Business Growth Archives - Page 9 of 15

The Easy-to-Follow, 9-Step ‘Small Business’ Website Checklist

Having a bad looking website, or having a site that doesn’t convey the message businesses should be truly wanting to preach to their prospective tribes, or customers is still something I see happening daily. It’s a shocker!

The New Business Manifesto clearly states, for example, that we now have to be content creators, rather than just marketers. So, it’s important to get the balance between marketing, selling and engaging, right.

All this leads to the following 9 main elements, which makes up the following website checklist, that I believe are imperative for every website to have, in order to become successful and sharable in today’s very social online landscape.

1. Great Looking Header & Logo

Great looking doesn’t mean using ‘flash’ technology, with all the bells and whistles from 2006! It means that your header is simple, clean, effective and above all – memorable. Be sure to utilize your logo properly, and make it the center-piece of your overall header image. Branding is more important today (especially online) than it has been for a long, long time. Note: If you’re building a personal brand, have the focus of your header be on your name – like I do.

In this example from TheMarketingAgents.com we see that the owner, Rich Brooks has utilized great graphical elements to be remembered and talked about. I first heard about this site when Chris Brogan mentioned it on Facebook, than met Rich at NMX in January this year – hes as colorful in person, as his website is (watch out for an interview with Rich coming up soon on the podcast!).

2. Simple Navigation

Anyone landing on your site shouldn’t have to ‘look’ for the navigation area of your site. Use a simple menu below your header to allow people to bounce from one important area of your site, to another. Be sure to not include any more links than is absolutely necessary. I try to limit all the menu’s on my business sites to no more than five links, to allow people to really ‘click’ and not ‘think’ too much.

In the example above, from the Think Traffic site, you see very clearly that the focus is on being very clear on what each of those links provide. I love the simplistic approach that this brings to not only the design of the site, but also, as a visitor, the way I use it.

3. Opt-In Offer

If you’re doing business online in any way, shape, or form, then you need to create an opt-in offer to make sure that people have a way of giving you their email address. As I mention in Day #6 of the New Business Bootcamp (my free opt-in course!) eBook’s are a simple opt-in offer than are easily created and marketed nowadays. Situate your opt-in offer in an easy-to-locate area of your site, so no matter what page people land on, they have the ability to find it.

You’ll see in the example to the right, pulled from my Virtual Staff Finder business site, we give away an eBook, which is 11-pages in length, and does the job brilliantly with an average opt-in rate of around 20 a day. See how the cover of the book ‘pops’ out of the blue border? Just a little effect to catch peoples attention. The absolute perfect place to put something like this is at the top of your sidebar, which leads me onto the next item on our checklist…

4. Sidebar with ‘Sticky’ Content

As you will see from surfing around this site, the information that is in the sidebar on my site is always there (except for a couple of ‘conversion focused’ pages, which we’ll go into in a moment). Regardless of what page visitors land on, or what page they navigate to the information in my sidebar is always there. Always static. For my site this includes my opt-in form, a quick ‘about’ blurb for those visitors that may by visiting for the first time, links to my most popular content and an advert to one of my services. Finally, I finish up with a plugin for my Facebook Community, which is growing steadily into an entrepreneurial resource all on its own.

5. Conversion Focused Pages

These are pages that are set-up with one main reason in mind, and no other. To simply convert.

Examples on this site include the ‘New Business Bootcamp‘ info page (see below for a quick screenshot), and my ‘About‘ page. If you click on these links (wait until you finish reading first, okay!), you’ll see that the pages load up in a slightly different format to the rest of the site. These pages are a lot more ‘plain’ looking. They have a more simpler looking header with no links, and the sidebar is complete missing, along with the footer.

The reason behind this is because these pages are there to convert people to my mailing list – nothing else. And they work!

Another perfect example of this ‘conversion focused’ page could be a landing page for a webinar offer, or a product sign-up page, such as this one from Darren Rowse over at Digital Photography School – where he is selling his iPhone photography eBook.

6. Video

Video is massive. It’s bigger and badder online than it EVER has been. The ability to show your real personality is never any easier than it is in video. This is the exact reason why every good small business website should contain at LEAST one video in a prominent location – perhaps the ‘About’ page, maybe the ‘Homepage’ – but, please start using video.

In the example above you’ll see that my buddy, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers shows his true personality (anyone that knows Derek will KNOW this is him!), at the same time as promoting an event – and ultimately making money. Just be yourself, offer value and be a little entertaining, and you’ll be off to the races with video.

7. Blog Section

This’ll probably not come as too much of a shock, but I’m a big fan of blogs and blogging for business. The simple fact that it’s the easiest and quickest way to build reputation, authority and personality in what you do as an entrepreneur and business owner is all you really need to know, to force yourself to get started. And that’s exactly what you need to do – if you’re not blogging already that is. Having a blog on your small business website is an absolute must in today’s market place. Make it happen, and enjoy the benefits of creating original, inspiring and helpful content for your customers, and prospective customers.

8. Social Media Integration

Along with blogging, and utilizing video, social media has revolutionized the way that we communicate with our customers. It allows us to be ‘on the pulse’ of our industry, the products and services that our customers crave for – and most importantly, it allows us to be able to communicate with with our customers in a quick, easy, relevant and memorable manner.

Simply putting your social media links on your site somewhere (usually the header, sidebar, or footer (like me!)) is sometimes enough – but, there are several ways to stand out online, and you’ll see in the example above, how my friend Marcus Sheridan has decided to get his website visitors excited about connecting with them hime via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – as well as how easy he makes it, too!

9. Contact Information

One of the easiest ways to build credibility on your website is to include an address, telephone number and any other information needed for people to get in touch with you and your business. By making a point of focusing on this info, you’re sending a message to your visitors that you’re real and ready to hear from them. If you’re a local business, be sure to include a map on your contact page, too – doing this means that people will be able to find you easily, if they are wanting to come and actually visit you at your place of business – just as LevelBrand (a reputation management company in the USA) has done – example below.

The great thing about your contact page is that you control the way people will get in touch with you. If you want to minimize email, for example, simply don’t include your email address or a contact form – instead, highlight a telephone number, or social media platform that you manage daily.

Need Advice? Want to Pimp Your Website?

Have you recently put together your own small business website? Has this website checklist helped?

Tweet me… and let me know!

Join Me and Pat Flynn for Our 1-Day “Business Breakthrough” Event in July!

As some of you may know I’ll be in the States for the entire month of July, firstly for Chris Guillebeau’s ‘World Domination Summit’, and then later on in the month for my speaking slot at the National Speakers Association’s Annual Convention in Philadelphia.

This is actually going to be the longest period I’ve spent in the US for the last 6-years, so I wanted to make the most out of it. Whilst thinking of things to do with my time while I’m there, the first thing that popped into my head was my buddy, Pat Flynn.

Myself and Pat met initially online, in early 2010. We then got to hang out in person for the first time in November of that year at BlogWorld Expo – and an instant friendship was formed.

Since then we’ve become closer, both as friends, but also as one another’s sounding board for anything related to business, marketing, parenting, and pretty much anything else! There isn’t a week that goes by where we don’t hop onto Skype together at least a couple of times!

We’ve often said how much fun it would be to do ‘something’ together, but have waited for the right something to come along.

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3 Content Marketing Tips That are So Easy to Follow, that They Actually WORK!

Getting involved with content marketing is one of the easiest ways to create a tribe of fans and followers online, which in turn helps you market your products and services, as well as help potential customers and clients by answering questions, providing support, etc.

I’ve already touched base on the subject on a couple of episodes of the New Business Podcast, with guests C.C. Chapman and Jay Baer. I’m also in the process of putting together a complete guide to working with virtual assistants to help you with the research, creation, publishing and marketing of content online – watch this space!

In today’s video I give you a few tips that have worked really well for me. I mean, this simplistic approach to content marketing REALLY DOES WORK. Check it out below, and please feel free to share it with your buddies if you like it!

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Debunking the ‘Super VA’ Myth – Why ONE Virtual Assistant Can’t Do It All!

One of the biggest misconceptions in the world of outsourcing is that one virtual assistant can literally handle everything for you.

Think about it for a second – this is not the case in the ‘real world’, so why should it be the case in the virtual world?!

The fact is that if you want to grow your business in a successful way, you need to hire for the role, not for the task.

This is something I’ve been saying for years. So, I decided to go ahead and formally debunk the myth of the ‘Super VA’, let you all know about the different types of VA’s available to you as entrepreneurs, as well as let you all in on a really exciting project that I’m about to start working on, which I’m pumped about!

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How to Buy More Time, Re-Focus on Growth and Boost Business Success!

I’ve said it time and time again. As entrepreneurs, time is our most valuable commodity.

It’s true.

This week the latest issue of the ‘Great Business Project’ magazine was published. Yours-truly graced the cover, and there is also a feature article, as well as an exclusive video interview with myself and the magazine’s publisher and good friend Ralph Quintero, too.

In the interview I talk about time, and more importantly BUYING TIME to become a more productive entrepreneur and a more successful business owner.

Reading the feature reminded me of my session at New Media Expo earlier on this year, where I talked specifically about this topic in relation to building a virtual team to help you build a content marketing empire. The session was incredibly well received, with several bloggers pin-pointing it as one of their fave’s from the event, including successful online entrepreneur and good friend, Pat Flynn.

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How to Organize and Run a Mastermind Session for the First Time

How did you spend your weekend? I took a break from the usual family time, and hosted a private mastermind session at my facility, here in Cebu, Philippines – and it was awesome!

I’ve been part of many mastermind sessions before, both one-off’s and regular sessions, however, I’ve never actually run one myself – ie. I’m the host.

After posting a few images on my Instagram account, as well as Facebook and Twitter, I started to get comments and questions on how to be part of such a group, or how to actually start one from scratch.

So, I thought it might be useful for you to put down a few tips on how I went about hosting my first session, including finalizing the mastermind group format and rules, so that if you decide to do it yourself you’ll have something to refer back to when the time comes around.

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Mission Statement: I’m Gonna Change the Mindset of a Generation of Entrepreneurs!

In the last 7-days I’ve put on a keynote presentation and a private workshop in Australia where I had the pleasure to personally speak to, and with, hundreds of entrepreneurs on the subject of outsourcing, working with VA’s and building virtual teams.

I figure about only 30% of those that I met and got to converse with on the subject are already working with virtual assistants.

The rest are either about to pull the trigger, or probably never will, for one reason or another – hey, I’m not a mind reader, but I DO know that us entrepreneurs can be a strange breed from time to time!

Throughout the course of the entire week I kept asking myself one question:

Why haven’t they got started yet?

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Why You Need to Start Using the Telephone Again!

This is a short one…

But, an important one.

I was on the phone with a client earlier this afternoon, from my hotel room here in Sydney (I’m in Australia for a couple of speaking gigs). We were discussing the expansion of his calling campaign with my call center. He’s been with us for almost 2-years and we know each other well – however, this is his first expansion.

It was a short, sharp and to-the-point conversation where we discussed price breaks, set-up, start up time as well as training of new recruits.

The entire call took no more than 20-minutes. The result was additional income for our company, extra support and lead generation capabilities for his business, and we both left the ‘table’ happy.

After the call, I sat and asked myself how long the decision to expand would’ve taken if we had of handled it like so many other people do nowadays with important business decisions – via email.

This drives me nuts – really. I even get emails from people that work for me, in my office, when I’m in the office – instead of them just popping their head around my door to answer a quick question!

Email is for Confirming Details, Not Having Discussions

Hours, if not DAYS would have gone by, taking into consideration time-zone differences, and everything else that would have reared it’s head. And the chances of the ‘deal’ dropping off the table would have been very high.

He had a couple of concerns that I took care of quickly and effectively, right there on the call, which enabled the decision from his end to happen – and happen faster.

The moral of the story, children – pick up the damn phone.

It’s been used in business for decades, and will still be, for decades to come. Don’t hide behind emails – especially in a sales related situation – it’ll get you nowhere.

Emails (or any other type of ‘virtual’ communication) don’t close sales.

People do.

How to Create Your ‘3 Lists to Freedom’ to Start Outsourcing More Effectively!

With the entrepreneurial lifestyle being as hectic as it is for most small business owners, anything we can do to leverage our time better, get more done and ultimately boost productivity is a good thing.

One of the questions I get asked most often is how I can be so darn productive? People see me running several different businesses that employee hundreds of people, producing content for this blog and my new podcast, attending to numerous speaking gigs, as well as other projects that I work on regularly and they want to know how I do it!

The fact is that I wasn’t always this productive and streamlined. There was a time when I was working 14-hour days, chasing my tail to earn a living and spending very little time with my family. Nowadays it’s a different ball game – thank God. And here’s the thing – I’m still not the best manager of people out there – what I have become very good at, however, is the ability to delegate.
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