This is Part Two the the Keys to an Effective Small Business Website Series

Your Unique Selling Proposition – the USP

No matter who creates your website, no matter what it looks like, no matter where the traffic comes from, you need to give the reader a reason to buy from you. This is marketing 101 and you can skip a lot of the homework but if you miss this you fail the class. Your unique selling proposition or unique selling point is what will give potential customers the reason to purchase from you. Without it, your small business website is virtually useless.

Why do you need a unique selling proposition?

If you cannot separate your business from the other businesses (or separate your product) customers will not have any reason to buy from you. They will go someplace that can give them a reason. At the very best, your potential customer will have to contact you to ask for a reason to buy from you. Often this desperate cry for a reason to utilize your services will start with the word “How much is _________.” You can fill in the blank with whatever your business typically hears. In my case, every photographer could guess the first words you hear after answering the phone:

“How much is an 8×10?”

To which nearly every photographer answers the question and the potential customer says goodbye and calls the next photographer in the phone book with the same question. This goes on until the customer hears a price that sounds good, or, a photographer that knows better.

This is true for nearly every type of business.

It does not matter what you sell or what service you provide. The product is a bit different but the rest of the sentence (as well as the conversation) is most likely the same. Many small business websites are just as bad as their phone book ads. They give the name, address, phone number and maybe an email address. The website may have some pretty pictures or flashy graphics but no real reason for the customer to do business. Of course, you can save a lot wasted time answering the phone by putting prices on your site. Then they don’t even call. The small business owner then wonders why his expensive pretty website brings in no business.

You need to get your small business website away from the phone book mentality.

You should also probably change your phone book ads. You need to give potential clients more than you name, address, and phone number. Everyone else has the same ad already. Look at your local phone book ads. They are all the same business. In 90% of the ads in a niche, only the name, address, and phone number are different. You could substitute the name “Giant Donut” for the name of many of the businesses listed and it would still make sense. Most small business websites are the same. They just add some flashy graphics.

Before you spend any time building a website, you need your unique selling proposition.

What makes your business, your product, your service unique? Why should a customer come to you instead of the business down the block? What do you have to offer?

It better not be price!

If so, stop reading now and just flush any money you plan to invest in you business down the drain. You will soon be out of business. Maybe not this month or year, but eventually someone start to beat your price. Then why should I shop with you? You need to face the fact that most likely, you will eventually be facing competition that can beat your price. That may very well be Wal-Mart and they will beat your price if they have to lose money doing it. The will also probably be open longer hours than you can, and have a nice old lady to smile, to say hello, and to offer them a cart to shop with. You will be out of business.

Before you start to really set up a small business website, you need to find your USP.

Actually, you should come up with at least 10 unique things about your business. This will be the core of your website. The reason people will purchase your product or service from your business. Tell them why they should come to you instead of your competition. While you can cheat a little on a few of them, the majority of those USP’s need to truly be unique to your business. You probably are not a Giant Donut dealer, so make sure only your business can claim them.

Also, how do those unique selling propositions benefit the customer?

Be ready to tell your potential customer how a particular USP will matter to them. A lot of small businesses will mention that they use a particular brand of equipment or supplies (Remember Kodak film fellow photographers? It really does not matter to the customer). Unless it benefits the customer, it really does not count.The customer will not be impressed by your technology unless there is a benefit to the customer. Give them a benefit, and you will win the customer (even if the competition uses better technology but fails to demonstrate how that would benefit the customer). Why should they come to you instead of Wal-Mart? Perhaps you are less expensive even though Wal-Mart is cheaper. The preceding sentence only makes sense if you show the customer the difference between less expensive and cheap.

Your mission should you accept it:

Create at least 10 unique selling points about your business. Make them as truly unique as you can. Don’t forget there are emotional selling points to your business that may be even more valuable to a customer than non-emotional reasons.

Unless you are the only Bugatti dealer within 500 miles of Pocatello, Idaho your location probably isn’t a real big USP for you. You’ll need something more unique than being the only Ford dealer in a particular Chicago suburb.

These USP’s will be the basis for you website.

You will need to build on them and create content around them. This is why I wanted to cover this topic on your small business website early so you can begin preparing your USP’s. You should use them in all your advertising and marketing. If you do, you will stop hearing the words “How much is…” and hear “I want to buy, purchase, schedule or whatever from you” instead. You will need to do less “selling”. You will find that you do not need to worry about that Wal-Mart going up down the street. You will be able to charge more for you product or service and still have more business.

Always remember the marking saying:

It’s not features, it’s benefits.

The is part one of the Key to an Effective Small Business Website series.

Choosing A Domain for an Effective Small Business Website.

A domain name is your business’s address on the internet.

You want to own it (some businesses find themselves renting the domain from a web designer at high cost). You want control of it. A good domain name may even help your business. Many businesses are even using the domain name (complete with .com) as the business name.

Choosing a domain name for your small business should be fairly easy. We just want to make sure you do it right and don’t make a mistake because your first choice is not available. This is a little bit different than choosing a domain name for a niche sit which I have also pointed written about on this blog.

I am covering choosing a domain for your business website early in this series.

The reason is because there are people out there buying domains simply with the plan of selling them at a profit sometime in the future. I do not want you to miss getting one because someone purchased it two weeks earlier just as an investment and not use. In some industries this is a possibility.

First rule – .com and only .com

Don’t take a .net because your first choice is taken in .com but still available in .net. You will only be sending more traffic to someone else. Your customers will always assume it is .com if they are trying to remember. You will also often include your domain in advertising.

Second rule – do not use the free online tools to check if domains are available

Use the tool provided by your domain registrar and only search when you are ready to purchase it. Purchase the domain immediately. There are some sites online that use these searches to find prime domains for investment like I mentioned above. I have heard of more than one case where someone has checked for a domain and found suddenly purchased when they waited a bit before purchasing.

Search for the domain using your registrar’s search. Purchase the domain as soon as you find the best one for your business. Do not wait. I get to the recommended registrars in just a bit.

Third rule – no dashes in the name

You can use more than one word. Just do not separate them with dashes. Dashes (or underscores) will make it nearly impossible to give out your domain name orally in person or on a radio advertisement.

Fourth rule – Be very aware of homonyms

2, to, two, or too? Again, you want to be able to give your domain name out easy and for it to be easy to remember.

Fifth rule – Don’t be cute

This is your business website not a personal website. Be businesslike.

I suggest one of two options for your domain name.

First, your business name.

If your business name is short, easy to spell, and memorable take it if the domain is available. If your business name is too long, uses really long words, or hard to spell, look at the second option. Think about your customer. Would it be easy for them to remember and type out?

You have a bonus if your business name will also have keywords that people would typically type if they were looking for your type of business.

The second choice would be a domain name related to your business and area of business.

chicagoplumbing.com might be preferable to thomasscirrottoplumberextraordinaire.com even if the later is your business name. Using your business name will make it easier for people that are familiar with your business to find you.

However, using a locality and business type will help you get some additional search engine ranking for a phrase people will commonly search for. Many new customers you get from your website may very well be typing in the type of business you have and the city in a search engine. Using those terms in your domain name will help you rank a bit better. In the example in the previous paragraph, someone typing in “plumber Chicago” in Google is more likely to see chicagoplumbing.com in the listing than the second example.

This is only one factor, so do not be afraid to use your business name if you want. Just keep it in mind as an excellent alternative. It would not hurt to buy both domains. If your business name is not completely unique, you should buy the domain name for it even if you use the business and city domain. In my case, there were several other businesses with a similar name in the US alone. We were lucky to have the domain name. It has value far beyond the $10 annual fee should we decide to sell it.

Choose a good domain registrar

I recommend Namecheap as a registrar. My second choice is GoDaddy.com. GoDaddy is a bit better known but checkout with them is a maze of offers for all sorts of “extra” services that you do not need, want, or are usually free or cheaper anywhere else. Do not get hosting from Go Daddy! We will talk about hosting in a later article Getting your domain at Namecheap is simple. Create an account. Search and find the domain you want. Buy it. Namecheap may include a year of “whois” protection free. This will keep you from getting additional email spam.

I have used 4 different registrars online and these are the only two I feel good about recommending.

I have had friends purchase domain names and pay $40 and not get services they needed with it. A domain with Namecheap will be about $10 for a year. You may want to consider purchasing the domain for more than one year if you think your business will be around for longer than a year (I hope you are).

If you really want to use GoDaddy use my link, I’ll get a commission. I recommend Namecheap and there is no commission or compensation for doing so. That is how much more I think Namecheap is better for you.

I think you are ready to go buy that domain name now.

We won’t get around to using it for a bit, but buy it now. Once you purchase it you will have one less thing to worry about later. Just remember the details of your domain registrar account. We’ll need to hop in later and tell them where you site is hosted. Till that time, your registrar will probably put a holding page on it.

If you have a bit of extra money, it would not hurt to purchase a spare domain. If you bought a domain with your business name maybe get the locality-business type name or the other way around. You may change your mind and there are some other uses for a second domain.

In the next post in this series, I am going to cover a subject even more important to your small business and its website than a domain name. Without it, you really do not have a reason to stay in business.

Till then, happy domaining.

Creating An Effective Small Business Website – Introduction

This is the start of a series that will take a small business owner through the steps of creating a website for marketing his business.

Having been in small business, I have a good idea what the needs of a local small business are for a Website.

I also know that as an owner, you don’t have time to goof around or time to learn html. You also don’t want to waste money on a site that is not effective (that is if you have the money in the first place). You’ll want to read this series even if you are planning to have someone else create a Website for you. You may want to read this even if you have a website already because I plan to show you how to make one that will increase your business.

What will you learn in this series?

• You will learn how to set up a website that is very inexpensive (all the software is free).
• You will learn how to setup a website that is easy to modify, add to, and change.
• You will not need to learn code.
• If you can use a word processor and read and send email, you will find this fast and easy.
• You will learn what kind of content you need for the site to get business
• You will learn how to make that content bring in the traffic that you are currently missing
• You will learn how to use your site to bring your current customers back again – with their friends.
• How to use the website as the most cost effective advertising medium you have ever had.
• How to build customer loyalty
• I’ll show you what tools you need and software to download.
• I’ll take you step by step in using those tools and software.
• We will also look at some ways to work with other businesses in your area as joint ventures that help both businesses.

This series will not show how to set up an Ecommerce site.

For most local small businesses, you need to get more customers or clients in the door or to call you on the phone. That is what we are going to concentrate on. I want to help you survive that Wal-mart moving that moved into or is moving into your community. If you are looking to actually sell products on your site, this series will help you in getting customers to that site but you will need to get help in creating an online store. Ecommerce can be complicated to set up. It is also not what most small businesses need.

It really does not matter what kind of business you have.

An effective small business website can bring in more business. You can be a contractor, lawyer, photographer, a music store, a restaurant owner, mechanic,or a jeweler. If you are a one man shop or have 50 employees. We will make a website that is far more effective than any phone book ad ever could be and costs less.

How much should your small business website cost you?

If you do just about all the work yourself as little as $50 to start. That is estimating $20 for a domain, $20 for a custom header graphic, and $10 for hosting. After that, $10 a month for hosting and additional $20 a year when it is time to renew your domain. That is all you really need to pay if your budget is really tight (and I’ll show you a free option for the graphic). The way we are going to create the site will make a very nice looking and very effective site that costs about as much as a one week classified ad in many newspapers. If you want to add more features to your site you can get some custom options for a theme anywhere from $100 to $1000 but you may need to pay to have the theme upgraded in some cases.

It is important though that you start this way and maintain control of your hosting so you can keep it at $10. Many times businesses get locked into sites and end up paying hundreds a month for ineffective sites. The only reason you would need to pay more is if your site makes you so much money that you need a better server. If that happens, it is simple to fix and you’ll have the money to look at maybe even better options. Cross that road when you come to it.

How much time will this cost you?

Setting up the site will take anywhere from 2-6 hours after you finish this series. You will need to spend several additional hours before that creating content for the site. After that, plan on up to an hour a week adding to the site, not including answering emails and that sort of thing.

Creating the content will be the most important part of the process. This is often where most small business websites fail miserably. We will start to tackle the content early in the series so you will have time if you need to find help from a friend or professional copywriter. I cannot stress the importance of the content on your website enough. The way it is written, and its purpose is vital to making your website bring in more money. Once the original content is done, you need to add to the site weekly. This can be just a short bit of news or the latest testimonial from a customer. Adding this content will be quick and easy.

Start your small business webmastering right now by downloading the FireFox browser.

I’m not going to go into how much more safe it is, or how much better it is. I want you to use it because we will be adding some extensions to FireFox that will help with your website. You will want to have a section of bookmarks dedicated to your site an the tools you will use. Add FireFox to any computer you may use to work on. It is free.

The next post in this series will cover getting a domain for your business. I will cover this a bit differently than what I would recommend for someone wanting to blog or create niche sites.

If you want to make sure you catch all the posts in this series subscribe to this site in an RSS reader or by mail at the top right of the page so you do not miss an update.