Today’s newsletter is about developing a marketing plan that will pay huge dividends in the long run.

I recently received a phone call from a potential client who wanted a website but was worried that she couldn’t afford one. I asked her, “What do you want the website for?” She was surprised by my question, but replied. “Everybody is telling me I need to have one. Should I put it off just because I can’t afford it?” “Well, it all depends on what you’re up to”, I answered. Then we sat down and had a good look at where she was at, what she wanted for her company this year, and what resources she had to work with. She was pleasantly surprised to discover that she had a lot more options than she had at first thought.

Certainly, I could have told her, “Of course you need a website!”, but that would have missed the bigger picture. While it’s true that a website is one of the best and least expensive ways to promote your company, it’s also important to remember that it should be part of a well-thought-out marketing plan. Spending time thinking about where you want to be a year from now, for example, will likely save you money in the long run. There are lots of questions you could ask yourself, but here are two simple questions that can get you started in the right direction:

1. What are your sales goals for this year? Having clear goals will assist you in deciding how much you want to invest in promoting your business. It will also give you a way to measure the effectiveness of your marketing tactics — are they helping you move towards your goals or away from them. If they’re not producing the results you want, maybe it’s time for a new approach.
2. What marketing strategies are you prepared to put into place to accomplish your company goals? Once you have established your sales goals and the investment you are prepared to make, you can then look at methods that will fit your budget. There are many options choose from — both online and offline.

If your budget is limited, for example, and you can choose to undertake only one activity, make it the creation of a unique company identity. A strong visual identity that differentiates you from your competitors is money well spent, and can be used to promote your business inexpensively in lots of ways, including the creation of business cards, stationery, and email newsletters that stand out.

The point is this: Without planning, it’s hard to know where you’re going or even to see what you need to get there. As the saying goes, “Without a destination, any road will do.” But if you’re looking for results, plan ahead. You’ll not only know where you’re going, you’ll also know how you’re going to get there.

You may have just brought in some beautiful new merchandise, you may be running a new promotion, or you may have just started a new service. Of course, you’d like to spread the word so everyone knows about it. A really powerful way to do that is to have a service on your website that lets your site visitors tell others about it.

Luckily, there is a new tool on the market that allows you to do just that, and it’s free! It’s called ShareThis, and it allows your visitors to easily post to about twenty different social sites, send the information by email, or post it to a blog.

You can embed the button on your website and it will look something like this:

Check out how it works by clicking on the link above. You can also read what others are saying about it here:

BNET Business Network

CNET News’ Rafe Needleman

I’ll be adding it to this website shortly so you can try it here too. While you’re here check out the new poll: Which social networking or bookmarking service do you use the most? Click here to vote or to suggest a site that isn’t listed but you think should be.

As some of you know, I’ve recently been working on a piece of writing. I’ve done a lot of research, and if you were to come over to my house today, you’d find piles of books and papers all over my dining table (which I’ve converted into a temporary desk because it’s bigger) and spilling onto the floor. With so many bits of related information, piecing it together has taken up a lot of my time. Finally, yesterday, I decided I needed to get some help.

I searched the Internet and found some mind-mapping software that could help me put all my ideas together and help me see the relationships and links between them. The software is appropriately called the Brain, and it has revolutionized how I organize my information. I’ve taken all the bits of information and categorized them into neat sections, all beautifully displayed on the screen and dynamically generated through the interactive interface. Now it all makes sense.

When everything is in its place and easy to find, it just feels good, doesn’t it? You know that feeling you get when the house is clean and the lawn is mowed. It just feels good to be there. The same is true for your website. If it’s messy, disorganized or stale, it creates an impression about your company, your ‘brand.’

Have you ever been to a website that has so much information crammed onto one page that you get a headache just looking at it? It’s likely got flashing arrows, blinking headings, or neon signs to tell you where to look. What’s your impression?

What about the site that seems broken? Some of the links don’t work, some of the information is out of date, and some of the images don’t load properly. What’s your impression?

I know these examples are extreme, but I wanted to show how easily impressions are created. Now what about a website that loads quickly, is easy to navigate, and has lots of interesting and helpful information. What impression would that give about the company ‘brand’?

Here’s my point: It’s important to pay attention to the impression your site is creating because it’s influencing your ‘brand.’ Consider the audience, then choose the colors, layout, navigation, and content that fit. Also make sure it is technically sound so that everything displays the way it should, no matter which browser or operating system your visitors are using.

I usually love working in the garden, but lately I haven’t had much time to spend out there. And yesterday, as I looked out my window at the hot 30 degree weather, I noticed the weeds lurking in the yard and beds. Groan…that meant, I now had to do something.

I don’t know about your garden, but I’ve had a bumper crop of weeds this year. No matter how much I pull and swear and curse and dig, those pesky weeds keep coming back. So yesterday, I waited for the sun to go down so the heat wouldn’t be so unbearable, and then I went out to do battle with my weeds. “Why don’t you just use a weed killer?” one of my helpful neighbors observed. Well, because I’m stubborn, and I had promised myself I wouldn’t…you know the environment and all that… Anyway, I find it kind of satisfying to pull those suckers up with their roots and toss them in a bag for the trash.

Later, when I sat down at my computer to do some work that I actually get paid for, it occurred to me that weeding isn’t limited just to the yard. Websites need it too. There’s even a word for it: linkrot. According to Wikipedia, it refers to “links on a website [that] gradually become irrelevant or broken” and to “the effects of failing to update web pages so that they become out-of-date, containing information that is old and useless.”

The problem is that when visitors come to your site and find information that is old, or links that don’t work, they don’t just go to another site – they form an impression about your company based on their experience with your website. Sadly, this means that even though you may have been a perfect match for them, they may never come back and do business with you.

My point: just as maintaining a beautiful yard makes your house more inviting and gives visitors a good impression, so too, keeping your website clean, uncluttered, and free of ‘linkrot’ will invite Internet visitors to come in, stay awhile and find out more about your company. After all, isn’t that what your website is for?

Sweet Deal: New solution for service professionals

Lately, we’ve been approached by a number of people asking for a low cost website solution for service professionals. They don’t carry inventory, so they don’t need a big site, but they do like the idea of a custom-built site because these rank much higher in search engine results than cheap template sites. So we answered the call: perfect for this type of business person is our new two-page website - one page to provide details about the person and the service they offer, and one page to provide contact information and a contact form.

If you, or someone you know, could use such a site, please contact us. We’ll be pleased to provide you with more information about this offer.

We have all had experiences in our lives that touch us deeply. Taking care of the people in our lives is one of them. Recently, I had such an experience, and as I prepared to write this newsletter, that is what kept coming up, so I decided to share it with you.

Two days ago, I was woken very early in the morning by my bedside phone ringing. It was 4 a.m. and I was immediately on alert. When I answered the phone, my Mom was on the line, worried that Dad was having trouble breathing and having chest pains. “We didn’t want to bother you,” she said, considerate as usual. “I’m glad you called me, Mom,” I told her. “Please call 911 right now, and I’ll be right over.”

Thanks to the quick action of the ambulance crew, my Dad was quickly taken to the hospital to receive the medical attention he needed. My Mom and I spent a good part of the next day at the hospital while my Dad underwent numerous medical tests and examinations. Finally, the doctor declared that Dad had pneumonia, prescribed a dose of antibiotics, and released him from the hospital.

We took him home, relieved that it wasn’t anything more serious. But, neither of us has any medical background, so aside from getting his prescription filled and ensuring he got plenty of rest, we felt pretty helpless. That’s when my sister sent us an email containing a link to WebMD, an online medical information service, where we were able to learn all about the condition, how it affects older adults, and how to manage the treatment. The information was useful, so I bookmarked the site, intending to come back later when I needed information on other topics. Meanwhile, I’m glad to report that my Dad has been steadily getting better and happily recovering his natural good health.

You might ask: What does this have to do with websites? Well, if you think about it, when we save a website to our Favorites folder, or Bookmarks folder, we are actually giving it a ‘thumbs up.’ We are basically saying that we find the site useful and intend to go back. I did this with the WebMD site. It’s likely that many others found it useful and did the same too. They may even have recommended it to others, like my sister did for us. This means that the site likely receives a lot of traffic, exposure, and business.

A good question to ask is: what does it take to have a site that visitors want to bookmark? The simple answer is that people have to find it useful in some way. Research has shown that the three most common uses of the Internet are related to information, entertainment, and communication. Any site that offers these in a useful way is a good candidate for getting bookmarked.

Quick check: what does your site offer that will have users want to keep coming back? Does it offer information users want, or need? Does it provide the latest news – about technology, fashion, gardening – anything? Does your site offer items for sale? Does it offer helpful user aids like mortgage calculators for real estate sites, or color wheels for decorating sites, or simple recipes for a restaurant site?

My Point: Keep your site fresh. Keep it relevant. Offer up things your clients want. And you’ll keep them coming back.

We wanna know…

What is one of the most fun or useful sites that you have bookmarked recently? Share with us your favorites. It’ll be helpful if you give us the name of the site, the site address, and a brief description of what you like about it.

The Joys of Summer

I hope you’ve been enjoying your summer this year. Even though we’ve had some rainy days, I’ve been spending a lot of time outdoors, at least whenever I can get away from all the other things I have to do each day. Our family is also making the most of barbecue season, and we’ve been enjoying many of our meals outdoors, especially in the evenings when it’s cooler. Lately, however, we’ve been chased indoors a few times by wasps hovering around the table.

I didn’t worry about it too much until early this week when I was shutting the garden gate and noticed a few wasps fly out. “I think they’re building a nest inside the gate,” one of my sons observed. “Maybe,” I said, but by the next day we all knew he was right. Little wisps of grey were beginning to show through the wooden slats of the gate. And the nest was growing fast, because by the following day it seemed to have doubled in size. We needed to act quickly. What to do? That’s when someone suggested I call an exterminator.

That shouldn’t be so hard to do, I thought, as I picked up the Yellow Pages phone book. Instead of finding one or two entries, as I had expected, I found four pages of exterminators. I had no idea how to pick one. They all offered similar services, but without phoning each one individually, there was no way to know which one was better. I needed to know more about the companies, so I turned to the Internet.

That narrowed it down quite a bit. Sure, the big companies had websites, but none of them had local offices, and I’d have to call a national number and talk to someone in another city, who would then call someone here, who would then … well, you get the idea. I wanted someone local.

Only three of the local companies seemed to have a website. The first one had that ‘homemade’ look and didn’t seem particularly professional. The second gave me a ‘not found’ error page. And the third had so little information about the company that it might as well have been a print ad. These websites did not inspire a lot of confidence. I did not call any of these companies. Still, by digging a little further on the Internet, I found a company that was able to manage the wasp problem quickly.

My point: The way that people search for a business is changing these days. We no longer rely only on traditional sources like phone books or newspapers or magazines. We most often use the Internet to find out more about a company before we decide to do business with them. Companies that are not on the Internet are missing out on a lot of potential customers. But even those companies that do have a website need to make sure they are giving visitors the right impression.

If you already have a website, do a quick check. What does your website say about you and your company? Does it appear professional? Or homemade? Does it inspire confidence? Or is it just bland? Does it highlight your expertise? Or is it just a generic ‘ad’? Does it help you stand out? Or is it just a ‘cookie cutter’ website like so many others?

Remember, it doesn’t matter whether you like it or not. Your website has a job to do. Make sure you’re not missing out on business because you failed to see how potential customers see you.

We hope you’ll check out this first issue, and if you like what you see, you’ll subscribe to receive a new issue every two weeks. It’s a great way to keep up-to-date on topics of interest to small business owners. For example, we will be talking about ways you can supercharge your marketing efforts, increase your customer base, improve customer service, attract more traffic to your website, and utilize a variety of tools and tips to improve your company’s profitability.

You will also have the opportunity to write back online, and join the discussion as people share their experiences, good or bad, with the topic at hand.

Of course, you can unsubscribe anytime by clicking on the unsubscribe link in every newsletter.

10 Easy Website Performance Checks

I came across a great post the other day by Word of Mouth marketing expert, Andy Sernovitz, that featured this picture.

Andy’s point: Website quality can influence your credibility. He says, you wouldn’t go to a job interview in dirty pajamas, would you? Why take a chance with your website? Read the rest of Andy’s post here

We all know by now the importance of having a website, that it is one of the best ways to market your business, and the least expensive route to advertising and sales. Think about it: once built, your website has the potential to reach millions of people, and serve you month after month, with no more expense than the $15-20 you spend on hosting fees each month. And the best part is, it works for you 24/7, but there is a catch… all websites do not perform at the same level – some produce outstanding results, while others just limp along.

Research has shown that visitors usually decide within the first 4 seconds whether to stay and explore a website or to move on. Here’s a quick and dirty way to find out how ‘sticky’ your website is:

Pretend you’ve never been to your website before and answer the following questions as if you were a new visitor seeing it for the first time. When you’re finished, tally up your responses to see your score.

• Does your site load quickly (less than 4 seconds)? People don’t like to wait.
• Can people quickly scan your home page to find out what you do or what you sell (no more than 4 seconds)?
• Is your web copy compelling and appropriate for your audience?
• Does your website have good quality graphics instead of generic clip art?
• Can visitors easily get around your site and find information? By this I mean, is the navigation clear, or do people have to guess where the information may be located?
• Is the content on your website current and accurate?
• Is the text large enough for visitors to easily read?
• Does your site look the same in all major browsers?
• If your site automatically plays a sound file in the background, are visitors given a control for turning it off?
• Does your website offer visitors a way to contact you?

Give yourself one point for each question to which you answered ‘Yes.’ Here’s how to read the score:

9-10: your site is probably in pretty good shape
6-8: your site can probably be improved with a minor tune up
5 or less: it’s likely your site is in need of a major overhaul

If you think your site needs change, talk to a professional and get specific advice on how you can improve your site’s performance.