How Small Business Web Services Can Help You Reach Customers in Your Area
Starting your own blog or website can be a great source of retirement income. Take a hobby or passion and turn it into a stream of income. This article, by my friend, Eunice Coughlin, explains more about how you can use small business web services to help.
Small business web services are desperately needed for business owners who want a website that will work for them.
Back in the day, when the internet first took hold of small business, it was believed that everyone needed a website. No one knew why, exactly, other than the fact that everyone was doing it. The prevailing wisdom was if you wanted your business to be relevant, you needed to have a web site because “that’s the future, dang it!”
Fast forward about 15 years later and people still believe in the necessity of having a small business web site but still not sure why, except that everyone’s doing it.
There are still some hold-outs, though, who refuse to give in and get one, either because they can’t afford the high prices web designers charge or they just don’t see a need for it.
There are a small number of small business owners who understand the value of a well-promoted web site and demand more than just design; they’re looking for small business web services.
Your business web site should be a major marketing tool for you that can bring a huge return on investment if you do it right. It should bring you sales leads that are ready to buy your product or service because you’ve pre-sold them through your website.
There are millions of websites in cyberspace competing for the attention of your customer. How do you get the kind of traffic to your web site that will result in a sale for you?
People are online looking for information about your product or service. You’ve got to develop an online promotional plan that will draw people to your site, provide the information they’re looking for and then develop a relationship with them so that they trust you and are ready to buy your product or service.
It’s not as complicated as it sounds. It just takes time to do it. Social networking is a major part of web site promotion. Most business owners don’t have the time or knowledge to do it on their own but it is the wave of the future for small businesses who want to capture the business that’s available to them online.
The 2 main players in social networking are Facebook and Twitter. As a “bricks and mortar” type of small business where your product or service is limited by geography, use Facebook and Twitter to connect with prospects in your city or regional area.
For example, if you are a cake designer, you would want to follow people in the 20-something age group that might be considering marriage sometime in the future. Offer incentives in your “tweets” and status posts for people to like you or follow you. Every once in a while, post a link to your website or a specific page on your website that you’d like to promote.
As your posts appear on your followers walls and Twitter streams, people will begin to follow you and check out what you’re posting. It begins to have a “viral” effect and the next thing you know, you have a huge list of followers and a steady stream of visitors to your website. Google and the other search engines like Bing takes note of all this online activity that’s directing traffic to your website so that when someone searches for your business in your area or region, your website will pop up in the search engines first. The result is more customers and more sales for your small business.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/how-small-business-web-services-can-help-you-reach-customers-in-your-area-3986623.html
About the Author
Eunice Coughlin, Online Marketing Specialist, started Simple Internet Strategies in 2010 to help the small business owner attract more customers and make more money with their website. To see how she can help you, sign up for a free evaluation of your website here.












