Recession Busting Tips No10 - Stay Focussed

Staying focussed and not panicking are vitally important, you now have a list of things you can do to help yourself and your business enjoy a better year ahead.

Work through the list gradually, some things you may already have done or perhaps have been meaning to do, so this is a timely reminder. You may already be following a similar process, well great, whatever position you are in; you are helping yourself to a better 2010.

Wishing you much success, happiness and health for 2010.

Recession Busting Tips No7 - Be Visable

It is vital in times of recession that you and your business are very visible to existing clients and potential new customers.

In a recession a steady stream of marketing is the lifeblood of your business, this puts you head and shoulders above your competition, be seen on the web and in print and get chosen.

Marketing is a vital tool in this current climate not a luxury, so ensure your profile is out there.

7 tips when using email in your business

7 things you must know about using email in your business. As a new business you have many things to learn and it’s easy to make mistakes when you are rushing around trying to do too many things at once.

You may see email as an easy and cheap way of communicating with prospects and customers and you would be correct, but you must do it well. There are a few things to remember, do not be lazy because you think it’s not the same as a letter.

Here are some good disciplines to get into early on and then it just becomes automatic.

Spelling and Grammar
Spelling and grammar are very important in all your correspondence, so remember to spell and grammar check everything, don’t risk losing a potential customer because of a poorly written email.

Reply Quickly
Always respond as quickly as possible to an e-mail. Even if you do not have all the answers or have to investigate the question or complaint, at the very least acknowledge the email, preferably the same day, saying you are looking in to it and will reply within 24, 48 hours whatever time frame necessary. If for some reason that is then not possible, don’t leave the person in the dark, tell them what you do know and what you are doing about it, keep them informed every step of the way. Recommit to solving the problem within a new time frame and make sure you do so, they won’t wait forever.

Re: Subject
Make sure you always complete the Subject box; you do not want them to guess or delete it because they don’t know what it is. Don’t mislead people with the subject box either, it should be about the content of the email.

Recipient
Use the recipient’s name, it is much more professional and personal to address the reader by their name, it makes them feel more valued and important, it show you care about your customers, little things matter.

Format
The format of the email does not have to be as formal as a business letter but should still be similar in style and must be grammatical, not text speak, not written in all CAPS or all lower case and do not ramble on without punctuation. It should cover all the necessary points from their email, don’t gloss over things or miss them out completely.

Who are you?
Always include all your contact information, preferably below your signature. You can mention in the email “please contact me if you require further assistance, see details below” or similar just to reassure the person that you are not a faceless, nameless entity. You should add your full name, title, company, address, telephone, email, fax, web address, everything they may need without having to contact you again to ask for it.

Their Message
When you respond to someone and are answering their questions or complaint either include the previous e-mail, or be very specific and include their questions/complaint when answering. This will enable them to quickly relate to what you are saying, we are all busy people and don’t have time to waste trawling our emails to find the one to which your answer refers.

Using email is an effective ways of communicating with all your prospects and customers, but remember in all communications be accurate, honest and professional and put your customer first, offer valuable, useful, informative content and you will reap the rewards.

Social Media - Here To Stay?

Some really amazing facts and figures on social media......






I would love to hear what you think...

Do you agree or disagree "In the future we will no longer search for products and services, they will find us".

What is your experience?

Local SEO Opportunities Are Important For Small Businesses

Are you making the most of your local SEO opportunities?

How do customers find you?

By guess work, by map, by sat nav? Ok how about search engines?

Does your website contain not only your full postal address, but also several very detailed sets of driving instructions, as well as walking instructions from the train station or bus stop?

it will take a little time to compile this, but it is well worth it. Go out and drive all the main routes from the motorways or main A roads in your area through to your premises. I am not recommending you drive and write at the same time, so please take someone with you. Also walk the routes from the train station and the bus stop.

Make good, detailed notes including landmarks on the routes and specify
· travelling from ‘A’
· travelling from ‘B’
· travelling from ‘C’
· travelling from ‘D’

Make these separate, easily printable pages and remember to add the full address and telephone number to every page of directions; it’s amazing how many people forget to do this!

Not only will this help your customers but will also help with local SEO, this tactic means you will come up in searches where long tail keywords including street names or landmarks are used, so a double benefit for a little time out on the road on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

A good example might be:
"XYZ Company is conveniently located on the High Street, next to the XXX public library and opposite the ZZZ shopping centre; our full postal address is XYZ Company, 123 Street, Any Town, Any Where, XX1 2YY. Our telephone number is 020 1234 5678.
Directions from all major motorways, 'A' roads, bus stop and train station are also provided for your convenience in easily printable pages". (Add travelling from links in here).

This will then enable you to be found when searches are made on the local area, for a street name, a train station, the library, the shopping centre, the motorways and 'A' roads, as you can see this gives you many more opportunities to be found.

Every business wants to be found by it's prospects, customers, partners, suppliers and visitors, so make sure it is your business they find.

7 Things you need to know about your prospects in your target market – Part 6

Their income, this is not a rich or poor scenario, as both may have a need for your product or service, but there may be different levels of service you can offer, or an entry level product with accessories as extras, rather than everything you need purchased at the same time.

……….to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 13 (a bakers dozen!) - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 13 Pictures

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ yes, it can be, but only in the right place, to enhance the written word and when correctly sized for quick downloading or it’s worth 8 ‘I can’t be bothered to wait for this’!

Finally
Time is a precious commodity and having a site that loads quickly, is easy to navigate and read, quickly answers the visitors questions in a straightforward manner is more likely to be visited and revisited.

Remember even if you think you are offering the same as someone else, you need to make it different, make it your own, and then you are NOT offering the same as someone else.

Make sure your website clearly explains what you do, what you are offering, what your USP (unique selling point) is, make visitors trust you and want to do business with you.

P.S.
Having taken all the 13 top tips into account, remember make the site your own, these are just some of the tips to bear in mind, but you can break the rules and make up your own, but always remember the key question is always ‘will your target audience like it’?

If for example, it’s a site for children, then you can break the colour rules and make it colourful, bold and bright, but a word of caution, be sensible, don’t ignore all the rules and tips at once.

Books are black text on white paper for a reason – they are easy to read and that’s the main aim to enable the reader to enjoy the story, and that’s why the reader purchased the book!

Hope you enjoyed this story, please feel free to comment or ask any questions, I am happy to help.

"The deadly dozen Part 12 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 12 Content is King

We are now at content and remember ‘Content is King’.

There is no point following all the previous tips and then having poor content, badly spelt and unoriginal.

Do not go for content overload for the sake of it; say what you need to say clearly and concisely.

If you need to talk about another topic put it on a new page, don’t cram it in somewhere and lose it.

Conversely do not go to the opposite end of the scale and say too little leaving visitors to guess what you do, they do not want to read between the lines, as in doing so they may get the wrong message and leave.

You can read more tips on this in the future on ‘Content is King’.

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 11 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 11 Flash Animation

Flash animation can be great, when used sparingly and correctly, if you want a flash intro, then it must be quick and also convey some information.

Navigation must also be on this page to enable people to move on if they wish, don’t just have a splash screen with an enter site here button, visitors do not know if they are in the right place if you tell them nothing!

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 10 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 10 Page Layout

Layout of the pages should be clean and clear, following a similar pattern and style across all you pages.

Do not use too many columns, 2 or 3 max.

Each page should have a focal point for main content.

All this quickly leads to your visitor being comfortable and feeling at home on your site.

The quicker this happens the longer someone will stay, if however they have to keep looking on the page to find the key information they want, they will soon get frustrated and leave.

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 8 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 8 Pop Up Windows

Pop up windows should be used very sparingly, if at all.

Pop up windows do exactly what they say, they pop up and cover the content your visitor has come to see.

This can be very aggravating and we are trying very hard across all areas of your website not to aggravate and thus turn off and loose your valuable visitors and potential customers.

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 7 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 7 Font Styles

Font Styles are another key area to making the site easy to use and comfortable for your visitors.

There are many font choices now available to add to the confusion and decision making process, but the choices are really very simple and few.

Think about newspapers, magazines and books all are of a similar font type very often Times New Roman as this prints well, however it is not the ideal choice for use on websites.

Text is much fuzzier on a web page than on a printed page and Times New Roman is fuzzy on the web, this means it is more difficult for your visitors to read, they read more slowly and get frustrated more quickly, perhaps even leaving.

If you look at Image Connect’s site it is Verdana which is clear and easy to read even when zoomed in and out.

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 6 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No 6. Text & Backgrounds

Text colour and background colour combinations are also critical, black, dark blue or similar on a white or light background or the reverse perhaps yellow or white on a black background may provide a better solution for the visually impaired.

.....to be continued