Small Business Website Marketing Truth
Small Business Website Marketing Truth.
If you have a true or false question or truth or lie question or right or wrong question or correct or incorrect question about websites for small business owners that you do not see addressed in this article, click here to post your statement now. I will address the statement by appending it to the bottom of this article and email my remarks back to you as well.
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Websites: Truth or Lie?
Lots of things sound good, but aren't true and there is a huge difference between an incorrect statement and a lie. Just because something sounds good, does NOT mean it is true. I am a fan of critical thinking and intelligent evaluation.
If something is really a truth statement, I mean absolutely true, one "cannot blow holes in it." What I mean is that if something is absolutely true, no one can demonstrate how it is not true.
Asking questions is smart, and if someone has purported something to you as being true as a reason you should buy something (or even buy into an idea), they should not respond negatively if you ask a few good questions. Don't ask your questions with an accusative tone, however, because that can put anyone in a defensive mode.
Try something like this: "That sounds interesting, but could you answer a couple of questions?" and then procede to courtesously and respectfully ask your questions. If they do respond with irritation or anger, there is a possibility that they intended to deceive you, and that would be a lie. If they merely act uncomfortable or embarrassed, they may have simply been ignorant - still making statements that were false, but without an intent to deceive, and therefore were not lying. -- Only wrong.
It is understandable to be wrong. No one knows everything, and they may be a novice or at least less than an expert in their field.
If you cannot formulate questions immediately, then ask for some time to think it over and talk to someone you know and trust about it and see if they have questions that they think you should ask. If someone is trying to convince you to do something that you still have questions about, beware.
I love it when my prospects ask questions! Why? For several reasons.
First, it demonstrates some intelligence on their part. Smart people ask questions! I like working with smart people that think things through before saying "yes" because I like lifetime clients.
I have lived long enough to know that there are some things that I think are true and project as truth that are not true. Since I am human, I am subject to error. I may have said things that are incorrect to my clients or potential clients in the past (present, or future), but I have NEVER LIED TO THEM.
To say something false, knowing it is false, with the intent to deceive someone to take advantage of them is a lie.
Moreover, to say something true, suspecting or knowing that your hearer interprets the statement to mean something that it does not, without clarifying for their understanding, is also a lie!
The best example I can think of for this is this scenario related to websites for small business owners: the website seller says to the potential buyer something like this: ".... website is receiving _______ number of hits per day, month or year."
The problem is, most small business owners just are not savvy enough to know the chasm that is between "hits" and "unique visitors" and they interpret "hits" to mean "visitors". The seller knows this, and although they are telling the prospect the techical truth, the number is grossly exaggerated. To make such statements are lies!
For your understanding, a single visit to one HTML page could generate 1,000 "hits", and if the visitor goes to another page and then clicks "back", the 1,000 "hits" are generated again. Do this five times and you have then 5,000 hits from 1 visitor. See what I mean?
I don't know about you, but I personally value integrity above morality. That is not to say that morality is not important to me, because it is, but I'd rather do business with an immoral person than a dishonest one.
The very first clients I collected when I started by business in 1999 are still my clients ten years later, and I can confidently say that they will buy anything from me that I sell, if they need it and can afford it, because I have worked with them honestly. It is called TRUST.
Potential clients or current clients asking questions, which I am happy to answer, brings them closer to a buying decision. It is a good thing.
Second, it indicates that there is interest in my products or services that I am trying to sell to them. When people ask questions (and receive intelligent, honest answers) they are able to determine whether or not the buy decision is good for them. (In my case, I have something to sell that every small business owner really needs, so I am already convinced that the potential client needs my products or services.) Therefore, I see this questioning process as their arguements to convince themselves that they should buy.
Third, it enables me to find the "right fit" or package of services to try and sell to them. Their questioning will often provide a clarification of their needs, goals or expectations. This is critical information to me, because I am very careful to NOT sell a product or service to someone that will not meet or exceed their expectations, and sometimes there expectations are simply beyond reasonable.
If you are a Small Business Owner, you face a similar challenge
that all small business owners must deal with:
effectively and affordably marketing your small business.
Here is a good example of unrealistic expectations and how I managed them.
I am an expert at search enging marketing, especially via the vehicle what what is known as organic search engine results (NOT PPC [Pay Per Click]). Because I have many clients on this service (paying me between $50 - $1,000 each month to manage their search engine marketing campaigns) that have achieved page 1 search engine placement on all of the major search engines, I receive regular referrals from their friends and acquaintances who need a reliable search engine marketing firm.
During the period between May, 2008 and June, 2009, I received at two to six leads monthly from people that had been referred to me by existing search engine marketing clients for search engine optimization services.
The problem was, these small business owners in particular had businesses that were in serious trouble. So serious that they were about to go out of business. Because of the enthusiastic endorsements they received from my existing client they were already "Sold" on my service. As a part of the consultation process, I ascertained that they were looking at SEO of the website as a "Silver Bullet" and me as their business "Savior."
I could have easily sold them, taken their money, and lost my character in the process. I told them I was incapable of meeting their expectations, and that no one else could do it either. They simply needed too much too soon and it was not possible. If they had contacted me a year or two earlier, it could have been different.
Websites: Truth or Lie?
Websites: Truth or Lie: "A properly developed and marketed website is the most cost effective marketing vehicle a small business can possess."
Truth
There is no doubt in my mind that the above statement is true. In my own experience, from a little town on the north Olympic Peninsula of Washington, I successfully attracted AND secured thousands of paying clients (not just "leads" or "visitors" from all over the U.S.A. and several foreign countries with just one website.
This website focused upon a singular product and was just a simple HTML site. Nothing fancy. Just offering what the wanted and fulfilling the promises the website made. It was all done without an expensive PPC (Pay Per Click) program and without using a single blog, - just following website development and marketing (SEO) best practices and then waiting on the website to rank.
My A1 Small Business Marketing eSchool has units that teach the fundamentals of great small business website development, explaining how to design your website to accomplish your goals and why to follow well established, standard conventions.
Some helpful lessons are below:
The Ten Steps of Website Development
learn more about the lesson
buy the lesson now
On the other hand, if you are marketing information, rather than a physical product or localized service, then social networking and blogs can be helpful.
Links from other websites, blogs and social networking sites included, will always help with your search engine marketing efforts, simply because of the inbound links. But even then, the way the links are created and the META tags and other HTML markeup have a huge impact upon how well the links will actually work for your website.
Websites: Truth or Lie: "An aggressive online SEO / SEM (Search Engine Optimization - Search Engine Marketing) campaign will always prosper or at least save your small business."
Lie
The truth is, you can have excellent search engine placement or search engine rank for your website without making a lot of sales. There are other factors that must be considered.
There are three things that must happen for a website to effectively market your small business:
1) Attract Prospects
2) Compel Contact
3) Convert Sale
All an effective search engine marketing service can do is attract the prospects. It cannot compel them to contact you (that depends upon how your website is created, graphics, video, audio and copy), and it cannot convert a sale (that depends upon your sales process).
In addition to these three factors that you can control, there are economic factors that you cannot control. When people are holding on to their money and are worried about their financial future, there may be nothing you can do to get them to buy.
This sounds good, and the internet and ecommerce are important for sure, but the statement above is simply false. There are thousands of small businesses that are doing just fine without a website!
However, I do believe that the small businesses that should NOT operate a website are very few. A properly developed and marketed website is an asset to any small business and if created and managed properly will always pay for itself.
I have written an article titled: "I am a Small Business Owner. Do I Need a Really Need a Website?" that I will be happy to email to you FREE if you simply complete my contact form and request it.
If your website is really costing you more than you are making from it, there is a problem somewhere that needs to be addressed. If you site is new, more time may undo this "upside down" website issue, or more time could actually make it worse if you are overpaying for it.
Websites: Truth or Lie: "The best way to market your small business via the web is by using social networking vehicles & blogs."
The truth is, the best way to market your small business is
Small Business Website Marketing Truth.
If you have a true or false question or truth or lie question or right or wrong question or correct or incorrect question about websites for small business owners that you do not see addressed in this article, click here to post your statement now.
I will address the statement by appending it to the bottom of this article and email my remarks back to you as well.
Thanks!