SEND THANK YOU NOTES

Did you know that a large percentage of new business comes from referrals? Send a personal, handwritten thank you note to anyone who refers someone to you.  This will perpetuate more referrals and I bet your competition isn’t doing this! Who doesn’t love to get something in the postal mail besides bills and junk mail?

AUTO ID PLATES AND LETTERING

How often are you stuck in traffic and end up staring at the license plate in front of you? This is the perfect place to display your web site address. If you have a short slogan or tagline, it can be placed on top with your web site address on the bottom. There are also companies that offer nice lettering to place on your back or side window. Have you ever searched for a pen and paper while trying to memorize the magnetic sign on the truck for handyman services, plumbing or hardwood flooring? The person in the vehicle behind you could be your next customer!

LABELS

Use labels with your web site address and catchy slogan to seal your correspondence. This is one more way to flash your web site address in front of a potential customer. I recently purchased some products at a trade show. Luckily the vendor had placed a label on the back of the product so I could go to the website and order more for friends. Without that label she would have missed out on some sales after the event was over. Create your own labels with your website address and phone number for wine bottles to give as gifts.

POSTAL MAIL

How often do you stay in touch with your clients & business associates? At a minimum, quarterly correspondence will keep you fresh in their minds. Several online printers offer full color postcards, business cards, bookmarks and note cards. Create a one-page newsletter or tip sheet and include a promo item. I got one recently that was a message in a bottle. Very clever!

In addition to your online communications – these offline efforts will help you stand out from your competition. It’s all about being creatively unique and memorable. Have fun with these and remember, if you’re not promoting your site – who is?

You can also type into Google “Your City Directories” like “Los Angeles Directories” or “Key West Florida Directories” and see which ones may be a good fit for you. When you type in specific keyword phrases that pertain to your industry the local directories tend to be at the top. For example, periodically I will type in “Colorado Web Designers” or “Denver Web Designers” to see which directories are at the top.

Advertising in directories is a great way for people to find your business. I have been advertising in local and industry specific directories for several years with terrific results. The directories usually have some type of tracking systems in place to see how many times people are looking at your ad. They will send those reports to you. List your business for free in some directories or they may offer a 3-month trial for free. Other directories charge a monthly or annual fee. Additionally, I check my Google Analytics to see how well my online advertising dollars are working. Have fun and I’d love to hear which directories work the best for you!

Your Website Copy must APPEAR easy to read before your visitors start reading it. Use an easy to read layout for your web content. Bullet points are very effective. People scan rather than read online.

Conversational
Use a consistent style of writing throughout your website. Getting the right tone is treading a fine line. Too formal, and the website seems cold and inhuman. Too informal, and the site can seem frenetic, erratic and pushy. Write in a friendly and interesting manner. Don’t sound boring and impersonal. Your visitors should enjoy reading your web content and get hooked into it.

Make website copy sound informative and professional to your customer at one time, and entertaining and friendly at another.

Bad: Our Company is very efficient, reliable and affordable and we have been around for years. We also have a very impressive portfolio of clients that we have previously worked for. We are definitely the best choice.

Better: Let us spoil you with our exceptionally friendly and personal customer service!

Included with every new site design:

• Keyword phrase research and implementation.
• Our 13 years of web wisdom and creative marketing expertise.
• A baker’s dozen of delicious homemade cookies – YUM!

People don’t like to feel they are reading a textbook. They like being talked to. Write in a conversational style as if you are talking to your customer.

Create Action
Your website copy is totally useless if it cannot put your customer to action. After all, you are trying to sell something, right? Give them an irresistible call for action.

Include frequent invitations to contact you by e-mail, and make it really easy for people to do so. And answer every email within 24 hours. A brief response today is worth far more than 1000 words three weeks later.

Include real names and real photos of real people. Include your real address in an obvious place and on every page. This will help make the “human connection” with an otherwise flat electronic screen.

Search Engine Friendly
Web content or copy must be search engine friendly or you will not attract your ideal clients. Develop 3-5 word keyword phrases and write your copy around those. Think about conversations you’ve had with your clients and write answers to their questions.

How can you enhance the “experience” the visitor will have at your website?

1.       Appealing colors and images.

2.       Verbiage that lets them know they are in the “right” place.

3.       Audio, music, video, testimonials or quotes.

What is it that will make them call or email you today?

1.       Your phone number and email in a larger font and very visible on every page.

2.       Good copy – what you say and how you say it is imperative to visitors taking action. Note: Reverse type text (light text on a dark background) is the most difficult to read online.

3.       Easy navigation and simple calls to action. Too many places to click or too many graphics is a real turn-off to visitors. Less is more!

I invite you to “experience” a few sites we’ve designed using the WordPress platform:

Tilde Furniture – www.tildefurniture.com

Check out this brand new site we designed for Stephen Kohlbeck. It’s crisp, clean, easy to navigate and the site design reflects the simple elegance of the furniture. For green, eco-friendly, luxurious furniture – this is the plac

Better Health & Wellness -  www.bettterhealthwellness.com

The colors and images in this site are inviting and relaxing. You can already imagine how you are going to feel once you walk thru the doors. There’s a call to action to sign up for the newsletter. The phone number and email are very visible. Make an appointment today for massage, reflexology, acupuncture or an ion footbath.  Aaaaaahhh!

Fun Productions -  www.funproductions.com

The bright colors and images just scream FUN in this site redesign! The phone numbers are large and visible up top. Calls to action are: Request a quote, sign up for newsletter and over on the left nav – Tell Us What We’re Doing Right.  (I love that last one). Notice this site has 3 forms of navigation since it’s pretty large. The images are clickable to the different areas and the navigation on the left also gets you right where you want to go. Additionally, we’ve added bottom navigation to get you back from some of the longer inside pages. Their social media and YouTube icons are in the upper right. The experience here is fun, fun, fun! Call them for your next team-building event or corporate party.  Let the FUN begin!

When I was little my grandma and grandpa loved to take us kids to the Nebraska State Fair. Every year my grandma would say, “Now kids, don’t let grandpa buy any more slicer-dicers. We’ve got a basement full of ‘em!” We would watch the entertaining demonstrations of the latest gizmos and amazingly they all had guarantees. Sure enough my grandpa would buy the knife that never needs sharpening, the apple peeler, the chopper/slicer or the magic stain remover. One time at the end of a pots and pans demonstration the spokesman said, “Light the candles ladies – supper’s ready!” It was as if supper magically made itself with these miracle pans – guaranteed!

After we got home grandma would scold grandpa for buying yet another gadget and we’d all laugh. I don’t think my grandpa cared if the gizmo worked or not. He just did it for the fun of it. It became a running joke every year wondering what grandpa would buy next.

So back to the sizzlin’ deals with those SEO companies. It’s kinda like the slicer-dicers. If you want to do it for the fun of it – go for it! If you really truly believe in those SEO company promises well…would you also like a ginzu knife?

My second question is, “What have you been doing to market your website?” The answer is typically, “Well, nothing. I think I need SEO.” For some reason, there is this big misperception out there that if by paying someone for “SEO” you will be on the first page of Google and therefore have more clients than you can handle. Sorry to bust another myth, but being on the first page of Google for a particular phrase does not guarantee you will get more clients. If we built your site then your site is already search engine friendly because the titles, meta descriptions and meta tags are different on every page. These can be changed or modified at any time. In your statistics you’ll see what phrases people are typing in to find you. SEO and Statistics go hand-in-hand. If you hire someone to do SEO, how will you know if they are effective unless you check your stats?

Action Steps:

1. Install Google Analytics and check your statistics monthly or quarterly. Adjust your site or advertising methods accordingly.
2. Get more business today with FaceBook and Twitter. Social Media is here to stay! Learn from people who are successful to save yourself some time and money!
3. Is your website interactive and are you gathering emails? So many ways to do this. Give something away for people who enter your contest, sign up for your ezine, download an Ebook or Special Report. Note: New subscribers to the Muse News receive a free checklist “Five Web Mistakes to Avoid”. Email me if you’d like a copy.

Scroll down on this page http://www.thewebmuse.com/what-we-do.html to the Web Marketing Process and download the pdf for more ideas. Email me your tips for getting business from your website and I’ll publish those in the next Muse News. We can all learn from each other. Most importantly, have fun with whatever you are doing!

Just type in a word or two and you’ll get all sorts of headlines. I typed in “Web Marketing” and got these titles: 8 Reasons to Fear Web Marketing, The 10 Commandments of Web Marketing and 10 Common Misconceptions About Web Marketing. It can be used in a couple of ways. I like to use it AFTER I’ve written an article to come up with a catchy title for it. OR you can use it BEFORE as an idea generator for an article you’d like to write. After you try it, send me a link to your article or blog post and I’ll print it in the next Muse News.

Their website is awesome! It’s simple and interactive. Check out the section that says Create Your Own Stach Comic. And by the way, their nuts are really good and addicting.

I think they’ve done an ingenious job of marketing. Is there some way you can add this type of humor into what you are doing? Their name is very catchy and memorable. The navigation on the website is funny too. They just recently added an online store where you can buy nuts by the case. I can think of several people who would get a real laugh out of getting these as a gift. Have some fun playing around their site and maybe it will spark some ideas for your own web site!

I gotta tell ya, this twittering is like texting on steroids. I’m still weighing out the time vs. benefit. Stats show that 60% of people who start on Twitter become Twitter Quitters. The piece I find fascinating is that it can be educational and easy to find resources with Twitter search. The company is growing rapidly and new uses for it are developing all the time. So, we’ll see what transpires in the next few months.

The first thing I noticed on Twitter was how many people started following me that are supposedly Twitter experts. They asked me to sign up for their Ebooks, Ezines and Courses all about making money with Twitter. This just added to my state of being overwhelmed. Then I became afraid that I wasn’t doing it right.

I started to wonder why some strange people were “following” me. It’s weird to think that, I know! What’s the point of having thousands of followers? I don’t just automatically follow everyone who follows me. I’m only interested in following people who have something of interest to me. For example, if I look at their tweets and they mostly say “having a bagel for breakfast” or “looking for something to do” or repeated self-promotions – I do not follow them. I unfollow people who tweet every few minutes about nothing. The ones I like to follow have current marketing tips, web trends, good resources, links to articles or quotes.

I downloaded several tools and apps for Twitter like Tweetdeck and Tweetlater. Another learning curve here as there are a gazillion apps out there. Now I’m trying Twitterific. I also downloaded the Twitter widget for MAC and that’s pretty handy. When I post on Twitter it’s supposed to show up in Facebook but if I post on Facebook it will not show up in Twitter.

Below are just a few items I’ve “tweeted” about in the past in no particular order.

# Just finished reading The China Study – extensive research and startling truths about what we’re eating.8:23 AM Jun 2nd from web

# Client Relationships – funny and true! http://bit.ly/DCwfL2:39 PM Jun 1st from web

# Wine & theatre event Quilters musical in downtown Denver http://bit.ly/smGg312:04 PM May 29th from web

# New blog post: Five Web Faux Pas to Avoid http://bit.ly/MNFdH6:48 AM May 27th from Twitter Tools

# Savvy Web Marketing in 5 minutes http://thewebmuse.com/blog/12:03 PM May 22nd from web

# List of website tools and resources http://bit.ly/BF59s11:53 AM May 21st from web

# “Family isn’t only blood – it’s the friends you love, across the generations.” – Michael Caine11:45 AM May 20th from web

# Q&A Laptop Cafe in Denver today at 2:00 – always learn lots of useful info http://www.creativemarketin…11:48 AM May 19th from web

Leave a comment below about your likes, dislikes and experiences with Twitter. I’m always learning! You can follow me on twitter here: www.twitter.com/webmuse