Women Entrepreneurs - The First Year

When was the last time you updated your website?

It all started with a note from a friend of mine.  I met her when she interviewed me for her blog about Women Entrepreneurs.  I hadn't heard from her in a while and I was wondering how she was doing.  Turned out she is caring for her elderly parents and isn't putting any time into her consulting business right now.

A couple of weeks later the light went on.  I bet that if she isn't doing her consulting business right now, her website probably isn't up.  And if her website isn't up, I bet that means that my link to it isn't working!

And sure enough, when I clicked the link for Fun Car Tattoos, I found a dead link instead of an exciting article about yours truly! 

That got me to thinking...What else about my website isn't current?

I'm a little embarrassed to say that there was a lot about my website that wasn't current.  Actually, "current" might not be the right word.  "Stale" is probably more like it.  I didn't have anything holiday specific on it.  Halloween had come and gone and my business didn't even know it!  My message seemed very ho-hum.  It didn't have quite the "kick" it did when I originally wrote it. 

Don't let this happen to you!  Remember, your customers need an excuse to keep coming back to your website.  If it doesn't look any different after the first couple of times they come back, they'll stop visiting it.  And if they don't visit you, how can you expect them to buy from you?

And don't think that it's just aesthetics that you need to keep on top of.  Look under the hood too!  Make sure that your keywords and title pages are current too!  Unfortunately, it's a lot like Spring cleaning.  You think that you are just going to clean the base boards and you end up painting the house inside and out!

Anyone else out there got caught with an outdated website?  Be sure to let us know.  In the meantime, I'm posting a picture of my dog Yori who would have been on my website if I had done a better job of staying on top of things!

I blew it! National Take Your Dog to Work Day and my business didn't celebrate it!

I am so embarrassed!  Did you know that today is National Take Your Dog to Work Day? 

The good news is that yes, I did take Yori, the cutest dog in the whole world, with me to work today.  That isn't the problem.

The bad news is that I sell really cute dog paw car magnets and... I didn't even make a big deal about it on my website!

How many of us small business owners are trying to figure out excuses to change our websites?  How many of us small business owners are trying to think of new material for our newsletters?  How many of us small business owners are trying to figure out new ways to use Twitter?  How many of us small business owners are racking our brains trying to reach out to our customers just to keep them informed?

Well, here was an opportunity staring me in the face and I blew it!    I did not even mention Take Your Dog to Work Day on my business, Fun Car Tattoos! 

Don't let this happen to you!  There are a zillion unofficial holidays - everything from Walk to Work Day to Breakfast for Dinner Day to Martini Day to Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Be sure to use these days to market your business!  Just remember, if you don't, your competitor will!

10 Free Ways to Promote an Online Business!

How many of you have found that you are getting less hits to your website today than you were a year ago?  Well, the truth is... I certainly have been!  I thought that people were going to be beating down the door to buy my cute little dog paw car magnets - to say nothing of my environmentally friendly carbon footprint car magnets.  But unfortunately, that isn't the case! 

And... you want to know why my web traffic has decreased?  Because I haven't spent the time promoting my business, Fun Car Tattoos, on line!  And you want to know something even worse?  I have no excuse!  Isabel Isidro says that there are 10 Free Ways to Promote an Online Business.  Here's how!

1. Create the best content you can with the best products you can possible offer.
2. Make it easy for users to recommend your site.
3. Rank well in search engines.
4. Send out press releases.
5. Submit articles.
6. Increase your conversion.
7. Syndicate your content.
8. Use free classifieds.
9. Tap Web 2.0 websites to market your business.
10. Contribute to other websites, forums and blogs to market your topic.

These are just the highlights.  Be sure to check out Free Ways to Promote on Online Business by Isabel Isidro to learn how we all can drive more traffic to our website!

 Isabel Isidro is the co-founder and VP-Managing Editor of PowerHomeBiz.com, an online magazine for home business entrepreneurs that provides guidance on starting, running and managing a home-based business.

 

Looking Good Isn't Enough!

I thought that having a good looking website was going to be enough to attract buyers to my site but according to the following article by Lynn Parker at WomenEntrepreurs.com, looking good isn't enough!

Hmmm... I better go back to my website, www.funcartattoos.com and see if my website let's people know that I give 5% of my car magnet sales to nonprofits such as the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition !

Listen to what Lynn has to say!

Your Website Is Your Brand

More important than looking good, your website must clearly communicate the value of your business.

by Lynn Parker

For many online companies, such as Expedia or Evite, the web is their brand experience because they offer online services through online channels. For other organizations, web presence is more like "brochureware"--in other words, a static marketing channel for real-world products and services. But whether your product is virtual or requires a warehouse and a forklift, the key is how you demonstrate and show your brand promise online.

In this first of a two-part series, I'll introduce the concept of a brand-based web strategy. Next month, I'll provide a step-by-step guide on how to create your own web strategy.

As the front door to your prospects, your website becomes your brand's face. From the moment they land on your home page, visitors make snap judgments about the value you provide, how you're different from competitors and whether they feel an emotional connection to your brand. So it's important to consider how well your web presence communicates your value.

Smart business owners get this, but they often respond to this imperative by spending a lot of time on their site's design, colors and images. That's a good start, but design is only part of a prospect's online experience. content continues below Equally important are:

* The type of content you have

* How the content is organized for each of your target users

* How it drives them to a deeper level of engagement with you

* How well it delivers on your brand promise.

For small businesses with limited resources, the website is crucial because it has to do so much work. It acts as a community outreach, sales, marketing and workflow management tool. And if you believe--as I do--that everything you do and say as a company makes up your brand promise, then your site must reflect your brand through and through. Otherwise, you'll leave customers wondering which experience they'll get the next time they call.

What Does This Mean to You?

Before you hire a designer, start by thinking of your site as an extension of your business strategy rather than just a line item in your marketing budget. And the best way to bridge from your brand to your site is with a web strategy. A web strategy provides intention and discipline to your website development process. It ties your brand and business goals for the year to content development, management and measurement strategies that guide the brand experience you provide on the web. What goes into a web strategy?

Here's an outline:

* It keeps tabs on your user profiles, allowing you to dive more deeply into who your users are and what they need from your site.

* It determines what the competitive landscape looks like.

* It audits stakeholder requirements.

* It maps out exactly what type of experience your site should deliver.

* It figures out what you should measure and how you should measure it (both via offline measurement tactics and online analytics), based on your goals and objectives.

In a nutshell, your web strategy is a lot like a website owner's manual, giving you all the tools you need to build, adapt and manage your online brand experience. So stop and think about the front door to your company's brand experience. Make sure it looks good. But more important, make sure it opens into your organization's promise and creates customer champions.

Lynn Parker is co-founder of Parker LePla, a brand strategy consulting firm in Seattle. She's also the author of The Reluctant Entrepreneur, and co-author of Integrated Branding and Brand Driven.

Conversion Rate - Don't send people to your home page!

 How many of you have been trying to increase your conversion rate? I know that I have.  For months I've been trying to get people to buy cute dog paw car magnets from my business, Fun Car Tattoos.  I've really tried hard to get the word out about all my fun car magnets but... I've been linking people back to my home page.

Well, according the following article I found in the San Francisco Chronicle, I should have been linking people back to my specific product page and not my home page.

How Can I Improve the Conversion Rate of My Internet Marketing Campaign?

The success of an Internet marketing campaign can be measured by its conversion rate. Depending on your site and your type of business, your conversion rate may be based on convincing readers to become subscribers, encouraging people to buy something, or enticing prospective customers from another site with an ad. The best way to convert users is to provide them with all the information they need to make an informed decision.

Online marketing is direct response marketing, so you need to encourage the customer to act. And action is determined by letting customers know what and why they should click. They need a compelling differentiated benefit.

Compelling because it sparks them to act.

Differentiated because your offer is different from what they can get elsewhere.

Benefit because they have to get value out of it.

You may try to lure customers to your site with a discount on your service. You advertise the discount in an email newsletter. A potential customer is exposed to the email link and is attracted to the discount that you're offering. When potential customers click on the link, they need to go to a specific page that will educate them about the discount and entice them to sign up for your service. If the link takes people to a page without the information they need -- or, even worse, your home page -- odds are you'll lose the customer. Home pages have the lowest conversion rate in terms of purchasing.

In addition, by sending people to a specific page to learn more about your offer, you can easily measure the conversion rate -- the percentage who sign up for your offer compared with the total visitors to that page. Keep in mind that it often takes people more than one visit to a site to convert them.

6 ways to increase website traffic!

Let's face it... There are so many websites these days, it's really hard to make yours well known. And...if you don't get traffic to your site, how are you going to sell your product? (Heaven only knows that's important! Every day I try and get more people to my Fun Car Tattoos website so I can sell cute dog paw magnets!)

So...Here's an article I found on MommyPortal.com that tells us all 6 ways to increase website traffic!Who knows? Maybe I'll even get some sales of my cute Laurel Burch earrings!

#1: Update your site frequently. Try to add something new to each webpage monthly. Search engines like to see that changes are being made to a site and that your site isn't sitting there for years with no updates.

#2: Check your site for broken links. Nothing is worse than a site with a bunch of broken links.

#3: Submit your site to search engines. Getting your site listed on as many engines as possible with increase your hits by far.Please view our Search Engine Submission Page for websites that will submit your url to various engines for you. Some websites even submit it for FREE.

#4: Create good Meta Tags. Each page should have different keywords in the Title and the Description Meta Tag. Make sure to add Meta Tags to your files before submitting your site also. Meta tags will help the search engine list your site in the correct categories. Free Meta Tag Generator

#5: Research what keywords people use most often on search engines that pertain to your products or services; use these keywords as text in the design to increase website traffic. Discover the keywords that will skyrocket your website traffic! Here are a few FREE keyword research tools: WordTracker Free Suggestion Tool | SEO Tools Keyword Suggestion Tool | Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool

#6: Articles - Add relevant articles to your site. These may be articles you write on your own or articles that you obtain to reprint on your site. Writing articles and having them placed on others website with a link back to your site is also a great way to gain more exposure to your website.

10 Reasons to Use Facebook for your Business

I did it!  I took the jump and my business, Fun Car Tattoos, now has a page on FaceBook!  It was easy and fun!  Now, I just have to figure out how to get fans to visit my page.  (That's a hint... For anyone reading my blog, check out my cute car magnets on Facebook at Fun Car Tattoos and become a fan!)

Why did I make a page for my business on Facebook?  Well, I wanted more exposure for my business.  At the same time, I didn't want to be constantly sending out messages regarding my business, Fun Car Tattoos, to my friends on Facebook.  (I figure I send them enough pictures of my dog Yori as it is!) So... I figured, if they want to be a fan of my business, great.  If not, no problem.

Should you use Facebook for your small business?  I think so and... so does Mari Smith, an Internet Marketing Consultant and Facebook Business Coach.  Here's her 10 Reasons to Use Facebook for your Business:

Social networking websites, especially Facebook, have significant implications for business owners, marketers, and entrepreneurs. To keep your business current, you should at least be familiar with the latest conversational marketing techniques and viral technologies, including Facebook and its array of powerful features.

Here are ten reasons to be active on Facebook:

1. Meet your peers. Facebook is not just for college kids anymore. Members are typically older and more mature than on other sites, and there are more white collar users.

2. Find business contacts. With more than 65 million active users, and predicted to be 200 million by the end of 2008, not only are your friends on Facebook, so are your prospects, your customers, your JV partners… and, of course, your competitors. You need to be on too.

3. Instant gate opener. Facebook members are open to connecting. You can easily begin a dialog with highly successful—even famous—people who were previously otherwise unreachable.

4. Build relationships. By engaging in conversations with your prospects and customers, you can better adapt your marketing and business services to meet their needs.

5. Raise visibility. By consistently showing up, posting relevant information, and being a thought leader, you can increase visibility and credibility as an expert in your area.

6. Develop your personal brand. The lines between business and personal have become blurred. You can reveal as much or as little about yourself as you wish, allowing you to personalize your brand.

7. Target your niche. Users volunteer vast amounts of information about themselves that you can readily access. These kinds of demographics, psychographics, and technographics would previously have cost fortunes to access. Author, John Battelle, calls Facebook a “database of intentions.”

8. Get rapid top Google placement. Create a Page for your business and ‘‘push” information to your “fans.” Pages (for business) and Profiles (for personal) are indexed for optimal search engine positioning. Facebook has a page rank of #7 according to Alexa.

9. Place targeted ads. With Facebook Social Ads, you can test out extremely targeted advertising for minimal cost.

10. No cost marketing. Aside from paid ads, Facebook is totally free to use and with regular activity you’ll end up with more traffic, more subscribers, and more paying clients.

Mari Smith is a Relationship Specialist, Internet Marketing Consultant and Facebook Business Coach. She offers a free introductory class for professionals on how to use Facebook for strategic business growth at: http://facebookfortunes.com. Class materials include PDF guides, how-to videos, discussion forum, and dozens of interviews with successful active Facebook members.

  

The Facebook Status Update: Your Most Important Facebook Tool

by Andrea Stenberg


The Facebook status update is probably the most important and yet least understood feature of Facebook when it comes to marketing your business. The status update is at the top of your profile and is where you tell people what you’re up to.

When your Facebook friends log into the site, they’ll see the most recent updates of their friends on their home page. That’s what makes the update so important; the more often you update your status, the more likely it is someone will see your name and your face. And marketing is all about repeat exposure.

Sounds simple. But what do you say in your status update? The most common mistake business owners make is to only talk about their business, not themselves. If you’re only selling in your status update, you’ll turn people off.

Now I know what you’re saying to yourself because I hear it every day. “Who wants to know these unimportant details about my day?” Why should you talk about the weather, your last vacation or the new restaurant you tried last night?

Well, think about when you go to a live networking meeting. Do you only talk about your business? No, of course not. When you meet new people, or talk to old friends, you engage in small talk. You talk about the funny thing your kid did last night, how excited you are about an up-coming trip, or even complain about having to shovel the driveway again. None of these things are earth shattering, but they’re about connecting on a personal level with people.

In fact, if you met someone who only talked about their business, who was always trying to sell something before you even have a chance to get to know them, you’d get turned off. I bet you’d look for the first opportunity to ditch them and go talk to someone more interesting.

So your status update is really online small talk. It’s a chance for people to get to know you a little bit. You don’t need to share your most personal details – in fact you shouldn’t – but you can share enough to allow people to feel they know you. Then you’re not just an anonymous business online, you are someone they can relate to.

And ultimately, it’s building relationships is the purpose of social media.

Andrea J. Stenberg is working to help baby boomer entrepreneurs use social media marketing to build their brand, find an audience and make more sales. Learn how to use the social networking site LinkedIn with a free recording at www.WhyLinkedIn.com.

10 marketing tips to create a buzz for your business!

The holiday season is upon us and it seems clear to me that people are much pickier about where they are going to be spending their hard earned dollars than any time before. Yet, we all know that people will be buying some gifts this year.

The question we all need to ask ourselves is... How do we get people to our business and not someone else's?  In my case, I want people to be buying car magnets from Fun Car Tattoos. Fortunately, I just ran across a great article by Leslie Spencer Pyle who gives us 10 marketing tips that will boost our businesses!

Marketing doesn't have to empty your pockets if you use a creative approach. Inexpensive ways exist to get people talking about you and your business. The good news is that once people start talking about you, the buzz intensifies. The trick then is to keep up the momentum.

1. Blow them away with a killer website that creates more traffic.

• A website should be the window for potential customers. So keep it shiny and professional, with proper grammar and free of spelling errors.
• Keep your site fresh by updating it periodically. This could include adding a blog that will keep visitors coming back.
• Provide testimonials from customers to validate your product or service.

2. Beef up your branding.

• Keep your logo, colors and slogan consistent on all of your marketing materials, e-mail signature and website. Branding is all about getting people familiar with your product.

3. Distribute a monthly e-newsletter.

• Monthly e-newsletters keep your name in front of people. Keep them coming back for more by packing it full of useful information that supports your product or service.
• Use your website to capture e-mail addresses of visitors who sign up for the newsletter. Offer an incentive to sign up, such as an opportunity to win a free product in a monthly drawing.
• Use a company such as Constant Contact to help manage your e-mail list by tracking those who opt out.

4. Share links.

• Swap links with others to help bring more traffic to your site.

5. Get to the media through press releases.

• Sending out a press release is an effective way to get your news into the media’s hands. The release should be newsworthy, and it should clearly explain why someone would buy your product or service and how it will help them.
  

6. Get involved in your community.

• Donate your product or service to a local event. You'll get your name out there and indicate that your company has a charitable focus.
• Offer to do speaking engagements that showcase your credibility while highlighting your company.
• Volunteer your time. You'll be giving back to your community and getting in front of potential customers.
• Volunteer at your children's school events, such as field trips or PTA activities. It'll give you another opportunity to talk about your business.

7. Take time to network.

• Formal and informal networking get you face time with potential customers. This includes your local chamber of commerce and other networking organizations.
• Online networking groups are free and help you establish credibility beyond your geographic area. But be careful where and how you communicate. You don't want to appear too casual and perhaps unprofessional.

8. Participate in trade shows.

• Booths are expensive; but if the show hits your target market, it can really pay off.
• Be creative about drawing people to your booth. Hold a contest or a drawing to capture their contact information.
• Follow up on leads immediately.
• If you can't afford a booth, attend the show and mingle with as many attendees and vendors as possible.

9. Follow up with cards and e-mails.

• Send cards with any sale or inquiry, or immediately after meeting someone at an event. Include a comment about something you discussed. This will help the individual remember you and make the note more personal.

10. Author a monthly column.

• Most columns include a short biography of you and a link to your website.
• A column provides an opportunity to show that you are an expert in your field.

Good marketing techniques will help you ride the waves of good and bad times in your business. If you keep a few marketing tricks up your sleeves, the waves won't seem so high--or so low. Marketing is a constant testing process to see what gets the best return for you and your business.

Lesley Spencer Pyle is the founder and president of HomeBasedWorkingMoms.com and HireMyMom.com and the author ofThe Work-at-Home Workbook: Your Step-by-Step Guide on Selecting and Starting the Perfect Home Business for You. Pyle has been working from home for more than 13 years.

Does your website have video?

I admit it... I haven't been much of a video fan!  In fact, the only video I have on my Fun Car Tattoos' website, is a fun one that I did when my family all got together for a wedding last year.  No, it's not professional but yes... it was a lot of fun to do!  Who knows if it sells any car magnets but... we had a lot of fun making it!  (See it now!)

But according to Financial Guru, Vanessa Summers, we are missing the boat if we don't have video. 



‘Did I Just See Your Video?’

Research tells us that your website visitor will only stay on your home page a few seconds when they visit your site. Additionally, 99 percent of first-time visitors to your website will not become customers the first time they visit your site. That means that you have one focused objective when visitors click oto your web site for the first time: Engage their interest by having captivating and compelling video automatically play when they hit your website’s home page, directing them to the next step you would like them to take.

There are a number of reasons this will be extra valuable to you in building your online money-making business. Firstly, your audio or video will help engage your visitor immediately at an elevated level . That will keep them on your website at least twice as long as they would stay without it. The video will also create a more personable experience of you, your company, and your products and/or services. Ultimately, people buy from people they like- -people they connect with–people they intuitively trust. Your video or audio allows you to immediately shift your relationship building into high gear with those who visit your website, who are extremely valuable to you and the growth of your business.

Further, your video will give your visitors a welcome greeting with the immediate next step that you would like them to take. Simply put, that’s getting them to opt into your list by leaving their name and e-mail address. Why is this your first directive when they visit your web site? Because, as I mentioned earlier, research already tells us that 99 percent of your website’s traffic will not become customers the first time they visit. If you can get them onto your list, however –bam–you have the opportunity to begin building a relationship with them online through sending value-added updates, tips, tools and resources you know they will love, with personal messages that ultimately convert these prospects into happy customers who are raving fans and will refer additional ideal customers to you.

So here is where opportunity meets “being in the know.” “Plug & play” technology has made it extremely easy and user friendly to add a plethora of cool innovative features to your website at low cost, with a minimal amount of turnaround time. The Flip Video Camera is a new plug & play technology that will immediately impact your relationship building and list building to boost your online money-making!

The Flip video camera is a nifty little gadget released earlier this year. With the Flip, it couldn’t be easier to shoot video, upload to your computer and then post to your website. No downloading of additional software, no long wait times and, best of all, no big production company costs to make this happen. Plus, because it is so easy to shoot and post video on your website, blog or even on You Tube, you now have the opportunity to be in REAL TIME with your customers and prospects, responding to feedback from customers or new trends in business to make your products and/or services that much more marketable. You can pick the Flip video camera up at several online retailers for about $150 or at Costco for about $120.