In this blog, I’d like to address a really common question that many of my clients ask me – and it’s one that understandably can cause some angst. Let’s say that you have launched a new, high converting website with the aim of attracting more potential customers to your business. But when you type your business name or business name and location into Google, nothing shows up! When you subsequently Google your full domain name, your website suddenly becomes visible but not simply from the basics of your name.
I completely understand why you would feel anxious and even a little deflated about this and I’d like to use this blog to explain the reasons behind it, to give you a little more confidence that it’s actually not as big a problem as it seems.
The first thing to recognize is that it takes time to build an online reputation with Google. There are millions and billions of websites that Google has to scan and display within seconds and your website is amongst them. Although they have special bots that specifically search for new pages, it naturally takes time to be recognized. So, what can you do to speed the process up?
First, you should add social media links to your website. It’s crucial to connect your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn pages to your website. This gives Google more places to find your information because it searches through social media channels as well. You should also include a Google My Business listing via Google Maps, particularly if you have a physical location such as an office or store. This is so important, as it gives you a boost of credibility from Google’s perspective and makes it more likely to display your website in the listings.
Secondly, it’s crucial to add valuable, regular new content to your website. Essentially, the more content you have, the more visibility your website will have because you will have more live pages that Google can find when it searches.
These are the basics and will help Google to begin the process of understanding what your website is about ie: what category is it going to push you in, what phrases it can match and what answers you are supplying to the phrases that people search for. This process takes time – often about 30 to 60 days to actually be picked up by Google.
A really effective way of speeding this up is by using a sitemap. A sitemap is basically a document that lists all of the pages on your website. By writing this and uploading it to Google Search Console, you are effectively giving Google details of your pages and asking it to index them, as opposed to waiting for Google to find your pages by itself via a search. Naturally, the more content you have, the more pages you will subsequently have and the more Google will index you.
And there’s one more thing to check. If you have a WordPress website, you should make sure that it is set to be found by Google. It can sometimes be the case that web developers who built your website forgot to turn this setting on after the build phase. To check this, you should log into your WordPress dashboard and navigate to “settings: reading”. Scroll down and locate the search engine visibility option and ensure that the “discourage search engines from indexing your site” is unchecked and saved. By doing this, you are giving Google permission to view all of your pages and making it possible for searchers to find you on Google.
In summary, patience is needed to be found on Google! Although there are things that you can do to maximize your success, it does often take a long time. When generating a lot of content for my clients’ websites, although the blogs or lead magnets are very heavily researched, using SEO, and based on what people are actually searching for, it does often take up to six months to really gain traction.
BUT – once it is actually out there and people begin to find your website on Google, it really does snowball from there, particularly if your content is relevant and targeted.
I hope this gives you a little relief that a slow start to finding your new website on Google is quite normal and, if you are doing all the right things I talk about in this blog, you’ll start to see results. Please sign up to my YouTube channel or follow my Facebook page for new content and I look forward to hearing your success stories!
In this blog, I’d like to share some of the common problems that you might face when you are just starting your small business – and a snapshot of the smart investments that you can make to help you solve them!
Quite frankly, the biggest problem for most new small business owners is that you have no clue what you should be doing when you sit down to work every day! You feel fired up to get your business going and put the plans that you have into place but you don’t have a clear enough direction and end up filling your day up with tasks that don’t actually move the needle and impact your business growth positively.
But there are some tactics that can really help to nudge you in the right direction and give you some momentum. Let’s take a look:
Smart Investment #1: Online courses
Doing a targeted course that teaches you how to do specific things can fast track your business by minimizing the need for you to waste time learning hard lessons or spending hours/days/weeks on the non-essentials.
The key here is choosing a targeted course. Doing any old course to make yourself feel “useful” won’t cut it. For example, if you are looking at growing your list, Amy Porterfield’s List Building Society is really valuable. I used this course a lot when I first started out but I still refer back to it regularly now, so it has worked out as a great investment.
Smart Investment #2: Get a professional website
It’s pretty much impossible to run a successful and profitable business these days without having an online presence. But it’s not enough just to have a website. For the majority of your customers, your website is your online storefront, your business card, your brand – so it absolutely has to be professional and convert leads into customers.
If you are just starting out, it’s probably not necessary to hire a professional web and brand designer (for now, at least). Although they are worth their weight in gold in terms of amplifying your online presence, it is an investment that you will want to take later down the road. This is because, even if you are completely sold on our business idea, it is very likely to change a lot during those first few years. At this stage in your business, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to invest a large amount of money on getting a fancy website and brand made up, only to have to pay more later to have it updated.
But you should absolutely invest time and energy in creating a DIY website with an easy to use platform such as Squarespace.
Smart Investment #3: Use good stock photos
Photos can make or break a visitor’s impression of your website and brand. With this in mind, it is absolutely vital not to use any old mundane photo that you come across on a Google search.
But don’t panic – you needn’t book a photographer just yet! You can actually do some pretty amazing things with your website and social media posts using stock photos, and they are significantly cheaper than hiring a photographer when you are in the early stages of your business.
Here are a few places to find professional-looking quality photos:
Today, we’re going to be touching on the subject of websites and if they actually are productive.
Are they generating leads and sales? Is your website optimized for conversions? What I mean is, is your website set up so that you can get more clients?
I’ve seen a lot of websites over my digital marketing career. I’m shocked by how many are just really bad, just to put it bluntly, that actually don’t do anything.
What is the purpose of your website? The purpose of your website is to get more clients. That’s what we’re going to be talking about today.
Is your website set up for attracting more clients?
As I mentioned, my question to you is, is your website set up for attracting more clients? If you have a business, you need a website.
In this day and age if you don’t have a website, you pretty much don’t exist.
If you are in the…
retreat and events business
health and wellness industry
a marketing or website professional
or a consultant or coach
…you need a website.
There’s no negotiating about it, but what type of website is very, very important so that you can actually generate some income from it.
Your website is your most powerful business tool that you have. It shocks me that people don’t spend enough time on this and actually get it really, really top notch that really works for you.
Make sure you dedicate the time creating a website that is a lead generating machine.
Your website, ultimately, is your visual doorway to your business and should reflect your values and what solutions you provide to your ideal client.
Your conversion optimised website will attract new clients.
I wanted to go over what a conversion optimized website looks like.
This kind of website will attract new clients on an ongoing basis. That’s what you want. You want new clients constantly coming in.
So that you can attract these new clients, your website needs the following:
Easy navigation. When someone lands on your website. Where do they go? How do they contact you as quickly as possible? You don’t want them to get lost because people don’t have patience and they will just leave your website. Eliminate unnecessary elements. Don’t clutter your menu, for example. Just keep it very, very clear such as your home link, a little bit about you, what services you provide and contact. That’s it. Blogs, articles and so on can be on sub menus, but let’s just keep your initial menu clean and with a purpose to drive people to contact you.
I recommend having only one visible call to action. A call to action makes somebody do something. I’ve seen websites that have lots of different call to actions. The user arrives and they actually have no idea what to even do. If you want to be generating your list, make sure that your call to action has got the download now or yes, I want it button. If it’s just to generate leads and contacts then, have a very clear contact, contact us button, contact us. Send an inquiry. Just make sure it’s one that you choose and everything that you do drives people to this call to action.
Be clear about what value you provide with a very compelling header and subtitle. That’s what people see when they first arrive on your website. It’s a header which states clearly what you do and a subheading stating who is this for. Make it easy for them.
People don’t have hours to figure out what you actually do.
Try the 10-second rule. Take your laptop (yes it’s a bit awkward, but it’s definitely quite interesting to see) to a coffee shop and just speak to, a stranger and say, “Would you mind if I just show you my website for 10 seconds and then tell me what my website and business is about?” Most people will say, “Absolutely fine. Yes, I’ll do that.” You’ll be really interested to know if a complete stranger actually knows what you’re doing from your first page on your website. Give it a go. I’ve tried it. It’s quite hilarious.
Then outline your features and benefits. Yes, you can list all the great things that you do. That’s lovely, but from a user’s point of view, they want to know what can THEY get out of it. What are the benefits to them? Focus on that, really, as much as possible instead of blowing your own horn, okay? What can you help your user with? What will they get out of working with you?
Have a sign up form to grow your list. Growing your community and your followers is really one of the basics that you should be doing on a constant basis to get people to get to know you, to follow you. It’s ultimately easier to sell to those people that already have had some contact with you than if you just cold-sell to them, okay?
A freebie would be fantastic if you can get them to download that. They give you their email address and in exchange you give them the free download. Then they’re in your pipeline. They are in your email list and then you can work with it.
I would definitely recommend every, every company, every small business to have a freebie that you can get email addresses from.
Use images and visuals that build trust and engagement. Pictures of people feeling happy from the result of your services. Test this out. You could try where people are upset and angry and are frustrated with their issue and then your solution makes them happy. Use really inviting images, happy. People say, “I actually want to feel that way and if I hire this business I can feel the same.” Images are very, very important.
Lastly, include testimonials or any other social proofs. Testimonials from your Facebook page, your Google My Business page, all of these support your solution and your business in terms of helping the user. Include them in your website.
Anatomy of a website that converts
I’ve done a little bit of a diagram of what a converting website looks like just so you can have some visual element, not just my long lists.
This is HubSpot. It’s a well known CRM that is very clear with what they actually sell. Their website is geared purely for conversions.
Easy and clean navigation
As you can see at the top, we’ve got easy and clean navigation. The little arrows, mean there’s more menu things underneath those, but they have tried to reduce it to the most important things.
So pricing. Definitely, that’s what people want to know very, very quickly.
Some people choose not to show pricing. That’s your personal choice and your strategy, but in this case, because they are competing on price a lot with other CRM companies, they put it there in the forefront.
Resources, that would be blogs, recommended tools, all those kinds of things, partners and about.
Contrasting colours
Then you’ve got contrasting colors. Colors that actually make your content stand out. Because a lot of times, I’ve seen very dark text on a dark background. People just can’t read it. Make sure you have that contrast here. They’ve used a pinky orange color with white. The white jumps out. Make sure you’re using contrasting colors in your website design.
Hero image and visual elements
The hero image is that main image that you see. In this case, it’s a lady with glasses and a space helmet, and other visual elements need to be relatable.
The user that you are attracting, if it’s maybe only women, don’t use men in your pictures. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Create that connection with people with your imagery.
Visible contact details
Also, very important, which I’ve seen people do, is they hide the contact details. If you want people to call you to email you, to WhatsApp you, there’s now plugins you can use as well. Make sure it is easy for them to find. In this case, HubSpot has put the telephone number right at the top. That will be on every single page that you navigate on their websites. You’ll never lose it. It’s easy for you to contact them.
Strong recognisable logo
Then strong, recognisable logo. Okay. HubSpot is a big brand, but even your logo should be nice and clean and on every single page in the same place. This very professional so that people get to know your brand and recognize you.
Good copy that speaks to your audience
In this instance, they’ve got a headline called, All Systems Grow. Implying they’re going to grow your business through systems.
Then they’ve got a subtitle which gives a little bit more explanation, which is software to fuel your growth and build deeper relationships from the first hello to happy customers and beyond. Very nice and clean. I feel I know what they are selling in this instance.
Don’t overcomplicate it. Don’t give a lot of information right at the beginning. What you see here is what you see above the fold. That’s before people start scrolling. Make it very clear what you are selling.
Call to action above the fold
Lastly, make sure that your call to action in this case is, get HubSpot for free is above the fold.
People don’t have to look for how to contact you, how to download your freebie. It’s all there at first glance.
Conclusion
That’s basically the anatomy of a website that converts. Have a look at your website and see how you could improve. Clean it up. Everything that you do on your website, keep in mind, is this helping my ideal client to contact me to actually create that dialogue or is it hindering? Is it too cluttered? Is there too much information? Have a look and see what you think.
I would love to hear your thoughts on your own website. Even post your website link in the comments. It would be great to see what you are working with.
Websites that convert is a smart digital marketing strategy that I’ve put together in my free download. I have 10 digital marketing strategies that will help you rapidly grow your small business. If you haven’t already, I would recommend that you download it. It’s for free.
It really gives you some tips of what you could do so that your business is generating more followers and more clients at the end of the day. I’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.
Hi, today we’re going to be covering what you should outsource as a small business owner.
Small business owners generally tend to do everything themselves. I do that myself, I don’t like letting things go, and I do notice it does hamper my productivity. Trying to figure things out yourself takes so much time. For example, I was having a bit of technical problems, it just drove me up the wall and I wasted pretty much a whole day’s work trying to figure that out. Then when it comes to, for example, social media posting, editing the videos, posting the videos, all these different tasks are very time-consuming where I could be focused on getting new clients.
Why I need to outsource to a Virtual Assistant
It has to come a point in my life where I am seriously thinking about outsourcing and I have outsourced before to virtual assistants. I’m not sure if you ever heard of virtual assistants, but they are fantastic and there’s lots of different kinds which could help you more with the technical stuff or more administrative things that you need to have done.
So this video is basically going through what you could outsource and how you even start the whole process of looking for somebody and where you look and what the cost is and all that.
Benefits of outsourcing
Let’s discuss what and when you should outsource to be more productive in your small business. First of all, we are going to be talking about the benefits of outsourcing because a lot of people think, oh, it’s quite a hassle to brief the person I’m outsourcing to and I don’t have the control. But there are many benefits that I find way much higher than the disadvantages.
It frees up your valuable time. You are your business, but you cannot be everywhere. So you need to be able to free up your time that brings in more money into your business instead of focusing on the little tasks that actually don’t bring in that much volume of money.
It increases your productivity. Of course, it does because then you don’t have to worry about all the little nitty-gritty. Somebody else is doing that for you.
You’re also then much more flexible because you have less tasks to focus on. You’re focusing on the bigger ones that actually show bigger returns.
Your quality of work improves because you are not spread thin. You can really do a good job at what you are focusing on and then the rest is covered by somebody else.
Which leads to less stress. Because you have more hours in the day, you can feel less stressed and really relax a little bit. Also, you could be pulling out your hair, trying to figure out why something doesn’t work, whereas if you hire somebody who has the technical knowledge, they can do it in five minutes where it usually would take you three hours.
It’s less risky. If you hire someone directly you are responsible for the labor costs, the salaries, and you are fixed with them. If your business gets a bit quieter over certain periods of time, you still need to be paying those labor costs. You still need to be paying their salaries. But if you outsource it, it is very flexible and you can stop the contract for a certain period of time and then when your business picks up, you can carry on and so on.
These are the benefits of outsourcing, especially for digital marketing. When you have to do it yourself, it can be really overwhelming because there’s so much to do. I mean it’s endless. There’s website, social media, blogging, SEO and email marketing, the list goes on. So if you’re trying to do everything yourself, you can easily, easily feel overwhelmed. Instead of doing it all yourself, outsource it to a virtual assistant.
What kind of tasks can you outsource?
This is just based on digital marketing in this case, but there are lots of other types of tasks that you can outsource such as bookkeeping that will help you as well.
Social media
Create a social media calendar
Research inspiration and ideas for social media posts
Find images for social media posts
Click “like” when people comment on your social media posts
Website/blog
Basic management of blog/website
Format and publish your weekly content
Have weekly content transcribed (video, audio, podcasts)
Research blog topics relevant to your niche
Email marketing
Prepare and schedule newsletter
Set up your lead magnet opt-in, thank you page and confirmation email
Set up your new subscriber and/or new customer nurture sequence
Customer Service
Respond to questions and inquiries
Send thank you notes, emails or shoutouts to followers and customers
Handle Facebook group community management
Miscellaneous
Research guest blogging and podcast or video show interview opportunities
Create lead magnets
Research keywords
Get testimonials
Set up Facebook ads
Where do you find a VA and what is the cost?
As a small business owner, sometimes you don’t have lots of money that you could just throw around and just get somebody else to do it. That’s why we do a lot ourselves…to save of course.
But you’ve got to weigh out the benefits of saving the money versus the time that you waste doing the little things where you could be actually going out and increasing your income.
Here are some places you can find virtual assistants.
More expensive per hour – starting at 20$ p/h and may have “enrollment” fee.
As you can see it’s not that expensive. And the return that you get on that because it saves you so much time and you can actually go and get more clients, which boosts your income really, really makes sense, doesn’t it?
Conclusion
This was a little video on what I think about outsourcing and how it actually could benefit your business. Try hiring a VA and hopefully you can see a huge return on your investment in terms of time and more sales.
If you want to learn more and ask questions about digital marketing for small businesses, tips and hacks, join me in my private Facebook Group – Digital Marketing Simplified. I hope to see you there!
Today I’m going to be sharing my top tips for how to grow your audience and followers.
It is much easier to sell to a community of people that know you, have seen you, have met you, than if they have never heard of you before. That is why it’s very important in this day and age, especially with social media, to create that connection with them.
I create the connections through videos. I share my valuable…(hopefully it’s valuable to you) content, freebies, something that’ll make your life easier. I want to help. So my dedication is to help as much as I can this year, especially with my weekly videos.
So let’s just jump right into my top tips.
Create Valuable Content
First thing you need to do is create valuable content for your audience.
But before you do that you need to really pinpoint who your ideal audience is.
What are their struggles?
What can you help them with?
Some of you will say, “Oh, I don’t know, I think it’s this,” but it might not actually be, and you’re creating content for something that’s actually not needed.
To find out exactly who your audience is and what they are struggling with, you need to:
Send out surveys, connect with people, talk to them and ask questions.
You will gather some amazing information that will tell you exactly what content to create.
That is why I have recorded this video, I found out one of your biggest struggles is how to build and grow an engaged audience!
You can create blog posts, videos, social media posts, freebies etc…If one of your goals is to grow your email list (and it should) , then a downloadable freebie is perfect.
Engage In Social Groups
Secondly, engage in social groups, be it in person, depending on your business, or online on platforms such as Facebook.
I engage a lot in Facebook groups. I share my knowledge, I help people as much as I can in these groups, and that way I create a connection with my audience which in turn increases my following.
But just make sure that you are being genuine!
Don’t go in with the mindset that, “Oh, I’m going to try and sell something.”
That doesn’t work. People can see through it. Go in there for the full intention that you want to help.
Set aside 30 minutes in the morning and go into these groups and help. See what they’re asking. If you have the knowledge or you have struggled with the same problem and you figured out a solution, tell them. Give them the solution. Help a fellow person out.
Be Consistent
Thirdly, generate consistent quality content.
Don’t just write anything for the sake of writing. It won’t help you.
It won’t help you with SEO in terms of your ranking in Google.
Find out what your audience needs and create consistent content.
I’m doing weekly videos, then I post it on my blog and share it with my email list.
If you don’t want to do videos, that’s fine. If your audience prefers to read, write the blogs. If you want to do a podcast, a little radio show, you can do that too. But just be consistent.
Make sure you show up once a week so your audience expects to hear from you.
Once you have a following, make sure that you keep nurturing them. Keep the conversations going.
I send weekly mail shots my latest video and blog, so that they can keep up-to-date with what I am sharing.
And those are my top tips that I really think that you should focus on to grow your following.
They’re not too complicated, but they do take dedication. Set yourself a goal for this year to really focus on it.
If you have any questions at all about this or any other questions related to digital marketing send me an email or a Facebook message, I would love to hear from you.
Question: Do you have a digital marketing strategy in place for 2020?
Most would say no, I don’t know where to start, I don’t have the time…or yes I do but I am not sure how to implement it!
First of all let’s discuss what is a digital marketing strategy
A digital marketing strategy is a plan of action you draw up that you implement to get you closer to your goal of generating more leads and sales for your small business. The actions are focused on using different online marketing channels such as online advertising, social media, even your website.
Why is it important for small businesses?
Big and medium businesses have digital marketing strategies that fit in with their overall business goals. But small businesses should also have one in place.
Having a digital marketing strategy, allows you to focus, have a clear direction and list of actions that move your business from A to B.
It also gives you a reference point of where you started before you implemented the actions so you can measure the success or learning curves as you progress.
A digital marketing strategy saves you time!
Yes yes it is “time consuming” to actually research and draw up your strategy and actions but over the course of the months and year, it actually saves time and ultimately helps you grow yout business!
Shouldn’t you schedule a couple of hours in your day to create a digital marketing strategy if it saves you 10x more wasted time and money throughout the year?
What should you focus on in 2020?
Don’t worry the usual marketing strategies you have relied on until now are still useful and will continue to be in 2020.
These are content marketing, email, social media, and even paid advertising.
Videos
In 2020 you should look at embracing videos in your marketing if you are not already doing to. Videos bring your business and brand to life. You create a deeper connection with your target market and is quick to do. You don’t need fancy equipment and they don’t need to be very long. I try to keep mine down to 5-10 minutes maximum since people like to have easy and bite sized pieces of information.
Direct messaging
Take advantage of direct messaging channels such as Facebook messenger, install a chat functionality on your website. This is a great way to connect with your audience in real time and chat to them. Again growing your personal connections.
2020 is about creating and deepening your connections with your audience. Be personal, show your human side…don’t hide behind your business. In a day and age where we disappear behind smartphones and computers, the human element is what we crave. Someone would always choose to buy from someone who they feel more connected to.
Remember this when you are trying to decide how you should promote your small business online.
To get you started or if you would like to review your digital marketing strategy I have created a free guide for you to download – 10 Digital Marketing Strategies To Rapidly Grow Your Small Business
The link is mentioned at the beginning of this post.
