Because a solid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy is essential to every business, we've got five simple tips to get you started:
Make sure that your website's keywords are informational, navigational, and transactional
Links to your website from external sources such as Yelp, Thumbtack, local media, and directories are essential to your ranking—especially "editorial" links from high-quality media sources.
As online traffic continues to grow from mobile devices, responsive web design is not only essential to the user experience but will also affect your online ranking. Be sure that your website is optimized for mobile.
Canonicalization is the process of selecting a single URL to be your preferred version for SEO purposes. Choose the best URL for your business and stick with it!
Make sure every page of your website can be reached in no more than three clicks, build in internal links on every page, and remove duplicate content from your site.
You’ve got a great idea. You may even have a product ready to sell. But there’s just one problem, what are you going to call yourself? Here are a few quick process tips to help you along the way to choosing a name for the next great small business.
What do you want your name to convey? Are you a B2B business selling services to other companies that needs a serious, clear name? Maybe you’re a consumer facing business that’s looking for something memorable and whimsical.
Come up with a list of thirty, forty, fifty possible names. Nothing is too silly or too far-fetched. Don’t try to do this all at once but in two, three, or even four sessions. If you have a business partner or somebody else you trust ask them to contribute as well.
Select your five to ten favorite names. Have somebody else select five to ten as well. Have both of your rank them then go ahead and sort your lists by giving 10 points to your top choice, 9 to your next, and down the line. Combine the scores and sort them in a spreadsheet.
Okay, so now you’ve got your favorites, it’s time to make sure they’re available. Use a service like GoDaddy to see if your potential brand names are available for domain registration. Feel free to append your brand name with other words, including the services you offer.
Next, do some additional research to make sure that there’s nobody else using your preferred name in your area of business.
Try as best as you can to get a .com domain.
Eliminate all the names that you can’t register a domain for. There’s no reason to choose a business name you can’t actually use. Then take the available brand name with the highest rank and voila, you’ve got a name.
You’ve mastered inbound marketing; you’ve gotten hundreds or thousands of newsletter subscribers waiting to hear from you. So the question becomes, now what?
Here are five ideas for great newsletter content, whether as automated nurture content, one off emails, or newsletters:
You likely have done this to some degree on your website, but there’s certainly more to tell about why you’re in business, how you came to be in business, and what you want to do for your customers. Encourage them to reach out and tell their stories; why they found you, what they expect from you, and what they love about you and your brand.
A great way to reach your goals, no matter your type of business (clothing sales, software downloads, etc.), is to spend some time writing about some of your lesser-known services or offerings. Perhaps your t-shirts are your most popular item, but not everyone knows you also sell amazing hats. A marketing e-mail is a great way to talk about that! Perhaps tie it into a promotion.
Your store is amazing. Let’s say you have a keen sense of fashion and your customers know it. Use e-mail as a platform to offer, for example, style tips. Or maybe you run a wine shop. Why not offer pairing advice?
Your e-mail audience is a great one to ask questions to! Survey them on your site usability, on how much they like certain products, or on your customer service. The possibilities are endless and give your customers a chance to be more engaged.
Your customers are your business’ lifeblood. Why not reward them by featuring them, their stories, and their opinions in an e-mail to your base. A written case study, a video interview, or a Q&A are all great ideas.
So you’re about to send out an e-mail, maybe launch a new piece of content, or just want to add a button on your site. Here are five great tips on how to ensure success:
There is a lot of good data and research on what generally works and what doesn’t but ultimately your customer base is unique. Feel free to test placement, colors, wording, and design of your CTAs, and do it constantly. You can always improve.
You don’t need to run an imposing amount of multivariate tests; a constant sequence of A/B tests will do fine to start.
Some good options for setting up experiments are Google Experiments or Optimizely. If you’re testing CTAs on unique landing pages Unbounce is worth a look as well.
Whether it’s a contact button, a newsletter subscription form, or a submission button, place your CTAs where people can expect to find them.
For example:
These rules don’t run hard and fast, but you should consider them in your placement.
Don't be shy or hide your CTAs, people can’t click what they can’t find!
But also avoid unnecessary or excessive CTAs. You don’t need to remind people to Buy Now eight times in an e-mail.
If a link leads to a video, then “Watch the Video” makes more sense than simply “Submit.”
And remember: context counts! The copy on the page around your CTA matters as much as the call to action itself.
Make sure your CTAs stand out. Anything you can do to make them look unique, colorful, or look different from your background can only help.
When you are using text as a CTA, there’s no need to form a sentence like “click here to submit your information” when “submit your information” will do just fine. Your customers know what a hyperlink looks like!
One of the first major marketing decisions a company makes is how it will reach out to customers via email, a powerful owned marketing channel that is important to get correct.
Although there is nothing wrong with transitioning from a lighter provider to a more robust one as your business grows, switching to a new platform down the road can be time consuming and difficult. If that’s something that you are currently considering and need help with, feel free to contact us.
Let's take a look at some e-mail marketing platforms to fit your individual business's size, budget, and needs.
I’m at a small business or a startup, relying on e-commerce or lead generation, and we’re just starting to do email marketing.
Generally, the most popular choices here are MailChimp or Constant Contact.
We suggest MailChimp for its ease of use and simple integrations with other systems you may want to use (such as SalesForceIQ, Survey Monkey, Shopify, Squarespace, and more).
Additionally, while Constant Contact offers a free 60-day trial, after which rates start at $20 a month, MailChimp is free so long as you’re under 2,000 subscribers and have yet to send 12,000 emails in a given time frame. This allows you to build your initial list and e-mail strategy on your own timeframe before you start paying.
For a more in-depth breakdown of MailChimp vs. Constant Contact, head over to the Capterra Blog.
My mid-sized sales based business is growing and I rely heavily on lead generation.
A good choice is HubSpot. While pricing can be more expensive than simpler systems, the benefits are many: landing page creation, some of the most robust and easy to activate integrations with CRMs like SalesForce, powerful lead scoring tools, email nurturing, and best-in-class analytics.
If you are moving into HubSpot we highly suggest having a full-time performance marketing person on board or hiring a firm like Good & Gold to work with you, or both.
If you’re new to HubSpot or looking to add it or switch over, let us know.
My large business relies heavily on lead generation and nurturing and needs a customizable solution.
If this is you, Marketo may be a good choice. While the learning curve is much steeper than HubSpot or MailChimp, the ability to customize your workflows, nurture streams, and how you handle leads and integrations makes Marketo a great solution for larger, more complex businesses.
Be aware that having a Marketo administrator in-house or working very closely with an agency is a must for using the software given its complexity.
My company relies solely on e-commerce and I’m interested in customer segmentation and predictive marketing.
Bizzy is worth a look, due to its powerful suite of segmentation, coupon, and optimization tools, as well as its close integration with Shopify.
