IGS-Local-Solutions
- 1. WEBSITE AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS for local small business owners Internetgrowthsystems.com
- 2. “For when you don’t know what you don’t know”
- 3. You are an expert in your field. You know the in’s and out’s of your business really well. I mean REALLY well. Most of the tasks you do have become second nature for you. You can do them automatically without thinking, and let’s face it you could probably do them blindfolded with one arm tied behind your back. It’s not this side of your local business that is giving you cause for concern, maybe even sleepless nights. Oh no, it’s the other side … the dark side. The side that is like trying to hit a moving target, blindfolded and with both arms tied behind your back. This is definitely NOT why you went into business. BUT you know it’s something you need to do, no matter how much you try to put it off. 3
- 4. “If only there was a solution …”
- 5. And surprise, surprise there is! More than one in fact. It just depends on your own unique set of circumstances to how you build up your own solution. You will be relieved to learn that there is no right or wrong answer, only the right answer for YOUR business. Phew! So what are these solutions? Oh hold up, I forgot to mention something … 5
- 6. “How can you pick the right solution when you even don’t know the REAL problem you need to solve?”
- 7. It’s time to go back to basics so that you have an understanding about the problems you are facing. Thankfully it comes down to only TWO things. Leads and Sales. Yep, you read that right - two things – leads and sales. If you don’t have a constant flow of leads (potential customers) then you can’t get more customers and without customers you don’t have a business. What? You knew this already? Oh sorry, did you think it would be something different? No matter whether you are marketing your business online or offline your end goal is ALWAYS to get more leads and then to turn these leads into customers (and thereafter repeat customers). Now we are on the same page, let’s move on … 7
- 8. “How can I get more LEADS for my business?”
- 9. The first thing you need BEFORE you get leads online is to give the leads somewhere to go to find out more about your business because … The majority of customers will research you online before making a final purchasing decision. Step One – Get Your Own Website This has to be ALL YOURS. You need to OWN: • the domain • the web hosting • email access • … everything Some web developers will register your domain for you or give you web hosting as part of their package, however this may (not always, but may) cause you problems in the future. 9
- 10. What if they disappear? You’d lose everything, even although you’d paid for everything upfront. You’d need to start from scratch again and any marketing you had set-up would be sending traffic to a website you no longer had access to, or even worse, the website would disappear and your website visitors would think you had gone out of business. Is it worth the risk? A domain can be bought for around $10/year and web hosting for as little as a few dollars a month. Just in case you were still tempted by the “free” website solutions available, I’d better explain WHY choosing a free solution can end up being a VERY expensive solution instead. Free sounds great, in theory. It means you can then use your budget in other areas, however there is ONE reason why free is not a good idea (and believe me there ARE times when free should be snapped up with both hands). Control, or more accurately – lack of control. 1. Just like the disappearing web developer, your free platform can change it’s terms and conditions at any time and delete your website and there is nothing you can do, losing everything. 10
- 11. 2. They can put advertising on your site (possibly pointing to your competition) to keep the service “free”. 3. You can’t freely (see what I did there?) add more functionality to your website as your business grows. You are stuck with what they give you, unless you pay for “extras” and that might not include what you need and end up more expensive than other paid solutions. Now that “free” is no longer an issue, let’s move on to what solution you should be looking for. Your website should be built on a content management system. A content management system is a website platform where you can easily add, edit and manage your website content yourself (or hire someone to do it). You won’t be tied to having your web developer edit your content after they hand your website over once it’s finished. The choice of HOW to manage your site will be yours. It’s also much easier to add additional functionality to your website as your business grows. Whether that includes an ecommerce store, a membership site, directory or anything else that would be useful to either attract more website leads or make you more money. 11
- 12. So what functionality should you have to start? Well let’s work backwards and pretend your website has been created and it looks even better than you expected. Your website has been created as a place to send web visitors to find out more about your business and so far you have made a great first impression with your website (as first impressions ALWAYS count, right?) Most visitors who land on your website only want to check you out. They most likely won’t buy or make contact on their first visit and once they leave your website they may not come back so you need to grab their attention. How do you grab (and keep) their attention? • You need to give them what they are looking for on their first visit and make it VERY easy for them to find the answers they seek (think frequently asked questions) • Make it very easy for them to contact you using THEIR preferred method of contact (phone, email or online chat) • Give them a reason to join your email list (so you can easily follow up with them) 12
- 13. The most important function is always to turn your website visitor into a LEAD. In online terms, a lead is created by a website visitor either joining your mailing list or making contact with you via phone or email. You then have their details that you can use to follow up with them in the future. Just remember to ask any phone or walk-in leads how they found you (and why they chose you). This is valuable information that you can use later. This then leads us nicely on to step two … 13
- 14. Step Two - Email Marketing Strategy It’s not enough to just capture email addresses, you have to USE your list. It may seem like yet another “to do” that is more trouble than it’s worth. If this is the case for you then … You are NOT doing it right! If however you haven’t started an email list yet, then this is the PERFECT opportunity for you to start on the right foot AND understand why doing so is SO important. Imagine you are having a slow week and need an injection of cash (like that has never happened!). Scenario 1 – Current Solution For an immediate solution you put a special offer sign in your place of business hoping passers by see it and come in. You add a banner or create a blog post on your website (if you’ve got one). Perhaps send the offer out to your social media profiles (if you use them). You can also mention it to anybody who contacts you via phone or email. 14
- 15. Going a step further, you can get leaflets printed and delivered locally, or perhaps take an ad out in your local newspaper, both can be costly with no guarantee to recoup your costs let alone make a profit. Then you sit and wait, and hope. Scenario 2 – Email Marketing Solution In this scenario you are rightfully expecting a much easier and profitable solution. Always put the worst case scenario first right? However, there are TWO outcomes to this scenario and it depends on how well you’ve been managing your email list to how successful this scenario will be for you. If you haven’t been looking after the leads on your mailing list like the valuable business asset it is, then your results could be disappointing. There is a saying online “the money is in the list” and what this means is that many business owners, when they send out an email they make money. They send out an offer and within minutes money starts pouring into their bank account. Is it really this simple? 15
- 16. Well no, otherwise everyone would be doing it – successfully! If you have just been adding people to your list and not regularly sending out email newsletters then chances are when you do decide to send out an email, especially if it’s a sales promotion, your results will more than likely be disappointing. This is sending an email to a cold list. A cold list is a list that you haven’t invested time and energy into. The leads are not used to receiving any emails from you and when you do send the odd email, very few actually open it. A level of trust hasn’t been built up. The good news is, is that you can easily change a cold list into a warm list. When you are working with a warm list, your leads are opening and reading the emails you send because they are expecting emails from you because you email them regularly. They click through links and email you any questions they have. As you can probably guess, your results from an email sales promotion with a warm list will be that much more successful (and profitable). It’s like if a stranger emails you asking you to buy something compared to if a friend sends you a recommendation, knowing you are interested in what is being offered. How many sales do you think emailing a warm list would generate for YOUR business? 16
- 17. Well, like everything, it depends. Not quite what you were expecting? It depends on how many are on your mailing list, how responsive they have been in the past and what you are offering. There are NO magic beans, Jack! But there are tried and tested strategies that make it seem like magic beans DO exist. Now imagine what would happen if you PLANNED out an email marketing calendar with upcoming events, regular content etc. Then implemented it with another strategy … 17
- 18. Step Three – Content Strategy You might think that once your website has been created that there would be no need to create further content, unfortunately you’d be wrong. Content makes the world go round, or drives traffic to your website, whichever you prefer to go with. Content can be created in any format: • Written • Audio • Video • Graphics • Software How you create your content depends on your personal preference but also what your customers prefer (and will share!). In the previous section we talked about having an email marketing strategy. For this you need content to send out to your mailing list. 18
- 19. For this we want to repurpose our content. Repurposing content means that you use the content you create (or get created for you) for multiple uses. It’s just makes smart business sense and saves time (and therefore money!) So the blog post that you just wrote can then be used as content for your mailing list and in the next section we talk about traffic. We need content to give to our traffic sources in order for them to visit our sites. The more content we create, the more ways we can repurpose it AND use it to generate traffic to our website. You want to create useful content that your visitors will want to share on their social profiles, hence driving more traffic back to your website. As you can see, the content you create can be integrated with a variety of strategies. Did I mention that search engines LOVE fresh content? 19
- 20. Step Four – Traffic Strategy Without traffic your website won’t get any results, but not all traffic is created equal so you need to be directing QUALITY traffic to your website. There are 3 types of traffic, or 4 if you are using Google Analytics to track your results as it separates referral traffic and social media traffic. The 3 types of traffic are: • Direct • Referral • Search Direct traffic is when a website visitor types your url into their web browser in order to view your website. This method, unless you have a tracking strategy in place, is very difficult to know exactly where this traffic has come from. There are a number of reasons why you’d be getting direct traffic including: 20
- 21. • your website visitor is a regular visitor and knows to type in your domain URL to view your website. • you have an ad on a flyer, a local newspaper or company vehicle with your website address. • you’ve been to a local networking event and handed out your business card. Any traffic coming from these examples is great, but the way to REALLY profit from direct traffic is to have a strategy in place where you use inner site links, rather than home page links to send this type of traffic. Why? Because you don’t know where this traffic is coming from. Therefore you don’t know which of your traditional marketing methods is working, as well as what’s not. You could be spending time and money on a marketing strategy that isn’t getting you results – and how would you know? And as we go forward website visitors is NOT what we track. We track leads and sales as that is what makes you money. It doesn’t matter if you get 10,000 visitors on your website if you don’t at least get some leads out of it, likewise if you get 10 visitors and 2 people contract you for services or buy your products who cares that you only got 10 visitors, the important stats are the sales. 21
- 22. Which would you rather have? Referral Traffic is where a link to your website is on a third party website elsewhere on the internet, and someone then clicks on that link to land on your website. The more referral links you have pointing at your website the better, so long as they are QUALITY links and don’t come from places like link farms. If you don’t know what these are then good, as you REALLY don’t want to go there! Referral links could be from: • your social media posts or bio’s. • someone recommending your website to others in a forum. • a local directory • and many, many more places! When you post your website link on third party websites you don’t always have to link to the home page. Often it is a good idea to link to the inner pages as well, but not just any inner pages, oh no. Link to the inner pages that have content that will entice your website visitor to sign up to your mailing list as a lead, or to make a purchase. 22
- 23. Search Traffic is surprisingly traffic that comes from search engines! Although the majority of your search traffic will come from Google, Bing and Yahoo will also send search traffic to you too. You may have heard the term “SEO” which stands for search engine optimization. Where you carry out on-site SEO tasks to make your website as search engine friendly as possible. This includes things like: • unique page titles of no more than 55 characters. • unique page descriptions of no more than 155 characters. • mobile friendly. • easily accessible sitemap for search engine bots. We offer a free website audit report here if you want to check how search engine friendly your website is. Although you may think that search engine traffic is effectively free traffic, it’s not. In order to get that “free” traffic you need to spend time and money to actually get on the first page of Google for your chosen keyword(s) by continually improving both your on-site and off-site SEO factors. 23
- 24. As you can see there are a wide variety of traffic generation strategies you can implement. You NEED traffic because “build it and they will come” doesn’t work. Just because you have the best looking website you have ever seen and invested a lot of money in it, you are not guaranteed visitors. Just because you provide the best content in your field, you are not guaranteed visitors. Just because you have an email campaign all set up perfectly, you are not guaranteed anyone will sign up. On the internet you don’t have “foot traffic” coming past your website with the off chance they will pop in and see what your business is all about. However, with a traffic strategy to drive QUALITY visitors to your website THEN you are guaranteed visitors and the rest of your marketing strategies can come into their own. 24
- 25. “Why you need to have an integrated approach”
- 26. We have gone over some of the different aspects of managing and marketing your online presence in the previous sections. Although created as separate sections hopefully you have begun to see how they are actually far from separate, rather they all integrate rather nicely with each other. Think about building your strategy like building layers. You won’t be able to create something that will suddenly increase your leads and sales overnight. A bit like the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady DOES win the race. There are tactics that will bring in quicker results than others but often have short-term results (like social media) whilst email marketing might be slow to start with as you build up your numbers but then you will reach a tipping point where it is VERY profitable to have a mailing list. Always start with what you’ve got and improve that first. You want to start building up the individual tactics that appear under the larger strategies, namely – website, leads, traffic, sales. Track your results to see what is working and what’s not and do more of what IS working and drop what’s not – it’s really not rocket science. 26
- 28. “The final step …”
- 29. Can We Help? We’ve added as much content as we can to get you started on your own, however we find that many of our clients prefer us to create their web and marketing strategies for them and then implement it. If you would like to go over YOUR best strategy, then why not book a FREE 30 minute consultation HERE: http://internetgrowthsystems.com/free-consultation/ This is a no obligation call, at a date and time that suits YOU. Looking forward to speaking with you soon! 29