Explode your Business Online in 2009

Building your business is all about marketing. Here are 7 tips to expand your business online in 2009.

1. Redesign your website regularly to capture your audience’s attention and be memorable. Use a content management system like Drupal so you can easily add a new design. You will also save time and money by editing and adding content to your own website.

2. Have moving images on your home page to capture attention. Instead of using Flash on your home page, use Drupal’s Image Rotator module. Most users can’t tell the difference and you will be able to upload new images yourself whenever you want to do so.

3.Improve your ranking in Google by writing articles to be published on the Internet. This will further raise your visibility and expert status. All articles have links with keyword rich text linking back to your website to increase your Google ranking. Our Drupal websites include an extensive Article Archive for your articles and newsletters.

Summer Special: Custom Website Re-design
Regular Price $1500.00 Now only $999.00*
- double your sales with our super effective marketing strategies
- your new website will include all the marketing tools described here
- convert your existing site to self-editing Drupal website
Contact katy@seascapewebdesign.com or call 604.729.4227.

4. Make your new website multimedia friendly. Everyone has different learning styles, so be sure to include audio and video on your website. All Drupal websites come with video and audio support. Add how-to videos for your visitors to watch and learn from the master painter himself. Use Drupal’s Lightbox2 module to view photographs one at a time or in a moving Slideshow.

5. Use Social Media to promote your website. Our Drupal websites have the option of displaying your Twitter feed or new blog posts on your home page. Have links to social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter on your home page. Also have links to Social Bookmarking sites on your home page

6. Publish regular newsletters and blog posts. Put your newsletter subscribe box on every page so you can collect email addresses of visitors who are interested in your products and services. Use a service like Constant Contact to send out monthly house painting tips and special promotions. Build your website with a blog to publish short articles on house painting to further educate your prospects and establish you as an expert in your industry. Don’t like writing? You can publish info in your blog in audio or video format.

7. Make your website search engine friendly. All our websites include our basic SEO package which will lead to higher search engine rankings. Package includes integration of keyword phrases into your content, manual submission to the top 5 search engines and installation and setup of Google Analytics. Contact Katy for more information.

What is Social Media?

The following is a post from Daniel Scocco, author of Daily Blogging Tips.

I was browsing through my RSS reader today and came across an interesting post from Brian Clark, titled Since When Are Blogs Not Social Media?. Here is a quote from it:

I’ve noticed a strange trend lately.

For some reason, people seem to be equating social media with social networking.

At the same time, they seem to be treating blogging as something other than social media.

I found his post interesting because that trend is something I have been noticing myself. It looks like for many people social media is the collection of social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

Well, it is much more than that.

Social media are the various forms of user generated content and the collection of websites and applications that enables people to interact and share information online.

Complicated? Well here is a list of things that are part of the social media:

online forums (e.g., DigitalPoint)
blogs (e.g., WordPress)
social networking sites (e.g., Facebook)
social bookmarking sites (e.g., Digg)
video sharing sites (e.g., YouTube)
photo sharing sites (e.g. Flickr)
streaming sites (e.g., Ustream)
user reviews (e.g., Amazon)
crowdsourcing (e.g., Wikipedia)
content aggregators (e.g., FriendFeed)
As you can see, social media is much wider than what some people think. It is also much older. We could say that the first Usenet (a form of distributed discussion system) developed in 1980 was already social media.

Last night I attended the Vancouver Entrepreneur's Meetup at the Network Hub in downtown Vancouver. I met Tyler Wright the guest speaker. He asked me how to integrate his blog and his website together. Right now his blog is here: http://megawattpr.wordpress.com and his website is here: www.megawattpr.com

Here's the advice I gave him. Maybe you will find it helpful, too.

Tyler, you asked about how to combine your blog and your website. Well, the first
thing to would be to install Wordpress on your own web host account at megawattpr.com. This is recommended since you are now using wordpress.com for hosting your blog, Wordpress actually owns all your content and if by chance they shut down your account,you could loose all the posts you have.

Once you have Wordpress installed on your own website, I think you can port over the
content from your wordpress.com account. (I need to check on this and find out the details.)

You can add pages to your blog like About Us, Home, Contact page and the blog would
be one of your pages or you can have the blog feed come up on your home page if you like. You can have your wordpress site custom designed so everything matches.

About Google Analytics, I will look into it for you. I'm thinking they track the statistics per domain name so I'm not sure you could keep all your old statistics to continue on with the new website. But this I'm not sure about. I will get back to you with more information.

I hope you found this helpful. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Kathryn Laan,
Creative Director

SeascapeWebDesign.com
Website Design and Development

Phone: 604.729.4227
Email: katy@seascapewebdesign.com
Web: www.seascapewebdesign.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/seascapeweb

Top 7 Ways to Build Relationship with Your Prospects

Experts say that prospects need to have contact with you 7 times before they will feel comfortable buying from you. Here are 7 ways to nurture a budding business relationship.

1. Business cards often form a person's first impression. When you attend networking events and meet tons of people, your business card is something tangible your prospects can take home with them and refer to and remember you. Be sure to have your business card professionally designed with your branding and contact information including phone number, email address and website address.

2. Your website provides a professional image for your business. After hearing about you from a friend, the first thing they will do is go to your website to learn more about you and your services. Be sure your website is attractively designed by a professional and has a clear call to action. Having your website optimized for popular search terms is an excellent way to increase traffic to your website.

3. Email newsletters are a great way to educate your prospects with important tips and facts about your industry. They are much more than the latest news or photos of your kids. Use email newsletters to communicate your message and announce specials and promotions. Find out how to make sure your email newsletter is being read properly by your recipients.

4. Write in your blog regularly. It’s best to have a blog right on your website. That way you own your content. If you have a blog on blogger.com which is owned by Google, it can be difficult to transfer all your blog posts to your own blog on your website. This requires custom programming. Also it is possible to lose your blog content. A colleague had been blogging for some time on wordpress.com and his account was shut down for no reason and he lost all of his content. Here at Seascape we are in the process of setting up our own blog to match our website.

5. Social Media is becoming mainstream and an important way to do business. We’ve already talked about blogging. Seascape Web Design recently started using Twitter. If you're new to Twitter, you can find us by going here: www.twitter.com/seascapeweb To follow us on Twitter, add @seascapeweb. We give important tips on Internet marketing and specials and promotions. Having a page on Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with work friends and make new contacts in your industry. Just keep those randy fun photos you took at the last party with your friends off your public Facebook account.

6. Networking groups are a great way to meet new people. Ask them about their business and how you can help them. When you receive a business card from someone, they are giving you permission to contact them. Add these contacts to your Contact database and send them your monthly newsletter filled with resources and information that your prospects will find helpful. Be sure to include your mailing address and an unsubscribe link to follow the Canadian anti-spam rules. Posting a copy of your newsletter on your website and having a link giving the reader the option of viewing your newsletter online is great. Many email tools do not display your newsletter the way you would like.

7. Send new prospects emails with questions and information that they have requested. Follow up with phone calls and request to meet for coffee to learn more about their business. This way you can provide a free consultation.

Need a more professional image for your website?

Need to increase online sales and lead generation?

Contact katy@seascapewebdesign.com or call 604.729.4227.

Seascape Web Design is now on Twitter!

Seascape Web Design is now on Twitter! You can follow us at SeascapeWeb. Keep up to date with the latest happenings at our web design and marketing company including new projects, additions to our portfolio and information on effective marketing strategies.

To view our postings on Twitter, go to http://www.twitter.com/seascapeweb

Here's a great FREE webinar coming up this month. Presented by bizlaunch.ca
Date: April 23rd, 2009
Time: 11 am PST
Topic: How to Grow your Business Online

I attended the webinar today on "Marketing & Selling in Tough Times". I learned some valuable tips on sales and marketing my small business. This is my first webinar and it worked out great. I viewed the video of the presentation online and also the powerpoint presentation of the session notes. I dialed a toll-free number and listened to the audio on speakerphone since the VoIP wasn't working properly.

Webinars are a great way to communicate with your clients and prospects. WebEx is a great tool to present your own webinar.

For more information on upcoming bizlaunch.ca webinars, go to:
www.bizlaunch.ca/cisco

7 Internet Marketing Tips for HOBN

Tonight I will be attending the High Output Business Networking group in Langley. We meet at Newlands Golf Course in the upstairs Lounge called Winner's Sports Bar. Meeting starts at 5:45 pm and the address is 21025 48th Avenue, Langley, BC.

Here are 7 Internet Marketing Tips that I will be sharing at tonight's meeting.

1. Stand out from your competition with custom graphic design. Is it time for a redesign or website makeover?

2. Stay top of mind with your prospects with email newsletter signup and distribution. Find out how you can beat the spam blockers and be sure that everyone on your mailing list can read your newsletter.

3. Educate your prospects by writing regularly in your company blog. This is a good way to establish yourself as an expert in your field.

4. Enable your prospects to find you easily because your site ranks in the top 10 for Google and Yahoo. We provide site optimization for new and existing websites.

5. Advertise online and sell your products with our easy-to-use shopping carts.

6. Keep your website current and up to date by editing it yourself with our Website Management Software.

7. Add social networking to your website. Add a product or service review section to your website. Add online chat for your customer support. Go on Twitter and Facebook to advertise your company and connect with people.

For more information, visit http://www.seascapewebdesign.com today!