|
#1 - Call a PROFESSIONAL WEB DESIGNER. It doesn't
have to be me but find a true professional not some
fly-by-night, took a two week course so now they think they
are qualified, goes out of business within 6 months, HACK
who will not be there for you when you NEED to update your
website. #2 - Do your homework! - Look at what your
competition is doing. Do not copy anyone else's work or they
will find you eventually and fine you.
#3 - Figure out what you want, what you can afford and
how much of your time it will consume - Yes, having a
website means you must commit a certain amount of TIME to
it. You cannot just leave it there and expect to get
anything out of it.
10 minutes over your morning coffee should take care of
your customer email and at least 1/4 of the time you give to
your other advertising methods to refine, update and revive
your website each month. Do it at the same time.
If you have a website you can update yourself take 1 hour
each week. Sit down at your computer and type. Snap shots of
your new store displays. Tell them about your sales and new
products / services.
Updating your website can be as simple as taking a photo
of your seasonal display and putting it on the site with
something like: Come in to see our new Valentine's Day
Selection of blah blah blah..
RULE OF THUMB FOR UPDATING YOUR WEBSITE:
If you add something, change something, get something
new, get rid of something old, if you have a sale, if you
change ANYTHING in your business your website needs updated
so visitors will know. If nothing has changed in an entire
month you should probably evaluate your business practices.
You may ask "Why would I want to put this stuff on my
website?" I would answer with another question:
[[[If you were driving along the road and saw an
accident, would you strain to look while trying not to wreck
your own vehicle or would you just ignore it and drive on
past never giving another thought to it?]]]
Well, unless you are one of the minority you would try to
look, call your family, pray, do SOMETHING as a result of
knowing there was an accident.
People NEED stimulation to look at what's going on.
Similarly, why would I go back to your website if I know
nothing has changed? I cant tell you how many times I have
looked for something to do on the weekends, tried to find
sales in my local area so I could go spend some money..
that's fun.
Updating your website often gives people CAUSE to look at
it... The EFFECT generated from updating and adding fresh
content most often than not is increased sales activity.
Your main goal is getting customers to come into your
store or at the very least call you for your services.
Get them into the habit of looking at your website to
"See what you have added" is your goal.
#4 - Develop a marketing plan for your website.
Updating your website is great and should drive more
traffic to it but there are several things you can do to
assure more visitors and more sales.
- Create an email list for a newsletter
- I hear this from a lot of my clients: "I want to
show my customers a personal touch" What is more
personal than writing a letter to them? That is what
email marketing is. Writing a letter with an
advertisement for your latest happenings and sending
it to your customers. Keep your business in their
minds as they do their weekly shopping. If they are
out and about they will remember that you took the
time to write to them about your sale, new product,
service, whatever. In turn, they will probably take
the time to stop into your store. Goal accomplished!
- How do you develop an emailing list? Set
our a sign up sheet at your checkout counter. Ask
every customer if they would like to be notified of
sales, events, etc.. get their email address and
stick it into your address book, add a sign up form
to your own website so they can request your
newsletter. Once you have permission to email them
you are good to go. NEVER EMAIL ANYONE AN
ADVERTISEMENT WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION. Otherwise,
you are spamming and could be fined.
- Make sure your website address is on every piece
of paper leaving your office and on ALL your existing
advertisements. I really do not understand why
businesses fail to do this. If you are that ashamed of
people looking at your website why have one?
- If customers read the paper, see an ad on TV or
happen to get a business card and see you have a
website at least 80% of them will make the effort in
the comfort of their homes to look you up and see
what it looks like, what you have to offer from it,
etc.. It makes NO sense NOT to include your
website address onto your existing advertising.
- Add an exclusively online coupon
- Get people to come to your website by adding a
special coupon which you do not offer in any other
form of advertising. This works well on
several levels. You can see how many people are
USING your website as well as viewing it and you can
get more sales. Put out a small 1/4 page flyer in
your own store directing them to your exclusively
online coupon. See how many people use it. You are
not only driving traffic to your website but
promoting yourself twice over with a single act.
- For the more active online advertisers
- Offering products exclusively for sale on your
website can seem like a large and daunting task.
It's not. Finding a web designer who will do it for
less than $5000 is. I can do it for $950. Find
someone who will beat that. There are numerous
reasons to offer products for sale from your website
but thinking locally here is one great reason.
WINTER. If your sales plummet during the winter
months for whatever reason, pick up much needed
income by offering your customers an online store
where they can still get your great products but
never have to leave their house! You can also do
online ordering and in-store pickup if you prefer.
This just saves the time it takes to package and
ship your products and the customer is happy they
don't have to spend the extra time out in the cold.
|
