lens in different categories, and angels who bless lenses they like.  They’re called Giant Squids, Squid Angels, and Squid Greeters.  They get extra options and first crack at new tools for building lenses.

How about a badge system for newspaper readers to reward and highlight frequent viewers or commenters?  Articles with more comments or comments by higher level people would be worth more to advertisers.

Reward Extra Effort

What if the paid version had no ads?  Or, if visitors got points for viewing ads (and credit toward access).  The more people “paid” to view the ad, the more the Times could charge the advertiser.

More points could get more prestige (and more incentive to return and see ads). Different point levels could entitle readers to extra services or goodies, such as access to restaurant reviews before they’re published, or inside tips on sales, or rights to free Kindle access.

What if they gave stuff away, but in a way that brought people in?  Grew their tribe, encouraged communities of New York Times readers generally.  They could if they wanted to.  And, their readers would embrace them (rather than crying foul).

What are you doing in your business to build a community?  What’s working?  What fell flat?  Share your experiences in the comments.

Image:  wikimedia

What Every Web Marketer Ought to Know in the New Year

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I’ve decided to follow Darren Rowse’s lead this holiday week (if you’re going to imitate someone, start at the top!), and post a series of “best of” posts looking back on the past year.

It won’t be completely comprehensive, but will point you to some worthwhile content and help you focus your marketing efforts for the new year.

Each post will have a theme: web marketing, headlines, email marketing, marketing mistakes (and fixes), and freebies.

Today’s theme is web marketing. I’ll add the links to the rest of the theme posts as they go live.

Here are some posts with tips on better landing pages, getting more clicks from your CTAs, and common web marketing mistakes.

7 Little Things That Can Mess Up Your Web Site

What Do Landing Pages Have in Common with Grade School?

Get More Clicks on Your Calls to Action

Image: ilco

5 Quick Ways to Give Your Web Site a Lift

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1) Know your audience

You wouldn’t talk to stockbrokers the same way you talk to teenagers. Discuss things they care about, in their language. Stockbrokers are obsessed with money; teenagers are obsessed with, well, other teenagers.

2) Invite interaction

If you sell products, make it easy to review and comment on them. If you have services, invite testimonials. Have lots of ways to contact you (prominently displayed). Don’t make people hunt for it.

3) Cut the friction

The site should be easy to use. If you cover particular topics on your blog, list them. If you have more than one niche, list those too.

4) Use internal links

Point visitors to other relevant content on your site or blog – encourage people to spend more time with you. The more great stuff they see, the more trust and credibility you build up.

5) Share

You don’t have to tell everyone what kind of toothpaste you like, but do tell us something about yourself, your background, and what brought you to start your company or your blog. If it’s a blog, put your picture on it. If it’s a web site, put your happy customers’ pictures on it.

Make your “About” page personal. It should read like a story about an interesting person, not a corporate bio written in the third person. You’re a small business, not a faceless corporation, it’s about you and your relationships with your customers.

Psst. Special free email ebook tomorrow.

Photo: Ivan Petrov

Get More Clicks on Your Calls to Action

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Have you got calls to action on your site? What is a call to action anyway?

Examples of Calls to action

Not quite sure what a call to action is?  It’s the button, the sentence or the line in a script that tells your readers to do something. It might say, “buy now” or “instant access” or “get your free ebook.”

There are lots of ways to word it, but the key is to make it as appealing as possible.  The more urgent and attractive the offer seems to your readers, the more clicks you’ll get. More clicks means more downloads, more subscribers, and more orders. Here are some examples of how to improve your call to action.

Have a call to action button

I know, it seems obvious, but sometimes it gets left out. If there’s no way to order, ask for the free information guide, or sign up for your newsletter, you won’t get orders or get inquiries. It sounds odd, but there are plenty of Web sites with hidden contact information and no button or phone number.

Make your call to action colorful

Sometimes web designers get caught up in making something beautiful, rather than functional. I’m not advocating yellow highlighter and red type, just buttons that are big, that stand out from the background, and are clearly marked.

For example, if the other buttons on the site (contact us, support, etc) are white, make the call to action blue.

If the button is by itself, contrast it with the rest of the page (so, if the background is white, make the button red).

Make the call to action prominent

If they can’t find it, they won’t click on it.

Layer it over other page elements. Or, make it larger than other buttons on the page (such as related posts or continue reading). Put it in a prominent place, such as the top right hand corner of the page, or in the center.

Put lots of space around YOUR BUTTONS

Set off the call to action button from other text or design elements on the page. If there are other button options, such as a “learn more” vs. a “buy now,” put lots of space between the call to action button and the other buttons on your page.

Test the wording

Try out different wording, such as “subscribe now” vs. “get your copy”) or “try it now” vs. “free demo.”  More examples of calls to action.

Make it clear what to expect

If there’s a download, or a newsletter, or a free e-book, make it clear exactly what will happen, and whether there’s a fee (either in actual money or an email address). If it’s confusing, people won’t click.\

Button image from stylewebdesignusa.com