Marketing Mojo for Small Business | Building a Better Website

10 Step Guide to Building a Business Plan [Infographic]

10 Step Business Plan Infographic Screenshot

All entrepreneurs start out with a vision; a vision for a fantastically successful business that makes a difference.

But to make that vision a reality, having a clear business plan to reach your goals is essential.

To help you, Washington State University created an infographic that guides you through creating the perfect plan for your business.

The graphic outlines key questions to ask yourself before searching for investors, applying for business loans, or trying to improve your existing business.

Search engine optimization (SEO) and social media go together in the digital world like smartphones and teenagers. You really can’t have one without the other, but a lot of people avoid SEO completely for their websites – not to mention their social media content – because they don’t know where to start.

SEO can certainly be confusing, and it’s changing constantly. However, knowing the basics of SEO and keeping up with trends is a good way to grow your business’ exposure. SEO is a means of boosting your web presence’s rankings in search engine results when people query ‘your’ keywords. Oftentimes the phrase “web presence” is used interchangeably with “website,” but that’s just because it’s most common. You can actually use SEO best practices, such as those detailed by Moz, anywhere you have control of content online. Here are just a few reasons why your social media presence should be part of your overall SEO strategy:

Each year, research firm YouGov BrandIndex polls millions of people to track the public perceptions of thousands of brands. They release their findings in annual and mid-year BestBrands reports – and 2014’s is out now.

It’s important to keep in mind when looking at the last below, that these are not the most valuable brands – that kind of metric is likely to stay more stable over time (barring ground-breaking innovations or PR nightmares). To put together the list of Best Brands, YouGov asks respondents, “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?” This not only measures the respondent’s own awareness of the brand, but also gets at their perception of the perceptions of other people toward a brand.

It’s Friday afternoon, which can certainly make you feel like dancing. Which is why we thought a great choice for today’s example site would be www.peterlovatt.com – the online home of Doctor Dance.

Peter Lovatt is a Dance Psychologist in England, where he is a Principle Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. Lovatt also runs the university’s Dance Psychology Lab, which sounds like a pretty great place to hang out. Perhaps not surprisingly, his website is also a great place to hang out, because it is well-branded, easy to navigate, and full of rich imagery.

Building a website might be on the 2015 agenda for your business. If you’re like most business owners, you want to give your company as much exposure as possible. That’s why you decided to build a website in the first place, after all. The key to creating a successful web presence is making sure customers can find you. Search is the top way users find sites online.

We want to help you accomplish everything you set out to do this year. With that in mind, let us show you how to build a website that’s easy to discover in search engines.

Have you ever been browsing the internet and reached a page screaming, “404 Error Page!” and been afraid you had done something terribly wrong to harm your browser and/or computer?

Have no fear! We have all been there.

Good news is that is completely normal for a user to come across a 404 error page, and for your small business website to return one. Because in the definition of a 404 Error Page (or HTTP 404 for our more technical audience) it describes the error as a web page that simply could not be found when attempting to follow a broken or dead link (or one that you’ve typed in incorrectly).

The essence of marketing is to evoke an emotion from your audience so they are motivated to buy, download, or otherwise engage with your brand.

The true marketer’s dream is for that evoked emotion to propel a user from a customer to a referrer; and have them share their brand experience with a relative, friend, colleague, or Yelp user.

The biggest question marketers are left with is which emotion would be most compelling toward that goal. While some would argue it would be fear, guilt, or urgency, most of these emotions leave a bad aftertaste.

As a small business owner, you have undoubtedly found yourself taking on many roles you might never have imagined yourself in; accountant, HR manager, marketer, and even graphic designer. If you promote your business, you will likely end up creating some kind of visual collateral for your brand, either by yourself or with a professional designer.

In creating that promotional material, you will have to decide what file type to use (or your graphic designer may request a certain type). Do you know where to start? If not, don’t feel bad – lots of people are confused about which type of image file to use when.

Your website is amazing, and you love using Webs to make it even better. Whenever a friend or colleague asks you to recommend a website builder, you don’t hesitate to recommend Webs, because you know that our user-friendly website builder features will allow them to create a one-of-a-kind site.

Now we’ve made it even easier – and more rewarding – to refer your friends to Webs. Introducing the Webs Referral Program!

When you refer friends to Webs, not only will they get an easy-to-use website builder with powerful online marketing tools, they’ll also get something extra: An exclusive promo code for $25 that they can use toward an annual Webs Premium Package.

Whether on Facebook, Tumblr, podcasts, or blogs, everywhere you turn people are taking a look back at what they accomplished last year. Well, we hate to feel left out, so we wanted to join the fun!

Man, were our engineers busy in 2014. Below, we’ve collected a list of everything they added to the Webs experience in 2014, fueled by a desire to make Webs better every day – and an impressive volume of Mountain Dew.

WINTER, 2014

Website Redesign!
We kicked the year off by launching a redesign of the entire Webs external website. This included giving the whole site a new look and feel, and simplifying the signup experience for new users. Some of our favorite updates included the new themes page which shows big, bright previews of our designs, and the design overhaul of the Webs blog!

10 Step Guide to Building a Business Plan [Infographic]

What Are The Best Brands In The US? Check Out YouGov’s 2014 BestBrands Rankings

Example Site: A Smart Use For Photo Galleries by Doctor Dance

How to Build a Website for Maximum SEO Visibility

Want People to Talk About Your Brand? Give ‘Em Something To Talk About

When To Use Which File Type: JPEG, GIF, or PNG?

Share Webs, Get Free Stuff! Introducing Webs Referral Program

Webs Annual Wrap-Up: What Was New in 2014?

WINTER, 2014

Webs makes small business marketing simple.

Explore the Webs online marketing platform below.

STYLE SWITCHER

Layout Style

Header Style

Accent Color

WINTER, 2014

Webs makes small business marketing simple. Explore the Webs online marketing platform below.

STYLE SWITCHER

Layout Style

Header Style

Accent Color

Webs makes small business marketing simple.

Explore the Webs online marketing platform below.