Small Business: 6 Online Myths Revealed

The e-commerce industry is filled with different ideas on what’s the best approach for a small business owner. Having spoken with many small business owners, I know there’s some common myths that seem to resonate with website owners more than others. No matter who, where, or how far along in the process they are, an industry like this can spread some serious rumors and propagate some strange ideas. SmallBusinessNewz has been profiling some of these most common myths in two-part video series based on findings from Homestead.com’s CEO & Founder Justin Kitch. The second part in the series, featured below, covers common myths on marketing strategy that really speaks volumes. From my experience, these are definitely some popular misconceptions when it comes to running an online business.

In summary, the video lays out the work that must be done after establishing an internet presence.

• My website is only for new customers.
• My site is just for customers.
• My internet strategy is my website.
• Being small is a huge disadvantage.
• The internet will make me rich.
• OK, I’ll do whatever you say.

See the first part of the series here.

Business Blogs and the Media

When the phenomenon of blogs first started, they were simply a way for people to post their personal thoughts on the web, like an online diary. Blogs were bulky, had little features and were difficult to incorporate into a business. The few pioneers in the industry knew from the beginning however, that blogs would explode into the most effective form of communication on the web. These days, you can’t escape blogs if you spend any time online at all. Along the way, blogs emerged as an effective business tool and the media began to acknowledge the profound effect they’re having on the way we do business.

Countless articles have been written about the astounding effect blogs have had on business. Many chronicle the story of a small business with an innovative product that was picked up by bloggers and spread across the blogosphere in a matter of hours, resulting in an enormous buzz that led to extensive financial benefits. Businesses have been built on blogs, some emerging in a few days just through this aspect of utilizing blogs and viral marketing to get the word out.  This article highlights one of those stories.

In 2004, Business Week highlighted the power of business blogs on their front page, finally acknowledging that businesses better start a blog and begin to compete online or their competitors would certainly take advantage of this tool and outplay them in the market. The original article blazed a trail for what would be an ever-evolving love affair between the media, blogs and any business, be it online, small, large or anything in between. The article has been so popular that it’s recently been revised into a new article expanding upon the new market, social media. They’ve updated the information because of the continued evolving market and how important it is to stay on top of the latest trends. Any business looking to be successful should capitalize on these trends to capitalize on profit, simple as that.

Obviously, blogs are playing the most significant and important role in online marketing today. The media marketing buzz continues to surround this and showcases success story after success story. Even Entrepeneur magazine agrees that starting a business blog is the most effective means of giving your business a voice in the article Should you Start a Business Blog?

So if everyone else is catching on, how do you start your own blog and take advantage of this phenomenon? We can help. Contact us today and find out how you can have a fully customized business blog built, installed and connected for your business. Take a hold of the future of your success and capitalize on the most popular, affordable, effective form of marketing today, business blogs.

Advertising With A Business Blog

There are many advantages to advertising with a business blog in today’s competitive online marketplace.

For one, blogs carry more weight with search engines because they are updated regularly with fresh, informative content. This consistently updated information is a magnet for search engine robots. When these bots crawl blogs, the more information that can be found and indexed the better. Blogs add more and more content as they develop, thus helping that information reach more customers. The users finding blogs online are typically very targetted visitors, having searched for a specific keyword found in the blog to end up there. The owners of these blogs are also advertising their sites all over the internet and participating in the very active blog community.

Social bookmarks can be utilized alongside the blog, and if used correctly can generate traffic and links to the website virtually immediately. What does this mean for you as the website owner? An increase in business, plain and simple. With the addition of more articles, the blog literally explodes within the social bookmarks. Both the search engines and social bookmarking sites are supplied consistent, fresh content and the site will achieve much more exposure.

Advertising with a blog should be the first thing you do when considering how to market your website. The blog can accumulate links, supply fresh content and provide a gateway for which your customers can use to interact with you as the business owner.

If you own a home business, there is no more popular form of advertising than a blog. There are even more advantages to blog advertising than just the content and exposure, including the addition of RSS feeds. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and enables a user to subscribe to your blog through a feed which is then read in a feed reader like Google Reader. This provides instantanous output of information to all the users who are currently subscribed to your feed and is an excellent way to keep people informed of new products, updates and sales.

Here at iePlexus, we’re experts in creating effective business blogs for marketing products and services on the web. We have experience with all phases of blog development and maintenance, as well as social bookmarking campaigns. Contact us today to learn how we can help grow your online business.

What Your Customers Want

Getting inside the head of an e-commerce shopper can be a daunting task. There are many variables when it comes to the question of conversions; including product cost, professionalism of your website, shipping factors, payment options and much more. With the rise of e-commerce comes increased competition. Don’t think that your customers won’t search out your exact same product on your competitors site to find the lowest cost. With seemingly endless availability, how can you ensure your business gets the attention and the customers it needs to survive?

Today, online shoppers want to deal with a credible business and buy a product that will last. Assuming your website receives a healthy flow of traffic, you need to take those prospects and convert them into sales. Because shoppers can find what they’re looking for in a variety of places, you need to provide them with the additional information, the extra mile that makes them comfortable with an initial purchase, and keeps them coming back for more. With that being said, the most important factor in the purchase decision is by far one word; trust. And not only trust in the company they’re purchasing from, but trust in the product they’re purchasing. Without this, your competitor is more likely to garner your business. Here’s some tips on how to ensure your website isn’t losing business due to lack of trust:

1. Include your business and contact information on your website (including your phone number), and any organizations that you belong to that have to deal with credibility. Shoppers may research you before making a purchase and definitely want more than an email address in case something goes wrong.
2. Showcase positive customer testimonials. Nothing is more powerful than another consumer giving their recommendation on a business or product.
3. Highlight the fact that shopping on your site is secure. Whatever layer of encryption or method your merchant account uses, make sure your customers know it’s safe to give out their credit card information.
4. Give your business a voice and personality. Let people know who you are, why you’re in this business and how important customer service is to you. People want to know who they’re buying from.
5. Professionalism. Make sure your site is easy to navigate, designed well, and conveys the idea that it’s a real business so customers know how to find what they’re looking for. There’s a standard that people are used to, and you need to be at or above that line when it comes to your website.

The easiest way to meet all these requirements is to implement a business blog. This will provide a forum for you to give your shoppers what they need when it comes to trust, and it will also ensure they have the best opportunity to become your customer for a lifetime. A blog allows you to post testimonials, reviews, company information and also give your business that all-important voice. When it comes down to a decision on whether or not to purchase from your site or a competitors, a business blog that conveys professionalism and trust could be the deciding factor that allows those sales to start rolling in and your website to start becoming profitable.

Embracing Web 2.0 Marketing

With the constant expansion and evolution of the web, new trends develop almost daily. The new buzz is all about Web 2.0, a concept that is quoted often, but doesn’t have a concrete definition. For those of us who dive into the internet in our daily lives, it’s something we can’t avoid, even if everyone explains it a little differently. For our purposes, Web 2.0 is the advancement of the web, the progression from single, isolated websites to a vast expansion of connected applications and services. Websites like Flickr, MySpace, Digg and LinkedIn embody the idea and fundamentals of Web 2.0 - they’re not just websites, but communities; networks of users collaborating for the end goal of improving and categorizing the endless amount of information on the web. We now have the opportunity to use the internet as a platform for connection, and the concept of Web 2.0 enables that. Keep in mind this isn’t limited to social-oriented websites, business and application based sites are just as affected, and they’re embracing the new changes for the potential they hold.

What is the potential? What makes Web 2.0 valuable to a small business? Or someone simply selling products or services online? The revolution of the web has allowed businesses to share equal ground. No longer do large corporations and retailers dominate the markets and search results - anyone with a computer, connection, knowledge and time can compete. The whole idea behind this is the fact that there are customers out there, money to be made; if you’re able to reach out to your target market and offer a product or service that’s valuable, the possibilities are endless. The only question that remains is how to implement a Web 2.0 marketing campaign.

This kind of campaign has a series of steps that if done correctly, can really give a business the ability to reach farther into their client base then even before. Here are some fundamentals when considering a Web 2.0 marketing campaign:

Business Blogs: No longer a subset of the internet, blogs are proving to be the most valuable resource when it comes to the new wave of internet marketing. Business blogs can be defined as those that center around a company or industry, rather than a personal diary or opinion. Blogs allow connection to social networking and social bookmarking sites beyond what a typical website can do. They also connect with a customer on a deeper level, build credibility in a business and are very much loved by the major search engines. When it comes to the core of a Web 2.0 marketing campaign, business blogs are a must-have.

Social Media: Think customers are only going to find you through a search engine? Think again. Social networking and social bookmarking sites have emerged as a powerful platform to advertise, and entrepreneurs who know how to use them are reaping the rewards. It’s important to remember that selling on these sites is not the best approach, you want to instead introduce your product or service and build a relationship before pushing the sale. Once you have them hooked though, the potential is a whole network of untapped consumers who are tech savvy and will have no qualms about spending their cash on your website. Social media can also greatly contribute to search engine marketing in a positive way, killing two birds with one stone.

These are just two of the main aspects of Web 2.0 marketing, but the most important when it comes to results. Using business blogs and social media advertising effectively requires time and patience, but utilized correctly they can quickly deliver faster, more effective results than traditional web marketing like search engine optimization and pay-per-click. To learn more about Web 2.0 marketing, visit this Microsoft Business Center article. For more information on how to implement one of these campaigns, and to find out if you’re ready to dive into Web 2.0 marketing, contact us today to speak with one of our Web 2.0 consultants for free.