Evolving Beyond The Yellow Pages Mentality

The problem with most small business websites is that they treat the web like a yellow pages directory. They slap up a quick website and are content to be “listed” on the web, missing out on most of the advantages of doing business online.

This backwards mindset runs rampant in professional service industries like accounting and law. Perhaps this because of the habit of marketing through listings like a phone book where they are just one entry competing with many other listings, and there is not much they can do about it.

Competing Online

Some of the more savvy small business owners are starting to catch on to the idea that it’s not enough just to be online, you need to successfully compete online.

I recently posted a case-study on the effectiveness of a law firm website we designed, and over the next three days received contacts from several different law firms.

One of the firms I met with mentioned that the quality of clients that come through the web is much better than any other source. Their Internet clients are easier to work with, more educated, and more likely to pay promptly. They were anxious to increase their online leads, and these were some of the ideas I shared with them.

1. Dress Your Website For Success - First impressions are critical when meeting with potential clients. Your website is frequently the first impression clients receive of your company, so make it a good experience for them.

   Just because your nephew or secretary knows a little HTML doesn’t mean they will be able to build you a professionally designed site. Going with a professional web designer might cost more, but the investment will pay for itself.

   As mentioned in our case study of Long Okura, P.C., most of their clients said they selected them over other firms they found on the web because they had a better website.

   If you were hiring from several applicants that seemed to have about the same qualifications, it would make sense to hire the one that was better dressed and presented a more professional image than the others. That’s what potential clients do when they shop for professional services online.

2. Make It Unique - A website isn’t limited to a crammed box in a phone directory, so add something personal and unique. It could be an award, interview, media coverage, or personal interest.

   The Long Okura website has a section that explains their environment-friendly practices and the green organizations that they passionately support. This unique perspective helps differentiate themselves from other law firms and has generated contacts from the magazines, radio, & TV stations looking for interviews, and even a contact from a well-known figure in the global “green” community.

3. Blog - A blog allows you to keep your website updated with fresh content without having to hire a developer to make the updates. It also helps share information, establish you as an expert, and start dialogs. Blogs also help you show up on search engines for the topics you write about.

   The Long Okura website picked up several new clients in just their first several blog posts. If you’re looking for new cost-effective marketing ideas, it’s hard to beat blogging.

4. Customer Self-Service Tools - Let your customers help themselves. By giving them online tools, you increase customer satisfaction and reduce the operating costs of having these functions handled manually by your staff.

   Some of the self-service tools I’ve worked on include:

   • Online bill-pay, downloadable forms, & “click-to-talk” phone call button for Long Okura
   • Telephony account administration (manage voicemail, faxes, etc) for I-Link.
   • Print Job management (define, submit, approve proofs, track shpiping) for Vision International.
   • Seminar/conference online registration & payment for ManageMen.
   • Product surveys, sponsored athlete application & shopping cart discounts for First Endurance.

   Almost any manually intensive task can be streamlined by creating an online tool to manage it.

There are lots of other ways to make your website outshine your competitors, but these 4 should give you a good start.

If you have any questions or comments on increasing the effectiveness of your small business website, please leave them in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.

Photo credit: How Can I Recycle This

“Open Source eCommerce Has Officially Evolved” was boldly declared on a blog post announcing the release of Magento version 1.0.

Since 1997 I have worked on a variety of eCommerce systems and for the last several months have been working with Magento. While Magento is very new and lacks the maturity of some of the more established eCommerce solutions, I do agree that Magento has taken open source eCommerce to the next level.

Here are the top 4 reasons why I feel Magento has changed the game:

1. Solid Business Model for Free Software
2. Gifted Designer in Development Team
3. Incredible Community Outreach
4. Brilliant Framework Under The Hood

Solid Business Model

Many open source projects start off with a bang and fizzle out. If the backbone of the project depends on a few passionate developers donating their time with no financial incentive, their commitment to the project is often unsustainable.

The company behind the Magento project, Varien, has setup several ways to monetize their open source project.

• Professional Services (installs, customizations, etc.)
• Commercial Support
• Commercially licensed extensions that offer new functionality.
• Certified Partners Program (other companies pay annual fees to be listed as an offical partner)

Varien CEO Roy Rubin says “Magento is at the core of Varien’s business model”. This statement suggests longevity and stability for the Magento project, critical factors that potential users look for before investing time in an open source project.

By having a for-profit company back the open source project, developers are guaranteed paychecks and have access to resources that other commercial development teams have. This allows them to release commercial quality software without charging for licenses.

Gifted Designer

Drop-dead gorgeous graphic desgin.

The most obvious way Magento has set itself apart from other open source eCommerce projects is the drop-dead gorgeous graphic design.

Most open-source projects looks like the interface was designed by an engineer for other engineers. Magento made the right move by making talented designer Minu an integral part of the development team.

Check out the beautiful screenshots at http://www.magentocommerce.com/media/screenshots.

Community Outreach

Less than a month after the first production release of their software, the Magento online community boasts 14,905 registered users with 351 members currently logged in as I write this post.

Magento has done a fantastic job of integrating their community tools into their website. A single sign-on gives access to Wiki, Forums, Bug Tracking, & Sub-project development groups.

Members of the Magento development team can be found answering questions on the forum, updating entries in knowledge base, and occasionally providing free training via live webcasts.

The Framework Under The Hood

Not only does Magento look sexy, but it was built on a solid object-oriented framework.

As an eCommerce consultant I felt that if I wanted solid code I needed to use a Java-based enterprise solution like OFBiz or Opentaps. But sometimes that was overkill for simple little cart projects and I’d end up using crappy free php carts with spaghetti-like code.

Magento now offers a solution to fill that middle-ground vacuum. Based on the Zend Framework, the code is all PHP so doesn’t require a special application server like the java solutions do and should run on almost any simple hosting solution.

The code can be easily customized using rewrites of existing code to a local repository of customized codes. This keeps custom code separate from base code and simplifies upgrades.

Magento code is object-oriented, so classes inherit all of the methods from the parent class they are extending and you only need to define the methods you’re adding or modifying. No more cloning vast amounts of code.

Other PHP developers have told me that learning the Magento framework was a big paradigm shift
for them, but any developer with a java web application background should be able to dive right in.

Stay Tuned For Free Giveaway

Sometime in the month of May, I’ll be announcing a contest for free setup of a Magento Cart with a free year of hosting, compliments of Bizlift. If you’ve wanted to try selling something online, this will be your chance.

** Update **
Sorry for the delay on announcing the contest.  I’m working on becoming a certified Magento Partner.  We’ll announce the contest shorty after the new 1.1 release due out in July.

If you have any questions of comments on Magento, please let me know below:

Are you opening a new web-store? Perhaps starting a Timothy Ferriss style 4HWW “muse”?

If you are launching an online store with the anticipation of being wildly successful, this article will explain why open source enterprise software is right for you.

Enterprise Software vs Shopping Carts

Enterprise Software provides tools for managing all aspects of your business.

A typical online shopping cart handles only the ordering part of your business. It might also have basic support for inventory and customer service.

So why would you need more than a basic shopping cart?

1. Room To Grow

Moms buy clothes their teenagers can grow into.

You should do the same with your web store.

As a teenager, I went through a growth spurt one summer. I grew an inch each month.

My mother bought pants several inches too long and would hem the cuff. As I continued to grow she’d let down the cuff inch by inch.

Moms buy clothes their teenagers can grow into. You should do the same with your web store.

Early in my career a boss explained that trying to upgrade a business’s information system while keeping it running is like trying to change the tires on a moving car. The company was moving from a hodge-podge collection of apps to a more robust solution. They actually had to shutdown for a few days to make the switch.

Having to shutdown to handle growth is a good problem to have. But it can be avoided with a little foresight.

Several of my clients have enjoyed explosive growth in recent years. Our open source enterprise solutions have played a vital role in achieving and handling that growth.

These clients started their business running on a scalable system that they could grow into and that would continue to grow with them.

Several years ago I setup Apache Open For Business (OFBiz) for Citydeals.com. The shopping cart had a trickle of orders for the first few months as online sales slowly picked up.

Eventually it reached the point where we had a multi-server load balanced solution handling 1000+ views per minute during peak periods.

It’s performed so well in its own metro area that parters are anxiously opening up new markets nationwide.

Citydeals originally used OFBiz as a shopping cart. They now also use it for the following:

• Customer Service team tracks who last talked to customer, what was resolved, and when that contact happened.
• Sales team uses a CRM/SFA module from Opentaps.
• Management tracks inventory levels and views sales reports.
• Accounting reconciles sales, returns, inventory transfers, etc.
• Partners have a portal to check on consignment sales and reports.

The entire company with 30+ employees and hundreds of partners use this system to run the business.

The Citydeals founder has often expressed amazement and appreciation for the software. Time after time he has requested new functionality and I could happily inform him that it already existed in the system or could be made available with a little bit of tweaking.

2. Available Anywhere

I setup OFBiz for an endurance supplement company over 5 years ago. Now they’re the king of their niche. They sponsor the top Cyclists and Triathletes in the world. Their product is carried in hundreds of retail stores, they have international distributors all over the globe, and the direct sales from their website is cranking.

Apache OFBiz is web-based so works with any browser. The two owners are able to login from home and place orders and check on the fulfillment process and look-up customer/order notes.

They also painlessly switched from one fulfillment center to another. It was as easy as disabling old logins and creating new ones, then trucking the goods over to the new warehouse.

A web-based enterprise solution like OFBiz is perfect for business owners that want to outsource to virtual assistants or other service providers without being tied to them for life.

3. The Price is Right

My clients love that OFBiz saves them a ton of money in licensing.

I’ve launched eCommerce solutions for corporations ranging from a VoIP pioneer with 300 employees to a $1 billion/year world leader in their market. I worked with expensive high-end Oracle systems and was recognized by IBM as the first to commercially deploy their eCommerce solutions on an AS400e midrange server.

When I left the corporate world to go self-employed I couldn’t afford those advanced systems that cost 6 to 7 digits. But I was frustrated by the poorly built open source shopping cart software that was available.

Then I found OFBiz and was floored by the elegant service-based architecture. It was open, free and built with solid framework, data model, and accounting practices.

My clients love that OFBiz saves them a ton of money in licensing. They love that it’s wide open and they don’t have to wait for software vendors to add functionality. They can hire any java developer to make the changes they want.

OFBiz is java-based so will run on almost any type of server. It is database agnostic, so will run on any major database. There is no vendor lock-in with this solution.

Summary

• Open Source Enterprise Software is a great solution for small businesses looking to grow.
• Web-based solutions allow you to run your company from anywhere and outsource to anyone.
• Open Source Enterprise Software is much more cost effective for small businesses than commercial software.

Stay tuned next week for a follow-up post titled “Wide Open - Apache OFBiz Reviewed”.

If you have any questions on this article, please leave a comment below.

You love your website visitors. You experience “warm-fuzzies” every time you see your web stats climb up a notch. So prove your love and give your visitors what they all want: a targeted homepage.

Many websites feature multiple services or products for different audiences. With limited space on the homepage, a commonly used web design element is to rotate and highlight different offerings within a designated highlight area.

Customize their homepage view to help them find what they want

Examples of a rotating highlight area are the article slide-show panel at the top of AOL and the random featured phone at Sprint.

When you know where your visitor is coming from, there is a good chance you know what they’re looking for and can customize their homepage view to help them find what they want.

To see how this works, let’s take a look at law firm website www.longokura.com (a client of ours). They offer several different practice areas, each with different audiences. Their homepage has a highlight area that randomly displays one of three practice areas. There are buttons that users can click on to manually display the other highlights.

The targeting works when the visitor is coming from a specifically designed ad on another site that highlights a specific practice area. For example, a child-custody banner ad that runs on a local newspaper website has a special link that tells the homepage to display the family law highlight rather than randomly selecting one.

The law firm also advertises through Google AdWords and has different ad campaigns for each practice area with their own set of keywords. Each campaign has it’s own link that tells the homepage which highlight to display.

Use these links to see how it works:

Family Law
Estate Planning
Real Estate Law

Some of the benefits of targeted homepages are:

• Provides visitors with an easy linear path from ad to homepage to specific information to online sale.
• Allows you to treat multiple audiences as “special” instead of focusing on only one audience and neglecting the others.
• Lets visitors link to homepage to get full branding experience of your company rather than linking directly to a specific product or service page.

Next time you build or redesign your website make sure to discuss setting up a targeted homepage with your your web developer.

There are two critical rules that will transform your web site into a money making machine:

1. Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Site
2. Drive Users To Complete An Action

These two requirements are intertwined. Success with one element is almost useless without the other. No matter how beautiful and functional your site is, no one will appreciate it until you drive traffic to it. On the other hand, all the traffic in the world won’t earn you any money if your site is poorly designed and an ineffective sales tool.

Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Site

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Some SEO “pros” charge a ton of money for placing your site within the top-10 results of major search engines. The secret they’re not telling you is that anyone can receive top placement by using obscure keyphrases that probably won’t generate much traffic. Before paying for someone to promote your site on search engines, ask them about the popularity of the keyphrases, and the kind of traffic you can expect. Also ask for references so you can verify that their SEO services are legit and effective.

Viral Marketing
The name might sound scary, but it’s a safe and powerful way to generate traffic. It’s based on the same principal as the classic “word-of-mouth” promotion. The idea is to offer an entertaining or informative free service on your site, and encourage visitors to tell their friends about it.

The viral techniques we implemented brought thousands of visitors to the site.

Common forms of viral marketing media include virtual postcards sent by email, and tools to share informative articles or video clips that automatically send emails with links.

About 7 years ago, in preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, we created a humorous site to introduce visitors to the unique quirky culture of Utah. The viral techniques we implemented brought thousands of visitors to the site. A selection of irreverent and humorous Virtual Postcard were a hit with Utah locals and Mormons around the globe. Online voting for favorite models to make the Top-12 cut for a calendar was another big traffic generator. The models and their friends campaigned vigorously bringing a slew of free traffic to the site.

External Links
Using “Reciprocal Links” is a great way to increase traffic. Just seek out sites that share a similar audience. Contact them and ask them if they would like to exchange links.

Google and most major search engines base your site’s ranking on “Link Popularity”. This means that the more links on other sites that point to your site, the higher your rankings will be.

Online Advertising
If you decide to advertise with banner ads, keep these rules in mind:

1. Stay away from sites that charge a flat rate per month, unless they can demonstrate a high volume of traffic. It’s easier to know what to expect if you pay for impressions, usually purchased in quantities of 1000.
2. Be wary of paying to have your banner displayed on a site that displays multiple banners per page. These multiple banners visually compete for attention reducing the effectiveness of your advertising. Purchasing a high number of ad views on such sites can help compensate for the reduced effectiveness.
3. Have your banner designed by a professional. Poorly designed banners lack professionalism and credibility, and won’t generate much traffic.

Bidding for keywords on search engines is one of the most cost-effective forms of targeting. First, you only pay for actual clicks. Second, the audience you are advertising to is actively searching for your service or product. Third, you don’t need to spend thousands; you can start getting results with an initial investment as low as $50.

Affiliate Programs
Affiliate Programs are a great way to generate sales. Other websites promote your product or service, and you pay only for completed orders or leads that they send to you.

You can set up your own affiliate tracking software, or pay another company to handle your affiliate program for you. Some sites that offer this service are Commission Junction and LinkShare.

Drive Visitors To Complete An Action

Professional Design
Your website is your online identity. Visitors will often judge your company’s professionalism and competency by the appearance of your website. A site that appears to be designed by an amateur can hurt your credibility. It can sometimes be better to NOT have a site, than to have a poorly designed site.

Identify Specific Audiences on Frontpage
On the web, you only have a few seconds to grab the attention of the average web surfer before they move on to another site. Keep text on the frontpage brief, and use highlights to draw viewers deeper into the site.

Use vertical markets or specific solutions that your viewers can quickly identify with. For example when working with a Call Center client, we had a brainstorm session and listed the different markets that require call center services. We then created a link for each market on the frontpage.

A good example of identifying specific audiences on the frontpage is IBM which links to different sections for diverse audiences such as Executives, Developers, and Journalists.

Create a Linear Path for Each Audience
The web is a collection of interlinked pages. The very nature of the web can make for interesting and random navigation. To keep viewers from straying, it’s important to give them a linear path that starts as soon as they identify with an audience or solution on the frontpage.

The flow should start with content that generates interest or evokes an emotional response. This should be followed by facts and information to validate the initial interest. The process should come to a close by giving the user an action to perform.

Give Visitors an Action to Complete
It is important to give a sense of closure to the experience you’ve created for your visitors. This could be, for example, a feedback form to fill-out, entering a credit card, generating a phone call, or subscribing to a newsletter.

Everything you’ve put into your website comes down to this one crucial point. To increase the ratio of completed orders, make your customers comfortable. Studies have shown that simple things like reminding viewers that the form is secure, displaying a money-back guarantee, and having a Privacy Policy can drastically increase sales conversion rates.

Do you have any experiences with generating online sales that you’d like to share? I appreciate all comments, so please leave one below.