Tag: internet marketing

Make Your Site the Centerpiece

One of the most unusual aspects of a company having a web site is that the site can be a great marketing tool for the business but that site needs its own marketing plan (which should dovetail with a bigger company marketing campaign).

If you set your web site as the centerpiece of your marketing, there are a few simple steps you should take to make sure you get the most from it:

  1. Print it on EVERYTHING. Every piece of printed material that your company generates should have your web address (URL) on it. This includes:
    • Brochures
    • Business Cards
    • Letterhead

      • and even:

      • Invoices
      • Proposals
      • Contracts
    • Let people hear it. If a caller is sent to voicemail, make sure they know they can also contact you on the web at www.yourdomain.com. If your phone system lets you control what people hear while on hold, make sure your message comes out there and that it mentions your web site.
    • Another easy to take step that is too often overlooked is your email signature. Every email program lets you have an automatic email signature. Make sure you include your web site address in the signature.

    These are just three easy steps you can use to help you market your web site.

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    Twitter, Tweet, Twilight

    Today, as the twilight settled round me on a cloudy and cool eve, I turned to my new favorite hobby, I tweeted my friends on twitter. When you connect with friends and send a message, you’ve just tweeted. Sure glad they didn’t call it tooting.

    Twitter is fun. Take the ability to send text messages to your friends and colleagues and mix it together with newsletter blasts and you begin to grasp the thrill of Twitter. Add to it the skill of writing haiku and you get even closer. Twitter is a hybrid web appication texting application found at www.twitter.com.

    I use it to connect with friends and colleagues in ministry. I also use it for business to stay on top of what gurus in the field are all about. For example, I can track Rev. Joe Burnham at www.twiter.com/joeburnham. I can follow Search Engine Optimization guru Aaron Wall at www.twitter.com/aaronwall. Follow all the tips for riding a wave of publicity at www.twitter.com/publicityhound.

    Want to learn more? Sign up and follow me at www.twitter.com/edubrian.

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    9. Does your site need a shopping cart?

    For the most part this seems like a simple question. If you sell stuff, you should have a site. If you sell any kind of product it makes sense. This includes video and audio that can be downloaded. We recently finished a suite of sites that includes http://www.mythicyoga.com. From this site you can purchase real books but you can also purchase ebooks or audio downloads.

    So anything that can be downloaded can also be sold.

    • Pictures? Yes, you should have a site.
    • Maps? Yes.

    What if you’re a non-profit? Absolutely. Why wouldn’t you want to make it easy for donors or potential donors to contribute to your cause? In this case the beauty of the Internet is that it makes it easy for people from anywhere to help support you. If you build wells in Aftrica, you want to be able to accept donations from Texas or Tanzania or Tasmania. If you’re saving whales in Alaska, you want donors from Mississippi or Mauritania or the Maldives.

    What about if you offer a service instead of stuff? There are still several reasons you should consider taking payment online through a shopping cart on your site. If you offer packages with set prices then it is a no-brainer. Yes you should. Even if you charge by the project or by the hour you can still set up your shopping cart so that you can accept payment. Depending on the cart you use and how you configure it, you can have invoices available online that the customer pays or you can have the customer enter the order total.

    Virtually any kind of business, even a non-profit corporation, can benefit from a shopping cart. With the growth in very affordable merchant accounts and gateways, it doesn’t take too many payments or donations before it really begins to make sense to use a cart and accept credit cards.

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    8. What colors and images or logos do I have that can be used to keep my BRAND in front of people?

    Brand. Brand. Brand. It really IS all about brand. We’ve worked with several small businesses who started out saying that they were too small to need a brand. As they saw it working though, they realized that even their small business benefited from having a brand.

    There are lots of good resources for building your brand and understanding how to build your brand.  Here’s the first video in a series of videos on branding your small business.

    Are you saying “But I don’t have a brand”, let’s stop and think about it for a minute. Pull out your business cards. Take a look at  your brochure. Point your browser to your web site. And ask yourself these questions:

    1. What images do you see?
    2. Are there similar or identical images?
    3. Do those images / pictures / clipart resonate with you?
    4. What colors are you using consistently? Do they represent who you are?
    5. Are there other images that more accurately reflect your business?
    6. Are there colors missing from our schemes?

    If you need help with your brand we can help you and partner with some of our colleagues who specialize in this area. Give us a call if you’d like some help or a referral. Once your colors and brand are determined, make sure that you integrate it or have your web designer integrate it into your web site.

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