5 ESSENTIAL TIPS FOR YOUR ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGY

Whether you have just got your first website up on the internet or you have a long es- tablished site, its doing no good if no one is looking at it, and even then, its doing no good either if its not attracting new business for you. Here are 5 simple but powerful things to think about if you want your website to start working for you:

#1 Great Design
If your isn't easy to navigate people will be less inclined to use it. Websites should be well laid out, attractive on the eye, interesting with interactive elements and be in- formative without being too wordy. First impressions count, most people visit a web- site several times before deciding to become a customer so don't let poor design turn them off on their first visit!

#2 Modest Effort - Big Rewards!
Building your website is the beginning not the end of your online presence. All your site's readers including the search engines like fresh content and new things to at- tract them back to the site over and over. Invest your time and effort wisely - you'll be amazed at how big an impact just 2 hours a week can have on your business.

#3 Plan Ahead
Successful marketing campaigns ALWAYS attribute good planning to the basis of their success. Setting realistic goals and measuring your achievements are key factors in constantly improving and refining your marketing. Don't be afraid to change your goals as your business evolves. Set up a mailing list early, make it easy and attractive to your clients to join - there's no better client than an already satisfied customer!

#4 Spread The Word
Research shows that people use your website not only because they have found you through search engines and the like, but because they have heard about you else- where. Don't ignore the obvious marketing tools like word of mouth, business cards, van signage etc and ALWAYS list your web address. Modesty is a virtue but its never crass to be proud of your own business.

#5 Step Out Of The Ordinary
Marketing today holds more opportunities than ever before with a vast range of on- line methods that don't involve expensive printing or postage. But it can be daunting with so much tweeting, blogging, digging and facebooking, so get some expert advice BEFORE you start and embrace the technology to show your enthusiasm for your busi- ness so that it rubs off on your prospective clients.

6 Bad Reasons NOT to have a website for your business

6 Bad Reasons Not To Have a Website for your Business

Are you a small business with either no website at all or a tired old one that doesn't seem to improve your business for you?

Here at Seagull Designs we have been working in web design in Lincolnshire for a while and we have been focussing on local businesses who don't already have a website (or do but don't know what to do with it now its looking a bit tired) and we've found the most common reasons for not being online are usually poor excuses! In this article I hope to show that getting your business online is simply, cost-effecitve and absolutely necessary in the 21st century.

1. Don't Need A Website
It makes a very poor impression on your potential customers if you don't have the basic tools that say "we're a proper business". Once upon a time this meant having a name, a logo, a phone number and a business card with all this information on it but in the 21st century a website (with your own domain name) is every bit as essential, no website says "we aren't a serious business".

2. Can't Afford A Website
Once upon a time this was possibly true, web design is an industry in flux, once you used to pay someone thousands of pounds and look at the finished result and think "was that it?" then be assured that it took many hours and a great deal of skill to write the code that made it work. These days the myth is blown. In our next article we'll look at what makes a good first website but for now a professional web design company shouldn't be charging you more than a few hundred pounds for a 3-4 page static website . . INCLUDING all the grahics and help with the content!!! On top of this, hosting doesn't need to cost that much either, such a site should cost no more than £50 or £60 a year to host AND maintain . . AND make basic changes and updates to within reason!

3. No One Will Look at it
This is slightly true if your business expects to never make new customers. More likely the website, all shiny and expensive just sits there and the web designers fade away with their fee. These days the job is only half done, a nice site matters, of course, but driving traffic to it and promoting matters too. getting the balance right between having lots of visitors and giving them a good experience when they get there is crucial for the all importnat ratio of expense in having a website to number of people visiting it to number of visitors converted into clients

4. Don't know what to put on it
Not all businesses have have products to sell directly (those that do really must have a webstore to sell from, again these are cost effective if you use some of the open source ("free"!!!) software out there, most hosting packagaes should come with something your web designers can configure and install for you. True that you need to update it with your products and process the orders yourself but these systems are not rocket science and anyone who can get online and surf the internet can manage it. Other businesses don't know what to say about themselves, one of the tools in the armoury of good web designers is the ability to write good copy. Often with an eye on the dark arts of "Search Engine Optimisation" which is the buzz word around and a well planned (and again, cost-effrective!!!) campaign will draw many more visitors to your site where the good design of the site turns them into customers.

6. Dont Trust the unknown
This is all tied up with the years of bad and greedy web designers (and yes they are still out there, many in very respectable companies!) who have made getting businesses online expensive and harrowing for people by exploiting their lack of knowledge. Find a web designer who wnats to work with you, who "gets' what your business is about and who goes out of his way (sometimes far too far!!) to explain things to do and never ever gives the impression that its too technical for you to understand so you should just pay up . . .

All of the above, combined, are the most common reasons that people with small businesses don't get set up with a website. In our next article we'll walk you through getting one and the options available to you, but for now the messages from Seagull Designs is this:

To Small Businesses - don't be ripped off, your lack of technical knowledge is NOT a barrier to having a cost effective (even "cheap" !!) quality website - there are good web designers out there, go with your gut feelings over reliability, trustworthiness and finances, if it sounds too expensive, it probably is.

To unscrupulous Web Designers - The myth is blown, get over the idea of charging thousands for a 5 page static website then £50 everytime someone wants to update their phone number on it. Hosting doesn't need to cost hundreds every year, even for database driven sites and hosting should include maintainence and features, not just lots of webspace and bandwidth that clients don't need.

In our next article, we'll go through getting your first site online . . if you want help or advice (free!) then don't hesitate to contact Ashley or Taryn at Seagull Designs, Sutton On Sea, Lincs, UK (we do have successful and good overseas clients and often work for people we've never met except over the internet!)

Come and find us at http://www.seagulldesigns.co.uk