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Sales & Marketing

November 1, 2012

3 Reasons Google Doesn’t Love Your Website

How many times during the day do you use Google?3 Reasons Google Doesn't Love Your Website

During a recent holiday I noticed that I was using Google on my telephone for so many things.  To find restaurants, shops, and even postcodes to enter into my satellite navigation.

It’s no surprise that Net Market Share report that Google’s share of global desktop search traffic is 85%, and 91% of global search traffic from mobiles and tablet devices.

 

Harnessing the Power of Search

But why is search traffic so good for your small business?

It’s important because when we search we are often in a different point in the buying cycle than those who see an advert, or other form of marketing.  For instance if I search for “accountants in bromley” I’m not searching to find an online answer to a question, I’m looking for a accountant that can help me.  Where as someone who sees an advert for an accountant might not pay any attention because they are not in the same buying position.

The websites that feature highly in the search results stand a much better chance of catching my attention when I am in the right point in the buying cycle, and therefore gaining my business.

So it’s easy, get yourself at the top of the search engine rankings and you’ll avoid the feast and famine cycle for ever, right?

Well, Yes – but it’s not easy.  Because have you noticed that Google seems to love some websites more than others?

Want to know why this is, and what you can do to get your website loved? Keep reading and I’m going to outline the three reasons and show you what to do about it.

 

1. You Love Google Too Much

The first reason is that you love Google too much. You’re trying too hard.

It’s really important to remember why Google is in business.  It’s customers are each one of us that use it’s search engine to find things. So Google’s primary purpose is to give you and me the best search results at the top of the list, as then we’ll be happy and come back to use it again.

You see, it’s all about people.  People type in the search terms, people select who to click on and ultimately people will decide if they like what you are saying enough to pay you for your products and services.

Loving Google too much means ignoring this and concentrating on trying to use techniques to rank highest in Google, rather than concentrating on the people who use the search engine.  Here are some points to ensure you avoid:

  • Repeating words and phrases so often in the text that it doesn’t read naturally
  • Buying links to your websites, this is against Google’s guidelines
  • Adding extra words and phrases in white text on a white background

If you want Google to love your website you need write for people, not for the search engine.  Make your website a resource for people who are interested in your topic.

For instance, if you are a florist, don’t just have a website that shows the various flowers you can provide.  Give advice on when certain flowers are in season, how to choose the right type of arrangement, what occasions suit what type of flowers and so on.  Basically ensure that people come to your website for anything to do with flowers, they are much more likely to share your advice with their friends and family if it’s useful, rather than just products, and will know exactly where to come when they need flowers.

 

2. You Don’t Love Google Enough

As much as you can focus on Google too much, you can also focus on it too little.

There is a big difference between loving Google too much, ignoring the people who will read the content, and not taking the opportunity to help Google know what your content is about, or spoon feed it to Google.

Keywords are a crucial part of spoon feeding your content to the search engine.

 

The Importance of Keywords

Keywords is the term used to refer to the words people use when they search Google or other search engines.  For instance in the example above, “accountants in bromley” is a keyword phrase.

When thinking of your website there are two important points about keywords, selecting the right ones and ensuring that your pages are optimised to tell Google that you are trying to attract traffic for these chosen keywords.

If you are targeting business within a local area it’s often wise to start with a phrase built like this – “your product or service” in “your area“.  For example, accountants in London or graphic designer in New York.  Depending on the size of the geographic area you are targeting it can be wise to start smaller and focus just on the immediate area around where your based, not the whole city.

If you are targeting a product or service that is not based on a geographic area you can use keywords that will attract search traffic for a topic, for instance a graphic designer could have a page on their website targeting the keywords “cheap logo design”.

You can target as many different keyword phrases as you like, but ensure you only target one per page – more than this and you’ll confuse Google about what traffic you are trying to attract and you won’t get the benefit you want.

When you’ve chosen your keywords there are two very important places that they need to be included to help spoon feed your page to Google:

  • Page Titles: Using the keyword at the start of the title of your page is a very important step in highlighting it’s theme to Google.  For instance a title for the example above might read “Cheap Logo Design from ABC Design Studio“.  See how that really highlights the keywords.  The title can be up to 72 characters long.  But keep the titles attractive to human readers as often social sharing buttons will share these titles rather than your page headline.
  • Page Descriptions: The text that you see under the title on the search engine results page is the page description.  It doesn’t impact how the page ranks in Google’s results, but is your chance to get someone interested and picking your link out of the rest on the page.  You have up to 165 characters to make your page sound relevant and interesting.

As well as focusing on keywords, you need other people to link to your website and talk about you and your business on social media.  Each time someone links to your website, perhaps citing a blog post that you’ve written that they found particularly useful, it’s like a “thumbs up”.  Google counts these “thumbs up” or links and uses them as a key component in ranking websites in it’s search results.

You should ensure you encourage people to link to you and talk about you, make it easy by adding sharing buttons to your content, like the ones I have at the bottom of this page.

These points are key elements of search engine optimization.  Could your website be optimized better, are you making the best use of your chances with Google? My website critique service will help by highlighting where you can improve and giving you an action plan.

 

3. You Don’t Love Your Website Enough

Sometimes it’s nothing to do with Google at all, it’s about how you treat your own website.  I mean if you don’t love your own website why would Google?

Ensure that you regularly add fresh, relevant content so both your readers and Google can see that your website is alive and not been left to gather dust.

Adding a blog to your website and publishing posts sharing your knowledge is a great way to keep your content fresh.  But don’t just cover subjects once.  It’s no good writing your best post about a subject three years ago and then never covering it again.  Things change and your readers and Google’s search customers are looking for an updated view, ensure you’re the one to give it to them before they look somewhere else.

Another factor in loving your own website is investing in it.  Did you know that Google takes account of how fast a website loads in it’s rating of the quality of a site?  If you’re serious about using your website to grow your business don’t host your website on cheap web hosting where it’s slow and impacted by the traffic of all of the other websites on the same server.

Google also takes account of website downtime, if it’s unable to access your site on a number of occasions because it’s down you will find your website fall down the rankings and it will ultimately be deleted from Google’s index completely.

Invest a small amount of money to ensure that your website is welcoming and gives both readers and Google a great experience when they visit your site.  Also avoid making the common small business website mistakes.

 

The Bottom Line

Google doesn’t love some websites over others on a whim.  It’s a combination of the best content for a topic, how that content is optimized for Google and ensuring your website is a fast, reliable, easy to use destination for your visitors.

Have something to add?  Please join me for a discussion in the comments.

Category iconSales & Marketing Tag iconwebsite

August 9, 2012

3 Simple Steps to Add Personality to Your Small Business Website

3 Simple Steps to Add Personality to Your Small Business WebsiteDoes your website have personality?

Is it showing that you’re a real person, friendly and a great choice to do business with? Or is it faceless, dull and boring?

I wrote before that having no personality is one of the very common small business website mistakes.

But why does it matter?

Your website often creates the first impression of your small business.

When a potential customer visits your website they are looking at how capable you are of helping them and if you are someone that they could connect with.  If they have a choice between two businesses and one looks bland and uninteresting while the other looks friendly and helpful who will they call?

You’ve got it – the website with personality, every time.

You need to have a welcoming website.  But more than that, if you want to show visitors that you are the right person to help them, you need to show your personality.  Give them enough so that they can connect with you as a person that they want to work with.

So how do you add personality to your small business website without making it all about me, me, me?

Keep reading, I’ve got three steps that will help.

 

Step 1. Add Your Photos

Adding your photo to your website is the first step in giving it personality.

It’s very hard to create a personal connection with someone when you don’t know what they look like.

Take for example Brian Gardner’s Website.  Brian is the founder of StudioPress and a partner at Copyblogger Media.

As soon as you open Brian’s website you see his photo on the right hand side and can read an introduction to him.  He shares the fact that he’s a Starbucks Addict and a Sarah McLachlan Fan.  We already know something about him, we’ve started to make a personal connection.

You might not like having your photograph taken, you’re shy or don’t have a photograph you like.  But all you need is a photo with lots of natural light (mine was taken outside).  It doesn’t even have to be taken professionally, ask a friend to help.

Top Tip: Add your photo prominently to your website.  Don’t just hide it on the “About” page, put it on the homepage.  Use a quality photo that really represents you and your personality – and smile :-).

 

Step 2. Add Your Tone

The text of your website conveys a tone.  When the reader reads your website it’s as if you are talking to them and it conveys your personality.  How you phrase things and the rhythm of your text all adds to the tone.

You can be the most interesting, friendly person on the planet but if your text is boring who will know – and what’s more who will buy from you?

Ensure that the text of your website is written in the same tone that you use to speak to people.

I’ve read several websites and then met the business owner in person and straight away realised that the text doesn’t sound the same as the person would speak.

Just be yourself.

Be the best self that you can portray, but don’t try to be too perfect.  Don’t try to be something you are not.  Just draw from what is authentically you.

Sure, make the text professional, ensure it doesn’t have errors and is easy to read.  But ensure it sounds like you.

If you outsource the writing of your content make sure you brief the writer well so they know the tone to write in.  You can also edit it afterwards to ensure it sounds like you.

Once you’ve written the text for your website ask someone close to you, a friend or partner, to read it.  Get their honest advice on whether it sounds like you.

Top Tip: A great way to ensure you write with your own natural tone is to start writing as if it was an email to your perfect customer.  Write the content as if you were explaining it in an email to someone you know and then when you are finished paste it into your website editor.  Your tone will sound more natural and authentic.

 

Step 3. Add Your Story

Everyone loves a story.

Your small business website needs to tell your story to your readers.  It helps them become interested in you.

The more of your story you share the easier it is for people to get to know, like and trust you.  Which are key steps in starting to build customer relationships.

Paul Cox from SpinLessPlates does a great job of this on his website.  He explains the events that led up to why he created his micro business software.

Include your experience in your story and help your reader understand why they should buy from you rather than someone else.

Include lessons and share tips and always lead to a key point or takeaway.  The more of your experience you include, and the more you give something that your reader will be able use, the more they will like you, keep returning and share your story with their friends, family and contacts.

Top Tip:  Share enough of your story on your website to get people interested in you.  Show them that you’re a real person and help them see why you do what you do.

 

The Bottom Line

All things being equal, people prefer to buy from someone that they like.

Adding personality to your small business website will help prospective customers get to know you and could well be a deciding factor in whether you get their enquiry.

What are your thoughts?  How important is personality on a small business website?

Category iconSales & Marketing Tag iconwebsite

July 19, 2012

The Jeremy Clarkson Guide to Your Perfect Customer

In my last post,�The Great Social Media for Small Business Hoax�I explained that it’s important to have your own perfect customer profile.

It’s actually the cornerstone to effective small business marketing. �Targeting the wrong customer will leave you very frustrated and with poor results.

But how do you actually pick the perfect customer and know you’ve got it right?

 

The Jeremy Clarkson Guide

Have you ever watched Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson? �It’s a BBC car show which is syndicated worldwide.

If so you may have heard Jeremy talk about his perfect customer – Kristin Scott Thomas.

He regularly refers to Kristin Scott Thomas and judges the coolness of each car by how much he believes she would like it.

Here is the video of her actual appearance on the show:

In using Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Clarkson actually shows us some valuable steps in picking our perfect customer. �I’ve outlined them in the following four steps.

 

1. Pick Your Perfect Customer For a Reason

Although it’s important to target a perfect customer it’s no good just to pick anyone. �It’s not a magic exercise where whoever you pick will be the person who starts knocking on your door wanting to buy your products and services.

Get your perfect customer wrong and your small business marketing simply won’t work – you’ll find yourself in the feast and famine cycle.

You have to have a reason for picking a perfect customer to base all of your marketing upon.

Jeremy Clarkson picked�Kristin�Scott Thomas to be his perfect customer because she lives in Paris. �In his eyes she’s “classy”.

In your own small business you could use several factors to pick a perfect customer. �These might include:

  • Location: if you own a restaurant your perfect customer needs to be able to travel to you.
  • Income: can your customer afford your products and services? �Your perfect customer needs to be one who can pay the price that you charge.
  • Knowledge: �Do you have a specific knowledge or skill that helps? �For instance if you’re a graphic designer who has mainly worked on magazines, and now you’re going freelance, you should target magazines.

 

2. Be Very Specific About Your Perfect Customer

I mentioned above that Jeremy Clarkson targeted a “classy” perfect customer. �But he went further, he was very specific and picked one person, Kristin Scott Thomas.

How specific can you be with your perfect customer profile?

The more specific you are the more useful the profile will be, but getting it right takes some time and thinking.

In my free eBook “How to End the Famine and Feast Cycle of Small Business Sales“�I outline the entire process in detail and suggest that you should get to the point where you can even personify and picture your perfect customer. �The better your profile the more targeted you’ll make your marketing and the better the results.

 

3. Adapt Your Offering to Your Perfect Customer

It’s important to have your perfect customer profile but then you need to do something with it. �You need to use it to make your products and services attractive to your perfect customer.

In the Top Gear shows Jeremy Clarkson has a “cool wall”. �Every week he shows pictures of different cars and adds them to a section of the wall that goes from “Seriously Uncool” to “Sub Zero”.

He uses his perfect customer as a guide for his decision. �If he thinks Kristin Scott Thomas thinks it’s very cool then it gets a good rating, and so on.

The same process should be applied to your own product and services.

Firstly take time to understand the issues that your perfect customer is experiencing. �What is keeping them up at night? �Where do they have stress in their life or business that your products or services can help?

Secondly review the products and services that you offer and change and tweak them to be more relevant and attractive to your customers.

 

4. Get Your Perfect Customer’s Feedback

So far we’ve thought about your perfect customer profile, but you’re not your perfect customer. �Even if you are very similar you are too close to your own business to see how well you’ve created your profile – whether you’ve picked the right perfect customer.

I remember when I started Fresh Eyes Consultancy I created a perfect customer profile but realised that I’d got it wrong and kept rewriting it until I was happy.

How can you be sure? �Ask. �Ask your perfect customer if you can discuss it with them, you’ll soon realise whether you have the right profile.

There is a great section in the Jeremy Clarkson video above where he discusses some cars with Kristin Scott Thomas and finds out that actually he got some “cool” decisions wrong – the final blow is when she slates his favourite Lamborghini as “pathetic”.

Talk to a perfect customer about your products and services and continue to tweak them and get more feedback until you are sure that they fit perfectly and are relevant.

 

The Bottom Line

Building a profile of your perfect customer is the first step in a successful small business marketing strategy.

Get it right and you’ll save yourself a lot of time and money by being focused and not trying to attract everyone.

For a complete guide on the steps to creating your perfect customer profile please download my FREE eBook “How to End the Famine and Feast Cycle of Small Business Sales“.

How is your perfect customer profile – have you got it right?

Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

 

Category iconSales & Marketing

July 12, 2012

The Great Social Media for Small Business Hoax

Do you use social media to promote your small business?

Fantastic!

In that case all of your small business troubles are over – you’ll never be in the feast and famine cycle again!

Right?

 

The Hoax

Well, actually that’s not true. �In fact, it’s a hoax.

A hoax that leaves many small business owners frustrated that �social media�doesn’t�work�.

But, the hoax�isn’t�that social media doesn�t work. The hoax is that all you have to do is just �turn up� in social media to grow your business.

I’ve spoken to several small business owners who have created a few accounts, followed and connected with some people but can’t see how this can actually benefit their business.

Are you one of them?

If so I’ve got some good news for you.

Social media does work. �I’ve gained several new clients this year from social media.

Actually, with this blog, social media is my only source of finding new clients. �It’s how you use social media that makes the difference.

It takes time, more time than you would think, and time costs money. �It also takes a lot of effort – but the results can be fantastic.

Would you like to know how to avoid the hoax and use social media to grow your business?

Great! Here are five points that will help.

 

1. Target Your Perfect Customer

Facebook alone had 901million users at the end of March 2012, LinkedIn reports over 150million users.

Using social media networks like these without a very clear profile of who you are targeting won’t work. �You’ll be caught up in so much social media “noise” that you won’t make meaningful connections. �Frankly you won’t know whether you’re coming or going.

Having a clear profile of your perfect customer helps you understand the problems that they experience, how you can help and how you can reach them through social media.

Top Tip: �If you don’t have a clear “perfect customer” profile, or yours need a review, download my free guide�How to End the Famine and Feast Cycle of Small Business Sales. �This guide will take you through the entire process.

 

2. Spend Time Where They Hang Out

Imagine for a moment that you get an enquiry from someone who could be a perfect customer. �Someone you’ve wanted as a customer for a long time.

There is just one down side. �They work several miles away, but they are happy to meet to discuss how you could help them.

Would you expect them to drive to meet you?

No. �You’d go out of your way to visit them, wherever they were, to get the opportunity to talk to them, right?

It’s just the same with social media. �You might prefer Twitter, or Facebook but if all of your perfect customers spend their time on LinkedIn that’s where you need to be.

Social media networks are horses for courses. �If you sell to other businesses you’ll likely be better using LinkedIn and if you sell to consumers you’ll be better using Facebook.

Top Tip: Pick two social media networks that your customers use. �If you’re not sure which ask them and look at the links from their websites. �Watch and listen to what your current customers and contacts are talking about and to whom and start getting involved in conversations. �Always listen first and comment second.

 

3. Make Being Useful Your Mission

Don’t use social networks thinking “who can I sell to?”. �It won’t work.

If people think you’re only interested in selling your products and services you’ll be largely ignored and come away very frustrated.

Instead think “who can I help?”. �Spend a lot of time listening to what your customers and their contacts are talking about. �Learn what is causing them problems.

Get involved in the discussion and share your knowledge. �If you give relevant help people will take notice and listen to what you have to say and share it with their own contacts.

Top Tip: Have at least one social media discussion a day where you share your knowledge. �If you can’t find an opportunity at least once a day you’re using the wrong network or need to make some new connections.

 

4. Be Consistent in Your Efforts

If you want people to take notice of you, and to build your reputation in your chosen social network, you need to show up each day.

If people see your face they will remember you.

That’s not to say that you have to be watching your screen every minute of the day – you’ll get nothing else done. �You can use some tools to help you share relevant content from others, and yourself, with your network.

You can then spend whatever time you have each day, even if it’s just thirty minutes, to get involved in conversations with people, be useful and share your knowledge.

Top Tip: �BufferApp allows you to “buffer” content that you find from all over the internet and send it out at intervals throughout the day on your chosen social media network. �This gives you a consistent presence without taking all of your time.

 

5. Build Lasting Relationships

How do you move from discussions on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn to gaining leads and growing your small business?

You need to build customer relationships.

You’ll quickly find some people in your chosen networks that you get on well with, you have things in common with and have joined in�discussions�and been able to help.

Connect with these people, follow them on Twitter and build relationships beyond social media.

Top Tip: �At least once a week have a coffee with someone new in your network or a chat on Skype. �Get to know each other more and see if there are ways that you can help each other. �This relationship building will pay dividends.

 

The Bottom Line

Social Media is a powerful tool for growing your small business.

You can meet people and build lasting relationships – people that you couldn’t reach using other forms of networking.

But it takes focus, effort and a willingness to be useful.

What’s your experience – is social media working for you or do you think it’s still a hoax?

Please join me for a discussion in the comments.

Category iconSales & Marketing

July 5, 2012

The Easy Sales Secret for the Non Sales Person

Do you enjoy selling?

I love getting new clients but I’m not a fan of selling.

The idea of trying to “close” someone brings me out into a cold sweat. �But how can a non sales person avoid the feast and famine cycle?

Fortunately several years ago I made a discovery.

I was attending a software�exhibition with the company where I was employed as an IT Manager. �I was on hand to ensure that the ordering system worked and the sales people could focus on selling.

It was all going smooth and I was bored. �I started playing with the software we sold.

I quickly picked up the basics and in a few hours got very proficient�and discovered some great tricks for saving time.

While the sales people were busy on the stand I started showing a few customers. �In no time at all I developed quite a crowd.

People started buying the software in numbers, without even talking to sales people, because I’d shown what it could do and answered so many of their questions.

By the end of the day I’d “outsold” the sales people and we had to order more stock – but I never tried to sell!

I’d discovered the easy sales secret for non sales people – sharing knowledge.

It was a real epiphany�- I’d learnt that by knowing the product well, demonstrating it, and sharing my knowledge, sales came freely without any need for “selling”.

Does it sound too good to be true? �Let me explain why its works so well.

 

Sharing Knowledge Demonstrates Skill

When you share knowledge with a prospective customer you show how much you know.

You position yourself as an expert, not just because you’ve said that you’re an expert but because you’ve demonstrated that you are.

As Benjamin Franklin said:

Well done is better than well said.

Benjamin Franklin

When you position yourself as an expert you attract people who want to benefit from your expertise. �This attraction is excellent for your small business because it’s helps you build your sales pipeline by attracting your perfect customers.

You’ll also receive more referrals because people will better understand who you can help.

Demonstrating your skill also shows your product or service in the best light.

For instance as an accountant who provides tax advice what better demonstration can you provide than to give some advice to people openly and let them see how much you know?

 

Sharing Knowledge Shows Passion

I can still remember the software demonstration I gave almost fifteen years ago.

Demonstrating one or two small shortcuts in the software that I thought most people had missed. �As I covered each one I saw users eyes light up.

I enjoyed sharing with the people who gathered and the more interested people got in my demonstrations the more confident and passionate I became.

When you share knowledge, and see how this knowledge is helping people, you pass on some of your passion for your product and services.

This passion is very attractive to prospective customers. �If you had to choose between two suppliers and one stood out by having a real passion for what they do wouldn’t it make you want to choose them?

 

Sharing Knowledge Builds Trust

Before anyone will buy from you and your small business they need to know, like and trust you.

There is no better way to help people in this process than to openly share your knowledge.

Sharing knowledge breaks down the barriers between you and your prospect.

Your prospect doesn’t have to wonder if you are really good at what you do, if you really know enough to help them because you’ve shown them.

Breaking down the barriers and being open about sharing your knowledge is an important step in building customer relationships.

 

Knowledge Sharing Examples

It’s easy to talk about “sharing knowledge” but what does this actually look like?

How can you grow your small business by sharing some of your knowledge?

Here are two great examples from local small businesses.

 

Matthew Franklin – Ask The Architect

Matthew is an architect in Shropshire, UK. �Every Friday afternoon he runs an open, free question and answer session called “Ask The Architect“.

Visitors have twenty minutes to talk to him face to face or via telephone, email or Twitter. �They can discuss design ideas, planning questions and get advice on how to start their projects.

It’s not about selling, it’s about giving great advice and answering peoples questions. �But through sharing his knowledge openly Matthew is showing himself as an approachable expert.

Ask The Architect is on now! Free Q&A for home owners, businesses & groups email call tweet bit.ly/hIhDsk #AskArch

� Matthew Franklin (@Ask_Architect) June 22, 2012

 

Kelly Ward – Mrs Mopp Cleaning Services

Kelly runs a domestic and commercial cleaning company, also based in Shropshire, UK. �To demonstrate her expertise she regularly posts cleaning tips on Twitter and her blog, like this one:

Use air freshener on mirrors,it will act as a polish and leave a longer lasting fragrance #cleaningtips

� Kelly Ward (@MrsMoppUK) June 29, 2012

These useful, actionable tips are easy to share and keep Kelly’s name in peoples mind for when they need her services.

 

Can You Share Too Much?

But can you share too much knowledge?

Is there a point at which sharing knowledge can damage your business because people don’t need you anymore? �They can take the knowledge and do it themselves?

The simple answer is no.

Consider the two examples above. �If you’re planning an extension to your house and want advice on planning permission and building regulations you’re very unlikely to get enough advice in twenty minutes from Matthew so you can do the whole job yourself. �But in twenty minutes you will have answered some of your questions and seen enough of Matthew’s knowledge to know that he is an expert and a good choice to help you with your project.

Likewise with Kelly, few people will hire her just to clean their mirror so the tip will be very helpful. �But who will they call next time they need their carpets cleaning, or when they need a regular cleaner to help them free up some time in their busy lives? – You’ve got it, it’s going to be Kelly as she demonstrated knowledge and established trust.

 

The Bottom Line

Sharing your knowledge is not only the easy sales secret – it’s the best!

Sharing knowledge through my blog and on Twitter and LinkedIn is my only form of marketing and has gained me several new clients in the last few months.

Please let me know how you’re using knowledge sharing to grow your small business in the comments . . .

Photo: GDC Europe

Category iconSales & Marketing

June 29, 2012

3 Reasons Your Small Business Needs a Check Up

Do you drive a car?

If so you’ll know that periodically it’s important to take your car for a check up.

A professional mechanic will perform a number of services, checks and tests. �These will include:

  • changing the oil
  • changing the filters
  • checking the brakes are safe

After the check up, your car is ready to keep you mobile for the next year or however often you get your check up.

But how about your business? �How often do you have a small business check up?

Like your car, neglecting a business check up can quickly lead to an�under performing�business or worse no business at all!

Here are three reasons you should plan for your next small business check up today.

 

1. Your Small Business Will Run Better

Our car always feels great to drive after a check up. � It’s much smoother – no doubt happier after a fresh drink of oil.

A small business check up will ensure that your business runs better. �It will help you:

  • ensure that your business is running�profitably�- because, after all, there is no point being in business if you are not making some money.
  • ensure that it’s�sustainable�- and you’re avoiding the feast and famine cycle.
  • ensure that you are�focused�- focused on both what is working in your business and what is not.

 

2. Your Small Business Will Be Safer

Your small business check up isn’t just about performance. �It’s about safety.

Just as the garage checks your car is safe to carry on driving you and your family, your business check up makes sure your business is safe.

 

  • Safe from Economic Conditions – ensuring that your business is safe from recessions and equally that it’s not growing too fast. �Growing your business too fast risks your customer experience and can damage customer relationships.
  • Safe from Your Competitors – checking where you are in your market compared to your competitors. �Are you doing enough to differentiate your business, attract your perfect customer and beat your competition.
  • Safe from Your Customers – it can be all too easy to rely on one customer too much. �They’ve kept you so busy that you’ve not had time to build your network, build new customer relationships and build a sales pipeline. �Before you know it the customer is applying pressure for unreasonable discounts or worse finds another supplier and a large piece of your business is gone.

A business check up not only checks your safety now but highlights actions that need to be taken to keep you safe in the future.

 

3. You’ll Reach Your Destination

As much as a car might be nice to drive it has one purpose. �To get you to your destination.

Your small business has the same purpose – to help you achieve the goal for which you started it.

It could be to retire in the sun, to give your family a fantastic life, to be able to travel and write from anywhere in the world or to help as many people as possible.

A small business check up gives you the opportunity to review your progress in getting to your destination. �It will help you:

  • Review your goals – give you the opportunity to review your destination and see if you need to make any changes, change your goal from a villa in Spain to a thatched cottage in England for instance.
  • Check your progress – see if you’ve gone off course and need to correct your course to get back on track with why you started your business in the first place.
  • Reach your goals – reach your goal without grinding to a steaming heap at the side of the road.

It will also give you the opportunity to set some short term goals to ensure that you are making progress. �For instance the steps you need to take towards your goals within the next six months.

It might be that you’ve been in business a while and the day to day running of your small business has taken over. �You’ve lost sight of your goals, or they seem�unattainable. �A small business check up is an excellent opportunity to look at your business with “fresh eyes” and review your future goals.

 

The Bottom Line

A small business check up is vital in keeping your business running smoothly, safe and helping you reach your goals.

I believe it’s so vital that I’m going to give five small business check ups for free over the next few weeks. �Would you like one?

They will be conducted over Skype, last up to an hour and you’ll even get a written set of notes and actions by email. �All I ask is that you’re signed up to receive my free weekly small business advice.

To book your free small business check up simply contact me�today.

Category iconSales & Marketing

June 21, 2012

How to Beat Your Competition: Lessons from “Eclipse the Wonder Horse”

I recently read the story of Eclipse, the horse described as the greatest racehorse of all time.

Eclipse raced between 1769-1770 and was unbeaten in eighteen races.

When Eclipse raced it was never a close finish. �He beat other horses by massive distances of one or two miles!

It was this amazing ability that gave rise to the phrase “Eclipse first, the rest nowhere“.

In your market are you beating your competition by miles like Eclipse or is the race to every new customer a close finish?

Follow these three steps and you’ll ensure that it’s your small business first, your competition nowhere.

1. Pick Races You Can Win

Eclipse was retired because other owners wouldn’t race their horses against him. �They knew they would lose.

Picking a race for your small business means picking a market where you can dominate. � You can do this by creating a niche and being different.

Create a Niche

Don’t try to be “everything to everyone”.

Pick an area of your market where you have the expertise and experience to specialise. �Specialising reduces the competition, and a race with fewer runners is always easier to win.

It doesn’t mean you have to turn customers away if they are outside of your niche. �You’re simply focusing your energy on winning the race you pick.

For instance as a web designer you could specialise in designing websites for restaurants.

This focused marketing approach reduces your competition and makes you attractive to your target customers who will see you as the “go to” person in your niche.

Be Different

If you’re facing too much competition, even in your niche, you need to be different.

You need to stand out. �Give new customers a reason to be interested in your small business.

If you’re an accountant and the other accountants in your niche all lead their marketing on audit work or tax advice you could attract new customers by marketing your “finance for non-financial managers” training courses.

As a restaurant you could use items of interest that people will want to see, creating a complete customer experience. �At Shanahan’s on The Green in Dublin they have JFK’s original rocking chair in a case in their “Oval Office” bar. �This attracted me to the�restaurant�because I wanted to see the chair and the other items on display.

Once you’ve gained peoples interest you can build customer relationships�and introduce your other services.

2. Be Blinkered

Blinkering a horse in a race helps ensure that it remains focused on where it’s going and not what’s going on around it.

It ensures that the horse doesn’t become distracted.

In your race to beat your competition you need to keep your small business marketing focused. �Don’t change what you’re doing just because those around you do.

A competitor of a client of mine took several pages in the centre of a local newspaper and filled them with�advertisements�for low quality products and cheap prices. �My client specialises in offering high quality products, great service and has a lot of knowledge. �Following what his competitor did would have wasted a lot of money and would have damaged his reputation because it doesn’t fit his image and wouldn’t attract his target market.

You need to find what’s right for you and keep doing it.

Consistent activity is one of the key factors in ensuring you avoid the feast and famine cycle�and keep your small business growing.

3. Use Your Advantage

Eclipse’s advantage on the race course was his�phenomenal�speed. � It allowed him to leave his competition standing.

In modern racing horses often have their own advantages. �Some have stamina, some jump superbly and some take to a type of ground better than others.

What advantages does your small business have that will help you beat your competition? �It could be any of a number of factors including:

  • broader product range
  • larger local stock
  • greater industry experience
  • faster delivery speed
  • more personal touch

Let people know if your practice has the largest number of qualified lawyers in Toronto. �That would be an attractive benefit to a client who is deciding who to approach with a major piece of legal work.

But don’t ever use price as an advantage. �There will always be someone else who is willing to sell at a lower margin and take a lower profit than you. �That’s a race to the bottom and in it no-one wins.

Know your advantage and ensure it’s clear in your marketing.

The Bottom Line

Pick your niche, be focused and use your advantages to be like Eclipse.

Be so differentiated in your market that you have no competition racing against you!

Your small business first, your competition nowhere.

What are your thoughts on beating your competition? �Please join me for a discussion in the comments.

Category iconSales & Marketing

May 31, 2012

5 Characteristics of a Welcoming Website

Is your website welcoming to new visitors?

It needs to be welcoming as your prospective customers will likely visit your website long before they ever walk into your reception.

The welcome they receive at your website will create their first impression of your company.

If you want to roll out the red carpet ensure your website has the following five characteristics.  I’ve included five top tips that you can start to action straight away.

 

1. A Website that loads fast . . .

No one likes to be kept waiting.

A website visitor won’t be as committed to waiting as a visitor standing in your reception.  If your website takes too long to load your visitors will simply hit “back” and go somewhere else.

You only have a few seconds to grab a visitor’s attention.

Also, it’s not just visitors who hate slow websites.  Google penalises websites in their rankings if they don’t load quickly as it means they offer a bad user experience.

Top Tip: Test your website speed with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

 

2. A Personal welcome . . .

Unfortunately it’s not possible to have a receptionist waiting on your website ready to give every website visitor a warm welcome, so what else can you do?

Avoid the common small business website mistakes and ensure that your header tagline clearly tells the reader what you do at the top of every page.  Remember that not every new visitor will land on your homepage.

Pick a welcome that suits your target market but remember that just saying “Welcome” at the start of your homepage text isn’t really that welcoming.

Top Tip: Add a video to your homepage that visitors can click on to get a personal welcome from you.  Keep the video short, around a minute and depending on your audience you might not want it to autoplay – especially if they are likely to be sharing an office.

You can see a great example of a personal welcoming video on Christine Kane’s website.

 

3. A Clear place to start . . .

When you wait in a reception there is often reading material on the coffee table, perhaps even television news on a flat screen.

As soon as you’ve welcomed a new visitor to your website you want to start engaging the reader and showing the very best of what you have to offer.

You wouldn’t leave a visitor wandering around your office building or showroom so why do it when they visit your website?

Top Tip: Create a “New Visitor? Start Here >>” page which lays out your best content and shows the new visitor what they should read first.

Tom Ewer has a great example of a “Start Here” page on his blog Leaving Work Behind

 

4. A Useful gift . . .

In a physical reception visitors would be offered coffee, perhaps even a couple of biscuits while they wait.

What can you offer new website visitors?

Offer something that will be of great interest, relevance and that you know will be useful.  An accountant might offer a guide on how to keep track of invoices and receipts, an IT expert could offer a set of keyboard shortcuts or an eBook on how to get the best performance from your computer.

Introduce your free guide or other gift content at the bottom of your “Start Here” page and explain the benefits of reading it.

Top Tip:  Offer your free guide in return for the visitors email address so you can add them to your small business email marketing list and send them your future relevant content by email.  I offer a copy of my free eBook “Focused Marketing” to anyone who signs up to receive my future content by email.  It contains actionable information you can use straight away to attract your perfect customers – if you don’t already have a copy please sign up for one at the bottom of this post.

 

5. A Invite to get to know you . . .

Profitable small businesses are based on successful customer relationships.

Invite your visitors to get to know you, join you on social networks and contact you through your contact form so you can start to get to know them and build conversations.

You’ll not only begin building valuable relationships but you’ll learn more about your customers problems and issues and in turn be able to be more relevant in offering them solutions.

Top Tip: Add links to your social networks on your “Start Here” page and homepage and encourage visitors to connect with you and get in touch with questions or comments.

 

The Bottom Line

The internet is filled with millions of websites, several just like yours from small businesses offering similar products and services.

To stand out from the crowd you need to give visitors a fantastic welcome to your website and really roll out the red carpet.

Use the top tips listed above to start improving your welcome today.

Is there a top tip missing, what would you add?  Please join me in the comments for a discussion.

Category iconSales & Marketing Tag iconwebsite

May 24, 2012

The 5 Laws for Nurturing Leads Into Sales

It�s great when you get a lead for your small business.

But leads don�t pay the bills. �They need converting into sales.

Regularly nurturing leads into sales helps �end the feast and famine cycle.

But is that easier said than done?

Follow these five laws and you�ll keep turning your small business leads into sales.

 

Law #1: Be Prepared

Have a system in place to record all of the information about the lead.

If you use a CRM system with fields for the data then great, if not get a spreadsheet prepared and ready to enter at least the following:

  • Date
  • Name
  • Source of Lead
  • Value of Lead
  • Telephone Number
  • Email Address
  • Product or Service
  • Notes
  • Next Action

Gathering the information helps:

  • manage the lead into a sale
  • give accurate quotations
  • look professional by only asking for it once

Ensure you have any information about your products and services that a prospect may request.

Keep a stock of brochures, menus and catalogues.

Write and save emails that you can reuse that explain your products and services in more detail.

Don�t wait until you get enquiries to start writing response emails – you�ll be keeping important prospects waiting.

 

Law #2: Be Quick

No one likes to be kept waiting.

Never finish the business day without making the first response back to an enquiry, even if you call or email to say thank you and that you�ll be responding the next day.

If you can�t respond to an enquiry within the same business day you are sending the message that the lead isn�t important to your business.

 

Law #3: Be Nice

You don�t need to be friends with every customer – but you do need to be nice.

Whether you sell wallpaper or washers, cables or cakes, let your prospects see it will be a pleasure dealing with your small business from the start.

Regardless how your day is going, or what you have on your mind, give every customer your undivided attention and remember �it pays to be nice�.

Long term small business success is based on building great customer relationships.

 

Law #4: Be Inspiring

Show your prospects how good you are – inspire confidence in you and your small business.

 

Set Expectations

Once you have the information you need to deal with the lead set clear expectations. �If you need until the next afternoon to complete a quotation explain that.

Don�t say you�ll be in touch �as soon as possible�. �As soon as possible might mean tomorrow to you but could mean in ten minutes to your prospect who is desperate for a price.

 

Keep Promises

If you say you�ll call with the price tomorrow ensure you do.

Make dealing with enquiries a priority within your business.

Customers are judging you on your response. �If you don�t keep your promise on the quotation, how will you do when it comes to completing the service or supplying the product?

If you need more time to respond, contact the prospect to explain and confirm a realistic timeframe when you can.

Don�t use up too much goodwill before you�ve even won the sale.

 

Law #5: Be Focused

Keep focused on your enquiry list to ensure you build a sales pipeline and keep a steady stream of leads turning into sales.

 

Follow Up

Once you�ve responded to an enquiry leave it a few days and follow up. �Don�t leave it any longer than a week.

If the customer needs more time ensure you keep following up on a weekly basis, or monthly if it suits your products or services.

Ensure that you treat your follow up routine seriously and not merely as a �tick in the box� process.

 

Review

Review your small business sales pipeline every single day.

What is the next action on each enquiry, do you need to do anything to move any closer to sales? �Are you waiting for a supplier to provide a price or a brochure? �Remember it�s not your suppliers enquiry, it�s yours – keep your customer informed and continue to inspire confidence.

 

Results

Always focus on getting a result.

It�s fantastic if all of your enquiries convert into sales, but if they don�t ensure you keep following up until you get a final result.

If the result is you lost the sale find out why.

Ask polite questions. �Did you lose the sale on price, response speed, service, functionality of your product, delivery timeframe? �If you lost out to a competitor, which one and why?

All of this information is extremely valuable in refining your offering and ensuring you�re more likely to win the sale next time.

 

How is your sales pipeline?

Do you have every lead listed, regardless of value?

Are you reviewing your sales pipeline on a regular basis and doing everything you can to turn leads into sales?

Please let me know about your process and what works for you in the comments.

Category iconSales & Marketing

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