Remember phone books? You know, those big heavy things that take up all that room on your bookshelf.

They still get delivered to us each year, but they’ve started getting smaller, not bigger. That’s because more businesses are moving their advertising budget onto the internet.

That makes sense when you consider that people are spending more time on the internet, and the ability to search is literally at their fingertips. Younger people especially are more likely to search online, rather than get out the big heavy books and wade through all the pages looking for something that could be found virtually instantaneously using Google.

Those Yellow Pages ads aren’t cheap, and they have to be renewed each year. Ok, so a website is often not that cheap either, but a basic online presence can be achieved at less cost than a yellow pages ad, and can continue to work for you year on year, as well as being accessible the world over.

As people transition from spending time offline, to spending more of their time online, you should consider increasing your online marketing budget to successfully engage your online customers.

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.

The website development industry is composed of many small players. Professional website design firms are rarely larger than ten people, and many are just one person.

Why are there no big website design companies? Big companies offer website services along with their phone connection and internet services, but they are too big to offer the flexibility that small business requires, so they haven’t been very successful at it. It’s not like providing a telephone or internet connection where a handful of packages will cater to the majority of customers.

Websites are different; there is no one size fits all approach. To understand the unique needs of a small business, it helps if you are also a small business, with enough flexibility to be able to adapt to your customers unique requirements.

It’s obvious that you need a website to be in small business these days, but how do you go about organising the content that will be on your website? If you have a business plan (and you should, even if it’s basic), then you can use it as a starting point to develop your website content.

The summary of your business plan is analogous to your home page content. It contains an overview of your business: what you do; what you offer your customers; who are your customers; why they should do business with you; etc.

Your business plan will include a list of the products or services that you offer, with detailed descriptions. You can use this information to form the bulk of your website. It may require several sections to include all the information in an organised and easy-to-find manner.

Throw in a biography (often called ‘About Us’), and all your contact details and there’s the heart of your website. This process can be done in reverse. Putting together content for a website can be used as the basis for your business plan.