Starting a small business for proven step-by-step results

The hard facts guide to small business marketing

This is not for the faint hearted so if you are easily offended then this article may not be for you.

When starting any business venture there are two big problems to face head-on. How are you going to make potential customers aware of your business and convince them that you offer the best solution for them?

With no track record, this is going to be a tough hurdle for anyone. If these two areas are not a major focus of your business then you’re in for a shock.

Marketing for business start ups

If you are considering marketing for your business then a few options you may have thought of are, press advertising, direct mail, a website, public relations and radio to name a few.

To be effective most of these options will cost your business huge amounts of cash to work for you. The only option that’s effective for your business is a website. Why? Because likes of Google, Yahoo, and MSN are itching to provide you with traffic FREE!

It’s far cheaper to set-up a website and get free traffic to get your business started than it is to do any other form of advertising.

In today’s market with so much information available free even if you did advertise your business a customer will probably Google you or your business to see first if you're trust worthy and second to find out more information about your business and what you are offering… so a website is a must… right?

Actually no… because there is a catch!

If you’ve ever had a website or if you have spoken to other business website owners the story is likely to be the same. Their website is doing nothing for their business. Even the ones that brag about “my site gets 2000 hit’s a month” have misunderstood that a hit is not a visitor. E.g. 2000 hits could mean only 100 visitors.

The simple truth is the vast majority of small business websites are not working…and I’ll tell you why…

“Web designers and the small business start up sting!”

Small business website design are usually missing critical components that make websites work in the search engines. Web designers are too eager to sell to those starting a business knowing because your budget is low that if they tell you what it costs to getting working you won’t buy. Worse still could they lack the knowledge to make it happen. Either way the result is the same.

Making a website look nice and just making, it live is pointless. Even if the web designers make you aware of the changes it’s more cash for them and even then, there are no guarantees it will work.

It’s your responsibility to know what you are buying.

So if you don’t know what you are buying or what to ask for then you could end up loosing more than you think. I'm going to share with you the solution for your business, but before I do you let’s discover the cost of getting it wrong.

How much could a wrong decision cost Your business?

You will loose the price of your website + the potential business lost by not capturing that free search engine traffic + repeat business from that audience + the word of mouth that results from that business.

Work it out for yourself, how much would it cost you if you got it wrong?

For example: If a massage therapist business gets one client from Google who spends £30.00 and has one massage once per month. That’s £372.00/year. That customer tells 10 friends and 3 decide to buy. One decides to have a massage once per month and the other two come just 8 times over the year between them both. That £372.00+£240.00

So far, that’s £984.00 from one customer.

Now imagine that those 3 new customers tell their friends and the word of mouth quickly escalates this is not unusual for any business. All this potential sits in just one customer that found you on the internet.

Now imagine if 10 people a month find you.

If the hypothetical formula above was applied to only 10 buyers that came from the internet in one year the sales would be 10 x £372.00 = £3720.00
Each of those 10 referred 3 people = £6120.00

If those 3 referrals also referred just 1 person each that’s 10 new customers with a potential sale value of = £3720.00

In total that’s a potential loss of £14,544 just from choosing the wrong website on a £30 sale.

Of course, referrals are not a guarantee, but if you attracted 10 new customers per month and no referrals and each of them only came once that’s still a loss of £3600 in one year.

What would ten new clients a month mean for your business?

Would you love to have 10 new clients a month? I had a look to see how many people were searching for massage therapist so you can see the potential of 10 customers a month is small fry even for this business.

According to Google at the time of writing this article, the search volume is 40,000/month across the county, and 6600 in Oxford using just one keyword so you could at least double those figures for all the niche areas such as sport massage, back pain etc.

So if you were a massage therapist in Oxford the potential market is huge and even better if your website got you on page one for that term.

Now you know the cost of getting it wrong and the potential that’s out there for all businesses.

What website solution will work for your small business start up?

If you want to be armed with the knowledge for what will work both in the search engines and to convert those visitors into customers, either call us today on 01844 201 822 or to find out more simply sign up below.

First Name:
Email:

P.S. Remember if you are the wrong choice of website is likely to cost you thousands. Your potential customers need you to prove you are the expert in your field so they need regular information. So how will you give them what they need?

Signing up above will provide you with these answers and more!

To your success.

Stephen Hedger

Business domain registration domain hosting uk

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If you just want to choose the right domain name for your business go straight to our business domain registration.

Quick business domain registration tips

• If your business is targeting a UK audience, then choose a .co.uk address.
• If your products and services can be sold internationally, it makes sencse to register the same domain with .eu and .com extensions. Securing your domains with as many available extensions as possible is the best way to protect your website and company name plus you’ll reach a wider audience!
• Domains can have between 3 and 67 characters
• You can use hyphens to make a longer domain name easier to remember
  e.g. www.my-domain.co.uk
• Register as many versions of your domain name as possible e.g. .com .org .biz etc.
  You can then forward all these domain to your main website.
• If your name is easily miss-spelt then register those as well.
• When choosing a domain name if you want free traffic from the search engines, choosing domains with target keywords also helps e.g. www.dog-baskets.com if you are selling dog baskets.

Ready to see what domains are available? Go to business domain registration now!

Direct email marketing solution mass email software

Our direct email marketing solution keeps your business front of mind with customers and prospects fast

Keep in-touch with your customer base and watch your sales increase as your customers discover more about your business and how you can help them.

Our solution is easy to use no design experience required it does it all for you.

Provide prospects with a sign-up form on your website. When a prospect signs up for your emails they are asking for more information and with our email marketing solution keep prospects up-to-date with your news and new information.

Direct email marketing is powerful for sales

Our email marketing solution allows you comply with anti-spam laws. You can upload your existing customer list without an email confirmation requirement. Plus an opt-out link is located at the bottom of every email you send allowing subscribers to opt-out of future mailings.

Email marketing HTML designs

Our image library includes more than 1,500 images for your full html emails or upload your own! Images are automatically resized to fit your email. No design skills necessary. Many HTML templates to fit your companies brand.

Plus you can track the results with our easy-to-use reports. You can tell how many emails you sent, how many were opened, who responded and much more.

Plus you can create surveys the features are endless.

• For pricing information go to Direct email marketing solution

Want to know more?

Our direct email marketing solution includes everything you see here:
Subscriber Management

• List import & export
• Advanced segmentation (interest groups)
• Bulk list removal
• Custom exporting
• Activity reporting
• Member profiles/history
• View campaign subscriber lists
• Customize subscriber list view

Campaign Designer

• Personalization (e.g. Dear Mr. Smith)
• Quick start templates
• Huge 1,500+ Image Library
• Upload a Personal Image Gallery
• HTML & text emails
• Auto Save
• Web page import
• HTML import
• Advanced editor
• Detailed customization
• Scheduling
• Recipient filtering
• Campaign previews
• Test messages
• Spell checker
  

Surveys

• 10 unique question types
• Question sorting
• Multi-page questionnaires
• Custom design features
• Link generator (text & button)
• HTML code for link
• Easily move questions within your survey

Sign Up Forms

• Standard & custom questions
• Question sorting
• Double opt-in protection
• Custom design features
• Return links
• Form preview
• Link generator (text & button)
• HTML code for link

Reports

• Campaign responses
• Survey results
• Subscriber activity
• Demographic drill-down
• Interest groups

Other Features

• Bounce handling
• Unsubscribe handling
• Opt-in confirmation
• Anti-spam protection
• Spam reporting links
• Custom e-mail messages
• Add file attachment

For more information and pricing plans please go to

• Direct email marketing solution

• Direct email marketing solution

Dedicated hosting server.com dedicated hosting server

Dedicated hosting server secure for eCommerce, multimedia, gaming & high traffic websites

You can choose options from a pre-designed Linux and Windows 2008 plans featuring multi-core processors, enhanced options like managed backups and much more – or you can custom build your own server.

Dedicated hosting server is designed for gaming servers, database management, and traffic-intensive Web sites. Dedicated servers are perfect for companies and individuals who run very-high-traffic Web sites.

Maybe you run applications that need the bandwidth, versatility, and consistent performance of a dedicated box.

Unlike traditional hosting plans, where many customers' are on a single server, a dedicated server is reserved exclusively for the account and usage of a single customer.

This gives you exclusive rights to their server's bandwidth, memory, and storage space. Therefore your website performance is not affected by the traffic and usage patterns of other customers.

Our Dedicated Server Plan Includes:

• Our world-class data centers
• Best-of-breed routers and servers
• TippingPoint™
• Intrusion Prevention Systems
• 24x7 email, telephone and
• Web-based tech support
• 24x7 physical security
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Plus you get

• Bandwidth Overage Protection
• Free rapid setup
• FREE! Google® Adwords® Credit*
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• 24x7 FTP access
• Linux: CentOS (4 or 5) or
• Red Hat Fedora (7 or 8)
• 3 Dedicated IPs

Discover more about our dedicated hosting server today!

• Go to dedicated hosting server

• Dedicated hosting server

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Our range of world class low cost web hosting services, provide 99.9% uptime, high levels of security both physical & online

Our range of hosting plans are ideal for most individuals and businesses. Our web host services are affordable and reliable with 24/7 support, and free access to our exclusive Value Applications - with EVERY hosting plan!

We provide Linux host & Windows host - php - mysql - perl - python - asp and many more host services compatible with most web based applications at affordable prices.

Linux Host

Linux hosting provides individuals or companies with systems to store information, video, images and content accessible to users of the Internet. Linux is open-source based operating system designed for speed and stability. Linux is ideal for a most software, applications, languages, and databases.

Windows Host

Our windows hosting provides the systems to store information, images, video, or other content accessible to users of the Web with the added functionality for web developers to use Microsoft's database technology and programming environments such as MS SQL Server databases and the .NET framework.

Our plans can provide unlimited storage and bandwidth

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• FrontPage extensions
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For a world class service you can trust & to discover more go to

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Linux host & Windows host - php - mysql - perl - python - asp

Specialist website builder - customizable website builder

Specialist website builder - fully customizable website builder perfect for small businesses on a budget

Create, build and make live your own website with our easy website builder. Creating websites is no longer just for the professionals we have website builder software designed to make building websites easy.

• Over 800 professionally designed easy to use custom website builder templates will make you look like a instant professional website builder no technical experience required.

 

• Over 8000 images available to make your website look amazing, change colours to suit your taste with the wysiwyg text and image editor.

 

• Seamless integration with Google's® Site Mapping Tool. Add meta tags, keywords and descriptions for search engine optimization for free Google traffic and website analysis.

 

• All templates are CCS based in case you require some more advanced design editing.

 

• We have also included website hosting with in the price. Plus you can at any stage turn your website into a web internet store with our quick shopping cart all managed from on location. You also get email at no extra charge.

 

This is truly a brilliant DIY website solution for those of you on a budget. Plus our plans mean you are not committed long term. Monthly payment plans are available if you just want to try our web builder out.

Ecommerce shopping solutions for small businesses

Ecommerce website builder and shopping cart - affordable solutions for any online business.

Online sales are due to dramatically increase over the next three years. Having a website selling your products online has never been more important for small businesses.

We provide a range of simple to build, affordable
ecommerce shopping solutions:

Build an amazingly comprehensive professional ecommerce web site using your companies products to create additional revenue for your existing business using the explosion in online sales.

Maybe you have always wanted to start an online business, but start-up prices always seemed outside your budget. No more! We have created a low cost ecommerce solution that is accessible to anyone no experience needed.

Maybe you have an ecommerce website, but the sales process is losing you sales. Our shopping cart can be added to your existing website and over night the shopping experience is safe, secure professional and best of all affordable.

A few of our ecommerce store benefits

• FREE easy to build wizard software and hosting makes building your ecommerce shop simple, with 105 customizable templates easily tailored for your business.


• You can accept PayPal® and credit cards making buying from you so easy and secure with SSL security enabled.


• Your website will have administrator password protection and login to buy protecting both you and your customers.


• Inventory management so you can keep track of both customers and stock.


• Full range of shipping and tax calculations to make your admin easy.


• Integrated with UPS, Quickbooks, Certified eBay® listing tool and Google™ Product Search perfect for those wanting more ways to sell.


• Customer invoicing, customer and merchant order notification email and many more functions to make buying from you simple, easy and likely to come back for more.

For more information on this
amazing ecommerce website builder go to
Ecommerce shopping solutions

Web Based Software helps to attract volumes of customers to your restaurant

No matter what promotion you are running for your restaurant whether it’s a special local event or Mothers day or Valentines day what you want is to have some control on getting customers aware of your promotions.

You know that advertising does not work, Yellow pages is hit and miss, and word of mouth is slow and unreliable. What you really need is a list of regular clients you can communicate to at a click of a button.

Image if you had a web based system that you could add your dinners information. Name, email, mobile number. You could run a simple competition in exchange for their details. All you do is input their details into this system.

Very quckly you will start to grow a volume of past diners.

Now imagine you have a special event and you want ensure you are fully booked, you simply write a your marketing message and that gets sent to everyone on your list by email.

You start this campaign every week for six weeks before the event. This will give you massive exposure and a significatly higher chance of a profitable night.

Now imagine you want to inform your customer about a special offer you are running as a one off. Write your promotion and send it via text (SMS) to their mobile.

These forms of marketing are fast effective and guaranteed to put your restaurant above the competition.

If you are interested to learn more about this amazing marketing tool fill out the form below and you will be contacted within 48 hours.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Email Based Marketing the Most Powerful Marketing Tool Ever

Email marketing is the most under used, yet
incredibly powerful and cost effective way to drive sales quickly.

Email marketing is fast becoming the best way to build relationships with volumes of customers and prospects quickly, easily and cost effectively.

We help small businesses with powerfully effective email marketing to increase their sales. We use email marketing to help customers build databases of prospective customers who are either interested in the companies services, but need more information, or are not in the market for their service right now, but could buy at some point.

The beauty of email marketing is it is very simple to connect with those two types of prospective buyer. Anyone who signs up for your email service is basically asking you to sell to them. It's powerful and it works .

Business to business email marketing

If your interested in building a list of customers and targeted prospects to send your email newsletter, or you want to send email marketing information on a product or service, then you have come to the right place.

The benefits of email marketing

There are many advantages of email marketing: The most astonishing customer relationship program and revenue builder ever!

• Convert prospects into customers automatically.
  Build an opt-in list of 1000’s of prospects from your website then unleash unlimited automatic
  emails designed to convert those prospects into customers, how many and when, you decide.


• Targeted email marketing makes more sales.
  Segment your customers based on your specific products and services.


• A trusted company makes more sales.
  Build your brand awareness become front of mind
  whilst relationship building with personalised content.


• Great relationships means more sales.
  Build relationships automatically 24 hours a day 365 days a year.


• Be front of mind with your customers.
  Update your entire customer and prospect database on your company news.

No body likes SPAM

We only practice permission based email marketing as it's the safest way communicate to any audience. So we use the tools that will enable you to allow your customer and prospects to confirm their interest in your company whilst complying with the current laws and legislation regarding unsolicited emails.

What will your customers receive?

Beautiful html full colour branded emails. However we know that some customers either can't receive html or have switched off html emails so we'll set up a basic email so they are not omitted from your campaign. Our email marketing solutions can detect how your customer have chosen to receive you email and will provide them with the correct version.

Our email service

• We will design your email marketing templates to reflect your companies website and brand.
• Help you to write copy that will incentivize the desired action.
• We will create a strategy to ensure success
• Track all response rates and provide you with a report
  

Companies just like yours are capitalizing on
email marketing right now!

Email marketing campaign example

Many companies don’t yet see the latent power of email. So if you are one
of those companies then let us show you what you are missing.

One example:
We produced a very simple email based marketing campaign for a small business to
a list of only 1500. Five emails were sent over a four week period to sell a
subscription product worth only £39.00. This simple campaign raised a staggering
£7400 that month.

Yes £7400.00 just from a few simple emails!

One off email based marketing campaigns are phenomenally powerful,
but this is just the tip of the ice berg!

Our guarantee

We are totally committed to providing you with the very best service and attention to ensure that your entry into the amazingly powerful world of email marketing is a smooth and easy process.

Email based marketing is easier than you'd think.
Want to know more or would like us to provide you with a quote?

Call us right now on 01844 201 822

Discover what email based marketing can do for your business today...