Make sure you’re connecting with your customers with these 3 website design tips.
 But first, you need to examine what your business message is, then figure out whether or not your website is conveying that message.
What’s the unique selling point for your business? What determines the effect people get?
What Message do You Want to Send?
Generally website design depends on your brand. A small business needs a different approach than a small business.
A large business might need to try to look extremely professional and not convey a lot of personality for fear of putting off a small group of people.
On the other hand, a small business may be better off not leaving a 100% politically correct perception that is so safe that it doesn’t give people any idea about who you are or what you stand for.
Ask yourself: What do you want to be known for in your industry? Does your website convey that unique positioning?
One Chance is Often All You’ve Got
One mistake many website owners make is that they assume they have their reader’s attention and have time to carefully tell them what their business is about.
The reality is, you really only have about two seconds for a website to capture the attention of a visitor. In those two seconds, your visitor needs to know how you might be able to help them as well as the overall “vibe” of your site.
Then your visitor will decide if she wants to keep browsing or not. This browsing tendency makes it absolutely crucial that you grab your visitors attention quickly.
Probably the most important website design tip is to look at the things that are visible “above the fold”, meaning within the first screen without scrolling. Do you advertise your newsletter or e-zine “above the fold”? If you do, great. If not, try an experiment an move it and see if you get more subscribers.
Is it Easy to Use?
The second most important website design tip is how easy is your website to use? Do users struggle to find navigation buttons? Can someone easily find what they’re looking for, or is it a difficult process for them?
It’s easy to think to yourself that you’re doing great in this area, when really you’re not. The only way to know is to actually observe how your users are using your website.
Ask five friends or five family members to browse the site with you watching. See where they initially put their attention, then what they try to do and any hang-ups they have. Ask them for suggestions.
Your best redesign ideas and improvement ideas often won’t come from you – they’ll come from your users.
What Next?
Ask yourself what do you want your visitors to learn from visiting your website. Then figure out what kind of impact you’re actually leaving by asking and observing users interacting with your website.
Use what you learn to redesign and tweak your website to better target the kind of experience you want your visitor to have.
What are some other website design tips that you have found to be important in building a user friendly website? Please share below.
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 How can you generate more sales? One of the best methods is to read your customers’ minds. In other words, you have to know your customer so you can provide them with a better solution than anyone else.
If you’ve ever been a salesperson, you know how important it is to understand your customers’ wants. The most successful salespeople get in a conversation and ask their prospects what they desire before attempting to sell to them. They are trying to identify whether they have a solution that would meet those needs.
You have to do the same thing. If you just ram your product down their throats, you won’t make money. You first have to identify customers needs, and then tailor your product to meet those needs.
Here are four tips to help you know your customer:
Get in Their Heads
This is actually a method the world’s best copywriters use. All you do is put yourself in your prospects’ shoes, and imagine how they live their lives.
Think about every detail. This will help you speak to them better, because it enables you to know what they want. In order to do this, you have to know your target customer. So figure this out before doing anything.
What are Other Businesses Emphasizing
One of the best ways to determine your customers’ problems is to read other sales letters. Notice what benefits they are emphasizing. If you see multiple sales letters all emphasizing the same points, then you know it’s something important. Then focus on creating a better solution than anyone else.
Do a survey
This is one of the simplest strategies, but it works. Asking your customers what their main problems are and the more conversational you make the conversation the more you’ll learn. Then you have to figure out how to provide the best solution.
Two easy ways to survey your customers on your site is to use Survey Monkey or create a questionnaire in Google Documents using the Forms option.
As long as you ask a reasonable amount of customers, you will have a good idea of the primary problems your target market is facing. As a matter of fact, it’s a great idea to make this a habit. Customer needs change and to know your customers and to be able to provide the best solutions, you need to learn their “pain”.
Visit Forums
Here you will see the main problems people are talking about. This will also help you to know what to focus on with your product. If you see certain questions coming up again and again, you know this is something you want to emphasize.
The Bottom Line
Identifying your prospects’ problems is very important. Implementing these four tips is how to quickly identify the problem. Then you simply have to come up with a better solution than any other business. If you genuinely want to help people solve their problems, making money is the inevitable result.
What Next
Strike up conversations with your customers and ask them what their frustrations are and different solutions they have tried. Once people feel you are interested in helping them, the conversation starts to flow and you’ll know your customer better than you ever thought possible. Then you can provide them with the best solution.
If you would like a little more guidance in how to know your customer to provide the best solution, we’ve have an entire series (with workbook) to help you put together a Simple Business Plan. And of course, you can send me an email if you have any questions.
 Why is it so critical to have a unique selling proposition (USP)?
Actually, this is one of the more important elements to a company. If you don’t have a USP, you are just a “me too” firm trying to sell the same thing as everyone else.
Without something to make you stand out, you likely aren’t going to stay in business long. This is particularly true if there are a lot of companies you are competing with. And having something that makes you stand out will enable you to charge more money than most companies as well.
However, just having a USP is not enough. It has to be a good one.
Here are three tips for getting the most out of your unique selling proposition:
Your Biggest Promise
You need to put your best foot forward with your unique selling proposition. This is what will make you stand out. Ideally it should revolve around the main benefit of your product. You know your customers are going to care about this. Try to come up with some sort of guarantee that no one else can match.
An example of a good one would be a “double money back guarantee” if your product doesn’t produce the desired benefit. Almost nobody offers this, so it will make you stand out. Just think about what your customers want, and then come up with a USP that meets that need better than anyone else.
Focus on Your Customer
Your USP is not meant to be something about your company. Instead it needs to involve a benefit to your customer.
People aren’t concerned with the length of time your company has existed for. They want to know what you can do for them. So focus on that in your unique selling proposition .
Promote it Heavily
There is no point in having a unique selling proposition if you aren’t going to advertise it. This should be the main point in you advertising messages.
When you think of Geico commercials, you probably think of “15 minutes could save you 15% or more”. That’s because they promote it in every single advertising campaign, from TV ads, to radio, billboards, and so on.
You can do the same. Always mention the USP at least once, ideally in the headline of the ad. This will ensure it has the maximum effect
Take Home
An effective USP will bring you more business. It’s absolutely essential. The last thing the world needs is another business that provides the same solution that hundreds of other companies do.
This will not only get you more business, but also enable you to charge more money. The more value you provide, the more you can charge. Implement these three tips, and you will have an effective unique selling proposition very soon.
If you would like a little more help on figuring out your unique selling proposition, we’ve have an entire series (with workbook) to help you put together a Simple Business Plan. And of course, you can send me an email if you have any questions.
 So, you’re ready to take your business online and join the virtual world. Yeah! The Internet is a great tool for a small business because there are so many ways to target local customers with your small business website.
Like other tools you evaluate before using them in your business the Internet is no different. Proper planning and understanding is crucial to your success online. If you think that you’ll just put up a website and start blogging and customers will come running – I got news for you and you’re not going to like it.
When you are starting a small business website, there are a number of things to consider, like goals for your website.
Here are three more questions you’ll need to think about before you jump in:
Should You Design it Yourself?
Outsourcing the design is more expensive. However, it might be smart if you don’t have experience with it. There are plenty of companies that will do it relatively cheaply.
The cost depends on the site. Some can be done for $200 or less, whereas others will run you $5000 or more. It simply depends on how elaborate you want the site to be.
And the third option is to get software that will essentially build it for you. It costs a little, but it doesn’t require a lot of technical skills. Software is great for most simple websites.
How Do You Get Targeted Traffic?
There are a number of strategies that work. SEO is one of the most popular. This is probably the least effective for a local business website, because of the scarcity of “area specific” keywords. However, if there are enough searches it might work.
An “area specific” keyword is one that has a location in it. Examples would be “Newark bunk beds”, “Chicago golf courses”, etc. But this is usually going to be fairly limited, because there will probably only be a few good area specific terms.
To really boost your traffic, do a pay per click campaign with “geo-targeting”. This means you will only show up for a keyword when somebody in your location searches for it.
So if you geo-target Newark for the keyword “bunk beds”, you will only appear when somebody from Newark types this in. If somebody from Chicago searches for”bunk beds”, you won’t show up. Finally, you can use other methods to market your online business offline direct mail campaigns, as well as classifieds to get visitors.
How do You Make Money From Your Site?
That will require good marketing skills. Make sure the site is easy to navigate, and that the prices are competitive. This is particularly important if you are selling a commodity product. If you have specialty goods, you can charge more.
One thing you might want to do is split test different pages in pay per click, and see which page converts the best. Just test different features on the site, and see what works and what doesn’t. This will help your maximize your conversions.
The Bottom Line
It’s better not to restrict yourself to one location. However, if your business is not designed to handle customers around the globe, implementing these three tips is how to target local customers and have a thriving small business website.
If you would like a little more guidance in starting a small business website, we’ve have an entire series (with workbook) to help you put together a Simple Business Plan. And of course, you can send me an email if you have any questions.
 Once you’ve decided to set up a small business blog you may be tempted to jump in and begin spilling all your thoughts out into the Internet world for all to read and marvel at. Don’t do it!
Before you write even one word, answer the following questions:
Why are You Blogging?
To establish yourself as an expert? Attract traffic? Make sales? Share your opinions? Choose one or at most two primary goals to keep in mind, and write each and every post (article) with those goals at the forefront.
How Often are You Willing to Blog?
Not just next week, but next month and next year…it’s common to start out a small business blog with a bang, declaring to everyone that you’re intent on blogging every day for the rest of your natural-born life. You’re all revved up to take the blogging world by storm, and you do it – for a month. Then you start getting distracted by other things. Your posts start dwindling, from every day, to five days a week, to three days a week, until you’re struggling to update once or twice a week. No good! Pick a schedule you can stick with for the long haul. If you’re able to post more than that, “bank” some posts for the future so you have some in the can for when time is tight or you want to take a vacation.
Who is Your Audience?
Are you writing to consumers, prospects, potential partners, other professionals? Each audience will require a different “spin” on your approach. While you can have more than one group reading your small business blog, know who your primary reader is, and direct your posts at him or her.
What do You Want to Write About?
Even within a very slender niche, the possibilities for topics abound. If you write about fitness and weight loss, you could write about news, personal challenges, debunk myths, expert advice, products, or a combination of all of above. If you write about personal finances, you could do budget makeovers, review books, give tax tips, provide personal finance humor, or warn people about scams. Figure out your unique spin based on your business’s unique selling proposition and your blog goals.
So how did you do answering these questions? Setting up proper expectations is crucial to your success. If you need some time to think about it, take the time. The more time and thought invested in the beginning is less stress and frustration later.
If you would like a little more guidance in setting up your small business blog goals, we’ve have an entire series (with workbook) to help you put together a Simple Business Plan. And of course, you can send me an email if you have any questions.
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