Image by mohamed Hassan
First impressions are critical for entrepreneurs. People will buy depending on what they feel about you emotionally.
Just like your bricks and mortar location, your Internet presence will be strong if you always remember why people will buy from you.
It’s important to tap into the psyche of your prospective customers – there are five value perceptions that motivate customers to buy.
That’s right, customers aren’t even aware of it, but they make a buying decision based on five psychological reasons about value: What they think about your spokespeople, image of your company, product or service utility, convenience, and price.
Yes, you have to implement the best sales techniques as there are a lot of people who will only buy at the cheapest price so ignore them.
Now that you’ve laid a foundation for sales to make a hit on the Internet, here’s the remainder of your startup toolkit:
1. Create a credible name
Since the Great Recession, businesspeople and consumers have changed their outlook. The dot-com era of quirky names will not work as well these days.
Also, your name has to be relevant and easy-to-remember. That goes for your branding slogan or tagline, and your logo.
Product or service utility is important in a slogan and logo – answer the question that all visitors subconsciously ask, “What’s in it for me?” There’s a link between a simple logo and branding success.
2. Professional image
Your site needs to be low-key, but assertive in telling your story. Include a page that explains what you’re all about. That’s different from being too sales-oriented or ostentatious. Demonstrate you expect to earn your visitors’ business.
Make certain your site’s layout capitalizes on the natural movement of the eye, which is to upper left, over to the right and then down the side.
So a strong element needs to be on the left, too, such as a great graphic of video. The bottom line for profits: Size doesn’t matter but image and professionalism count.
It’s important to tap into the psyche of your prospective customers – there are five value perceptions that motivate customers to buy.
Professionalism also means an informative blog, which will help guarantee that you will have a higher search-engine placement. Encourage interaction.
Ideally, your blog is on your Web site. If you must maintain a separate blog, make sure it’s synchronized with your Web site. At any rate, here are search engine optimization strategies for a No.1 rated blog.
3. Showcase your team
Customers want to feel comfortable dealing with you and your staff. Buyers are impressed if you show pride in your workers. Show their images and bios on your site to point out their expertise.
4. Establish a strong reputation
Demonstrate your expertise as an authoritative resource. Become known as a leader in your industry. Make informed statements in newspaper articles and other online forums.
It’s true more and more people are relying on social media promotions. But publicity in a credible news medium – newspaper, TV or radio – will generate the most respect. Flaunt it. Here’s how to get news media coverage.
5. Testimonials
Become adept at generating testimonials. Go for it.
6. Videos
Relevant videos now play a key role. Here are video tips.
7. Social Media
Your social media – Facebook, Twitter or even LinkedIn – should be coordinated with your site. Again, encourage inter-activity.
There are two reasons to insert sharing buttons. It will enable visitors to share your Web site link with others, and you will be able to share your pages on your social-media accounts, too.
8. Proofread all copy
Obviously, errors do not promote professionalism. That means you need to budget time to double-check all spelling and links to pages.
9. Fresh looks
Update your content as often as possible. Search engines and visitors will take note. But take care not to extremely change your look so you can continue to capitalize on your previous marketing initiatives.
10. Optimize
Be sure to use search-engine optimization techniques and coordinate your site with your social media. Take advantage of 14 strategies to rock on Google.
11. Contact information
Make it easy, very easy for visitors to get contact information – your location, telephone number and e-mail. But include your information in graphics so unwanted bots and spammers can’t pick up the information simply by crawling your site.
You’ll avoid countless unwanted e-mail spam, phishers, and telephone calls.
12. Prevent online threats
Remember British Petroleum’s online nightmare – the fake BP Twitter account? It generated 10 times the number of visitors than BP’s Twitter account. Use best practices to optimize your brand and manage your global Web reputation.
From the Coach’s Corner, here’s more on online marketing:
How Small Businesses Can Capitalize on Cyber Strategies for Profit — Yes, it’s become important for small businesses to capitalize on cyber strategies for profit. Small and even regional retailers should be cognizant of three realities.
5 Strategies to Sell More from Your Web Site — Yes, Internet sales can be challenging. To paraphrase a line from the movie, “Field of Dreams,” it’s not always true that if you build it, they will come. There are many salient elements to keep in mind.
SEO — Google’s Tips to Increase Your Site’s Download Speed — How fast does your Web site download? Google announced that it determines site rankings, in part, by download speed.
“A strong foundation increases the value of everything you do.”
-Aaron Wall
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