Below your e-mail signature, put in a link to your newest promotion, a hot selling item, your blog, a brief endorsement or testimonial. Keep it short. Keep it unobtrusive. But do it.
Ben
Archive for August, 2009
August27
And whilst you are at it…
August25
Park Lane Financial Services
This is something you can sort out right now, it’s simple, and it’s free. Put your website URL in your e-mail signature. It’s so easy to overlook! Hmm. A very short post. But then it’s really that simple.
Go do it!
Ben
August20
CTJ Education
From the initial meeting Ben has been fantastic. We are total computer ignorants but Ben has been very patient with us from start to finish, through good times and bad. We now have a fantastic website which is achieving unbelievable results - our previous site didn’t even get looked at – Ben has produced exactly what we needed which is a miracle considering we didn’t really know what we wanted or even how to describe what we needed. He gave us a time scale and produced the finished article within that time.A truely professional company which I have no hesitation in recommending to anyone. He even worked on last minute alterations whilst he was on holiday – Who could ask for more?
Christine Harmer
Managing Director
CTJ Education Ltd
August20
What’s worse than too much blogging?
Not blogging at all. Or blogging infrequently. I rarely advise website owners I don’t know well to start a blog. A good blog is a rare thing, but a blog doesn’t always have to be good (as in well written) to be effective. At the very least it lets people know you and your business is active.
Until you stop.
And then blog becomes damaging, because even if no-one notices your blog after 4 hard months of writing, believe me they will notice if you’ve stopped for any length of time. They’ll ask questions if your latest post is months out of date. Questions they’ll guess the answer to, and you can bet they won’t be favourable.
Blogging is good when it is done. If you give up part way through, better not to have started.
Ben
August18
Beware frequent blogging
Some good advice I had today was never to blog more than two or three times a week. Why? When your blog becomes popular, it can take a few days for the posts to filter down through the various content-sharing sites (such as technorati, digg or slashdot). If you keep posting new content every day, the people coming to your site front page looking for content from 3 days ago will have a much harder time getting to where they want to be.
However, until you reach that stage, write as frequently as possible and build up a resource. Writing every day will pay off in the long run (when your site reaches true popularity, then feel free to consider writing less).
Ben
August15
Xpress Repair
August13
Google Trends
Ever wondered about how many people are searching for your offering online? Is it an increasing or decreasing market? Should you be focused on the same keywords now as you were six months ago?
Try this: Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends
Ben
August11
Speed Networking
Another post unrelated to pure web strategy, however – Speed Networking is pretty good. I tried it today for the first time, and I have to admit, I quite liked it. Here are the rules:
- You have a given amount of time (60 seconds or so) to pitch.
- You then listen to the pitch from the person opposite.
It’s that simple.
My advice:
- Break the rules.
- Whatever you do, condense it down to 30 seconds. Keep it simple. "Hi. I’m Ben. I help businesses develop strategies that make their websites work. If you have an existing website, I look at it to determine what’s working, what isn’t, and make sure it fits your business goals and strategy. If you don’t have a website, I make sure you develop it based around what your business needs." 30 seconds. Then ask them to do the same. Then find out how you can help each other.
- Take plenty of business cards.
- Speak loudly and clearly.
- Listen.
- Follow up every lead.
That’s it.
Really, it’s quite good fun (though headache inducing!), and the time will pass very quickly. If you are lucky, you’ll end up with some good leads. Worst case, you get a chance to practice your pitch over a dozen times – and it’s worth it for that alone.
Good luck!
Ben
August10
Square One Financial Planning LLP
Ben has been brilliant at helping our SEO. After two false starts with other companies, Ben has take the time to understand our business, then come up with great strategies to win us business. In the past our leads were randomly scattered and lots of money was wasted on getting us leads that we could never service. Of course our SEO guys thought that was a result but we made no money. Whatever Ben has done has cut our bill in half and the leads are local, relevant and profitable. Highly recommended
Andrew Melbourne
Partner
Square One Financial Planning LLP
