The economic advantages of a good location mean less and less in today's economy. Many small business owners are unfortunately hampered by thinking that belongs more to main street suburban American in the 50s than to the new reality of wired small businesses, the most successful of which are using highly effective and low cost internet marketing and e-commerce strategies. I’ve compiled a list of what I consider are the core points to keep in mind when trying to compete in the global marketplace.
Web Presence
This is your business card, advertising campaign and store-front all rolled up into one. You wouldn’t put together an ad campaign based on a dated aesthetic, so why do so many businesses suffer from a bad case of mid-90s web-design? Is there really a surplus of under-worked 13 year old nephews? Nostalgia for the not-so-halcyon days of the graphic interfaces of Compuserve, Prodigy, and AOL or animated GIFs of flames or stick-men construction workers has not yet hit the mainstream. Keep your design simple, steer clear of kitsch (unless your product has kitsch appeal), and conversely, there’s no need to make your product seem hipper than it is. The savvy shopper can spot that a gigabyte away.
The Visual
It’s been proven that people respond strongly to visual cues in the marketplace, and the internet is no different. What a customer sees on a website is of prime importance. Don’t worry about loading your page with embedded audio, as many people surfing will already be listening to music from another source, and it can be a distracting nuisance to open a web-page to lackluster lounge house that sounds like an out-take from Sounds From The Verve Hi-Fi Remixed.
The Hard-Sell or the Soft-Sell
Copy writing doesn’t come easy. If you know someone with a flair for language, why not ask them to try their hand at writing some punchy and effective copy for your website? Combining great copy with customer testimonials is as effective a tool as any zippy video animation, but just remember to keep it short!
E-Commerce
Instead of a website that’s little more than an extended advertisement, implement an online store. The more convenient it is for potential customers to access your product, the more you’ll sell. E-commerce software and solutions are cheaper than ever before, and offer enhanced support and free updating that wasn’t a staple in the early, heady days of e-commerce. It can cost as little as $100 every month to lease a complete e-commerce set-up if you’re hesitant about jumping in too deep – everything from the software structure to back-end statistics to telephone support at a price that will easily pay for itself.
Offer A Guarantee
Many internet users have very real concerns about trust that you must assuage before they’ll consider ordering from your business online. Offering a strong guarantee will show that not only do you stand by your product, but you also are concerned about customer satisfaction. The full-refund within 30 days is my recommendation.
Impulse Shoppers
Because of the ease of searching and comparison shopping, many online shoppers have access to countless bargains. Attracting these shoppers will mean that you have to be competitive, and on the internet, sales, limited-time offers and discounts will be the red cape that will send these bull-ish shoppers charging.
Shipping
Just as many customers are also hesitant to spend money online and won’t complete a transaction when they realize that there’s a shipping fee. Incorporating the shipping costs into the product price, or offering free shipping if customers spend more than a certain amount will retain these customers, and encourage repeat business, especially if your competition isn’t offering free shipping.
Facebook/Myspace/Social Networking
Many popular social networking websites allow businesses to set up organization pages that either mimic that of the individual, or offer enhanced features. They’re free to join, and allow you to keep in contact with customers and potential customers in a medium that they’re familiar with and on a site that’s rapidly growing. You can also use Facebook as an extension of an HR department, by linking up past, present and future employees.
Facebook’s Ad Manager program allows you to target your demographic (for example, 18-25 year old female university students living in Lisbon who are in a relationship), and either pay per click or by impression. You can set a daily budget amount, too and control your campaigns in many ways that aren’t available in traditional advertising mediums.
Google Advertising
Google’s advertising service (AdWords) is one of that proves that the mantra “Keep It Simple, Stupid” is applicable both online and off. Short 3 line ads appear under a “Sponsored Links” title in Google’s search results, and correspond to the user’s search criteria. Google AdWords provide amazing returns and, like Facebook’s Ad Manager, can be tailored to suit any marketing budget.
Thanks to technological advances and the ease of worldwide shipping, one can run a small business from almost any locale in the world. Location, location, location is no longer the first thing a business owner has to keep in mind in this still new century, but keeping abreast of advances in internet technology and changes in internet usage is.
