Online Marketing | Web Design | Social Media
The aim of this article is to show you what works, what doesn’t in 2018 and what was working before but not now…
So, what is SEO?
Wikipedia – “SEO stand for search engine optimization is the process of affecting the online visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine’s unpaid results—often referred to as “natural”, “organic”, or “earned” results”
In short, it’s the way you optimize your website to get more free traffic.
[Read more…]
Having an online store is a great idea. In past year we have build more e-commerce websites then any other types of website, and with that I have seen some common mistakes business owners make with their online store. I hope these help you improve you existing online store or set you up for success with your new store.
#1 – Choosing a wrong e-commerce platform
It’s challenging for a layperson to know what platform is best for your online store and the fact is that most web designers will have their preferred e-commerce platform they like to work with. But is it also good for you?
Things to consider:
1 – Will I be able to create new product, update existing products, prices, change images and similar without needing to hire web master?
2 – What are my options to grow my e-store?
It is important that as your business develops, your online store can grow too. By that I don’t mean adding more products. I mean adding more functionality, such as:
3 – What are costs associated of running my online store and future growth?
4 – What if I want to change design in the future? What happens with my existing products and data?
5 – How good are reports about activity in my store?
As a business owner and imperative to your marketing is the ability to know exactly what you are selling them most, who’s buying it (demographics), buying behaviours and similar. It is not just about the sales. For a smart marketing, which equals in more sales, you need to dive deeper into your customers’ behaviour and habits.
So how do you choose?
It is not a secret that we’re massive advocates of Woocommerce, an e-commerce platform that works with WordPress. Why we love it:
#2 – Boring descriptions
Yes, a picture says a thousand words, but when it comes to online shopping, descriptions of products are as important. Unless you are reselling common products that people know about and just looking for a good deal, chances are that they have never seen your product live. Meaning, they don’t know how it feels when you touch it, what it does or how to use it. Good descriptions will sell your products. The more detailed you are the best chances you have of selling it.
Think of it this way – if you walk into a store and shop assistant is not really engaging with you about the product you saw for the first time, you’ll probably walk out. If the shopping assistant provides information about the product, you will listen and have better ground of making a purchasing decision.
Your product descriptions are your sales assistant online. Give them character, don’t just list all the features. People want to know the benefits; how will the product improve their lives and make them feel.
#3 – Over-complicating shipping
This is where a lot of fun (not) happens. And most people get crazy. I had a client that almost walked away from ever building an online store because of shipping. They are a successful retailer that had 500+ subscribers eagerly waiting for their online store. It took them 2 years to open, because they couldn’t get their head around the shipping arrangement. How much money has been lost in 2 years…
I don’t say they had it easy, because their products vary in weight and they ship from a country that has many challenges, but this is where you need to be smart.
The more you can simplify it for yourself the easier it will be also for clients.
Shipping cost doesn’t need to be exact. Clients don’t know. You need to be willing to accept that on some products, you will lose and on some win a bit of money for shipping. And that’s ok.
Whenever possible use shipping calculator, but if not possible, create your own flat shipping rates that work for you. Few dollars up or down will even out through time, and you can always adjust if necessary.
It takes some effort at the start, but it’s only once…for years to come…
#4 – Bad pictures
I don’t say you need to hire a professional photographer, but the picture is the first thing that will catch buyer’s attention.
If you’re an op-shop or a store selling discounted products that people already know, they don’t care about the image; they only care about good price.
If you are a fashion brand or selling your own product then images need to reflect the quality of your product and convince shoppers that they are worth buying.
You wouldn’t go in a crappie looking store with clothes lying all over the floor and pay for a product $100+…or would you?
#5 – Confusing classification of products, store navigation and too many steps to checkout
If people can’t find your products they can’t buy them. Many times stores want to be clever how they classify/arrange their products. Yes you want to be creative, but use standard classification of product, e.g. if you’re selling dresses put them in category ‘dresses’ so visitors can easily find them.
You may use “cool” words that you came up with, but your buyers only know what’s generic, so make it easy for them to shop – use generic names of categories in your navigations. Then use your creativity in product names and descriptions.
As for the checkout – make it as smooth a process as possible: add product to a cart, view a cart, proceed to checkout, and make payment – simple as that.
You may want to add some upsells and suggestion on cart page…but that’s as far as it goes. Keep it simple and easy for them to buy!
As a general rule, when you are creating an online store, first think of what is easy for you to manage on a daily basis that you can scale up without a lot of additional costs.
Then your second job is to put yourself in your clients’ shoes. Ask yourself, what do they need to believe about the product in order to buy? Then create images and descriptions accordingly to answer all those questions.
Think of whom you are selling to? Who is your avatar? Then make your e-store inviting for that market and simplify. Remove all necessary distractions.
Whether you already have an online store or just looking to build one, I hope these tips help you get to improve it, or relieve some doubts/questions about it. We’re here to help, so happy to chat with you (no sales pitch, just honest feedback and help)
Just send me a message here.
If you have a WordPress website, you are familiar with the term plugin [a piece of software that extends and adds functionalities or adds new features to your WordPress website].
While less is more, some of them are essential for your website to be what you want it to be. And there are some, that are essential for any type if website, whether it’s a blog, a shop , portfolio, business presentation etc.
Here are out top 5 free essential plugins that any website should have:
A plugin that protects you against thousands of different attacks that can happen to your website; including firewalls, security monitoring, login security and strengthens access privileges to prevent costly attacks.
It’s been downloaded over a million times and has 5 star rating. Whilst the set up has been a little bit challenging for non-tech savvy, with recent updates to the plugin, the one click set up, had made this plugin truly the best when it comes to protecting your website.
Pro version also available.
Every website should have a contact form (rather then just published email address) for people to submit their enquires securely and to minimise spam.
There are many great Contact form plugins, such as Contact Form 7, Fast Secure Contact Form, but by far the easiest to use are Ninja Forms.
Why we love them? They have drag and drop builder, which makes creating forms from scratch really easy. It also very simple to duplicate, edit and manage your forms should you need to make changes in the future.
The visual design of the form will adjust to the style of your website template so it doesn’t require and css skills.
But the best things is that Nina Forms, are a free alternative to Gravity Forms, meaning you can easily create complicated forms with multiple elements, such as radio buttons, multiple choice questions, calculations, payment fields and so on.
They’re more then just a contact form.
There are many plugins that help you add Google Analytics codes easily to your website without knowing how to code.
This one is the easiest to set up for non tech savvy and allows you to view key Google Analytics reports in your WordPress dashboard.
Why you need it? If you can’t track, you can’t measure. And if you can’t measure, you can’t see what works and what doesn’t. So how do you grow?
A must have for anyone that wants to have their pages look like they’ve been coded from scratch.
From bullet points that use your branding colours, to icons, to multi-column text, to sliders, galleries, video player, accorditions, tabs…you name it…Short Codes Ultimate is your helper to make your blog and website looks fantastic.
Scared of word “short code”? Don’t be. The plugins interface lets you add them with a click of a button through your visual editor of your pages. Simply choose a function, follow the prompt, choose designs you like nad voila, you have a beautiful page or blog post. They also provide cheat-sheets and examples.
You write awesome content, so it’s worth having it discovered, right?
Sheareaholic is the top of the top platformfor amplifying your content. Used by top companies like Mashable, The New York Times, BBC, Entrepreneur Magazine to name just few…I don’t need to say much more…You must have it!
Socials buttons, analytics, related content suggestions and more will take your content to next level.
Most plugins are very easy to add to your WordPress website. Just go to upload new plugin in your Dashboard, search for plugin and follow instructions to set up as per your requirements.
And if you get stuck, you can always reach out to us and we’ll help you out.
Hi All,
I’m proud to announce that a week ago The Law Society of NSW published my article in which I gave practical tips that one should know before setting up a website for their law firm.
You may say..that’s great…but I don’t have a law firm…so why should I read further…
The truth is that this practical tips apply to any business that wants to set up a website…well, it applies to any website…even if it’s a personal blog.
So if you’re looking to get a new website or re-design your existing website, learn what to do and not to do and save yourself a lot of time, money and hassle.
Just CLICK HERE and you’ll be redirected to The Law Society of NSW website t my article.
Happy reading…and let me know what you think
Tea
Guest article by Dr. Warren Harmer, The Business Plan Company
Few of us would imagine building a house without a blueprint. What if you were offered shares in a company you know nothing about – would you jump in, totally blind? Highly unlikely. How about moving to another country without doing any planning or research first? Probably not. Strangely, when it comes to small business – arguably the most risky financial investment you can make – business owners usually jump in with brazen optimistic abandon. In my 12 years as small business consultant, I have seen business planning (in any shape) in less than 5% of small businesses, with only with 1% treating planning as an ongoing practice.
We would all agree that dedicated forward planning is of enormous value to any business, yet it still remains an undervalued, uncommon practice in small business. So let me give you a literary kick up the behind to do some kind of planning in your business, shake off the myths and disarm the excuses.
Fitness routine for your business
The first roadblock of business planning is the ‘business plan’. The point of business planning is not to create a nice looking document. Business planning is an activity not a document; it is a process not an end. Start thinking in terms of a regular fitness regime for your business. It is a process that you undertake to plan, research, learn, strategise, discover, ask questions, identity risks and work out how you will make your business work. Your business plans simply documents everything that you discover and all of the decisions that you will make along the way.
The exact format is not important; it just needs to work for your business. Personally I use spreadsheets and have separate worksheets for each area like financials, marketing, goals and actions. Other types of documentation I have seen include mind maps, flow charts, tables and the well-know polished business plan. What counts is removing yourself from the day to day operations to review, research and future think.
Your juggling skills.
One of the biggest challenges of owning a small business is the number of business functions that you need to manage at once. You will need to make decisions on a staggering range of issues, which could include anything from hiring staff, deciding where you will spend your marketing, managing cash flow, getting your clients to pay you and maintaining IT systems.
In your planning process you will determine how these functions will operate, so you will be better equipped make effective decisions that are consistent with your overall plan. That is because you are not just making it up as you go and hoping for the best, but you will actually know what the plan is. When you are faced with a crossroad on your business journey, you can go back to the road map, reorient yourself and feel more confident that you are going in the right direction.
Make your mistakes on paper.
Most small businesses operate with a trial and error approach, trying out random approaches each time they have a problem to solve, making decisions on the fly and hoping the new approach will work better than the last. Avoid this method at all costs: it is a very good way to waste your money and time and can risk your business. You can easily spend your way out of business.
The imperative is to make decisions with your eyes wide open, to minimise risks and maximise the chances of success. Some of your business decisions are small, operational decisions that just keep your business going, but there are some bigger important decisions that will involve you spending a lot of money. For example, choosing stock for the next season in your retail store, deciding whether to get a new website, hiring a new staff member or doing an advertising campaign. It is so easy to get these decisions wrong and to end up with a bad staff member that scares your customers, no results from your advertising or a nasty tax bill. All of these can be better avoided by doing research and planning, by drawing out your proposition on paper and seeing how it might work out.
Keeping it regular
Set aside regular time in a scheduled timetable (annually, monthly and weekly) to take a bird’s eye view of the business and look at how your plans are working out, particularly revenue, costs, sales, web traffic and average sales. When your business is not doing what you planned, you will know quickly that things are going off track, so you can take time to find out what is happening and take action. This ongoing process of learning is vital to continued growth and survival.
Warren has kindly offered readers of our blog a valuable present: Business Planning for Small Business, The step-by-step guide to business planning for small business. This is not just an ebook about how to write a business plan, but real examples and stories so you can overcome whatever challenge comes your way, based on experiences of real small businesses. It also includes business plan templates, advice on how to execute your plan, and proven strategies to boost market share and expand into new areas. Filled with charts, bulleted lists, and subheads, the guide is a quick an easy reference you’ll refer to time and again.
This offer is limited until end of this week, so make sure you don’t miss out.
CLICK HERE and you will be redirected to a donwlaod page on Business Plan Company website.