Interview with Terry Barth on Next Stage Business Radio

Pamela Muldoon of Next Stage Business Radio host a weekly show with local business leaders, teacher & business owners. I was a Business Spotlight guest on her show on Saturday, Feb 20, 2010. We talked about how I got in this business, what I offer to my clients and a bit about the industry in general. It was a fast 15 minutes! Check it out.

Interview with Terry Barth on Next Stage Business Radio

Citibank recently conducted a poll of small business executives found their use of social media to be very low.  Here's a couple of excerpts from a Rueters article on the Citibank survey.

Few U.S. small businesses have adopted social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter for business uses, according to research released on Thursday.

Also, 28 percent were using more email marketing and 25 percent using more online advertising to generate business leads and sales, it found.

The survey found 42 percent of small businesses have made greater use of their company websites to generate business leads and sales.

 

Nineteen percent were doing more advertising to attract new customers in the economic downturn, 38 percent said they were doing less and 41 percent were doing the same, it found.

Read the entire article

Why would I want to use Facebook and other social media for business?

It's a question asked by many business owners. What does Facebook have to do with business? Why would I spend all that time just socializing when I have a business to run?

All good questions. I've been asking around, reading and listening to folks who are committed to marketing their business using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I've come away with several key ideas that really address this question.

• Technology has changed how people react to advertising.
• The social media numbers are too important to ignore.
• People will do business with whom they know, they like and they trust.
• Referrals-which come from people who know, like and trust you-is a powerful form of marketing that brings qualified leads directly to your doorstep or website.
• Social Media can dramatically increase the number of people that know, like and trust you.

Technology has changed how we react to advertising

Technology has dramatically changed how we react to advertisements that come at us in all directions. We now have the means to actively avoid most advertisements and we do.

I rarely watch live television anymore. I almost always record a program, then fast forward past the commercials. Online, pop-up blockers keep intrusive ads out of site and out of mind. Our phones, media players and subscription radio and music services provide ad-free entertainment almost everywhere. Newspaper circulation is crashing and virtually all advertisements must now compete with an increasingly fragmented attention span.

The point here is, we avoid or block marketing that we don't ask for.

By contrast, we freely interact with business and products with which we have an interest. I subscribe to several forums, blogs and email newsletters for products and services that are important to me. I asked to be given information that is of value to me.

When I was shopping for a new TV, I visited several online forums populated entirely by people who had or were thinking of buying a similar product. To a great a extent, these were personal testimonials or referrals (good and bad) related to these products. These sources carried a level of trust that an advertisement would never have.

I also ask for product updates and announcements for selected products that are important to me, such as software programs, gadgets like my book reader, my car or updates from a neighborhood restaurant.

I'm not blocking these communications. I've invited them in!

This has been called Opt-in marketing, Invitation Marketing or Inbound Marketing. Contrast this to advertising that is intrusive, unwanted, or simply ignored.

The social media numbers are too important to ignore

As traditional advertising is losing its dominance, online communities and social media are growing by leaps and bounds. Consider this:

• In January 09, FB had 150 million active members per month.
• In July 09, that had jump 250 million.
• In August, it jumped another 50 million to 300 million active users per month!
• The fastest growing segment is over 35 years of age.
• There are more than 300,000 business pages on Facebook
• 100,000 of those are small businesses.

What does this mean? Your customers are on Facebook. This also means your competition is on Facebook!

People do business with people they know, like and trust.

People do business with people. Relationships matter. Will you do business with people you don't know? Perhaps. How about people you don't like? Probably not. And someone you don't trust? Never! Relationships do matter.

No wants to hire a contractor who doesn't return your calls or an appliance repair technician that is a jerk. In contrast, You're more likely to hire a tax accountant that has demonstrated her expertise in tax law or a mechanic that never surprises you with his bill.

Cultivating trusted relationships with people can only benefit your business.

Referrals--which come from people who know, like and trust you--is a powerful form of marketing that brings qualified leads directly to your doorstep.

Referrals are like gold. They come to you pre-qualified. They have an interest in you or your product. They have asked someone else they know and trust and have acted on the referral. It doesn't get better than that!

Social Media can dramatically increase the number of people that know, like and trust you.

Social media pull all these ideas together. Put simply, social media is about socializing, making new friends, getting to know each other better and building trust. Think of it like a conversation at a party or social gathering. You talk to your friends about things that you both find interesting. You make new introductions between friends, discover new interests in common, share ideas and talk shop. As long as you are likeable, honest and trust worthy in your interactions, your reputation and your personal network grows one person at a time. All pretty familiar stuff right?

Facebook and other social media tools work just the same way except they act as a multiplier of those party conversations. Facebook enables you follow and participate in conversations with all your friends and colleagues at the same time. They all can hear what you have to say and you can hear all they have to say. Whether it be about the kids just starting soccer practice or new business ventures, you are interacting with your entire network. All your friends are updated simultaneously. You don't have to wait until the next time you see each and everyone of them.

Now, consider that your friends have friends. If one of your friends says to you that they love your new products, all of their friends will see it too. Since they are friends, this information about your product comes to them from a trusted source. Someone they know, they like and trust, just mentioned that they like your products or services. So let's do the math. If you and all of your friends each have a 100 friends. It takes only 10 of your friends to say something about your products to reach 1000 people (assuming there is no overlapping friends). And that's just the first tier of friends. Remember your friend's friends also have 100 friends.

Pretty amazing right? It gets better. This cost you almost nothing-just a little time chatting with your friends. Add to the fact it's virtually free, you have reached 1000 people that have some level of interest in your business. A referral from these folks will be interested, pre-qualified and ready to do business with you.

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Special thanks to Pamela Muldoon, Networking & Marketing Strategist for Next Stage Busieness, who has conducted several workshops on using social media for marketing your business. She is an outstanding resource for any business that wants to leverage the power of these amazing tools. Here's her contact information.

http://facebook.com/nextstagebusiness
http://nextstagebusiness.com
http://www.facebook.com/pamela.muldoon

Writing content for your site - Six Steps

Probably the hardest part of developing or redesigning your new website is the content.  It is also often the task that most effects the time it takes to get your new site up and running.

Even if you are redesigning an existing site, you probably want to refresh all the content, including images, tag lines, call-out boxes, headings, captions even the page footers, this can be a lot of writing. 

If you are the business owner, you know your business best.  You're website content must closely represent you and your business.  Unless you've got a marketing team working for you that already knows your business model and key business goals, This is one task you can't hand off to an outsider.

Don't let this scare you off.  You can do it, with a bit of planning.  So here are a few pointers to get you started.

1. Plan

• List the goals of your business or organization such as sell products, offer services, etc.
• List the goals of your website such as educate visitors, develop leads, complete sales transactions, gather data, etc (read more about why you have a website).
• Identify the type of content that relates to each of your business and website goals such as product information, services descriptions, contact information, testimonials, etc.
• Organize the content into groups of similar types such as product information, educational content, etc.

2. Identify your calls to action

• A call to action is asking your site visitors to do something--presumably something that supports your business goals.
• Calls to action can be anything that draws your visitor closer to you and your business
• Examples might be, redeem a coupon, call for free sample, download form or sign up for newsletter.  Be creative but focused on your business goals.
  

3. Write your content for web readers

• Website readers typically scan top to bottom looking for key points, then scan left to right only on points that catch their attention.  Few readers actually read every word. 
  
• Break your content into small chunks.  Think of a few paragraphs per topic versus a few pages.  Smaller paragraphs are better than long paragraphs.  Long exhaustive articles are harder to write (and harder to read).
• Identify one or two key points of each content chunk and write to those points. 
• Start the paragraphs with these key points and/or use them as sub headings or tag lines for your topic.
  
• Highligh key points with call-out boxes or quotes.

4. Identify Key Words

• Keywords are very important for search engine results.  These are the words that someone would use when searching for your products or services.
• Identifying keywords is part science part creative.  You will intuitively know important search words for your business.  The trick is finding keywords that bring them to your business rather than a competitor.
• Very important!  Do not assume you know most of the important keywords.  You are not your customer.  Ask for opinions on this.  Conduct an informal "man on the street" survey to find out what words they would use to find you.  You'll be very surprised at what you hear.
• Once you have list integrate these search terms into your content. Do not just stuff as many as you can into a page.  Search engines are very savvy about this.  To avoid being penalized by search engines, weave your keywords into your content so it makes sense to your human readers.  
• This may be an interative process, write content, review for keywords, adjust content, etc.

5. Review & proof

• Don't underestimate the value of a good proofreader.  Use someone that knows your business and someone that doesn't

6. Revise & Refresh

• Once your content has been published, start planning for your new content.
• Fresh content keeps visitors returning to your site.  People can easily spot old, outdated material.  It reduces your credibility and the likelyhood they will take your call to action.
• Plan for news release, product updates, industry news, educational materials, tutorials, how to articles, etc.  Again, be creative but focused on your goals.
  

Who Are Your Clients

1. Start with demographical data - You probably already have the usual client demographics, age, occupation, income, education, geography, buyer, seller, etc.  If not, you may be able to make some educated generalizations just from your interactions with your clients in your business or organization.  Write this down.  You'll need to have some working facts or assumptions for whom the site is designed.

2. Beyond, the demographic data, who are your clients?  Are they hip young professionals, high school students, soccer moms or dads, lawyers, artists, theatre goers, engineers, polictians?  Each "personality" will interact with your site differently, will have different expectations and will have different needs from your site.

3. What do these personalities need or want from your site?  This is the part that can get a little tricky.  Its very tempting to say, I know why they come to my site and I know what they want.  It's very tempting to skip this step.  Be careful.  You may get it exactly right or you'll miss something important. 

Different personalities have different preferences.  Some personalities might want to talk to a person to ask about questions about the products or services you offer.  Others would rather read FAQs or product specifications online rather than talk to a "sales person".  You might want to gather email addresses from your clients before they access certain information on your site, but some people will not want to do this and will leave your site to a competing site that does not require personal information.  The point is you may not fully realize how your clients want to interact with your site.

4. How do you find out what your clients need from your site?  One easy answer is, ask them.  This need not be complicated or expensive.  Often just asking a few users why they would come to your site, what they think about your site, what would like to see on your site or not see, what do this like or dislike, etc.  Be creative.  Asking a few simple questions can reveal important information about how they use your site.  Write down what they tell you.

Another way, that takes a little more time but need not cost much (if anything) is to watch them.  Ask a couple of volunteers, people who fit your customer base or desired customer base, to sit down at a computer and go to your site.  Give them a few minutes.  Watch how they find your site (very important), watch to see if they're hesitate, express confusion, click on the "wrong" links, look for something that isn't there, or ignore something that is.  Write down your observations and then review it with them.

5. Succesful websites are designed for clients that are well understood.  They are designed around know client expectations, needs, wants, knowledge and capabilities.  The fewer the assumptions the better.

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What is the process?

Creating a new website or redesigning an existing site is really pretty straight forward.  I can help you through the process, but here's the overall process we'll follow. 

Make a plan - Write down your goals, objectives, budget, schedule and who's going to do what.

Determine what you need - Write down the needs of your business or organization, your clients or customers needs and the functions your site should provide.  Prioritize your needs/wants.  Map it to your business and customer goals.

Define Content - Develop all the content that will be provided on the site.  Identify current and future content needs.  Map it to your business and customer goals. 

Functional design - Determine how your site should be organized, how each function or service should work for your customers and how you want to manage your site.

Visual design - Decide on the style of the site, layout, colors, fonts, graphics, language, and interaction with your clients.  Review visual drafts.

Put it all together - Build the site, review the first prototype, identify minor change/adjustments, test functions & interactions.

Monitor the new site - Review usage statistics, traffic patterns, customer feedback, identify any needed updates.

Behind the scenes, Terry Barth Design will ensure:

• Search engines can see your information
• Your site looks good in all browsers
• The site is well organized
• Your site follows standard usability conventions
• The site navigation is intuitive
• The code is industry compliant
• Your site can be accessed by people with disabilities

How do I know if a new or redesigned website is worth the cost?

The easy answer is how many new customers or additional sales will it take to cover the cost of the new website? You may also consider how many existing customer or sales will you not lose if you develop or redesign your site.

For example, if your average profit on the sale of your products or servies is $200 and the cost of your new website is $1400, you will need just 7 new sales transactions or keep from losing 7 sales transactions to cover the cost of your investment.

What is a Content Management System?

A CMS, or Content Management System, enables you or members of your team to update the content on your site without the need for technical skills.  You can update frequently changing information, like announcements, news, special discounts, product information updates, communications to your clients, calendar events, etc.

How is this possible?  When we build your site, certain parts of your site will be designated for updates.  Using your browser, you'll login to the CMS.  It will give you a Word-like editor or a fill in the blank form for various parts of your website.  You type in the changes or add new content, save it and you're done!

What are some advantages to using a content management system?

• You can make updates when you need them.  There's no need to bring in the technical folks!
• You site is always up to date
• You can designate several people to update your site
• You can designate certain areas to be edited by just certain people
• Using your browser, you can make updates from anywhere.  No special software needed
• You can maintain consistency on those pages and portions that should not change. 
• You can make changes without risk of breaking something else on your site

What's the down side?

• Setting up CMS behind your website involves a little more planning
• You will need some training (not much really) on using the CMS editor and how to publish your content
• Best suited for sites that plan on frequent updates

Why do I need to update my site?

Here are some considerations

• Is the content on your site more than a couple of months old?
• Does your site tell clients about changes in your business?
• Do you announces promotions on your site?
• Have you announced new services or products?
• Are the descriptions of your products & services current? How about contact information, photos or links?
• Is your site consistent with your current marketing materials?
• Does your site help your business or organization achieve it's goals?
• Do your customers like your site?  Have you ever asked them?
• Have you looked at your competitors sites recently?
• Have you ever checked to see how your site looks in another browser?
• Do you have any broken links?
• Was your site designed before the latest versions of browsers became available?

Why do you have a website?

In this day and age, it sounds like a silly question.  But once you get past the “everybody needs a website” response, can you really answer that question?

A web site can do many things. It can present information, gather information, swap information, sell products, information or services, match up wants with needs, entertain or it can be a social framework for friends, family or businesses. What does your website do? 

Presumably your business or organization has some goals or objectives. You may want to sell more widgets, find new customers, solicit volunteers or gather and dispense information.  So how well does your website help you achieve those goals?

Your customers or target audience also have needs or goals. The may want to purchase a widget, volunteer their time or obtain information of some kind.

How well does your website serve the needs of your business / organization?

How well does it serve the needs of your client / audience?

If your goal is to sell a product and potential clients are searching for such a product, does your website help them understand your product, differentiate it from your competition, help them make a decision?  Does your website encourage your customers to choose or purchase your product or company?

These kinds questions are often overlooked when an organization decides to develop a website or to redesign their existing site. It's easy and intuitive to jump right to the visual design or to find another site to emulate. However, after much work and potentially a lot of money, these sites still may not serve the business, organization or your potential customers very well.

Web site development is not free. Any kind of marketing, sales or customer service has some cost involved. Most organizations recognize marketing cost as an investment to generate revenues or otherwise achieve their organization’s goals. Additionally, most smart business people will ask key questions.  How will the marketing tactics help my organization, how it will help our customers and how we will know?

The cost of a good website is no different.  Your website should have a specific purpose in mind.  It is an investment that should have a specific purpose in mind and functions that will help your business or organization and your customers achieve some goal.

OK, so how do you accomplish this?  First, don’t start with the web site design. Start with the questions discussed here.  Why do you have a website? How should it help your organization achieve it's goals?   Why do your customer’s need your website? How should it help your customer’s achieve their goals?