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How to avoid pitfalls and reap the rewards – a ‘how to’ guide for local websites

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With the marriage of Twitter and Foursquare on the cards, it has, once again, thrown light on a sticky patch that many local businesses encounter, especially when creating their presence online; just HOW do you reach the local populace whilst using global online platforms? What is the point? And why, oh why, do you need a website…?

In our mooching around the Internet, as well as our growing customer base of local, national and global businesses, we have come up with 10 pitfalls in to which local, online businesses can tumble.

Flailing about in the dark is no fun, especially when everyone else on the top side is winning new customers, and seeing old ones return.

Now is the time to grasp the mettle, and understand what is undermining your online, local presence…

#1 It is not ALL about YOU…

Commissioning your website is very exciting but, it can place some businesses in a position whereby they think their online presence is only about them. Although your brand is important, but when it comes to social media, more is a distinct advantage.

Link with other businesses, blogs and the like that are in harmony with yours. If you sell sea salt, for example, look to food based social media shares and the like. Think beyond your own brand bubble!

#2 It is not just about what you sell…

Yes your products and services are the very thing that makes you a business; yup, we all need or want things in our lives, and you have one of those things. But, following on from point 1, think outside the box – who, what or how else can your product be linked to other business, news events and so on?

Take care – linking with news events is great BUT, makes sure you are not pushing the boundaries or sensitive material. It can back fire and, unless you have a suave, fast-acting PR department then you could be sunk without a trace.

#3 Not all people will know what they want…

Some businesses will tell you that people come to them when they know they want their product or service.

Mmmm… might be true but, you could be alienating a group of buyers early on in the process who are in the market for a product like yours but, they miss your site because your SEO etc. is all geared toward the ‘sure-thing-buyer’.

#4 Local signals can reap rewards

We have touched on this many times in recent blogs and, it seems we are not wrong!

Various data-crunching companies and agencies have been analysing 2014 data from various search engines and it seems that local signals are slowly beginning to emerge as the must-have search term.

If your business has a local presence, then you need this somewhere on your website, social media profiles and so forth. If not, you could be missing a trick.

#5 Local signals go beyond your website!

It pays to spend some time checking out pages such as Yell.com and other local listing sites as all these combined create a stronger force when people search for a business, product or service in a certain area.

The Google My Business page might be worth a look at too, or Bing Places for Business.

#6 Your Home Page

Go to it now. Is it really doing its job?

Just it give a clear, succinct paragraph or two about what it is you do, and why the customer needs YOUR business to do these things? Do you have a tagline that explains what it is you do?

Are you sure it is cutting the mustard?

Mini quiz; which websites are these from?

  1. ‘live a life less ordinary’

  2. ‘Think different’ 

  3. ‘melts in your mouth, not in your hands’

    *scroll to the bottom of the page for the answers!

#7 The rest of your pages

Think value.

With this in mind, go to page that talks about your window cleaning service… does ‘call for more information’ really give the customer any value? Nope. They will navigate away to another competitor who will tell them that they “are in the area of so-and-so on Tuesday and a 3 bedroomed semi-detached costs £12 to have windows and doors cleaned”.

#8 One mention of a city, town or village is not enough…

If you determined to win the local business title online then you need to mention your location, county etc. more than once… and this just not mean putting your address on there.

Don’t go too far the other way and over stuff pages but, if your location is key to your business then this is priority information to be included on pages, metatags etc.

#9  Title tags should be 65-70 characters…

…. Or they don’t fit. So, when you search the Internet and you get the business heading, the tag line underneath falls off the end of the gap the search engine has to display results. Looks messy and people are missing key information. Guess what they do?

Yup, that’s right. They hit the next listing down.

#10 Update key information

Just like you don’t use old business card with the old phone number on, you would be amazed at the number of websites that do not have current, up-to-date contact information, addresses etc. on them. Hence, if you are a local business, then you need to ensure that they key information is right (and don’t forget all those other places where your address, phone number etc. is registered too!)

Local businesses are thriving in the global place that is the Internet – are you?

Mini-quiz answers… how many did you get right?

  1. ‘live a life less ordinary’ – Not on the High Street.com

  2. ‘Think different’ – Apple

  3. ‘melts in your mouth, not in your hands’ – M&Ms in the US, or Minstrels here in the UK

The Marriage of Twitter and FourSquare

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March 2015 saw an announcement from Twitter that they will partner with Foursquare to pinpoint ‘location tagging in tweets’. But, what does this mean for you and your business… if anything at all?

Let’s examine the facts…

Recently, we have looked at how local business, who rely on local customers can harness the global power of social media for their business. There are times, however, when appealing to the local population is the driving force behind a business and letting people know where you are is one thing, but your customers tagging their location is another game entirely.

We have all seen the tweets, status updates and the like that advertise to the world where someone is enjoying *lunch/shopping/white water rafting/car servicing/haircut/everything (* delete as appropriate).

This newly announced partnership between Twitter and Foursquare could essentially mean that specific landmarks, businesses and other points of interest could be tagged.

Can’t we do that already?

Kind of. All it takes is a quick sign in to your Twitter, announce you are enjoying the hospitality and creative, strategic thinking @LocallyHQ and the world knows where you are… or does it?

This partnership of geotagging between these two platforms is being rolled out across the US and Canada in these next few weeks, with other ‘additional markets’, as Twitter called them, to follow.

A partnership based on common sense

It is, according to a variety of industry experts, a marriage made in heaven. Foursquare has seen to be struggling of late, with a large number of users migrating to its spin off app, called Swarm.

Twitter, on the other hand, is always looking to improve user engagement; in a conference earlier on in the year, they announced they had run a ‘test’, sending tweets to users based on where they were at the time. The hard data from this experiment was that users were more likely to open their account within 30 days than those who were not sent ‘geo-tagged’ tweets.

What or who is Foursquare?

Foursquare is a company that produces two apps to guide in you a world “full of amazing experiences”, a direct quote….

  • Foursquare – launched in 2009, this app is intelligent in that it realises that all out tastes are different, so why produce the same search results? Based on the places you go/have been and the reviews etc. you give them, the app suggest new places that they it thinks you will like (based on this past data).
  • Swarm –this is the same app essentially but in real time; it is the fastest and easiest way, or so say Foursquare, for you and your friends to ‘keep up and meet up’.

Backed by a variety of investors, some huge names and individuals they call Angel Investors, the numbers behind these apps is quite staggering;

  • Community – More than 55 million users worldwide with over 6 billion check-ins, millions of which are made every day; however, finding the number of UK users of either app is a tough number to find. Stabbing in the dark, some people the number could be anything up to 5 million. This partnership between Foursquare and Twitter, a social media platform with a strong UK base, they are probably hoping or betting on the fact that their UK numbers (along with the rest of the world population of users) will significantly increase.
  • Businesses – more than 1.9 million businesses have claimed their location on the apps. A bit like filling in those details on Yell.com, the idea is that you control your business information and input. Clearly worth a punt, if your business is essentially local and fixed.
  • Employees – around 170 apparently, with headquarters in New York and offices in an Francisco and London

A start-up unicorn?

Those who spend their lives immersed in the stock exchange have called Foursquare a ‘start-up unicorn’ or, it has the potential to be one.

This means that as a new business, it could have the ability to break the $1billion value bench mark in in its first few years of trading. And it seems that once again, as a business, it has multiple ways that it can do this.

Is this a partnership worth following?

It could be.

Twitter is a social media platform that is incredibly popular. Facebook has a 5 year head start over Twitter, so boast bigger numbers but, the power of Twitter’s reach is still strong. Plus, its acquisition of Cardspring in the summer of 2014 means that soon it could be accepting payments online, as well as Twitter businesses being able to offer discounts online that can also be applied in store.

And it seems that Twitter has also become the leader in terms of real time news and breaking stories, as shown by recent events over in the US. With the UK election looming large, its newsfeed was awash with comments and discussion relating to the big 7 leader debate from only last week.

It is certainly a social media platform that packs punch when it comes to authority and credibility; the fall out of Jeremy Clarkson, BBC Top Gear and the now infamous ‘fracas’ featured heavily across the platform but without drowning out other news stories. Again, as quick as tweets appeared, they would disappear down the newsfeed.

Worth keeping an eye…?

We think so yes, as for those businesses with a high street presence or location, it could be a great way to get your business out there.

BUT, it depends on how popular Foursquare continues to become in the UK. If predictions and forecasts are anything to go by, it linking with Twitter could be the upward bounce that it needs. Since it created the off-shoot Swarm, it has given off the impression of an app struggling to not only grow in the crowded app market place, but maintain its position.

There again, is your local, online business ready to take on this new challenge?

The Value of the Landing Page

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The online world is full of links, all competing to grab the attention of the thousands of passing eye balls per hour; some will blink and stay long enough to engage/buy/sell/comment/like/share and so on.

Links are all signpost to ‘Somewhere’; some may be pointing at ‘Nowhere’, a land bereft on the vast continent of the Error Page 404 and these too can be a source of frustration and annoyance, Just as you thought you were coming across a lovely place, paradise is ripped out from underneath you and you are left staring at a blank page.

However, there is more of a problem lurking and that is the confusion surrounding what a landing page actually is…

The easiest way to define what IS a landing page is to flip it on its head; a landing page is NOT, as we all like to believe, any old web page that happens to be the place where a user lands.

A landing page is… (fanfare of trumpets please!)

… a webpage that contains a form which has been created to capture a user’s information.

Glad we cleared that up. Now we are all singing from the same hymn sheet, we can battle on with the why we have them, what they should look like and what their value is.

Why bother (or, what is the value of a landing page?)

Online forms are used for all kinds of reasons; subscribing to blogs so you never miss a post, enquiry forms, or transactional information for online purchases etc. You can probably think of many other examples but they all share the same common goal: to initiate an exchange between YOU and the USER.

It is quite simple – the user gives you information and you, in return, provide them with a service,/subscription/and answer to their query etc. giving you chance to ‘convert’ the user from a potential customer to a buying one.

However, this page is not necessarily the page to practice your graphic design skills on, so forget adding YouTube videos and dancing reindeers because, literally there should be nothing to distract the customer from completing the all-important contact form.

Having said that simplicity is the key with no distractions, there are certain components of the landing page design that need to capture the visitor’s interest.

The Header

If you have ever noticed where your eyes fall when you are on the web, you may have realised that they tend to be around the middle to the top of the page. Anything too low down that is important, tends to be missed in the first few valuable seconds that our eyes are drinking it all in.

With this 2 seconds to capture visitor interest, the header of a landing page is quite important; if this is completely uninteresting (and we have all been there!), your user will simply turn away.

Bear in mind HOW your visitor got there…

In some cases, the landing page is accessed through a specific advert that they have found on another site/somewhere else. Hence, their clicking of the advert means that created the right impression in so far that it was attractive and of interest.

Imagine the let-down of arriving on a rubbish landing page…

Your landing page needs to meet with expectations and in this sense, should be an extension of the advert – same font, same colours, all branded and joined together. If it all looks a little bit of a mish-mash, it’s a bit of a disappointment.

Right, this header needs to be colourful and creative, in line with your advert and also be part of your brand.

The Statement

Now that the header is in place as an extension of your advert or at least fully branded to your business, you now need to tell the visitor, clearly, simply and elegantly what it is they are looking at, the purpose of it and what to do.

Also known as a primary call to action, there are loads of examples out there on the Internet – some better than others, we hasten to add.

We saw some great ones the other day…

  • “Would you like the best in daily updates on xxxxx to your inbox?” – underneath were two boxes, one for your first name, the second for the email address.
  • “Don’t miss out on the latest news from xxxx” – again followed by the email sign up, as was the same with…
  • “Get the best offers BEFORE they hit the high street!”
  • “NEVER miss a blog post again!”
  • “Can you afford to miss out?”

They all suggest, in their own way, that there is a positive quality to signing up to a newsletter, subscription, blog etc. with some suggesting the negative aspect of not being on the all-important mailing list.

This reverse psychology has been around for many years; after all, by suggesting to someone they could be missing out, or be in the minority has a strong sense of emotional appeal, for some people.

Others of us, of course, think that by subscribing, our inbox will be flooded on a regular basis with rubbish, so be careful not to over egg that pudding.

The Body

An over-complicated landing page has been proven to affect conversion rates that is the number of people who do what it is asking them to do. Once again, simplicity and directness is key with every element supporting the advert, the landing page, the brand, as well as getting them to fil in the form.

Take a look at this one for Basecamp; it has a quite a clever graphic that is actually pointing at the first box, a clear visual signal of what it is you need to do. It’s friendly, non-forceful and there is no need for lengthy scrolling either…

Which indicates that the information they are collecting is what is needed to get your started with their service; if you don’t need to know the person’s age at this point, why ask for a birth date? Really think about the information you need to collect on your landing page – pare it back so that you really do only ask the questions that you need to.

The landing page success

It would seem that the best landing pages are those that are tailored specifically for the brand or website itself; opting for a ‘that’ll do approach’ might not get you the conversion rates you are hoping for.

Do you have a landing page? What do you think it says about your company? Is it successful?

Facebook is changing

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Love it or hate it, Facebook is THE social media platform that the majority of us are hooked on. When we should be doing far more productive things – like working – we can be found sneaking our way on to the site, just to peek at who is doing what, with whom.

For businesses, it has been a fabulous platform for zoning in on customers and, on the flip side, for customers to zone in on us. There is engagement, comments, likes and shares abound with many being culturally and socially richer for it.

It has been a platform that has stood the test of time, with even is wobbles not really being a wobble, as such.

There is always a downside…

Apparently, 1 in 3 divorces in the UK mention some form of ‘Facebook factor’ as contributing to the demise of the relationship; maybe it is the photos, or the lists of ‘friends’, or maybe the interaction and the being caught somewhere where you shouldn’t be… proceed with caution, seems to be the tag line here.

However, putting aside all these aside, using Facebook in the way Mark Zuckerberg probably intended it to be used, can reap the rewards.

As a social platform, however, it is not standing still. It has improved and morphed time and time again, with some changes recently announced that could make it a far better place for businesses to be, providing that they harness of its power – and do it right.

F8 is…?

The recent Facebook developer conference held in the US that listed 7 important, upcoming changes to the product. There are 7 changes on the way…

  1. Spherical videos – who can deny the excitement of 360 degree camera technology? Google Maps of course, has been using this for some time now but Facebook announcing that it soon will be able to support this technology within the news feed is rather exciting, especially from a product point of view. Google owned YouTube has also recently announced this technology will be available soon meaning that photos will be a given a real boost.
  2. Track online purchases and communicate with businesses via messenger – we saw a headline recently that summed this up nicely “Now you are can argue with customer services via Facebook!” Messenger has, by tradition, always been for individual users, but Facebook announced at F8 that this app would now also be available for companies and businesses too. You can thank customers for orders, tell them it has been shipped etc. This will either be a very welcome addition to your Facebook business page or, it will be sending shudders down your spine.
  3. Reply to messages using other apps – if you wanted to send messages using other apps, you would have to navigate and use it ‘the long way round’, e.g. by shutting messenger, copying and pasting etc. but now, the Facebook messenger app will let you do this within it; in other words, the development of messenger will now make it far more sophisticated.
  4. Facebook videos can be embedded elsewhere – FB is all about creating and sharing, but in the past, you could only share a link to a video, not the video itself. In this sense, FB might be going head to head with YouTube with the addition that these videos can now be embedded from Facebook to other places on the web.
  5. Comment on a story elsewhere on the web? It will show up on Facebook too – media companies love people commenting, sharing and engaging with the latest scandal, gossip or election debate and thus, by Facebook being everywhere, and linking comments elsewhere with your page, this engagement is broadened considerably.
  6. The ‘Internet of Things’ – bit sketchy on the details but, developers build apps to do all kinds of things, from monitoring calorie intake to opening the garage door. Facebook, not surprisingly, have decided they want to be part of this but, didn’t quite give the detail.
  7. App developers and analytics – again, for those technically minded among you, Facebook will offer a free dashboard to app developers so that they can be boggled by analytics of app usage.

What does all this mean for local, online businesses?

The 360 degree camera technology and the increased sophistication of Facebook messenger could be the aspects that you find most relevant. The ability to sell online, as well as to connect and engage with people takes effort, time and money; it could be that Facebook has just made it easier for you to do this via Facebook.

If nothing else, as this technology is rolled out across the network, it will rejuvenate interest in the social media platform, once again becoming a leader of its field.

Is your business on Facebook? How will these changes affect your business?

Why going to work is a waste of time…

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Work is something that fills our lives. Or so it feels, sometimes.

Just as we sign off from another hectic day, in a blink of an eye and dream-filled 7 hours of shut eye, the time has come to head back to the office. Again.

And then we came across an article that suggested out of a 45 hour week, only 17 hours were actually ‘productive’ or useful. It goes on to suggest that the reason why people drift in the working week is because they don’t really know what they should be doing, what the common goals are and so on.

It got us thinking…

When you run your own business, it can feel like all you do is work. The business sucks everything, life, body and soul. As other people are off out enjoying themselves, you are either still slaving away over your website, adding content, sourcing goods or packing orders.

If anything, trying to make the day more productive, squashing more in to the 24 hours we have, is something that, if we ever found the solution, we could bottle and make millions.

Time has a habit of running away with us but being productive is important. Setting limits – ‘today, I won’t work past 6pm’ we hear you cry! – is one thing, but do you really make best use of the time you do have?

The first 10 minutes

Inspiration can come from the most unlikely of sources. Anthony Bourdain, a legendary chef, is well known within fine-dining circles. Frankly, putting the kettle on in the first 10 minutes of being in his kitchen is a no-no.

Mise-en-place – heard of it?

It is a French phrase that means ‘putting in place’, as in setting everything up. It is a phrase commonly applied in the professional kitchen.

It is about the organising, the arranging, and the chopping and so on of ingredients. The preparation, as much as is possible, of food items ready for when the head chef shouts ‘check on!’, meaning an order has arrived. It can include the par-boiling of items, spices ready to hand and all this others ‘bits and bobs’ that could devastate a dish if they are not correct.

But why is this mise-en-place important in your line of work? Not all of us work in a kitchen, par-boiling potatoes or chopping veg.

It is the essence behind it that is important. The meticulous planning of what will happen; as many a professional chef will tell you, mise-en-place is not a quaint, jolly practice of chopping and boiling; it is a state of mind, an extensive of your nervous system – we jest not.

Where the original application of the mise-en-place principal applies to the professional kitchen, why not apply this principal to your work station?

What is your work station?

Is it the board room or, like many people, a desk with a PC, phone, mobile and other electronic gadgetry that we cannot survive without. At the end of another long day, do you switch the desk lamp off and limp home to a microwave meal for one?

Do you walk back in the next morning, with no idea of what the day will hold? Probably. In other words, in your day, do you spend time planning your next day?

Do you need to embark on an intellectual mise-en-place?

To look forward, we need to reflect

What can happen is that we are so very busy, that we sometimes get to the end of the day and, as we stare into the abyss of yet another ready meal (who can be bothered to cook at 8pm?), we can feel that we have…

  1. Achieved nothing
  2. Achieved only a small fraction of what we wanted to
  3. Achieved nothing of any great importance

Make a list (groan!)

We all love making lists; they can go on for ever and actually show you what you have not achieved, in some respects. However, from this, you could create a plan of attack that could see you end up with rather a natty list of ‘goals for today’.

However, instead of this…

x Do Monday’s presentation

… which is far too much of a general, broad action, do this – start every ‘to do’ job with a verb, a doing word. Now we are really honing in on the task.

So, back to Monday’s presentation, what is it exactly you need to do for it?

  • Collect sales figures
  • Draft slides
  • Add images

See? You have ‘doing words’ that actually tell you the action that needs to be done. The more specific you are in what you are trying to achieve, the more chances you have of success. Mapping these steps out in advance will also help with the focus you need to make something happen, without it dragging on, becoming essentially, a rather large millstone around the neck.

When you have this list, prioritise it. After all, you cannot draft a report or slides for your presentation if you don’t have the information to put in it.

When the willpower starts to weaken during the day – the phone keeps ringing, Facebook was looking exciting or you enter the post-lunch lull – this prioritised list from your intellectual mise-en-place can help focus that thinking back to where it should be.

Need extra help?

The day is full of distractions, and sometimes a little discipline can go a long way. Studies of entrepreneurial habits have shown that it is this sense of discipline that helps people achieve and accomplish things in a productive way; try these…

  • Check emails at pre-determined times in the day, responding only to those immediately that warrant such a response; delete others that are of no use. For all other non-essential emails have two slots in the day when these are responded to – once in the morning, the other near close of play for the day

FACT – emails take up 28% of an ‘average workers’ day; in a 7 hour day (that is around about 2 hours a day…)

  • Phone calls to voicemail is something that your business may or may not be able to stomach; clearly, if the majority of your work comes via the phone, it would be sheer folly to not answer it. However, if you can, the suggestion is to batch your calls, like you do emails; let the phone ring, and then twice a day, clear the messages, responding as necessary
  • Social media is important but it also has a nasty habit of sucking your time, with many of us being rather embarrassed to admit the true amount of time we spend on Facebook or Twitter! As you would expect, there are online programs and apps that can help track time…
  • Keep an eye out for time wasting too; we all know what these are… the faffing about with fonts, formatting, colour coding files… the list could go on. Getting caught up in these time wasting jobs is doing nothing more than procrastinating.

Instead of staring in a ready meal for one, you could be part of family meal times, with productive hours behind you, accomplishment in the blood and a plan of action for tomorrow.

Is the principal of mise-en-place something that you could apply to your work? What do you do already that helps you plan your day or week… if anything at all?

10 Crucial Ingredients to Website Credibility

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Does your website include them all?

Creating and maintaining a business website is a strategic, proactive task. It is your shop window, through which your online customers will peer and decide whether to have a browse around. Like a tangible, high street shop, you need to avail yourself to your customer, without ramming a sale down their throat as soon as they walk through the door.

It takes skill. It takes the ability to know when to leap, and when not to leap. It takes credibility.

And this is the topic for today’s post – what makes customers run for the hills and what is it that makes them stay. Like a tangible shop, you website has a lot of boxes to tick… and this is BEFORE potential customers have made an enquiry, left a question or, better still, decided to make a purchase.

The online world can be a malevolent place

Like ‘real’ life, some people out there are not as nice as you or I. They are wanting to secure their money, goods or whatever it is they want, by means that are underhand, illegal in many cases.

With the Internet being full of scams, malicious websites and scoundrels, potential customers are growing in suspicion. The website needs to look and feel right; you may be one of the best producers of a certain product, your products may be the best in the business BUT, if your website does ooze this same quality, appearance and credibility, you are on a hiding to nothing.

This needing to look ‘alive and kicking’ is something we have talked about before; the regular addition of new, quality and informative content. The links with social media, the links with other websites, all these things meld together to create the ‘right impression’. The impression that the website is monitored, looked after and valued. It is not an online presence that has been dumped there to entice people to part with their cash.

What is credibility?

No, really; what is it? We all have different yardsticks to measure website credibility but B.J. Fogg, Stanford University defines it as this;

…credibility is defined as believability. Credible people are believable people; credibly information is believable information. In some languages, they use the same word to describe both of these characteristics: credible and believable.

Sounds all well and good but, as some of us are aware, the most convincing of con artists are believable but, what can happen is we think of credibility in a one-dimensional way. It is important to remember that credibility is:

  • A perceived quality, overall – is isn’t necessarily embedded in a person, object or a piece of information; it is the overall impression
  • It is multi–layered – other emotional factors come in to play, such as trustworthiness and expertise

Fogg also points out prominence & interpretation system – you notice something (prominence) and make a decision, or a judgement about it (interpretation).

Thus to give you a helping hand, here are the 10 crucial ingredients that lend credibility to your website:

  • Design

It is no great surprise that we judge a business by its website. The better this design, the more we seem to trust it. Studies show that consumers are naturally less trusting of websites that a tangible, on the high street retailer – 30% less trusting thus, as online retailers, we are a step behind the high street shop.

BUT… websites that are ‘pretty’, designed well, with trimmings and the like, make up for this shortfall. A study of 2,500 online shoppers conducted in 2011, found that nearly half of them trusted a website based on the design and look of a website.

Clearly, a BIG lesson for us all.

  • Security and seals

There are many different security seals and certification we can display on our e-commerce websites and it seems these marks are also important in impacting on the judgement that consumers make about websites and credibility.

Increasingly sassy, consumers are looking for ticks that say ‘we have jumped through hoops, and your can shop safely with us’. People are realising that the need to put in bank details is not always something we should be doing… we admit to always looking for PayPal or Sage Pay, knowing that our details are not data and information that the website business will have to store or keep safe, for PayPal do all that anyway.

For authenticity, use seals and marks that are highly recognised; in a 2011 survey, consumers recognised the logos for MacAfee, Verisign and PayPal. Familiarity seems to ooze credibility.

  • Clearly visible contact details

The basics like a physical address, contact phone and email contact are the three top credibility signals for you website. Various studies also go on to suggest that photos of ‘the team’ can also be a useful tool for lending credibility. If people have to look too much, for hidden information that they consider ‘basic’, you may find that your website credibility takes a sub-conscious nose dive.

If nothing else, have a prominent ‘contact us’ button!

  • Content

OK, potential customer may not read your 2,000 word diatribe on the effects of poor quality screenwash on a car’s paint work BUT, if the content is relevant (clearly not if you sell bags, hats and scarves), informative and engaging, then it all adds to the credibility of you and your website.

Customers tend to ‘scan’ information and thus, they may not devour every word but the fact that it is there and the fact that you add content regularly to your website is also important. And customers DO scan the dates of when things were added…

  • Returns, FAQs, terms & conditions etc.

Again, at this mid-point in our list of 10 things that add credibility to your website, the policies of when you will and will accept returns, the terms and conditions of trading, FAQs etc. may not be the most exciting pages of content but, it seems, that when they are clearly visible, customers feel they can trust the company and website. Remember the ‘perceive – interpret’ equation?

  • Product information

One of the biggest bug bears, it seems to customers is the lack of information about a product. If two websites sell exactly the same product – a white mug – but everyone is ordering from one and not the other, the answer may lay in the product description.

Which one would you buy…?

A white mug, with a handle. Great for all hot beverages. Order 2 and get a third free!

OR…

A white, porcelain mug, great for everyday use. Holding 16oz of your favourite drink – hot or cold – the mug can withstand the rigours of the dishwasher too. Standing at 12cm tall, it is a mug that is simply perfect

Delicate, but not flimsy so why stop at 1? Buy 2 and get the third free!

Don’t underestimate details in product descriptions; 60% of shoppers said they used the product description as a cue of whether to buy, or not…

  • Testimonials

When there are genuine testimonials on your website, they attract attention. Experts, for some time now, have been telling companies that stories to content is a key factor is adding credibility to a website, and now, after various studies, it seems that this is the case.

Make sure they stand out; give them some whopping quotation marks to help them stand out!

  • Reviews

Testimonials are when people love you… reviews are when people are commenting on the product. So, let’s go back to our “white, porcelain mug, great for everyday use”. If the reviews looked like this, would you be so keen to buy…?

3 out of 5 stars – relay poor quality, cracked when washed… [read more]

79% of customers trust online reviews; think of it as the online version of ‘word of mouth’ – we all know how strong that can be.

  • Reputation & recognition

Not strictly an online element but, worth mentioning. Reputation and recognition are both important in helping the customer decide if your website is credible… or not. Now, for new businesses this can be difficult to establish thus, you need to make sure that your online presence covers as many bases as possible.

People, if they like your products, may do a separate search on your company thus, you need you social media stuff to pop up, you need some business listings etc. and they all need to be consistent (see Part 1 and Part 2 of better search engine results for local online businesses for a helping hand on this!)

  • And finally, customer service

This is not last because it is the least important but, in the steps that potential customers take in ‘whether to make a purchase or not’, this one of the last… but, customers of online retail websites have higher expectations of customers service, far higher than when they approach any other industry.

We expect brands and businesses, or so it seems, to not only be grateful for our business, but value it too.

In summary

Credibility of a website is directly linked to interest; if you garner the interest of a user, this lends to your credibility and, it seems, as consumers, we are more likely to use it.

Is your website credible? Are you sure…?

10 steps for better search results local businesses – Part 2

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In the first instalment of optimising your website for a local audience, we looked at 5 steps: keywords, optimisation, Google Local, local business listing websites and consistency.

Get these 5 steps right and in place, and your website could feature more prominently in local search engine results, perfect if people through the door is part of your business.

Is buying local becoming more important?

Buying locally source food is something that, in recent years, has become not only trendy but also more genuine; consumers are realising that food that has not been in plastic packaging on a plane for 13 hours before it hits the supermarkets, is not the only good quality, well-priced produce on offer.

And it seems that consumers are not just looking at local food but local retailers of other items too. Finally, it seems, we are getting fed up of the ‘same old-same old’ from the hyper stores, and once again looking for the unique, quality items are a great price from local businesses.

And so yes, NOW is the time, with campaigns like ‘small business Saturday’, to trade on the local-ness of your business. You could gain more customers, more fans. more shares, more success – and we all want and need a bit of this kind of action.

Like everything, it takes effort and a smattering of know-how, this in this instalment we cover from steps 6 to 10, the remaining 5 steps that consolidate your presence online, in a local sense.

Step 6: ‘genuine’ reviews

We hinted at this with the local website listings etc. as some of these sites will be review based. However, to expand this point a little further, Google along with other major search engines have hinted in the long and distant past, that genuine reviews are welcome, forming a positive basis for some nice social signals.

However, bribery is not a good idea. On your website, simply ask people to ‘tell us what you think’ or rate it with stars. For WordPress, there are all kinds of review plug-ins and what-not that make it easy for customers to leave a review. If you think people can’t or won’t be bothered (because you can’t be when you shop!), then you really need to change this view.

We are all connected, every second of the day (or so it seems) with the online world, thus people can and do leave reviews, good ones as well as the not so good. So, ask people to rate their shopping experience etc. – if nothing else, it proves your website is alive!

Step 7: social profiles

We have talked about social media a lot, and how, if done right and used well can add value to your website. But, you need to make sure you are not only taking full advantage of them but have also created the right kind of social profile.

What can happen, is that we are faced with “yet another” profile form to fill in; bit bored of writing the same stuff, we skip a few boxes, promising that we will come back and fill them in… but we never do.

So, you know the ‘edit profile’ tab on various platforms? Go back NOW, and open it and fill it in and remember: complete the bit that says where your business is. For those that are on the high street, naming the village/town/city is an obvious one to complete.

(And don’t forget step 5 Consistency)

Step 8: start building local links

Before you scuttle off and buy links, you need to know this is no-no. It is such as a no-no, it deserves to be shouted from the tallest building in your town – do NOT do it. Search engines can spot them a mile off, sniff them as soon as they hit your pages and your website is blacklisted, doomed to the bin from which it is very, very difficult to escape.

In this sense, we are talking about building local links. A great way of doing this is to get involved in some of the local groups of social media, as well as other similar businesses.

If you have great content on your website, that you are updating regularly, and that it of interest to them, then you could have a fruitful relationship beginning to form.

Try this: type in {your location} + blog, and you will have a list of blogs all linked to your town or local area. This could be a great start to some local links…

Step 9: Go mobile!

This doesn’t mean hitching up a caravan on going on tour but, is something we have talked about many times before… and we think it is worth going over old ground. It really is that important.

There are 1 million more mobile devices activated EVERY DAY across the world than there are babies born. This may seem an unbelievable statistic and we have no idea where it came – genuinely, we found it on the internet, so it must be true – but, regardless of its authenticity, it does spell out something we have long suspected: more people are using smart phones and other mobile devices, and this figure is growing.

Whether mobile phone ownership gazumps the daily birth rate is neither here nor there. If your website is NOT mobile ready, then you are missing a huge chunk of the population…

If you are already mobile-optimised, then take another look and make sure all those local contact details are obvious; pay close attention to the ‘contact us’ page.

Step 10: get analysing

Now that you have done all this, you need to monitor, assess and review if this is having an impact and, if so, how much. Of course, being flooded with more enquiries and an increase in custom is all well and good, but as with all things internet, the effects are not always immediate or obvious.

When we are busy, the hard/boring/uninteresting stuff can be shoved aside. We all do it, with different things.

Analysing who is coming to your website and from where, along with other useful information is not too difficult to come by, providing you know what you are looking at, once you have the data in front of you. No one is an expert on everything, so if you need help, just ask.

There are various options online, as you would expect, some that you pay for and some that are free. You can also take advantage of Google Analytics, but again, it all seems a little complicated. However, once you become accustomed to it, know what you are looking at (sort of), what you are looking to see improve (sort of), Google Analytics can be quite helpful.

Paid for software can be easier to fathom, but when money is tight, you may not want an additional monthly fee.

And so there we are, 10 steps to making your website appear in local listings, near the top. For many businesses, this is important to them and, increasingly for customers, it seems that local is beginning to outweigh ‘cheapness’ too, with more people taking time to find the right product at the right price… and if it is just down the road, all the better.

Let us know how you get on… [email protected]

10 small steps to better search engine rankings for LOCAL businesses – Part 1

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Steps 1 to 5 of how to rank better in terms of being a local business (steps 6 to 10 to follow on….)

Let’s starts this two-part article with a rhetorical question –

would you like MORE customers?

(sits back, makes more tea and dunks another biscuit)

Of course you do. Anyone running their own business would like more customers because, after all, that is what makes a business. And makes it successful.

Lessons in hard work:

  • Running your own business is hard work
  • Running your website is hard work
  • Attracting new customers is hard work
  • Maintaining this attraction so customers come back, is hard work

Add in to this mix the need for your website and online presence to be constant, consistent and up to date and you can be forgiven for thinking it is simply all too much.

But you are not the only local business to be in this position. Every day seems a struggle to get everything done but, we carry on regardless because at the end of the day, we are our own boss, we make the decision and the risks are acceptable.

Keeping on top of search engine optimisation (SEO)

A bit like keep the plug hole in the sink unblocked, staying on top of SEO updates and the like, will prevent a backlog that, all of a sudden, needs a professional or a lot of YouTube-video-watching in order to rectify it. Keeping that plug hole running clear and free from blockages stops that expensive call out to a plumber.

Keeping on top of your SEO as a local business also sees you outshine your competitors online thus, we have created 10 small-ish steps to improving your search engine rankings so that local customers find your local business…

Step 1: research you keywords

HOW will people find your local business? If you are a florist in Watford then you need to say so; if you are a speciality butcher and delicatessen in Newport, South Wales, then you need to say so.

However, we need to be careful that the obvious isn’t hidden in plain sight so take a moment or two to think about how, and what language your customers will use to find you. Google search terms are becoming a little more detailed in how they interact too, hence if a place is often known by its initials such as ‘New York City’ as NYC, it is beginning to tie these two search terms together.

You would be amazed at the number of local businesses that do not list their locality or location.

Step 2: optimise your website and content

What can happen with this step is people go from the sublime to the ridiculous; in other words, from not much content, to overstuffing every page with every keyword that they think hits their business. This looks awkward to both your customer and search engines, so stop it (if you are doing it) and don’t do it (if you are thinking of doing it).

High quality content all over you website is a the way forward, along with other soft technical such as keywords in meta titles etc. along with the other background stuff.

Some experts suggest that a ‘frequently asked question’ page is also a good for both customers and search engines too thus, if it is time to upgrade or revamp your content, then why not consider and FAQ page?

Step 3: Google Local

You will no doubt have come across these rather handy location maps when you have been searching for a business, supplier, etc. and getting your business on Google Local is an external activity to your website, but will obviously link to it, but is a great way of people being able to find your local business.

Think how you use Google… only the other week we were in a place we didn’t know, fancied a nice pub lunch, typed it in to Google and hey presto!, we found a delightful pub by the canal. Ignoring the sub-zero temperatures and the gathering rain clouds, we had at least 10 minutes of sunshine by the water’s edge and quite a nice lunch… all helped by the fact the local pub was on Google Local, and so in the corner of the tablet screen, the map bobbed up and away we went. It wasn’t far off the beaten track but you would not have known it was there otherwise.

Step 4: Local business listing websites

There are many different types, and trying to make sure you are on them all can be a bit like herding cats BUT, that said, if you do manage to list your business or update some of the information that already exists, it sends ‘good signals’ to both your prospective customers and the various search engines.

We typed in some key search terms and came up with these…

Really Moving – type in your local area, and local removal firms pop up… if you are a removal firm, are you on here?

Trip Advisor – in many ways, Trip Advisor is infamous for negative reviews that some businesses say are uncalled for, unnecessary and downright lies but, many customers are still using this website. Take a moment to surf around and you will see that the vast majority of customers are leaving helpful reviews (not always positive!).

There are many more review, business listing and location type websites, some better than others but take some time to have a look what is local to you and, more importantly, what people are using… but don’t forget to keep an eye on them, and respond appropriately to both negative and positive reviews.

Step 5: Consistency

One issue (among others…) that seems to crop up for local businesses online seems to be a lack of consistency when it comes to business listings etc. When people talk about brand, this is the kind of thing they mean.

You have a business name, a logo and a tag line – e.g. Locally – strategic thinking, creative web design – boom! Job done… keep using it.

Don’t decide to change it when you list it on Yell.com (Locally – really good web design and stuff), or on a local business directory (Locally – really good at all things website and stuff).

All these ‘descriptions’ need to be the same, over and over again… this might be ‘boring’. On that Friday afternoon when you were “doing the admin”, it might have seemed fun to add or embellish your business description… but it does impact on how all the search engines look at you.

These changes and differences in descriptions and tag lines could be damaging on your online search results.

Before you head on over to part 2, why not take some time to go through these 5 steps with you local, online business?

Going viral – what #TheDress taught us

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If you have not been on the Internet for the last few weeks (pfft! Who can live without it?), then you will have seen or even partaken in the #TheDress debate (take a look at the science behind the dress colour debate).

A poorly shot photograph shared on Instagram of a blue and black dress started an online debate, with everybody joining in, from Mavis at no. 32 to Kim Kardashian. Some saw a ‘white and gold’ dress and others saw ‘blue and black’.

Whether you joined in or not, unless you are not on any kind of social media, don’t watch TV and basically switch off from all society, then you cannot have failed to have heard about the #TheDress debate.

And this is our very point. The discussions, the engagement and the coverage of this dress and its colour combination, had the nation talking – and beyond – about the product, the company, the psychology and the inner workings of the eye ball.

Of course, Roman Originals, the company behind the dress are now reaping the rewards – and why not? Their website hits have shot up by 500% (yup, you read that right), their phone calls have significantly increased and their sales are doing very nicely indeed, thank you. Drill in to this analysis, and you will see that people are not buying only this particular dress, but all kinds of others products too.

All this got us thinking…

In pensive mood, we hunkered down with the kettle and the chocolate digestives, and took a moment to ponder the power of #TheDress. What ingredients make for a viral episode on social media?

We came up with 5 factors, including a sprinkling of magic fairy dust…

Use of photos

We have said it before and we’ll say it again, photos really make a difference. They can be the source of conversation, repulsion, attraction and confusion. Adding photos of your products and asking or inciting debate is a great way to get attention to your posts and products.

In this case, the original photo was unfiltered and used on Instagram; the comments that then ensued all questioned the original posting that said #TheDress was black and blue. Some say the dress as white and gold, thus the comments started rolling.

Good quality photos are always best, and this photo was not intentionally posted to provoke debate; in fact, the user was quite clear was the colour of the dress was…

Use of #hashtag

Once the momentum started to build around #TheDress and the ensuing debate, the hashtag came in to being. Every time someone commented and the various social media streams, the use of the hashtag ensured that the comment found its way in to the forum.

Get people talking, sharing and communicating

Social media is about making connections, creating discussion and sharing ideas. This online debate is a perfect example of this, but on a gargantuan, global scale. Simply because your viral debate does not measure up in the same reach and magnitude of #TheDress, does not mean it is not having an impact.

Some hashtags are in use for weeks, if not months and others are a mainstay of some of the groups that meet up on a regular basis on various social media platforms; there are various business groups, for example, who meet on Twitter and thus, any tweets that you want to be part of the stream of comments should contain this designated hashtag. Think of it as a call sign…

Magic fairy dust – the one comment, the stroke of luck

In this case, the photos posted on Instagram was a genuine one; it was posted with no more intention than a flash-in-the-pan photo of one of the many products sold at Roman Originals. But, there was a stroke a luck and sprinkling of fairy dust…

… there was one comment, by another Instagram user, that questioned the ‘blue and black’; they say, they saw white and gold… and then someone else joined in… and it started to roll and roll. Before you knew what others the dress came in, THE photo of #TheDress was bounced, shared and re-tweeted thousands and thousands of times.

There were comments and articles on the psychology of what people saw and why; there were debates on the street with the local junior reporter for the local TV catching their break by dangling a tablet in front of the eyes of many a Wednesday afternoon shopper, asking them what colours they saw… the debate was enormous. And, for a change, it was all good fun. We discussed it over our dinner table too; did you?

Cannot be contrived

And we think that this shows a fourth and important final point about the whole #TheDress thing. As hard as you try, some of the best viral exchanges cannot be contrived.

The photo was not posted to incite or excite comment; it was not posted to cogitate favour or stir ill-feeling. It was a photograph that was simply shared, then commented on… nothing more. Even though we try hard with the whole hashtag thing, photos and the like, sometimes something takes off.

Blessing… or curse?

The ‘taking off’ bit can be a blessing and a curse. Roman Originals are a company big enough to deal with the 500% jump in website visitors, the phone ringing off the hook (around 150 calls per hour in the days immediately following #TheDress explosion) and have enough staff to work the barricades and the tills.

For a small, online local business, this may not be the case but, should a social media campaign go viral – and this episode shows that it can, in a blink of an eye and when you least expect it – ride the crest of the wave, for it could be the making of you…

(And the dress…?

It is available in blue & black, and white & black, red & black, as well as pink and black… but not a white and gold option, just yet. But Roman Originals is planning to create one, allegedly.)

Return of Investment on content marketing – another useless exercise?

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Content Marketing, a ‘buzz phrase’ that umpteen blogs and articles are all talking about. Just when you think you have a handle on it, ‘they’ (the experts, unseen and anonymous) tell us we should be measuring the return of investment of content.

Yawn.

But, is there some mileage in it?

Always conscious of exploring new avenues and thinking outside of The Box within which we all function, we thought we take a closer look at this whole return of investment thing. Is it worth the hassle? And when/if we complete the exercise, what does it actually tell us? Is this information of any use?

Who invented Content Marketing?

You can and will be forgiven for thinking that content marketing is a relatively new and modern thing; in relation to the web, it is but it is a concept that has been around for far longer than this.

Those of you who live or work in agriculture will be familiar with John Deere. Deere, a manufacturing of all kinds of farming implements and machinery, including tractors is a name synonymous with farming and quality products.

And, it is also a company knowing within brand publishing circles. If we are to attribute content marketing as an invention of one person or company then many people have plumped for John Deere.

For over a century, John Deere has been producing The Furrow, a magazine stuffed full of jolly interesting stuff for the farmer, from 1895 to today. And, the return of investment on The Furrow is immense, especially when measures over the 100 years plus that it has been circulating.

There are all kinds of metrics and data against which your content marketing can be measured but, we are sure we have spouted this before – content is about a marathon, not a sprint. If you are expecting an immediate, 30 day return on your investment you may be disappointed. However, when your content does bear fruit, the results can be nothing short of incredible. And very, very welcome to local, online businesses.

The lesson remains the same…

…For now, at least with content marketing experts, including those at The Furrow, still saying that the value of content lies in its value to the consumer. This value, matched with effective distribution is perfection but, it may not be the language that executives speak.

Budgets are tight and business executives want to know what they are getting for their money; is all this money they seem to be sending on creating content, matched by the portion of marketing budget spent on Hootsuite, Buffer and subscription-type services for distribution of this content actually returning – how much money does each blog, post, tweet or pin bring in?

Is it all about money?

First things first, if you get stuck in the eternal spiral of making money, then you will not see all of the value in content marketing. It is not there simply as an avenue of cash. Being online with your business is not just about selling, it is about engaging with people.

Thus, your content needs to do 4 things:

  1. Be attractive – people are the lynch pin of any business; without people, there are no customers and your content marketing should be people-centric. However, on the flip side of the coin are the all-powerful, all-seeing and all-seeking search engines. If they don’t like your website and your content, then you are, to use a technical term within content marketing, ‘a bit stuffed’.
  2. Present ‘your’ personality – not your own personal one but your company/business/brand. Content is a two-way conversation, rather than a one-sided advert. Think about what you expect when you approach a company for help or advice; what do you think your customer expectations are when they talk to you?
  3. Build loyalty & trust – where would be without those returning customers? For some businesses too, working with customers is not a one-off transaction; it is a relationships that grows and builds over time and thus, if you in this kind of industry your content must reflect this.
  4. Authority – not the sergeant-major type of ‘listen to me, and to me only’, but rather a reflection of your knowledge. Content marketing should reflect high value information to your customers or clients.

“We do all those! Job done…”

Not quite. Whilst you can certainly bask in the golden light and ripples of applause for having all these factors in your content marketing, they are not measurable in the format above.

You need a bit more hard data than that.

Time – the enemy of so many, but with content marketing and its return of investment you simply must bear in mind that it can take search engines and people anything from a week to months to discover a piece of content.

The metrics that could be useful

Thus, we suggest 4 metrics that can be used as measuring sticks as to whether your content marketing is hitting the mark, or any mark at all. And, for those shy about digits and numbers, they are not too onerous…

  • Consumption metrics

Google Analytics, for example, show consumption metrics that include exciting things such as total visits to your website/pages, unique visits, downloads, time spent on site, cost per visitor and bounce rate.

What you are looking for – how is your data or content being consumed by visitors and, even better, it how they find it. For example, they may have read your blog, navigated to the ‘about page’, had a look at the ‘products pages’ and then sent you an enquiry is your contact form.

So what?

Well, actually, these statistics can show where people are landing on your website and what happens next. If they find your blog interesting, but then go to another page then navigate away, the content marketing is only performing part of its job. Don’t forget you website is a live, living and breathing ‘thing’, maybe it needs a tweak or two?

  • Lead-generation metrics

Now we are talking carrots, but no sticks approach to hooking leads – leads, in this sense, being potential customers.

If you have a contact form and this is central to your business, you need and want people to complete it and return to you. If you metrics show you have plenty of website visitors but not many leads, something is adrift.

If this is your kind of online business, how much do you annually spend on content marketing (a)? How much does it cost to promote and distribute it (b)? Add these two figures together. On average, on each lead how much does the customer spend (c)? Follow the math and you have the number of leads you need to break even…

(a + b) ÷ average value of c = number of break even ‘leads’ needed

So what?

You may find this breakeven figure a startling one, and one which unless monitored could mean that our business is falling short…

  • Sharing metrics

Social media likes, shares, pins etc. are far more difficult to quantify in terms of pound sterling BUT, they are useful vehicles for generating traffic to your website. We have talked in the past about social signals and these share metrics are about engagement, rather than the money they make you.

So what?

Sometimes, too much weight is attributed to share metrics so take care not to throw everything at your social media but, they can be a useful indicator of how people are finding and engaging with you.

  • Sales metrics

This is possibly the simplest statistic – is your content marketing turning people in to paying customers? If you set out with this as your primary aim of the content, then this is your primary metric to measure.

If, however, you use your content to increase referrals and engagement, then this becomes secondary.

So what?

If sales is what you are wanting from your content marketing then this metric will tell you, over time, what type of content is bringing paying customers to you… or not, as the case may be.

The bottom line

You do need some idea of what it, and what is not working when it comes to content marketing; after all, you wouldn’t knowingly keep throwing money after bad, would you?

How hard is your content marketing working for your business? Are you creating the ‘right’ stuff that attracts people and search engines? Is it worth it or do you need to change course…?