Maybe you just made the newspaper or a local magazine – or better – you just got interviewed for a major trade publication, the Wall Street Journal or a mainstream lifestyle slick. Maybe a prominent blogger is going to blog about you – or feature you in an upcoming e-newsletter. Maybe you think you’ve thought of something so smart that an influential person tweets about your article, stuff or activities…

These days, publicity comes in all shapes and sizes – but one thing is the same. It will give you a boom. The boom will be short-lived if you’re not prepared to leverage it into long-term sales for your small business. Here are a couple of tips that will help you leverage publicity into long-term growth for your local business.

Get ready for the traffic on your web site.

This seems obvious, but you really should actively prepare to capture customers as a result of the publicity, especially on your small business web site.

1. Make sure an e-mail list signup form (that is short and simple) is strategically located at the top right hand side of all of your web site pages or posts. This will help you grow your e-mail list.

2. Make sure your social media profiles are apparent at the top and bottom of each page or post on your web site, so that folks can connect with you there.

3. Make sure there is fresh and relevant content and that all contact information, forms, store hours, and directions are up to date.

4. Make sure that your web site has the ability to be SHARED so that when people get to your site, they can – with a single click – share your business with 1300 of their closest *cough* *ahem* Facebook friends…. or Twitter followers or other social media connections. We recommend the ShareThis button at the top and bottom of each page or post on your web site.

5. Similarly, install the Facebook LIKE button at the top of each page or post on your web site, so that with a single click and half a thought, your web content or article can be posted to their Facebook Wall and their friends’ newsfeeds. This exposes you to their friends.

6. Finally, install the TweetMeme’s Retweet button at the top of each page or post on your web site. This button not only allows the sharing feature on Twitter, but it allows YOU the measurement to see who shared your content – so you can thank them and otherwise engage them via Twitter.

Prepare to leverage the publicity on social media.

Social media is where you will turn the publicity into a boom for yourself. Often media in and of themselves are not a direct connector. But the power of your network mixing with theirs can really work magic. Here are a few things you can do to stir that pot:

1. Tweet with the news writers and folks in the media on a regular basis (that means, ideally, BEFORE the story hits). When they post a story about your business or referencing you or your business in any way, use all available methods to THANK them for their kind words. Tag them on Facebook, and tweet out a thanks to them.

2. Do the equivalent of the “reprint.” Re-publish the news at least twice – maybe three times after it happens. Facebook and Twitter news cycles are short these days, so posting an article Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon are likely to expose your story to a different group of folks. If you have over 1500 fans or followers, you should also post the story again later at night (between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.) as well.

3. When you post, drive the traffic to the story via your web site.

How does this all turn readers or viewers or listeners into sales? Again, as in the first edition of Leveraging the Boom: Turn Events into Sales the goal is to make new connections – to capture contacts that you can turn into relationships and then keep as customers for a long and profitable lifetime value of the customer. It’s about short-term tactics that lead to marathon relationships and long-term growth and profitability.

What say you? How have you turned publicity into sales?

Photo Credit: Eivind Z. Molvær

Chatting with my BFF the other day about how best to convince small business owners and restaurateurs that online marketing was worth paying money for. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Well, I dunno… perhaps that over a year ago 63% of all American consumers across every demographic looked online first before making a brick and mortar buying decision. Most of the folks we’re talking to are targeting a higher end demographic, and it’s a year later, so that number has to be much higher………

BFF: I didn’t ask you why they should be online. I’m talking about how to convince them within their existing worldview why this is worth spending money on.

Me: The money is online.

BFF: But are they going to see value in spending money online?

Me: (insert scream of frustration)

It’s seriously this bad. In small businesses and restaurants and boutique hotels across America, folks have their heads stuck in the proverbial sand.

I hear things like the following:

“I know we’ve got to do it, but I just don’t have time.”

“I just don’t see the value in it.”

“Well, I just spent $90,000 on new merchandise, so that website upgrade to allow me to make my own frequent updates to my website…that sounds good, but it will have to wait until next year… I just don’t have the money for that right now.”

“Well, I’m in a contract with the local lifestyle magazine, and I’m running some cable advertisements and sales have been really down lately, so I just don’t have the money to invest in online. I know it would work, but I just can’t afford it right now.”

How about this, Mr. small business owner? What if you could spend half per month what you spend for an ad in the local lifestyle magazine, and you could track feedback, gain market intelligence – and oh yeah, sell more stuff and know that it was a direct result of this marketing effort? Would you do it?

Would you spend the same amount if you could get that kind of measurable results?

If you wouldn’t – then why are you in business? Because it seems like you’re only there to support the dinosaurs. As for me, I’m going to stay in business by selling more stuff. Online.

Photo Credit: blakeimeson

This week, I spoke to a lot of downtown redevelopment types at the National Main Streets Conference in Oklahoma City. We talked about how to tell your story in this modern world (whether community, business district or small business). Social media plays a big part in that. But it’s not the central element…

In my presentation, I pointed out that to tell your story well, you must play by four basic rules. Without repeating my speech here, I do want to share the first rule and most important rule with you, because strategically, everything else will crumble if this rule isn’t followed:

Rule #1: You Must Have a Strong Home Base for Your Business or Community

That home base should most likely be your web site. In nearly all marketing models, it works for the web site to be the epicenter of the marketing universe. (It doesn’t HAVE to be that way, and I’m more than open to creative thinking on this subject depending on goals and budgets. But in most cases, it works for it to be the web site.)

Is your web site working as the epicenter? Are all roads leading back to your domain name…to your web site?

How can you make your HOMEBASE stronger?

1. Make sure it’s easy and quick to update. If you can’t update your own web site, you’ve got a big problem in today’s fast paced world. We love the WordPress platform because it takes me moments to make major updates to my own web site. It’s as simple as sending an e-mail.

2. If it’s easy to update…are you updating it? Are you adding new and interesting photos, educational content, employee and owner profiles, product and vendor information, demonstration videos and how-to lists… Are you making your web site and interesting and valuable resource for your customers and prospects?

3. Is your domain name appearing everywhere, even if your logo can’t? This includes audio communications (like radio, word of mouth, etc.), store signage (yes, including the front door and front window of your store), shopping bags (you never can tell where those bags will go), t-shirts, postcards, advertisements of every sort and at every opportunity.

4. Are you actively seeking to create traffic TO your web site through interesting posts on social media, links from vendor or organizational web sites, etc.? Remember that valuable content you created? Now it’s time to tell folks about it through Facebook wall posts, encouraging folks to share that information on Facebook, Facebook advertising, Twitter posts, LinkedIn posts, e-mail marketing and many more new media traffic drivers.

5. How does your site appear on search engine results? Does it even appear at all? Keep an eye on this, and ask your web guy for help if necessary.

6. Do you have Google Analytics and other robust web site analytics packages installed on your web site that are set to send you daily or weekly reports? Are those reports summarizing how much web traffic you are getting and from where (both geographically and by keyword topics)? Do you know who and why your customers are visiting your web site (keywords, inbound links, etc.)? Are they finding what they’re looking for – and so much more (bounce rate, number of actions per visit, time per visit). You might be surprised at what you learn, but you certainly need to know. And you need to correct course with the web site if it’s not delivering the desired results.

P.S. Interestingly enough, on my trip home, I was catching up on some reading and found that Chris Brogan had an interesting post on this same subject. His post has cool screen shots demonstrating how confusing it can be to customers if you do NOT have a strong home base. I hope you’ll enjoy his post as well.

Also, if you’re also just home from the National Main Streets Conference, you might enjoy our conference wrap-up of conference tweeters to follow and other good resources.

What say you? What results is your home base providing for your business?

After attending the National Main Streets Conference in Chicago and hearing a variety of mixed information on this and related topics, we thought that it would be prudent to answer this often asked question. Sure we are a little biased since we do host web sites through our sister company, Fox Web Co., but the principles hold true regardless.

What a Web Host Does for You

A Web host provides the place (almost like a filing cabinet) for your site’s documents, images, audio, video and text. All of your Web site files are stored on a server. Servers can be located in your basement (not recommended) or in a secure environment preferably with redundant power backups, etc. to make sure if the power goes out, your Web site is still up (among other things).

A Web host should also provide you SERVICE including nightly backing up, restoring, and trouble shooting. New back-ups should be made daily and each “version” of your Web site stored for a period of time, usually a month. Many hosts do NOT provide this service. You should make sure you DO have this service, so that if you (or your Web designer or Web host) accidentally overwrite or lose your Web site files, your “back-up” isn’t just the blank or “messed up” version.

Your Web host should also be eager and willing to work with your Web site designers to insure that they can connect and update your Web site any time, any place.

Hosting pricing can range from free (with some providers) to hundreds of dollars a month. At Fox Web Co., Web hosting starts around 20 bucks a month, and, depending on the amount of traffic (bandwidth), number of e-mail accounts, the number and size (MB or GB of storage space) of your files on our server, and extras like SSL (security), monthly Web host pricing can range upwards of $100 per month.

Are we the cheapest option? No, and we don’t want to be the cheapest. I would contend that you probably don’t WANT to use the cheapest option because it is our experience that you’ll get what you pay for.

Fox Web Co. is affordable for small business and organizations, and we provide a level of support that $7-10 a month services can’t match. Face it, you could drive a cheaper car, but if you want something that is reliable and functional that gets you where you are going every single time, you pay a bit more for that experience. To go a step further, around Main Street circles, we all know about the big box phenomenon – low service or no service, inconsistent customer experiences, and commodity pricing for commoditized products. If you want big box Web hosting – it is readily available. For a Main Street experience in Web hosting, look a little further, do your homework and seek relationship and experience that will allow you to extend your own Main Street experience onto the Web 24/7.

(Shameless sales pitch warning!) Web hosting with Fox Web Co. is like a reliable car: it’s not going to break your budget, and it will get you where you need to go. It is a Main Street experience where relationships are valued, and our track record of experience shows through in our list of customers who have been with us since the beginning (over five years ago).

When talking to your Web developer or hosting company, here are some other tidbits about Web site technology and hosting that you should know. To have a functional Web site (technologically speaking), you’ll need three things:

1. You need a domain name. A domain name is the “telephone number” for your Web site that people will use to connect to your server. For us, it is www.halobusiness.com. For our sister company, it is www.foxwebco.com.
2. You’ll need a server. The server is the place where your Web site files live. Your Web designer places files on the server (basically a remote computer). With the domain name configured correctly, you’ll get Web traffic – or visitors – headed to your server to view your Web site files.
3. You’ll need some files. The files of your Web site are the elements that your site visitors see and hear. Web files can be very large, small, music or sound, video, graphics or text. All of your files live together on the server, and the combination of the files is what you’ll see when you go to a live Web site – it’s just a collection of files pieced together like a quilt to make a functioning and engaging Web site.

When my mom got on Facebook a couple of months ago, I got a note from my younger sister who said, tongue in cheek, “Thanks to whoever introduced mom to Facebook.” Well, I thanked Andy shortly thereafter when mom proudly made her debut into the instant messaging world of Facebook chat!

Certainly, my mother is far from being in the top tier of age demographics, yet it is fair to say that when my mom “chats” with many of her high school compadres on Facebook, on-line demographics aren’t changing – they’ve changed.

The Internet Is Getting Gray – eMarketer.

56% of those aged 65-69 are active Internet users. 45% of those aged 70-74 use the Internet. They shop, seek health information, and much more. They send e-mails, search on-line and purchase travel reservations at the same rate as the much younger Gen Yers.

Don’t think you should be marketing on-line? I hear the excuse “my customers aren’t on-line” far too often. In times such as these, small business owner can not afford to ignore the reality of on-line success any longer. Your customers are on-line and on-line marketing opportunities are more affordable than any other form of marketing. By NOT marketing on-line, you are giving your competition an advantage because your cost of doing business is higher for less return due to higher costs of traditional marketing without the benefits of higher returns on investment that savvy on-line marketers receive.

Don’t go it alone – our team has years of experience using technology for strategic marketing purposes to make cash registers ring for small businesses. We can partner with you to make your venture into the on-line world as successful and profitable as possible.

Well, obviously the National Main Streets Conference 2009 is over. I am writing from the comfort of the deck swing at my family's farm in rural Mississippi. The last time I wrote, we were enjoying the free Wi-Fi of our Club Quarters accommodations. The conference hotel (where we spent long waking hours during the bulk of the conference) was the Palmer House Hilton – a historic hotel, beautifully renovated. Frankly, it was absolutely stunning.

But the Palmer House and my family's rural Mississippi location have something in common. Neither have high-speed Internet. This made the conference not so tech-friendly. I assumed that we'd have access to wireless internet – or at least cell phone service so I could do a little blogging, Twittering and the like from my blackberry throughout the conference. I was wrong. Se la vie, I will learn from the experience and press on with my notes which will provide you with reading material on this blog for days and weeks to come.

Small business tip #1: Don't make promises to blog readers that you can't keep. I made assumptions about Internet accessibility – and I was wrong. I didn't do my homework as thoroughly as I should have before making promises. It's a simple thing – and probably easily forgiven. However, it is a good note for business overall – don't assume anything. Do your homework. Under promise – and over deliver.

The bottom line of business and non-profit managing in today's world can be summed up in one demanding word: CONNECTED.

In order to do your job best, you must be able to leave the office. Your job, after all, isn't to RUN the business or non-profit, it's to make it better overall, more profitable, productive, successful. Times such as conference attendance, vacation days, continuing education seminars or workshops, and market/buying trips are just a few of the reasons why extended absences from your business or office might be required. Yet, gone are the days of turning on the "out of office" auto responder on e-mail account and changing our voice mail and disappearing for a week. We are required to stay connected – or risk losing business in an already soft economy.

Here is my checklist for successfully managing those "out of office" excursions:

• Plan ahead (this was covered partially in my previous post). Plan ahead for success while away – and for your business to succeed without you. This means that you should have a team meeting in advance of your departure explaining where you are going and why. Your team should be empowered to make emergency decisions on your behalf (such as returns, fixes, etc.) to a certain budget. They should be empowered to take messages and explain when you will return messages. Callers, customers, etc. should be educated about your absence in a way that serves as a marketing message and builds intrigue and curiosity with customers (in a good way), rather than just leaving them hanging. Basically, you want to empower your team and setup systems that will minimize contact with you while you are away.
• Have a Blackberry/iPhone/etc. and know how to use it. In today's world, the quickest way to take care of issues is to return a text message or send a short e-mail reply. For those communications that break through the gatekeepers back home, direct as much as possible (use your voice mail as a directive) to your e-mail and text message in boxes. Often, a ten minute phone call can be answered just as easily with a 5 second text message. The time you free up working in this capacity between sessions at a conference or by checking it twice a day while on vacation, is worth the extra $50 a month for an unlimited data and text plan.
• Prior to making hotel reservations, check their policies, fees and availability on high-speed, WIRELESS, Internet. Some hotels are still requiring you to plug into the wall for high-speed Internet (reference a recent trip to Boston where the Sheraton on the Back Bay – a very nice area – still had wired high speed on most floors of the hotel). Many nicer hotels charge $12-$18 per day for Internet access. Not only that, in many hotels, the wireless access and bandwidth is limited even when you pay. Don't just take the hotel's word for it (they will not admit their bandwidth is limited or that their reception is spotty). Do a Google search and check travel web sites to get the real scoop so you know what to expect upon arrival.
• Check ahead of time for local free wi-fi locations. Pack your laptop along with printed directions, phone numbers and hours of operation for 2-3 easy to access wi-fi venues. This is often far easier to manage than hotel Internet connections.
• Own and know how to access a back-up e-mail account through a free web-based service. We use GMail. This will allow you to access your e-mail from a hotel business center or other Internet connected computer even if your own technology fails you.
• Pack your laptop, phone charger, and a USB flash drive to ensure that no matter what tech challenges may come while you are traveling – you can access and transfer files and make connections as needed.
• Check your travel schedule and plan ahead of time for one hour per day to return phone calls, answer more weighty e-mails, etc.

Have other travel tips to share? Feel free to comment…

The most important factor is to make sure that when you are away from the office or your small business that you turn it into an opportunity – and not a threat. Think strategically and take action ahead of time to ensure that you are able to be productive and able to do what you are away to do – all while maintaining customer loyalty and a consistent customer experience back at the office. (In other words, maximize your return on investment where you are going – and at your office at the same time.)

A critical question came through on the National Main Street listserv today. I don't respond very often – when I do, it's a topic I feel passionately about. When the responses started rolling in to refer GoDaddy and Yahoo SiteBuilder as viable alternatives that will actually GROW a business… I am saddened that we don't cling in the bad times to the truths about business that we know in the good times… So, here's the questions – and my response follows.

QUESTION:

I’m writing an article for our newsletter and wondered if there are any cheap/free website services out there for small businesses that you would recommend?  Amazingly enough, only about half my merchants even have a presence on the web, and some of those are very amateurish. Any advice?

MY ANSWER:

Your community of businesses is not the exception – they are the rule. Please see this article posted last week by the Center for Media Research regarding poor online presence by small business:

http://adjix.com/ybb2

An excerpt that strikes me:

“Webvisible found that online search and e-mail newsletters are the only forms of traditional media that are growing among consumers who wish to locate local products or services. Compared with two years ago, respondents report they use search engines and email newsletters more, while they use newspapers, magazines, direct mail and radio less.”

The unfortunate truth is that those who do have a web site have a dated web site that they may not be able to edit for one of two reasons (in my experience).

• Their web guy doesn’t keep up with them or has disappeared
• Or they are frustrated by using a free/low cost tool like GoDaddy.com (not to pick on anyone in particular) that is a tool only – without any education or ongoing support or marketing advice.

Web sites are no longer optional for small business owners. As you can see from just this single article (there are more out there to reinforce this if you Google for the info), online spending is growing – and provides an avenue for growth for our downtown businesses. Not to mention the customer loyalty/retention, marketing outreach and other benefits a good web site provides.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS143830+02-Jan-2009+PRN20090102

Let me repeat myself: A GOOD Web Site.  The problem with many “do-it-yourself” web site products is that they don’t educate the builder – and so the business owner – not an expert at web useability or search engine optimization – does what looks good to them (not necessarily what may look good to the customer) – or what frustrates them the least – in their web building – and their business suffers for it. What would you think of your best downtown business if you walked in tomorrow and found it in complete disarray with mismatched signage, poor lighting, and unorganized displays and more? This, in essence, is what happens with most do-it-yourself tools that come without education, coaching or ongoing human expert support. It doesn’t matter how cheap it is if the money washes down the drain. The purpose of a web site in today’s economy is to be the centerpiece – not an afterthought – of a small business marketing plan that includes both online and offline marketing tools.

Please encourage your business owners to make sure they understand the implications if they choose a big-box web hosting solution. This is not to say every big box experience is bad…but well, around Main Street circles, I think we can be honest and admit the track record. It’s no different with web hosting and mass marketers of web site products.

JonI completely agree with, if the budget is unavailable to embark on a valuable web site development journey – then tools like Blogger, WordPress and Typepad provide a solid, respected alternative in the short term.

For higher end functionality, search engine optimization and strategically designed web sites, Fox Web co. offers a solution that starts at less than $1000. (Fox is our sister company who specializes in small business, having the heart of a teacher and works almost exclusively with Main Street businesses – sorry for the shameless self promotion.) Another option that is popular right now is retrofitting existing web sites to allow business owners to make updates themselves for much less regardless of the hosting company.

Hope this helps offer a different perspective into this very important conversation for the future economic stability of our downtowns.