Local Business Internet Strategy 101

If you already have a web site these are recommendations to get the Internet working for your business.

• Promote your web address (domain name) everywhere you can – business cards, letterheads, in house, on your van(s), cars, using promotional stickers, posters – in fact in all your advertising. This not only helps existing clients but encourages people looking for your type of business to visit your website.
• Maximise the efficiency of your advertising cost by putting the minimum effective amount of information on the ad to make it work and invite Readers/Listeners/Viewers to visit your website for further information about your services or special offers.
• You should have a feature page or a special offer page that you change frequently to encourage visitors to come back – discount vouchers, information that customers will appreciate, regular news updates are all reasons for repeat visits.
• Ensure you have an electronic message service (like the Clarity® Messenger Service used on the PerthWA.com service directory). This will encourage potential clients to at least contact you above others on a general search for your type of business. Remember it is likely most Internet customers will find your business outside working hours when they cannot contact you by phone!
• List yourself in free business directories such as PerthWA.com because your own web site is not likely to achieve a decent ranking on search engines. Operaters of directories can get their sites well positioned and therefor most potential clients will flow from these sites no matter how much money you spend yourself on rankings.
• Your website works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so ensure that your customers and potential customers can get at a response from your business outside your normal working hours. We offer an autoresponder service to help you if you find this difficult.
• If you carry a range of stock or saleable items you should consider an online stock and ordering system – these are ways that your website can seriously contribute to your bottom line with little extra effort.
• Collect email addresses of people visiting your site and don’t forget to gather them directly from your clients. We can help you with getting the most out of your mailing list so contact us for details.
• Regularly check your web site traffic statistics (your ISP should provide these as part of their service). You need to know  how many vistors you are getting and when, what pages they are viewing and and monitor the effectiveness of your promotions. You should track your media advertising in terms of web site statistics as a measure of the effectiveness.  Clarity uses Google Analytics and can provide a turnkey solution to gaining insight in how your digital assets are performing.
• Never get complacent – Web users want to see changes, updates / special offers/ new pics/ new products – to encourage them to come back again and again. If this is too much for you to manage in house then consider using LOCAL providers of dedicated digital marketing services. Why local? Well in the Australian vernacular you need to get the ‘vibe’ right. If you are dealing with Australian customers trust me get an Australian service provider  such as Clarity to manage your on-line activities.  We know the enviroment, the customers and can help you in ways you probably won’t think about (and certainly they won’t tell you).
• Remember- it is all about promoting your business – you must make the effort to continually promote your website and by entension your business. They are not two seperate things but part of an integrated whole!   If you are not happy with your current site,  consider it too much work or expensive to fix then contact Clarity for a free review of your on-line strategy and presence.