With an increasing percentage of pre-purchase product research being done on websites, providing site visitors with product information of the quality and relevance they need to make a buying decision becomes a significant factor in removing “online buying anxiety” and encouraging them to take that final step and make out an order. According to WebCollage's 2007 Survey Of Online Consumer Product Research Habits, fully 91% of online shoppers rated the availability of online product information as “important” or “very important” for their decision to buy. Product information alone, though, wasn’t the key – the quality of that information is what swung the balance. Shoppers who are unable to find the information they are looking for on retailer’s website will quickly move on to visit a competitor's site. Read More

Business cards are an important element of your visual identity but they can be an important part of your wider business strategy as well. 

Who should have a business card? Read More

Every single day you, and most other people, are being bombarded with more than 3,000 marketing messages. They’re everywhere - on TVs and radios, on every shop front and advertising board, the sides of buildings, buses and taxi cabs, the bus stop, your newspapers, the movie you dropped in to watch, your email, even your mobile phones.  The list goes on and on. It’s more like information deluge than information overload. So, just as you have probably done, your customers and prospects have trained themselves to ignore those messages. Read More

The great news for business is that emerging technologies are making possible a return to earlier times when business owners and their customers knew each other and had personal relationships that extended beyond the tight boundaries of buying and selling goods and services.

Personalisation

The public face of a business has moved from the corporate to the personal. These days the word on the street is that people like dealing with people. They want to know specific names and faces.  They want their business dealings to be with other humans. The upside is that they might be more loyal because they like and trust you. The downside is that they might not buy a perfectly good product because they had a bad experience with you. Read More

Customer surveys can be an extremely valuable way of collecting all kinds of useful data. What businesses often don’t consider is that customer surveys can also serve other objectives, such as to inform customers, to advertise a new product, or for lead generation.

If your marketing goal is “to inform readers about a new product or offering”, or “bring an advertising message to prospects and clientele”, then the satisfaction survey becomes a subtle piece of advertising. Read More

How is your small business site or product going to be found when the indexed web contains almost 15 billion pages, according to www.worldwidewebsize.com? Here are a few insider tidbits on SEO (search engine optimisation) for your small business website.

A domain by any other name

The most important single element in ranking well in search engines is your domain name (DN). Secure a domain name that is different, original and not commonly used by other businesses. It is also helpful if your domain name includes keywords that explain what you do. If necessary, rename your product or business to make sure you can purchase the domain name.  Read More