If you get your website built by an experienced web design company, the chances are your website will be visually appealing and be of a reasonably good quality. Professional designers will use the latest technology and do their best to ensure your website reflects the current design trends.

But simply having a fancy website is not likely to offer any real benefits for your business.

Like any other aspect of your business, your website must be equipped with the right tools and correctly optimised to get the best possible results for your business.

Too many businesses end up making common mistakes with their websites that seriously limits their site’s potential and prevents them from receiving any real benefits from their website.

This article takes a look at some of the most common strategic mistakes that businesses make on their website and how you can avoid them.

If you want your business to succeed online and your website to deliver the desired results, it is vital that you don’t repeat these frequently made mistakes.

1. Focusing Entirely on The Design

Many businesses make the mistake of focusing primarily on design and neglecting other more important aspects of the website as a result.

Make sure your website has been designed with your company’s needs in mind. For your website to be successful, several other areas require your attention. Proper planning is one of the first steps even before your design commences. The functionality offered by your website is equally important and deserves all the attention your can give.

Simply settling for a design that looks appealing is a common mistake that many businesses make.

2. Haphazard Growth

It is common for websites to evolve over time in line with the changing needs of the business. Although the intention is to improve the website or offer some other benefits to the business, it can easily have the opposite effect.

If the changes are not managed in a planned way, it can deteriorate the user experience over time and negatively affect the overall look and feel of your website. This can be detrimental to your business

If you have been simply adding new features to your website in an ad-hoc manner regularly and it is easily evident on the website, it may be time to consider a proper redesign or a full overhaul.

3. Not Focusing on User Experience

Any web expert will advise you on the importance of usability on the success of a website. A good user experience is vital to generate sales on your website whether you run a shopping cart or use your website to generate leads for the products and services your business provides. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes when. Put your intended audience at the heart of planning your website’s user experience. Don’t assume your customers are web savvy and make sure that any one can use your site seamlessly.

4. Not Testing Enough

Testing is one of the most important factors of a business website that is often overlooked. There are several aspects of a website that you can test. When you think of testing, the first thing that probably comes to mind is testing your website for bugs and errors. But there is much to it than that.

Another form of testing that is very important from a performance point of view is split testing or multivariate testing. This involves trying out alternatives on your website to find out what works best and delivers the best results. It can be anything from design of your buttons to placement of various web elements. Businesses have reported over 100% increase in conversions by simply changing the design of a form or moving a button from the left to the right.

5.  Not Using Proof To Build Credibility

The key to the success of any business website is to make your website visitors to trust you and feel comfortable enough to buy from you. There are several ways to establish your credibility. One of the easiest and most effective ways is to display customer testimonials on your website. Choose some of your best testimonials and position them prominently throughout your website. What a real customer has to say about your business is far more effective than sales literature that talks about how great your business is.

6. Not Taking Advantage of Call to Action

Generating sales and leads is one of the most important aspects for any business. One of the best ways to do this on a website is via the use of effective calls to action. However, many businesses fail to take advantage of this. A call to action does not have to be a direct sale but it can be anything that helps to take the casual website visitor one step closer to becoming your customer. This can be anything from an enquiry form, a free trial of your product or an email opt-in form. Make sure to use bold buttons that stand out and compel the user to take the desired action. It is also important to ensure calls to action are displayed throughout you site, not just on your homepage.

7. Using Their Website to Offer Information About The Business

Customer behavior patterns have changed significantly in recent years. Today, customers do not necessarily surf the web to buy a product. Instead, they wish to find quality information that can help meet their needs or solve a challenge they face in their day-to-day life. It has thus become vital for businesses to offer a wide range of information that is of value for the market they wish to target.

Simply offering sales literature about your business or your products is not enough. If you offer web design services, for example, you may wish to offer tips and articles on how a business can improve their website or use their site to boost sales. You can use this information to draw prospects towards your website and then work on converting them into customers.

Most businesses do not have an extensive list of prospects when they are starting out with email marketing. This can be a major hurdle in their marketing efforts and often prevents businesses from taking full advantage of email marketing.

There are several tactics businesses can use to build their email list. If done correctly, it can turn into a steady source of leads for your business and generate new leads every day.

Here are 6 effective strategies for growing your email list.

1. Make Sure Your Op-In Form Stands Out

Your company’s websites or blog is one of the best places to attract new subscribers for you email list. Your site offers an excellent opportunity to build your list. Although blogs are great at this, for some reasons, regular business websites have failed to take full advantage of this.

Display a well-designed email opt-in form on your website to ensure your email list gets the desired attention from visitors. An attractive opt-in form will stand out will increase conversions. Make sure to display your opt-in form on all pages of your website, not just your homepage. The sidebar is a great place to do this.

2. Offer An Incentive to Join

Everyone likes a free offer. Linking it to your email opt-in process can prove very effective. It is a popular strategy to give users something for free when they join your list. The right offer can motivate users to sign-up and boost your conversion rates. The  most common example is a free eBook.

But you can use any other resource that is relevant to your business and valuable for your targeted audience. Take a look at a simple example below.

3. Use Content To Attract Targeted Traffic

The more targeted traffic you receive on your company’s website, the more leads and sign-ups you will get for your email list.

It is also important for your traffic to be targeted. For example, if you are Web Design Company then you want to attract businesses and start-ups towards your website.

One of the best ways to generate targeted traffic is by producing quality content that is aimed at your target market. So a web design company may offer tips, tutorials and practical advice on how to build a successful online presence.

4. Use Call to Action to Communicate Benefits

Many websites get a lot of traffic but still suffer from poor conversions. This is where good call to action can help.

Effective call to action plays a significant part in determining conversion rates. Try to highlight the benefits of joining your list. Simply asking users to sign-up to your list is not enough. Give users a compelling reason to join your list. Consider using a relevant headline or tagline above your opt-in form to attract subscribers.

The button text is also very important. For example, if you offer tips and articles about web design, use a good call to action such as “Receive Free Tips” as your button text instead of a generic term such as “submit”.

5. Promote Your Email List on Social Media

Many businesses rely almost entirely on their website or blog to generate opt-ins but fail to take advantage of social media. Your company’s social media profiles can prove equally effective for attracting subscribers for your email list.

There are several ways to do this. Consider adding an opt-in form where possible. On your Facebook Page, you can do this via a custom tab that is displayed prominently below your cover photo. This can prove very effective and result in a steady stream of subscribers.

You can also consider linking your profile to opt-in page instead of your homepage.

6. Promote Your List In Author Byline of Articles

Content marketing is a very effective way to market and promote a business. It is common for businesses today to distribute content on several channels. This includes articles on article directories, guest posting on popular blogs in your niche, publishing content on user generate content sites, and more.

Publishers typically use the author box or byline that is displayed below the content to drive traffic to their website or promote their business. Your author byline can be equally effective for promoting your email list. For best results, use a good call to action and link to a dedicated landing page specially designed to promote your email list.

Conclusion

Email marketing is a very effective way to market your business. But most businesses do not have an extensive list of prospects to start with. This can be a major hurdle in their marketing efforts and often prevents businesses from taking full advantage of email marketing. Businesses use many strategies to build their email list. Your business can take advantage of the simple yet effective strategies above to build your list and boost sign-ups.

What About You?

Do you use email marketing to promote your business? What do you do to attract subscribers? Do you use any of the strategies above? We would like to hear from you. Please add your response by leaving a comment below.

It involves many decisions to be made and processes to be put in place.

Most businesses are online today. This makes it even more essential for businesses that are just starting out online to have the right strategy in place to stay ahead of competition. Simply the desire to succeed or even a great website is not enough to succeed.

Although anyone can start a business today, very few are able to succeed. This article takes a look at effective strategies to follow when starting a business online or launching your website. These can help make your online venture a success.

Here are 5 things you must do from the start when starting your business online.

1. Focus on Email Marketing From The Start

Most businesses neglect email marketing when they are just starting out. To maximize its potential, it is important for businesses to start leveraging email marketing from the start.

Start using your website to grow your list from the beginning.  Display a well designed opt-in form in a prominent place throughout your website, not just your homepage.

Consider offering an incentive to website visitors who sign-up to your list. This is a widely used technique to boost sign-ups. It can be anything from an eBook, Whitepaper, Free trial of your product or any other resource that will encourage users to join your list.

It is also important to have a good email list management system. It can make it easier to manage your list and lead to better results. There are many good email list management tools that your business can take advantage of e.g. MailChimp and Aweber.

MailChimp offers a free version for up to 2000 subscribers which is a great option for start-ups and small businesses.  It also provides a sign-up form that you can add to your website so website visitors can join your list.

2. Have a Great Website & Blog

It is estimated that nearly 98% of small businesses have a website (MarketingProfs). You will need to do more than just create a visually appealing website if you want to get the desired coverage and stand out from competition.

Make sure your website offers great functionality as well as design. Both your website and blog should reflect your intended branding. Good social media integration and engaging features are also very important.

It is also vital that your design is conversion optimized and helps to drive leads for your business. Use call to action effectively and well designed lead capture forms.

It is important to focus on both website as well as blog if you want to stay ahead and attract customers towards your business. Having a blog significantly increases the chances of generating leads.

Fortunately, there are many professional low-cost services for creating affordable websites that deliver results. These can be a great asset for small businesses and start-ups that have limited budget to invest in their website but don’t want this to affect quality.

3. Have The Right Tools In Place

Use of relevant tools are key to maintaining your website and running your business online. There are a wide variety of tools that your business can take advantage of. There are tools to help you with every aspects of running a website. There are tools to build your website, post content to social media, analyse competitors, and many more. The exact tools your business needs will depend on your requirements. However, there are some general tools that can help any business and assist with the running of your website.

Here are some tools that I recommend:

• Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to monitor website statistics
• Social media dashboard e.g. Buffer, HootSuite
• Some tools to assist with social media automation e.g. IFTTT or Twitterfeed
• Klout to monitor online influence

4. Leverage Landing Pages

Landing pages are very important on any business website. They help to generate sales and acquire leads. Create a landing page for each of your primary products or services. The sole purpose of a landing page is to generate sales pages. The entire attention is focused towards driving conversion for a single action. This is typically the sale of a product or a lead where the prospective provides valuable contact details to your business.

Follow the right principles of landing page design and include the necessary elements.

5. Create Powerful Social Media Profiles From The Start

Small businesses and start-ups are relying increasingly on social media to connect with consumers and create brand awareness. It is better to have your company’s social media profiles ready before your launch your website.

Don’t make the mistake of creating profiles that are incomplete or provide very little information. Take the time to create a good social presence at least on the leading social networks from the start.

Put some thought into your branding

Most social networks allow you to customize the look and feel of your profile by uploading a custom cover photo and profile photo. Use these to display a consistent branding across all your web properties. Make sure your social media pages offer value for your targeted audience and does not simply promote your business.

Complete your profiles

Provide as much details about your business as possible and include your contact details including website URL.

Add valuable content & pre-schedule

Share some valuable content on your timeline at the start so your profiles don’t look empty and offer value for visitors. It helps to maintain a queue of pre-scheduled posts in advance. You can schedule your posts in advance via social media dashboard such as HootSuite.

Conclusion

Although anyone can start a business today, very few are able to succeed. Given above are 5 things you can do to improve your chances of success when starting your business or launching your website.

According to a report published by Kauffman Foundation, over 550,000 startup businesses are launched each month in the US alone. Globally, this figure is estimated at over 4 million according to moyak.com.

But only a handful of these businesses go beyond the first year. Simply the desire to succeed is not enough. Good online marketing strategy can make all the difference for your business.

There are many online marketing tactics and techniques that businesses can use to grow the business and increase sales. Choosing the right strategy for your business is not always easy. Furthermore, what works for one business may not work for another. However, there are certain essential online marketing strategies that apply to every business. This article provides an insight into essential marketing tactics that can work for any business including yours.

Here are 3 essential online marketing strategies that every business needs and how you can implement them.

1. High Performing Website

There is little doubt that every business requires a good website in order to remain competitive today. An attractive design is important to create a good first impression and make your business appear credible to consumers. But there is much more to a good website than visual appeal. Your website should also have the right features and enable you to acquire new customers.

How You Can Achieve This?

Have a website that looks great and offers the right functionality.

Make sure your website has the following:

• Great design
• Website that is fit for purpose
• Interactive features that keep users engaged
• Good social media integration
• Lead generation elements

Tip:

If you lack the funds to get a custom website designed, there are other affordable options that you can use to achieve the above. If you sell online,you can use hosted services such as Shopify .Com. If you want an informational website with social media and lead-generation features, you can use services like smallbusinessecommerce.co.uk that offers fully functional websites for the cost of a template.

2. Good Email Acquisition & Marketing Strategy

In spite of the recent popularity of marketing tactics such as content creation and social media, email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to market a business. If done correctly, it can make it easy for your business to attract new customers. Many businesses make the mistake of neglecting email list building. Sure, you can buy an email list or use email marketing services offered by direct marketing companies. However, it is much more profitable to build your own email list.

How You Can Achieve This?

There the two main aspects to consider:

Use good email acquisition strategy:

Your website or blog is the best channel to start building your email list. Instead of simply offering an email sign-up form on your website, try to attract users by offering an incentive such as a newsletter with tips, an eBook, or whitepaper. This is a very effective way to encourage users to sign-up to your list.

Use Good Email List Software:

You will also need good email list software to send and manage your email marketing campaigns. There are many great tools that your business can take advantage of e.g. MailChimp and Aweber if you prefer a hosted solution or PHP List if you prefer to host your own open-source email marketing software.

These services also offer well designed email opt-in forms that you can embed on your website along with many other features such as campaign statistics, auto-responders, ability for users to opt-out of your email, and many more features.

3. Active Social Media Involvement

An effective social media marketing strategy is vital for any business today. Social Media is one of the most effective channels to market your business and increase your reach. With the right strategy, your business can connect with thousands of consumers who are looking for products and services just like yours.

But social media marketing can take up a lot of your time and resources. This is one of the main challenges, particularly for small businesses who lack the resources to implement an ongoing social media strategy to grow the business.

How You Can Achieve This?

• Start a blog
• Use good social media dashboard such as HootSuite or Buffer to manage your social activity across several social networks.
• Set aside some time each week for social media.
• Share quality content at least 3 to 5 times per week.

Conclusion:

The right online marketing strategy is vital for the success of your business in the challenging economic conditions of today.

There are many Internet marketing techniques that businesses can use in order to succeed online. Given above are three essential strategies that can help any business. Make sure to take advantage of these strategies to grow your business online and make it into a success.

What About You?

What Internet marketing strategies do you use for your business? Are you taking advantage of the strategies above? We would like to hear from you. Please let us know by leaving a comment below.

A good marketing strategy is critical to the success of your small business. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for years, the proven marketing strategies above can help to grow your business and increase your profits.

Here are some effective strategies to market your small business. You will find these tips useful whether you are starting a new business or already have an existing business.

19. Leverage Mobile Marketing

Mobile user-base represents an ever-increasing share of the consumers today. There are many mobile marketing tactics that small businesses can take advantage of to tap into this profitable market. We have already discussed mobile enabled site before. But there are many other techniques. You can run pay-per-click advertising specially targeting mobile users. QR codes are also gaining in momentum and offer an easy way to run marketing campaigns that specifically target mobile users.

20. Have a Clear Marketing Message

There is a lot of confusion among small business about what their marketing message should be. It is not just your slogan or mission statement.

In a nutshell, a marketing message identifies a common problem faced by your market and presents your solution. It shows prospects how your business can help to solve a particular problem faced by them.  It should also show how you are different to your competitors and give a clear reason to choose your business.

Come up with a good attention grabbing marketing message communicate this effective throughout including on your website and other marketing materials. A good marketing message will make it easy to acquire new customers.

21. Take Advantage Of Reviews

Positive reviews about your business or products are a great way to market your business. Studies show that customer reviews have a significant impact on purchase decision. Take advantage of popular review sites like Yelp, Google Plus, and other popular review sites. Encourage customers to leave a review. Make sure to highlight customer reviews throughout your marketing and sales funnels.

22. Try to Get Featured In a Leading Blog

Many consumer blogs regularly publish reviews and feature new products and start-ups. Getting your business featured in a leading blog in your niche can provide a big boost to your marketing efforts. It is very important to choose blogs that attract the same market as your business.

Use tools like Technorati to identify the leading blogs that target your market. Make a connection with the editor and see if there is an opportunity to write a post about your business or get your product reviewed. It is easier if you have first built a relationship with the editor via social media or other channels.

23. Learn to Repurpose Content

We have already discussed the importance of content marketing to promote your small business. But creating content takes a lot of time and effort. This is where repurposing can help. Simply put, repurposing involves taking your existing content and repackaging it in a different format and distributing it on new channels. A simple example can be to take a blog post and converting it into a podcast and maybe even a video. Repurposing will save you time and increase your marketing reach from targeting new audiences via different content formats.

24.  Use Affiliates To Promote Your Products

Affiliate marketing is a very effective form of online marketing whereby you enlist several other people to help promote and sell your products in return for a commission on sales. It’s a performance based systems which means you only have to pay commissions when sales are made. There are many popular affiliate channels that your business can use. The sites have tens of thousands of affiliates actively seeking products to promote so it will save you the time from having to find affiliates yourself.

If you have a digital product,  you can use affiliate platforms like Clickbank below.

25. Create a Useful Online Resource

Online resources that help to solve a particular challenge or problem faced by your target market can be a very effective way to attract prospects towards your business. This can be anything from an app to a template. If you decide to take this approach, make sure to do your research well. Choose something that will add genuine value for your intended audience.

26. Use Consistent Branding

Brand recognition is one of the major challenges in small business marketing. Lack of funds and different priorities often mean that small businesses are unable to invest in big PR or branding campaigns that will help to create brand recognition and awareness. Displaying consistent branding all marketing channels including your website, blog, various social network profiles, or print materials can make your brand easily distinguishable and help to create brand recognition.

27. Offer Free Quotations

Offer free no obligation quotations to prospective customers. This offers an excellent opportunity to show prospects how your products can help to meet their needs.

It is also important to communicate this effectively as part of your marketing message.  I have come across many small businesses that offer free quotations but fail to publicise and take advantage of it to win prospects.

28. Participate Actively In Blogs and Forms

Being active on popular forums and blogs are a simple and effective way to improve your visibility and get extra coverage for your business. Including a link to your website in your forum signature or with your blog comment also offer a quick way to build links and drive referral traffic to your company’s website.

Make sure the forums and blogs are relevant to your niche and attract a similar market as your business.

29. Attend Networking Events

This is one of the most effective ways to get new local business but is often overlooked. Speed networking and other meet-ups of local businesses and entrepreneurs have become common in most cities today. This can be very effective to get extra exposure for your business and to attract local clients, particularly if you offer products or services that also cater to your local market. Look at the websites of local Chamber of Commerce, professional groups, or simply search Google.

30. Ask For Referrals

Your existing contacts can be a steady source of new leads for your business. This includes existing clients, partners or even your suppliers. Leads generated from personal referrals are highly qualified and tend to offer high conversions. Learn to ask your contacts for referrals. Make sure to thank or reward customers and follow up on the leads properly.

31. Use Good Promotional Materials

Although there has been a shift in marketing from traditional methods towards online, traditional print material are still important. If used correctly and properly targeted, printed materials such as flyers, brochures can be very effective for marketing your small business. An information pack to send to prospective customers can also prove helpful.

32. Give Away Something For Free

Give aways, freebies, prize draws or sweepstakes to generate a buzz around the business and benefit from extra exposure for the brand. Try to ensure the prize is something that is related to your business as well as something that can get the attention of users.  It could be anything from free vouchers to free products or services.

33. Try to Get Media Coverage

Editorial features convey more credibility with prospective clients than paid advertising does. To get coverage from the local media, whether from the town newspaper, from TV or radio stations, or from trade journals, you need a fresh, timely story. It’s usually worthwhile to hire an experienced publicist to position the stories, target appropriate media representative and write and send press releases. Usually, you can work on a short-term or contingency basis.

34. List Your Business On Online Marketplaces

There are many online marketplaces that put buyers and sellers together. Listing your business on these platforms are a great way to improve the visibility of your brand and promote your products. There are plenty of online marketplaces that your business can take advantage of If you are you are a B2B business you can take advantage of specialist B2B marketplaces like Alibaba.com. B2C businesses can benefit from platforms such as eBay and Amazon. including Alibaba.

35. Pursue Guest Posting Opportunities

Publishing guest posts is a great way to improve the visibility of your business. Only do this on blogs that are relevant to your business area. Use a good author byline and use it to promote your business. Make sure to include a good call to action and link to your company’s website in your author bio in order to redirect traffic towards your website.

Conclusion

An effective marketing strategy is critical to the success of your small business. You can have the best product in the market, but without a good marketing strategy, you will not be able to generate many sales.

Although blogging is a very effective way to promote a business, not every business gets the expected results. As blogging is very resource intensive, it is vital to get it right and avoid the common mistakes that prevent your blog from becoming a success.

In this article we take a look at some of the most common business blogging mistakes. Here are 10 things you are doing wrong that could be negatively affecting your business blog. Try to avoid them at any cost.

1. You Are Not Publishing Enough

Posting frequently is critical to the success of your blog. Successful blogs often publish several times a day. But not everyone can manage such levels. Although there are no hard and fast rules, posting 3 to 5 times per week is recommended if you want to make money from your blog.

2. You Are Writing About The Wrong Topics

If you are blogging for business or professionally, it is vital to choose topics that have the potential to attract the audience you are targeting. Choosing the wrong topics is one of the biggest business blogging mistakes that can cost you dearly. It is also important to adjust your writing style to reflect the needs of your audience.

3. Your Blog Is Not Getting Sufficient Traffic

Driving traffic to blog is one of the most important factors in the success of a blog. You will need a regular stream of traffic if you want to use your blog to generate revenue for your business. Search engines and social media are the biggest traffic drivers for blogs and you will need an ongoing strategy to succeed.

4. You Are Not Scheduling Your Posts

Most blog platforms including WordPress let you schedule your posts easily by choosing the publish date and time of posts in advance. However, many businesses are not taking advantage of this.

The time you publish plays a big role in determining readership and engagement. Weekday mornings tend to work best for most business blogs. But it can from blog to blog so it is best to run some tests and find out what works best for your business.

5. You Are Not Researching Keywords

Keyword research should be at the heart of your blogging strategy. This is where Google Keyword Tool can help. You can use it to get keyword suggestions and to find competition and search volumes of any given search term. It is very effective for planning your titles as it ensures you write about topics that are in demand.

6. You Are Not Choosing Your Titles Carefully

Blog post titles require special attention if you want your blog to succeed.  Title plays one of the most important roles in determining the success of your post.  Try to choose titles that are keyword-rich as well as attention grabbing. Spend some time on your titles before you publish.  Some formats such as “Top 10” or “How to” are very popular among readers.

7. You Are Not Including Images In Your Posts

Images make your post more appealing and help to grab the attention of users. It also improves content quality. It also improves the chances of being shared by others on social media. I try to include at least one image in every post. Including an image also allows you to leverage Pinterest.

8. Your Blog is Not Mobile Friendly

An increasing number of website and blog visitors now come from mobile devices. The total mobile traffic share is expected to go beyond 50%. Make sure your blog’s design is responsive so it can fit any screen size.

9. You Are Not Optimising Your Posts

Although there has been much talk about changing search engines algorithms lately, good on-page optimisation is still very important if you want your blog to be successful and want others to find your posts. Identify the right keywords and place them strategically throughout your content. If you use WordPress, a good free SEO plugin such as the “All in One SEO plugin” can make a big difference and save you a lot of time on SEO.

10. You Lack Perseverance

Running a successful blog requires a lot of hard work and patience. Anyone who tells you that a blog can become very successful within a year is probably not giving you the full story. It took me three years before I could start considering my blog a success.

If you are serious about making your blog into a thriving online business, you will need to be patient and have realistic expectations. Unfortunately, most bloggers give up within the first year. If you persevere and don’t give up, you are nearly there.

Conclusion

Blogs are one of the most effective ways to market a business online. It is also great for building trust and establishing yourself as an expert in your field. But blogging can take up a lot of your time. It is hence important to do it right. Given above are some common business blogging mistakes that can prevent your blog from becoming a success. Try to avoid them at any cost.

A good marketing strategy is a very valuable tool for any business.  In order for your business to be successful, it is essential for people know about your brand as well as the products and services you offer.  This is where a good online marketing strategy can help.

In this two-part article, we will take a look at some of the most effective strategies to market your small business. These will help to increase your reach and improve the visibility of your business in front of your targeted audience.

Here is the first part of “35 effective strategies to market your small business effectively”. The remaining points will be covered in part two of the article.

1. Make Sure Your Website Can Deliver Results

An attractive website can make your business look professional. But the real benefits will depend on functionality and ability to acquire customers for your business. If your website is outdated, consider a redesign.

If you cannot afford bespoke web design, you can take advantage of other affordable website services to get your business online fast and cost effectively. One such service that I have used before and recommend is smallbusinessecommerce.co.uk. They offer ready-made website templates with lead-generation features, free logo, web-hosting and set-up.

2. Make Blogging a High Priority

Blog is an excellent marketing tool for businesses. It takes time to establish your blog but the results are well worth the effort. To get most out of your blog, you will need to set aside some time every week to write quality content. The benefits of a blog increase manifold as you increase your publishing frequency. Studies show that businesses that blog regularly are more than two times as likely to generate leads via their website as businesses that don’t. It also builds trust in your business.

3. Start Building Your Email List From Day One

Most businesses are aware of the benefits of email marketing. However, many small businesses fail to leverage their website or blog to build their email list. This is best done from the start. A simple email sign-up form on your website can produce great results. Giving users an incentive to sign-up to your list is also very important. This can be anything from a newsletter to a freebie such as an eBook or Whitepaper that is relevant to your audience.

4. Distribute Press Release Once A Month

Press releases are easy to create and can be promotional in nature. The editorial guidelines are straightforward and it is easy to get your releases accepted on major press release distribution sites. It is an easy way to market your business and boost your online visibility. For best results, contact local media including newspapers and magazines to see if they will publish your press release. You may be surprised with the result.

5. Take Steps to Boost Conversions

There are many small businesses that get a lot of traffic on their website but fail to convert them into leads. Your website traffic is of little use if you cannot convert them into customers for your business. There are many ways to do this. Here are some examples:

• Use good call to action on website
• Use call to action in all other marketing material
• Make sure call to action are prominently displayed throughout your website

6. Learn From Other Businesses

You can learn a lot from other successful businesses in your niche. Simply looking at their website and social profiles can tell you a lot. There are also many competitive analysis tools that your business can take advantage of. Research your competition to get inspiration and learn new ways to market your business.

7. Offer Discounts and Deals

Every consumer loves a discount. Offering discounts and deals are a great way to market your business and reward customers. Make sure to promote your offers on your social media profiles and through articles and blog posts. There are also many deal websites that you can take advantage of. This is a great way to ge extra coverage for your business.

8. Run Competitions

Running a competition is another very effective way to market your business. Use a good prize or reward to entice customers. It also gets people talking about your brand. Social media sites like Facebook can be great for promoting your competitions and can also attract new followers for your business.

9. Start Using Videos To Market Your Business

Videos are very popular with consumers today and offer an excellent way to market your business. There are many ways a small business can use videos as part of their marketing strategy.

Displaying product videos on website is a very effective way to increase sales. Studies show that  customers are much more likely to buy if they see a video on your product or service landing pages.

Being active on YouTube is another effective way to market your small business. YouTube is one of the most widely used channels by consumers today and building your company’s presence on the site can get extra coverage for your business and help to attract new customers.

You can also start your own YouTube channel to post your videos as well as share videos of other users that are relevant to your target market.  Commenting on videos relevant to your niche is another way to engage with users and increase your brand visibility.

If you are creating your own videos, don’t limit yourself to promotional videos about your products or services only. Creating instructional videos that can help your targeted audience to solve common problems will get far more coverage than promotional videos.

10. Have an Ongoing Optimisation Strategy

Your website will be of little use if no one can find it on search engines. Simply optimizing your website at the start is not enough. To get good coverage on search engines, you will need to work on your website continuously, monitoring your statistics closely and refining your website accordingly. You will also need to update your site frequently with keyword rich content and work on building quality back-links to your site.

11. List Your Business On Popular Local Directories

Other local business directories such as Google Plus Local, Bing Local and Yahoo Local are equally important. Make sure to include a good description about your business and a link to your website.

11. List Your Business on Location Based Services and Apps

Location based services such as Yelp and Foursquare are very popular among consumers. Listing your business on these services is a great way to market your business and attract new customers.

13. Be Active on Social Media

A majority of small business already have a profile on the main social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. But this initself will not offer much marketing benefits for your business. To maximize the benefits of social media, you must do more. Here are some tips:

• Keep your profiles up to date and fresh with new information
• Post few times per week
• Add value for users by sharing content that is of value to them
• Engage actively with users – follow, share, retweet, like content of other users
• Don’t just share content from your website

14. Try Google Adwords

Google Adwords, Google’s pid advertising program, is a very effective way to get your website listed on search engines for your desired search terms. It can be very effective particularly in the short term while you work on improving your organic rank in the free listings. Due to increasing competition, the cost per click can be high but you can set a maximum monthly budget to keep your costs in control. With the right targeting, the ROI can be easily noticeable.

You can also use free advertising vouchers to try it out and get some advertising for your business for free.

15. Consider Paid Advertising on Social Media

If you are new and do not yet have a large enough following on social media, you can consider paid advertising on social media. Social networks like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube offer cost-effective advertising options for businesses.

16. Make Sure Your Site is Accessible to Mobile Users

Having a mobile optimized website is one of the simplest ways to reach mobile users. In spite of increase in mobile internet use, only about a third of businesses have got around to making sure their website is accessible seamlessly to mobile users. Having a responsive website that automatically scales to fit all screen sizes is a popular method. Alternatively, you can use free mobile website builders to create a mobile version of your website and redirect mobile traffic to this site.

17. Leverage Content Marketing

Content marketing i.e. producing and distributing quality content that is relevant to your audience is one of the most effective ways to market your business and attract customers. This form of marketing is also highly targeted. If done correctly, content marketing can prove a very valuable asset to your marketing strategy. For best results, product a variety content types such as articles, infographics, videos, or webinars and distribute them on several channels.

18. Have an Editorial Calendar

We have already discussed the importance of producing quality content. However, this takes time and effort. A haphazard approach will lead to a waste of valuable resources and not produce the expected results. This is where a publishing schedule or editorial calendar can help.

Conclusion

A good marketing strategy is critical to the success of your small business. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for years, the proven marketing strategies above can help to grow your business and find new customers.

This is the first part of “35 effective strategies to market your small business effectively”. The remaining points will be covered in part two of the article.

Here are some key principles that can help you with various aspects of running your business. If you want to get the basics right and make the full use of Internet for your business, make sure to follow these simple strategies.

1. Start Small

When you are just starting out, it helps to focus on a narrow market and devote your full attention to it. Some businesses make the mistake of attempting to start large and this can result in poor performance in all areas. Whether it the range of your products, the market you wish to target or the range of products you offer, it is best to start small. You can always expand later as your business grows.

2. Have a Great Website

Having a great website is one of the best ways small businesses can compete effectively with established companies. A good website can give your business the leverage it needs to succeed online. Many businesses make the mistake of focusing only on the design and neglecting functionality. Having the right features on your website is critical to your success.

Your business does not have to spend a fortune to build a good web presence. There are many affordable website services now-a-days that you can take advantage of if you cannot afford a bespoke website.

3. Maintain Quality Product

At the end of the day, it is the quality of t he products and services your business offers, that will have the most impact on the overall success of your business online. No matter what your business does or who you target, having a quality product is a must to succeed online.

4. Offer Good Customer Service

Good customer service should be a high priority of your business. Online support and help desk systems are becoming very popular among businesses, both online as well bricks and mortar businesses. If you get the same enquiries often, consider adding an interactive FAQ section to your site.

The aim should be to build a loyal user-base that is engaged with your business in much more than just buying your product. Encourage them to get involved and participate actively with your brand on your website, blog and social network profiles.

Some businesses are also using social channels such as Twitter or Google Plus hangouts effectively to offer timely support to customers.

5. Know Your Competition

Most businesses know the importance of competitive analysis but fail to take full advantage of it. There are many free competitive analysis tools that your business can take advantage. You can use these tools for a range of purposes from analyzing back-links to a competitor’s website to social media tactics used by them. It also helps to take research and take a look at the websites of your top competitors to get ideas and find ways to improve your own online presence.

6. Have Clear Goals

It is very important to have well defined goals for what you want your business to achieve. Once you have your primary goals listed, make sure your website as well your online marketing strategy is focused on helping you achieve these goals. A haphazard approach will not produce the desired results and reduce the chances of success online.

7. Market Your Business Effectively

Good online marketing strategy is critical for online success of your business. Although the Internet makes it easy to start and operate a business, it is also highly competitive. You will need an effective ongoing online marketing, SEO and social media strategy if you want your business to succeed online. Have a planned approach and set aside ongoing resource to market and promote your business online.

8. Use The Right Tools

Every business needs to be productive and efficient in order to succeed online. There is no better way of achieving this than using the right tools to support your business. Web-based tools in particular are very popular as you can use them from anywhere via an Internet connection. There are a wide variety of tools that  can help you with various aspects of running a business online. There are tools to help you to measure your website results, social media influence to website builders and social media dashboards.

Here are some tools that I have used and recommend:

• HootSuite – for social media marketing
• Google Analytics – for website statistics
• Google Awords – for Google Advertising
• Evernote – for managing your content creation
• Klout – for measuring online influence

Also, research for new and innovative tools that can help your small business. Some of the lesser known tools can enable you to get competitive advantage whilst improving your performance. Smallbusinessecommerce.co.uk and LaunchRock.com are some examples.

9. Measure and Track Your Performance

Simply having the right tools in place to monitor your performance is not enough. Successful businesses spend a lot of effort on monitoring their performance closely and making necessary changes to their strategy based on results. Simple analysis of your website statistics can tell you a lot about what methods work well and need more attention.

Conclusion

Running a small business successfully requires you to focus on several aspects. Above are nine keys to small business success. These apply to any business. If you want to grow and expand your business, make sure to follow these strategies.

When I first bought a website template to create my website, it took me more than a month to get my website launched. Finding a web-hosting company was easy. But I realized a lot of work was needed to customize and install the template.

What if you didn’t have the time or skills to customize your template yourself?  

You could hire a web designer to customize your template but this will cost time and money which is often something small businesses lack.

Given the choice, most businesses would rather leave the design to experts and focus on growing the business instead. With the new website service by the London based small business ecommerce.co.uk, now you can.

What Does It Offer?

Small Business Ecommerce.co.uk is a ready-made website service that offers businesses with a quick and easy way to get online.

Website templates and ready-made websites are nothing new. But this service has taken it a step further by combining full website templates with free logo, web-hosting and set-up.

Unlike typical website templates, your site also includes many working features that can be configured for your business as part of free installation.  On regular templates, these features are for display only and don’t really work.

Price:

There is a flat one-time charge of £49 or $74. There are no monthly charges.

Here is what you get:

• Website template with 6 core pages
• Additional template to add more pages
• Live chat feature built-in to the website
• Newsletter sign-up box integrated with the popular email marketing tool, MailChimp
• Support for over a dozen social networks
• Free logo
• 1 Year’s free web-hosting & set-up

Type of Designs Available

Here are some of the designs available on the website. There are many more.

Why I Chose This Service?

You get more than just a template. You get a working website, installed and configured by experts – all for the price of a regular website template.

Free installation was one of the main benefits that attracted me to this service. I have used templates before but finding the time to customize it myself or hiring a designer to do this was a major hindrance. It is a great idea to provide this free with the template.

Who Can Benefit From This Service?

Any business that is looking for a professional website with engaging features can benefit from this service. It offers viable alternative to using regular website templates. You can also benefit if already have a website but want to replace it with a modern design with interactive features.

What Other Alternatives Are There?

These days there are many options for creating a small business website affordably. Here are some other methods you may want to consider.

1. Website Templates

There are many other website template providers that your business can use e.g. Template Monster or Themeforest.net.  These sites offer a good option if you are willing to spend some time and money on customization and installation.

2. Online Website Builders

Website builders offer an easy to use interface and drag and drop tools to create a website easily and fast. It is similar to leasing a website for a monthly fee. The only drawback is that you will not own the code and lose your website if you stop your subscription.

Here are some examples:

• Shopify.com
• Moonfruit

Conclusion

Choosing the right method to build your small business website is a difficult decision for many businesses. Website templates are a great option particularly for a small business.

But if you don’t have the time or skills to customize and install your template, give smallbusinessecommerce.co.uk a try. They offer a combined service that includes up-market ready-made website template, free web-hosting for one year, and free set-up. For a limited time, you will also get a free logo for your business. My company’s website is built with this service and I recommend it to others.

Good usability is key to the long-term success of your website. It is essential if you want your website to be popular and keep users coming back for more. However in spite of its benefits, usability can be easily neglected when designing a website.

In this article we take a look at 66 simple yet highly effective ways to improve the usability of your website. You can take advantage of these simple usability tips to make your website more appealing for visitors and get more out of your website.

Here are 66 easy ways to improve website usability.

1. Make sure your website is accessible on-screen readers or text only browsers which are typically used by disabled users.

2. Use responsive web design to ensure your site scales automatically to fit all screen sizes including mobile phones.

3. Use simple HTML or JavaScript navigation instead of fancy navigation created in Flash or with the help of other complex scripts.

4. Use drop-down menu or sub-navigation within specific sections of your site if you have a large website with many pages.

5. Display BreadCrumb trail for improved navigation. See image below.

6. Validate your HTML code with W3C validation service

7. Use table-less CSS design as it will perform better on search engines.

8. Make sure your web forms are user-friendly and accessible even on-screen readers.

9. Make sure your design appears consistent on all major browsers.

10. Make your content easy to scan by using headings, sub-headings, bullets and lists.

11. Use Images to break up long text.

12. Use sufficient white space between website elements for a clutter-free layout.

13.  Take steps to increase the speed of your website.

14. Add Google Custom Search (CSE) engine to your website.

15. Make Sure search box is visible on every page

16. Make it easy for users to contact you by adding a contact form that is accessible from all pages of your website.

17. Display relevant on-screen success or failure message throughout the site.

18. Use custom 404 Page that is displayed when a page is not found on your site.

19. Use contrasting colours between text and background so your site is easy to read.

20. Display dynamically generated content lists to make it easy for users to explore content.  There are many possibilities including latest content, related items, top 10 items, featured products or content, and more. This type of content can be displayed as a regular list, within tabs or in other creative ways such as a slider or scroller. See example below which is common on e-commerce websites.

21. Place important information in header e.g. social media follow buttons, search box, other important links.

22. Use large informative footer. Newsletter sign-up, contact details and sitemap with important links are some types of information you can include.

23.  Use good contextual links within page content and interlink relevant pages together.

24. Use cookies to improve usability e.g. to pre-fill forms, remember login, and more.

25. Consider increasing font size by a couple of pixels. Large fonts are in trend and make your content easier to read.

26. Try to stick with standard font types instead of using fancy fonts that may not display consistently for all users.

27. Use relevant Tagline or slogan on your homepage to instantly inform users what your website is about.

28. Test various aspects of your site thoroughly e.g. browser compatibility, accessibility, mobile compatibility, broken links, and more.

29. Consider adding Live Support or live chat feature to your website to respond to customer queries in real-time.

30. Add Social Sharing floating bar. Studies show that it can boost sharing.

31. Consider reducing your social sharing buttons by limiting them to a few that convert best.

32. Consider adding a centralised comment system such as Facebook comments or Disqus to your website. If you have a legacy comment system consider replacing it with one of these.

33. Use social login instead of guest registrations on your website.

34. Display personalised messaging on your website e.g. welcome messages, or specific content based on user’s location

35. Use good error handling throughout your website.

36. Add JavaScript validation to all your web forms.

37. Add feedback form on your website so customers can offer suggestions.

35. Show full contact details on your website including full postal address for your business

36. Add your company’s telephone number to your header

37. Make sure users can resize fonts if required e.g. via browser control. On some websites this facility is disabled which has a negative effect on usability.

38. Make website content available in multiple languages to attract a global audience.

39. Check and Remove Broken Links

40. Make Sure there are No Spelling and Grammatical Errors

41. Include a Sitemap on your website and include a link in the header or footer

42. If you offer advertising, try limiting the number of Ad units per page.

43. Make sure there are no bugs on your website. Test thoroughly and fix all occurrences.

44. Make sure website loads fast.

45. Make your links on the page obvious e.g. underline your links and change colour on mouse-over

46. Divide large pages into sections

47. Use anchor links where needed e.g. on lengthy pages

48. Make sure core elements are consistent throughout your website e.g. navigation links

49. Provide a printer friendly version of pages

50. Don’t over optimise your page for SEO. Avoid bad practices such as keyword stuffing that can devalue your site and negatively affect usability.

51. Optimise your images so they are small in file size.

52. Exercise caution with animations. They can be distracting for the reader.

53. Avoid full justification. Left justification, with different stopping points on the right make text easier to read.

54. Make your logo into a hyperlink to your homepage. But don’t use this as a replacement for your home link.

55. Make sure page names and URL’s are SEO friendly and meaningful

56. Use descriptive and self-explanatory Page titles.

57. If you use pop-ups, make sure they are unobtrusive and not annoying for users.

58. Choose colours carefully to ensure they do not clash. Also try to limit the total number of colours used in your design.

59. Limit the total number of links on a page. Too many links on any given page can have a negative effect on usability as well as SEO.

60. Try to keep the most important information above the fold. Fold is a term used to define the part of a web page that is visible without scrolling.

61. Plan your information architecture carefully. This will keep your sections meaningful and content organised. It will also  improve your navigation.

62. Take advantage of affordance in your design. Use elements, controls, and buttons that are obvious and what users are used to. This helps avoid confusion.

63. If using videos and sound, make sure they are not set to auto-play as it can be annoying for users.

64. Try to include a FAQ section on your website to help address common user concerns.

65. Look into implementing personalization techniques on your website to offer a better user experience. There are many ways to do this. One of the simplest ways is to personalize content based on user’s location.

66. Offer user preferences. The possibilities are endless. This can be done easily with alternative style sheets. E.g. user can be given the preference to choose colours, increase font size, and more.

Conclusion

Usability plays a very important role on a website. Given above are simple usability tips that you can apply to your website with little effort. This can help you to improve your performance and get more out of your website.

If there are any other tips that you would like to share, please leave a comment below.