1001 Ways, Small Business•
on February 7th, 2009•
Putting up a blog on the company website is one marketing strategy that you can adopt for your company. Through a blog, you will be extending the usefulness of your website to your targeted visitors as well as give them a reason to come and visit your website again.
You should always bear in mind that your visitors will continue visiting your website if they find information there that are useful to them. Inasmuch as the purpose of your website is to help you sell your product, people will only buy from you if they believe in you. A blog can help you establish that belief and credibility that you need.
How a Blog Builds Credibility
How does a blog generate the belief and credibility that your company needs? Through a blog, you can build up your company’s image as an expert in its chosen industry. It is a time-tested marketing ploy for companies to name-drop experts or have experts endorse their products. Expert endorsement validates the product and lends the credibility of the expert upon the product.
For example, when Oprah Winfrey gives her blessing to a particular product, it usually sells. That is because Oprah has built credibility with her audience over the years. Her sudience believes that Oprah knows what she is talking about, so they might be inclined to buy whatever product she promotes.
That is what you should do with your blog. Through your blog, you should establish your company as an entity that knows the ins and outs of its business and can provide solutions to problems. Build up your company’s image as an expert through your blog and your products will sell.
The Words of an Expert
Since you have to project your company as an expert in its field, you should word your blog posts carefully. Your blog posts should be factual, insightful and easy to understand. If you have to state an opinion strongly on your blog post, back your opinion up with facts.
Conveying passionate belief in something is good when it comes to writing blog posts, but there is a line that separates the passionate expression of an opinion or an idea from the senseless ravings of a lunatic. This line is the proper usage of facts.
Find Support for Your Ideas
As much as you are trying to establish your company as an expert in its chosen field, you would be wrong to assume that you know everything or that every idea you have is original to you. Precious few is new or original on the Internet and whatever you may say is likely to have been said before.
Besides, there is strength in numbers, as people generally say. If you back up your idea with the word of another expert or two and provide a link to the blog or article of these experts that discuss the same idea, you are likely to generate more belief and raise your credibility. You would get your readers into thinking that if two or three other people have claimed so-and-so to be true, then it must really be true.
If set up carefully, a blog can be a powerful tool to promote your company’s products. As long as you have presented your company as an entity to believe in, you are more likely to convince your blog’s readers to buy from you.
1001 Ways•
on January 6th, 2009•
Let’s try to get real about animation here. If you have been doing SEO for so long, or have good knowledge about it, then you should know that animation is actually being discouraged. Here’s why: their file sizes can be very huge, which eventually slow down the download speed of your website. The attention span of Internet users, on the other hand, is very short, lasting only for few seconds. Thus, it means that before you can even show what your website is all about, you’ve already lost a potential customer. However, you cannot also deny the fact that too much content will make a dull website. You need to spice things up a bit to make it look good and appealing to your visitors. So where does that lead you?
You need to learn how to compromise, to establish balance between form and function. One way to do that is to use Flash animation.
What is Flash animation?
Flash animation is any film or cartoon created with the use of Macromedia Flash. It’s one the most favorite tools among website designers today since they never fail to attract considerable attention from Internet users—they add motion and interest to what could have been a very boring website.
Flash can be used to enhance the message of your website rather than having your pages appear to be text heavy or that your images remain static. If you haven’t got the idea, you simply need to look at the website of mobile phone companies. They can describe the many features of the phone, but what drives Internet users to buy them is the fact that they have taken a good look at them, perhaps by providing them with a 360-degree image of their chosen phone. Besides, in case you don’t know, information is understood a lot better when seen.
Do you have a Power point presentation? With the use of this new technology, you can actually convert it to Flash presentation, which will only improve the experience of your Internet visitor. Besides the texts that you can see in slides, you can also add videos and audio, which are both compatible with Flash.
Where can you use Flash?
There are a lot of elements in your website that you can convert to Flash animation. These include your headers and your logos. You can also animate your images to further add special effects. Nevertheless, one of the biggest contributions of Flash animation is its use in demos. You can help your Internet users save time by allowing them to really see or hear how something works rather than reading a step-by-step guide.
But how about SEO?
There are almost 100% of website designers that use Flash, so perhaps it tells you that it’s not harmful as other forms of media files. In fact, they can help increase the loading time of your website. You can just use GIF images as examples. And because there already plenty of web browsers that are compatible with Flash, you are sure that your website can be viewed clearly by your customers.
Web Site Design•
on May 17th, 2008•
Website design is important for government websites as well. The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission has created a new website to promote their services. Flash animation was used to enhance the website. For a website this large, it is well organized and easy to navigate.
Web Site Design•
on May 17th, 2008•
Located in Columbus, Ohio, the Morrison Sign Company has created a new website for their business. The website for this company effectively promotes their products and services. The portfolio page in particular displays photos of their work in a creative manner. Flash animation adds interest to the website as well.
Web Site Design•
on May 17th, 2008•
Website design is important in building a brand identity. NEX Transport, an Ohio-based international contract packaging, distribution and export company, has created a new website to display their services to the shipping industry. Flash animation was used to enhance the website and the opening is great.
1001 Ways•
on May 15th, 2008•
Redesign your website
Name an important marketing tool for your business. If you said your website… move into the 21st century. A website is the most important method for reaching customers and prospects. First, your website needs to brand your business. Then, it should to be optimized for search engines in order to be found. Think about keywords the next time you use Google. Next, you need to create additional paths for customers and prospects to find you. See How to Drive Traffic to Your Website from this blog. Finally, hire a professional to help get your business website fired up!
1001 Ways•
on May 13th, 2008•
Measure everything
Have you ever tried to cook something new and didn’t measure any of the ingredients? Unless you’re a great cook that often leads to disaster. The same is true of marketing your business. First, set a goal. Setting a goal is like picking a recipe. You’re deciding on what you want to cook and what the expected results will be. That in a nutshell (no pun intended) is the essence of measuring marketing as well. Your business goal or recipe for success could be to have 1 million in sales this year. You may need 20 new clients billing $50,000 each annually. Or 50 clients billing $10,000 each. Choose marketing methods such as cold calling, print advertising or search engine placement. Whatever the method, write it down and measure the results every day during the year. At the end of the year see what you have baked! Adjust the ingredients (methods) and begin cooking up sales for next year.
1001 Ways•
on May 12th, 2008•
Show me the money
Money, bread, coin, mighty dollar, piece of the pie… I know this sounds funny, but many people are puzzled as to the process of making money. Being profitable is the #1 goal of business. And by the way, if you don’t make money then you really don’t have a business. Over the years I’ve heard thousands of great ideas for new businesses – and a few that weren’t so great – and at least half of the folks that I spoke with didn’t figure out a way to achieve income. Many had a great idea that they thought would make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. But no way to get there. I once got a call from a person who had “the greatest idea in the world” that would make him millions but he didn’t want to tell anyone for fear that they would steal his idea and make the aforementioned millions before he did. I assured him that he had little to worry about but he wouldn’t tell me either. The secret to making money is to ask for it. Or more specifically, to ask for the order. It seems simple but it’s hard to do. Start with identifying a target audience, fulfilling a need with your product or service and asking for the order. Give it a shot, it works.
1001 Ways•
on May 8th, 2008•
Survey existing customers
How do your customers feel about your product or service? A survey is an excellent way to take the pulse of your customers. Stay in touch through informal lunches or a create a professional campaign. Sample questions should include: Why do you buy our product? Are you happy with our service? What can we do better? Are you buying the same product from another company? Try to find out why (how and where) customers buy from your company. Encourage them to be honest because you will learn more from your weaknesses then from your strengths. What do you think of our blog?
1001 Ways•
on May 7th, 2008•
Be positive in your outlook
It’s important that you feel great about yourself and what you do for a living. If you have a positive attitude about your job, you will succeed by transferring that enthusiasm to customers and prospects. When you wake up in the morning, are you excited about getting to work? Even though marketing and sales are tough and there’s a lot of competition in almost every industry, a positive attitude will get you through any obstacle. Being positive opens the door to creative thinking. And creative thinking shows you new paths to success.
