BIG Ideas For Your Small Business Website
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 | by Andy Hayes | 
17 Comments |
The Internet, and the communications technology that has come with it, has handed small business owners an amazing marketing tool. No longer do middlemen wield a lot of control; instead, the small brands with remarkable products and services have the tools (namely search engines and social networks) to connect them with their ideal customer. But that means having a great website, because first impressions count. Here are a few BIG ideas for making your website a better marketing tool.
Make it a One Stop Shop. You’re putting in a lot of work and effort to keep your brand top of mind with the customer. So why not take advantage of being the business of choice? Partner with others or launch your own additional products and services to bring in some ancillary income. Airlines have done this for years with travel insurance, hotels, and car rentals. Why can’t you? Web technology makes it easy – just think hard about what would be a good fit. You don’t want to make it too complicated.
Find What’s Missing. In a lot of verticals, you’ll find customers often complaining about the information that’s missing. Maybe it is a lack of reviews, maybe it’s just a directory of suppliers, or maybe it’s something deeper. Can you find what’s missing? You might have to launch a site separate to yours, but wouldn’t it be nice to be the only advertiser and sponsor of a site your niche or industry has been desperate for? Make sure it isn’t adding noise or just another layer in the process.
Make It Simpler. We’ve been talking about a lot of extra stuff. But you don’t want bells and whistles, you want value. So maybe, for you, less is more? If you are suffering from an information glut, the winning formula might be a better way to present and sort through all that information.
Build a Community. Yes, yes – the social media pundits have been touting this one for awhile. But they’re right: if you want people to keep coming back to your website and your brand, you need it to be a place where they feel welcome. The easiest way to do that is to give them a seat at your table. Allowing comments on articles and accepting contributions of photos/articles/videos are two easy ways to start. But change your tone as well – why not call them “community members” instead of customers?
Ask Your Customers For Their Feedback. Feedback is invaluable, so why not ask your “community members” (see previous!)– the ones who are the raving fans and active participants in the discussion – what they think? You want to hear about what they like, but more importantly, what’s wrong? As hard as you try, you will never be perfect, but if you are listening to what your most profitable and engaged clients are saying, you can come close.
Guest Contributor – Andy Hayes is a professional writer and published author. He is the managing director of Travel Online Partners (TOP), the go-to resource for small businesses in travel and tourism for help with online technology. If you need more BIG ideas for your small business website, he can help.
17 Comments
January 27th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
These are great tips and I agree. Small businesses need to find their niche in order to stand out. And also listening to the customer is important in order to improve.
March 19th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Great post. I especially agree with your point about making your site simpler, particularly with a small business. It really all boils down to the user and ease of navigating your site. If it’s hard to read, has a lot of clutter, or too many links and distractions, they will simply go elsewhere. Suffice to say that’s potentially lost business. There is a movement of making websites perform more like mobile apps in that it makes the information available quickly and easily. That’s really all people are looking for – then make it look aesthetically appealing and you have a winner.
regards,
Bradley A Giddens
Founder / Freelancer
Stitch Marketing
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:23 pm
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March 24th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Everything you’re saying is true–for B2C. Not completely for B2B online marketing.
If you’re building a small business website, but the audience is a sophisticated B2B buyer, the “One-Stop-Shop” is a shot in the foot. It would be better to niche thyself and thy website.
I would also recommend separating the community portions of the site from the informational/business portion. In other words, have a blog and link to it from your main Nav, but don’t use a blog as the primary business website just because you want to gather feedback and build a community.
You’re either making friends or selling. You can’t do both at once.
April 13th, 2010 at 5:19 am
My favorites are “Build a Community” & “Ask Your Customers For Their Feedback.” I think not only will they give you ideas for running your business better, but will also prevent unhappy customer venting their woes elsewhere on the internet. Thank you.
April 20th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Very good tips. “Finding out whats missing” is crucial. Great post. You have what it takes and the organizational skills that you need in this industry. Thank you for sharing. Just putting it out there, if you happen to be in need of yacht or boat shipper, look up Yacht Exports. They’re very professional and get the job done.
April 25th, 2010 at 4:14 am
I love the idea of Building of Community and feedback, simply thing make organization well.
April 27th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
The building of community is important. Making customers feel like they are actually part of a family. Not just random people who come in sometimes to buy a few things and just leave. And tim diaz, I looked up yacht exports and found it pretty interesting. They really were helpful.
April 28th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Very good post.
These are some usefull and fundamental tips.
I especially agree with the Building a Community part.
Social Networks play huge part in online Marketing
and allowing better communication through the means
of feedback on your site only bring each other closer.
May 15th, 2010 at 4:34 am
Is this directed at local businesses? If so, incorporate your website in all advertising and make a point of mentioning it at the point of sale by saying to a customer “Just drop by our website (printed on receipt) for weekly specials, tips…”
May 19th, 2010 at 7:44 am
Is this directed at local businesses? If so, incorporate your website in all advertising and make a point of mentioning it at the point of sale by saying to a customer “Just drop by our website (printed on receipt) for weekly specials, tips…”
May 31st, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Your SEM tips are awesome and will surely assist those in the Internet Marketeter game. Please keep posts like this going.
June 22nd, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Cheers! Very helpful tips.
A lot of very small businesses and entrepreneurs are using social networking sites to promote their products. I noticed that this is also very effective.
July 7th, 2010 at 7:43 am
I agree that one should use ‘feedback’ in improving their website. Most of the time, we should look into the insights of those who use the website. After all, that’s what we are aiming for, to better serve our customers.
July 12th, 2010 at 6:58 am
I agree that simpler is better. I have been constantly reviewing my websites to make it more simple and direct to the point.
August 1st, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Good article.. just a follow up re: Build a Community.
Do you think it’s worth investing into vbulletin or the other paid “community scripts” or would something free like phpbb be just as valuable?
September 14th, 2011 at 5:42 am
you have posted a relevant Blog..Thanks a lot
it is very useful
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