Why You Should Hire A Website Designer

Every company needs a well-designed website – both in terms of how it looks and how it functions. If you’re not somebody who possesses design or web development skills then trying to do it yourself can be a waste of valuable time. With something as important as this, it really is best left to the experts. Remember that your website is the base from which you will build your online reputation so it has to create a good impression.

You may have been told that designing and building a website these days is a simple affair with all the tools that are available to you. And yes, it’s true that with enough time pretty much anyone can put one together. But whether it will be any good is another matter. To create a really impressive website that will wow your customers and build sales takes skill and experience. If you try to do it yourself it can be difficult even trying to figure out where to begin. Even something as simple as creating a link will take time, and if something goes wrong with any part of the site you probably won’t know how to fix it.

Aside from the probability that your website will be a mess if you try to do it yourself, another reason for hiring a designer is that it gives you the ability to focus on running your business. You can be making contacts and working out other practical details, safe in the knowledge that a professional is building you a site that will promote your business in a positive way. Spending unnecessary time learning how to build a website yourself in order to cut costs takes your attention away from what you do best.

Web designers will know how to make your site beautiful and visually striking – but perhaps even more importantly they will know how to make if function quickly and efficiently. This is important because if clients don’t have a good experience of using your site they are unlikely to return any time soon. A good website is a speedy website, and a skilled web designer will be able to optimise aspects such as images and other graphics as well as using file compression and many other practices to ensure nothing is slowing things down unnecessarily.

Bear in mind also that not only does your website have to look good and work well, you also need to optimise its visibility on search engines or you won’t get the visitor numbers you need. Search engine optimisation, or SEO, can be a complicated business for the novice so an added bonus of hiring a good website designer is that they will be able to take care of this for you.

Lastly, consider that, far from depleting your resources, hiring a web designer is actually saving you money long-term. For one thing, they will be able to do the work quicker than you could, meaning your website is up and running and ready to make your money sooner. Also, as mentioned above, a well-functioning site means happier customers who are more likely to come back again and again and buy more products from you.

Tips For Trade Show Success

Trade shows can be the perfect opportunity for your company to showcase its new products and make important business contacts. But they require careful strategic planning on your part, otherwise all the time and money you have invested into your booth will be wasted. If you’ve signed up for a big event, here are some things to remember that should ensure you make the best use of your time there:

The Right People: It’s very important that you find the perfect delegates to send to the trade show. If, for example, you’re looking to forge new partnerships or win new customers you should consider sending executives and key sales people. If you are targeting a niche market then you should send an employee who is an expert in this field. It also might be worth arranging for a team member to speak at the show in order to set your company up as an authority. If you do, then obviously you need to pick a member of the team with great public speaking skills.

Plan Meetings: Don’t just turn up at the show and expect to be overrun with new contacts. To help you hit the ground running you should have planned meetings well in advance with potential customers or business partners. In addition to individual meetings, a good idea for wider networking is to hold a cocktail reception or something similar in your hotel suite and give a brief presentation. Invite as many people as possible to this, and hold it early on during show so you can reap the benefits of those new contacts.

Marketing Is Key: If you’re not going to put as much effort into marketing your appearance at the show as you do into your strategy whilst you’re there, then you might as well forget it entirely. Prepare a press release about your presence and distribute it through all available channels – email mailing list, social media, industry portals and so on. This should highlight what you intend to be showcasing and where you can be found.

But in addition to pre-show publicity – and this is one thing that many companies forget – your marketing efforts should carry on after the show has finished. Have somebody there taking pictures or compiling video footage so you can post recap blogs or send out press releases after the event, reminding customers what you were showcasing and how successful it was.

Plan Your Booth Well: Pay attention to the design and placement of your booth. Ideally you want somewhere with a high level of footfall; but supposing you are not able to secure a great spot, you will still want it to stand out and draw people in. Make sure it’s large and eye-catching with some attractive visual displays. If you’re showcasing new products, they should be the focal point of your entire set-up and clearly and succinctly described. It’s a good idea to have some kind of interactive element to the product display so visitors can really come and engage with them. A few free giveaways never hurt as well, as they give a good impression and also serve as visual reminder of your company once the show is over.

Don’t Just Sell: This may seem strange given that the purpose of your presence at the trade show is probably to generate new business. But this is not the time to make a quick buck: visitors will quickly melt away if your delegates give the hard sell as soon as they get within a certain radius. The people you send should be your relationship builders – those who can network and secure good contacts to follow up on when they return to the office. Make sure you are listening to potential customers – asking about themselves, their business and their needs.

If you are not sure of all the marketing angles you should be promoting at your trade show or exhibition then search out an expert in exhibition marketing to assist you.

Growing Your Business

Have you invested a lot in getting your business off the ground but now feel as though it’s reached a plateau? 

Launching a business successfully is hard enough in this day and age but achieving growth once you’ve done this is something else altogether.

If you want to take your business to the next stage there are plenty of strategies you can use to achieve this. The ones you choose will depend upon what kind of company you are and exactly what kind of expansion you are going for. 

Here are some areas you might want to consider:

Form An Alliance: Setting up a partnership with a similar kind of business, or one that complements your own, can be a very effective method of expansion. To give an example on a small scale: if you’re running a wedding planning business why not form an alliance with a catering company? Yes, you may have to shell out some of your own money initially to make it happen, but in the long-term the synergies between your companies should increase your prospects immeasurably.

Expand Online: If you don’t already have an online presence, you’re automatically missing out on a huge opportunity for growth. You need a well-designed website with clear descriptions of your products and services. So many people these days would rather buy online but they will expect to be able to do so quickly and easily, so you should make sure that the check-out system you use is highly efficient. To ensure your website has good visibility, hire an online marketing expert to implement an SEO strategy and teach you about other effective strategies – such as email marketing – to make the most of your online presence.

Open Another Site: If you have one shop or office and it simply isn’t meeting your needs anymore, it may be time to expand elsewhere. This could be to extend to another area of the country, or simply to give you further space to take on new clients or stock more product lines. Yes, physical expansion is always a risk but at some point you will have to take a leap of this kind if you want to take your business to the next level. Just make sure you have a strong, experienced management team in place to run it, that you have created a solid business plan and that you have done your homework in terms of consumer and economic trends.

Diversification: If you have taken your existing product or service offering as far as it can go, it may be time to look at selling complementary products or services. As a growth strategy, this is a fairly safe bet as you are simply building on your existing success and client base. It allows you to have several streams of income to increase sales and profit margins, and well as potentially dealing with seasonal slumps.

Should You Be Spending Less Money On Advertising? (And More On Content Marketing?)

According to AdGooroo, Amazon reputedly spent $54 million on Pay Per Click advertising during the first half of 2012. However 96% of businesses that use PPC spend on average less than $10,000 per year, and many of these are now seeking alternative marketing methods to deliver ‘more bang for their buck’.

Today’s most successful companies (we’re talking businesses of all sizes here), are fast recognising that continuous engagement with their target audience is the best way to keep their brands front of mind.

Such organisations are only too aware that advertising is a one-way medium – a marketing platform which offers no direct engagement with the audience. And as such it can be an expensive experiment.

The alternative?

Content marketing – and plenty of it.

A New York Times article (published 17 October 2012), reported on the considerable impact of PPC costs on small businesses, with one insurance company revealing that their original bid of $1 on the term “life insurance” had increased to a prohibitive $20 per click over a 10- year period.

At the other end of the business spectrum, CNN Money reported that since 2010, Nike has cut back on its traditional advertising (TV, print, radio) by 40%, in favour of creating content built around digital communities and high-profile sporting events. This cost-efficient direct communications strategy has seen Nike’s net income rise by $500 million and its company revenues by $3 billion.

Tips for reducing advertising spend in favour of content marketing:

• Set up a business blog and post new articles regularly (at least twice a week). Encourage your audience to post comments and initiate discussions.
• Produce an ebook and give it away as a free download to customers who sign up to your list on your website or squeeze page.
• Create your own YouTube channel and harness the power of video to attract more customers or clients.
• Launch a digital magazine (premium or freemium model). Many online magazine providers like Issuu offer a free trial of their software.
• Start a company newsletter (if your target audience is local you may wish to extend your offering to print).
• Create a fun app for your business. You don’t need a large budget to hire a freelance developer online from oDesk, Elance or AppBooker. (Ask the developer to sign an NDA if you are concerned about your concept being shared).

These are just a handful of the dozens of ways your brand could engage with its audience on a weekly basis.

Whilst content marketing can never be considered a quick fix; done well it amounts to a long-game strategy that could pay considerable dividends. At the same time, no-one is suggesting that businesses should stop running advertising altogether – that would be foolish. Many successful companies combine several elements in their marketing strategy. Ultimately, any activity that works for your business is worth repeating over and over.

Acclaimed US author and online advertising expert Perry Marshall says on the subject of PPC versus content: “AdWords is still doable and reasonably profitable for local businesses or those that have narrow niches and high barriers to entry. But you cannot put all your eggs in one basket. The ultimate goal for any business should be to drive as much unpaid traffic to their site as possible.”

How To Achieve E-Commerce Success

You may think that running an e-commerce business will be a breeze compared to setting up a shop and doing things the old-fashioned way. Be warned though – if you go in with this attitude you are going to run into problems very quickly. E-commerce does offer fantastic opportunities for start-up businesses: it is quite possible to reach a global client base in a relatively short space of time. However, in this fast-moving world you need to stay constantly up-to-date with ecommerce marketing techniques and technologies or you will be left behind your competitors.

Many e-commerce businesses have failed because their owners simply don’t know how to establish – and maintain – a strong online presence. With that in mind, here are some tips all small online business owners should bear in mind when they are starting out:

Business Model: It’s important that you’re very clear from the beginning exactly what kind of company you’re going to be. How will your business make money and what is it that makes it unique? What areas will you need to focus on in particular and where are the risks likely to be?

Know Your Clients: To be able to market yourself effectively to your core customer base, you have to know what their priorities are and what they are likely to respond to. How can you ensure they come to your online shop and not those of your competitors? Keep an eye on upcoming trends and make sure you keep your product range fresh, innovative and relevant.

Watch Your Overheads: If possible, competition between online retailers is even fiercer than between those who sell offline. Buy as low as possible by getting as close to the manufacturer in the supply chain as you can. Don’t rely on one supplier, but instead seek out several so you are not forced to pay more out of necessity. This way you can be sure of reasonable profit margins on the majority of your products, even if you make a loss on some lines.

Be Visible: This is perhaps the single most important rule for an online retailer. You may have great products, you may have a beautifully designed website and your customer service may be second to none. This will all count for nothing, however, if you haven’t invested in SEO. Your customers must be able to find your website so keywords, back links, advertising and blogging are all essential tools in your arsenal. SEO can be tricky to negotiate so many e-commerce businesses find it advisable to hire in an expert to ensure it’s done properly.

Communicate: The majority of e-commerce sites will rely on repeat business for the bulk of their sales. This means, if you are to succeed, your customers should have such a good experience of your website that they want to come back. Make sure all your product descriptions are clear and accurate, that you respond quickly if there is a problem and that you make it easy for them to communicate with you. Include email addresses, contact forms or comment boxes on your site, and use social media sites to encourage communication through these channels as well.