Sales is a numbers game and the more views you get on your website the more likely you are to attract business. Here are 5 quick methods that will help your business attract more clients.
1. Add your business to Google Maps
Google maps now offer great features such as adding photos, videos and specials. All these great little features can help, give your business some great exposure. Not only are these features available but Google maps will increase your search results in your direct area.
2. Add your business to Bing maps
Many more people use Bing as a search engine these days. Adding your business to Bing Maps will help your business tremendously.
3. Add your business to free business directories
There are many great free directories where you can list your business. All these free directories help to expose your business to more clients. Some are even worth upgrading (paying for) as they draw more visitors per month than your own website might.
4. Get a mobile website
Mobile access of the internet has gone up tremendously. Smartphones are on the rise and is the modern way to access information on the internet. A mobi-site will help clients to access your information with ease.
5. Make a small YouTube video of your business
YouTube remains a great way to expose your business. A simple 5 minute video about your business is well worth the effort.
www.bizzsolutions.biz
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
7 Simple things can make a huge difference to / for your brand
Yesterday I went out looking for a dog micro-chipping company as it is
now compulsory in S.A to chip all registered puppies / dogs. I had a quick look
at their PDF map and thought I am pretty familiar with the street and area so I
would drive down the road and find a board and just turn in. I mean how hard
can it be...? right...wrong!. We drove up and down, up and down and up and down
again without ever seeing a board. We then tried to access the website via a
map but we were in a bad signal area so the internet was slow. We did notice a
cat sanctuary close by and thought – “Well surely that has something to do with
animals so that would be it or at the very least know their neighbours...right”? Wrong again.
We decided to drive into a farm next door but by now we had lost confidence. The farm resembled nothing of the place we were
hoping to find. We reached the farm gate but thought we are not at the right
place because there was no indication of micro-chips, animals, or veterinary
(any visible signs of the brand). I was busy turning around when I noticed a
small gate buzzer on the farm gate. I decided that I would not hurt to have a quick look at
what this farm does... low and behold in the middle of nowhere on down a dusty
farm road on a very tiny buzzer there was the company we were looking for –
eureka!
But it got worse – inside we were greeted not as customers but it felt
like a FBI interrogation
“What are you doing here?”
“Did you fax through an order?”
“Take the paper home and fill it in and bring it back?”
Wow!
What did we learn from this?
1.
A board outside would have made a big difference
in finding the place
2.
A board outside on the busy road would be great
for extra marketing
3.
A Google maps – would have worked better (it
would have given us a map to the meter)
4.
Internet access can have poor signal areas - so be clear from the start
5.
A Mobi website would make a huge difference in
download time
6.
A brand depends on people’s willingness to go
the extra mile (You may have all the above but your staff can still have a negative effect on
your brand)
7.
Go the extra mile and help – especially first
time clients.
Conrad Kruger
www.bizzsolutions.biz
Marketing Manager
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Why you need social media?
Why do you need
social media?
Social media is a great way to network with other people or
business. They key is to network with the right people in your industry. Building
networks or circles of friends, circles of acquaintances and/ or networking with
business is done much more easily and effectively via social media platforms.
Not only is it easier but it is also possible to network with larger players in
different industries like Bill Gates, or Sir Richard Brandson etc. that would
not normally be impossible to meet in real life. These industry leaders often
interact with great blogs or social media posts that you would generally have
to pay thousands of dollars for in real life if you had to attend one of their
conferences. Joining industry leaders on a social platform should then (if only
for this reason) make complete and utter sense. Free tips from great leaders …why
not?
Networking helps
promote your brand
On twitter for example you can gain a great deal of
followers in quick time. True many of them will never buy from you but you can
promote your brand to literally thousands of people for free (except for some
time WELL spent). These people are linked to other people who are linked to other
people and they know people and so blogs, tweets, Facebook posts etc. get
spread to large amounts of people – promoting your brand across large playing
fields. One of our clients only had 40 odd likes on his Facebook Business page
but his weekly total reach was over 500. My simple question to you is this –
Can you see 500 people per week? Probably not – so social media can be extremely
effective in promoting your brand. Even a few likes can go a very long way in spreading
your brand / product / service effectively. Not only is it very effective but
it’s also more cost effective than other methods of marketing your brand.
You need social media because
- Creates networks – word of mouth effect
- Its effective
- You can get great advice for free from great leaders
- You can reach more people quicker than you ever would in real life
- It’s usually free or a very cost effective way of marketing your
Sunday, September 23, 2012
What is a business system?
What is a business system and why should you have one?
A business system is similar to a business plan – but differs from a
business plan because its deals more with general operations of the company rather
than the planning of a company for example like changing leads into sales. Don’t
ever underestimate a good business system because without a good system a company can never
function properly.
A good system will work around certain key elements for example
Building a website, professional e-mail, social media, customer service,
generating sales, and turning leads into sales. Many clients are fooled into
believing that a good website, branding and corporate image etc is the be-all
and end-all of a company.
Obviously a good website, branding
etc. is vitally important but I always say that a good website is meaningless
if you can’t convert clients into sales. Great companies succeed because they
have good business systems. Think of a company like McDonalds the person owning
the franchise does not actually have to be present at all times because the
business is fully operational thanks to a good business system and this is the
very reason why people buy into franchises
- they buy into systems that are working.
Some good system ideas
A good system would be - Turnaround time when responding to a client.
Turnaround time when you received a enquiry via telephone, e-mail, sms
etc.
One of our clients www.marriagergistrar.co.za
tells us that they respond with information within minutes and not longer than
8 hours or a working day. They feel that the first quote in will probably be
the one clients opt for because they have now already made contact. People
begin to feel less stressed when they received a quote because they now armed
with some information that they can use or give to their superiors. If clients
don’t have anything to offer their clients or superiors they feel pressured to
start using someone else.
Lesson – be quick to respond to clients.
Set up a meeting.
If you are required to meet with the client then set up a meeting soon as
possible. People feel more comfortable with people they have already met. Modern
day living has made people lazy and the more convenient it is for a customer
the more likely they will use you. They
don’t want to meet new suppliers all the time, they would rather use the ones
they know. Think back when you are really busy and you urgently need a supplier
– you not going to now try and find one, learn their product and meet with them
– you probably just going to use the ones you know that are convenient. Pamela Kruger a Snr Procurement manager says
“that a good price is meaningless if you don’t have customer care, delivery
time, stock on-hand and you convenient”
Think of McDonalds when you rushing home late on the weekend – will you
stop at a restaurant that you don’t know and order take outs or will you use a
brand you familiar with -That is
convenient, that has good delivery time, stock on hand (prepared)?
Lesson
Set up an appointment as soon as you can. Give the client as much info as
you can and always leave a business card with the client. From time to time
send the client valuable information – especially specials.
Call handling
The person handling the calls can change your business from zero to hero.
You can’t afford to let anyone who is not familiar with your product give
client’s poor information. Rather let
the reception put clients through to sales personal or people who are familiar
with the product – even if you are the owner of the company. We witnessed the
downfall of a great company because the CEO’s wife was trying to run the show
instead of letting the real sales people handle clients. If your sales teams
can turn your current 2 clients into 4 clients you have doubled your business.
Introduce your product and its value for money.
Many clients shop around good prices but it’s your duty to let them know
why you selling your product at a certain price. If you in the tyre industry
for example your product may be more expensive than your competitions but you
might have a better brand – Don’t ever forget to mention why your brand is
great value for money. It may not be cheaper but certainly worth the buy because
you can get 2000 miles more with your brand than your competitions and
therefore in the long run your brand may be less expensive. Never forget to
mention the quality of your brand. Yes, we all have bought cheaper products
before but we have also all learned that it may have not been worth the buy –
Let clients know that they getting good value for their money.
The way forward
Think about ways to incorporate good business systems into your business
We have just given you a couple of ideas that may inspire you to pursue
and incorporate your own systems into your business.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Why content is King?
The
saying “Content is King” remains true for all websites and blogs who are
serious about business.
Should you hire a content writer for your website?
What is content?
Content
is the wording of your website and why people need to use your brand, product
or service.
Content
also deals with relevant product or service information for example
specifications of products, warranties etc.
Why is content important?
Content
is important because people are continuously looking for reliable information
For
example a good website (South African website) on content will be www.marriageregistrar.co.za
Why?
Because
they have relevant information on weddings and especially on the laws and
regulations on legalizing a marriage. These laws and regulations are hard to
come by and although people can get married in a court of law, courts don’t have
a website that deals with wedding info. Therefore the information will eventually
be sought by people looking to get married whether or not they are getting
married in a court or at a wedding venue. This information draws clients to the
website and eventually leads to business. This is what makes good content
relevant – people will search for good information sooner or later.
What’s the difference
between a Content writer and a copywriter?
In
essence not much a writers of content are copywriters but people dealing specifically
with website content may be referred to as website contend writers (content writers).
Content writers deal more with research based on website keyword analysis and
will then incorporate keyword search words or phrases into a website making the
content of the website relevant for internet searching.
Should you hire a content writer for your website?
Most
defiantly yes! Content is king and the money spend on a good content writer
will be invaluable to your website.
How often should I update my
content?
Content
may be changed regularly in the infant stages of a website. This is simply due
to the fact that great content writers will write and re-write information until
the website flow through the website is of good standard. Content may change
from time to time as information or products change but you don’t want to
change your information to often as you want to create a stable brand that
people rely on.
For
more on content writing you can e-mail us on info@bizzsolutions.biz
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Keep your social profile professional
As a website design company (www.bizzsolutions.biz) we often get requests to link client’s websites
to their social sites.
The greatest challenge that we find is that many clients lack social etiquette that may have a negative impact on their business. People often display to much of their personal social life e.g. drunk photos , half naked pictures, hundreds of self love pictures, childish behaviour etc . on their social sites forgetting that tomorrow they might deal with some business associate on the same social site. There is an old saying; “The first impression is a lasting impression” Malcolm Gladwell’s brilliant book “Blink” describes how our very fist “gut feel” is often very right and you don’t want clients to get the wrong first impression of you.
I think we all have a couple embarrassing moments in our past and we wish we could turn back the clock and undo those stupid moments and that’s where we must be careful with social sites – Be careful not to embarrass yourself to an extent that you may regret it later on in life
More often than not clients struggle to keep their business and
personal social sites separate.
It’s is highly advisable to keep business and personal
social activities separate unless of course your selling yourself as a brand
e.g. motivational speaker e.g. John Doe.
Why keep them separate?
The greatest challenge that we find is that many clients lack social etiquette that may have a negative impact on their business. People often display to much of their personal social life e.g. drunk photos , half naked pictures, hundreds of self love pictures, childish behaviour etc . on their social sites forgetting that tomorrow they might deal with some business associate on the same social site. There is an old saying; “The first impression is a lasting impression” Malcolm Gladwell’s brilliant book “Blink” describes how our very fist “gut feel” is often very right and you don’t want clients to get the wrong first impression of you.
I think we all have a couple embarrassing moments in our past and we wish we could turn back the clock and undo those stupid moments and that’s where we must be careful with social sites – Be careful not to embarrass yourself to an extent that you may regret it later on in life
The idea is not to remove all the fun from your social site
but there is a certain professional etiquette you want to display on social
networks especially if you going to be serious about business. Social sites can be a fantastic networking platform and that’s
what you want to build on.
Always try and remember
From a personal perspective you should keep your social
sites professional and realize that you are knowingly or unknowingly portraying
and image to the world. You want to send
out a positive and uplifting message about yourself and your brand so keep it professional
and keep it separate.
Arte non Impetu
Photo: Conrad and Pamela Kruger -
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Thursday, August 30, 2012
5 reasons why you should have a website
24 / 7 / 365 Salesman
A website should be seen as a medium that markets your product, service
or brand 24/7/365
Websites remain relatively cheap and have a far reaching audience. If you
consider printed media and its limitations you will quickly realize that a
website is a far better way to spend your money and still have a good Return on
Investment. Brand representatives (although vitally important) can never cover
large demographical areas as effectively as a simple website can. Websites can
easily be advertised by just using your domain name e,g. www.yourdomain.com . This is a simple yet
effective way to speak volumes without paying an arm and leg for advertising.
A website is descriptive of your
brand
Brand representatives can never remember every single detail about a
brand or product. Think for example of a car salesman and how impossible it is
for them to remember all the features on one vehicle. A website can easily
display many products or services and include most if not all of the features
of your current stock. Enquiries and orders can be done easily and effectively
online with minimum time and effort as your website has already done most of
the talking for you.
Your competitor has one
In today’s competitive market there are literally thousands of people
trying to offer the same product of service as yours. Analytics show that more and more people are
shopping online. When I look at my own teenage daughter I realize that even a
desktop has become a dinosaur –like object to her. The new generation is
growing up differently and using smart phones and smart apps. You should be
constantly trying to stay one step ahead of your competition and regularly make
them aware of your brand by using online marketing. You should start your
online campaign with a website.
A website is your shop front
See your website as your shop front and place where you would display
your services or products to your clients. For service providers you can cut a great deal
of cost by working form home and having a website displays your services or
products. Wedding photographers for example don’t have to have a office as they
mostly shoot at venues or botanical gardens. A website can be set up at a quarter
of the cost of an office yet still be as effective in producing clients for
your business
A website is your word of mouth
A lady whom was struggling as a kitchen cupboard installer told me she
was struggling tremendously. I recommended that she starts with a website but
she argued that she did not have money for a website and that she relied on
word of mouth. There are a few points I want to make here – Word of mouth works
for massive networking companies but a small business like a kitchen cupboard installer
will never get enough business from word of mouth with the little work they do.
Secondly without marketing people will never know your business exists
and therefore don’t expect any knocks on your door. A website is the modern day
word of mouth. You should rather say “I can’t afford not to market my brand” the
truth is great companies like McDonalds still market their brands and have websites
why? Because they know it works!
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