Christmas is coming. Is Your Online Store Ready?

Do you have a plan to woo holiday shoppers looking for gifts online?

Millions of people are about to descend on the Internet, and competition for their dollars will be tough this year, with money tighter amid a weak economy. You need an online-marketing plan to help you make the most of the season.

Feel overwhelmed? Don't. There are many easy, yet high-impact, things you can do in the next few weeks that will improve your results once the bustle begins. Here are some of the top tips from Riva Richmond.

Click here to read.

The 10 Key Steps to Successfully Market Your Business Online

Here’s a helpful article I found by Richard D. Harroch, the author of The Small Business Kit for Dummies and other books and publications dealing with start-up and emerging companies. You may email him at rharroch@orrick.com

More and more small businesses are finding it essential that they market their products and services online. Customers are increasingly turning to the Web to research companies, compare product features and prices, and to purchase online. A company that does not take advantage of the Web and email to market their business can lose valuable customers.

It has never been easier or more cost-effective to market online. There are numerous Web sites, consultants, software packages, and other tools to help you implement a successful online presence.

Here are 10 key steps to successfully marketing your business onlne:

1. Obtain a Good Domain Name. Before you establish a Web site for your business, you need a domain name. A domain name is the internet address that allows computer users to find your Web site, such as www.Microsoft.com or www.BananaRepublic.com. Good domain names are difficult to obtain, as millions have already been purchased over the years. The most common domain names end in ".com" or ".net" and are seen as the most desirable.

It's easy to check whether a domain name is available. For example, Yahoo.com has a domain name service check and you can do a check in under a minute. The cost on Yahoo to purchase a domain name is under $10.

A few key tips on domain names:

Make sure the domain name hasn't been trademarked by someone else (check www.uspto.gov); Make sure it's easy to spell; Make the name easy to remember. But simpler and descriptive may be better — you don't have to come up with something as catchy as "Google" — and non-descriptive names require more branding effort.

2. Build a Professional Looking Web Site. Your Web site is a reflection of your business. People who come to your Web site can be impressed or turned off by the professionalism of your site. There are several approaches to building a Web site. First, there are plenty of sites (including Yahoo) that will give you templates for a site either for free or very cheaply. Second, there are professional site building consultants who will custom-build a site for you. And, third, there are multiple software packages available to help you build your own site.

3. Make Your Web Site Easy to Navigate and Make it Easy to Find What You Are Trying to Sell. Don't get caught up in trying to come up with dazzling flash and color for your site. The key to a good site is to make sure the viewers can easily find what they are looking for. This means a clear navigation bar and a good "search" box. Take a look at some of the great sites out there, and sites from competitors. That can help you plan how your site should be designed.

4. Build up Your Email List. One of the best and cheapest ways to sell online is through email marketing. It's a great way to communicate with customers and prospective customers. So it is very valuable to collect email addresses from visitors to your Web site. Offer them something worthwhile for their email address—such as a discount or a free newsletter.
Make it easy to get someone's email address, but also be sure that you have set forth a Privacy Policy on your site describing how you will use any personal information. And be sure you are up-to-date on the laws affecting email marketing, such as the CAN-SPAM Act.

5. Send Periodic Email Newsletters. Email newsletters can prove to be effective communication tools for existing customers, prospective customers, and other key audiences.

What are the hallmarks of effective email newsletter programs? Here are 6 tips:

Keep it reasonably short. Nobody wants to read lengthy emails. Make it well designed and visually interesting. Include photos and graphics. Provide multiple links back to your Web site. Make it look professional. Don't have typos, a sloppy look, or broken links. Include an easy way for the viewer to contact you and to unsubscribe from your email list. Constantly test and track how your newsletters are doing.

Email newsletter programs can be established through companies that provide turn-key solutions, such as Constant Contact

6. Buy Banner Ads. You can enhance visibility and traffic to your site by buying banner ads. The keys to effective banner ad campaigns are:

Make the ad visually interesting with links to a particular offer or "landing" page on your site. Place the ads on sites relevant to your business. Constantly monitor and test the efficacy of the ads, measuring not only click-throughs from the ad to your site, but also the actual resulting sales and return on investment.

7. Optimize Your Site for Search Engines. Hundreds of millions of searches a day are performed on the Web through Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. The search engines "spider" billions of Web pages. There is a fast growing area called "search engine optimization" that refers to efforts you can employ to get your Web site to show up higher in search results. To get more information on this, go to the search box on the AllBusiness home page, select "the Web" from the drop-down menu, and type in "search engine optimization."

8. Buy Keyword Ads on Search Engines. Many businesses are finding that key word advertising on search engines can be quite beneficial. Here's how it works: If you sell computer books from your Web site, you might buy a small ad or listing on Google that would show up when someone types in the search box a term that you designate (such as "computer books" or "PC books"). If the searcher sees your paid ad and clicks on it, he is transported to your Web site and you pay on a "CPC" basis to Google (a cost per click, such as 30¢ a click). The goal is to get qualified prospective customers to your site.

The key elements of successful key word ad buying programs include:

Purchase the most relevant key words. Write the ads in a way to compel qualified buyers to click on the ad. Send the user from the ad to a landing page in your site that sets forth the precise product or service related to the keyword ad. Sending a viewer to your home page is generally not as effective as sending them to a specific product page. Constantly review the amount you are paying per click, and the conversion of that click into buyers. Constantly test different ad copy and different landing pages to determine what works best for your site.

9. Make it Easy to Buy From Your Shopping Cart. If you are selling products from your site, you will need a shopping cart system and a credit card authorization process. Many companies provide such systems off the shelf, such as Yahoo! Small Business. The key here is to make sure the shopping process is fast and efficient. Many Web sites have found that their checkout process was too cumbersome, and that they lost potential buyers who became frustrated with the amount of time and effort involved.

10. Provide Great Customer Service. A satisfied customer will return to your site. So go out of your way to give great customer support and service. And for those who are not happy with their experience, try to turn them around with an offer of a discount, a free product, or some other benefit.

10 ways to market your site

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This article by my internet consultant husband strikes home a little because I feel like I haven’t been putting as much time into my business this summer!

10 Ways to Market Your Site and Keep Your Business Cooking This Summer

During this season with the kids home, vacations to take, cookouts to have or attend, and all the other good things going on, it’s easy to put some of our more important business routines on hold, to include marketing. We continue to deliver our goods and services, pay our bills, and collect our due, but things like marketing, well it can wait…or so the temptation exists. Well here are 10 things you can do which don’t take much time, and cost little to nothing to accomplish that will help keep your business visible even if you take it easy a little this summer.

Luckily the internet doesn’t sleep. If you have a website, it is out there and visible 24/7. Lets look at a few simple ways to use that to your advantage.

Make sure your site is registered with the major search engines. This can be done for free at Google, Yahoo and MSN as well as other specialty directories. Typing in “Suggest Site” or “Suggest URL” in your browser search bar will get you to the right places. Submit to each independently rather than to a so-called listing agent who does mass submissions. Include dmoz.org.
Review your affiliations with trade/industry organizations, and go to their sites or your membership information and see what internet linking services they provide you as part of your association with them. These are excellent ways to gain exposure and credibility, but be conscious of the fact many will be listing your competitors as well so approach this with thought.
Look through your website and make sure it is saying what you want it to say. Is it current? Is it aimed at the audience you wish to have for customers? Do you include words and phrases that are focused on what it is you are trying to get across? Make a list of these words and phrases, and then use them in your content as well as website metatags. (talk to a website professional regarding effective integration of these into your site for search engine use)
Set a schedule on your calendar for refreshing your website content to ensure it stays fresh. When visitors return to a site and see nothing new, statistics say that it will be very likely be their last time to visit, and they will go on to another site offering similar products, services, or information.
Set up a formal system for collecting customer contact information and USE IT. Front desk registration, web form, telephone question, giveaway registration, there are many simple ways to gather data. Include e-mail address so you can keep in touch in a variety of simple and even automatic ways for virtually free. Making telephone calls one by one can be a daunting task, and direct mail expensive, but e-mail is quick, easy and cost effective.
Say thanks! Send a card, send an e-mail, put a note on your invoices; just make sure you thank your customers for their business. They have a choice and want to feel appreciated, don’t you?
Stay in touch. Don’t let final payment end your relationship. It costs several times the amount to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. Let them know what you are up to, that you enjoy what you do, that you are good at it and stand ready to help them at any time in the future. Remind them of why they chose you in the past. Reinforce their good judgment!
Do something new once in a while. Don’t lose sight of your niche, but refresh your business in your customer’s eyes once in a while and let them know about it.
Most of us have at least thought about submitting a press release to the local newspaper when we have something worthy to mention, but you may not know about the various facilities online to do the same. A simple notice of a new product or service can be easily submitted to any number of online agencies such as PRWeb, PR Leap, and others for free release all over the country or specific locations. Free classified ads can be placed as well on sites such as Craigslist.
Organize a simple e-mail marketing strategy and periodically let folks know what you are up to. Yes there are spam filters, black lists, white lists, and all sorts of tools to keep unsolicited e-mail from bothering the recipient, but if you provide something of value, and follow simple rules of courtesy, your e-mail marketing can be quite effective, not to mention traceable, measurable, and essentially free.

In response to a recent marketing survey, 52% of over 220 manufacturing company
executives consider their website to be their most valuable marketing tool. Considering just the small sampling of easy to implement tips above, it’s no wonder.

Yes, the hazy lazy days of summer are here, but the internet can provide ways our business can enjoy sustained marketing presence even while we kick back a bit and have our minds occasionally somewhere else.

John Geiger, owner of Webmasters ICE, has over five years experience helping small and medium-sized companies and organizations capitalize on the power of the internet through consulting, education, and supporting products and services. His focus and passion is the use of the internet in providing more effective overall marketing strategies and highly measurable levels of marketing success. http://www.webmastersice.com/