1. Keep it simple and to the point
   Information and/or graphics presented to a potential customer need to be simple to understand and completely relevant to the product or service your business provides. Website users are generally picky and have little tolerance for overly complicated websites or information.
2. Think about how newcomers to your business will fare when viewing your site
   Coordinate your web design and content accordingly.  Again, keep your information simple and presented in a manner that is easy to understand. When in doubt, find the least technical person you know and ask them to review it for you.
3. In the spirit of simplicity strive to make your pages elegant and uncluttered
   Have you ever browsed a website that gave you a sense of information overload? You want to avoid this at all costs.  It is a sure way to lose a prospective customer.  Are we noticing a theme here?
4. Make certain to place navigational aids consistently in the same place
   Nothing is more annoying than when you attempt to browse a website that does not provide convenient access to its content. No one should be forced to use his or her browser’s back button to navigate a website. Be sure to present links to your website’s top-level pages in a way that is easily noticed and understood.
5. Maintain a blog with current and relevant content
   Blogs are a great way to engage your audience in a more personal fashion.  They have also become a very necessary aspect of Search Engine Optimization and Marketing.
6. Use relevant keywords and tags in your SEO strategy
   This is of utmost importance if you have any hope of being found through a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or MSN.  Simply speaking, this means that all of your website’s content (text and links) is full of words and phrases that specifically target the audience you want to reach, while providing the highest quality possible.  Not only does your prospective customer want you to provide the most relevant, useful and interesting content, but the search engines will rank you higher for it.
7. Make certain that all content serves your business, not just a “gee whiz” technology
   There are plenty of web sites out there with this problem.  A prime example: Animated Intros.  Don’t use them!  Yes, they were popular at one point, but those days are long gone. Slick (intro) animations are a distraction from your message.
8. Contact references from a web design firm’s website to verify the degree of their customers’ satisfaction
   When you hire a web design firm for your project, do yourself a big favor by contacting some previous clients (often listed in a portfolio) to be sure they were satisfied by the level of service and results that were provided.  It’s an effective way to gain some insight into the caliber of company you are dealing with.  Considering you will probably be spending a significant sum with these folks, it’s the least you can do for your due diligence.
9. Commit to keeping your content fresh, removing dated content
   A website is virtually a continuous conversation with existing and potential customers. Ceasing to keep your message fresh is an invitation to your viewers to go elsewhere.  Keep your products and services up to date and continue to distinguish your business from your competition.  Get permission to add recent testimonials from happy customers.  Use your blog to write articles relating to your business to influence new customers in your direction.  The bottom line is:  Don’t let your website collect dust.
10. Check and double check for typos before publishing
    We are often judged by our ability to communicate clearly, accurately and professionally.  If you let typos or other inaccuracies slip by, how confident will your customers be in your ability to pay attention to detail, or worse, cause them to question your integrity?  Most word processing programs have built-in spell checkers. Use them.  And then review your text for anything that may have been overlooked.  Get a second set of eyes to review your content before publishing.

Don’t:

1. Buy from a company that is selling you a template
   Most savvy Internet users will quickly recognize a website that was built from a template. The ensuing impression is not good.  If your business is represented by a design that has been used by many others, how can you hope to stand above the crowd?  What’s more, it sends a subtle message to the viewer that your business is not original, i.e. a follower and not a leader. Your website is key to the success of your online marketing strategy.  You cannot achieve uniqueness using a cookie-cutter design.  A prefabricated website will not be effective in driving customers to your door.  The way you communicate with your customers should be unique to your business, not a copy of someone else.
2. Use cheap (or freebie) stock photos
   No photos would be better.  Once again, there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to images in marketing your business.  On and off the Internet, there is a reality that holds true: You get what you pay for.  So don’t skimp on the visual presentation of your website. It’s one of those intangibles that viewers of your site will notice, and images say something about your company.
3. Load up your home page with a lot of dribble that really doesn’t have anything to do with your business
   Does your company sell blue widgets? Then don’t waste your valuable home page real estate talking about anything else. Your website should always have a clear objective.  It should guide the viewer down a path to an ultimate action.  If the information and path to that action are not clear and concise, it’s going to be ineffective.
4. Place flash graphics on your home page that cause the viewer to wait while loading
   Internet users have grown picky about how they spend their time and have little patience with poorly designed sites.  Page load times are important.  Don’t make your viewers wait with unnecessary graphics or animation, or they will likely move on.
5. Use any sound that plays automatically
   Being forced to turn down your computer’s sound in a business environment is not cool.  Let the website viewer choose to play a sound or video, don’t shove it down their throats.
6. Use clichés, be original
   It’s tough to be original, but definitely worth the effort.  If your message is just a copy of another, what advantage will you have over your competition in attracting new customers?  People like originality because it’s compelling.  It will position you as a leader, not a follower.
7. Try to look or sound like your business is bigger than it really is
   Sincerity will attract the kind of customers you want.  Besides, it doesn’t take long to discover the true dimension of a business.  How embarrassing would it be to create an impression you are a large corporation, only to have a potentially good customer learn you have a small team of people.  It’s OK to be small.  Just be the best at what you do.  If you’re good at what you sell or do, smart customers won’t care how many employees you have.
8. Ever consider that your website is finished
   Treat it as a living, evolving presentation of your business, a virtual conversation with your customers and the general public.  If your communications cease, people will assume your business has too.
9. Ignore your competition
   Keep abreast of your competition’s online presence.  If they’re getting more business than you are, find out why.  How they manage their web presence will tell you a lot about them.
10. Give up on having an effective web strategy
    If you think you’ve failed before, learn from your mistakes, and get it right this time.  Remember, you haven’t failed until you quit.

A Divine Studio is a web design, development and internet marketing company based in McAllen, Texas and serving not just the Rio Grande Valley (RGV), but also Houston, Austin, all of Texas and the USA.

Get in touch with us today to schedule a free consultation.

To do that, your business’ message must find a way to stand out to the general public, no easy task today considering the prodigious proliferation of websites, all with messages clamoring to be seen and heard.

The following list, which is by no means exhaustive, includes some basics for getting your business seen and heard above the noise of the web’s vox populi:

1. Keep your web site fresh with new text and images
2. Use a blog to talk about the issues addressed by your business and the solutions it offers
3. Where possible post updated press releases or news bulletins to showcase your products and/or services
4. Post customer testimonials as often as possible
5. Give your site a chance to be seen by deploying best practices for Search Engine Optimization
6. Use Social Media networking to get more eyeballs on your business and your site
7. Make sure you have selected the right keywords that apply to your business and include them for your site
8. Keep abreast of what your competitors are doing online, so you can counter with strengths that you know are differentiators for your business
9. Make a commitment to maintaining your online marketing strategy through innovation, keeping up with the latest software, techniques, and best practices for online marketing
10. Frequently review results of grading your website with available evaluation tools

Again, these are but a few best practices for achieving a successful online marketing strategy and getting your message in front of the masses.  But if you commit to and perform these ten, you will have positioned yourself for success.  The rest is up to you and as always how well you perform for your customers.

This strategy is known as affinity marketing.  There are numerous ways you can manage an affinity marketing program, there are even companies that will manage one for you, but the key is to publicize the fact that you are doing it.  There are many ways to reach constituents of these organizations and in most cases the organization itself will inform their supporters through their established channels of communication.

Just think about the huge number of people in your community that are affiliated with organizations of this nature:  There are parents of school children (schools always need more money, as they are some of the first to feel the effects of a recession); churches with large memberships; humane societies, environmental groups, Rotary clubs, community based health causes, and volunteer organizations.
In short any organization with a membership or close constituency of supporters is an ideal group of potential customers for your business.

As for managing your affinity marketing program, you can easily find companies that provide these services.  Here is a short list of well-established companies that can help you manage your program:

Nietech Corporation
Help Worldwide, Inc.
Vesdia Corporation
Augeo

You can expand your options by searching Google for “Loyalty Transaction Processing”, “affinity marketing”, or “Loyalty Systems”.

The Internet is plastered with new terminology, newly coined business names, and new products and services, many relating to the Internet itself.  But with so many messages clamoring for our attention, it’s easy to become influenced by flashy ads or cleverly concocted phrases some of which we may wish to adopt a version of as our own.  With this as well we may forget the importance of adhering to only the highest ethical standards for our own conduct online.

Aware of it or not, truth telling or stretching in advertising will make or break a business sooner or later, especially now with an ability to attract and affect so many people through our websites, emails, social media marketing and the like.  Today, because of the impact we can have using the tools of the web, practices and behaviors in accord with only the highest ethical standards are more critical than ever to the success and longevity of a business.  In a very real sense we do eventually “reap what we sow.”

Hence, we need to withstand the temptation to exaggerate claims for our products or services in the interests of merely attracting more potential customers, a practice that in the longer term will most likely accrue to the detriment of our business as the truth of our claims is revealed.

It can be helpful to recognize the various disguises worn by certain less than ethical practices.  Sometimes it’s a rationalized decision where the end justifies the means, perhaps involving a little truth stretching or a convenient omission of certain details, or seemingly small and harmless exaggerations.  Either way as these practices are exposed sooner or later the effect on business will almost always be negative or even catastrophic.

As business owners and as merely members of the human race, each of us has the responsibility to temper enthusiasm with reality, exhibit honesty in our representations and uphold and protect the integrity of business conducted on the Internet.  A business built upon the highest ethical standards will be seen by the masses as a beacon unto itself, if only for the reputation it has earned and enjoys.  And quite frankly, there’s no way to buy that kind of advertising.

Last time we talked about Loyalty Marketing and how it can turn your marketing dollars into a profit center versus an expense against sales.

This time you’ll see how you can market your business in collaboration with other non-competitive businesses right within your community and using none of your own money.

A small start-up company in south Texas came up with an idea of publishing a simple online and print version of a new Directory for complementary businesses within its community.  Keep in mind any existing business can fill the publisher role.  The idea is to boost sales for each business in the Directory through collaborative (shared cost) marketing, while the publisher profits directly from the advertising subscriptions of each participating business.

This is really cool!  It effectively leverages marketing dollars for the Directory participants while making money for the publisher with up front out-of-pocket costs born by the subscribers.  It’s another wrinkle on OPM “other people’s money” or in this case “other businesses’ money.”  To make the Directory even more attractive a business can elect to pay monthly or take a discount for paying annually.  (If you’re going to allow monthly payments I recommend collections via ACH – it’s the cheapest method – or use PayPal).  The nice thing about collecting monthly is it creates a sort of residual income for the publisher.

You incent consumers to buy the Directory with a modest price point, (say around $20.00), which includes a value-savings card, good for discounts determined by each participating business.  The Directory with the card is sold and distributed to customers at each participating business location.  Additionally, the Directory may be sold through the publisher’s website.  It’s a great way to make money.

If you’re looking for more ways to increase profitability, this marketing model can be used by any existing business, or it can stand alone nicely as a completely new business venture.

Now this may come as a surprise to many of you, but your marketing dollars should be a profit center with measurable results to the bottom line, and not a cost of doing business.

“But” you say, “I have to pay for marketing and advertising materials.  How is this not an expense against sales?”

OK, let me give you an example.  Let’s say you want to start a loyalty program that will accomplish two things: 1. You want to retain the customers you now have, thereby getting more of their money, and 2. You want to attract new customers.

To achieve these two goals let’s say you decide to issue a loyalty card to your customers with the idea that they will come back again in order to take advantage of some special offer(s) only available to repeat customers as they present their cards with new purchases.  Obviously, you are going to have to pay for the cards, and probably some advertising materials about your program.

Your first instinct is to give away as many cards to your customers as you can as they come to you for business.  But this is exactly what you should not do.  This approach only guarantees you a cost rather than generating a profit with the same dollars.

To turn your “costs” for setting up this program into “profits,” instead of giving a free card to your customers you should charge them something for it.  This will do two things: 1. By selling the cards (for some reasonable amount) say $5 or $10 each, you will have more than paid for the cost of the cards and accompanying advertising piece explaining the program, but you will also have planted in the minds of your customers that they are receiving something of “value”.  Anything acquired for free is perceived as having no value.  So by selling the cards, which when presented during future purchases provide some additional benefit such as a substantial discount, or other premium not available to all customers, you have made a profit on the distribution of the cards, AND you have given your customers an incentive to “come back” to your business as repeat customers.

Voila! With loyalty marketing, though less measurable in terms of how many new customers you have attracted, you have turned your marketing dollars into a profit center.   It’s human nature to be attracted to good deals, and most people are on the lookout for them.  You can at least be assured that loyalty marketing will over time attract some new customers to your business, even if only by word of mouth.

In our next nugget we’ll share another idea on how to create more profits with your marketing dollars.