This post is all about your website essentials i.e. what you need to put on your website and why. As you can see, I'm not going to go into great detail about plugins here. I've only mentioned one – the Facebook plugin for LIKES as I know just how essential it is. Instead, I'm concentrating on the absolute website essentials, many of which are missed by businesses both large and small.
Please let me know how you'll use this website essentials check list and, also how you're getting on with the website you're planning, building or updating. If you have any more tips, please just add them in the comment box. Feel free to share this with anyone who might find this useful too and definitely check out my good friend Derek Halpern's blog on website essentials and how to increase conversion rates if you haven't done so already. He reviews some leading online marketers' websites.
Most people know I’m no coder, but when it comes to getting a small business online I’m actually a huge fan of WordPress as the platform of choice. Why? Well firstly it’s gets you started online cheaply and secondly a WordPresswebsite is actually quite easy to use. Too many times I’ve heard small business owners tell me that they can’t update their website and have had to get their web designer to do it for them – at a cost. And whilst it’s great to outsource, and concentrate on your core skills, outsourcing your website management is costly and time consuming at a time when quite frankly you don’t need it. Bah!
Now I have to come clean here. When I first built my website I got confused with the whole thing and I actually built a WordPress.com website. Whilst it was great that I took action after my website class, there are reasons why it's better to build a WordPress.org website, which I'll go into shortly.
WordPress to solve the problem
So let me tell you about WordPress. Well, WordPress is not only the most popular free and open sourceblogging tool available on the Internet, but it’s also a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that can be used to build websites. It’s used by over 16.7% of Alexa’s top 1 million websites and as of August 2011 it manages 22% of all new websites. It’s used by large corporates too and just to make it complicated for you, there are two versions of it – wordpress.org and wordpress.com!
Worpress.org or wordpress.com – which one to use
WordPress.com is a hosting platform that provides a quick and easy way to get your blog or website online. It’s free and easy to use and once you’ve signed up you can create your blog or website immediately – for free. It’s great for hobbyists or special interest blogs, but if you’re serious about building a website for a sustainable business (large or small) then it’s important to have control over the look of your website so it doesn’t look like a generic blog. This is why I almost always recommend using WordPress.org.
Here are 8 advantages you’ll have if you use WordPress.org as your website:
1. Search engines love WordPress. As sites using this CMS will be indexed in the search engines much faster than traditional static websites you’ll have traffic coming to your site sooner rather than later.
2. WordPress has an unlimited number of plug-ins or add-ons that have been developed to perform everything from shopping carts to contact forms. These are updated and upgraded constantly so you’ll always have the latest technology and innovations at your fingertips.
3. It’s usually considerably cheaper to have a website developed with WordPress than any other website. The available plug-ins are generally one-click installations which means you won’t have to pay a web developer to do costly coding to develop the features you’d like on your website.
4. WordPress has a great deal of SEO built right in. This enables you to rank well in the search engines. And despite web designer telling you that they do SEO, in my experience most don’t do it very well.
5. WordPress is easy for anyone without coding skills to maintain on their own. This means you can add new content whenever you want without having to pay a web designer to do it for you. Yay!
6. These days every business website needs a blog. By having a WordPress site you’ll have one there built right in so you can easily interact with your visitors.
7. WordPress has a built in RSS feed. This means that you have the ability to syndicate your content. This makes it a very useful traffic-grabbing tool.
8. By having a WordPress website you can market it to all of the blog directories. This means you have the potential of reaching many more visitors than a standard HTML website.
If you need a check-list for your wordpress website, or you want to 7 ways to generate leads through your wordpress website just click the links. Please let me know how you'll use this and, also how you're getting on with the website design you're planning. If you have any more tips, please just add them in the comment box. Feel free to share this with anyone who might find this useful too. Until then….
This post follows on from the last one I wrote for website design: 7 ways to ensure your website is generating leads. When a friend asked me about her website and what was required, I decided to do some research and find out if a check-list for outsourcing your website design (or more accurately creation) existed. I was surprised to find that a guide didn't exist. So, hence the reason why I'm creating a website design check-list for you here.
Over the years I've seen a lot of websites, and so many miss opportunities for business development. It's not necessarily their fault. Unless you have a good website designer who can help you, if you don't know what you want, how can you specify. Increasingly I've found that website designers don't know what's effective for lead generation when it comes to a website design. So here's a short guide and check-list from someone who does know! If you're outsourcing your website or even if you're building your own website, this will be useful.
Please let me know how you'll use this and, also how you're getting on with the website design you're planning. If you have any more tips, please just add them in the comment box. Feel free to share this with anyone who might find this useful too. Until then….With love and gratitude – as always,
Building your own website is not for the faint hearted, but in this day and age it's totally possible – even if you're not tech savvy. I should know as this is exactly what I've done. Now, my website may not be perfect but it's doing the job I need it to right now. And, until you have enough money to outsource it, you can do the same. Obviously it's a preferred choice to get a designer to do this for you, but whether you do or don't, here are some key points to bear in mind.
The purpose of a business is to create a customer, so as an entrepreneur creating, optimizing, and promoting, content is essential if you’re going to fill the top of your sales and marketing funnel with more targeted, relevant websitetraffic and leads. The good news is that if you create, optimize and promote your blog on your website (or quite frankly on another's) you’re going to get 55% more traffic and 70% more leads than those who don't. That's quite a large figure!
Anyway, here are 7 ways to help you generate more leads on your website and boost your marketing efforts.
The ultimate way to create a performing website
1. Blogging
As you know every website has the potential to rank well in search engines and draw traffic from other sources i.e. from social media sites and the blogosphere. However, nowadays this all depends on whether your website is well optimized and how valuable it is to your readers i.e. useful, relevant, interesting, and so on. Adding a blog to a website is therefore a very powerful way to achieve this. In addition it’s also a great way to convert leads into clients. By having valuable and relevant calls to action, allowing your readers to subscribe, and encouraging them to follow you on social media are great ways to leverage your blog and get more. The more active you get online – on your website – the faster you'll grow.
2. SEO
70% of the links search-users click on are organic, which is why if you’ve gone to the trouble of creating a blog on your website, then you've got to optimize it. You have to give your valuable website content the best possible chance of drawing traffic in from the web. You need to maximize your ROC – return on content. Search engines look for fresh content so that they can serve it up later in search results so if they're not indexing it, results won't show it. The more fresh content you create on your website, the more often search engines will come back looking for more.
3. Mobile
Mobile is huge and if your website isn’t mobile friendly then you’re missing a trick. In fact I’d go so far as to say you have to redesign it! When mobile optimizing your website, you must consider smaller screen sizes and slower bandwidths. This may mean using smaller images and font sizes, and thinking about how much content is displayed on a single page. If you outsource this to a designer, just ensure you let them know. Ask for a website that is “responsive.” If you’re building your own website, I’d suggest using a WordPress.org. website. They have multiple mobile friendly templates. Once again make sure it is responsive. Theme Forest is a good place to start.
4. Social
Social media isn’t a fad, or a silver bullet, but it has changed the way we market. And, whether you like it or not the world is becoming more social. It's not just about the number of fans, friends and follows you have. Studies have shown that being active on Twitter and Facebook increases the number of inbound links, traffic and leads. As a result, companies are now favouring an increased investment in social media and blogs. Obviously there’s a right and wrong way to use it, and it’s imperative that you engage in conversations and not just blab about your own company/brand. It's about delivering meaningful content, having a dialogue and engaging with others. Blog posts shared on Twitter get 117% more page views than those not shared. Linkedin proves the most effective platform for B2B and Facebook for B2C. However, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google+, Linkedin and YouTube combined (source, Shareaholic, February 2012) so you might want to experiment and see what works for your brand.
5. Analytics
I'm going to put it bluntly…there’s no point doing anything unless you’re measuring it. You need to know what works and what doesn’t. If you can't measure how many visits, leads and clients your different campaigns generate, you need to either get help with this or think again about why you're in business. Google Analytics provides a way to do this.
6. Tools
If you have a website, check out how it's performing by going to this marketing tool Marketing Grader. For SEO you can use SEO Scorer or ScribeSEO.
7. Resources
Nathalie Lussier is an online business triple threat, serving up digital strategy and integration along with do-it-yourself training programs that will turn your website into the asset you know it should be. She’s the creator of The Website Checkup Tool, and she loves getting techy with it, martial arts, and drinking green juice. Whilst I built my own website, I used many of the techniques Nathalie taught and that's why I have no hesitation recommending her to you here.
Please let me know if there's anything else you'd recommend by posting a comment below. Watch out for my check list on building a website that's coming soon. It will be useful if you're outsourcing your website design or designing your website yourself.
Infographicsare everywhere and can be powerful tools for communicating a concept or message quickly, and increasing your brand exposure. So let's look at exactly what they are.
An Infographic (or information graphic) is a graphic visual representation of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. Infographics improve cognition by utilising graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends. They're especially loved by visual learners and as they're so shareable they can do a lot for your brand.
Viral bait
When an infographic is done correctly, it can spread like wildfire. It enables you to have a much larger reach than you'd get using other methods, too. Given their popularity and effectiveness, they really are a tool worth considering. So, let's look at the top 5 free infographic generator tools.
1. Easel.ly allows you to create your own infographics using its ‘Vhemes’, which are infographic templates that you can customize. It has some great icons and graphics too and makes creating and sharing your visual ideas online a dream.
2. Create.ly is a diagramming tool, which can help you to wireframe an infographic before putting it into production. It includes a new real-time collaboration feature, allowing you to work on a design with a colleague or client simultaneously.
3. Infogr.am is very easy to use, with six templates. It's great for creating standalone charts.
4. Piktochart provides you with a choice of six free templates (more if you upgrade). Colour themes are easy to change, and you can create charts manually or by uploading CSV files.
5. Visual.ly has templates that allow you to create an infographic based around Twitter or Facebook data. And if you don’t have the time to produce your own infographic, then you can even outsource them to the Visual.ly marketplace.
How to make a great infographic
Have a great title: Write a clear and catchy headline. The title is the first thing viewers read, so make sure it explains what the infographic is about while being fun and exciting.
Use good data: Don’t use information from Wikipedia. Your research needs to be unique. Make it information that you've discovered, which could be from a survey you've performed. Always make it valuable i.e. useful to your market.
Simplify: Keep your information simple and think in terms of design. If the research you've done and the data you have doesn’t add value, it shouldn’t be used. A good infographic needs no introduction or explanation.
Make it fun: People share things that are fun. So keep in the mind the three Es – I'm always referring to them in my classes – to entertain, empower and educate. If your infographic is interesting, provides new content, and is entertaining, your audience will want to share it again and again.
Now I want to hear from you
Please let me know whether you've used an infographic and if so, what's your favourite tool.
Please share your experiences and feedback in the comments below.
Recently I had someone ask me, how do you know when a prospect is good or bad and it got me thinking about the sales funnel, pipeline, sales cycle and marketing. What comes first and I’m not talking about the chicken or the egg! I’m talking about sales or marketing? For most people they’ll tell you marketing, but anyone who’s started a business from the ground up will tell you that it’s sales. And an understanding of sales and specifically the sales cycle is essential for marketing success. Why? Well, anyone selling goods and services—whether online or offline in person—needs to go through a process by which a lead becomes a sale, and a prospect becomes a customers. This process is the sales cycle, and it’s the way that businesses both attain and retain customers.
Let’s say you’re a designer, or a photographer, or a coach and you’ve optimized it for your ideal customer or prospect, and your ideal customer comes to visit. This prospect reads your content and decides to opt-in to your email newsletter, or download your offer. They have just become a lead.
As a lead, your prospect is now just inside your sales funnel or pipeline—that place where they become purchasing customers. You need to engage with your prospect, nurture them, and get them to refer others to you. Paying attention to your prospect at each stage of the sales cycle helps to ensure that they get all the way through the funnel/pipe.
The process goes something like this:
Prospect for leads (find your ideal customer)
Contact and qualify (contact the lead by call, email, letter or in person to determine if they are likely to be interested)
Present the offer (sell your company—in person, through the site, in print)
Address objections (break down barriers to the sale, address pain points and challenges)
Ask for the sale (after the presentation and elimination of barriers, close the deal)
Follow up (offer a survey, service the account, ask for referrals)
How long does the sales cycle take? Well there is no one right answer. The truth of the matter is the sales cycle can take days, weeks, months or even years. It all depends on what you’re selling, the industry, how many people are involved, the complexity of the sale, market conditions, the efficiency of your process, etc.
The goal of every company is to shorten the cycle, to close business as quickly as possible in order to maximize profits. The efficiency of your sales cycle is a testament to how well you convert leads into sales, which of course translates into a healthier bottom line. So, here are some tips to help you do this:
1. Pursue only qualified leads
Chasing after prospects that aren’t interested in you is a huge waste of time and resources. If they don’t have the problem for which you are the solution, and then the money to invest in it in order to solve it, then it’s time to move on.
2. Remove barriers to enter promptly
Prospects sometimes put up barriers to enter, to change or solve the problem. The reasons for this are varied but often it stems from fear of the unknown, which in this case is you and your solution. If your prospect has an identified need for your products and services, you must remove their resistance and put them at ease. If you do this early in the sales cycle you will shorten the time it takes to make the sale. The easiest way to do this is by offering guarantees.
3. Highlight and demonstrate value and make it measurable Prospects must see the value in what you’re offering and they must be able to measure it. How will your product or service improve their business or even their life? By what percentage can they expect to see an increase in efficiency/sales/profits? If you can’t answer these questions, the cycle will lengthen or simply fail.
The sales cycle is an endless loop of engagement, by which you identify interested potential customers and nurture them through the sales cycle process. Efficiently and effectively guide your prospects and existing customers through each stage of the sales cycle sale and you’ll see a massive improvement on your marketing. Remember too, to stay positive throughout. Always listen, ask questions and address each and every concern your prospect or existing customer has. If you provide value and demonstrate that you care about your prospect or existing customer, your sales cycle will become the avenue to better profits and you’ll benefit from a healthier bottom line.
So I wish you well with this. Please let me know what has worked for you in terms of qualifying your prospects and shortening your sales cycle. Please share your experiences and feedback in the comments below as I’d love to hear. Finally, thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!
I know I'm quirky (that's my creative streak) but as many of you know suitcases break my heart. It's not because I long to travel, and can't. Well, actually I lie – I do long to travel! Seriously folks, I LOVE to travel!!! Anyway, back to the point – before I get distracted – it's because I know Facebook, and I care about your promotion, online visibility and sales success.
So, I'm on a mission…again! This time it's to help you get rid of your suitcases on Facebook, and instead get you promoting your businesses and gaining LIKES and sales. And, this is a very simple thing to do.
So firstly, let me assure you of something. You are not alone in working for a suitcase! I see so many people i.e. Personal Profiles on Facebook doing this. Secondly, I want you to understand why it's important for you not to promote yourself working for a suitcase!
Whenever anyone has the suitcase icon or default community page as their ‘place of work' it’s a missed marketing opportunity. It means you’re losing traffic to your Business Page – or worse still, you're giving it away to your competitor. Urgh! Sorry, as a commercial person, this makes me feel sick! Anyway, this tiny oversight is a BIG missed opportunity! Trust me on this!
If users are searching and finding your Personal Profile on Facebook, you want to make it as easy as possible for users to find your Business Page as well. You see savvy Facebook users will automatically LIKE your Business Page if you're connected. They'll expect it to be there as a link! They're interested in what you do. So put it on a plate for them. Make it easy for them as they're time poor. If you don't, within seconds they'll lose interest and hop onto another page!
Changing your Facebook suitcase icon to your Page
Go to your Facebook Profile and check whether you have any “Employers” listed. If you do, check to see whether they're linking to your Facebook Business Page or whether they're directed to a default Facebook Community Page? If they're linking to the Community Page (suitcase icon), see below, it’s best to delete the current listing i.e. the Community Page from your Work and Education section in your About area (click Edit in the About section), then add in the correct Facebook Page and recreate it.
Remember, when you're typing in your business name, type it EXACTLY as your Business Page is named. In some cases a drop down menu appears (you can then select the proper entry), but this may not happen in all cases. Once saved, your Business Page’s thumbnail image should appear in place of the default suitcase/briefcase icon.
Here's how to do it all via video.
So I wish you well with this. Please let me know how you get on with changing your suitcase icon to your Business Page and please share your experiences and feedback in the comments below as I’d love to hear. Come say hello if you haven't done on my Facebook Page too. Finally, thank you, as always for reading, watching and contributing here. If you've found this useful, please just go ahead and share it with your friends!
I rarely make a bet, but now I’m going to. How many of you at first glance, thought that using social media wouldn’t take up much of your time? I bet the vast majority. Most people start with either Facebook or Twitter, so I'd wager that at some point you thought, ‘surely sending a few Tweets can't take long can it? The posts are limited to just 140 characters, right?' WRONG!!!
Social media is a very time intensive process if you don’t handle it in the right way. The main problem with it is that social media happens in real time, like a conversation. Individual items might not take much time, but they happen all the time. As much as multitasking is applauded (especially by women, who use it the most), continuously going back to social media throughout the day can seriously hamper your overall productivity. Check out my post on multi-tasking for the low down!
So what’s the solution? Well it’s actually quite simple, and I genuinely speak from experience. You see, I too have suffered from social media overwhelm. And in order to get a grip on it, I've had to look at it in a very strategic and process orientated way. I know those words may sound too formal for many of you, but it's true. In order to avoid social media overwhelm and maintain productivity, the solution I found was to automate my social media marketing as much as possible. By taking care of my postings all at once, I freed up the rest of my day to work on other things. Then all I had to do was to check in at scheduled times so I could engage and respond to my prospects and customers, in other words – YOU!
So here's my advice. In order to ensure that you’re not spending all your time on your social media marketing, there are a few steps you should take:
1. Decide on your objective. Agree upfront what you want to achieve by using your chosen social media platforms. Only by setting the objective, can you measure the results and determine whether the campaign has been effective.
2. Develop a strategy. Start by determining which social media platforms to use, and how to use them. Each social media network has its own personality and its own function and you’ll need to decide which is the best for your market. You’ll want to focus your efforts on the social media platforms that will deliver the best return on your time investment. Sadly you can’t just copy the same content to every social media site without being penalized. You'll need to understand the merits of each platform and what makes them unique. Once you’ve got this sussed you can then decide when to post.
3. When to post. You’ll be scheduling your social media posts in advance, so you’ll need to set them for times when they’ll be most effective. You’ll therefore need to research when your followers are most likely to be online and engaging with your social media.
4. Choose the right automation tools. There are a number of tools that allow you to automate your social media marketing. Many are free, or at least offer basic functions for free with the option of adding more features through a paid account. Hootsuite is by far my favourite and you can use it to manage multiple social media platforms.
5. Consider your ability to engage and respond. Social media is a social platform and so you really don’t want your social media efforts to look automated or robotic. Social media is still about interacting with people so make sure you only schedule posts when you’re available to respond. Set up notifications to let you know when someone does reply to an automatic post so you can respond in a timely manner. This will set you apart from the crowd and enhance your relationships.
I know that by following these steps you can manage your social media marketing to full effect without suffering from social media marketing overwhelm.
As many of you know, I'm experienced in start-ups without capital, but please tell me about your experiences with social media marketing, as every business is unique. I'm so interested to hear how well you're doing with your social media. Please share your experiences and feedback on ways to solve this issue as so many face it in the comments below as I’d love to hear. Finally thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends and check out another blog I have on ways to build your authority for your brand using social media including how to generate a lead.
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