Online Marketing and Sales Initiatives for Small Business
Why Many Small Businesses are Ineffective at Sales & Marketing
In most cases, small business owners are experts in their fields
and when they start their company they are responsible for a
wide range of tasks including sales and marketing of the
company's products or services. Most small business owners
experience the same frustrations of not having enough time or
energy to fully devote themselves to any one task and
therefore some aspect of the business gets neglected.
Most experts will focus on what they know, so doing the actual
work will always come before sales and marketing initiatives.
If your small company already has a steady and reliable customer
base, then you are fortunate and perhaps sales and marketing is
not your number one concern. For many small businesses the
biggest challenge is getting customers and a steady stream of
projects to work on.
The problem arises from the fact that you must meet your current
customers' requests so you are busy performing that work and end
up ignoring the sales side of the business. As soon as your current
project is complete, you start looking for more projects but you may
not be getting revenue during this time. In the end, if you follow this
pattern, you will have an up and down revenue flow and will not be
able to plan your work or budget.
Your Website is a 24 x 7 Salesperson
The simple solution to this problem is to hire a salesperson. If your company's
budget will permit it, then hiring a salesperson should be on the top of your
list, even if you plan to get customers via your website.
A professional business website does not really "close" business deals
unless you offer online sales of your product. For service organizations,
or for companies with products that require more personalized customer
interaction to close the deal, a website is really a source
of "sales leads." Sales leads are potential customers but it is up to you
as the business owner, or your salesperson, to close the deal.
Effective Small Business Website Features
Creating a website that is effective at online marketing and generating
lots of sales leads should be one of your top objectives. To accomplish
this your website will need to have:
- Quality content that is important and useful to your potential customers.
- Content that emphasizes the keywords that describe your product or services.
- HTML that has been optimized for search engines.
- A website design that is visually appealing, professional, and lends credibility to your company.
- Functionality that makes your site easy to use and simplifies user requests for information.