If you want to look at effective ways of cutting back on your spending for 2011, then this blog post is just for you.

Our previous post was all about making your website a much more effective sales tool and pointed out the importance of considering your search engine marketing alongside, this one should help you identify how you can cut your spending without losing overall quality of service.

• Looking at your overall operational costs is a very important place to look when you want to cut your small business overheads.  If there is something you really don’t need, don’t buy it!  If you’ve keep forgetting to cancel that Direct Debit for the service you haven’t used for six months, make an effort to do it now!  £20.00 a month may not seem a lot, but over the course of a year, that’s £240.00 totally wasted.
• One of the most important factors within a small business operation is your customers.  Sometimes it’s easy to think about the ‘new’ clients we want, but there is often a benefit looking after the clients we’ve got.  Retain your client base by keeping in contact with them regularly and remember to offer any new services or products here first!
• Try and keep your business activities simple.  This may sound strange but it’s often a good idea to focus on what you’re really good at than trying to develop areas that you’re not so good at.  Look at your product offering and take out any services that you really don’t need.
• It’s very tempting to think that cutting back on staff is the answer but while this can be the case for some, you really need to consider the impact on your business and the way you serve your clients.  If they have been used to a particular level of service and suddenly it’s not there, you will end up losing them. If you do have to cut back on staff, consider exactly where it will affect the business and how you will fill the gap they leave.
• Look at how you can establish yourself as a leader in your field.  One way of doing this is to look at your current services and products and see if you can add value to them in some way.  If you can come up with something that sets you apart from your competitors, then this will assist you in selling the benefits.
• Consider Search Engine Optimisation as part of your plan and don’t cut it out, quality SEO should always be a part of what you do.  If you give it up you will find that at some point down the line you lose your rankings and then you’ll just need to start again and play catch up with your competitors!

It is difficult as a small business to survive at times, but it is not impossible and with a few clearly thought out ideas and changes, you can get yourself and your business running smoothly and making money.

Paul

With the recent VAT increase already having an effect on the way that people are viewing spending habits along with the gloom and doom of the recent economy figures, small businesses are looking at tough times ahead during 2011.

However, it needn’t be so bad for you as a small business if you focus on what you have to offer and how you sell it.

With the increase in budget conscious buyers turning to the Internet, this year could be seen as an opportunity to develop new avenues within your business, rather than a year of unknown prospects.

So, Little Big Voice has put together some key information for the small business owner looking to get through 2011 in as easy a way as possible, focusing on things like search engine marketing.

So what’s the advice?

If you’ve never done it, now’s the time to look at your website!

In the old days of the Internet, the small business website in particular was seen as a ‘shop window’ for glancing through, rather than a sophisticated selling tool but quite simply, this is not how it needs to be.

Search engine marketing is an excellent way to improve your traffic and rankings online, but if you don’t have a well laid out website you will not be converting those sales.

As retailers have consistently seen an increase in their online sales you need to start thinking of your own website as an opportunity to sell what you do to your visitors as soon as they land on page one.

If you’re paying for search engine optimisation and you want to convert even more people to buying your products and services, then the following may help.

Things to think about are:

• How easy is your site to navigate?  If it’s cluttered then you’re not helping yourself.  The very best websites are clean, have the most important information as a focal point and aren’t laden with lots of text.
• Don’t be afraid to create a ‘funnel’.  That is a defined route that you would like your visitors to take from specific landing pages.  This is particularly useful for retail based websites but has just as many benefits for other business types.

In terms of SEO, having a succinct funnel (where purchase is only ever three clicks away) will be an excellent way to make your online marketing budget work for you.

• If you are unsure how to layout your funnel, then it’s a good idea to consider how you do things in the real world!   In your experience, which aspect of your business is most important to your clients?  If you run a shop, you’ll know that certain products sell more than others and that popular products need to be more prominent etc. so have a think about this for your website.

Also, once you’ve figured out what the ‘regular’ purchases are, make sure that your SEO planning takes this into account.

• If you offer services to business, stop thinking about what you offer and start to consider what your buyers want!  You’ll be surprised how much this kind of thinking can improve your website, improve the length of time spent on it and of course improve the uptake of your services in general.

If you consider Search Engine Marketing covers search terms that are relevant to you – then you need to also understand that the end user knows what he or she are looking for.  So make sure that you consider how those SEO efforts will work with your site and its layout.

• Consider getting a blog as this gives you a chance to write about a whole host of your services, meaning you can feel more able to offer information on other aspects of your services.  It also allows you to support your search engine marketing (but it should never be considered as an alternative) as it will never provide the same level of SEO success.
• Have you got a sign-up form?  Many businesses don’t consider the value of a sign-up form of some kind, which is basically a good way to grow contacts which you can target your services to later.
• If you can’t see where you need improvements, get someone to audit the site.  This can be someone who has never seen it before.  Take note of their findings.  Have they illustrated gaps anywhere in the navigation?  Were they struggling to find a contact number?  If they are, you then have to ask how many other people are visiting your site and feeling the same.
• Don’t be afraid to make changes.  Some small businesses have had the same website for years and feel afraid to change it.  While we like to keep the process of our business, that does not mean to say we cannot improve upon it – so it’s worth considering changes as they may increase your traffic and sales, particularly if you’re thinking about a Search Engine Marketing plan.
• Try to balance the content in the favour of the end-user and not yourself.  As we’ve already mentioned, telling people all about you, you, you, may seem like a good idea, but it will not help your visitors.  It is a fact of life that people buy benefits, so consider what the benefits of your services are to your clients FIRST.
• Finally, get a professional to look at the SEO on the site.  Are the meta-tags doing you justice?  If you’ve got Pay Per Click on Google, are you making the most of the keywords?  A good SEO company will be realistic in your targets but should be able to guide you in the right direction, so balance their cost with your PPC as you may find it’s better value ongoing.

What now?

Don’t wait for someone else to come along and help you – go out and get active this year and you will find that you can turn your website into a proper marketing tool with just a little focus and hopefully weather the economic turbulence with ease.

Paul