If you’re a small business owner you already know that a website is important for marketing & sales. But there are many types of small business websites. What’s right for your business?
There are so many different types it can be confusing to find the right one. Educating yourself on the various types of small business websites is the first and most important step in properly marketing your business.
We’re going to look at 3 different types of small business websites. This should make it easier and less confusing to decide what site suits you.
Brochure Website
This is exactly what it sounds like: the digital version of your printed brochure with a similar design. This type of website is usually the least expensive because it’s smaller and static.
These sites usually cover the basics including company history and experience, a brief list of products and services, contact information, FAQs, even customer testimonials. A brochure website is a great starter website that establishes your business on the Internet and provides customers with an overview of the business.
If you’re a smaller brick-and-mortar company that doesn’t have services you can easily sell online, this is usually the best option. Think hair salons, auto garages and veterinarians.
A brochure website is the first step in marketing your business online. Then you can start to link all your electronic efforts together, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp reviews, Pinterest and whatever other sites you’re using.
E-Commerce Website
An e-commerce website is used to sell products and services online. This type of site can be a complement to your brick-and-mortar store or for businesses that sell primarily online. E-commerce websites range from small local companies selling as few as one item online to large online-only companies like Amazon.
Just like a store, they’re organized by departments or categories for easy browsing and purchase. Shoppers add items to a shopping cart and check out when they’re finished. There are usually a variety of payment methods for the customer’s convenience that can include PayPal, credit cards and direct withdrawal from a bank account.
This type of site requires more design and programming so it will cost more than a brochure website and take more time to build. But there are plenty of alternatives to building one from scratch. Options include:
PayPal: This easy-to-use and budget-friendly site has become the go-to online payment center for many businesses and individuals. Anyone can sell their products and services on any website, including a brochure website. Shoppers select items to buy and when they’re ready to checkout they’re linked to PayPal to finish the financial transaction.
Yahoo! Small Business: A turnkey solution that offers 3 e-commerce packages: Starter plan for $19.95/month; Standard plan at $49.95/month; and Professional plan $299 per monthly.
Magento: This open source (read: free) shopping cart can scale from ‘easy-to-use’ to pretty complex configurations. Also, lots of themes, extensions and support forums for DIYers who don’t want to hire a web design company.
Shopify: A step up but more involved. It hosts your site on its servers, manages the administrative backend and handles security. The basic service costs $29 a month, professional $79 and unlimited $179 a month.
Lead Generating
You can use your website as a referral engine to actively generate more business. This type of website is more advanced than the brochure website. Start by blogging on a regular basis with topical, relevant content to your business, products or services. This gives customers and prospects a reason to visit regularly, and can increase their trust in your business. It also shows your expertise. Each time you blog share it on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and any other social media platforms you’re using. Deliver high-quality content people want and need and you’ll see more online traffic, build trust and generate more referrals. This type of website requires more in resources; you’ll need someone to blog and update the site regularly. But the benefits are well worth it for many businesses, with an increased profile and site traffic.
Video is a great way for businesses to reveal themselves. These days, people don’t just want to read up on a product before they purchase, they want to see it.
Using Video To Increase Sales Has Become Common
73% of US adults are more likely to purchase after watching a video. People are attracted to the visuals so give them what they want.
How You Can Use Video To Increase Sales
Here are some of the ways and types of video that can help boost sales and gain you more customers.
Create an Experience
You get to be creative and produce the experience you want your customers to have. You have to think of how you want your customers to feel after they watch your video. Do you want them to identify with your company, feel like your product or service is the best for the buck, make them curious to visit your website, or compelled to buy? Take your customers on a journey with you, thrill them, delight them, play tourist guide with your company the focus of the tour.
Show Don’t Tell
People don’t just want to read about your business product. Showing them what you have to offer is much more effective and immediate. Show what your product does in a real life setting, and how it can affect or change the customer’s life. There are many ways to do this ranging from customer testimonials, animation, white board “explainer” videos or professional actors with a skillfully written script. Testimonials are effective because someone other than you is talking about how great your product or service is. A third party opinion is very powerful and persuasive.
NuZoo produced a series of testimonials for Community Investment Corporation with customers describing their own experience in dealing with Chicago’s leading lender in affordable housing.
Video Builds Trust
When a customer watches your video, they recognize the face of your business and you build a connection with them. Show them you care by giving tips that help them. Customers want to feel like they matter, and you can show and tell them that they do.
NuZoo produced a video for AOFAS to promote their 2,100 orthopaedic surgeons. The surgeons get to tell their story, building a connection, and making them relatable and trustworthy experts.
Make a Connection
Make an emotional connection by telling your company story, the seeds of its’ beginnings, growth, how it came to life. This makes you more relatable, and allows you to discuss the company’s mission, values and ethics. This intimate style of video tells a story about the company that puts a face to the name, brings the customer inside and shows the unique qualities you want to emphasize.
In the webinar He Said / She Said NuZoo founders Mary Joan and Dan discuss the sometimes opposing, often amusing, points of view from a married business couple about their company.
Contact NuZoo today to discuss how using video to increase sales can be part of your strategy. We’ll help you identify the type of video that’s right for you.
Responsive web site or mobile web site? If that’s the question you’re asking yourself, how about this answer: a web site that is both responsive and mobile.
Responsive Web Site and Mobile Web Site
You can have both a responsive web site and a mobile web site all in one. In fact, you don’t really want a separate mobile web site because then you will have two URLS, and two web sites to update and maintain.
Having two web site URLs will also dilute your web site traffic because you will have two URLs for each page rather than just one. According to Google’s Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts going with a responsive web site design gives you a better chance of ranking higher on Google.
“In general, I wouldn’t worry about a site that is using responsive design losing SEO benefits because by definition you’ve got the same URL,” Cutts said in his video titled “Is there an SEO disadvantage to using responsive design instead of separate mobile URLs?” “So in theory, if you do a mobile version of the site, if you don’t handle that well and you don’t do the rel=canonical and all those sorts of things, then you might, in theory, divide the PageRank between those two pages. But if you have responsive design then everything is handled from one URL, so the PageRank doesn’t get divided, everything works fine.”
What is A Responsive Web Site?
What exactly is a responsive web site? A responsive web site is a design that scales to any screen size from mobile to laptop to desktop. So your page size will be taken into account and the page will work fine on whatever device it’s viewed.
Sounds a lot like a mobile site doesn’t it?
Chicago web design company NuZoo Media designs sites that are both responsive and mobile. We offer unique design, personal service, and competitive pricing. We consider your target audience, brand and site purpose before we begin.
If you’re a small business owner you already know that a website is important for marketing & sales. But there are many types of small business websites. What’s right for your business?
Video is a great way for businesses to