 |
 |
|
   |
|
 Issue #48 - June 21st, 2004 Internet Marketing Newsletter for Small Businesses
Brought to you by idesignbusiness.com http://www.idesignbusiness.com Issue # 48 Thursday, June 21st, 2004 In this Issue: ARTICLES: FREE RESOURCE: Welcome to issue # 48 of the idesignbusiness Internet Marketing Newsletter. After doing some research for this issue‘s article I came across a great site that provides information specifically for home-based businesses. The have a section dedicated to websites and I thought it was a great fit for this issue. I know a large amount of you run home-based businesses but this article is definitely relevant for small businesses that have outgrown the home. I recommend implementing all 5 of the tactics mentioned in the article below. We would love to hear any questions, comments, or ideas for future articles, just email us at newsletters@idesignbusiness.com Did you miss the last issue? You can always visit our idesignbusiness Internet Newsletter Archive and easily view and search all our past issues. Neal St. Clair idesignbusiness Advertisement SpamArrest.com - Take Back Control of Your Inbox Are you fed up with SPAM? If so, take action and take back control of your inbox. Kill unwanted emails in their tracks before they ever reach your inbox. SpamArrest lets you easily manage your email by blocking unwanted senders and verifying your valid contacts. It‘s easy to setup and will block all junk email. SpamArrest works with your current email and provides a 30 day Free Trial. Click here for 30 day free trial ARTICLE Five Foolproof Ways to Improve Your Web Site Sales By Vishal P. Rao When you run an online home-based business, your web site is more than simply a company location. It‘s also your primary source of advertising and marketing. If you‘ve noticed that sales are lagging or if you‘re simply looking for ideas for a site you‘re building, the following five tips can help you boost revenue and develop an even more successful web presence. 1) Stress Your UPS In this case, UPS isn‘t referring to the delivery company. Instead, it stands for Unique Positioning Statement and it‘s one of the most important ingredients of your business. Your UPS is basically a statement of what sets you apart from your competition. Think of it as an answer to the question: Why should I do business with you? You may choose to focus on service, price, or any other special feature of your business that would appeal to customers. Whichever feature you choose should be stressed in all your web site‘s content. Don‘t shy away from telling others what sets you apart. 2) Add Interactivity Consumers are shying away from passive activities where they just sit and watch. Instead, they want to be a part of the action, so you need to give your potential customers several ways to participate at your site. Possibilities include message boards, polls, chat rooms, and surveys. By adding these types of elements, you are giving visitors more of a reason to stick around, to return, and to recommend your site to their friends. 3) Stress Credibility No one wants to buy a product from someone they don‘t trust, so building a sense of credibility with your site is crucial to your success. You can accomplish this in a number of ways: These methods work for several reasons. An "About Us" section allows visitors to get a picture of who they will be doing business with while the contact information gives them the security of knowing they can reach someone in case there is a problem. Furthermore, the guarantee expresses your confidence in your product and that confidence is contagious. Testimonials, client lists, and awards are also effective for building credibility. 4) Test Everything The problem with most unsuccessful business owners is that they jump right in to things without ever taking the time to test their site, their product, their layout, even their links. The result is that too much money is spent on things that do not work. Any changes you make to your site need to be tested before being adopted permanently. For example, if you change your headline on your home page, compare your sales for the week of the change and the previous week. If the numbers drop or stay about the same, go back to the drawing board. If the numbers go up, check one more week‘s sales numbers and if the numbers are still high, you may have a winner. 5) Provide Reasons to Return While it may only take a visitor to your site once trip to make a purchase, you want to give them reasons to come back. Otherwise, how will they know when you add new products? The key is to continue to update your site, perhaps with articles or news, that may be of interest to your target audience. If your site becomes one of your visitor‘s primary resources for the latest information on a subject they are interested in, you can be sure they will bookmark your site and come back frequently. Also consider having a mailing list. A mailing list will allow visitors to provide you with their email addresses so that you can send them notifications of updates, specials, and changes to the site including ads and marketing materials for new products. These email messages will also provide them with a reason to come back. When you do business online, your web site takes the place of your sales force. If it‘s not pulling in the numbers you had hoped for or if you‘ve seen your numbers going down recently, you need to evaluate your site and decide where changes can and should be made. Content, layout, graphics, even navigation all play a role in the success, or failure, of your site and your company. Don‘t let a small problem with your web site become the reason you go out of business. ---------------------------------------------------------- Vishal P. Rao is the editor of Home Based Business Opportunities - A website dedicated to opportunities, ideas and resources for starting a home based business. He also runs the Work at Home Forum - an online community of folks who work at home. ---------------------------------------------------------- Advertisement Don‘t Pay More Than $9.95 month For websites Hosting! If you are paying more than $9.95 per month for website and email hosting than you are paying too much! idesignbusiness provides affordable and RELIABLE websites hosting with comparable features to much more expensive plans. * Newsletter Subscribers - Enter promotional code HELIUM and you‘re setup fee will be waived...Sign up today! Click here to learn more. FREE RESOURCE: Each issue of the Internet Marketing Newsletter for Small Businesses will include helpful free online resources to promote your websites. Is your business International? Do you want to reach a non-US market? If so you may benefit from translating your existing pages into a foreign language. This may sound like a very difficult and time consuming process but using AltaVista‘s Language Translator you can simply copy and paste your existing text into another language. It may not be perfect but it is a great start to convert your English pages into another foreign language and hopefully a way to begin to gain some International customers. Click here to use the Language Translator ABOUT idesignbusiness idesignbusiness provides complete Internet services for small businesses including website design, website development, hosting and Internet marketing. Increase website traffic, build your customer base, and drive revenue using our cost-effective and result driven tools and services. Please visit http://www.idesignbusiness.com for more information. SUBSCRIPTION NOTICE This newsletter is only sent to opt-in subscribers. If at anytime you would like to be removed from this list, please send an e-mail to newsletters@idesignbusiness.com with REMOVE in the subject line or click on the remove link below. Spread the word - Please forward to friends and colleagues. Copyright 2002 - 2004 idesignbusiness http://www.idesignbusiness.com |
 |
 |
|
Contact | Home | Site Map © Copyright 2001 - 2005 idesignbusiness |