Don’t pick your web designer by pining the tail on a donkey. If you run a local-based business, hire a firm that designs local-based websites. This is a miles apart from designing national or global-focused sites.
Your website is much more than 50% the picture in terms of your ability to compete, rank and serve. Be prepared to make a serious investment in an excellent, usable, optimized website if you want to see great results.
Here at AD Online, we do just that, specialise in local-based business. The initial investment isn’t even that much since we have reduced our prices for fantastic customised wordpress websites. The real key is once you have your website up and running, gaining exposure to your target market and being ‘seen’ by the search engines in your local market. And yes we can help with that too… that’s the bit where a serious investment is required for serious results.
For a small business, good social media practices create a personal connection with your clients. Giving free advice or tips, posting special offers, responding to questions or concerns are all greats way to engage with your audience while building up credibility and branding.
Here are a few tips for using social media:
- Build Your Fan Base — Facebook is a great first step to building a networked fan base. Why do you need one? Market research shows that 60% of Facebook users are more likely to recommend a brand they’ve “liked.” And, with more than 500 million users, “60% of Facebook users” is a lot of people.
- Give Voice to the Customers — Social media makes it easy for everyone to complain — and for those complaints to go instantly global. However, when you quickly turn a complaint into a satisfactory resolution, that’s also done on the worldwide stage. Twitter, in particular, has transformed the ability to put your commitment to your customers front and center.
- Go Local — Geolocation apps are becoming increasingly popular as the smart-phone revolution continues. For businesses with a local presence, the ability to reach out to willing consumers with spur-of-the-moment deals is a cheap, friendly, high-ROI gift from the business-development gods.
