Tap into a Money Maker by Selling to Online Business Owners
February 27, 2009 by admin
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by Melissa Ingold
Are you own an online business owner who has recently opened your cyber-doors? Are you getting a few sales but nothing particularly notable? This is a common experience for online business owners who have just set up shop and are testing the waters.
For your business to succeed you need to do more than break even, or cover the running costs of your enterprise. If that’s all you’re managing you might be staring failure in the face, despite the hard work you’ve put into launching it.
If this is where you’re at, what can you do to get your business off the ground? You need to get your business out there, making yourself known to more people, and more customers. You’re motivated to succeed, so you surf the internet for resources and information to push the process forward.
There’s plenty of free information out there. It may include:
- Articles
- Reports
- Guides
- Newsletters
- E-Courses
These can be helpful but if you’ve got this far, you probably know the basics already. You need more detailed, in-depth information to take you to the next level. The reality is that this is information that you…
…Have To Buy!
You’re the customer in this scenario, not the information marketer. Step back and look at it from the marketer’s point of view.
As the service provider, you’ll be looking for a lucrative mass market for your information. How will you find it? Consider this:
Business owners who are driven to succeed are ready to purchase that information instead of picking up freebies, and they could pay good money for it. It costs little or nothing to produce the information and create a product and sell it on – for prices ranging from $20 to as much as $100 in some cases.
Think how many people out there are operating online businesses. New enterprises are opening up every day, all seeking exciting and innovative ways to get their business noticed in the business community. You have a ready-made and growing market.
These business owners are dedicated to find the informational nuggets that will give them the edge over their competitors. There’s a wealth of information to be compiled and products that people will be interested in, if you can only tap into that need and get people to purchase them.
Some of the things that business owners will buy to help their businesses include:
- EBooks
- Reports
- E-Courses
- Memberships To informational items
- Guides
- E-Zines
Quality always sells. If you can provide top quality information then you have customers already prepared to buy from you.
One way to make it easy to get this information out to your market is with Melissa Ingold’s Special Report Club. Each month you receive a brand new fully-customizable 30 page report and complete marketing materials, so you can start selling information the lucrative online business owner market right away.
3 Reasons Your Service Based Business Needs an Internet Presence
February 27, 2009 by admin
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by Erica Brooks
When a potential client is looking for help with something and needs the services of an expert, where is the first place they’ll turn? Will they ask a friend? Maybe. Will they try to remember where they’ve seen someone offering this service? Possibly. Will they turn to the yellow pages? Not very likely.
More and more people are turning to the internet, Google and online to find products and services, even if they are something they can find just down the street. You can’t afford not to have an internet presence if you are a service provider.
If you provide a service such as event planning, wedding consulting, life coaching, or any other service there are so many benefits to building yourself a website that sells your services.
Here are just a few reasons why you should have an internet presence:
1. Your potential clients are out there looking for information. If you can provide it to them they will come back and they will also refer others to you. You can give potential clients a real taste of what your business is about without having to spend too much time with those who may not really be interested
2. Your online presence sells for you when you’re not there. Instead of having to answer phones all the time, your website can answer many of the questions and objectives your potential clients may have.
3. You can take payment right away. If you set your website up to take payments you can have clients paying you quickly and easily without having to wait for them to mail you a check or get them on the phone to take their credit card payment.
You may be thinking that you just don’t have the time to put into learning how to build your own website and figure out the marketing to put your service business online. Well, the great thing about the internet is that there are many ways you can get a website up quickly and without too much time invested. You’ll likely spend more time researching the ways you can build your site then you will actually spend building it.
If you choose wisely you could have a website up in a matter of days. Look for a good website designer to help you or you may even want to choose a website builder to start with until you’re comfortable enough to hire someone.
Building your business online and marketing your website can take up a lot of time but you can also incorporate that into your overall marketing strategy. Do what works for you. Maybe you only have 1 hour per week. You’ll need to decide what to spend that time on based on where you’ll get the most return for that time investment. Do a little testing to see what gets you the most results and build on that.
You’ll want to set up a system for collecting leads and following up with them through your website. One of the most important things to note is that not everyone who visits your site will buy from you on first visit so you’ll want to start collecting their email addresses in order to follow up via an email autoresponder or newsletter. Systems like Aweber are perfect for this.
No matter how you choose to build your website or what online marketing strategies you choose to focus on the important thing is that you get started now. Business on the internet grows stronger every day and you don’t want to be one of the last to bring your business up to date and on to the internet.
Erica Brooks specializes in helping women to start and build successful businesses online by providing opportunities, marketing tips and networking resources for home business success. For more easy marketing techniques for service professionals visit http://www.awomaninbusiness.com
Five Ideas For Using Auto-Responders In Your Direct Sales Business
February 25, 2009 by admin
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by Audrey Okaneko
Are you currently using an auto-responder in your direct sales business? I think auto-responders are one of the best tools of the business. I’d like to share five ideas for using an auto-responder in your business:
1. When you receive a business lead, immediately get their permission to put them on an informative email list. I’ve seen people drip information to leads for a full year. The information you share can be a mix between company specific information and industry specific information. Find a balance so that your emails are not sales pitches but rather informative documents that could actually apply to most businesses. One example of this is how to use company catalogs. My email speaks of how often my company puts out catalogs but the remainder of the information can be used by anyone offering catalogs to potential customers.
2. Do you write articles? Store all of your articles on your auto-responder. Make a master list of the titles of each of the articles. When someone asks a question, let them know how they can get the article you’ve written that answers their question. At the bottom of each email, let the reader know how they can get a list of every article you’ve written. Once they get the master list, then they can request any and all articles they might want.
3. Write emails on every product your company makes. When you sponsor a new distributor, provide them with a master list of all of the emails you have on each of the products. Write these emails not only for the distributor but for their customers as well. This could help your team member in making the sale.
4. Not every customer buys the first time they meet you or the first time they are introduced to your product line. Create a newsletter that would be of interest to a potential customer. The key here is to keep your name in front of the potential customer on a regular basis until they say yes to your products. If you sell kitchen related products, offer a recipe newsletter. If you sell children’s toys or books, create a parenting newsletter. This keeps potential customers on your list for months or even years.
5. Write mini-courses that relate to your field. For example, if you sell children’s products write a few mini courses about parenting infants, parenting toddlers, parenting teens and even about grand-parenting. If you sell kitchen products, write a few mini-courses on how to use a crock-pot, how to choose fresh fruits and vegetables and how to buy organic. This again brings in those people who are interested in the type of product you are selling.
These are just five ideas on how to use an auto-responder to build your direct sales business. Be creative and see if you can find even more uses for the email system and then watch your business grow.
Audrey Okaneko has been in direct sales since 1983. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or you can Become a Tupperware Consultant
Five Hot Tips to Build Your Email List
February 25, 2009 by admin
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by Ms. Liz
You’ve heard it said a thousand times – the money is in the list! It’s true- you need a good strong email list if your marketing efforts are going to pay off.
The question is – what can you do to build that list? There are specific steps you can take to increase the subscribers to your list. Some take a little time, some take just a minute and pay off over time.
If you’re ready to start building your email list, don’t wait any longer! Start putting these ideas into practice today and watch your list grow like wildfire.
1. If you want subscribers, ask for them!
Put an opt-in form on every page of your website and your blog. Make it easy to find and easy to fill out. At this point, the only information you really need is their name and their email address. If your form requires subscribers to include their physical address and telephone number, they will be less inclined to sign up. By keeping it simple, you encourage people to opt-in.
2. Offer an incentive to encourage sign-up.
People hesitate to sign up for email lists for a couple of reasons. Most of us have busy inboxes and worry about adding to yet more email.
Other times, people just hesitate to share their email address without a little incentive. By offering a free gift, such as a download, you let them know you consider their email valuable enough to be worth something in exchange.
You can offer a free special report, an MP3 or special access to a teleseminar or membership site. The point is to give them something of real value in exchange for allowing you to contact them with your emails.
Providing an incentive is one of the most successful tips to encourage people to opt-in to your list. Once you have their email address, don’t abuse it with a barrage of sales pitches. Instead, blend your sales pitch with helpful tips, advice, interesting news and perhaps a little humor. That will go a long way in keeping your subscribers on board and interested.
3. Spend some time optimizing your website to increase traffic.
Once you have added a sign-up form on every page of your website, increased traffic will lead to more subscribers to your email list.
By investing some time into search engine optimization, you will raise your site’s page rank and draw more targeted visitors to your homepage. If SEO isn’t your thing, it is well worth your investment to hire someone to do it for you. There are plenty of excellent SEO professionals available on the Internet. Search around and ask for recommendations to find one who has experience. (Hint: their own ranking in the search engine results page is an excellent indicator of how well they know their stuff!)
4. Don’t forget about social medial marketing!
Social media websites are some of the hottest places to reach prospects. By engaging in regular, relationship building social media efforts, you will also increase traffic to your website- and subscribers to your email list.
Sites like Facebook and Twitter allow you to post a link in your profile or bio, so link to your free download opt-in page to add subscribers to your list.
5. Joint Venture opportunities
These are great ways to build your list fast. However, choose your partners carefully. You’ll have much greater success with partners that have a reputation for integrity, authority and a large following.
Building your email list doesn’t have to be a chore. These five suggestions will leverage the time and effort you put into growing your email list with lots of potential customers and consequently more sales.
How would you like some of the industry’s closely guarded professional email marketing secrets? Get them here — for free!
Send Personal Note Cards Instead
February 25, 2009 by admin
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by Colleen Davis
What can be better than sending handwritten notes to your target clients to make your marketing campaign more personal? With printed note cards and custom envelopes, you are sure to make a positive impression that can help you build a lasting relationship with your clients.
In this day and age where it is easy to communicate with emails, writing even simple thank you note cards have become obsolete. Instead of personalized notecards, many people have transferred to emails that are easy, fast, and the cheapest form of communication. Email has become the most common form of getting your message across that writing special messages in note cards are now easily forgotten. What was an endearing hobby and passion now became something of a chore. Once considered as a special gesture is now left to those who have nothing else to do with their time.
The ease of using email to convey your thoughts made it very popular. Nevertheless, precisely because of the popularity of emails, sending personalized notecards will make your marketing campaign more effective. Why? Because the gesture of creating a personalized ad can stand out from amongst the very common email ads. Sending handwritten note cards can make you unique and different from the rest. It will help you provide your target clients with a very strong impression of your company.
The 4.25 x 5.5 personalized note cards can be effective marketing tools especially with a pre-printed message. Depending on what you need, a print note card can both be folded, plain and open, or with envelopes. The more popular layout is one with a plain logo on one side and a blank surface on the back. With this kind of note card, you can customize your message according to its recipient.
A print note card also sets you apart in an industry where a simple gesture of gratitude goes a long way to show your target clients your appreciation for them. A handwritten message particularly sends a thoughtful message because the recipient knows that the person who sent it gave his or her time, effort and energy to the card. In business, expressing gratitude helps remind your target clients of a good service rendered, which then results to more sales and better ROIs.
The key is to keep your communication with your clients and prospects fresh. Set aside a few days and make it a habit to send your clients with thank you cards to express your gratitude. Utilizing these cards to complement your other marketing collaterals can go a long way in opening opportunities for you to provide better service, as well as increase your sales and profits in return.
For more information, you can visit this page on note cards
Facebook in 15 Minutes a Day
February 24, 2009 by admin
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by Donna Gunter
I’ve often said that social networking can take up your entire day, if you allow it. You sit down at your desk in the morning, and you see several Facebook event invites and friend requests. As you log into your account, someone’s Facebook status update catches your eye, and before you know it, 3 hours have passed while you’re reading and responding to social networking messages. How can you possibly get any work done in your business or for your clients at this rate?
Facebook doesn’t have to be a time hog. As a matter of fact, you can actually handle most of your Facebook tasks in as little as 15 minutes per day. Here’s what I do when I log into my account each morning (thanks for wonderful training I’ve received from Facebook guru Mari Smith for these great tips):
1. Update your status. This is the first section that you’ll see on your homepage when you log into Facebook. While you can do this from your Facebook account, I prefer to update my status in Ping.fm, as this service will update my status in all of my social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and MySpace. However, if you’re using only Facebook for social networking, then go ahead and use the status update there.
2. Review your news feeds. This is the first tab on the right on your home page. In this review, you’re seeking stories on which you can share your expertise and on which you can comment. Some of your comments may be personal in nature, but this is a great opportunity to showcase your experience in your field and industry.
3. Review news feeds of your friends. This feature is available from the home page as the down arrow on the far right of the home page tabs and permits you to view the feeds of your Friends Lists. Friend Lists allow you to create private groupings of friends based on your personal preferences. I’ve got my lists created by industry, i.e. Coaches, Virtual Assistants, Marketing Professionals, People to Watch, etc. Pick one list and comment on those feeds just as you would your own.
If you have no Friends Lists, here’s how to create them: , Click Friends at the top of any Facebook page. From the following page, click “Make a new list” on the left. After typing in the title of your list, you can add friends to your list by typing your friend’s name into the “Add to List” field. You can also click “Select Multiple Friends” to the right of the field, which will allow you to select many friends from your entire list. After making your selections, click “Save List” to store your changes.
4. Review status updates. Take a quick moment to breeze through the status updates of your friends, and click on those on which you feel compelled to comment. Many people feed their blog posts into their status updates, so this is a great way to get out and comment on the blogs of others without having to search out relevant blog posts. In this case, I comment on the blog itself rather than the Facebook status update. I usually only go through one page of these to ensure I remain within my time constraints.
5. Acknowledge birthdays. These are listed under Events and Birthdays on the right side of your homepage. When you click on the birthday person’s name, you’ll be sent to their wall, where you can write your personalized birthday greeting (make more effort that just simply saying “Happy Birthday!”). I also take this opportunity to find out a bit more about the friends on my list by clicking the “Info” tab on their home page and quickly scanning their profile. This helps me start to put names and faces together and get better acquainted with my network of friends, And, I take this opportunity to add people to Friends List as appropriate.
6. Review friend requests. Add friends as you see fit, or according to any guidelines you have set for yourself. Facebook guru Mari Smith suggests setting up a “Friending Request Policy” in which you write down the conditions under which you’ll accept friends (i.e. picture must be on profile, have to have other friends in common, have to have submitted a personal note with the friend request, etc.) and to help you in your decision-making.
7. Respond to event invitations. Your friends will be sending a myriad of invites to various events (most of my invites are to teleclasses), so take a few moments to scroll through those and see if any are of interest to you, or if you have further questions about them.
8. Respond to group invitations. Most of these I ignore, but occasionally I’ll join a private group, usually related to a program in which I’m enrolled. Or, if it’s a group run by someone with whom I want to connect or from whom I want to learn, I’ll accept the invite to the group. If I have time, I’ll also visit one of the groups to see what’s going on and respond to any messages here.
9. Add friends. Facebook does an amazing job of suggesting people I actually know to add to my friends list in their “People You May Know” section on my home page. If I happen to see such a suggestion, I send out a request to add that person as a friend. When requesting to add a friend, I ALWAYS send a personalize request, letting them know how I know about them.
10. Review notifications. The notifications icon is on the lower right side of your home page and lists what’s going on in your account (friend requests accepted, notes on your wall, etc.). This is a good prompt for you to write on someone’s wall when they accept your friend request or to respond to posts on your own wall.
11. Eyeball your own profile. Make sure your profile appears as it should, and take the opportunity to catch up on anything you may have missed with your other steps.
12. Check your inbox. Many of the emails in your inbox are duplications of event and group invites or group emails. When I look at this, I’m seeking out any personal 1:1 emails that I might have received from someone on my list. I’ve discovered that many people I want to contact respond better to their Facebook emails that through emails sent to them (or an assistant) via their website, so I often email them through Facebook, instead.
If you devote 15 minutes per day, or at least 15 minutes 3 times a week, to updating Facebook, you’ll begin to see results from your social networking before you know it
Online Business Manager and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com. Follow Donna on Twitter.
How to Optimise a Web Page
February 23, 2009 by admin
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by Mercedes Aspland
In SEO you need to work on each page of your website individually as these can all appear in the search engines. You will need to take care of both the onsite and offsite factors for every page on your website. The aim of this article is to give you a few tips in order to target your campaign effectively.
In this article we will focus mainly on Google as in the UK it accounts for at least 80% of searches so if you are nowhere on Google then you are really nowhere at all. Below are the basics of what you should be doing:
1. Title Tag
This is the title to any web page and appears at the top of a browser when people come to your site. You use this to tell people the page they are on and what it is about. This is important because Google also reads text and what you use here will tell Google what your page is about also. It is vitally important that you use your main keyword in the title of your web page.
2. Heading Tags
These are the headings that appear on your website and show readers what each section of your text is about. Again as with the title tag Google will read this text to get an idea of the important topics on your web page. It is also important to use your keyword in your headers as well. This will allow Google to know that this word is important to the content of your web page.
3. Highlighted Text
When you write your content there are certain words or phrases that you will want to draw people’s attention to and these will be in either bold or italic text. As with other things Google will also read these words as important so it is a good idea to have at least on instance of your keyword in either bold or italic.
4. Your Text
It is important that the rest of the text on your page matches up to the title and headers you have used. For that reason you should ensure your keyword appears in the first 3 paragraphs of your web page text. It does not need to be loads of times, as little as 1% can be ok and do not go over 5% a this will seem unnatural. Google will read this text and it will confirm to it that your web page is about the keyword you have chosen.
5. Meta Tags
A lot is said about meta tags because once upon a time they were really important. Now they are virtually redundant. The only one that counts for anything is the meta description as this is the text Google will use as the description of your site in the search results. For that reason you should include your keywords and make sure it will draw people in.
6. Use text links
When you link to other pages in your website from the one you are working on make sure you use text links as Google will read these. If you can include your keyword in the text that is even better as that will add more weight to your argument.
7. Get Links to your Page
You need to focus on getting as many links to your web page as possible to show Google that it is really important. When you are doing this, make sure they are text links and that they include your keyword in the text. This will again show Google that everything is consistent and this really is what your web page is about.
8. Number of Pages
One important factor to ranking a web page is the number of pages there are on the website in total. The more there are the more interesting Google thinks the website is to the user, so keep adding useful pages of content to keep Google happy.
When doing SEO, keep up to date with what is going on and what works for other people. The more tips you can get on what to do the better.
If you have found this article useful then you can get more information from Dazines – website optimisation, London UK. Dazines – website design, web development, SEO Company London UK
5 Tips to Build Your Direct Sales Business
February 20, 2009 by admin
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by Audrey Okaneko
Quite often I’m asked if there is a “secret” to building a direct sales business. The answer is both yes and no. I say no because there is really no one secret. I say yes, because there are many things you can do on a regular basis to build your business. I’d like to share five things you can do that will help you in building your business.
1. Learn about the company and the products. When you speak to others about what you are selling or joining your team, you’ll sound much more professional if you know about the company and about the product line.
2. Take an interest in self-development. Direct sales is a relationship business. We improve our relationship skills when we begin working on self-development. I attend seminars, take classes and read books all devoted to helping me become a better person. Even those who teach the classes I attend will share that they continually take classes to learn more themselves.
3. Make a one year commitment to your business. It takes time to find customers, build a team and develop a base for your business. While I always hear and read the words “businesses aren’t built overnight”, the reality is many people don’t really believe these few words apply to them. Commit to one year in business. After one year you’ll have enough experience and knowledge to make a new decision if a new decision is necessary.
4. Set an example for your team. As you build a team, your team members will look to you for guidance, support and training. If your team sees you market on a regular basis, they too will market. If your team sees you attend trainings and other company functions, they too will realize the value in these events. If you communicate regularly with your team, they in turn will learn to communicate with their teams.
5. Return phone calls and emails just as quickly as possible. Understand that not every communication will result in a sale or new team member, however each communication will aid you in building your own brand and your own reputation. If you get a complaint, take care of it immediately. If you get a product question, get an answer just as quickly as you can. You want your reputation to be one of a person who responds in a timely manner.
As you can see, there is no magic answer on how to build your business. The answer is to take steps daily to build your business and to build your name and reputation.
Audrey Okaneko has been in direct sales since 1983. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or you can Become a Tupperware Consultant
10 Ways To Increase The Comments On Your Blog
by Lynette Chandler
Does your blog look lonely because you rarely (if ever) get people commenting on it? Want more comments? Try out a few or all of these ten easy ways to get more comments.
1. Just ask. If you don’t ask, you don’t get it. It’s really that easy. The worst that could happen is people don’t leave comments so you’re aren’t worse off just by asking. When you do ask, chances are people will respond.
2. Get help. Tell your readers you need help deciding for example, help picking out a new hairstyle, color for your home office, new computer, help with a new logo design. You get the idea.
3. Give them a chance to self promote. You can get people to comment by adding any relevant sites that they know of for a resource list you tell them you’re building.
4. Ask them to complete an action. For example, you say you’re writing a report about seven most common gardening problems but you’ve found only four. Tell them to come up with the other three and the ones chosen to be included in your report will get credit on your report.
5. If you blog about your experience on products or services you have used, then encourage your reader to do the same (even if it’s an affiliate product). Allow both positive and negative reviews though so that you become an unbiased blog to visit when someone is looking for reviews.
6. Offer comments subscription. People are used to forums. Whether they contribute to a discussion or not, they like to get notified when someone else has something to say about a post. Make it easy for them to follow the conversation by offering a way to subscribe to comments both by email and RSS.
7. Tap into your network, customers or your list. Tell people about your posts and encourage them to visit and let you know what they think about the it or if they have further thoughts to add. You could also ask customers to blog about you and trackback to your blog.
8. Ask your readers to let you know what they think about the freebie by posting to your blog.
9. Slow down. Maybe you’re posting too often that your readers just can’t keep up with your posts let alone stop to comment.
10. Extend a discussion. Blog about something you read on another blog, news, magazine or other media then invite readers to share their thoughts. This usually works very well for hot topics of the day, week or month.
Now that you know ten easy ways to get comments, try a few today. Don’t forget, sometimes you may not see results in the first few days or weeks but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Keep asking questions and provoking responses and you’ll have a busy blog after all.
Affectionately nicknamed Tech Diva by her peers, Lynette Chandler regularly dispenses blogging and RSS help to countless business owners. Visit www.BloggingStarterPack.com to learn more about blogging and get a copy of her video free.
Blogging Bootcamp to Maximize the
Profitability of Your Business Blog
14 Reasons Why You Need a Website
February 20, 2009 by admin
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by Jonathan James Aston
The point here is to have something on the web so you can be found by potential customers or even partners etc; even if your website simply contains your contact detail with a brief description you can still generate leads and business.
Below are a few more reasons why you need a website
1. Build Customer Relationships
A website is a great place to build customer relationships this can be done extremely effectively using email. Once you have a consumers name and e-mail address they could be a customer for life if they are treated well.
2. Lead Generation
Lets face it we all want to make money online, and the sole intention of many online organisations is to make money, and turn visitors into customers into loyal customer who use their products or services again and again.
Creating a website, attracting visitors and funnelling this traffic are a great lead generation technique. A local organisation I worked with on a website visitor conversion campaign found they increased lead generation by 800% by effectively utilizing the powers of creating an effective online presence and marketing their website through a variety of channels.
3. To compete against your competitors
Without having an online presence could mean you are missing out on a lot of potential business meaning your competitors have a distinct advantage just by having an online presence. Effectively leverage the power of the internet and get ahead of competitors by learning by their mistakes and doing what they do better.
4. To provide business information
A huge proportion of internet users use the internet to find local businesses or a product or service in general. Using the web to do this, is a lot cheaper than directory enquiries and a hell of a lot quicker than using a telephone book or directory.
A website containing your business information is available 24 hours a day, this can be printed and can be bookmarked to return to later. Furthermore potential customers can contact you using the desired communication channel you display.
5. Global Reach
Ok, a lot of people use the advantage of having a global reach to say things like you can sell your products to people overseas and people like to buy the latest and best products, yes of course you can but you already know that. Having a global reach means that people from all over the world can buy your products, however again it does not have to be a tangible product it could be an e-book or a series of videos.
6. Open 24/7 365 days/year
Your shop is always open so to speak. Visitors can enter your shop any time of the day before 9am and after 5pm because out of these hours are when people tend to surf the internet, a perfect reason why you should have an online presence
7. Cost Effective Advertising
Offline advertising generally has an extremely low conversion rate. Leaflets and brochures can be quote costly and once these have been printed and distributed and more often that not thrown away this communication channel is dead.
However using a website as a communication will always be online; this cannot be thrown away or discarded. Offline Marketing could be looked upon as a push marketing mechanism, however having a website uses a pull mechanism, and customers search for your services and find your website.
Think of a website as a full colour interactive brochure which you can add to whenever you like. Reduce advertising costs by using just one effective call to action / message and promoting your website address e.g. learn more about this product on our website, for more information visit domain-name.co.uk.
And finally on this one alteration to your website can be done quickly and free, this is a completely different story with marketing literature such as posters or flyers.
8. To Project a professional image not @hotmail.co.uk
Lots of very small business nowadays has some kind of online presence. Nothing looks more unprofessional than when a company refers to one of their points of contact being your-name@hotmail.co.uk or your-name@yahoo.co.uk. This says too many consumers that the business either could not afford or was not bothered about investing in their company brand image, would it to be nicer to use a more user friendly and professional email such as support@your-domain.co.uk or contact@your-domain.co.uk, this gives the consumers the feeling they are dealing with a successful organisation and that their query or contact is being deal with a customer support / care team.
9. Your website can make you money – sell your products and services
Firstly before I go into this one I would like to tell you two things, I recently attended a Search Engine Optimisation seminar in London and In one of the exhibition hall I engaged in a conversation with a middle aged woman from Scotland, after discussing the topic of the seminar we were about to watch she revealed to me that she found her online success selling, get ready for it, selling books on how to make straw hats, she uncovered that she was able to quite her full time job 3 years ago to peruse her online career selling books full time, but without the full time 9 5 or later house, she found she could happily sit back and work 1 2 hours per day checking email and performing general maintenance on her website.
I think this goes to show that you need to be a retail outlet selling top brand labels in clothing to become and entrepreneur online.
A website can be a great tool in not only promoting your products but selling them to, your shop cannot be available 24 hours a day but your website can, and its probably worth mentioning again that people do tend to surf the internet most when they return from work, so why not reinforce your brand online as well as offline.
Having a website is a great way of automating your business, whilst you are having an evening off or even sleeping you website can be generating brand awareness, generating leads but more importantly generating sales and revenue for your company.
10. Word of mouth advertising
With the growing online community and social networking going on nowadays it has never been easier to like minded people to communicated, but more importantly communicate your website address or even drop it into an email. Its very common nowadays that a website address could be posted up onto a website discussion forum by a happy customer and you could expect to receive hundreds even thousand of visitors to your website from that one forum post or conversation about your company and the products and services you offer.
11. Effectively reach new markets
An overwhelming amount of people now have access to the internet whether it is through their mobile phone, pc, laptop or game console. You really cannot afford to miss out on all these potential customers. It may be that someone didn’t mean or intend to land on your website but people surf the internet in many different ways, more often than not people often refine their searches on search engine again and again until they get to the website they want, they may begin searching for car wax and throughout their journey they may find that they done actually want car wax anymore what they want now is a car valeting service, this is common with website users in that they do end up on a website looking at products or services they didn’t intend to look at in the first place.
12. Test the market
Many organisations at some point would like to know how their target marketing are going to react to their new product or service but are afraid of investing large amount of money into creating the product and then be disappointed by the lack of interest or enthusiasm for it. A great way to test the market is to expose this new product or service on your website. A typical idea of this would be if a training consultancy wished to offer a new training programme, by adding a small paragraph on the homepage of your website detailing a brief introduction into the course followed by a click here for more information or contact us to register your interest, by tracking the number of click through or page views or even email enquiries can tell you how your market has reacted to your new offering, this can then determine whether the launch of this new product is feasible. You can even go a step further and test your new found marketing on piloting product prices etc.
13. Customer Support
Provide a support area or knowledge based for your customers. This can become a hub for all your customers queries and questions, assistance on products, provide a variety of ways to be contacted, alternatively use a frequently asked questions to answer the most popular questions or queries all of this can be done without using staff time, employing new resources or without even answering a phone.
14. Advertising Seasonal Offers / Special Offers
A website and having the right data capture in place is a great way to tunnel traffic into an email list. Effectively collecting customers email addresses gives you the power to contact them when you want to tell them something. You may have a seasonal offer that you wish to communicate, effective email marketing is a great way to build relationships, generate leads (by offering a free report or discount voucher in exchange for their email address, and more importantly convert leads into customers through the use tailored email that meet the demands of your customers.
Building up an intelligent database can have a massive impact on consumer retention and loyalty, knowing that Mrs Smith loves to buy books by a certain author gives you an opportunity to up sell and cross sell other books by that author / similar authors and also attempt to sell items that other people have purchased hence giving the consumer exactly what they want, when they want it a step on from this is to build an incentivised loyalty program e.g. buy this book and get another book for half price, all of this is possible.
Every one of your customers can be alerted about this special offer at the click of a button, and compared to the cost of offline marketing this is extremely low cost with a higher conversion rate and an even higher return on investment.
Jonathan James Aston is an online entrepreneur and owner of HowToWebsite.co.uk, the leading online resource for tips, guides, tutorials and other resources on How To Build A Website as well as how to design, market and money money from your website.Jonathan Aston is also Managing Director of Web Design West Midlands
