Here is the answer to the question all small business owners ask.
Do I really need a website? Answer: YES! Here is why?
1. Introduce your products and services: These are the days of "Enquiry Marketing". Make your business available 24 hours a day and allow your customers to be in control.
2. Become Recognised: Differentiate yourself from your competitors with clear, recognisable branding while showcasing your products and services to the world.
3. Boost Sales: Explain benefits, compare products, and publish testimonials from happy customers.
4. Earn More: Subsidise income and demonstrate knowledge by selling e-books for people to learn from.
5. Professionalism: A letter from ?you@yourbusiness.com? will open more doors than an email from a hotmail account.
6. Be Found: People use locally defined keywords in the search engines, "Craft Shops in Cornwall", for example. This will lead them to your place of business, opening times, contact information, location and more.
7. Collate Valuable Information: An enquiry form on a website can provide you with a lot of valuable information from customers and other interested people.
8. Marketing & Advertising: Newspapers and Magazines have 2 significant disadvantages when advertising. 1) Once printed updating them is difficult and costly 2) The information you can print is limited. A web site can be updated instantly with little or no cost involved.
9. Promote: Do you promote your business at workshops or tradeshows? Increase awareness and advertise the event on your website.
10. People Buy People: A well-developed website displays a viable business, conveying trust and credibility while gaining loyal customers.
When choosing to purchase a website, using a virtual assistant will give you a lot more for your money and also the opportunity to take your website further once it has been developed.
So what are the benefits of working with the right Virtual Assistant?
More than just a Web Designer: When purchasing a VA website package you get a professional designer that offers excellent marketing and business advice including usability consulting and search engine optimisation. Your website will not only look great, it will be easy to find and user friendly.
Diverse: A VA can design and deliver other marketing materials such as business cards, brochures, flyers and more.
Professional: Most VA's will have a large repertoire of business experience, skills and knowledge enabling them to be a valuable asset in assisting you to achieve your business goals.
Efficient: The services of a VA are delivered when you need them with completions to tight deadlines.
Convenient: As most Virtual Assistants work from home they can be available when you need them.
Affordable: There is always a VA to suit all budgets, and many offer package deals which include support and administration services to compliment your website.
Independent: As an independent service provider a VA is able to negotiate project work, hours and rates and many offer a free no obligation consultation.
Niches are at the heart of every successful business, product or service. Niche marketing is the polar opposite of mass marketing. Mass marketers often have their own niche as in always low prices. . . always (WalMart).
A small independent business or business professional needs to clearly isolate exactly what their business has or does better than their competition including the mass marketers.
Whether your business is mature, in a start-up mode or you are just contemplating, you need to identify specific customer needs (NOT wants) that have been ignored, overlooked or neglected by others.
These opportunities represent niche areas that you can specialize in and capitalize upon to grow, start or build your business.
Identifying a niche is not a destination, however. It is and must continue to be a work in progress. The reason for this is that the marketplace and consumers continue to change before our very eyes.
You and your business, your product mix, your menu of services must be capable of changing with the times. The big boxes (mass merchants) with their corporate headquarters far a field are usually slow to pick up on changes in localized markets.
That fact gives small local businesses an advantage IF the business owner or manager has their pulse in synch with their local customers.
You need to think sideways, backwards and outside-in about your present or potential customers and how they are currently being served in your local marketplace. When you do, you are bound to come up with a good niche concept.
If you constantly see agitated customers waiting in line at the big box stores, make sure every customer in your store is waited on promptly and courteously. That is not easy to do, but the payoff can be huge.
If you feel like ripping the phone out of the wall when you call a business and are put through the press one, press two routine, see to it that YOUR phone is answered PROMPTLY by a REAL person who has a friendly phone presence and a smiling personality.
Again, not easy to pull off, but IF you can do it; the payoff will be well worth the effort.
If your local research shows that prospects are turned off by the fact that they do not get their calls or questions answered PROMPTLY, take the necessary steps to see that every customer and prospect receives immediate attention from you and your staff.
Here are six compelling reasons why every small business needs a niche:
1. A niche increases your chances of survival by insulating you from the whims of the marketplace.
2. A niche increases the effectiveness of your advertising allowing you to concentrate on a clearly defined audience instead of aimlessly prattling on to everyone.
3. You will experience less competition because a niche will position you as a leader in your chosen area and not as just another business.
4. Your business will be more profitable because you will have better control of your pricing and your promotional expenditures.
5. The hour-to-hour changes blowing through your marketplace will affect you less because you can spot the change and act upon it immediately.
6. You will be able to build your business faster by making fewer mistakes as regards who you are, who your customers are and how you can cost effectively reach them.
Both Michelle Dale & Robert Schumacher are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Michelle Dale has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Finances and Direct Marketing. Michelle Dale is an experienced Virtual Assistant, and Director of Virtual Miss Friday. She assists businesses and individuals to achieve their professional goals. After a successful career in senior and executive roles, exceeding targets, designing and m. Michelle Dale's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.
Robert Schumacher has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Business Plan and Brain. Bob Schumacher books and articles give entrepreneurs a clear coffee-shop English perspective on how to steer their business or profession into the top 20% who achieve 80% of the business and profits. Visit. Robert Schumacher's top article generates over 9900 views. to your Favourites.