Effective Small Business Marketing

Discussion characteristics of good websites

In this internet connected age, every business needs at least one website and many landing pages and squeeze pages.  What most business have is a “brochure” website…a brochure on the web.  Most have every little website traffic and few web-based leads. We all must start somewhere.

The business purpose of a good website is to:

1) Show up in search results or be a landing page for your Pay Per Click campaign

2) Tell your story and connect with your prospect

3) Sell something or collect contact info to sell something later

So how effective is your website?

Does it collect people’s contact information?

How does it compare with your web competitors’ websites?

We analyze search volumes, competitor sites which show in your most important searches and evaluate website strength.

Here is a free and easy to use tool to help you understand how good your site is. Websitegrader It reports back your website grade on a scale of 0 to 100 (100 is best). You should look at your websites and your competitors to understand the competitive landscape in your field.

There are no silver bullets but having an effective website which the search engines understand, telling your story, giving valuable information to your visitors and finding your prospects is just simple work.

Side note:
I love the approach of Hubspot but they want to host your website on a non-wordpress platform and they love salesforce.com.

I prefer wordpress website CMS, you purchase your hosting from GoDaddy service and I LOVE Infusionsoft as the best small business marketing system. The teaching that hubspot provides is spot on.

Back to our discussion
What I want to show you in how to create effective websites which generate leads for your business. Simply stated, your website is a business tool which should:

1) Show up in the searches you select

2) Connect with your prospects

3) Deliver value to your prospects

4) Tell your story

Did you notice that the 4th most important thing is “tell your story”?   Until you have connected with the right people, connected with them, established some value exchange with the, your story doesn’t matter.

I’m opinionated and very experienced. Experience has taught me that telling your story quickly isn’t the answer.

Understanding the needs of others is.  Most sales people don’t listen enough and connect with prospects before communicating their USP, Unique Sales proposition..if they have one.   My mission is to help small business become more effective and sell more. If you are a small business owner or manager, this website information will help you.

I’ve spoken with probably 20 website designers over the past several years and only a few understand the comments I mentioned above. Most make “pretty” brochure websites which their clients like because they tell their story nicely. I usually hear from those business owners when they are asking, “How can I bring more people to my website to hear my story?”.

You see where this is leading…you design websites to connect with your prospect’s buying/ education process. You should design everything to connect with “them”. If “they” like pink websites and that connects better with them..your website should be PINK. Your website is a business tool and your metrics on traffic, response rates should be your compass.

I am saying a good website is one which:

1) Shows up in your most important searchs

2) Connects with your prospects and engages them

3) Delivers value to your prospects

4) Collects their contact information so you can sell them at some time in the future OR when the prospect is on your website

As a business person your internet sourced leads should be very important if not essential to your business.  YOUR OPINION is NOT KEY. THE OPINION OF YOUR PROSPECTS and VISITORS IS KEY.

If you want a blue, flash animated website..make one for yourself. To sell, design a website to be changeable and easily modified.

What that means is you should be able to change EVERYTHING on your website. You should test what color works best. Test what headlines work best. Everything should be easy and inexpensive to change.  If it isn’t, it isn’t a “good website”.

I love WordPress websites because it is relatively easy to change EVERYTHING. You don’t have to be a code geek (I am) to make them work or change them. I also am amazed by liking Weebly websites, but I do. I have 10 of them.

As a small business owner for 15 years, with the evolution of the world wide web our understanding of how to use these tools is rooted in the 20th Century not our current 21st Century. I challenge you to think differently and better.

The rest of this website shares other valuable insights and offers “how to” do it yourself (DIY).  This article is essential in that many DIY-ers are doing things wrong.  You can do it yourself and have a well functioning internet based marketing system. I’ll show you how.