If this sounds complicated and scary, fear not, as even the most basic of SEO steps can help the search results of your small business website. When making a website for your small business, there are a number for reference guides that can assist you. Google offers a wonderful free SEO starter guide that can be downloaded to assist you with making a website.

What is the intent of your small business website?

Look in the mirror and ask yourself, “What are my small business website needs?” Are you trying to lure customers to your storefront, or are you selling your wares and services strictly online? Is your small business website a source for product and service information? Are you building and sustaining a relationship with your customers? A small business website can have a multitude of purposes, but prioritize them while designing and creating a new website.

6 Essential Characteristics of a Successful Small Business Website:

1. Simple Navigation.This is a must-have on all small business websites. You want your customers to easily locate the information they are seeking in a short period of time. If your visitors come to your website and have difficulty finding their way around, they will likely go elsewhere for their needs. Important information should be on multiple pages and navigational links should be clearly labeled. Think about how you would want a small business website organized if you were the customer.

2. Call to Action. Give your customers something to do when they visit your small business website. Do you want to drive sales, encourage visitors to enter the web store? The end goal you wish your customers to reach should be the strategy behind creating your call to action. It is important that this step is prominently placed. For example: you can provide a large link advertising special deals or sales. To build relationships on your small business website, encourage customers to sign up to become a member or receive a newsletter. Think of your small business website purpose when deciding upon your call to action.

3. Create an Attractive Design. An eye-catching small business website is an excellent means of drawing in customers. A large, catchy header and use of images will grab their attention. But, be careful not to overdo it and distract customers from your website content with too many bells and whistles. Speaking of website content, it should be very easy to read with simple font size and color. Content structure on your small business website should be formatted for readability with line breaks, bullet points and bold words, so customer can quickly take in the information.

4. Sticky Content. This is the meat and potatoes of a small business website. The content determines the quality. So, what exactly is “sticky content”? It simply describes great content that will attract visitors and get them to “stick” on the website and return again. The content on your small business website should hold value for your customers. Give them useful information and interesting points of view.

5. Credibility. Customers who visit your small business website want to feel like they can trust you. With so many scams out there these days, credibility is key. Scamming sites generally put very little effort into their designs, so paying attention to the details of your small business website is very important. Also, there are little things that suggest credibility, like unique domain names (ex: www.contactme.com), email addresses that match the domain name (ex: info@contactme.com), and legitimate telephone numbers.

6. Mobility. Everyone seems to be always on the go. Some experts suggest that mobile Internet use will surpass desktop usage as soon as 2015. Mobile browsing and shopping are big trends, so it is vital to keep up and have a small business website that can be accessed with mobile devices.

When Twitter first hit the scene, it was mainly used as an avenue for letting people know what you are doing. Some scoffed at it, not wanting to know what their friends had for lunch, but it has emerged as something much more important. The ability to reach out and start conversations with followers helps form relationships, which is important for small businesses and something to keep in mind to get new customers.

Getting Started

First and foremost, you need to create a Twitter account for your small business website. This is very easy and can be done with a quick visit to the Twitter website. Next, you need to make sure that your account is prepared for the influx of traffic it is sure to get. Below are a few tips for getting it all right:

• Create a user name that is easy to remember and as close as possible to the name of your small business website. There is little point in making a website if potential followers cannot easily find it when searching Twitter.
• Complete all the fields in your profile to look more credible and make it easier to find you in a search.
• In the “Bio” field of your profile, insert the URL of your small business website, which will drive traffic back to the site.
• Upload a relevant image that is in line with your small business website. When making a website, we recommended using graphics for the business logo – the logo would be perfect here.
•  Populate your Twitter account with insightful tweets before staring a strong promotional push so new followers will see you have something to offer that they want to be a part of.
• It is also okay to let followers know that you are new to Twitter. They will appreciate the honesty and allow for a learning curve, while at the same time presenting a human side, which is good for building relationships.

Building Traffic

Having a lot of followers is great, but not just for the sake of padding numbers. You want quality followers, as in people who are interested in what you have to say and like what you are doing who have the potential to become customers or recommenders of your business. These are the followers who will spread the word and let others know about your Twitter account and small business website.

One of the facets of Twitter is to get information to spread virally, which can easily be described as a chain reaction. You want your followers to retweet your posts, which will go out to all their followers, who in turn may retweet that message. And so, and so on, and so on. Simply put, you make a website, and then tweet about it and the message can spread like wildfire, as long as it is interesting enough to spark to a retweet chain reaction.

How do you get these quality followers, you might ask? Here are a couple of tips:

• Urge existing customers to become followers. Let the existing customers and visitors to your small business website know that you are on Twitter. This can be done by a small announcement on your home page and a Twitter icon widget that will link directly to your account.
• Start following similar entities and add to the ongoing conversations. Become a follower of others that have a similar focus as your small business website. To find these accounts, do a simple search on topics, locations, and/or phrases. Feel free to chime in on a discussion if you find it relevant. You can do this by addressing the poster by placing the “@” symbol directly before their user name in the post. For example, “I wanted to know how to get new customers and @jimmypagemaker had great info.”

Keep it Interesting

You went through the process of making a website for your small business and have amassed a group of followers. Now what? You need to keep them interested so they come back more and continue to retweet your messages. You may be limited to just 140 characters each time, but that is enough to get the conversations rolling. Here are some tips:

• Include links in your messages. People will not click on random links, so make sure to explain where it is they will be going. This is a great means of linking followers to your small business website.

Extra tip: You can use tools like bitly and ow.ly to shorten the length of the links/URLs and save some of those 140 characters. These tools also offer other features, like tracking visits.

• Send out tweets that relate specifically to your business or area of interest.
• Ask them questions. Get your followers engaged in a conversation.
• Tweet about the latest industry news. Let your followers know that you are one smart cookie and are on top of things.
• Develop a unique voice/personality so your tweets come off more “human.”
• Use hash tags (#) to mark a specific topic of the conversation and start or add to a trend. For example, “how to make a website made easy with #WebsApps.”
• Be consistent with updating your tweets; you don’t want your followers to get bored with long gaps between tweets.

What Not to Do

As with just about anything, there are things you should avoid when tweeting about your small business website…

• Blatant self-promotion. This can get very tiresome and very off-putting. Your followers already know what you are all about, so mainly stick news, conversations, announcements, promotions and industry talk.
• Over doing it. Some Twitter followers are very particular about having their feed overloaded, especially if it is from the same user. For the purposes of your small business website, try to cap your daily tweets to three per day. That is not to say that you cannot respond to conversations, but no more new topics.
• Duplicating tweets. This is a no-brainer. Your followers do not want carbon copies of what has already been sent out.

These guidelines should be very helpful in creating a successful Twitter following. Remember, when making a website, Twitter is just a small cog in the overall machine of promoting your small business, but it can be a powerful one.

Small business website contains content that is stagnant. 

Visitors to your small business website are much more likely to become return visitors if the content is frequently updated, providing a fresh experience.  An ideal game plan when building the website is to develop a schedule for regular content updates, which could be anything from new articles to special offers to advice for customers.  Consider information that is time sensitive and/or relevant to current issues in the news.  Keep in mind when building a small business website that you want the search engine crawlers to locate your pages, and fresh content is an excellent way to attract them. 

Small business website has too much content.

We have all heard of the K.I.S.S. policy (keep it simple, stupid), and that applies to when you are building a small business website. An overabundance of content, especially on the home page, is a real turn off for visitors, who want to quickly glean what your small business website is all about. If they have to sift through hoards of information, they will likely hit the “back” button and seek a website with content that is easier to digest. Content can spread out on multiple pages, giving visitors smaller bites to take in at one time.

And, it is not just about having too many words on your small business website.  Limit the amount of “fluff” (multiple large images, widgets, flash, etc.) that can make a website appear busy and cluttered.

Small business website is not utilizing photographs/images.

We have been talking content, but words are not the only thing to take into consideration when building a small business website. Photographs and images are a great way to help point out the intent of your small business. Often, a picture can say just as much as your words.

Photographs and images have much more to add to your small business website. They can add a vibrancy that makes the website friendlier on the eyes and more appealing. Also, properly placed photographs and images can break up a continual flow of text, providing smaller chunks of information for visitors to read.

Small business website that does not look like the real deal.

Visitors to your small business website want to feel as if they are dealing with a legitimate business entity. The inclusion of contact information, such as telephone number, email address and mailing address, is a giant step towards earning the trust of visitors. Being upfront with who you are, where you are and how to reach you will provide a sense of comfort and trust.  Other facets of presenting legitimacy to keep in mind when building a small business website are customer testimonials, social media usage and a blog.

Small business website that is boring.

Just like it is out in the dating pool, attractiveness is nice, but that means very little if there is no personality. When building your small business website, include an “About Us” section so you can tell your unique with a personal flair. You will have an advantage here over larger corporations, because you have more leeway to be witty and whimsical. In addition, the photographs and images you select for your small business website are an excellent means of inserting some personality, as is a blog with a creative voice.

This my lead you to wonder what it is you could possibly do to keep your small business products and services evolving. You can start by taking a long, hard look at what you are offering. What can be tweaked and/or added to spice things up? For example, if you run a donut shop, you could consider adding cupcakes to the menu, which seem to be all the rage these days.  From there you could play with different recipes and flavors to keep the evolution constant and consistent

Keeping up with the Joneses.  We’ve all heard that one before. Take a gander at what your competition is doing and determine if you can expand upon their business plan and make your own small business stand out among the pack. Be warned, as this could be a slippery slope to tread upon. You do not want to be viewed as a copycat or follow too closely, which could land you in hot legal waters. It can be done, though. There is more than one tablet computer out there, and there are numerous “green” vehicles to choose from. You just need to take a concept and make a unique one of your own.

Once you have taken that next step of introducing a new product or service, it’s time to announce it to the world. The first step is to reach into your ContactMe list of customer contacts and let them know of the new changes.  They will certainly appreciate the notice and the opportunity to experience this change early. Post it on all your social media pages (which, of course, have the free ContactMe buttons for quick access to your small business). Ideally, your customers will be so pleased that they will spread the word and bring in a new customer base.

New and fresh. Always keep it evolving.

What makes a business, small, big or in between, thrive at any time? Simply put, it is the customers. Without customers, there is no money streaming in, and no business that survives without money. When times are rough, people tend to tighten their belts and grasp the purse strings with the might of a vise grip. It’s moments like this when superb customer service can make you stand out from the competition. Managing your customers with ContactMe tools (management, calendars, buttons, forms, emails, etc.) allows you to keep up with their wants and needs, thus allowing you to serve them in a timely and professional fashion. Money might be tight, but when they need what you have to offer, they will be more likely to come to you for it because they feel valued.

Of course, attracting even more customers is just as important as treating your current customers like you truly care. Not everyone has the budget to advertise on television, radio and/or print, so creative alternatives are a must. The free ContactMe button is a great way to reach out to potential customers. Create different web presences (company website, social media sites, a blog) and place the ContactMe button on each and every one of them. Once a new customer clicks on it, they will get a ContactMe form they can quickly fill out with their information and any questions/comments they have. Once sent, that information is automatically added to your own contact list. Once they are in there, you can start managing the details and providing excellent customer service.

Another helpful suggestion is to start a blog with frequent updates so the content is fresh and people will make return visits. Discuss your business, industry trends, news and any deals and promotions you have to offer. Use ContactMe to notify your customers of the blog to keep them engaged in your business. In today’s social media atmosphere, content is always being shared, thus opening the door for your blog to be shared, introducing you to potential new customers. Now, bring on that stellar customer service!

Enter Social Media

Social media has become an absolute necessity in regards to online customer interaction. Customers expect to see a company’s presence on all of the major social media tools including Facebook, Twitter, and possibly new sites like Pinterest.  Blogging attached to a corporate website is also extremely important.

The point in all of this is recognizing that the places where customers will respond best are diffuse and scattered. Different customers prefer different means of communications. A smart company will attempt to engage customers everywhere. A strong social media strategy is essential to reaching your customers, wherever they may be.

Social media strategies can be complex and time consuming. They may even require a fulltime employee. You must decide how your social media platforms will interact with customers. If you sell something that requires customer support, social media can act as the ideal platform through which customers can get support and assistance.

Email is still very relevant

Email is no longer the most “exciting” means of communicating with customers, but it is still extremely effective at influencing customers’ feelings towards your company. The reason email can be effective, if done properly, is because emails represent a more personal type of conversation. By structuring an email to a customer that is designed to evoke a positive response, you can see how emails can be an effective tool at letting customers know about sales and other information.

The rewards are significant

A business that can reach out to its customers and convince them to spend money is going to be a stronger business than one that cannot. But in today’s sophisticated marketplace, customers want communications that are nuanced and attractive. Communication that engages the customer and convinces a customer to respond in a positive manner is key. You owe it to your customers to make yourself and your company available online to everyone!

ContactMe offers so many features that your old contact list will never be the same. By simply utilizing a free ContactMe button on all your web presences, potential customers can click on it and submit a form for contacting you. When this is done, you will be notified that they were automatically added to your small business contact list. Let’s see a rolodex do that!

Contact lists on ContactMe allow you to easily set a status on each customer, so you can quickly see if they are a current customer or a potential customer, as well as what actions need to be taken in regards to each customer. These statuses can be changed with the click of a button, so your contact list can be current and relevant with very little effort. Just take a peek at your contact list, and it will tell you everything you need to know about your small business customers.

ContactMe also provides a calendar as part of the contact list features.  Take a quick glimpse at your calendar and see which customers on your contact list need action in the coming days.  That’s a lot easier than sifting through old emails and post-it notes trying to determine which of your small business customers are due to receive an invoice or a shipment. Organization like this will please those on your contact list because they will see that you are professional and your small business is running like a well-oiled machine. A happy customer is a paying customer!

Starting and sustaining a small business is never and easy task, but if you utilize the ContactMe features to the fullest, your contact list will speak to you and allow you to take action in a timely manner.

Unfortunately, good customer service can be a rarity these days, and I am not just talking about being on hold on the phone for what seems like an eternity. Basic common sense, like addressing the needs of your small business customers in a timely fashion or keeping important appointments, is a vital facet of customer service. Luckily, these tasks have become easier with the features offered by ContactMe.

One of the most prominent features from ContactMe is the Contactme button. The free ContactMe button provides a distinctive means of being contacted by your customers and potential customers from any of your web presences. Have a Facebook page? Add a free ContactMe button. Have an eBay store? Add a free ContactMe button. And, of course, you have a small business website. Add a free ContactMe button, which is far more prominent than an obscure “Contact Us” link in the footer of the website.

By now, you must be wondering, “What exactly is a ContactMe button?” The ContactMe button is a customizable button that will reside on the side of a webpage, regardless of where you scroll or jump around, which will take visitors to a ContactMe form with all your information. This ContactMe form can include vital information, like email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, maps and a means for sending a message to you. Not only is this information easily accessed, but once a potential customer sends you a message through the ContactMe form, that person is automatically added to the contact list in your ContactMe account. This is a very useful feature, because now you can make notes about this new contact and keep track of correspondences with each other. No longer will you have to search all over the place for the last time you reached out to Mrs. Smith from Chicago. It’s all in one place and it is super-easy to manage.

Now, imagine a potential customer comes across your Facebook page and immediately wants to know more about your small business. All they have to do is click the free Facebook ContactMe button on the side of the page and the customized Facebook ContactMe form will instantly appear with the information they are looking for, without having to seek it out themselves by clicking multiple links.

All of this ties back in with good customer service. Readily accessible information is much appreciated, and you will be viewed in a positive light from the get-go. With the customers added to your ContactMe contact list, you will be able to easily manage communications and provide stellar customer service. Good customer service equals happy customers and happy customers equal an increase of sales.

It’s not necessarily easy to initially lure new customers, but utilizing the free ContactMe buttons and ContactMe forms are an excellent means for getting your foot in the door. It is up to you to do the rest by using the other ContactMe features to manage your customers and provide the best possible customer service.

Is public relations right for you and your business?

Public relations is the most affordable form of marketing. Unlike advertising, which can require the hiring of designers, content writers and creative directors, public relations is a much more focused effort that revolves around engaging the media. Public relations typically requires a smaller staff and thus is far more inexpensive. Smaller companies tend to look at public relations first, and then once they get larger, will begin to advertise.

Public relations versus advertising

Public relations is also more widely used than advertising. Many types of businesses are not traditional users of advertising for a variety of reasons. A law firm, some smaller financial institutions, and other industries that have an explicit or implicit ban on advertising will see public relations as the only means they are allowed to use market themselves to a wider audience. Other industries traditionally avoid advertising simply because it is seen as too expensive and rely on public relations as their primary means of marketing.

Potential negatives of PR

While PR is generally affordable, it isn’t always the best way to market your business. Some products and services are really best left to advertising. If you have a window cleaning service, for example, an article in the local paper might be helpful, but a campaign of flyers around the neighborhood would probably be better.
Public relations can also cause damage your business if done improperly. Since it is conducted through a neutral third party, the media, you may be confronted by uncomfortable questions about your business. Be prepared before you engage the media to answer any and all confrontational queries.

Start out with public relations, and then move on to other mediums

If you’re a small business that is just entering the realm of marketing and publicity, it might be wise to start out with a public relations campaign as your initial foray into the world of marketing. Public relations would mean contacting local media and alerting them to the existence of your business. You may want to hold events that also showcase your business. These events can bring in media attention and make the public aware of your existence more directly. Whatever you do, do it with the same careful consideration you’ve put behind every other aspect of your business, and you’ll be far more likely to succeed!