In the previous article What print materials do I need to start a business? we talked about what essential print items I recommend for start-ups. Today we are going to go over what online materials you will need to reach your target demographic. I’ve again broken it down to “essentials” and “advanced.”

Online Essentials:

This short list is what I recommend to start a business and appear professional. And remember if you appear professional you will more easily earn your customers trust and credibility and thereby increase sales.

Website:

Having a website is ultra important because it allows people you meet in person to find out more about your company, plus it enables you to be found by search engines, such as google. Many people do preliminary research on the web before they contact a company or make a purchase.

Tip: When considering the design of your website think about the following: Make sure it is easy for a potential customer to find what they are looking for. Is it products for sale? Information? Also think about what your end goal of your website is going to be. Is it making a shopping cart purchase or email newsletter sign-up? Also make sure you have links with all of the different ways people can contact or follow you, such as email newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, and blog RSS. For more in depth info about website design, read 7 tips for a stellar web layout.

Email Newsletters:

Email newsletters can increase your sales and are one of the cheapest forms of communication to put into action. There are email clients such as Mailchimp.com and Constant Contact that offer low cost solutions. How low? If you have under 500 people on your list Mailchimp is free and Constant Contact starts at around $15 per month.

Tip: Make your branding consistant with a custom email template that matches your website and print collateral. Make sure you only email people who have opted-in to your email list. Do you want to know more about SPAM laws? Check out MailChimp.com and scroll to #11 for a great Email Spam overview.

Online advanced:

The following tips are “advanced” because they either take more time and/or money to put into action. These suggestions allow you to go out and find your customers and not just wait for them to come to you.

Blogs:

Blogs are a great tool to get more traffic to your site, educate your customers, build trust and toot your own horn. Want to know more on how that is possible? Read Why your small business should have a blog. Are you not sure what to write? Visit Ten topics for your small business blog.

Tip: To keep a consistent brand make sure your blog matches the look of the rest of your online and print materials. Consistency is the key to having your customers recognize you.

Facebook fan page:

Facebook fan pages are a great way to reach your customers daily.Why do you need one? Your customers aren’t going to look at your website everyday, but they are going to be on Facebook. Check out these Facebook stats:

• Facebook has more than 350 million active users
• 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook

To find out more, read Why your small business should have a facebook fan page.

Tip: To further stand out from the competition you can add a custom “Welcome” tab or a special tab for a specific promotion. For a “Welcome” tab example, view the Uncommon Threads Jewelry Facebook fan page. You can set it up  so new visitors are automatically directed to your custom page.

Twitter:

Are your potential clients on Twitter? It’s free to set up and the only thing it takes is time. Are at a lost as to what to talk about on Twitter and Facebook? Check out How to Simplify Social Media.

Tip: To keep branding consistent have a custom background with your branding. See the Uncommon Threads Jewelry Twitter page as an example.

Video:

Did you realize that people are 7-10 times more likely to view a video then to read an article or profile? Video can be used on your website, Facebook Fan page, YouTube and even in email newsletters.

Webinar:

A webinar is a great way to show you as an expert and will also give you the opportunity to reach new potential customers. Are you just starting out and don’t have a lot of information to share? Partner with an authority figure on the topic to give your company credibility.

Pay per Click Ads:

Pay per Click ads can be a great way to get new customers that you are not currently reaching. The most popular ads are through Google and Facebook. You can also advertise on other websites that are frequented by your customers. How research your customers to find where they shop or go for information and then email the site owner about advertising rates.

Tip: Set a daily budget on whichever you choose, so you don’t get any unwelcome surprise bills. And make sure you check your Google Analytics to see which ads are delivering the most potential customers and which ones are fulfilling your website’s goals (sign-up for email newsletter, e-book, or make a purchase).

Wrap up:

Set up an Online Marketing Strategy for the entire year, so you can compare results from year to year. Decide ahead of time how much money and time you are going to invest in online media. Remember the marketing rule is it takes 7 times for a person to see something before they buy. Which method online makes the most sense to reach your ideal customer?

Over the last weeks we have talked about Why your small business should have a blog and the general structure of how to write your blog. This week, I’ll give you 10 topics you could incorporate into your overall strategy. Because, let’s face it, we all can get stumped. We get too busy or just have one of those days where we look at the calendar and realize it’s been a week since we lasted posted a blog.

1. How did your company get its beginning? Life long dream or did you fall into it?
2. Who is your ideal customer and how do you stand out from the competition?
3. What is your company’s favorite project or product? Then ask your customer’s opinion.
4. What charity or non-profit does your business donate time or money to? Why?
5. What is your goal for the next year?
6. Feature a customer and their experience with your company.
7. Have a video made of you and your employees having fun or explaining a process
8. Promote an event
9. Write about the best customer service experience you have ever had at another company and how you strive to recreate it at your own.
10. Who inspires you? How does it tie in with your company’s culture?

Last week we talked about Why your small business should have a blog. This week, I’ll tell you what to write about. After all, blogging can seem intimidating. Coming up with words ever day or week? But each of us as business owners has an area of expertise or voice that no one else does. What do you know? What are you passionate about?

Create a strategy

Before you start any new marketing platform, it is essential that you have an online marketing strategy. This process will help you define your ideal customer, your goal, who is going to manage it, and budget concerns.

Set a schedule of updates

You can do this by creating a detailed color coded calendar or make it as simple as a list of topics to talk about that month. If you work better with deadlines, you could also plan to publish a blog every Tuesday and Thursday.

Pick a catchy headline

Many of my most popular articles have three things in common. One, they use adjectives in the headline Two, they are short and three, many have a number in them. Here are two examples of my most popular posts: 10 ways to increase your web traffic and How to create a fantastic Facebook page.

Know your audience

In order to pick the correct tone of voice, make sure you know your target customer. For example, on my blog, I always write picturing a small business owner. Who is yours? Also, remember you are not hard selling on your blog. Instead, picture yourself at a networking event introducing yourself to someone for the very first time.

Write about what you know

Do you sell fashion jewelry? Wine? How did you choose that? Remember each person has a unique perspective formed by their life experiences, so each of us has very different outlook. Share it. Talk about your personal life and what you are passionate about, so people feel like they know you. If you thought of a great idea while on a run, say so.

Do you need more topic ideas? Next week I’ll write about the top 10 topics to write about in your business blog.

In the article, 10 ways to increase your web traffic, I briefly talked about how a blog can help drive traffic to your website. Large companies have people dedicated to blogging and social media, but how does that fit into a small business owners to-do list? And do you really need to have one? Below I will show you, 3 reasons your small business needs a blog:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Blogs are great for driving more traffic to your website. How? Use your company’s top keywords. The more keywords you mention in your blog that relate to what you are promoting, the higher your search engine ranking will be. This in turn will lead to more customers.

So, what are keywords? They are words that people type in to fine your type of small business. For example, if you are a winery, you want to mention your location, the name of the winery and any other keywords that describe your winery. Such as, do you have a lake? Outside seating? Wedding location?

Tip: To find your top keywords use Google Adwords Keyword Tracker or WordTracker. Plus, the more often you update your website blog, the higher up you will be in the search results.

Builds Trust

Part of establishing a brand is building a relationship of trust. Let’s break this down, starting on a personal level. How do you build a friendship with a person? By getting to know them and sharing time and experiences together. How does a company build trust? By creating personal relationships with its customers. Don’t you always want to return to the coffee shop that knows you by name?

Now, how does a company build trust online? The secret is to think of it as creating friendships. You aren’t going to hard sell someone you meet at a networking event, so don’t try to do it online. Then how do you create relationships online? Someone leaves a comment on your blog and you respond. You send out a recent blog post on Twitter and respond to comments or re-tweets. Ask for your readers opinions. As your customers, they can give you insight into what they value.

Tip: Talk about your life and passion for your company. This will lead people to have the perception that they know you. Remember, future clients want to get to know you, as a person, not as some corporate person they can’t picture.

Free PR

If your company receives praise in the paper or on another blog, what do you currently do with that information?  One great way to build trust from future clients is to let others know of the recommendations you are getting from outside sources. This shows you as a leader in your field and increases your reputation as an expert.

Tip: To track what other people are saying about your company, set up Google Alerts. It will send you an email every time your company name is mentioned.

Tips

Remember that a blog for your business should be focused on your target customers. The look of your blog should match the rest of your company’s branding – including your website, e-newsletters, social media and print collateral. Plus, it should be part of a larger online marketing strategy for your small business. Still not sure what should be on your company blog? Read What to Write on your small business blog.

In the article 10 ways to increase your web traffic, I talked about the importance of an online marketing strategy. For any business right now, it is essential that an Online Marketing plan is built into your regular marketing plan. So what is an online marketing strategy (also called Internet Marketing by some) and how do you create one? Follow these steps.

Target market

Who is your target market? One way easy way to do this, is pull the info from your business plan. Don’t have a business plan? Think of your clients and pick your top three. How old are they? What do they do for a living? What do they do in their free time? Or are you starting from scratch? Install Google Analytics to your website and start a Facebook page. Both can deliver statistics on who your visitors and fans are. Every message you send out think of your target person.

What is your goal?

Is it to increase traffic? Brand awareness? Have people sign-up for your email newsletter? Buy a product? Have people attend an event? If you don’t pick a goal, you can not measure its success.

Keep your branding consistent

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. Can your customers or clients tell your business by a glance at a brochure and at your website? Do they match? The core elements need to be there: logo, color scheme, fonts, images and tone of voice.

Who is going to manage it?

Before you start your facebook page or sign up for Google ads, make sure you have a dedicated person to monitor and make updates. If you, as the small business owner, are taking on this task, plan to dedicating at least an hour per day to get everything set up. Once you get the hang of writing blogs, tweeting, checking stats and sending messages you can spend as little as 5-15  minutes per day.

What is your plan going to cover?

Types of online media to consider for your small business:

• User-friendly website

• Blog

• Facebook fan page

• Twitter

• Email newsletter

• Online Ads

What is the budget?

Decide ahead of time how much you are going to invest in the above. Remember the marketing rule is it takes 7 times for a person to see something before they buy. Which way makes the most sense to reach your ideal customer? Some costs to consider:

Website: Is your site user-friendly? Is it easy for a potential customer to find what they are looking for? Are your customers exiting on your goal page, such as a shopping cart purchase or email newsletter sign-up? Do you have links with all of the different ways people can contact or follow you, such as email newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, and blog RSS? If the answer isn’t yes to these questions, it may be time for a site re-design.

Blogs: To keep a consistent brand make sure your blog matches the look of the rest of your website. Need a custom design? I offer custom blog designs.

Facebook: Free to set up, but to stand out from the competition you can add a custom “Welcome” page or a special page for a specific promotion. For a “Welcome” page example, view my Bauerhaus Design Facebook fan page. To see a great example of a special promotion page that they changes monthly, look at the Gap’s Facebook fan page. You can set it up  so new visitors are automatically directed to your custom page.

Twitter: Free to set up. To keep branding consistent have a custom background with your look.

Emails: Don’t forget to research the cost of email marketing clients such as Constant Contact or MailChimp. This fee will depend on how many people you are mailing to & the frequency at which you send. Make your branding consistant with a custom email template that matches your website and print collateral. Make sure you only email people who have opted-in to your email list.

Ads: Are you going to invest in Google ads or Facebook ads? Or other sites? Set a daily budget on whichever you choose, so you don’t get any unwelcome surprise bills.

Frequency

How often are you going to post, blog or tweet? I recommend to my clients to start out slow with a message on each type of social media once a week, until they feel more comfortable doing more. Gradually increase it to 3 times a week than daily. For email marketing, again start slow with once a month. To keep track of when you are doing what, make a spreadsheet or add it to your calendar.

Content

Stumped for what to say? Research your competition. What do they write about on Facebook and Twitter? Is their tone of voice different in their emails? Once you have researched others, make a list of 3-5 topics you are an expert on. Now for each topic, list 5 questions that people ask you the most about. Talk about an upcoming event, a special promotion, or post a photo of a new product. And don’t forget to work in the keywords that I wrote about in 10 ways to increase your web traffic.

Need help with any of the above? Want a free estimate? Contact me at becca@bauerhaus.com

Are you a small business or start-up that is stumped on how to get people to come to your site? Increase your web traffic by following these steps.

Google Analytics

First, make sure Google Analytics is installed on your website. With this free program you’ll be able to watch your web traffic increase. If you don’t know how to do add Google Analytics code, contact the person who created the site and have them install it. This free program is great for not only tracking the amount of visitors, but also finding out the details of your visitors, such as: Where did they come from? What keywords did people type in to find you? What page did they exit on? How many people came to your site when you sent out an email newsletter?

Have an online marketing strategy

Before you tackle the below, figure out what is your goal. Is it to increase traffic? Brand awareness? Have people sign-up for your email newsletter? Buy a product? Make sure you keep this goal in mind while you do the following. To find out how to create your own, read “How to create an online marketing strategy.”

Keywords

Make sure your keywords are listed in the copy on your site. If you are a photographer in St. Louis and do not have the text that says “St. Louis photographer” your site will not show up in search engines when people search for “St. Louis Photographer”. If your entire site is in Flash, again, it will not show up in search engines. Why? Because Flash is all images, not readable text that search engines can scan. So, how do you find your top keywords? Look at Google Analytics. They list your top keywords that people entered in their search to find your site.

Have a blog

If you are new to blogging, make it a goal to post on your blog weekly. Then, once you become more familiar with blogging, post 3 times a week. The more keywords you mention in your blog that relate to what you are promoting, the higher your search engine ranking will be. Talk about what inspired you to make your product or tips for using your product.

Have a Facebook fan page

Think about this: your clients are not going to log onto your website everyday, but more than half of all users log on to Facebook in any given day. That is over 175 million people you could potentially reach with a daily status message talking about your product. For more reasons why you should have one, see my recent article: Why your business needs a Facebook Fan Page.

Use Twitter

Twitter is a great tool to find more customers. However, don’t just tweet about your blogs. Also, tweet about what interests you. Social media is all about building trust. People buy from people and businesses they like. To find people interested in what you sell, go to search.twitter.com and type in your keywords. Follow the people that are looking for what you provide or are in your target market.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

This plugs in your keywords, so search engines can find you. A client or customer doesn’t see these words, they are in the background source code. For example, a St. Louis photographer would have words such as “St. Louis photographer, photography for newborns, St. Louis, wedding photography, etc.” Pretty much any words you can think of that describe what you do. If you use Wordpress, a great tool to do this yourself is the All-in-One SEO plugin.

Advertise online

There are many options online. The most popular being Google Ads and Facebook Ads. The good news is that ads starts as low as $1 per day, so it is easy to try an ad for a month on both and see which works best.

Comment on Blogs

When you comment on blogs, this provides a link back to your site. The more links to your site, the higher your rating with Google will be. Make sure you leave genuine feedback.

Have an email newsletter

In your email newsletter, promote your website with links to a particular story, product or blog post on your site. Also include links to your Facebook fan page and twitter account, so people can pick which way they prefer to follow you.

Give away something for free

Hold a contest for subscribing to your email or Facebook fan page. Or give away a “white paper” – free tips from your industry. Promote with print advertising and online on your blog, Facebook page, and Twitter.

Did you enjoy these suggestions? Do you have any more? Feel free to leave them in the comment section.

Do you need help in setting up any of the above? Contact me at becca@bauerhaus.com.