Having a Twitter and Facebook page that’s regularly updated will bring more traffic to your website.

But just a minute, I hear you say, I don’t have time to go around updating all those websites – I don’t even really know what they’re all about!

Well, you don’t have to! What you do need is regular content, and if you’re in business that shouldn’t be a problem.

New products, specials, industry trends, client profiles, testimonials, general news, press releases – this is the kind of information you should be generating as a business, and at a frequency greater than once per month.

The best place to publish these things is in a blog attached to your website. From there everything can be automated – publish once and distribute to many places instantly.

To find out more, contact Arrowsmith Websites for a free consultation.

Leads. You know, potential new customers. Leads allow you to deliver your sales message and hope that it works (that’s another story). But you need to generate the leads first.
Here’s three of the best lead generation techniques.

Referrals

Nothing beats this one. One of your happy customers has recommended your services to a friend or associate, who then contacts you. This is great, as there is already a level of trust in place, and you can generally go ahead and do business. Don’t forget to thank the person who gave you the referral! To get more of these, keep giving the best service to your customers.

Online Advertising

Google dominates many things in the internet space, and online advertising is one of them. Google Adwords is a guaranteed way of getting people to your website. And not just any people, but ‘qualified leads’, that is, people who are already searching for what you offer.

Once they get to your website, you want to make sure it has been set up effectively to capture the details of the lead, so you can follow up.

These cost money, but the idea is to ensure a return on your investment. You can do this by consulting an expert and creating an online advertising plan.

Capture form

This ties in with online advertising, but it’s also very relevant to just about any business website.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could get the name and email address of most of the people who visited your website? You could build up a database of those contacts and then market back to them.

A capture form is a small online form, placed in a prominent position on your website, and usually offering a free download as an incentive to complete it.

It is a totally automated process, including a personalised response to the lead.

Summary

I can’t help you with referrals, they are entirely up to you. But the combination of online advertising and a capture form is something that requires expertise to set up correctly, and Arrowsmith Websites can put you on the right track. We aim to generate more than $1 for your business for every $1 spent, and increase that profit over time.

Contact us today for a free consultation.

Not too long ago, self employed tradespeople and similar small businesses didn’t need a website. Things have changed. Now if your business doesn’t have a website, you’re probably missing out on potential customers and opportunities.

Take a plumber for example. Plumbers never used to need websites, people used the yellow pages or the classifieds in the local newspaper. Now people use the internet, and especially Google, to find and research services.

If you’re in small business and don’t have a website, then your competitors will get first go at getting the customer.

On your website you can educate your potential customers about your business, and let them know why they should use your services. You can use a promotional offer or specials to encourage enquiries, and you can include testimonials from satisfied customers to reinforce your message.

Tradies generally don’t require a complex and expensive website, just something basic that does the job well.

Fig Creative is offering a website package which is perfect for tradies. It’s low cost, super easy to use, and you can update it yourself with very little computer knowledge.

It has everything you need to get started on the internet right away, so you can start capturing some of those Google searchers!

Call 1300 775 182 to get started.

In business today, the internet must be a part of your strategy. Where do you start?

First, get your website in order. Your website is the cornerstone of your internet strategy, it’s the place that you want people to go to, and it should be designed to make it easy for people to find, and easy for them to achieve their (your) goals.

You want people to go to your website because that’s where your message is, and that’s where you educate people about your products and services and prompt them into action, whether it be making a purchase or enquiry, or just signing up for your email newsletter, allowing you to market to them later.

You want people to end up at your website, but they won’t necessarily start there. They may start at Google, or an online business directory. The more places your presence can be found on the internet, the easier it will be to find, or stumble across, your business.

Consider a twitter account. Twitter allows you to ‘tweet’ about what your business is doing; new products, announcements etc., and link back to your website. People will find your tweets and click through to your website to read more.

Are you passionate and knowledgeable enough about your business that you can write about it? On the internet, information is gold. Start a blog and write about things that your business does. Write regularly. People will find what you are writing about when they search or browse the internet.

Here’s what happens when I Google “Arrowsmith Websites Maleny”:

Google provides a map and details about my business! That’s great, thanks Google!

When you do a location specific search on Google, often you’ll get a map and business details. This handy feature is even more useful when you are using a mobile phone to search for a business or service in an area you’re not familiar with.

Google your business and location and make sure your business is listed in this way. If not, you can add it using the Local Business Centre.

If your business is already listed, Google may have found your details on your website or a directory website and listed them for you. If so, you can correct the listing and add more information, even photos.

With Google becoming the main way people look for products and services, this is a simple and free thing you can do to help potential customers find your business.

So you’re putting together the content for your website, and you’re wondering where to start. If you’re a small business, you’ll want to keep it as simple and to the point as possible, to make your website easy for people to use.

There are website conventions that have become accepted to the point that people expect certain items to be there and in the right place.

You should always have a ‘Home’ button somewhere near the top left, and you can guarantee if you don’t that people will say ‘where is the home button’.

You should always have a ‘Contact’ button linking to a page with all your contact details, it’s one of the things people look for, and most people in business want to make it easy for potential customers to contact them!

Another standard feature to include is the ‘About’ page. This is your opportunity to share your history and qualifications with visitors to your website, allowing you to build rapport and become less anonymous.

What you put in between the Home, About and Contact pages is the stuff that makes you different; it’s the products and services you offer.

This formula will make it easier for people to use your website, and if you’re in business, that’s good news.