Nashville Web Design

Nashville Web Design:

There is a lot to consider when starting a small business in Nashville, Tn or anywhere else for that matter. The goal of this blog is to provide helpful topics around starting and running a small business. Everything from picking out your name to getting the best deal on office furniture. I hope you will find it helpful and please comment with your own advise for other small business owners.

Customer Testimonials

admin : March 24th, 2011

Have you ever searched for a restaurant online? Would you say your more likely to visit the restaurant that has the most positive reviews? All things being equal. They have a good menu. The appearance of everything is ok. It is a convenient location. I think we would agree that if you have to choose you would go with the restaurant with the most reviews. These restaurants probably have 1000′s of customers visit them. However the review sites may have at most 20 reviews. Can you imagine if you where looking at reviews and the average was 5-15 reviews and then one with 200. WOW I think I would have to visit the place with 200 reviews.

To achieve something like this the restaurant would have to focus on encouraging happy customers to leave reviews. With the high use of smart phones today there is a good chance customers could leave a review while enjoying a cup of complimentary coffee for doing so.

So what about your business. Have you ever looked to see how many reviews you have? Do you care? Should you care? If you had more reviews than your competitors and they where good reviews do you think it would affect your business? I think it would be worth a try.

Posted in Marketing, Nashville Web Design, Search Engine Marketing | No Comments »

No Name Domain Name.

admin : March 14th, 2011

I have you noticed this location trend in search results. It is becoming quite common to see the websites in Googles organic with a name that matches the search. You see if I am looking for Springfield web design a domain like www.springfieldwebdesign would come up before a website like fred web design that just happens to be located in Springfield. Of course this only works in low competition searches. Which just so happens to be all small town searches. So is it a viable strategy for a local business to buy up all the domains that combine the local small towns and their service or product ? I think it could be. I have seen several business find good success with this strategy. The problem is that in order for each domain name to rank well, there would have to be an actual website on each domain name. Then in addition to having a bunch of different websites. Each website would have to have unique content. At the very minimum the location text on the page would need to be different. Take a look next time you Google a local business. See if the domain names have the city and service in the name.

Posted in Nashville Web Design, Small Business | No Comments »

Getting Facebook Fans

admin : February 28th, 2011

How do you go about getting facebook fans? For some businesses it is easier than others. You could start by simply asking. What if every client was sent a thank you email with a link to leave a review on your facebook page. Then asked to like the page. If you service a large number of clients. You could see your numbers go up quickly.

What if you offered discounts only on your fan page. So if your a fan you would know about these discounts. You could ask people to like your page for a discount.

What if you created video of clients or people at a fundraiser. Then posted it to your page. Then told them to share that video with their friends. If it was a funny video or a educational video it may receive quite a few views along with great exposure for you.

What ideas have you tried to increase your facebook fans?

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Facebook Pages Spam

admin : February 11th, 2011

Facebook pages has gone through some changes over its short life. At one time they where called fan pages. Now instead of becoming a fan, you like a page. Up until now the conversation was limited for a page admin. They could only comunicate with other users on their page. This was a bit of a handicap compared to the freedom of a standard user. A standard user can comment on their friends walls as well as page walls. They can interact without waiting for the conversation to come to them.

With the recent changes to the facebook pages. The page admin can now log in as the page and comment on pages that like their page or pages that the page has liked. This is will be a great improvement in the ability of a page to join the online conversation. However it could lead to a spammier facebook. However because you can drop pages like you drop friends, if they begin to misbehave you can put them in their place.

The layout has changed somewhat also. This will make it interesting for the custom page layouts already on facebook. Who knows how much these pages will need to be changed. With a ever evolving Facebook, one thing is sure. Facebook guru’s will be busy keeping up.

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Goople Places Crack Down

admin : February 6th, 2011

Local is the trend online this year and last. The prominent placement of Google places listings in the Google search results has caused businesses to pay attention to where they are in the Google places map. Because it is so valuable to rank well in the places results there is of course some abuse by businesses that don’t actually have a physical location to go along with their submission. To correct this Bing has been sending letters to the address submitted to confirm that it is authentic. This is slow and costly . Google has always given maps/places users that option , but the more popular option was to have Google give you a call at the number listed. This of course is not as reliable as a letter. Evidently the amount of spam on Google places is to the point that Google has resorted to requiring authentication by mail. This will of course slow the number of people that can submit their location but will establish Google places as a legitimate local listing service to its users.

Posted in Marketing, Small Business | No Comments »

Goverments and Google

admin : January 10th, 2011

It is becoming a trend for local and national government to start using Google apps as a way of outsourcing their email servers. Google apparently has passed the required security expectations of these groups. They are moving tens of thousands of emails over to Google. This is saving these institutions thousands of dollars a year. Not to mention they are probably receiving better features and service.

Of course some people are not fans of allowing confidential data to be stored off site. However this seems to be the trend. The cost of managing your own servers is becoming cost prohibited. This will likely continue to be the trend until some breach of security calls in to question the reliability of these services.

I happen to think it is a perfect solution. Especially for small businesses. At Small Buck we regularly encourage new web design clients to consider using Google for their email. With the increase in smart phone usage this is an ideal solution for small businesses. The idea that you can check your email from your phone or any other computer at any location is exciting. Especially to someone that fills tied to there local computers Outlook. Of course there are ways to access that data as well, however it may not be cost effective for small businesses.

What do you use for your email a document sharing?

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New Year New Website

admin : January 3rd, 2011

I love the new year. There is something about it that gets me motivated to make changes. Get going on that thing I have been putting off. Hopefully in your resolutions there was time to work on your website. Create a new page. Try a facebook competition. Write a new blog post. Create a blogging schedule. The most important thing is that you don’t forget about your website’s online presence in 2011. Maybe this will be the year your site rises to the first page of Google. Perhaps this will be the year you start advertising with Google. Twitter may even be on the horizon.

I’ll challenge you to pick at least one thing that will benefit your business online. Something you can do once a month or even once per week to get the word out. To get you noticed online.

My top recommendations would be to start blogging. Writing a post for your blog only takes a few minutes. The problem most people have is coming up with what to blog about. Try spending a few minutes by yourself or in a group and only brainstorm about future blog posts. Make a list. Save that list. It seems like when that blank page on your blog is staring you in the face, your mind also goes blank. However if you have a list handy you can get started right away.

Update your facebook business page wall. Ask a question once per week. Make a challenge. Get people involved.

Search for your business online without using your name. Only describe your business and see where you are. Look at the other websites that come up and see if there is something they are doing that you should start doing.

Create an email newsletter. They are free to start from Mail Chimp.

What do you plan to start doing in the new year? Let me know in the comments.

Posted in Blogging, Small Business | No Comments »

Unique titles

admin : December 30th, 2010

The business card is a basic necessity of business. They change hands at most meetings without much excitement or interest. Most cards are pretty plain.

I think this is an opportunity to create interest. To spark a conversation. To show your creative side. The card itself should be somewhat unique. Perhaps in layout or the type of paper used to print it. One thing that we all could do is have more creative titles. Think of your title as a nickname or a stage name. Be unique. Be unexpected. When someone grabs your card with a quick glance, a unique title may have them take a second look. It may be enough to plant that experience in their mind to help them remember you. Possibly they would be more likely to follow up with you.

Most business people take themselves to seriously. Mix it up. Add a little humor to the day. Of course if your a brain surgeon or something I’d prefer you be boring focused and professional. Everyone else give it a try. Get 250 cards printed and see what the response is.

What are the most creative business titles you’ve ever seen? Do you have a creative title? Have you thought of changing yours? Tell me about it in the comments.

Posted in Marketing, Small Business | No Comments »

Muddy Branding

admin : December 17th, 2010

I went to a great seminar today and was reminded of a few things related to branding. Great brands have a clear and consistent message. They promote this message or core value in everything they do. They make it easy for the raving fan to know exactly what they are about.

Branding gets muddied up when the company becomes unclear. When it doesn’t have a consistent message. This is often the result when a company is not willing to narrow there products or services. Instead add every thing they can make a buck on leaving the would be customer unclear on what exactly they offer. The bigger a company becomes the more common this is. However the successful small business is the one that hones in on a niche and rises to the top as the leader in that area. That can’t happen when you offer everything to everybody. It seems like a sacrifice up front but is worth it in the end.

Here is a great book on Branding if you want to learn more

The Brand Gap also the Zig by the same author.

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Cost of a Lead

admin : November 3rd, 2010

Lately I have seen some great stats on open rates of mobile texting. Email has a lower open rate and even lower is direct mail. However the cost of these is different and can not be measured simply by the cost to send each. Each list has to first be built. What does it cost to build a database of cell numbers? What is the cost of an email address? What is the cost of an physical address.

A company’s address is pretty cheap. Even a list of addresses is relatively cheap. The great thing about direct mail is that you can purchase these addresses. There is no need to collect these from the home or business owner. However with email and mobile you have to get these individuals to opt in. The cost of the opt in has to be measured.

This is why an opt in list shows greater open rates. While direct mail which does not require opt in shows a lower open rate or response rate.

These are things to consider when thinking of how to generate business or leads. So when you design your marketing/advertising plan be sure to find a balance across this media.

Posted in Marketing, Nashville Web Design, Small Business | No Comments »