1,001 Ways to Improve Your Business #998:

 

Extend your product or service
Consider how you could add new life (meaning new sales) to your existing product or service. For example, people who buy your product might be interested in a warranty. Or there might be a whole new market for a used version of your product. Find other companies that produce similar products who do not sell in your territory, form a partnership and sell each others products respectively. If you provide a service, think of ways to be invaluable to your customers and prospects. Use your website to provide solutions and offer up-to-date information about your industry. Get out there and make it happen!

1,001 Ways to Improve Your Business #999:

Develop a new brand identity
Your brand identity is how customers and prospects view your business. And if you haven’t thought about your brand for awhile, then it might be time to take a look it. Start with printed marketing materials. When was the last time your business cards, brochures and sales sheets were created? For example, if your brochures have dust on them, it might be time to get a marketing firm to help re-design your image. There are also many new and exciting ways to promote your business online. Keep a consistent brand identity on your website as well.

1,001 Ways to Improve Your Business #1,000:

The customer is always right… always 
Don’t take this phrase for granted. We all have heard of customer-service horror stories (and maybe experienced a few). It’s easy to take care of customers when things are going well. But the rubber meets the road when a serious problem arises. It doesn’t matter who’s at fault. That’s when your business can shine. Make a point to solve any problems that a customer might have immediately. The bigger the problem, the bigger the solution. Satisfied customers turn into repeat, long-term customers. Remember who pays the bills.

1,001 Ways to Improve Your Business #1,001:

Establish an annual marketing budget
You plan a budget for vacations, right? So it’s a good idea to establish an annual marketing budget for your business (and increase your budget for gas this year). Include a breakdown of all costs including website marketing and advertising placement. Include the budget as a part of your overall marketing plan and measure the results of your company’s spending during the year. This enables you to determine what works and what doesn’t. A good rule of thumb for your marketing budget is 3% to 5% of projected annual sales. Retail businesses typically budget 7% to 10% of annual sales for their marketing budgets.

Redesign Your Website or How to Succeed in a Recession

Warren Buffett was quoted yesterday as saying that the US economy is in a recession. One indicator is that consumers and businesses are buying less products and services. And even though he mentioned the “R” word. Buffett wrote in a Friday letter to Berkshire Hathaway. “Despite our country’s many imperfections and unrelenting problems of one sort or another, America’s rule of law, market-responsive economic system and belief in meritocracy are almost certain to produce ever growing prosperity for its citizens,” Zig Ziglar, a famous sales motivational speaker, says that when some people believe that we are in a recession, depression or down economy, he chooses not to participate.

Now is an excellent time get motivated. There are limitless opportunities for your business on the Internet. Take a look at your website. Is it working for you? Is it bringing you new prospects? If not, then it’s time to redesign your website. Your website is an important marketing tool and website design is important to establish a brand for your business online. By redesigning your website, you have the opportunity to cost-effectively:

- Reintroduce your company to customers and prospects
- Present new products and services
- Freshen-up all of the copy
- Take new photos
- Add animation and video
- Develop database applications

There are many articles and examples on this blog that can guide you through the redesign process. So stop whining about the economy and take control of your company’s branding process. 

A New Website Design Can Improve Your Business

A new website design allows you to re-introduce your company. Think of a company like Apple and how they are constantly seen as innovators of their market. One method for giving your business a boost in sales is to review your existing website.

- Does your website reach your target audience effectively?
- Have you reviewed your competition’s websites?
- Does your website reflect your brand identity?
- Is your website search engine ‘friendly’?
- Does your website design look professional?
- Have you budgeted for a new website this year?

Sales does not happen in a vacuum. If you’ve done your homework by creating an effective brand, then the next step is to build solid marketing support to reach prospects, warm them up to your product or service, and make the sale. The more qualified prospects you can get into the pipeline, the better the opportunity to improve your business. And the Internet is the most exciting playing field to plant your flag. Online, the world is your oyster.

That’s not to say that you can put up an average website. Your website needs to be the best. When prospects visit, you want them to stay, review and be excited about your product or service. The goal should be to get them to call or send for more information. On low-priced items, get them to place an order online. On higher ticket items, a salesperson usually needs to make the close. In either case a new website design can dramatically re-energize your business’ sales.

Should You Hire a Website Design Company?

There are three ways to design and build your company website: Build it yourself, use an online service or hire a professional website development company. The first choice, building the website yourself, is easy and inexpensive. If you have the know-how, you can put a basic website up for in a short amount of time. Keep in mind that you need to think about the target audience, your competition and brand identity. There are other articles on this website blog that go into more detail about the web design process. There are also unlimited books and resources available on the Internet to help you build a website. The downside is the time it takes to build your website. If you own your own business, then you might have more pressing needs such as keeping the business running by focusing on sales.

The next method for building a company website is to utilize available online resources. Simply Google ‘website design’ and you will see hundreds of companies that offer pre-build websites for your company. I would recommend using this method if you are opening a new business. This give you the time to work out different versions of the content that defines your website.  There is a free service at ionWeb.com that offers a one-page, non-nonsense approach to get you started. When using this method, you won’t have a lot of choices, but it helps to get your website off of the ground without the fuss.

The third choice is to hire a professional website development company. If you don’t have the time or experience to use the other methods, then hire someone to help. When you find the right company, you get a more objective opinion about your company’s website. There are even businesses that offer marketing and search engine services that go beyond just the design and production. Obviously it will cost money to hire someone who knows what they are doing, but if you budget for marketing, including website design, your company stands a better chance of succeeding.

Before you start the project yourself give this some thought. When we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago, I reviewed the process and thought I could save money and do the work myself. However I don’t remodel kitchens for a living so I also assumed that I could only work weekends and weeknights and found it would take me a minimum of 6 months to complete the remodeling project. Along with the mess it also meant that we would be without a kitchen for that period of time. Long story short, we hired a kitchen remodeling expert; it was completed in a tmely fashion and we were serving meals to our family in our beautiful new kitchen no time.

Ohio Website Design, Part III

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.

Ohio Website Design, Part II

Morrison Sign Company, located in Columbus, Ohio, has created a new website for their business.  The website design 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.

Ohio Website Design

Lawhon & Associates, an Ohio-based environmental engineering services firm, created a cool website design for their business.  The company brand is established with prominent logo placement, good color palette and Flash animation.  It’s rare to see engineering firms with a bright looking website.

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