According to a recent study of online advertising by Nielsen/NetRatings and WebVisible, search engines such as Google and Yahoo are the #1 resource used by consumers looking for products and services from local businesses. This presents a tremendous opportunity for local businesses to use the Web to promote their business.
The survey goes on to demonstrate that consumers are switching from traditional types of advertising such as yellow pages, newspapers and television. In fact, 73% said they would rather use a search engine to find a business than to have marketing materials sent to them, like direct mail. The survey suggests that consumers are feeling inundated by advertising, and perhaps are using search engines as a means to avoid other types of advertising and zero in on the specific type of business that they are seeking. Overall, 86% of consumers have used a search engine to find a local business, claims the survey.
WebVisible is giving away the survey findings in a free report that you can download here on GetEntrepreneurial.com. Click the following link to download your free report:
About Webvisible:
WebVisible is a global leader in local online advertising for small businesses. Our business philosophy is local business owners are too busy minding their stores to successfully navigate the complexities of creating and managing their own online advertising, whether pay-per-click, banner ads, call-based products, or ROI measurement tools. WebVisible solves this problem by offering turn-key, fully managed local interactive advertising solutions with predictable pricing and guaranteed results. By employing a world-class software platform and creative services, we provide the local business owner with the value of a focused team and the experience of over 50,000 small business marketing campaigns. WebVisible can be reached at 877-932-8476 or www.webvisible.com.
Category: Online Business
Are you a Twitterholic or a Twitter newbie? Are you using Twhirl to update your Twitter tweets? Whether you’re just dipping your toes into the water or diving in head first, there’s no doubt that Twitter has become the latest darling of the social networking scene. Aside from the ability to post your own, brief, 140-character updates, Twitter offers a few fun surprises. By now you may be wondering how you can use this neat, little tool to connect and communicate with the rest of the online world. Well, here are five new ways you can use Twitter (and Twhirl) to maximize your connections and boost your business…
First, a quick heads-up on Twhirl (www.twhirl.org): Twhirl is a Twitter “client,” or desktop application, that makes Twitter even easier to use. Twhirl sits on your desktop and basically mirrors the Twitter interface, so you can post updates and monitor your friends’ posts without having to log-in to Twitter. Twhirl also gives you the option of replying to your friend’s “tweets,” or sending them a direct (private) message.
As for new ways to use Twitter, consider the following:
1. Your own personal search engine – You can use Twitter like a private search engine by asking your friends and followers to point you in the right direction.
2. Instant feedback – Twitter can also act as your own, personal focus group. Just post a quick question and use Twitter to solicit surveys, opinions or ideas.
3. Links in a blink – Use Twitter to link to your latest blog posts, sites of interest, etc. Twitter will even shorten the URL for you.
4. Continue conversations – As mentioned above, Twitter and Twhirl make it easy to communicate with your friends via their direct message and individual reply tools.
5. Instant Info – Use Twitter to sign up for updates or breaking news from your favorite websites such as CNN.com (http://twitter.com/cnnbrk).
Lou Bortone is an award-winning writer and video producer with over 20 years experience in marketing, branding and promotion. As an online video expert, Lou helps entrepreneurs create video for the web at www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com. In addition, Lou works as a freelance writer and professional ghostwriter, with a ghostwriting site at www.GhostwriteForYou.com and a blog at www.GhostwriteGuru.com.
Article contributed by Leah Nevada Page of MicroMentor.org, an organization that helps emerging entrepreneurs grow their businesses through mentoring and advising relationships with experienced peers and business professionals.
Sturdy McKee’s journey to small business success started with a pink slip. The hospital where he had been working as a physical therapist downsized and after a frustrating job search, Sturdy sat down with his wife and had a conversation about what it would take to open his own physical therapy practice.
Once started, Sturdy rapidly built a successful business, and was soon operating at the full capacity of his staff and building space. But when Sturdy began looking for a loan to help him open additional offices, banks were refusing to finance his planned expansion. Then Sturdy found MicroMentor. MicroMentor is a pioneering web-based community and social network that helps aspiring entrepreneurs build successful businesses by matching them with volunteer business mentors from around the country.
After signing up online at www.MicroMentor.org, where he described his business and mentoring goals, Sturdy was matched with a mentor, Jayshree Miller, who had worked as an accountant in the U.K. and was now looking for an opportunity for skills-based volunteering.
As Sturdy’s mentor, Jayshree worked with Sturdy through a series of phone calls and emails to help him make sense of his balance sheets, cash flow statements, and profit & loss statements. She also helped him identify areas in need of expansion. “She reinforced our opinions that we were a healthy company and that we were viable, even though we were unable to secure funding from a bank. [It] gave us the confidence to fund our own growth from our own profits.”
Now, just six years after opening its doors, Study’s physical therapy company has 5 branches and over 20 employees. And just two years after he first sought help on MicroMentor, Sturdy has returned to MicroMentor as a volunteer mentor. “Moving the business to profitability changed a lot of things in my business and my life and I hope to help other people to do that. I want to help people figure out how to plan and make their businesses viable.”
If you publish your ezine through one of the emailing list services then you will also be provided with tracking stats for each issue. Are you happy with the open rate, or does it seem exceptionally low for each issue? Not only is it important that you publish your newsletter regularly, but equally important is that your subscribers receive it.
Is your list a double opt-in list?
Do you send both a Text and HTML version of your newsletter?
If you have answered NO to one or both of these questions you could be sabotaging your own newsletter efforts!
Why do I need a double opt-in list?
Double opt-in is the process whereby when someone signs up to receive your newsletter via your website they receive an email from your email list provider, which asks them to confirm their subscription by clicking on a link in the email. Once they have clicked on this link they are then confirmed as a subscriber to your list.
This process is known as double opt-in as:
:: they opt-in once via your newsletter sign up form on your website; and
:: they opt-in again by clicking the link on the email that they receive from your email list provider.
It is very important that you have this process in place as it avoids a subscriber being signed up to your newsletter by a third party, and therefore reduces the number of spam reports that you are likely to get. Your subscriber has had to confirm for a second time that they want to be on your mailing list.
The downside to this is that your subscriber may not confirm their subscription, in which case you would lose the subscriber. But if they really do want to receive information from you they will be on the lookout for your confirmation email. And isn’t it better to have 100 subscribers who really do want to receive your information rather than 1,000 subscribers who aren’t that interested?
Just recently I had a conversation with support at my email list provider and asked them about their double opt-in process. They told me that those lists that are set up as double opt-in lists are sent via a secure server that has been approved by the ISPs thereby resulting in a higher deliverability of your ezine. Lists that are not set as double opt-in get sent out on a different server and could result in your ezine being blocked by the ISP.
So even if your subscriber has you on their white list (or friends list) if your list is not a double opt-in list they may not even receive your ezine as it could be blocked by their ISP.
Check with your emailing list service as to their policies on double opt-in.
Why do I need to send both Text and HTML versions of my newsletter?
Again sending both versions of your newsletter ensures that it will get through to your subscriber. Some subscribers have their email programs set up to only receive text emails, and if you only offer a HTML version of your ezine they are not going to be able to read it.
Also, if you’ve sent your broadcast in both versions there’s a good chance it won’t be viewed as spam/junk email as spammers don’t usually send emails in both formats.
Conclusion:
To fix low newsletter deliverability there are two things you can do right away:
1. Ensure your list is set to double opt-in.
2. Send out both Text and HTML versions of your ezine.
I recently ventured into the world of creating digital information products and selling them via my website. One of the biggest dilemmas I faced was deciding which shopping cart provider to go with.
Having worked on various shopping cart systems for clients, I knew my way around setting these up, but when it came to my own online shopping cart system I couldn’t decide the best way forward.
Ultimately I ended up making a poor choice by going a cheaper alternative route, than the service I really wanted. The reason I made this poor decision was lack of confidence on my part – I wasn’t sure how well my product would sell and didn’t want to invest heavily in a service that I may not need or use!
The reality of going the cheaper route? I had customers who weren’t able to download their product or make a payment and I lost revenue because of this!
To save you the same trouble I went through, here are my top 6 tips for ensuring that you get the right shopping cart system for YOUR business.
1. Think about your long-term goals. Having a shopping cart system that grows with your business is crucial to your long-term goals, particularly if you’re planning on launching more products and services in the future.
You’ll want to ensure that the shopping cart system you choose can easily handle additional products and services.
2. How simple is the shopping cart to set up? Can you easily do the product setup yourself, or does it require you to hold a degree in computer programming! You don’t want to be spending huge amounts of your time on the phone to tech support, or getting frustrated because the shopping cart isn’t easy to set up.
If the shopping cart system provides you with HTML code that you have to add to your website, consider how comfortable you feel adding this. You may decide that this is a service to outsource to your Virtual Assistant.
3. Accepting online payments. If you’re going to be selling products/services online, whether they’re digital or physical products, you will need a system that can accept online payments. These days customers want instant gratification, which is why digital products are so popular, and you need to be able to accept payments instantly too.
Think about this situation – you go on to a website and in order to buy a product you have to print off an order form and fax it in, or call to place an order! That’s not easy for your customer and you will have just lost the sale! The best solution is to get a merchant account, and ensure that your merchant provider’s services are compatible with your online shopping cart system.
4. Cost of your Online Shopping Cart System. It can be a false economy to go the cheaper route, particularly if it doesn’t offer all the features and functionality you want. Come up with a list of what you would like in an online shopping cart system, and then find a service that will meet ALL of your needs.
5. Customer Service. You want to make it as quick and easy as possible for your customers to purchase from you and get instant access to their product. An online shopping cart system that offers digital download of your products will do this for you.
And if you have a physical product ensure that your shopping cart service can calculate postage and print shipping labels too.
Don’t make your customers jump through hoops just to make a purchase from you!
6. Autoresponders and follow-up messages. It’s much easier to sell future products to existing customers – after all they already know, like and trust you. In order to do this you need your shopping cart to be able to keep a database of your customers so that you can follow up with them. Autoresponders are a great way to do this. You can follow up with your customer several times after they’ve made a purchase and check in with them to see how they’re getting on with your product. And you can do this very easily and quickly if your shopping cart has an autoresponder feature.
Keep all of these points in mind when choosing your online shopping cart system, and you will find the perfect solution for you!