Make it easy for your customers: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

To explain how to make it easy for your customers, I want to share a pleasant online shopping experience with you. This is how it should be done when selling on the internet.

I needed more RAM for my laptop, and on a link from a website I found the best online ram store possible. I selected my region and it talked to me in my currency. It gave me the option of scanning my system to see what was compatible or selecting my computer from a list. I did both in the end and ended up with the same recommendation, as can be expected.

After analysing my system, it presented me with how many free slots for memory I had on my computer, the different combinations I could choose, and how it would effect my computer’s performance. It also had a few common questions about RAM and presented the answers based on my system scan.

I selected what I wanted, and chose my exact country to estimate shipping before having to enter any other checkout details. I then had the total I was expected to pay. I took the recommendation and price and actually tried searching to see if I could get a better deal since I was shipping to another country anyway. I couldn’t even find another decent website. I was also unsure if more RAM would make a difference to my computer’s speed and wanted to read some more information.

I could of walked down the street, found a computer shop, and purchased it from there to get it sooner…but I couldn’t find any nearby with google. I decided I had a great price for it anyway, after searching on amazon.

So I went back, completed my order with a few clicks, and now eagerly await its arrival.

Pending it’s arrival, this was the most painless shopping process I’ve ever had. My only regret is they don’t sell more products as I’m looking for some other components as well.

Is your website that easy for your customers? What steps can you streamline to make it better? Doing this is the key to online success.

[edit] I just checked my order email and they actually sent me step-by-step instructions to install the RAM in a notebook. They exceeded my expectations completely so do you think I will be recommending them to everyone who needs RAM? You bet! [/edit]

[edit] And now that it’s arrived in the expected time it shows this company is really on the ball. I ordered about midnight on Wednesday and it was here on Monday, exactly three business days later, as promised. [/edit]

 

 What do your customers need from your website?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Working out what customers need from your website should be the first step in the design process. How can your website improve the experience of your customer or potential customer?

When you look at a website from this point of view, you’ll come up with a completely different implementation and the results will show in your sales. Too many business owners decide they need a website, decide what they want on the website, hire a web designer, write a little bit about their business, and then publish the website for all the world to see.

The problem is, no one looks at the website. And definitely, no one purchases or calls because of the website. So this moment is a decision point on how your business does in the future. You can either take a long hard look at your website, or you can ignore this post and continue to be a small business. It’s really up to you.

Convinced? Good. So put yourself in your customers shoes for a while and work out what they’d like from your website. What would compel them to read further? What questions would they like answered? What would get them to actually pick up the phone and call you or make a purchase?

Once you think you’ve improved, test it. If you can’t watch customers use your website (and you can with the right software), then watch your friends. See where they get confused, see where they get bored, and see if they can actually find their way to the objective. And remember, your potential customers have about 0.01% of your friends patience.

So work out what your customers need from your website…and give it to them!

 

 Know your Website's Goals: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Your website has goals. Some website owners aren’t aware what they are, but they’re there somewhere. If you’re a small business you probably started your website to get more customers. Or just because everyone else had one and you felt you should too.

The main goal of a website is to get more customers. Whether you make sales through the website, have visitors call you about your products, or simply have it printed on your stationary, the goal your website is to obtain more customers.

So what are you doing to make this goal a reality? Did you create your website a few years back and leave it sitting there? Do you occasionally put some new content or news post on there? Or are you improving and developing your website as a marketing tool every day.

The power of the internet and your website should not be underestimated. It should be your most important marketing tool. It is definitely your most powerful one…unless your market is over 80 perhaps.

So start taking control of your website, start setting goals and taking action. What kind of action, well look around my blog for ideas, read my real free ebook to start. Together we’ll take your tired and undernourished website and turn it into a sales generator. Doesn’t that sound like something worth putting some effort into?

 

 Alliance Partners: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Alliance partners are a major untapped resource for small business owners. For some reason we seem to have this ‘do it yourself’ mentality and it really restricts the growth of a business, usually keeping it small forever.

But let’s think about this logically. What’s the absolute, without a doubt, best way to get new customers. Word of mouth in the form of a referral by another current customer. So we should always be giving our customers the best experience possible and encouraging them to tell their friends. But there is another way to maximise this effect and possibly double your customer base overnight.

Yes, a referral from an alliance partner. By teaming up with another quality business that compliments what you do and targets the same customer base, you can massively grow your business. If you give your customers great service, and you rave about someone else that does the same, of course your customers will trust you. From recommendations in person, to promoting your partner to your mailing list, to organising events together, the possibilities are endless.

It gives you an instant increase in targeted customers. The growth can be enormous.

And once you’ve successfully obtained one alliance partner. What’s to stop you from adding other businesses to your partnership to create an alliance network. With this network in place, this is where you have the opportunity to turn a small business into a big business.

One of the most important marketing activities for your small business can be it’s web site design and the content you fill it with. A well designed web site with great content can make or break your business on the internet. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to get right, but if you do, the benefits will be amazing.

All over the internet you can see substandard small business web sites. As part of the small business person’s ‘do-it-yourself’ mindset, we tend to find a lot of homemade web sites that don’t sell their business. The money they save by doing it themselves can be costing them a 1000 times that in sales. A good web site can seem expensive when you first start out, but it really it’s worth its weight in sales.

Think of it as the sales brochure you have to use with every customer for the next two years! So when you shudder at paying a few thousand euros on a web site, think about how much you spend on a print run.

Now another major stumbling block of small business owners is hiring the right web designer. It’s a minefield out there but with some careful research the right person for the job can be found. However, once you have a web designer to make your web site look pretty, the next step is content. Content makes or breaks your web site and needs to be perfectly written to sell to your visitors.

If small business owners didn’t like paying for the web site design, paying for the content didn’t even cross their mind. The content and flow of your web site is just as important, if not more, than having a professional design. The attention span of your average internet user is about 2 seconds at this point. So get their attention and hold on to it for dear life!

So when it comes to your small business web site, get the design and content right if you want to have sales. A few simple changes can make all the difference to your web site’s performance. I do a free web site analysis and so do a lot of other people, so you really have no excuse not to start on the path of web site success.

 

 Unique Advertising Ideas: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Last night, I was thumbing through a newspaper and looking at the ads. Something I hardly ever do since I think most of us are now trained to ignore these advertising messages. I was looking at a page and realising how similar all their ads were. Where are all the unique advertising ideas?

We have the same problem online, the same websites selling the same products the same way. How dull!

What is the purpose of your advertising? To get a potential customers attention. To make them notice you. Then you start them on the sales process with your compelling offer. You don’t get noticed by being the same as every other business.

I saw one unique ad in the newspaper, a restaurant that put it’s advertisement upside down. Now that gets your attention and curiosity. I’ve actually noticed their ad before and remember it because it was printed upside down. Maybe with a few more impressions I’ll actually work out what the restaurant’s name is and go there. In their case, they got my attention but didn’t have a compelling offer, even though I think they’re an Indian restaurant and I love Indian food!

So first, use an unique advertising idea to get your potential customers attention, then give them an offer they can’t refuse!

Expanding your business can be difficult at times, especially when you’re doing all the work yourself. The secret is to exploit the power of Strategic Alliances. Find a company that serves your customer base and see what kind of joint ventures you can do.

This could be as simple as being advertised as a trusted friend in their mailing list. Or you could group products together and make joint offers to your customers. In a strong alliance you could even up-sell each others products.

Create a great network, use it creatively, and your business will grow overnight.

Basically, when you’re selling a product that the prospective client doesn’t know they need. In my field this is something that I need to do all the time. Not only do I have to sell my service, but I have to sell the need to the client first. Not many people realise there are any problems with their website, let alone what it should be doing for their business.

In fact, most people don’t even look at the website statistics they’re generating. Occasionally they get sent a nice shiny report from a web design company trying to make their maintenance fee look worthwhile. But the business person generally doesn’t even understand the information they’ve been sent.

My business is really one of coaching and education as well. There’s no point improving a website and giving a client a bunch of numbers to prove it if they don’t understand what I’m showing them. Some numbers are easy, like sales or profit. Others may seem obvious too, like unique visitors and site visit duration, but in most cases they’re not explained to the client.

So ask yourself, does my client realise what I’m actually doing for them? How can I show them measurable results that they understand and prove that they should stick with me? Do I have to show clients they have a need for my service before I actually sell to them?

At the moment you are probably relying on a lot of word of mouth to create you business. You do a good job, your customers are happy, and they recommend you to other people. This is a great way to get customers and grow your business. If a customer is sent to your business by a friend, almost all their fears of doing business with you are eliminated right from the start. Then all you have to do is sell them the right colour.

But if you really want to grow your business you need to think bigger. You need to get people talking about your business before they’ve even bought from it. You need to offer them something truly unique and different from your competitors.

There are plenty of books out there to give you ideas for this, commonly called viral marketing campaigns, amongst other things and you can find a bunch of resources on my website. It could be as simple as writing a free ebook on your specialised topic, or creating a game that gets emailed around offices all over the world and links back to your website. The sky is the limit and creativity is heavily rewarded.

Next up on our list is the one line that means your customers buy from you and no other. You need to boil down all your benefits and needs into a simple, clear, elegant statement that sums up your business. I choose to put mine at the top of my website which gives both myself and my customers focus about what this website and I are all about. You can use it in your marketing materials or not, it’s up to you, but use it to focus yourself on what your business is all about.

Mine is: The expertise to bring cash from your website.