5 Things to do Regularly to Support Your Small Business Website

Each time I receive a call from a prospect to help them with their website, I see mostly the same issues again and again. They range from a poorly done DIY site all the way up to a professionally built site that isn't producing results. No matter what the initial build was, the upkeep is usually the culprit. By this I mean:

1. Keep the content updated - Search engines love content. The way to make your way to the top & stay there is to add relevant information to your site as your business grows, your industry changes, your client list expands. Usually this is done via a blog linked to/from your site. But it can also be done by adding new services/products, creating downloadable pages, link new press releases, add new employees, etc. I often hear people say that their website is their online brochure – yes, but even better in that it can be updated frequently at little to no cost. Your site is not a static document, rather it is a living, breathing critical part of your business.

2. Look at it with fresh eyes - Every once in a while log on to your own site. You'd be surprised how this simple act can help you view your information as others do. If it's been a while since you've done this, do it right now to see what I mean. You may notice things that need adjusting, updating, rewriting or even deleting of old information.

3. Update your footer - The other day I got a call from a small business owner whose site was stale, including the footer which still had a copyright date of 2007. Oh my. This is so bad for your image as it makes you seem disconnected from your own business. As you plan your New Years' celebrations each year, put 'update website footer' on your to do list.

4. Do a logic check - A prospect who worked from home had Google maps on her site because she said someone told her it was good for SEO. Well, yes - but the map was to her business mailing address at the PO. She then admitted that over the years a couple people told her they tried to go to her office only to find out it was postal mailing address. That's bad. Imagine how many people didn't tell her? When I questioned her, she said she didn't want her home address used because she had babies at home. Perfectly understandable - just remove the tool if it isn't serving your business well.

5. Prioritize your site - Treat your website as an employee who needs to be nurtured & taken care of in order to perform well. Everyone once in a while it needs to be given direction to keep up with your business, or it may need upgrading once in a while to be the best it can be.

In a nutshell, if you treat your website well it will pay you back. It is after all your digital salesperson so give it an upgrade now & then - it's cheaper than a raise.

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Don't Let This Happen to Your New Retail Business

It happened again. I must be a glutton for punishment, but I just can’t help myself. I try and try to give my money to new small businesses that open in my area but some just don’t get it. I drove by one the other day and it was shuttered and though I wasn’t surprised, I was saddened to see it.

As a former retail business owner myself, I understand the challenges. I was co-owner of a retail store while working full-time in corporate marketing – it’s hard, it’s exhausting and after pouring a lot of money, time and effort into it, survival becomes a must because you can’t afford not to. The marketing edge is not a luxury – it’s an imperative.

Follow these easy-to-implement steps to get your retail business on the right track:

1. Keep consistent hours – Not too long ago I drove to a new business in the area. I parked, walked half a block to the storefront and it was closed. I read the Store Hours sign on the door - they should have already been open for a bit, yet they weren’t. No sign in the window nor any update [‘Closed for family emergency,’ for example.] Needless to say they lost money and credibility too.

2. Have great signage – This is NOT the place you want to go cheap. Retail businesses make it or not based on the public’s ability to see your storefront from a good distance away. In areas where parking is an issue (see #1 above), be sure the lights are on or there is some clear indicator that you’re open – or not.

3. Hire awesome people – It’s very difficult to manage a retail business solo. There are errands to run, appointments to keep and a whole host of other necessary evils that will take you away from the store now and again. So be sure you hire a great ambassador whom you take all the necessary quality time to train with customer service in mind as well as product/service knowledge. This person is the ‘face’ of your business when you’re not there and it’s critical to your success (and online reviews) that customers are treated very, very well in your stead.

4. Apply a marketing mindset – make sure your business ranks for local search, collect contact information to stay tethered to your shoppers, create and use a marketing calendar and put a plan in place to ensure your success.

With just a few well-considered marketing efforts, your new retail business will thrive.

Good luck and happy marketing,


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The Three Phases of Marketing You Need to Know to be Successful

During my tenure in corporate marketing departments I learned that true marketing-oriented organizations budget for each of these elements as part of their marketing arsenal. This is what makes for long-term success. Though the numbers and budgets for these large corporations are far bigger than a small business can afford, the strategies and tactics are exactly the same and can be easily implemented to fit small business marketing needs.

Have a close look at the diagram. What do you see? I hope you notice that Acquisition surrounds all the other elements. This is because the Acquisition phase happens first in any new business, but also because in my years of working with hundreds of small businesses I've seen that oftentimes, the reasons a customer leaves you can be out of your direct control (they move, sell or go out of business, etc.) therefore, Acquisition should be an ongoing task in order to keep your pipeline full.

And, businesses should work at keeping their customers through great Retention Strategies as well. If your product/service is price-sensitive, then you stand a good chance of losing a recently acquired customer to a low-price competitor. A great retention program keeps customers tethered to your brand.

Finally, Reactivation strategies should be used to win back those who haven't done business with you for a while. This too, could be for a variety of reasons, but a well thought out Reactivation plan can be very profitable.

Acquisition - All new businesses are in Acquisition mode. This is where you'll acquire customers for the first time. To do this, you must use the right marketing techniques to let your target audience know you exist. This is typically the most expensive phase.

Retention - Once you have customers you must work to keep them because it can cost up to 10x more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one, so consistent Retention practices should become part of any business's marketing activities.

Reactivation - This is a sub-segment of the elements above. For myriad reasons a customer may stop buying from you (they moved, or entered a new life stage, etc.). Depending on what your product is and why they stopped, some portion can often be reactivated to become viable customers again.

To ensure your small business marketing success each of these three phases should be part of your marketing arsenal to ensure your success for the long haul.

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3 Questions to Ask Before Embarking on Your Next Small Business Marketing Campaign

The best strategic ideas not executed well will always end badly. They're a waste of money, time, and in the end, you'll be no better off than you were prior to the effort. And, in some cases, you could be worse off. So, before embarking on your next small business marketing campaign, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Am I ready? This seems simple, but in actuality is very complex. Take for example a recent campaign fail I experienced: A full page ad on the back cover of a magazine that cost $7500 (according to the magazine's media kit) + creative costs, etc. It was perfectly attuned to the audience of the magazine, looked nice, had great calls to action, but when I went to their site I got several 404 errors. This is so bad...they didn't check their links so that their back end would hold up and support their marketing. Embarrassing to say the least, and because I couldn't get through, I couldn't purchase from them.



2. Can I handle the new business? If you're a solopreneur be careful that your campaign doesn't blow you out of the water. Some examples I've seen are: Buying a list with a 5000 minimum, plus spending a huge chunk of your marketing budget to get to those names (postcard, for example), then scrambling not to fall apart on the back end because you can't keep up. Hire temporary staff if you have to; recruit friends and family too; but do everything you can to prevent your effort from backfiring. This makes for a poor service model and while you may have acquired them, you likely won't retain these new customers if they have a bad experience. Or, here's another example: A local store put a Grand Opening ad in the paper, but didn't have enough staff on hand to handle the customers. People walked out grumbling. Not a good first impression.

3. Do I understand exactly how the media works? Every day in the professional trade journals I read about more new technology platforms to use for marketing. However, if you don't really understand how they work and/or what they can do for you then you may run into trouble. For example, I recently worked with a business owner who bought into a new app program thinking that he could adjust offers, etc. on the fly only to find out that yes, he could...once his turn on line in the workflow came up. Often this turned out to be a week or so too late for him to jump on an idea or take advantage of a news tie in. So the effort did OK, but it could have been great.

Always be sure that your back end will support the front end marketing effort you just spent a lot of your heard-earned dollars on as this can make or break your small business marketing efforts.

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What is the Purpose of your Website?

I receive a lot of calls regarding websites. It's confusing to most people and unless you're entrenched in this media it's likely you find it all frustrating and so you put it off, filing it in the 'too hard' pile.

Common questions I get are:

Can you get me on page 1 of Google? Sure, but depending on your business it could cost you many thousands of dollars each month to stay there. This is a big misconception about websites, what's far more profitable for your business is to speak to your target audience and show them why they should choose to do business with you.

I have a website, but it's looking tired. Can you help? Absolutely! But I need to know the goal of your site and the part it plays in your business before we can get started, and even before I can get you a quote. If your site looks like it was built in 1999, then it likely needs to be refreshed. If the content is still good and it's ranking, then perhaps change up images, font (so many more are now readable by the search engines), tie in all your social media, etc. First impressions are everything. And please (I beg you) remove the counter at the bottom of your site. That's a dead giveaway your site should be put out to pasture.

I used a canned solution for my site and it's not performing. Any suggestions? Depending on the solution you're currently using, you may have to start from scratch. I won't mention names here, but there are some that simply won't work because they cannot be read by the search engines. Thankfully, WordPress has made it a lot less expensive than it used to be get a new site, so for under $75 (and sometimes even under $50) purchasing a template that can be customized is a great solution.

Not all websites are created equal. For example, if you're an artist or designer, you may want to use your site as a digital portfolio to showcase your work. If this is the case, then fewer words and more visuals are the way to go. I wouldn't recommend spending on SEO or related items. I'd just make sure the images are the highest quality they can be (but, please...protect yourself by using watermarks and/or copyrights on your original works.)

Or, if you're selling product you'll likely want a fully-optimized site picking up all the keywords that people search on so they can find your site. [Quick note here: just because it's found doesn't mean they'll purchase from you. That takes a lot more strategy and includes many other moving parts.]

What if you're a service provider (like my business is)? Then you want testimonials, lots of content highlighting you're expertise, perhaps case studies or white papers too. SEO is important here so that you incorporate the phrases needed so people can find you.

Websites are critical to your business success, but each business must tailor their site accordingly. Using the right blend of images, words, content, great strategy, calls to action, and more all with a great marketing spin is the key to success.

Once your site is done, the real marketing begins. You can't stop there. Your site is just one marketing tool of many to build a sustainable marketing presence in your targeted audience.

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Small Business Owners: Why you Never Want to Hear "I'll do whatever you want," From a Service Provider

Sounds good but don't fall for it. Those who tell you they'll do whatever you want are what I call 'order takers' and you should politely say No, thank you then go find business partners, suppliers, collaborators, colleagues who will consult/coach/advise you on the right things to do — and as importantly, the wrong things to be avoided — and who will openly share their expertise with you without you having to pull it out of them.

Here are a few stories to showcase the point:

1. I was explaining SEO to a new client and showing them that that's why their site wasn't performing. SEO had not been considered up front and therefore the site was not picking up traction. Their SEO score was 0%. Turns out that the client never specifically discussed or asked for SEO (because they didn't know what it was, nor that they should) so the web designer didn't address it. Now they have a site that looks pretty but isn't performing. Worse yet, they've lost time and money and are not achieving their goals.

2. Calling around to list brokers for pricing on a client project, I dealt with three different companies. All are relatively well known and reputable in the industry. Two of them simply ran counts for me without asking any questions of how the list was to be used and what the ultimate goal was. So, sure enough the next day I received the standard excel spreadsheets with counts popped into cells. A sales rep at the 3rd company picked up the phone so we could discuss the campaign in its totality and she gave me some great advice. She ran counts and even gave me alternate counts for other list uses. Guess who got our business? And, her list was the most expensive. Price doesn't always drive buying decisions, especially for professional services.

3. At a meeting with another client and their supplier, not once during the entire hour did their supplier take out a pen, offer up any solutions or advice. She just sat there on the couch with her briefcase closed beside her (and her mind just as closed) looking at her watch periodically, saying "I'll do whatever you want" every few minutes. But the point of the meeting was because we need your expertise to tell us what we SHOULD be doing to get the results we desire. That afternoon I was asked by my client to help them vet other suppliers.

4. A client mentioned that he'd read something about a new service now offered by a company he'd been doing business with and asked me to find out more. I called the supplier to ask if this is something we should be doing. Oh, yes he said. OK, but it would have made them look so much better if they had picked up the phone to call the client, as opposed to having them read a print ad. (It's called cross-selling and it works!) If the company had been proactive the client would not have had to use my retainer time to make calls, and would not have had to do the chasing. Now, you appear to be behind the professional 8 ball as opposed to the expert.

Bottom line, if you're on client side it's not always easy to ask the right questions because sometimes we don't even know what we don't know. But...if a potential supplier isn't asking you enough questions, or offering up consultative advice during a first contact, or if you feel like you're pulling info out of them, then politely say No, thank you and disengage. Then, use your network to get recommendations of expert consultative professionals to work with so that your business will thrive.

If you're on supplier side and a client tells you "This is what I want," it really means "This is what I want to achieve." Help them do that, and you're as good as guaranteed a repeat, long-term client.

© 2015 Affordable Marketing Solutions LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Small Business Owners: Are You Sure You're Getting Through to Your Audience?

I get upwards of 200 emails or more per day. It's critical to my time management (and sanity) that I be able to distinguish immediately who sent me the email so that I can prioritize and be efficient. So, I started thinking about all the emails I delete when it isn't clear who the sender is. That thought led me to how critical it is that senders do everything they can to get through — literally and figuratively. And it's not just email either. This also applies to every other form of communication when reaching out to your customers and prospects.

Here's what I mean:

Ambiguous Subject Lines - It's raining politics these days and I'm on several email newsletter lists of my local politicians. I got an email from a name I didn't know with a ridiculously ambiguous subject line that I immediately thought was spam. At the end of the day when I cleaning out my inbox, I realized it was from my mayor's office and it was a fundraising campaign. Not the kind of thing you want folks to delete, I replied telling them what they should be doing better. No reply, but it hasn't happened again, so maybe I got through?

Gender Discrimination - So, yeah my first name is somewhat androgynous and could be construed either male or female, but...if you KNOW me, there's no excuse. Sure, I get it that you use "software" to address mass mailings, but still. What's the point of even using a Mr or a Ms or any other gender designation? Just use Dear First Name Last Name and you'll always be 100% correct and not piss anyone off. Last week I received a letter from an organization I am a member of. They know me. I've spoken with the Director on several occasions, but still the letter came to "Mr Randye Spina." Especially funny to me is when I get a call and the other end asks to speak to Mr Spina. I always say HE isn't here. So they retract and say they're looking for Randye Spina and I say Yes, this is SHE, which always prompts a nervous, embarrassed apology/giggle on the other end. Pay attention to these small details to show you're on top of your business game.

Speaking of Politics - Another email I received asked for input from the voters, so I replied as requested with my input and it bounced back to me undeliverable. What a terrible waste of everyone's time, their marketing spend, and their reputation/credibility. Even worse is that the valuable input they sought could not received. Always be sure you test your email links before sending.

Misleading Return Addresses - You can use all the tricks you want such as handwriting font to address mass mailed envelopes, teasers, and clever design, but if all you print is a PO Box as the return address without a company name, it's getting trashed. As most of us have opted into email delivery of statements and invoices, I know it isn't a bill, so why/what are you hiding? And why would you waste all that money? And, if you have that much money, can I have some? I promise I'll put it to much better use.

Pronunciation - Can you at least TRY not to mangle my name when you cold call me? Or, get my business name so wrong that I don't even recognize what you're saying. I've heard it all and while I understand that some words are indeed difficult to pronounce, at least don't completely change the name of my business please.

If you don't get the response you'd hoped for, this could be the reason why. So, when you want someone's attention to get their business, a donation, complete a survey or just simply check in, understand that time is money, people are busy and it is your responsibility to do everything you can as the initiator of the communication to do your very best to treat your customers and prospects with respect.

©2015 Affordable Marketing Solutions LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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