Your Online Business: Creating a Powerful Web Presence
A Good Website is Good for Business. Here’s Why.
In some respects, your website is like a living, breathing thing; it’s available 24X7, and requires consistent care and feeding.
Unlike a printed brochure, your website can continually evolve and improve through better content, easier navigation, greater functionality, and testing. Here are some tips for improving your site—and your customers’ experience with your site—by creating a more powerful and effective web presence.
Make it Easy for Your Customers to Access and Navigate Your Site
- Your website’s UI (user interface) should be simple, easy to navigate, and be up to date.
- The colour schemes used for backgrounds and copy should be pleasant and easy to read.
- Take into account web accessibility which ensures that those with vision impairment or dexterity challenges can use your site. This could be as simple as having an option to increase the size of the text on your website.
Read "How Accessible is your Website? The Business Case for Building User-friendly Websites." from eBC for more information.
Keep Your Audience in Mind at All Times
Write your website content for your customers. Your content should be relevant, up-to-date, easy to read, and should convey how your products and services can be of benefit to your customers. Read more tips on web copywriting here.
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eCommerce and Understanding Online Payment Systems
Are you considering selling your products online? Concerned about online security? Are you already using PayPal? Do you need a merchant account? Attend this seminar to learn how transactions are processed, credit cards are charged, and how to handle taxes and shipping.
Register today! Contact a client services coordinator at (604) 775-5541 or 1-800-667-2272.
See All ProductsSmall Business BC offers a multitude of resources to help you grow your business.
- You can register for our e-BC seminars to learn how to take your online business to the next level and create a more powerful web presence.
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You can book an appointment with one of our e-business advisors who will evaluate your online presence and provide suggestions on how to make it even better.
Build Your Web Presence
Develop a "free" service. Offer free information and tools on your site that can be used by your online visitors. Make sure that your free service is closely related to what you are selling so the visitors you attract will be good prospects for your business. Give visitors multiple opportunities and links to cross over to the sales part of your site.
Start a blog. A blog or weblog is a scrolling web page of journal-like entries that often contain links to other websites of interest. As an alternative, low-cost (or even free) means of electronic communication, blogs can make up a significant part of your overall marketing strategy.
Get published. Try third party publishing. A great method of marketing your business is by publishing editorials in third-party ezines, enewsletters, and on information-based websites. Just as editorials in offline media can help position you as an expert in your field and drive readers to your website, providing articles written (or ghost-written) by you to targeted online media can also drive traffic to your website, often with no out-of pocket expense. Just remember to include a short biography that outlines what you do and a link to your website at the bottom of each article you publish.
Do an email newsletter. Permission-based email marketing can be a low-cost and very effective component of your web marketing strategy. It can help build a relationship between your business and target market, and can drive traffic back to your website. Email marketing can consist of direct email blasts and sales letters, personalized auto-responders, and/or email newsletters.
Don’t forget offline marketing. Never underestimate the value of using low-cost, offline marketing techniques to encourage people to visit your website. Ensure your website address is clearly listed on all of your marketing materials: your business cards, brochures, published articles, print advertisements, sandwich boards, your vehicle, etc.
Tips by eBusiness Connection
- Blogging for Dummies
- Killer Web Content: Make the Sale, Deliver the Service, Build the Brand
- Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
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