30. How e-mail auto-reponders and e-mail forwarding will help your small business

February 22nd, 2012

One of the great advantages of having a website for your business or organisation is that it provides a virtual employee working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and no need for holiday cover.

The problem

The disadvantage is that it is highly unlikely that a small business can afford a 24 hour human workforce to respond to clients who engage with the website.  This creates the risk that by the time you respond to an e-mail, a competitor has already beaten you and won the business.

The solution

A smart way to address this problem is through the use of e-mail auto-responders and e-mail forwarding.

E-mail Auto-responder

An auto-responder allows for an automated e-mail response to be sent to the potential customer when an e-mail is sent to a defined e-mail address.

For example, you could set up a page on your website that gives the option to ask for more information by sending a mail or form to info@<Your e-mail address>.  You then can create a rule within your web hosting Control Panel that will automatically send a predefined e-mail as a response.

he response can thank the person for the enquiry stating you will respond in xxx hours / days.  It should also include additional information that is relevant to the enquiry and not available on the website.  If possible include links to additional resources and ask questions you would normally ask as part of the process.  This will continue the engagement and hopefully prompt a response.  This will then mean that you are better placed to respond when you are back in the office.

There are dedicated services like Mailchimp that allow you to set up a sequence of auto responses, set at defined time intervals if you require a more sophisticated solution.

E-mail Forwarding

This allows rules to be set in the Control Panel to automatically forward an e-mail sent to a specific address to a different address.  You may want to do this so that e-mails are sent to a general address and then automatically forwarded to a personal address.  This will ensure that you personal address is not bombarded with enquiries.

It also means that you can pick up enquiries when you are out of the office and then decide if they need to be responded to.

Free Auto-Responders and E-mail Forwarding

The great news about these services is that the functionality is usually provided free by most reputable web hosting services through a Control Panel.

If the web host also provides a large amount of e-mail addresses, you can set up different e-mail addresses with different responses tailored to the nature of the enquiry.  The options are endless and can really help engage potential clients.

I am pleased to advise that Digital Ark provide this functionality as standard with all web hosting packages.  Even our Web Starter web hosting package provides 1000 e-mail addresses which should be more than enough for your needs.

Easy autoresponder and forwarding set-up

Screen shot of the Control Panel showing e-mail options

If you would like more information or assistance, please e-mail info@digitalark.co.uk.

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29. Local search tips for your business online

February 19th, 2012

In post number 28, I talked about how Google Places could help your business in respect of local search.  There are a number of other very useful resources that should also be considered to support a small businesses website and online marketing campaign.

Four Square

If you run a location based business such as a bar, coffee shop, hairdressers, beauty salon, restaurant, etc, you definitely should consider registering with Four Square.

Four Square allows you to register your business / premises on their social network.  This is done by registering an account and claiming your business.  You then will need to wait for a confirmation code to be mailed to you through the post (to make sure you actual are registered at the address).  This code is then entered and your business is live on the network.

Four Square business verification card

Card that you should receive to verify your business / organisation on Four Square

 

You can then set up details about your business, products, opening times and even special offers.  This information is then available within the Four Square social network.

Like other social networks it allows people to add reviews.  This is very powerful as there is an increasing trend for people to use ‘crowd sourcing’ (seeking the opinions of others) before visiting or buying.

Mobile Search 

The real power in Four Square is mobile search.  You can download a free app to your smartphone (i.e. iPhone).  This then allows users to search for venues that are near to their location.

So imagine you are in a new town, you want somewhere to eat but have no recommendations.  Launch Four Square, it will use the location services in your phone to advise you of the locations nearby, with reviews and if the owners have any offers for users of Four Square.

Checking-in and Offers

An important feature that sets Four Square apart from other social networks is the ability to check-in to a location.  This is achieved by clicking the check-in button when you are in or near to a location on your smart phone.

Points and badges are awarded for every check-in and you can compete on leader boards with your friends.

However, some clever businesses have also been smart and made use of the offers feature.  This allows a business to set up offers that are available to Four Square users who check in i.e. 10% off the price of a meal.

Become the Mayor

Another interesting feature is that you can become a mayor of a location.  This is achieved by having the highest number of check-ins over a period of time.  If you continue to visit and check-in you remain as the mayor.  If someone else achieves more check-ins, you get ‘ousted’.

Now being the mayor of a location can be rewarding.  For example, a number of Dominoes Pizza offer a free small margarita pizza to the current mayor of the location on a Wednesday.  There are many others who have offers, you just need to find them.

So as a small business, why not offer a special offer for the mayor.   This will encourage people to come and check-in, hopefully bringing more trade.

Let People Know

Four Square is becoming widely known so let people know you can be found on Four Square.  Add it to your promotional details, website, display on menus, etc.

When you register you may even receive a window sticker to use at your location like the one below.

 

Four Square window sticker

Four Square window sticker

Conclusion

Used correctly Google Places and Four Square can help expand the reach of your online marketing.

Remember, Digital Ark will set up Google Places free of charge for all clients who have our pay monthly website service.

If you would like more information or would like to discus the options for your business or organisation, please contact me simon@digitalark.co.uk.

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28. How Google Places Can Help a Small Business or Organisation

January 28th, 2012

Before the inception of the internet, consumers relied heavily on phone books, newspapers and magazines in order to search out businesses. However; these means can be time consuming and unreliable. For example; those directories which are published yearly list many companies under the same heading, it may take time looking through the listings and a few phone calls to establish those closest to you.

The internet has fast become the most popular way in which to locate businesses as customers can find several companies in their area, relating to their requirements in just a few seconds. Google is one of the most used internet search engines and can offer a business an optimised business place page (Google Places) which can help them benefit from consumers using Google to locate their trade.

Google Places is a Free Service

Google Places is a free listing that not only helps businesses get found but allows them to offer potential customers so much more than just their company name, address, telephone number etc… Those using Google Places can upload photographs, videos, vouchers, customer reviews and so much more in order to inform customers of as much as possible, therefore standing a better chance of generating new and maintaining existing clientele.

Google Places Benefits from Optimisation

When creating a Google Places page optimisation is vital, search results displayed to a customer rely heavily on keywords and you should list as much information as possible. The best way to achieve this is not only with the use of photos and offers etc… but to ensure all keywords relating to what you can offer are specified.

Google Places Helps with Mobile Search

Using Google Places can also benefit businesses in respect of other technology. “Smart Phones” are fast becoming the latest trend in mobile phone technology and research has shown that ninety percent of owners have used their phone to conduct a search for a local business through Google. There are also numerous applications available with this technology that offer customers enticements such as vouchers and special offers for dealing with local businesses.

Keeping track of how the listing for your business is performing on Google is valuable information. When using Google Places, you will have a personalised dashboard that will show you information such as how often you were located on Google and from what areas customers are from. These and the other features of Google Places will help a business make more informed choices about how they interact with their customers and how they can get found on Google.

If you would like more information, please check our free resources for local mobile search.

Remember, if you have chosen our pay monthly website service, we will set up Google Places for free as part of the set-up of your website.

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27. Tips to boost traffic to your website in 2012

January 9th, 2012

2012 is here and the start of the year is a good time to reflect on the previous year and the plans for the new year.

This includes your website!

As you are aware, having a professional website is very important in order to have the opportunity to reach the people searching the internet.

However, each day many more websites are being published to the internet leading to increased competition.  This makes it even harder to achieve a position on the first page of Google.

Here are 5 tips to help the ranking of your website.

1. Submit to Directories

Submit your website to popular online directories.  This should include niche directories relevant to your industry, product, service and location.

As part of this it is worth adding listings to Yelp, Freeindex, Qype and My Local Services.

You should also submit your website to DMOZ.  There is no gaurantee.  However, if accepted, Google currently considers a link from DMOZ as positive.

As a rule do not pay for listings nor use services promising to submit to 1000′s of directories in one go.  This is considered low value by Google.

2. Forums

Find forums that are relevant to your website.  Open an account and get involved making posts, replying to the posts of other people.

If you can help other members with advice and guidance it will help build your reputation.  Then when people are looking for help, there is a good chance they will come to you (or recommend their friends).

Make sure you add all the appropriate profile details, especially website.  If they offer the facility of adding a signature in profile settings, make sure you add one with meaningful text that links back to the appropriate page on your website.

3. Start a Blog

Google currently places a high value on good content.  A good way to do this is by starting a blog that is relevant to your website.

On a regular basis add topical, informative posts of between 300 – 500 words.  Do not make them too sales orientated.

The blog will allow you to add links back to your website.  Again if the content is good, a link from a good blog is valued by Google.  Plus if you build a base of regular readers, they will be more inclined to visit your website.

You can use a free service such as Blogger or WordPress.  Alternatively, it is possible to include a blog on your existing website.  Please contact me for more details.

4. Comment on other peoples Blogs

Another good way of raising awareness and building links to your website is by commenting on the blogs of other people.

Search Google using a phrase applicable to your website and add blog at the end.  Choose the first search result, take a look at the post.  If it is interesting and you have a useful comment to make, scroll to the bottom of the blog and you should see an option to add a comment.  Make sure you populate the URL / website field as this will create the link back to your website.

5. Article Synication

In a similar way to writing blog posts, you can write articles that then can be submitted to article syndication networks.  This is where the article is picked up and used by somebody else on their website.

You may ask why you would want to do this.  Within the article you can usually include links back to your website and within a Bio section at the bottom of the article.

So if it is used on other websites, you get links pointing at your website that will potentially send you visitors.

Articles normally need to be 300 or more words and of good quality.

If you would like more information on the small business SEO services, please contact me on info@digitalark.co.uk.

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26. Merry Christmas and a Happy 2011 from Digital Ark

December 22nd, 2011

I wanted to close the year with a very quick post to thank all of you who have visited the Digital Ark blog in 2011.  I hope you have found the information useful and it has helped you with your own web site projects.

I have enjoyed writing the articles and creating the beginners guide to web design and I am looking forward to creating and adding more in 2011.

Writing this blog has demonstrated what a versatile platform Woprdpress is.  So if you have been thinking about starting your own blog, I can assure you it is very easy.

At Digital Ark, we offer relaible web hosting with simple 1 click WordPress install.  This makes it very easy to get up and running with your blog.  Also by signing up to one of the Digital Ark plans, you will get real support to help you when you get stuck.

Like wise, if you have been thinking about launching a website, use the start of the year as your reason to put the plan into action.  If you sign up to one of our pay monthly website plans, you could have your website up in running in the first few weeks of January 2012.

I look forward to sharing more thoughts and insights in 2011 and hopefully helping make your website or blog a reality.

Merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous 2012.

Simon

 

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25. More ideas on starting an online business today with affiliate marketing

December 4th, 2011

Following on from post 24. Do you want to start an online business today?. In this post I share more ideas how you can start an online business today by choosing suitable products you would like to promote using affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is a profit sharing arrangement between a website owner and an online vendor. The owner of the website places advertisements on their site which will assist the sale of the retailers’ products or send prospective customers direct to their website. This is done in exchange for a share of the proceeds. Pay per click, pay per lead and pay per sale are the three main ways in which to earn money through affiliate marketing.

You will require a website before you can become involved with affiliate marketing and the first things you will need to decide upon will be purchasing the services of a webhost provider and a domain. Choosing a quality web hosting supplier involves examining the variety of features such as technical support, processing power, and included packages like email addresses, domains and one click install WordPress, on offer with their particular costs.

A domain refers to a unique address where your website will be located on the internet. The majority of web hosting companies can present you with a domain name for free as part of your deal, however, they can also be purchased separately and once you have decided on the core words you would like to use for your exclusive website address, the company you have chosen to supply this will be able to advise if your choice is available, recommend alternatives and inform you which extensions like .com are available along with any costs involved.

Building a simple website to entertain your new affiliate marketing products can be a quick, easy process especially if using free software like WordPress. It is straightforward to create and update content on your website without having to understand HTML. WordPress is set up so that you can generate new pages or edit existing ones using a simple rich text editor. With a multitude of themes available, you can design your site to your taste and they afford their customers the ability to extend their websites with various plugins and many other fantastic features without having to employ web developer.

Once your website is live you can look for products to start promoting and earning money from by using websites like Commission Junction and Clickbank. For example; with Clickbank you can create an account in seconds for free and start browsing the products on offer to endorse. When you find a product that is of interest, you can view the pitch page of the vendor which will give you an overview of the product and show you how much you can receive for referred sales. Adding a link to the item from your website is easy as Clickbank will create a unique URL for you to copy and paste into the relevant part of your website. This URL is solely related to your account with Clickbank; therefore you can be assured of payment for products purchased via referral from your marketing efforts.

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24. Do you want to start your business today?

November 22nd, 2011

Many people dream of building a business so that they can give up their day job and pursue their dreams.  Unfortunately many people do not get past the dreaming stage and in 5 or 10 years they will still be talking about the dream that will happen one day!

The great thing about the internet it has provided everyone who has an internet to start an online business very, very cheaply.  the hard part is deciding what you want to do.

Below are some tips and resources that will help break through this challenge and set you on the way of taking real action to start your business TODAY!

Choose your niche

Every day, a huge amount of new websites are being published.  This means that competition is growing.  A proven way of establishing an online business is choosing a niche.

Think about what you like doing, what you enjoy.  Do some research by entering search phrases about the niche and see how many people have websites advertising products.  Look on the right hand side of the Google search screen.  These are paid adverts and a good indication there is money to be made (why else would someone pay for an advert?).

Buy domain and web hosting

This is a very easy step.  Find a reliable, feature reach service such as Digital Ark, search for the domain name you would like to call your business.  If it is available, register it.  Please take a look at out Learning Zone that will provide guidance on choosing and buying a domain and hosting.

On our service you can have a free .co.uk domain, web hosting and e-mail for £2.49 a month – no hidden extras.

Build your web site

This is the part where people can struggle.  So there is a couple of answers.

Use a service such as WordPress.  This allows you quickly to build a professional website with no skills.  Our web hosting packages include 1 click install of WordPress to make it even easier.

Use a software package to build your website.  All of our hosting includes a free wysiwyg editor that is easy to use, even for a complete beginner.

Have some design the website for you.  We offer a range of small business website design services.

Online payments

It is now easier than ever to add online payment facilities without having to open an account with a credit card merchant service.  If you are just starting Paypal is a great choice.  There are no set up fees, it is safe, universally recognised, no monthly fees and you only pay for each transactions (currently 3.4% of amount plus 20 pence).

It is very easy to create Paypal Buy Now buttons and then add them to your website.

Conclusion

As you can see.  By following the above steps you could very quickly have a website up and running today ready to take orders.  Why wait?  Seize the moment and start your business today.

I also recommend 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris a great guide to lifestyle design by setting up an online business.

 

I would like to add that unlike many web design and web hosting companies, I work with my clients, provide support to help them be successful.

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23. Is your small business website delivering results?

November 4th, 2011

Do you run a small business?

Do you have a website?

Do you know if it delivers results?

On the assumption your are running a small or home business, I suspect that you probably will be able to answer “yes” to the first 2 questions.  However, if you can not answer “yes” to the 3rd question, you need to stop and ask yourself, am I making the most from my website?

Unfortunately many small businesses think that just having a website is enough.  Just by publishing one, that it will automatically be on the first page of Google results and that you are getting lots of business.  Alas this is not true.

Now you may have got someone to design the website for you.  Therefore, you may think that as they are the experts, they will ensure that the web site is designed to deliver results.  Alas again not always true.

So what can you do?

Step 1

Make sure that the major search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) know about your website.  Your website will not be returned in the search results if it is not in the index.

Pro tip: You can check very simply if your website is in the index by typing the exact URL into the search box i.e. for Digital Ark type www.digitalark.co.uk.

Hopefully your website is in the index.  If not then you will never show up in the search results until your website is.

Step 2

Assuming you are in the index, you should track performance.  A good way to do this is by setting up Google Analytics for your website.  This is a very good tool provided by Google that allows you to track visitors, pages visitied, average time on page / site, entry page, exit page, search phrase and much more.

Just using the basic metrics of unique visitors each day / month will allow you to track if the number of visitors are increasing.  Knowing the popular pages allows you to fine tune the content to increase conversions.

Step 3

Having your web site in the search index and monitoring visits does not mean you are maximising the potential of your website.  Websites that achieve the best traffic are the ones that appear on the 1st page of Google.  Unfortunately, this usually takes more than a website in the index.

While there are many factors, backlinks are very important.  Websites with many relevant backlinks tend to perform better than those with less.  Therefore, strategies that attract natural backlinks are very important.

Summary

The whole topic of SEO for small business websites is vast and these are only 3 of many.  If you would like a free, no obligation review of your site, please visit small business website performance review, complete the simple form and we will provide you with your free report.

 

 

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22. Why small businesses should use blogs to increase profits!

October 27th, 2011

You might wonder what benefit could come from writing a bunch of words on a blog site which has sometimes uninteresting topics. But what started out as a virtual diary has now become a multi-million pound sensation that it is an essential part of search engine-giant Google when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). Making it to the top 10 page rankings in Google translates to significant revenues each month in revenues and if you think about it all you did was sit on your computer and write blogs. There are over 112 million blogs currently used for SEO purposes for which thousands of small businesses benefit from and you can choose to setup your own blog site or do guest blogging. However, I would recommend guest blogging because you’ll be able to link your site to other sites which will be a lot more beneficial to you.

Here are the 5 reasons why you should do blog or guest blogging:

  1. Increase Website Traffic – guest blogging means that you’ll post blogs on blogs and social media sites then optimizing it with keywords and linking your site to the keyword. You’ll have a double or triple URL tracking because the site where you posted your blogs to will build their page rank along with your backlink and you’ll be doing the same with your own site. Thus increase traffic to your site exponentially.
  2. Ideal for SEO – Google allows anyone to build their ranks by submitting articles and URL links to Google build my rank (BMR), Google Adsense and Google Adwords.
  3. Build Your Reputation – When you attempt to draw more traffic to your website you’re also making a name for yourself and the more you expose yourself, the more reputation you gain.
  4. Social Media Marketing – You can also create your extension page on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others. You can invite more people then to visit your site, become members and even make purchases.
  5. Other Benefits – there are more benefits that may come than the ones already mentioned just like other businesses that will eventually want to advertise on your site, collaborate with you to mutually benefit altogether, and more.

Now you can get started with your online small business and who knows maybe even watch it grow like the other internet giants.

Here ate Digital Ark we provide a number of solutions for small businesses including reliable, affordable web hosting with easy 1 click installs for popular blogging platforms like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.  If you would like more details, please take a look at our Reputable Web Hosting packages with 1 click installs.

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21. Why do so many small businesses start up in a recession?

October 24th, 2011

Firstly I would like to apologise for taking so long to make this post.  The reason is actually a very good one, since September there has been a really surge in the number of people who have contacted Digital Ark, Web Design Colchester to ask about getting a website.  Fortunately most of the discussions have resulted in new clients, the main reason being our pay monthly managed web site service that allows a new small business to get online with a low monthly fixed fee.

This got me thinking.  If you read any newspaper, turn on the TV or listen to the radio, all you will hear is how the UK, Europe and the US are heading for a double dip recession.  I don’t know about you but I find this very depressing.  Therefore, why, given this back drop are so many people looking to start a business?

I have some thoughts.

1. Loss of job

In this economic times there are a lot of job losses.  Therefore, there are people who have wanted to start a business but were afraid of giving up a steady income.  Losing their job has made the decision for them so they are now taking the opportunity to pursue their dream.

2. Need more income

As the household budgets are getting squeezed, some people are in need of extra income to make ends meet.  A way to do this is by setting up a business on the side to generate income.  This is where the internet is so powerful, the cost of entry and speed to market is so quick.

3. Similar businesses going bust

The fact that times are hard means that it presents opportunities for new entrants into a market place who have lower overheads, better pricing, more agile to adapt to market needs.  This allows for a new business to gain market share very quickly, especially as customers are looking for a good deal.

A fact to close on.  In the recessions of the 90′s and early 00′s, both saw an upswing in new businesses and many went on to do very, very well.

So if you have been thinking about starting your business, now is the time.  Digital Ark can help you every step of the way and become your long term partner.

If you would like to ask about our services please contact us on simon@digitalark.co.uk.

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