1. Clarity – Speak clearly and plainly to the web user about what you are offering. If visitors cannot easily figure out what your website is about, they will leave it. Give them the information they need so that they can understand what you are offering and the specifications on the products.
2. Clear Navigation – Web sites that have clear navigation and simple page design are the most effective. Have a website that you would want to use.
3. Picture Perfect – Clear photos shot from a good angle, can really help. Make sure the images on your site are big enough and clear enough. People like to see what they are buying. Blurry images take away from your site.
4. SEO – Once your website is completely usable, it is the time to make sure search engines are finding you. This process is called search engine optimization (SEO) and for a small business this could be a valuable service. SEO can make your website show up near the top of the search engine results, for particular keywords or phrases. Optimize your for more specific, targeted keywords. If you sell boots, trying to rank highly for “boots” will be very difficult. Unless you already rank highly for “boots”, it is too general a term. By optimizing your site for a more specific search term like “wolverine steel-toe western boots” you may be able to rank higher when people search for that term. The added bonus is that the customer has a better idea of the product they are looking to buy. The content on your page  should be about Western style steel-toed boots from Wolverine.

When a small business is trying to grow, having a great website can lead the way. Take a look again at your site and see it from the customer’s point of view. Don’t have a website? Create your own website easily.

Marketing for Your Rural Small Business

So you might drive a pickup truck instead of a BMW, and your jeans might say “Wranglers” instead of “True Religion”. If you are the owner of a rural,  small business, realize you should effectively market your business, or it might not be around for the next generation.

3 ways to start marketing your small business:

1. Create a Website – Having an online presence is probably the best way to advertise locally, regionally, nationally or even internationally. A major purpose of your site is to grab your visitor’s name, email address and possibly other information. That way you can communicate with your visitors, by offering them a newsletter, free information, coupons, or other incentives to purchase from you and build loyalty to your business.
2.  Social Media has become another popular and highly effective way of communicating with potential customers, increase traffic to your site and build brand loyalty. Facebook and Twitter are probably the two most popular social media platforms. However, other social media sites can also be effective in your marketing. Linked In can help you connect with other business owners. If your business is aimed towards women, Pinterest is an excellent platform.
3.  Start Email Marketing– You should be capturing your current and potential customer’s email addresses every chance you get. With forms on your website, contests or any other creative way you could entice people to opt in to your mailing list. Email provides you the opportunity for a cost effective line of communication to sales conversions.

Why a Unique Business Logo Is Important

You want your business logo to have a certain “wow” effect to it that ensures people will remember it. Because when they remember your logo, they’re remembering your business. Your logo is synonymous and a summary for your entire brand. The issue of actually designing a unique logo isn’t necessarily the easiest thing in the world, but nor does it have to be an ordeal. You can download free graphic creating/editing programs such as gimp, and try your hand at logo creation. Or maybe you would rather have professionals create your logo.

There are two things you should keep in mind throughout the process:

• Simple is better.
• Something to the point will stand out better in people’s minds.

Here is a good example:

This logo is simple yet clever. Clever is good, but don’t try to force it. Everyone loves a clever logo but if you put too much effort into trying to force cleverness, the idea is more likely going to fall flat on its face. It’s much better to just have a clean and professional logo that stands on its own merit.

We’d love to hear from you and discuss creating a unique logo for your business.

TLAs – Three Letter Acronyms of Internet Marketing

SEO: Search Engine Optimization

This TLA refers to the overall process of developing, marketing and tracking your site on the major search engines, Google, Bing and Yahoo.

KPI: Key Performance Indicators

Every other TLA on this page is a KPI. They are often used to describe the overall state of a marketing campaign.

PPC: Pay per Click

This metric refers to a model where advertisers are charged when a visitor to your page clicks their ad. For example, on Google, the ads at the top of the page are typically paid ads related to the keywords in your search phrase. The price paid by advertisers depends on the demand for those keywords.

CTR: Click Thru Rate

The vast majority of Internet ads are ignored by the visitors to a page. When a visitor does click through, the result is noted. A total is kept of the times that the ad is displayed and the number of visitors who click on it. The resulting percentage is known as the click thru rate.

CR: Conversion Rate

Similar to CTR, the CR measures the percent of visitors to your page who do more than casually view the web content. A conversion could be a sale, a membership registration, software download, or any other desired activity. This meteric is one of the most important, as it directly leads to greater revenue and can be used to further focus your Internet marketing efforts.

CPL: Cost per Lead

This TLA is a simple metric that measures the cost of marketing versus the leads generated by a marketing campaign. Combined with average order value, a company can know whether or not a marketing campaign is worth pursuing.

ROI: Return on Investment

ROI is the true determinant for any business owner who wonders how to grow their website. For marketing purposes, ROI is the ultimate arbiter as to whether the marketing funds were well spent or not.