Making the Most of Your Website: Start with the Basics

One of my most salient memories from when I sold real estate in Oregon for my Dad's company was listing a property where the owners had initially tried to sell it For-Sale-By-Owner with no success. After the listing contract was signed my Dad told them, "Next time put your phone number on your sign."

It is easy to laugh when someone forgets something as obvious as providing a contact method for a buyer, but far too frequently website usage falls into the same category.

Below are a few tips to make the most of your website.

First things first . . .

Email signatures ? Is your website listed on every email you send out? If not, you may be missing out on exposure for your business. You may think that if someone already knows you, that they already know what you do. However often when someone knows you on a personal basis, they do not always remember your business connection.

Business cards, flyers, and printed material ? Every single piece of printed material you put out should have your web address on it as well, whether it is a coupon, gift certificate, flyer, letterhead, or business card.

Advertising ? If you are advertising in the yellow pages, a magazine, newspaper, TV, cable or radio, make sure that your web address is included. I have seen business spend thousands of dollars on a huge ad in the yellow pages and leave out their website, which is the equivalent of money flying out the window.

Any time you put something out there that says, "This is my business, this is what I do," make sure your website is on there.

Learn from the big boys:

Large corporations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on market research to test consumer response patterns and behavior. As a small business, there is sometimes the view that we can't compete with a large conglomerate. However, the Internet is a great leveler. A professionally presented web site can give a small business the same credibility on par with an international company.

Small companies can take advantage of the lessons that large corporations have paid much to learn. Corporations do not see a website as an entity unto itself, they view it as part of the total marketing strategy.

What do those million dollar Super Bowl commercials have in common? They all prominently feature the company web address for viewers to visit to get more information. The ads are designed to create awareness and corporations use their website to sell the benefits of their product or services.

The purpose of marketing is to create awareness about your product or service, highlight the benefits that you offer, and to entice the buyer to contact you. A website is an increasingly important component of a comprehensive marketing plan.

Copyright 2005 - Carla Alvarez, Legacy Marketing Services

Carla Alvarez is owner of Legacy Marketing Services which provides integrated marketing services for businesses including business identity, web and CSS development, and business development seminars.

---

Ecommerce for Beginners

Like most average persons, I wanted some extra money to... Read More

Making the Most of Your Website: Start with the Basics

One of my most salient memories from when I sold... Read More

Top 5 Webmaster Tools You Can Pick Up For Pennies

1. SiteSpinner V2 - On Sale www.deprice.com/sitespinner.htmSiteSpinner is a user-friendly... Read More

Autoresponders Make You Look Like A Pro

People like to get immediate responses to requests. Autoresponders are... Read More

Are You Losing Sales Because of These 4 Simple Website Mistakes?

Losing website sales and traffic is sometimes simply a case... Read More

Beautiful Web Sites Seldom Make More Sales

Designing an E-commerce Web site is not as simple as... Read More

Revealing the Firefox Secret Used by Top Web Developers and Power-Browsers

Profiles are one of the best kept secrets around regarding... Read More

1 Simple Solution to All Internet Marketers about Their Website Design Needs

It is an undeniable fact that not everybody is keen... Read More

Give Your Business a Cash Infusion

Whether you have your own business already, or are looking... Read More

Web Content Strategy 101

Your content is what gets you in search engines, speaks... Read More

4 Steps to Selling More With Your Web Site

Most web sites are more like stage sets than real... Read More

A Website Is Not Enough

Your ObjectiveYour small business needs an appealing and professional website... Read More

10 Tips For A Successful Website

Have you ever thought the secret behind the success of... Read More

Build a Strong Foundation for Creating Your First Online Identity ? Notes for Beginners

If you are looking for creating your online presence you... Read More

In Business? 10 Reasons Why You Need a Website -- Now!

1) Word of Mouth The single most powerful form of... Read More

Web Site Optimization: How To Speed Up Your Web Site By Minimizing Your GIF and PNG Image Bit-Depth

Are bloated images slowing down your web site and causing... Read More

You Need a Website!

No matter the size of your business, having a web... Read More

Be Creative Before You Purchase Or Create A Website

Before you jump into spending coutnless hours on designing and... Read More

Website Success is Key

The popular search engine Google indexes over 8 billion websites.... Read More

Why Your Brick-and-Mortar Biz Needs A Website

The internet has taken over our lives with a vengeance,... Read More

Making The Business Case For Web Standards

Through the explosive growth of the Web, companies have realized... Read More

Planning Your Website for Success

Most people know they need a website in order to... Read More

Get Your Business on the Web

I can't think of any business alive today that couldn't... Read More

What is Blogger.com?

In the late 1990's three San Francisco based web developers... Read More

The Topic Of Your Website

The first thing you will have to deal building your... Read More

How to Get a Better Web Site ROI

Better Web Site ROIHow to increase your business profitability by... Read More

Stop Losing Precious Web Site Traffic to the Dreaded World Wide Web Black Hole

You work hard to build traffic to your web page.... Read More

Web Content: How Much Should I Pay?

When web content gets discussed on webmaster bulletin boards, the... Read More

3 Rules of Website Designing and Layout

Now that you have got your domain name registered, your... Read More

Why Every Small Business Owner Needs Two Websites

Every small business owner knows that they need a website,... Read More

Are You Being Scammed By Your Web Design Company?

This is a growing concern amongst many business owners. Does... Read More

Why Do I Need A Web Site?

Even though the Internet has been around for a long... Read More

Bring Your Visitors Back Clamoring for More! Maintain and Improve Your Web Site Weekly - Part 1

80% of your Web site is Maintenance!Once your Web site... Read More