Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a Happy and Successful 2012!
Archives for 2011
Holiday Shopping Suggestions – Supporting Small Business Cyber Shops
The holiday shopping season kicked off with some distasteful Black Friday incidents last week. Hearing about these unsavory incidents makes me glad I’ve never bothered with Black Friday, I’m more of a Cyber Monday kind of gal, and I support Small Business Saturday. I think it’s important to support your local small businesses including brick and mortar and online stores.
Although the big kick-off shopping weekend is over, I’m sure there’s more shopping to be done. If you prefer to avoid the mall hubbub and feel like staying home in your jammies and doing some on-line shopping this holiday season, here’s a list of clients who are small business owners that sell or show products online. They’re all reputable honest people with great products. The * indicates you may need to call to purchase.
Art
Astrology Calendar & Services
Books
- Not My Mother’s Wedding
- From May Sarton’s Well
- The Good Financial Advisor
- Montessori Madness and other Children’s Books
- Octavian Chronicles
- Beyond Location, Location, Location…A Systematic, Promotional Approach to Marketing Commercial Real Estate
Food & Beverage
Health & Fitness
- Pedometers from EveryBodyFit.com
- Massage – MyHandsYourHealth.com*
- Personal Training – JudithScottFitness *
- Chair Massage & Wellness Programs – http://totalbalancelifechoice.com *
Jewelry
- AlisonDesignsJewelry.com
- Lapistree.com (see the BellaSanté section for online sales)*
Motorcycle & Auto Accessories
- EzShadow – The easy way to cover your Toll Pass
- GoodGuysPowerSports – Motorcycle Gear & Accessories
- Uni-Go Motorcycle Trailers
Travel Services
Museum Store
- Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum Store & Holiday Events in Wethersfield (no on-line shopping but Black Friday hours at the Museum Store and many holiday events through December) *
And Finally, Santa Claus
- SantaVisitsCT.com to schedule a Santa visit to your holiday party. *
Happy Holidays!
My Secret Weapon – Google and an unknown 13-year old
Today I had a unusual call from a long-time client. (I promised not to reveal her name). She apologized for calling me because the problem had nothing to do with her website or her online marketing but she was extremely disoriented because her computer screen had flipped upside down.
I laughed.
“How did that happen?” I asked and then I chuckled some more.
Apparently my client had accidentally hit the combination of keys that’s the shortcut for flipping your display. Yeah, that’s a handy shortcut. Thank you Microsoft.
“It’s not funny,” she said. “Not only is the screen upside down, but the mouse is backwards”.
I laughed again. “Did you try turning the mouse upside down?” I asked.
Meanwhile, while poking fun at my client I did a quick Google search for “upside down display screen” and I quickly found a forum where others had run into the problem. Scanning the forum I saw one that began with “I’m 13 years old and I have the answer to the problem…”
The 13-year old recommended going to the display settings where you will find the option to flip your screen. Who knew? I’m 53 years old and I didn’t know that option existed, but Google and the 13-year old kid made me look like a hero. Thank you Google and unknown 13-year old (you little smartie-pants).
WordPress Tutorial #3 – How to insert a link
This morning I had two different clients ask how to insert a link in the text on the WordPress website. This short video demonstrates how to insert a link to other pages within your website and to a web address outside of your website.
When to Launch?
We’ve been working with several clients recently who have been reluctant to launch their websites. Most often they will tell you it’s because it’s not done yet. Technically, a website should never be done. You should be constantly adding to the site. Whether it’s using a blog or adding to a press page, the more often you update the site, the more reasons your customers and prospects have to come back to your site. It’s also the best way to improve your search engine ranking.
People tend to view launching their site like it’s going to print. Once it’s up it can’t be changed. When the fact is that it not only can but should be changed. The trend towards content management sites such as Word Press are in response to the need to update frequently.
When deciding to launch ask yourself, Is it better than what’s out there now? If it’s a new site, the sooner you get it launched, the sooner your prospects will be able to find you. It will also get you indexed by the search engines sooner. If it’s a new site, Does it look and function better than the old site? If so, get it launched and add to it later.
A few years back, you would see “page under construction” and know that the site wasn’t complete. This is no longer the practice. If you don’t add a page until it’s ready, no one but you will know the site’s not “done”.
Jewelry Designer’s Website
The website has multiple portfolio sections to display jewelry collections. View the website at LapisTree.com
2-D Animation
Our client had a process that they wanted to show but could not accomplish through straight video. We were able to combine video, photos and 2-D animation to fulfill their need. Adding copy and voice over allowed them to highlight the points and products most pertinent to their customers. Although the piece was created to use at meetings and sales presentations, the addition of music allowed them to use it at trade shows as well. View the presentation
10-Minute WordPress Tutorial #2
This tutorial is for beginners just learning how to add pages to their WordPress website. Topics include adding a page, copying text into the page, adding a text widget to the sidebar, and adding a menu item using the custom menu feature. The demonstration site in this tutorial has the Enterprise /Gensis Theme by Studiopress installed.
SEO is Not a Silver Bullet to Sales
This morning I came across a post offering the top things not to do when optimizing your site for Google search. See “Search engine optimization Elite Review On Google Prime ten NoNo’s” The points are all valid and a well optimized site should follow all the rules if they want to have their site rank as high as possible. The problem I see with many customers is their laser-sharp focus on getting a good search engine rank while neglecting other marketing and possibly even the website itself.
This hyper-focus may have been enhanced by the glut of SEO experts telling people how vital SEO is to their success. But, web site owners would be wise to remember that the only thing good SEO will do is have your site show up in a site search. It’s not a silver bullet to sales. It will only improve the odds or bringing customers to your website. After that it’s up to you and your website to impress potential customers with amazing content–content that’s current, clear, accurate, informative, and attractively designed.
So while you’re reviewing SEO strategies (because I’m not discounting the effectiveness of a well-optimized site at getting people to the door) don’t forget to review your website. The stuff that customer’s actually see is as important as a good SEO strategy. Here’s a brief checklist of things you should be looking at:
- Is it clear (to the layperson) within seconds of landing on any page in your website what you’re selling?
- Is your phone number visible? On every page?
- Do you give people a reason to call you? Do you clearly state benefits of doing business with you?
- Is your navigation easy to follow?
- Are your markets clearing defined. Do you provide market specific content for different market segments?
- Do you update your content with current information?
- Does your site design look professional? Does it look current or dated? Does it show well on mobile devices?
- Is your site design (colors, typography, logos, images) consistent with your brand?
- If you have a shopping cart, is the cart secure? Are products clearly displayed and identified?
- Are customer service policies, shipping methods, return policies, privacy policies in place.
- Do you provide a physical location and multiple ways for people to contact you?
- Are you using social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others that are appropriate for your markets?
Always focus on building a website that benefits your clients and potential clients. If you keep that in mind as you optimize your site and your content you may find that customers are not only finding you, but they’re also buying from you. And that’s really the ultimate goal isn’t it?
Event CD
Our client was hosting a large event that had more than 30 different presenters. Although each attendee could choose which break-out session they wanted to go to, the client wanted to provide them with information on all the sessions and the presenters. Since the theme was “Going Green” the paper route was not an option. We created an interactive CD that allowed them to view all the information at their leisure. Note: the image used was provided by the client.