Archive for Better Websites
Your Customers Need a Commitment
Trying to be all things to everyone is a losing proposition. It’s like standing with your feet firmly placed in two separate canoes that are slowly drifting apart. At some point, you must commit to one or the other–or get soaked. This principle also applies to marketing your small business. The straddling strategy doesn’t work [...]
Effective Video Marketing for Small Businesses
If you’re going to use video to market your small business online, you ought to know a few guidelines for how to do it effectively. 1. First, Keep It Short How long will you watch a YouTube video before you get bored— two, maybe three minutes? A little longer if it’s really good, but not [...]
Do You Need Internet Marketing Consulting?
You’re nobody’s fool. You’re well aware of the power of the Internet, social media and social networking. Your business has a modest Facebook page with your e-mail address and phone number on it. You have a basic html website with a sidebar menu. You publish blog posts a couple times a month when inspiration strikes. [...]
So You Want to Start An Internet Business…
This is a guest post by David Grant. So, you want to start an internet business… I got a call from my dentist a few months ago asking for an appointment. He had heard from another patient that I had some small business expertise and wanted to improve his business. To his credit, he saw [...]
The 5 Rs of Search Engine Marketing with Bryan Eisenberg
Bryan Eisenberg is the co-founder of Future Now, the pioneers in persuasion architecture and experts in website conversion. Check out this video where he explains the 5 “Rs” of search engine marketing: Relevance Reputation Remarkable Readability Reach *If you’re reading this in an RSS reader or email, you may need to click the title of [...]
Once You Have Them, Keep Them By Being Indispensable
Imagine you’re in the wedding business. Caterer, dress maker, florist – it doesn’t matter the job. Now imagine how hard it would be to grow your existing customer base. You’d always have to be on the hunt for new customers. Your audience may never give you repeat business and only cares about your product for [...]
Blogging For Small Businesses
Blogging is tremendously valuable for small businesses. The benefits of blogging include: It helps your website get found by search engines, therefore increasing your website traffic. Extends your brand. Connects you to your customer base. Motivates, tantalizes and excites readers. Explains and informs. Becomes a hub for discussion and community. Advertises events, coupons, special deals. [...]
You Don’t Need Bells & Whistles to Make Your Website Effective
So you’re going to make a big splash on the Internet, eh? Avoid the temptation to go all out with bells and whistles. Your site doesn’t need five Flash graphics, a scroll, a video greeting or whatever else you’ve convinced yourself is holding you back. What do you do need a website that is easy [...]
11 Examples of Online Marketing Success
HubSpot, with the help of David Meerman Scott, recently published an excellent e-book, 11 Examples of Online Marketing Success. It’s great because it’s not just theory or opinion — it details real case studies from real businesses. You’ll definitely want to read the case studies to get the context, but here are the 11 marketing [...]
Leave Them Wanting More
I tend to have one of three relationships with the websites I visit. I either: Follow the site occasionally and mostly skim headlines; Follow the site causally out of curiosity or obligation; or Follow the site obsessively, checking for new content daily. What has this top tier done to earn my daily devotion? They got [...]
