When a small business decides to take their business online there are usually several mistakes that they do. This is partially due to lack of experience and often lack of knowledge. There seems to be a trend that small businesses think of their website as an online business card instead of a marketing tool. That is where the majority of them go wrong. So let’s take a look at some of the most common mistakes done when a small business takes their business online.1. Order of linksSo many times you visit a small business website and they proudly flag the “about us” link as their first link. This is called the pride link because they often think that telling people about the company is the most important thing. The links should be in order of importance. Not in the order of the business owners EGO! If you use a website designer and he does consult you on the order of links, chances are you should be using someone else or at least make sure you educate yourself about online marketing because your website designer sure hasn’t!2. No focusMost small business websites lack focus. When you enter you are not sure where to go next which makes it hard for the user to understand exactly what he is supposed to do. The website should flow and the user should be able to make sense of the site within a few seconds of opening it up.3. No sale / No lead setupMany small businesses do not use their website to increase sales directly or capture leads. It is nothing more than an online brochure or business card. Sometimes the information is more confusing than it is helpful. If you competitors site is easier to navigate and captures either the sale or lead, you just lost a client. A small business websites needs to be even more on top of catching leads than a corporate website because every client lost counts more!4. No analyticsMost small business websites have no clue what people do when they enter their site. No clue what users are really looking at and where they are losing their potential sale or lead. If customers just walked in and out of their place of work eyebrows would be raised and something would be done. Shouldn’t the same thought process apply to the site? You need to know what is going on with your small business website and what users are doing.5. No marketing purposeThis is the biggest “Whammy” of them all. Small business websites tend to fail seeing the potential of using the website as a complete marketing tool. The fundamental reason to take a business online would be to do marketing. The lack of marketing vision explains the mistakes from above. If just this single piece was in place when a small business builds their website, many of the other things would be solved because they would educate themselves about what it means to have a marketing tool!6. No results!This is no surprise considering everything above. If there is no purpose, no focus, no vision and no marketing thought behind the site then there are probably no results from the site either. What is even worse is that most small business websites do not even measure results or understand how to measure results from their site. Once again it is a lack of understanding more than anything!So what can a small business do when they are ready to take their business online and setup their small business website? The most important thing is to educate themselves in a few areas. The most important ones being, what you need to consider before building or having someone build your website. How to use the website as a marketing tool and it would be extremely beneficial to you if you at least had some understanding of what SEO is and how it works. What is the difference between a website designer, website developer and an online marketing company? All of them do different things and have a different understanding of how to use the internet; the question is what purpose is your website supposed to serve? For most it should be a marketing tool, because the internet is the most effective marketing tool available!
Protect Yourself With These Proven Tips to Choosing a Legitimate Home Based Business Opportunity
Over the years, the Internet has made everything easier and better. However, not everybody would agree to this especially if they have been scammed over the Internet. If you have a coaching program, it is important to let people know that your home based business opportunity is legitimate.
As you go through the process of finding people who are interested in joining coaching programs, you will encounter scams being marketed all over the internet as safe or legitimate. It would be wise to think of ways on how you can market your business and making sure that other people know it is the real thing. Here are some methods that can help boost your business ideas.
Real and safe home based opportunities are done through a process and it takes time. Do not believe in business opportunities that promise quick money, it does not happen that way.
Customers are the ones who will keep your business a success, which is why it is important to build a relationship with them. It does not happen overnight and will certainly take some effort but in return you will gain their trust.
Research about business opportunities you are interested in. It is even better if you can contact the promoters and discuss the business ideas with them before purchasing anything. At present, there are online reviews and complaint boards for just about anything.
If you think that a business idea is too good to be true and you are not comfortable with it, follow your instinct. Keep in mind that for a business to become successful it takes a lot of work, training, promoting, social networking and investing.
A successful home based business requires regular promoting; probably about 90% of your time will be dedicated to marketing the products and services. If you encounter an opportunity that tells you it doesn’t take much of your time and money, then it’s probably a scam.
Before investing your time, money and effort in a particular business do a little research or a background check; you might be able to find some recommendations and opinions by other investors. There are websites that provide reviews and complaints about certain businesses, there are even websites that provide list of scammers. Keep in mind that it takes time to be successful in any business.
Just follow the methods mentioned in choosing a home based business opportunity. This will make it easier for you to choose the right business.
10 Ugly Truths About MLM Home-Based Businesses
Open your email inbox and you will read dozens of email that promise fame and fortune today. Well maybe not fame but lots of fortune. No one will tell you the ugly truth about your MLM Home-based Business, until today. Here are the 10 ugly truths about MLM Home-Based Business.
You will not make money over night. There I said it. The secret is out. No matter what you hear from the hype on the Internet you can’t make serious money over night. Your income from sponsors or affiliate links is depended upon someone else buying the product just like you did. While you may have made the decision quickly most people don’t. Allow time for your business to grow. How much time depends on how much action you take.
You need to work harder than the average Joe. Lets face it if Internet marketing were easy than 97% of people doing it would succeed. But it is the opposite. You will need to work harder than 97% of the people out there doing their own MLM Home-Based Business. Fortunately for you that is not very hard since most people give up after 30 days.
Marketing training is the key to success. Joining your MLM business is not the end of your learning, but only the beginning. You must become a student of marketing and your business. You are marketing You, Inc. The better you do that the more success you will have. If you come from a marketing background you have a jump on everyone, if you don’t you will need to get to work.
Focus on one marketing strategy until mastered before trying another. There are some many marketing strategies that work on the Internet that you can lose your focus and begin to jump from one strategy to another. Pick one that appeals to you and focus on that strategy until you master it. You can continue learning about other strategies but keep you focus and marketing dollars on the one until you get at least 20 to 50 leads per day from it.
You will need to pick-up the telephone. Yes you will need to talk to people. You are building a team and you are the leader. You can’t lead from behind the curtain. You need to establish a relationship with your prospect. The better you are at talking to people on the phone the more success you will have.
Test your marketing and record the results. You need to constantly test your marketing copy and the results it brings. Keep good records so you can see how your marketing is doing. Use tracking codes and subdomains to track how well a particular copy does.
You must the right mindset. You need a winning mindset. You must be positive about your business so you can help others. Looking at the world of abundance will free your mind to think in terms of giving before receiving. You want to grow your business but that can only truly happen when you help others grow their business.
Have a marketing plan. You need a road map to your success and a marketing plan is that map. Layout what marketing strategy you will use, what copy, budget and expected results. Then monitor your plan and adjust it as needed until you get results.
You need a mentor. Everyone needs someone they can go to with questions or concerns about their business. Someone who has been in the trenches and can help you over the rough patches.
Never quit and you will always win. If you never quit then you will always win, timing is the only question. Consistent, persistent action everyday until you win. Not giving up when after 3 months or 6 months or 12 months. Working until you succeed.
You can’t start a MLM Home-Based Business and expect to have riches pour in the following week without taking massive action. Sorry, I purchase too many of those programs only to find out that I needed to learn a new marketing technique and implement my own plan. Whatever your MLM business is learn it backwards and forwards. Become an expert in it and market yourself as an expert that can help others in their business. Take these 10 ugly truths and make them a part of your business and you will succeed.