It is now
very well established that users of the internet use search
engines to find local and national service providers. Often
it is through on-line Yellow Pages and from there your own
business is only 1-click away. But if your business is prominently
listed by the search engine, then the user will be able to
make a selection based on the information displayed by the
search engine. But there is much more that you can do using
the website itself.
Marketing
Your Business Starts With Your Website:
if you already have a website, are you making the very best
use of it to attract local and national business? It is important
to decide why you want a website.
| The Purpose of
Your Website |
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To
attract visitors to your premises, office or shop
and to obtain more customers. For most
businesses this is the main reason for a website.
It doesn't matter what sort of business you operate
- on-line or traditional bricks and mortar, your
website should be the focus and be written in such
as way as to attract business. If your business
is mainly premises based then you can use your website
to provide locations, directions, opening hours
and so on. Most importantly you can list your services
and products on the site and give the visitor as
much information as possible in order to ensure
that it is your business that he visits
and not that of your competitor.
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Most
businesses can have an on-line commercial element.
If a visitor looking around your website, studying
your services and checking your products, then even
if you do not wish to actually conduct on-line e-commerce
you can at least allow form based enquiries and
even direct form based ordering.
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To
encourage people to logon and leave an enquiry or
book an appointment.
In these days of "always on" broadband
it might be easier just to log on to your site and
book and appointment or make an enquiry which can
be dealt with by email. People like to do things
when they think of them and finding your telephone
number and then, horror of all horrors, getting
an unfriendly voicemail system, can result in a
missed contact.
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To
keep existing customers and make them come back.
Internet marketing techniques can significantly
increase the number of visits made by existing customers
to your site. Making good use of a permission based
monthly Newsletter will certainly help to keep your
business in your customer's thoughts, especially
if it contains links through to the appropriate
marketing information on your site.
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- Help your
customers and give them an even better service.
If it can be difficult getting through to your customer
service people on the phone, then build a Frequently
Asked Questions section on your website and make it
searchable if possible.
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Sell
your products on-line.
Even if you are mainly a provider of services, if
there are any commodities which you supply from
your premises, consider making these available on-line.
At least allow order placement.
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Keep
Your Website Simple (at least to begin with):
You can set a website up with a minimum number of pages.
You will want to have some or all of the following: |
- Home Page
- an intoduction to your business and links to other
pages.
- About Us
- a page all about you and your business. don't
forget to tell the visitor where you are. Nowadays
you will not get much internet business if visitors
are not convinced that you actually exist.
- Products
or Services
- this will be the 'home' page for your products
and services. The page will contain links to detail
pages about each item.
- Customer
Service
- this will contain information about return policies,
FAQs etc.
- How To Find
Us - very important if you want visitors
to travel to your premises. Essential to have a
printable version of these directions and maps so
that the user can print a copy and take them with
him in the car.
- Contact
Form - this is vital to gather in leads,
enquiries, registrations and so on.
- E-Commerce
Pages
- if you intend to sell goods on-line then you will
need some sort of catalogue and ordering system,
perhaps with associated payment facilities.
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Webmarketing:
Basically this means using established techniques to
market your business via the internet and your website.
All businesses, with a product to sell, need to engage
in some sort of webmarketing. However, the internet
is far from a magic bullet. Some people think that the
setting-up of a website is all that they need to do
in order to see the business flowing in. Not so; you
have to work at it. While the website needs to comply
with the recommended principles (click here
to read our paper entitled 13 Ways To Ensure That Your
Website Works) you must promote your business as well.
One of the best ways of doing this is through a regular
email Newsletter, but there are other ways that are
equally important. |
- Search Engine
Optimisation
- you need to make sure that your webpages can be
readiliy found by the popular search engines such
as Google and Yahoo. This is a skill in itself and
often best left to professionals, although you can
certainly register your business yourself with the
search engines and directories.
- Making Use
of Local Portal Sites
- there may be local sites that act as a portal
for your own community. Ensure that they carry information
about your business and, of course, the all important
link to your site.
- Using Internet
Yellow Pages
- lots of internet users use yellow
pages on the web to find businesses which fit
into certain categories. Make sure that your intenet
yellow pages entry contains a hyperlink to your
website.
- Print Yellow
Pages
- if you can afford it, get an entry in your printed
copy of yellow pages.
- Promote
your domain name at every opportunity -
have your domain name prominently displayed on all
publicity material, especially your business cards
and headed paper - anything that customers might
look at. Don't forget any vehicles run by your business.
- Internet
Advertising
- pay per click advertising and the like is beyond
the scope of this brief note, but if afforable,
then certainly worth considering. Banner adverts
on your site and other sites are probably not worth
the money (how often do you actually click on a
banner ad? I suspect that you avoid looking at them
at all).
- Consider
using the professionals (at least to get you started)
- there are many highly reputable webmarketing firms.
But, why not consider us as after all you are reading
this paper. You can simply register with us, using
the form here. Remember
to tell us briefly what you interest is (e.g. webmarketing).
Provided that we have a valid email address for
you we will get back to you for more information.
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