A lot of small businesses in Australia start up and then fail in a relatively short time. Some are mismanaged, some have too narrow (or wide) a focus and some are just unlucky.
A lot of established businesses are failing, however, because of their inability to adapt and change to a new business – and new consumer environment in 2010.
People want to shop online, they want to review products and services online and they want to be listened to online. In short, the clever and successful businesses understand that social engagement is the way to build the brand and the customer base.
So what does every small business need to succeed in their social engagement effort in 2010? Four components: a dynamic but simple website, a sound Social Media Strategy, an old school component, and a consistent contact with your existing and potential database through email marketing that’s not spammy or annoying.
A Dynamic Website
You may already have a website, you may not. If you do have one, chances are you had it built by somebody else and it is from a template that is tried and true – and which you probably thought you paid way too much for. Regardless, a website is probably the most necessary online tool your business needs – as long as it does what you want it to.
There are a few things that each small business website must definitely have. The first is functionality, it must be easy to use.
There is a great temptation among small business owners to make their websites full of great graphics, flashing images, galleries and flash pages that take thirty seconds to open even on the highest speed broadband.
All of this might look great and make you feel great about your site, but they really annoy everyone else – particularly your customers who need to find something quickly on your site and are forced to endure a whole lot of time-wasting features first.
So if you have a website, take a good objective look at it. Does it load up straight away, does it have any graphics or sound which might be annoying, especially if people view it from their desk when they should be working, and it is generally easy to navigate around with the most obvious sections people go to websites for – the contact details and topical updates – clearly visible and easy to find?
If the answer to any of that is no, then do something about it now. And if you can’t physically do the changes yourself without the help of your webmaster, think about changing to a platform that is easier for you to update and make changes to yourself.
Your site should have the ability to display fresh and dynamic content, or at the very least link out to your blog directly from the menu. This helps with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as well as providing a more engaging experience for your site’s visitors. If a website looks exactly the same and has exactly the same content on it every time a visitor looks at it they will stop looking pretty quickly. Wouldn’t you?
The exception to that are straight e-commerce sites with a ready made audience which just needs the facility to purchase a certain product.
You should be able to embed images or video easily into the front page which should also be dynamic and constantly changing. This helps to provide a much more engaging experience and also allows you to show some of your own branding and individuality on the web page.
There should be some availability to include affiliate advertising somewhere on the page or in its sidebars if you want to. These are advertisements by other businesses whereby when a visitor to your site clicks on the ad and then goes through to the advertiser’s site and makes a purchase, you get a commission from the sale.
These can be a very handy secondary income stream to a fledgling small business but you should be careful not to turn your website into a cluttered billboard of other people’s ads, this can be very off-putting for your readership and sometimes smack of desperation.
I believe the three most important inclusions on any small business website, however, are clearly visible links away from the site to social networking platforms that you participate in, a database inclusion form, and a link for your readers to subscribe to your Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed.
Social Networking Links
You should try to make it as easy as possible for your readership to be able to interact with you and the easiest way for them to do that is through the social networking platforms that you participate in. Including a badge that links to your business’ Facebook Page or your Twitter feed is simple and can be quite unobtrusive. You should try to find a way to make it more compelling for your readership to follow you on social networking sites and one of the best ways to do that is by promoting them directly on your website.
Database Inclusion Forms
These can be seen by some as a sinister and unsafe thing to fill in. Conspiracy theories abound that the government is going to get your hotmail address and somehow use it to launch missiles etc. etc.
You should really want to grow your database though, so you should try to make your database inclusion form as benign and simple looking as possible, maybe just ask for people’s name or email address only.
Also, think about something cheap or free that pertains to your business or market that you can give away in return for people signing up to your database. An email newsletter, a free e-book or white paper works particularly well.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
I believe RSS is one of the of the most under-used and under-valued applications available to online business owners today. RSS is basically a way for your readership to be automatically updated, either into their email inbox or into their RSS Reader, that the content on your site has changed, for instance with a new blog post.
There are two things that you should keep in mind when trying to encourage people to subscribe to your RSS feed: hardly anyone knows what it even is, and people are even less likely to see the value of it without you showing it to them. Make the link to the RSS feed very obvious, not tucked away at the bottom of the page. Also consider having a bit of text above the link explaining just what RSS is and how it would help your readership keep up with any changes they might be interested in so that they don’t miss anything.
In the next installment, I will go into detail about the importance of a small business having a sound Social Media Strategy.
If you would like to see how I can help you improve your current website, or show you how to build an impressive but simple and functional website for your small business, call me TODAY on 02 4324 2594.
Do you agree or disagree with any of my advice in this post? Do you have any other tips or suggestions to share with my readership about building the perfect small business website? Please let us know in the comments below.
Bonus Interview
I interviewed Justin Roberts and Dean Collins from Big Click Studios about whether a small business really needs a website. You can check out the interview in full by clicking here.
