Focused On Your Business Virtual Office Blog

For the month of March, I’ve been asked to co-host “The Savvy WAHM’s” Blog Talk Radio Show. A big Thank You to Kendra Tillman of The Savvy WAHM for helping all women business owners succeed as entrepreneurs!

Once a week in the month of March, we talk about online marketing and what you can do to get your business found online. I will quickly summarize what we talked about here and also list the links, so you can download the handouts or listen to the show.

Show 1: Your Brand Message & Your Website – March 6th

Branding starts when your business starts! It was important before the internet, but with online marketing becoming essential for any business, getting your branding sorted out before you create your website is a necessity! Once your branding is in order and your website is set up, you will take that branding and sweep it across all your social media sites for easy name recognition.

First impressions count! Your online presence needs to reflect you, your business, your product or services. People still buy from people! By carefully choosing colors, your logo, your look, your content, you will attract a certain target market. Too often I hear, “Sure, I’m getting a lot of hits on my website, but I’m just not attracting the right traffic and I am not converting leads into customers.”

If you’ve already been in business, you have your logo and your website, but are not achieving desired results, you might want to take a step back and rebrand yourself. The sooner, the better!

I suggest you come up with a checklist before you start planning your website or rebranding of your current website.

1. Colors: What colors speak to me? What colors represent me or my product best? Make sure you do a bit of research as colors have a lot of meaning. For example, you might really like blue, but did you know that blue is also known to be an appetite suppressant, so it would not be good for a restaurant, cookbooks or recipes but you can consider it for diet books. Choose wisely! This blog post lists a quick color overview and meanings.
2. Content: Copywriting is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is essential to engage and convert your leads. Ask your family and business alliances to evaluate your content for feedback. Do they understand what your business is about? Would they take action and contact you? Here is a helpful ebook on copywriting.

Your Website – The Hub of your Online Universe:

Your website has everything to do with branding, because your website is the center of your online universe. Everything you do online to establish your online presence is meant to drive traffic back to your website where you sell your product or services. Therefore, your website is THE HUB for all your efforts online!

Your website branding sets the tone for your online presence. If your website is not optimized (branding and content), than you will not attract the correct target market and it will also make it very difficult to set up and brand your social media sites.

Equally important is that your website is optimized for search engines to find you. If your website is not optimized (for search engines) you will not get ranked, making it impossible for your target market to find you.

A good online marketing strategy considers search engines (completely analytical) and your target market (emotional EQ to draw people in). When you set up your website, consider the importance of search engine optimization. Working with many clients and various websites, I’ve come to appreciate the simplicity of a self-hosted Wordpress site. It allows for plugins to be added to customize your needs and with just a little bit of training, you can handle SEO for your site and blog yourself, saving you a lot of money in the long run.

I know when we first start out, money is tight. Often a DIY website seems like a life saver, but I’m here to tell you from my own experience that investing just a little money out of pocket to do it right from the start will go a long way. Consider outsourcing your logo design, your website design (including SEO), and your branding across all marketing channels (blog, email newsletter, social media sites). If you do outsource, make sure you own your website (you have all your logins) and are able to change content yourself. You’ll thank me for it later!

Listen to the blog talk radio show here to learn more.  Follow the The Savvy WAHM Blog Talk Radio Show and don’t forget to listen in next week!

For more info on online marketing, please follow me at http://facebook.com/focusedonyourbusiness / http://twitter.com/birgitolson.

Have you been sucked into online marketing (via social media, blogging, email marketing) yet? Everywhere you turn, there is another social media guru telling you that this is the way of the future, the only way to get found online and that if you are not jumping on the social media bandwagon, your business will be left behind. (See my previous blog post!)

Depending on the type of your business (B2B, B2C) you should choose wisely where your target market can be found (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, etc.) and then set up your business pages.  Not only will you stay in front of your target market this way, but being “popular” can also help with your online ranking assuring that you will be found online more easily.

So, what is the single most important thing to get started on social media sites, blogging, email marketing? Contacts, of course!

But before you start connecting to your contacts, you need to make sure that your message and branding are in order. First impressions count! Your website sets the tone for your company.  Your message, content, colors, branding and logo might have proven themselves with offline marketing / direct marketing, but are you ready to brand your business online?

Working with companies in getting their online presence sorted out and sites set up, I can tell you that the best thing you can do for your company is to sit down and sort out your branding, logo, colors, message and your content before you start.

• Do you have a website set up already? If so, is it outdated and could use a face lift (logo, colors, message, content)? Get that done first. If you are a small business owner, a simple Wordpress site might be ideal.  It allows you to add your own content, add a quick blog and most importantly, you will be able to add your own keywords and descriptions for SEO purposes without hiring an expensive website designer.
• Is your logo presentable or could it also use a face lift? If so, then have a graphic designer work with you – logos are not that expensive.
• Do your colors represent your company well?  The color choice to represent your company, product or service is very important. For example, did you know that blue has also been known to be an appetite suppressant, so it would not be a good choice for restaurants, but you can consider it for diet books. For a full list of what colors stand for, see my previous post “The Importance of Color Choices”.
• Is your content outdated? Do you have a vision, a mission, an elevator speech? These are important when you start setting up your social media sites.  Just like at networking meetings, you will have only a few seconds to stand out and be memorable on your social media profiles, so make it count!

Once you have the above items sorted out, it will be very easy to set up / brand all your social media sites, so when potential customers land on your social media sites, the recognition for your your company is immediate.  It will make finding followers and fans so much easier, in turn growing your business online.  Just think of Coke… can you imagine landing on Coke’s Facebook or Twitter page and not instantly know who’s page you landed on?  Another good example is Mari Smith – who doesn’t instantly recognize that beautiful blue? Make that your goal!

The choices of images on sites like www.istockphoto.com are endless.  Upon entering a search term, you are confronted with thousands of pages of images “matching” the description you entered.  Personally I can spend endless hours choosing the correct image for marketing materials I create.

5 tips to choosing the correct image:

1. Really understand the concept of what the story should portray.
2. Consider colors in the materials you are creating.  With so many images to choose from, there will be one that fits your color scheme.
3. Avoid a cluttered image.  A good image concentrates on the story it tells.  A cluttered background takes away from the story.
4. Don’t leave anyone out of the story.  Make sure you choose an image that covers the whole of your target market, not just one part of your audience.
5. Last but not least, if you have the smallest inkling that you have to write a note, explaining the setting it’s not the right image. 

Including the correct image in your materials can be tricky.  It’s where the eye rests first and foremost when looking at your materials.  It sets the tone of whether your audience is drawn in to want to read your message.

Make sure they do!

“Which came first – the chicken or the egg? When we meet someone and instantly know that this will turn into a beneficial business relationship for both parties (and clients), is it because we wish it to be so (and direct it that way) or do we really know?”

This was posted by me a about a half a year ago after I met Steve Hartkopf of Aligned Marketing on Linkedin.  What struck me about Steve was his poise and his incredible talent for moderating an online discussion. Turns out, Steve has held senior positions in Sales and Marketing for many years.  That’s not it, though.  I believe Steve was born with a natural talent for being an exceptional leader, with the knowledge of when to listen, when to speak, how to speak and knowing when to say what! He has the ability to listen closely, come to the best possible decision and then follow through on his promises.

Anyway, my point of this little introduction was….  I knew from that first moment that I wanted to work with Steve.  Over the last few months, Steve has taken me under his wing and taught me a whole lot about online marketing, communication, SEO, and website design.  Creating marketing materials is my passion, but on-line marketing was a bit of a mystery to me. Well, not anymore!

Aligned Marketing, where Steve is a founding partner, needed a bit of a facelift.  Steve, the Aligned Marketing team and I have worked feverishly to update the company website.  It is now complete and I am proud to announce the official website launch. By being a part of the team, I am able to offer the services of this company, and should you choose to let us help you improve your online presence, I will be able to assist you through the process of building your website, supplying content that sells, increasing your rankings through search engine optimization and in general improving your online presence.

How cool is that?  Take a moment and check it out www.aligned-marketing.com and then send me your feedback!  I very much look forward to it.  While you are there, don’t forget to sign up for your free marketing analysis.