Austin Webpages

Tag: increase customers

  • How Google Maps Helps Small Businesses

    Google Places Helps Level the Playing Field for Small Businesses

    Austin is very well known for its local businesses, including restaurants. Today I want to show how a small restaurant owner in Austin can benefit from utilizing Google Places to maximize its online presence. This goes to what we are always saying at Austin Webpages – Your small business is ALREADY ONLINE. Having a website and managing the various online tools should be in the short term goals of your online marketing strategy.

    Google also can make any small business look just as great an option as a big business or chain. In our restaurant example, lets say that a hungry person is near the South I-35 area, when they bring up their mobile device and look at their Google Maps app. Let’s also pretend they are looking for Mexican Food.

    Disclaimer: both of these places are great and I am not advocating for either of them in terms of quality of food or services. 

    How Google Maps helps small businesses

    Our example on the left is of a local Mexican food restaurant, while our restaurant on the right is one of many restaurant chain locations. The example on the left is a typical result of a small business that has not taken advantage of the various tools out there to help small businesses, in this case Google Places. The example on the right is more or less the goal of what each small business can easily become with some online marketing management. Let’s look at a handful that are easy to see from the side by side comparison.

    1. Custom Description

    The example on the left shows a generic description  “Mexican Restaurant”. On the right, you can see that this restaurant has chosen “Large menu of Tex-Mex staples & faves”. Not only do you get to customize the description, but with so many eyes looking at these apps and tools, you want your small business to stand out. The custom description can be part of a marketing campaign or simply your company’s tagline.

    2. Business Hours

    Pretty self explanatory – you want your customers to know when and where they can find you. Both of these examples have the store hours listed, although the example on the right had a chance to review it for accuracy since they are controlling their Google Places account.

    3. Photos

    Let’s face it – why read when you can just look at pictures! Photo’s of menu selections helps the chain stand out. From an online marketing point of view, it gives the restaurant chain more credibility. They are showing their customers what they can look forward to eating. Fast Food commercials show giant burgers as their visual for a reason!

    4. Small Business Website

    As we always tell our Austin clients – a website gives your business more legitimacy. A website allows your business to run 24/7 and expand your customer base. It also gives a central point of information about your small business, no matter if customers found you via google maps, twitter or were handed a flyer. . Now, they can go to your small business website and get more information and start interacting with your product and services. A restaurant could use a website to show even more pictures of their location, information about private events or book a reservation.

    5. Menu

    A great perk that Google Places offers small businesses like restaurants is being able to list direct access to your menu. A restaurant’s menu is something that customers are going to be interested about right away, so it gives you quick access. The example on the right has both their website listed and then a direct link to their menu – whereas the example on the left has neither. Customers looking for a specific plate are going to have to call the restaurant, be possibly put on hold, just to ask about menu choices.

    6. Reviews of Your Small Business

    Reviews are a huge part of the online world today. With the rise in online shopping, people are depending on each other for advice of where to spend their money. Google Places allows anyone on the internet to have reviews about a place of business. Managing your online profiles should include being aware of your reviews. A bad review is going to stick out, but the example on the right has the ability to respond to a review. They can address any issues, in front of all readers and hungry Mexican food lovers, showing that their customers come first.

    The example on the left even has a great review – but with no online profile…the small business will not be able to respond and thank that customer for their business.

    Let Great Products Speak for Itself!

    As in our previous blog posts, managing your online profiles requires a lot of time and some knowledge, that is why many small businesses do not do it or put it off for a long time. But taking advantage of these online tools levels the playing field. If the restaurant on the left managed their profile – their listing will look as great as the restaurant chain on the right. That is what small businesses want to do – level the playing field, so that their great products will speak for itself.

  • Why Blogging is Good for Business

    Blogging helps business attract customers

    As an Austin small business owner, how do you stand out as having a great product or service? Showing your customer that you are an expert about your product is a way to gain your customers trust. That is why blogging is a great way to share your knowledge to your customers. Blogging not only allows you to grow a great collection of content about your product or services. As an added benefit, blogging will undoubtedly help you rank higher on Google.

    The Blogging Approach

    Every small business website usually has a handful of sections, their home page, a way to contact them and pages about their business. Those are very broad topic pages. A blog post should be about a specific and you can get into more details. You should write for your readers in a similar way you talk to them in person. Remember, the goal is to teach your readers first, so they have to be able to understand what you are saying.

    Blogging consistently will have many great results for your website. It will show your customers you know what you are talking about one blog post at a time. Before you know it, you will have a small library of information. Readers will come to you if you are able to explain your topic well, often referred to as “high quality” content in the SEO world. Bonus points if no one else is talking about what you are explaining in your blog post.

    Google and Your Blog

    This month marked Google’s 15th birthday, and Austin small businesses, if you want your customers to find you, then your website’s performance on Google is going to be among your main focuses. This past week there was a major announcement about Google changing their search algorithm, and actually had it quietly implemented for a few weeks, but how is this going to affect Austin small businesses?

    The truth is, you are Google’s customer, and their goal is to create the perfect search engine. Google wants its users to type in what they are looking for and show them exactly what they were searching for. Plain and simple. Whatever anyone tells you about how they know the secrets of Google’s magic formula, is baloney. This release from google, is one step closer to humanize the search process more and more. Give customers what they need to know, that is what Google wants, that is what you should want.

    Your blog, written for your customers understanding, will be what Google looks at the most. You have a small library of knowledge on your website. People in the same field will quote and link to your website’s blog explaining topics. This builds your backlinks and your credibility. Those points are vital to ranking high in Google. And that is how customers find you.

    Contact Austin Webpages today to get your blog setup and get direction on what to blog about. Contact us today for a free quote!

  • Why Your Small Business Needs a Website

    Why Your Small Business Needs a Website – Strong Internet Presence

    In today’s economy, there are many answers as to why your small business needs a website. It goes beyond just advertising, a website isn’t just a digital billboard in the cloud. Having a website can shrink the level of competition between a small business with few employees and those mid range size companies. Unfortunately, owners must overcome a few barriers to get a small business website. These usually are a lack of time or lack of know how.

    Every small business is going to have a goal in common – to get more customers. Today we will cover four reasons why your small business needs a website.

    Central Information about Your Product

    Your small business will have blogs, general content, online reviews and many more tools all centered around your website. This gives potential customers everything they need in a one stop shop.

    Why your small business needs a website - major components of a webpage

    • General Content – Visitors can learn about your products and what solutions are offered
    • Portfolio & Reviews – Potential customers can see your prior work and feel confident by reading previous customers’ experiences
    • Product Knowledge – You can show off your expertise on a subject on your blog or by posting short videos. This will further gain your customers’ trust about your product.
    • Communication – You can provide various ways for future customers to get in contact with your business. There can be contact info listed with your operational hours, a map to your business and online forms for customers to send messages to you directly.
    • Social Media – Put your customers to work by having them share your great product for you. Social Media is a great way to get the virtual word of mouth going. Using Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and all your social media accounts to drive future customers to your website

    These pillars are the core of a small business website. Your product will be known, communicated and searchable. And the best part yet… is that a website is affordable and very cost effective.

    Get More Customers

    A customer want to do business with people they can trust. How many times have you gone to amazon to buy a DVD player and sorted by most positive reviews? Businesses should already be monitoring product reviews that customers leave on their website or 3rd party websites like Yelp. But many small businesses stop there. Blogs, for example, are a way to grew trust with your customer base. Blogging shows off your product knowledge. Combining that with easy ways to contact  you will generate opportunities and leads. Your contact list will grow for use in newsletter and email campaigns. Remember, one of our goals is to get more customers.

    The technical side will also provide information about your customers. There are various internet analytic tools out there, such as Google Analytics. A customers interest in your products and services can be shown by the number of page views reported in the analytics tool on a specific page.  On the other hand, Google Analytics can also show you which specific pages are lacking visits or even being where customers exit your website.

    Expanding Your Services Online

    Once your business is online, your business is open 24 hours a day. People that were never exposed to your business due to location, time or any other barrier can now find you online. The goal is to get more customers by expanding the audience. Businesses that have been operating locally will expand their customer base to a larger area. More possible customers will lead to expanding your business.

    Customers can come to your website at any hour, read information about your products and services, engage in communication if need be, and finally get that order on the books. This is an affordable investment with little to no increase in staff and high ROI.

    Unique or niche markets benefit greatly from creating a website as they usually have low competition, so their benefits are multiplied.

    Credibility

    15 years ago, marketing a small business took a very different approach. Today, adding a website to a small business shows your small business has certain validity, establishment and the long term feel to it. Established businesses aren’t looking to take your money and run. A business webpage shows stability within the company and organization to maintain the page.

    A website for a small business shows that communicating to its customers is a priority. Being open to questions and feedback shows that the business has more interest that just getting the sale. These are all factors that build trust between the business and its customers, no matter if there is thousands of employees or a small handful. This is why your small business needs a website.

    Austin Webpages is a small Austin based company ready to take your small business online to maximize its marketing potential. Find a website you like the look and feel of, and contact us today!