ALL YOU NEED IS JUST ANY WEBSITE, RIGHT?

Wrong. This is what we hear a lot from clients either just starting out, or those who don’t understand the value of a website. Your website is the most important part of your business these days. Why? Because your website, when created correctly, can generate leads for you, provide information 24/7, direct visitors to specific information, sell your products and/or services, get you listed highly on search engines, help you get your money back (and then some) from any Pay-Per-Click advertising, help your website visitors know how to follow you on Social Media and stay connected with you, and also be the main hub for all of your content which you can share across the Internet. Those are just the basics.

Getting just any ole website will only do a couple or a few of those things at most. Also, designing a website for a professional is understanding how to deliver the message of your company to earn the trust and approval of visitors, convince them to input their contact information, and convince them to buy your products and/or services. The professional also understands how to build your website to maximize rankings on search engines. Is a free or cheap website going to do all that? Will the average $350 website “designer” understand your design, marketing, and technical needs all at the same time?

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Cheap websites are exactly like trying to open a business in a remote part of town and a building which badly needs repairs, is off the main road and up a hill, and has no sign…but the rent is dirt cheap!

Likewise, only caring about the aesthetics of your website is just as bad. One of our clients had an attractive website before coming to us. However, it wasn’t working to sell their products, because while it looked pretty it wasn’t designed with the end goal in mind…to sell the products they had in their Shop. This would be like renting out space in the best looking building in town, but forgetting to tell people how to park or where to walk in, then once they found their way inside, you hid the product on them.

Finally, the best solution. You have to design a website which looks professional and attractive, is simple enough to not confuse people, but robust enough to help them get all the information they’re looking for, and grab either a sale or at least their contact information before they leave. This is the equivalent of having a nice storefront on a main street, with an attractive sign out front and a beautiful window display.

Which of these businesses whould you like to own and operate?

THE COSTS
Now that we’ve identified the different kinds of website design philosophies which are out there, and gave you real-world analogies to help you with a frame of reference, let’s talk turkey…or…numbers.

What would be a good ROI on any investment you make? Double your money back? 5x? 10x return? Sure, we’d very much like to have a 100x or even 1,000x return on our investments, but how realistic do we think that actually is? Most would be happy between the 2-10x range, correct?

Well, let’s take the $350 website. A 10x return on that would be $3,500. Not much to live off of, is it? Any you know what? For a $350 website you could probably expect to get about $3,500 back for your efforts, that’s not unrealistic. However, that ain’t gonna put the kiddies through college.

The average Small Business website should cost between $3,000 and $7,500 these days. That is a fair range. Let’s look at our 10x return there…that’s $30k-75k in return. That’s looking better, now isn’t it? Sure, it’s still not going to buy you a yacht, but look at the investment vs the return. With a modest, but serious, investment, you can realistically build a business from these efforts and afford to grow. If you want to open a brick-and-mortar store, you have leasing costs, legal, renevations, staff, inventory, etc. You’re probably spending about $75-100k before you even have the door open for 6 months. So, why would $5,000 be unrealistic to hope to invest on a website which will help you get found on search engines, capture leads for new and interested customers, and help you sell your products and services?

Last point…you usually won’t have to spend all that money up-front if you don’t have it. Many companies will help you break up the payments or divide them out over months, even. This way, by the time you’re on your last payments, the increased revenue from your new and effective website should start paying for themselves.

Now, to be fair and realistic, not every business is guaranteed to make money, and your product may be undesirable. One never knows. However, you believe in your business which is why you’re in business. Why not give it a serious effort and give yourself the best possible chance of making a living off of your business? When you have a good product or service, and you have an effective strategy and build the right kind of website, you can easily expect to make a very solid return on your investment…and then some!

Joel Metzer of the L.A. Business Spotlight Podcast sat down recently with Circle Marketing’s Louis Tanguay to discuss some tips and hints for Small Business Marketing success. Their interview can be heard below, and you can subscribe to the L.A. Business Spotlight Podcast through their iTunes page.

(Note: to listen below, please make sure you allow QuickTime to work and give it a second or two to load…then enjoy!)

In the interview, they go over the Biggest Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses make with their websites and social media; the correct way to go about placing online advertisements; and the important of e-mail marketing. There’s also a bonus segment discussing how The Circle of Marketing keeps all phases of your marketing outreach finely tuned, aligned, and constantly spinning for bigger and bigger revenue! This interview is definitely a must-hear! Enjoy, and please comment below!

1. Ineffective Messaging

• Failing to understand who the customer truly is…Model your top two customers…create the “person” you’re speaking to
• Not speaking TO the customer’s needs, only about how great your company is.

2. Poor Content

• Blog might not exist
• Blog posts aren’t optimized for keywords
• Content isn’t fresh
• Spelling and grammar mistakes
• Having large paragraphs of text, long sentences, or long pages. articles/posts should be 400-750 words, 3-5 visual lines for a paragraph, and about 2-3 paragraphs minimum to 5-6 paragraphs at the very maximum.

3. Not being Mobile-compatible

• iPads are now in the millions
• Mobile phones are outselling desktop computers
• Mobile phone internet usage is surpassing desktop internet usage

4. Unprofessional Design and Branding

• Lot of dead space
• No information due to pushing info down on page
• Poor quality graphics/branding
• Important content Below the Fold
• Use of Flash, and (worse) Flash Landing pages.
• Poor usability and navigation
• Visitor can’t find what they’re looking for
• Navigation is hidden, not in the place the user is looking for, or is too clever for it’s own good.
• No search (if applicable)
• NEVER have a site’s navigation in Flash
• Never have auto-play music/sound
• Poor Conversion/Functionality
• Children pages are “dead-ends”
• Remove the clutter, make it simple but not plain, and obvious what action the user should take.

5. Not using a Marketing Company to handle your marketing needs.

• Trying to do it all yourself takes time to learn, and time away from running your business
• Just having a web site, but not updating it, creates a “dead” website and google will not give it high rankings
• Reaching out via social media, posting your articles on Fb, Tw, etc., Consistently creating blog posts, etc will help keep it relevant, fresh, updated, and give it better ranking results from search engines.
• Experts can help you form a short-term and long-term marketing/growth plan for your company.
• Experts stay up to date with the latest marketing trends, strategies,tactics, and techniques so you don’t have to. You can spend more time working in your business, like you’re doing now, and know someone is helping you work on your business
• Hiring someone with the knowledge of how to market your business can cost anywhere from $60,000-$100,000 depending on your market geography and what you require. The cost could be more if you require technical needs, or hire them on staff and need to pay insurance & benefits, etc….while hiring a marketing company can save you $50k-$75k minimum

NOTE: Reminder that this article was essentially a Part 2 to our original “Top 5 Website Mistakes You Shouldn’t Be Making” article. Please check that out, and let us know what you think in the comments below. Thanks for reading and sharing, we truly and genuinely appreciate all the support.

Recently, Circle Marketing’s founder and managing director, Louis Tanguay, was asked to appear on Lisa Steadman’s WooHoo Radio Show! Lisa’s a ball of energy and excitement, and she’s always full of such useful information about personal and professional branding. Check out her WooHoo Radio show, and also her business website as well.

In their segment together (embedded below), Lisa and Louis discussed the Top 3 Essentials for websites to be most effective, and some ways every company can up-level their brand and kick their business into a higher gear.

Don’t forget to check out Lisa’s website and radio show! She’s a blast to be around, and very fun as well as informative!

Congratulations! You have a small business and you’re either just starting out, or you know you need some help to move to another level. You’re seeking out some advice and ideas. This is the first step to getting to that next level. You’re already ahead of the thousands of other Small Businesses which feel that “figuring it out” is the best course of action. This is why you’ll still be in business when they’re packing up the final boxes and wondering what went wrong.

CHOOSING COMPANIES
First bit of advice is when you’re choosing a Small Business marketing company to help you out, whether it’s for a website design, social media marketing, or any help at all, just know that it’s perfectly OK to judge a book by it’s cover. When you go to a company’s website and it looks horrid, their work is not aesthetically pleasing, or they won’t get specific with you on process or price, then it’s OK to feel that they won’t be able to help you achieve your goals. Many so-called “professionals” (so-called by themselves and no one else) and companies are just looking for as many clients and/or as much money as they can get. They don’t approach projects from that very important “win win” mindset. At Circle Marketing, for example, we don’t have “clients we close”…we have “partnerships we open.” This is because we want to be there for our clients every step of the way, and our very affordable packages and pricing are set up to measure your goals over the course of time and provide you with a very specific road map on how to do so.

Now on to the freebie advice! Yay!

YOUR WEBSITE AS A MARKETING TOOL
First thing first, you’ll need a new site in most cases. You should most likely have a CMS (Content Management System) site, which is focused on getting leads and selling your products and services. You’ll most likely want a blog, and might possibly even need forums, ad placement, or a number of other requirements, depending on your business. Your website is something you own and you control, and you won’t be effected by fads or trends. You want your website to be the main hub of content, information, and traffic for your business. If you’re getting more traffic on your Facebook page instead of your website, then your website isn’t being run properly. Everything you do in marketing should lead your customers and potential customers back to your website. There, you should be focused on capturing leads and increasing sales.

Your website should also be designed and developed with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind. This will help you rank higher on search engines for the search terms your customers are entering into Google, Bing and others to find your business. When you combine the idea that your website should look professional, is optimized for Search Engines, and you are focused on leads and conversions, then your site will be unstoppable and you should see your business increase just from a better website alone.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Next, you’ll have to figure out how you want to use Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. Know that each social network has a different vibe, customer mindset and way of posting. Start on Facebook by creating a business/brand page, and asking people to connect with you there. Create some highly targeted Facebook Ads and publish only the best and most interesting and most helpful content which originates from your website. This way, you can pull your Facebook followers back to your main marketing hub, which is your website, and get more business. Facebook is an attraction tool, a publicity tool, and a customer relationship tool. Rarely is Facebook a direct sales tool.

Now on to Google Plus. At the time I’m writing this, Google Plus is rewarding their users with extra SEO muscle. So, get on Google Plus, create a brand page, and tie that in to your Google Places/Google Local page. Oh, you don’t have a Google Places page? Well, if you’re a brick-and-mortar business (i.e. you have a physical location where customers can go to) then you must have your business page on Google Places (aka Google Local). Connect the two pages together so you can post all your blogs, news, etc on one page, and have that one page be able to accept user reviews and be found easier when people are doing local searches on Google.

Bonus Tip: Also set up a Bing Local account as well, because Facebook and many others are starting to tie in to Bing and it’s popularity is rising. And…it’ll help you cover your bases.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
You’re going to get list on the top of Google’s and Bing’s search results two ways. The first way is you’re going to have to buy ads. The second way is by having some high-quality, long-lasted, completely 100% by-the-book Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Why mention “by the book?” Well, because there are way too many individuals and companies out there who know SEO takes a while and is never guaranteed, so they try to get a company on a long-term contract which the client can’t get out of. The best SEO strategies involve a lot of work, a little bit of money to pay a service or company to do that work, and also a lot of knowledge. Search Engines change their algorithms constantly to keep providing their users with the most relevant search results to their queries.

The basic idea of SEO is it’s like a referral system. Think of Google/Bing as your elite 5-Star hotel concierge. They know everything about whatever you want to know, and they’ll help you find whatever you’re looking for and give you the best advice and answers to your questions. These are modern day search engines. How do they know? They look at a great number of statistics, but the simplest way to explain it is that the more higher profile websites which are linking to your site and mentioning your site as an expert in your field, then the higher you will rank in the search results.

Hire an expert with proven results, no long-term contracts, and stay on them with charts and reports to make sure you’re seeing results…or move on to someone with a better reputation and better results.

Bonus Tips:
1. Get an Email Marketing and Email List provider like MailChimp or Constant Contact so you can regularly and easily communicate with your customers and leads.
2. Explore what other Social Networks might also be right for your particular business to use in your marketing. Examples: Pinterest is great for e-commerce, LinkedIn is great for B2B, Facebook is not so great for B2B and much better for B2C, and Google Plus is great for SEO (as of right now, which will probably change as Google keeps changing their search algorithms).
3. Buy some Ads on Google Adwords and Bing Ads. Until your SEO kicks in, you’re going to need visibility. To get great visibility quickly, you’re going to have to buy it. However, that’s why we’re suggesting SEO, so you won’t have to buy is for long!

With these tips, you’ll be able to hit the ground running and start going in the right direction. Give us a Call or E-Mail and mention that you saw this blog for a detailed and customized Free Consultation. We’ll help you figure out specifics for your particular business and target market, and we’ll help get you going in the right direction!

MISTAKE #1:
Forgetting The Number One Rule of Business: Business is All About Relationships.

Customers want to buy from companies and people they trust, and value the products from. Customers will refer their friends, family, and acquaintances to businesses and products they have good relationships with (product works great for them, company had great customer service, sales person was there for them every step of the way, etc). The web allows companies more opportunity than ever to develop, nurture, and expand upon relationships with their customers. Focus first on the customer, and you’ll find that you’ll have better customers, better conversions, and better evangelists of past customers who go out and spread the good word about you and your services which of course leads to new customers. Keep that Circle of Marketing going and going and going…

MISTAKE #2:
Losing The Money-Making Mindset Which Help Them Become Successful In The First Place.

Most businesses start out with the money-making mindset, where the small business owner will take out a loan, take calculated risks, and invest in the future of their business. The most successful small businesses also have great products and strategies.

When a business becomes successful, or at least stable, most owners unfortunately flick a mental switch and enter what we like to call “Reverse Thinking.” Instead of focusing on how to make money, and stick to the strategies and tactics which got them there, they get complacent and comfortable and afraid. Ever see a sports team “playing not to lose” instead of “playing to win?” This is what happens to businesses who eventually fail. They plateau, get comfortable, then stay there until the business eventually starts falling off because they’re not nurturing it and growing it. Your competition new and old is staying up with things and thinking of ways to beat you. Don’t let them. Keep moving and planning and stay successful by going back to the things which got you where you are (or keep doing things which are working and getting you on your way).

MISTAKE #3:
Choosing Vendors & Services Based Solely On Price, and Not ROI.

“How Much Will This Cost?” is the LAST question you should be asking, not the first. The first question you should always be thinking and asking is “How Much Money Will This Make Me?” This way, you will know what your Return On Investment is when you do get to the pricing question. Pricing on services is usually flexible depending on what your specific needs and strategies are. Find out the level of success you want to aim for, first, then find a price program which fits into that. When you’re about to buy a car, you don’t go looking for the cheapest car you can find, because “all cars are the same.” You know what you want in a car, then look for cars in a range you can afford, and find the best car for your needs and purposes. Same with services. You can always find “cheaper.” Most of the time, though, “Cheap” is still “cheap” in many ways other than cost.

If a vendor or service provider can’t give you numbers, expectations, and strategies on how their product or service can meet your business goals, then walk away. Actually, don’t walk away…RUN AWAY! Any company that can’t address your business goals with what they’re providing is just going to be a complete waste of your money. No matter how cheap the price is, if someone can’t give you expectations of results, then any money you spend is wasted money. We believe you should never waste money.

If I gave you the option to spend $500 on something that would never work, or spend $2,000 on something that would make you $10,000, and have a strategy to get you there….which would you choose? (Hint: If you chose $500, please read this article again.)

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So there you have it! Now you can promise yourself to never make any of these 3 mistakes and you’ll be well on your way to getting the kind of success you deserve and desire. You’ll know how to stay focused, stay strategic, and keep moving in an upward direction with your small business! If you need some assistance, call us and ask what we can do to help you, or check out our online Marketing Course for Small Businesses, which can help you learn at your own very affordable pace.

1. No Clear Call-To-Action on Web Pages

The first step is what happens when someone comes to your Home Page. This is one of the biggest issues, and creates an incredibly high Bounce Rate (people come to your site and leave immediately without doing anything). High Bounce Rates = Bad Website. Most visitors will leave a site if they become confused or can’t easily find what they are looking for. Let’s fix this.

You’ll need a clear Call-To-Action (CTA) on every page, especially the Home Page. A Call-To-Action is a main element, picture, box, messaging, etc which instructs the visitor what you want them to do above all other options. Whether it’s a slider on the home page, or an email sign-up form, or your blog posts, you must have a clear and clean instruction for what you want the visitor to do now that they’re on your website. If you’re selling shoes, then put some pictures for shoes on the home page and a few links and pictures to purchase your shoes. Make it obvious and the main thing that sticks out on the page. It’s preferable to have two Calls-To-Action, but don’t make them both the same size and importance. There should be a main CTA, and a secondary one.

This goes for your interior pages, as well. Nowadays, with blogs and search engines pulling up the most relevant information for any and every search query, not every user will come to your site through your Home Page. This is important to know that you will need a main Call-To-Action on the interior pages as well. Maybe your Blog’s CTA is the blog article itself, but the secondary CTA is your e-mail sign-up form, for example.

2. Website Isn’t Properly Optimized for Search Engine Rankings

In today’s world of Search Engines dominating the world we live in, have a website that’s not properly optimized for maximum Search Engine rankings is a huge mistake. If you can’t be found, then you’ll either have to buy traffic to your website, or you won’t have any traffic at all, because you won’t exist in the eyes of the search world.

For a longer list of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips & Tricks, please read our article on that subject, but here’s a quick over view so you know what you’re looking for. You want to make sure you know which KeyWords you want to rank for, how much competition there is for those KeyWords, and also place those KeyWords throughout your pages, page titles, web page addresses, and in the ALT Tags of your images. Don’t over-do it. Just follow the best practices guidelines and you’ll be rising in the rankings in no time (if you constantly keep doing it, of course).

Also, make sure that you create an XML Site Map and submit that Site Map to Google and Bing through each of their Web Master Tools Accounts.

3. No Social Media integration

Much like Search Engines, Social Networks are also ubiquitous these days, and offer a great deal of visibility opportunity for your business. It’s very easy to put in a free WordPress plugin (if you’re using WordPress), which will automatically place Social Media sharing buttons at the end of every Blog post on your website. You can also enter in a line of code to allow visitors to Like your Facebook page or Follow you on Twitter without ever leaving your website! This is great functionality, and the combined possibility of allowing sharing and capturing social fans is immensely powerful.

Another great idea is to replace your default commenting area in your blog articles with a 3rd Party platform which can help encourage sharing. For example, Facebook Comments will allow the poster of the comment to allow that comment to be visible on their Facebook Profile and in their News Feed so their friends can see that they’ve commented on your Blog article. This increases the opportunity to connect with others without having to do anything (and for FREE, too).

4. Not Tracking/Analyzing results/progress

If you didn’t know how many visitors were coming to your site, how would you know if you had increased traffic? If you didn’t know where they were coming from, how would you know which off-site efforts were working? If you didn’t know what pages on your website your visitors were viewing, how long they were viewing each page, and which page they left on, then how would you be able to know how well your website is working, what’s working, and where you need improvement? You wouldn’t be able to fix anything.

Good news. Google Analytics does all that…and then some. The best part? It’s way more than most websites will ever need, and it’s all free! Install Google Analytics on every single page of your website, especially your shopping cart and all pages throughout the entire checkout process (if you sell online). Now, you’ll be able to see which pages get the most views, which pages people your site leave on, and even how much money you’re making! It’s truly one of the most helpful tools available on all of the Internet that will help your business.

5. Not Having Strong Lead Generation Element (aka E-Mail List Sign-Up)

When a visitor comes to your website, they are most likely a potential customer. They are on your website looking for something. Imagine you have a brick-and-mortar (aka “real life”) store front, and you could capture most of the personal contact information of everyone who walks in the store. Would that be helpful to you? You better believe it. Yet, many many websites don’t have a clear and inviting way for these visitors to sign-up for your email list. Instead, they make the visitor not only work to find the sign-up form, but don’t convince them that it’s a good move.

Instead of just having a “Sign Up for our Email List” form, incentivize them with giving them something for signing up. This also helps you know what kind of people are signing up for your list. Also, you’re making the sign-up form more obvious. Maybe give away an E-Book when they sign up. Something of value that they would want, and by the nature of your offer you’ll know what the person is looking for, because that offer was valuable enough to them to sign up.

Finally, telling them what they can get from signing up goes a long way to them actually signing up. For example, a travel website with the form reading, “Sign Up for our Weekly Travel Tips and Suggested Destinations” will get way way more sign-ups to their E-Mail List then just the plain, vague and boring request in the above paragraph.

E-Mail is one of the best forms of communication with your customers and potential customers. Reason being is because these days the user has to go through a double-opt-in process. hey fill out the form, and then have to click a link in their e-mail to confirm they want to be on your E-Mail List. The person who goes through that process really is interested in hearing what you have to say and doesn’t mind you telling them about it periodically. So, treat them with the respect they deserve as your best prospects and those who are ready to find out more about your company, products, and services.

There you have it. If you notice that you are making one or two of these mistakes, they are easy fixes. If you notice you are making all of these mistakes, then thank goodness you found out now before it’s too late! We offer a Marketing Course which is done online and will give you all kinds of immensely valuable information like the tips above. If you’re making more than one of these mistakes, you might be making mistakes in other areas of your business, too, which could be inhibiting you from attaining your desired business goals and success. Call us if you have more questions, or just comment below and let us know what you think! As always, thanks for sharing this and for your comments!

You forgot the most important part about making the film. Marketing it. If you rely only on selling the film to a distributor or studio, then what happens if (and this is more likely to happen than you like) no one buys the film? What then?

Much like music bands before the explosion of digital music, major entertainment companies want a proven product before they waste their money and time marketing an unproven commodity. No matter how much your film is amazing by your standards, most won’t make a move on something they aren’t sure will produce profit. That’s just a fact. How do I know this? Because I worked at two different major film studios, and I’ve been in those meetings. Every film marketing meeting I have been in has talked about sales and profit and zero talked about releasing the film because the “story needs to be told.” It’s your job to make a great film. It’s the studio’s job to make money off it.

How do you create a buzz about your film, so if it’s genius isn’t seen on the festival circuit it still has a chance of getting a deal? You embrace modern technology and modern marketing strategies and techniques like Websites, Social Media, Search Engine Optimization, Publicity, and Advertising.

Try this basic Marketing Strategy for Independent Film Marketing:

1. Start the awareness by creating a press release to all film media publication editors and bloggers.
2. Get a WordPress website built (NO FLASH), which has a blog and an email sign-up form on your site (get a MailChimp account to manage your email list).
3. Set up all of your Social Media Pages. Get a Twitter Account, Facebook Account, Tumblr Blog (use this differently from your website blog), and Google Plus Account.
4. Blog often. Whether it’s a snippet of the script, or monthly, weekly, daily progress reports from pre-production, production, and post-production. Respect the power of blogging. You’ll build a strong following with your email list, and that following could be ready-made customers if you can’t secure a deal.
5. Do the same with Social Media Marketing. Build that fan base and following. Take out Facebook Ads, sponsored stories, and join filmmaker user groups to help spread the word and get free publicity help from other filmmakers (do the same for their film, to return the favor). Post cool lines from the film, pictures from the set or pre-production meetings, and everything and anything else to keep awareness up and people interested and continuously curious about your film.
6. Have a Plan B for Monetization. If you can’t sell the film to a distributor, then consider monetizing the film through ads. If you have a feature film of 90 Minutes, you can split the film into 3-6 segments, put ads at the beginning of each segment, and you’ll get paid through the ads while people watch for free (like your own little Hulu channel). Also, you can charge one flat fee for an ad-free digital download. All profit. All in your pocket.

Using this rough strategy, you’ll build awareness throughout the life of the film, provide exposure, build a loyal following, and have a Plan B for monetizing the film should you not land a distribution deal. Also, you’ll have a growing list of satisfied and interested followers and customers for your NEXT film! Now…go out and break a leg!

This is something many professional web designers fail to explain properly to their clients and prospective clients, so I hope to help them out a little here, too.

When you get a few quotes for website design, you’re going to notice what could be a wide range of pricing. You may get quotes as high as $10,000 or as low as $500. Why is this? Its usually due to the combination of what you have asked for, how big the company you’re receiving the quite from is or if it’s an individual designer, how experienced the designer is, whether they are going to give you a custom website or just tweak a theme, or even if they’re going to outsource the work to another country. There are many many factors which go into a website quote and it’s important to know that.

Inexpensive Help (aka My Nephew Is Tech Savvy and Can Do My Website)
You may think what you need and want is simple, but might not understand the development complexity of making it simple. On the other hand, your developer might be in experienced (or worse, lazy) and you might not be getting the website with all the optimization, checks, and balances you deserve as a professional business owner. The cheaper designer may not include all the conversion elements necessary to create the maximum opportunity for you to convert visitors into leads or customers. This costs you money.

Let’s say you sell are a yoga studio. When people come to your website, there is no information on classes, or where to get on an e-mail list, or how to purchase retail products like Yoga mats, Yoga blocks, or other items. You are losing potential sales with every visit.

The Template Site
If you think you’re saving major money by just getting a template site. Sounds like a great deal, right? Only $5/month (if that) and you can “do it all yourself” and have your very own website! Now that you have a website you can start getting found on Google and people will start coming to your business! All for under $60 a year! Sounds too good to be true? Well, it is.

You are most likely not a developer, nor a web designer. Template sites are built with the lowest common denominator in mind. Trying to be all things to all people. 95% of Templates are not designed even for proper optimization or usability. To get a Template website to perform functionally sound and to be optimized for conversion and search results, you’re going to have to hire someone to do some custom CSS coding and add some plug-ins…if the Template even allows that.

When you try to save money, you usually end up paying for it one way or another, so let’s examine how we should do it right.

Pay A Fair Price For A Quality Site
In the grand scheme of things, would you pay $1 for something that would give you anywhere from $2-200 return on that dollar? If you say “no,” then you should rethink being a business owner.  

A quality website (ranging from $1,500-5,000, or more if you have a shopping cart or custom elements) is not “expensive.” A quality website which is optimized for top search engine rankings, has social sharing capabilities, and is professionally designed and compatible with all computers and mobile devices is an investment in your business. This is your online storefront.

If you own a brick-and-mortar business, did you just get the cheapest possible retail space and not paint the walls or fix the cracked glass? Where you happy to “just have something up?” To use an analogy which applies to most people…when you bought your car did you just get the cheapest car you could find that technically ran, or did you shop around for the best value, safety features, MPG, etc?

Cheap websites will cost you way more in lost business than a quality and professionally-built website would have ever cost you in the first place. Alleviate all the pain and stress you could encounter from a relative with a computer or a computer-generated not-user-friendly template site, and contact a professional marketing agency who can help you create the very best and most efficient site for your business. You’ll thank me later. I promise.

Many people have paid hundreds of dollars for webinars like this, but Circle Marketing and Broadcast Louder figured putting together this free 2-hour class would help Small Business owners kick off the new year on the right foot!

Click here to watch the webinar, but get a notepad ready because there’s a TON of information to help your business grow!

For those who want to move at their own pace, and prefer to have PDF’s instead of watch videos, please feel free to download the supplemental ebook by joining our email list below: