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.
A company’s website should be taken seriously and look as professional as it can. It should be unique with advanced features and consistent with branding.
Leave website building up to a web design company. While online-website builders seem fast and easy, they can dramatically limit your website’s potential. If you hire a web design company they can make your website easy to navigate, functional and SEO-friendly.
Here are some of the most important reasons to hire a web design company.
Avoid Using Standard Templates
With free website builders come standard templates that thousands of other companies are using. Because you are competing with so many companies, it’s important that your website is unique and tailored to fit your business. If you hire a web design company, they can customize a website for your business. Web designers are detail oriented and will carefully consider all aspects of the website that will compliment your branding.
Increase Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Web designers know all the tools to help increase your ranking in search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways to increase traffic onto your site. There are various ways to increase SEO from site construction to keywords, linking articles and adding meta descriptions. If you hire a web design company they will optimize the site with all the latest SEO methodologies.
Track Your Traffic
Tracking traffic is another reason to hire a web design company. Managing the stats from your website traffic can be a full-time job, but it’s important. Those stats will tell you where your site visitors are coming from, what pages they’ve looked at and where your site ranks for search term queries, which all help you to make changes on your site. A good web design company can manage the stats, compile reports for you and make recommendations on landing pages, changes to site structure and content to help boost your organic ranking.
Advanced Functions
There are many functions a web design company can build into your website that an online-builder can’t. Flat design and parallax scrolling are new and innovative trends that web designers can build for you. They can also add shopping carts, blogs, advertising and video.
Train You To Use Your Site
Web designers want to give you a fantastic website, but don’t want you to be stumped when trying to add content or make changes. Your web designer can show you how to update articles, add graphics and blog.
In short a web design company can make your website easy to navigate, functional and SEO-friendly.
Contact NuZoo to talk about how we can be of service to you.
Getting customers onto your website is great, but how do we increase online traffic return?
Keeping your customers informed about your business can help maintain loyalty. Customers’ attention needs to be earned; here are some of the best practices.
Stay in Touch With Your Customers
Get their emails, so that they hear from you. Have an email- list of people so you can send them promotions by sharing promotions, news, tips and trends, and new products. Sending out emails is a good way for customers to remember you, and by adding links to your website in the email you make it easy to generate online traffic return.
Customize Emails
Know what your customers are interested in and keep them up to date on industry news and trends that affect their business. That way you send them emails that are most relevant to their interests. It’s always great to use their name in the content, so it looks more personal. Send them emails of products that they would most likely appeal to them, rather than a general email. And remember it’s never about you, it’s always about the customers.
Loyalty Programs
This is a great way for thanking your customers for being a part of your business. Customers can feel appreciated when the business is doing something for them. Loyalty programs are great, because people love racking up points. According to Shephkeyen, 54% of Americans would use a business more if the company had a loyalty reward.
Encourage Them To Share
Getting your customers to share your website with people they know is a fast and easy way to expand your audience. Customers can share your website through social media accounts. You can also give rewards for customers who refer another person to your business. Sharing is as easy as a click of a button, so it is not too much to ask for.
Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles, FreeDigitalPhotos.net
How cool would it be if you could make choices in a video you’re watching? With interactive video you can.
Interactive video allows the viewer to interact with the video by selecting choices through touch, sound and clicks. Viewers can do more than sit back and watch.
Interactive video can be used for many types of purposes from shopping to story telling.
Not only are they entertaining and engaging, but these appealing videos make people want to watch them again. Interactive videos inspire viewers to replay them on average up to three times, according to Entrepreneur.
Customizable Storylines
You can use interactive video to tell a story, with viewers making plot choices. This is what Pepsi does in their video “Now is What You Make It.” Viewers can click on a pop up icon to unveil a new scene. Another way to use interactive video to tell a story is to make a choice to change the direction of the story. Viewers can take part in the fate of the story. If they don’t like it, they can always try another choice. Andy Grammar’s music video “Keep Your Head Up” uses this type of interaction.
Shopping Through Video
Producing videos to market new products has become commonplace in our visual and mobile era. But the latest twist lets you shop and buy through video. While the interactive video is playing you can click on icons that allow you to purchase products. This video of Ben Sherman’s 2012-2013 collection is one example of apparel shopping though video. In the video, as each model walks by, an icon of the outfit pops up in the corner. When you click on it, you can view item options like sizes and colors, and prices and purchase it immediately.
How To’s and Tutorials
Using interactive video you can learn how to do things by making choices and becoming part of the process. This DIY method immerses you in the tutorial and may help you learn more. The Cupcake Adventure tutorial shows you how to make cupcakes while you choose the flavors. People are apt to learn and retain more information when they take part in the process rather than watching.
Contact NuZoo to discuss what type of
interactive video is best for you.
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?
A company’s website should be taken seriously and look as professional as it can. It should be unique with advanced features and consistent with branding.
