Technology has opened new doors to the small business owner. In the generation of our parents, there were straightforward needs: a phone number, a list of contact names, and the simple determination to market the business. The World Wide Web changed all of that. Now, while you still need that phone number and a list of names, you also are expected to have a website and – with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn sites dominating marketing news – a social media plan.

Do you need to have all of this in place before you begin marketing your business? Of course not. However, it does help to have a place to start and, increasingly, marketing experts state that place is online. So before you place your first call or send your first email promotion, you will want to have a website ready to receive your first customers.

Why Is a Website Important?

A website is now considered the core of the small business marketing portfolio. It is as important as having a number that your customers can call and a business card that you can distribute at a trade show. Why? In increasing numbers, consumers are no longer turning to the printed Yellow Pages for information. Rather, they are going online and using search engines like Google or Bing to find everything from basic directions to a nearby retailer to recommendations for a new family restaurant. According to an ongoing consumer-focused study published in March 2010 by BIA/Kelsey, nearly twice as many survey respondents (90 percent) used search engines as the Yellow Pages (48 percent).

Because the first step to a successful marketing effort is being where your customers are, it makes good business sense to be online and findable.

Why is Purchasing a Domain Name the First Step?

There are many ways to get your business online with its own website, but the first step is to purchase a domain name. Domain names – like buymecoffee.com or insertyournamehere.com – are simply the addresses whereby a customer can find your website.

You will read from some advisors that you do not need to buy a domain name of your own to create a business website. In fact, some companies promise everything to you for free: an online address and the tools to build your own site. But these offers come with strings attached: The first is that the address that they provide (yourname.theirname.com) is merely an extension of their business marketing. Place that domain name on your business card and you provide the other business with free promotion!

The second problem is that their tools often come with their branding. Perhaps you have already seen websites like this: the text and banner advertising points the visitor to different sites all together. Surely you do not want your site to direct customers away from your core message!

Finally, just as if you were subleasing an office from a primary leaseholder, you take on the risk of the other company. If their business site closes, so does yours. This may be an extreme circumstance, but being a savvy business owner means anticipating the possible.

Are these the problems that you want your small business to take on in exchange for “free”? With prices for domain names at less than $10 per year, do yourself a favor and buy your own, unique name. Just remember to make it simple and memorable.

What Else Do I Need?

In addition to a domain name, you have two very important choices: a web design that provides the online polish to your small business story and a website host to show that finished product to the consumers looking for your business.

Design: Beyond the free sites come there are many inexpensive ways for you to launch your small business website to the world. At sites like TemplateMonster.com and ThemeForest.com, you can purchase complete website designs and hire developers at a fraction of the cost of an original design – a blessing to both your checkbook and your peace of mind. If you need a more complex site – with a shopping cart or a regularly updated blog, for example – there are free, open source programs like Zen Cart, WordPress and Joomla with which you can have your site built. These content management systems (CMS) are well-developed and often backed by passionate communities of users – many just like you.

Of course, hiring a designer to craft a look that uniquely represents your business is the best choice. But if you do not want to make that investment at the start, these options are available.

Hosting: Once you have purchased a template or a unique design, the next choice is to find a company that will serve it up to your potential customers. Prices for hosting companies can vary widely and so can service quality.

It helps to know what matters most to you and your business before you begin shopping. For example, how important is it to you to have 24/7 access to a customer service representative? If you have a small writing consulting firm, unexpected server downtime may not be as critical for you as it is for the owner of an auction site.

Use review sites like VistaInter.com and FindMyHosting.com to help you choose a host that provides the right balance of industry standard tools, pricing plans, and customer service.

What Comes Next?

These decisions, while small, serve as the foundation upon which your small business marketing can grow. With a memorable domain, a great design, and a strong hosting infrastructure, you can turn your attention to what really matters: the use of your website to promote your business to potential buyers of your products and services.

With inexpensive domain registration and equally affordable designs at your fingertips, online marketing of your small business is simply business smart.

Help your customers find you today with your first small business website.

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The author, Tammi L. Coles, writes for Archer Targeted Communication, a boutique marketing and communications company. Does your business need assistance in getting on the web? Call her for a consultation at +1 (202) 470-6815 USA or email tammi.coles@archertc.com.

The good wishes for the important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims seemed a milestone in U.S. marketing. “I finally felt that they are recognizing Muslims like we are a part of this community,” said Khatib, 31, a suburban Detroit mother of two. “We live here, we spend our money here.”

But on Best Buy’s website, people around the country posted contrasting views. “You insult all of the heros and innocent who died 911 by celebrating a holiday of the religion that said to destroy them!” wrote one. Many others said they would no longer shop at Best Buy.

The controversy underscores the continuing obstacles that retailers and other companies face in marketing to a U.S. Muslim population estimated at more than 2.3 million by the Pew Research Center.

Read more at Marketing to Muslims poses a challenge for retailers – Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan 2010

Flickr photo credit: al-Taqi [feeling surrealistic]

Last month, we released an Assessment and Reflection Report authored by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine on America’s Giving Challenge, a program we launched in order to test and encourage the power of individual giving online. As part of this report, Beth and Allison featured three case studies on organizations that were successful in mobilizing their supporters during the Challenge. The case studies are based on interviews with remarkable individuals leading their Challenge efforts and winning $50,000 each for their causes.

I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight these organizations again in case you missed them. Below are short summaries to pique your interest! Make sure to check out the report if you haven’t already, and let us know of other organizations that are successful in using social media for social good.

Read more on the case studies of nonprofits Love Without Boundaries, Students Helping Honduras and IDEA League at Case studies of social media success – Case Foundation, 25 Aug 2009.

Flickr photo credit: Mindful One

Cost-savings savvy

As an education nonprofit that relies on federal and state funding to survive, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) was looking to cut down on direct mail campaign costs, which — while mail remains an essential marketing channel for the organization — can be prohibitively expensive.

For a mailing promoting a conference that targeted 74,000 national board certified teachers, director of marketing Elizabeth Arritt had an idea of how to cut down on the number of mailers sent out: “We were already planning e-mails and mailings and I thought, why am I e-mailing all these people and then mailing something when I can tell exactly who opened the e-mail?”?  …read more of this article at Direct mail done right – DMNews, published 18 May 2009

Flickr photo credit: ignescent infidel

A non-profit’s website needs to make it easy to find out more about their cause, to donate money, and to become more involved. It needs to make it easy for media contacts to find the information they need and the contact information of key personnel. And it needs to do all this in a way that’s inviting to the organization’s targeted donors and/or volunteers.

Below are a list of best practices for designing non profit websites followed by some examples of non profit websites that are getting things right. … Read more at Non Profit Website Design: Examples and Best Practices – Smashing Magazine, published 14 May 2009.

Flickr photo credit: tobiashm

During a recent interview, Dave Robinson, Mozy’s vice-president of marketing, explained how any business owner can make an e-mail newsletter more compelling. I also spoke with Janine Popick, chief executive of VerticalResponse, an e-mail and direct marketing provider for small businesses. Here’s their advice on how to get customers to read your e-mail newsletters. Read more of this article at E-mail Newsletters That Customers Actually Read – BusinessWeek, published 4 May 2009.

Flickr photo credit: kin-ichi

Search engines are pushing the universal search movement to evolve results into a multimedia-rich blend of images, maps, local and video. As a result, search engine algorithms will look more favorably on video content for the top spots on their result pages, meaning the opportunity for exposure increases for any video producer that is on top of its SEO game.

So says my friend and Kelsey Group analyst Michael Boland, and I have to agree when I see searches like “reclaimed fireplaces lewes” yield eight out of the ten first page spots on Google taken by video (at time of writing). What you’re seeing there is a small business practically owning the first page of Google for it’s chosen long-tail keywords, and it’s not difficult to do if you know how.

If you’re hoping to get your videos to rank well in search results, there are three things you’ll need to consider (you might call these the basic elements of video SEO):

• Video production (how, production quality, duration, formats, etc)
• Landing page (where will your video drive traffic?)
• Distribution (getting your video out there, keywords, descriptions, links and SEO)

Video production

The first thing to realize is that most video production companies have only about 30% of the solution that’s needed for any small business. The other 70% you need to do yourself, or get someone to do for you. Why? Well, they think the benefit is all in the production and the finished article, but it isn’t. It’s what you do with video that counts—and that’s to do with the distribution and landing page. So, my advice is this: pay only about 30% of your attention to the video production. The rest comes after that.

You have a wide range of options for getting video produced these days. Here are just a few… read more at A Guide To Video Search Marketing For Small Businesses – Search Engine Land, published 7 May 2009.

Flickr photo credit: Irina Souiki

Think before you slash. That’s the advice John Quelch, a professor of marketing at Harvard Business School, gives to business owners tempted to cut prices. “You don’t want to give away your profit margin to customers who still would have paid full price,” he says.

Whether they’re following Quelch’s advice or acting impulsively, nearly 30% of small business owners say they have lowered their prices, according to a February survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. “They’re struggling and asking, ‘What can I do to save my business?’” says Martin Lehman, an adviser with the New York offices of SCORE, a nonprofit business counseling group.

If sales are hemorrhaging or customers are flocking to dealmaking competitors, discounting might be necessary. That’s especially true if you’ve already exhausted other options, such as offering consumers extra perks or improved service. But chopping prices is not without risks, including a cheapened brand image and customers who will never pay full price again. And if there’s no demand, even signs that scream “Lowest Price Ever!” won’t draw customers. “The primary factor that determines the price you’re going to get is what the demand is,” says Roland Rust, chairman of the marketing department at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “In a situation where people want things less, the price has to be right.”

To discount successfully, you need to take a look at what your competitors are up to, then analyze your company’s previous experience with promotions. If discounting is uncharted territory, you might experiment with a short-term sale to test the waters or, if you can afford it, bring in a research firm to gauge customer responses to proposed price cuts.

You’ll also need to avoid the common blunder of sacrificing quality or customer service so that you can lower your prices. “Once a company gets a reputation for poor quality, it’s hard to turn that around,” says Rust. Another mistake is discounting too heavily. Depending on your industry, a 10% discount may actually be quite attractive, Quelch suggests. And avoid the sledgehammer approach of slashing prices across the board. Instead, trim prices on specific products or services—those that are slow-moving or have higher margins.

The key is to dish out deals without purging your profits. Here are six survival-mode strategies from pricing experts and the entrepreneurs who are making them work. …read more at An Expert’s Guide to Discounting – BusinessWeek, published 3 April 2009.

Flickr photo credit: quinn.anya

As the economy began to deteriorate in early 2008, a few things became clear to Gary Gottenbusch, owner of Servatii Pastry Shop & Deli Inc. in Cincinnati: Customers were purchasing smaller items in an effort to be frugal, and soaring prices for flour and other commodities were threatening to eat into his profits.

A trained baker whose family has been in the bakery business for decades, Mr. Gottenbusch knew the danger the situation posed to his small business, which sells upscale European cakes like Vienna tortes, along with more common fare such as cinnamon bread, at 10 retail locations in and around Cincinnati.

“My overhead was totally fixed, and I knew if I lost my sales, I would lose the profitability,” says the 44-year-old Mr. Gottenbusch. “It was time to be aggressive in getting more volume.”

Chef David Burke is known for his creative cuisine. Now he’s using that same creative approach to weather a downturn in dining out. He talks with WSJ’s Beckey Bright about his strategy.

So, instead of hunkering down and hoping the economic downturn would be short-lived, Mr. Gottenbusch reinvented his business. With the help of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a program partially funded by the Department of Commerce and designed to give small firms access to manufacturing specialists and other advisers, Mr. Gottenbusch looked for new customers in unusual places, created unique products to drive store traffic, joined a purchasing association to keep costs in check and took advantage of the real-estate slump to scoop up a new store location on the cheap.

The result: Servatii not only survived last year, it thrived, with sales rising 15% to $8.5 million. …read more at Sweet Returns – Wall Street Journal, published 23 April 2009.

Photo credit: servatiipastryshop.com

As a fellow small business owner, what would you advise the shopkeeper to do?

Dear Madame:

I am writing to express my distress about the encounter my friend and I experienced in your shop on Saturday, July 9. I am also writing to suggest a remedy.

My friend and I were first-time visitors to your store, but eager to shop there. I had seen your shop a number of times on my way to the city center, and a co-worker and neighboring resident had expressed her enthusiasm for it. In any case, my friend is soon to be married in September and, because she wears an usually large size, I thought this would be the perfect place to take her for a wedding gift.

As first-time visitors, we were very taken with the intimate-wear on the racks. I was pleased when a shopwoman approached us regarding a fitting, and my friend readily agreed. Not surprisingly, my friend had been too consumed with checking out your impressive selection rather than reading any wall signs. So was I. That means she received an unpleasant shock when she was told that the fitting would cost her $5.

Although my friend apologized for her ignorance and the shopwoman agreed to waive the fee, the situation still escalated unpleasantly. Indeed, both the shopwoman and you, the owner, insisted that a couple of signs stated the $5 policy. What was troubling, however, was your insistence that we should have noticed the signs, which we inferred as either (1) “any dummy could have seen it” or (2) “you deliberately chose to ignore it so you could misuse our services.” Not surprisingly, we left without shopping further or expressing an interest to return for a later purchase.

Because I have worked in customer service positions, I am not so foolish as to assert “the customer is always right.” But I do believe that customers should be given the benefit of the doubt and that deferring to misunderstanding more often than not serves to shore up good feeling and repeat business. Why did we not hear “we’re sorry for the misunderstanding, please come back again” from you or your staff?

Well, there is still opportunity for that. I would like to support a boutique shop such as yours and would like to recommend your business to my similarly-busty peers. I am enclosing the address of my friend below and I am requesting that you send a note of apology to her for yesterday’s incident and an invitation to her to return. I am certain that she would receive it well, and that she would signal to me a willingness to shop at your store again. Her name is Name Withheld and her address is 3200 Nameless Avenue, Apt. 301, Anycity, VA 12345.

Thank you for your prompt action. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Your Customer?

Readers, your advice for the shopkeeper?

Flickr photo credit: James@mannequindisplay.com