Seven online considerations to ponder during your break

It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day running of your business during the year. Which is why many set aside time during the holiday season to do some well overdue planning and preparation for the year ahead.

With so much going on in the online world, it’s a massive challenge for the smaller business operator to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what is critical to their business and what is just a temporary flavour of the month.

To assist you in putting some priority on the different online issues, here’s a list of some of the most critical aspects of the online presence of a smaller business.
While it’s by no means exhaustive, it might at least add some sanity to an increasingly confounding world.

1. Is our online presence properly integrated into our business operations?

The days of your website and web marketing being a project you occasionally throw some budget at are now over. The web is a critical component of not only your marketing and communications, but your operations as all of staff, suppliers and customers use it to (ideally) streamline day-to-day aspects of your business.

As a result, smaller businesses need to allocate ongoing resource to the maintenance, monitoring and improvement of their online presence in much the same way you would get the bookkeeper in to do the books every month. It’s now that critical.

2. Where are we on Google, etc?

Do you know how prominent your business is on the search engines for search terms that are pertinent to you? If not, wander over to Google and do a search for these four terms:

i. Your business name
ii. Your line of business in your location (ie. architect, Carlton)
iii. Your line of business
iv. A niche brand, product or service you offer (environmental, Architect)

How did you fare? If you were nowhere to be found you may well need to invest in some Search Engine Optimisation or Search Engine Advertising, or even both. Or if your line of business is too competitive, come up with alternative strategies to counter your poor search engine position.

3. Is our website professional enough?

Of course, any investment is Search Engine Marketing or indeed any promotional technique at all will come to nought if the website they land at (presuming you have one at all) is repelling in any way. For example it may have technical issues like slow download speeds or broken links, or if in Flash, may not appear at all in some browsers, it may have design issues, has poor “calls to action”, etc.

If you need some guidance in terms of what is acceptable, simply visit the websites of at least four of your competitors and see what they are offering.

4. Are we making the most of email marketing?

One of the reasons behind the success of the daily or volume deal craze is due to the low cost of transmission that email represents. But you don’t have to have the lists or marketing clout of Cudo, Groupon etc to take advantage of this under-rated medium. Email provides the first opportunity in promotional history to broadcast to up to thousands of customers or prospects without any charge whatsoever – save for some essential and low cost tools.

If you’re not taking advantage of it, you should work out why not and do something about it.

5. Is social networking a friend or foe?

It’s one of the biggest communications developments in our lifetimes, yet only some businesses can exploit it to their advantage. Why? Because it takes considerable time and/or money to gain any real business benefit. In a perverse way, it’s a bit like television advertising – only a relative few can afford to do it properly.

Then there are issues with staff use and abuse. The reality is for many small businesses, having an effective presence on social networks is simply too hard. But simply ignoring it is something you can’t do. Explore it and if needed, get good impartial advice.

6. Am I spending too much on superseded promotional techniques?

Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere, you would be well aware that the promotional landscape has transformed in the last decade like no other before it. Before then, Yellow Pages, local papers and direct mail dominated the promotional landscape for smaller business. Nowadays, search engines, volume deals and social networking are among those that rule the roost. Has your promotional mix adjusted accordingly?

7. Am I engaging the right supplier(s)?

Like the promotional techniques themselves, the suppliers who provide them have also changed. Even if you do have a preferred web professional, do they have a good balance of technical, creative, marketing, usability and maintainability skills, or are they a strictly one trick pony?
If in doubt, there are plenty of providers who will give you a second or even third opinion.
Whether you get time to consider these ideas or not, here’s to a safe and happy festive season for you and your team.

In addition to being a leading eBusiness educator to the smaller business sector, Craig Reardon is the founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which was established to address the special website and web marketing needs of SMEs in Melbourne and beyond.