PowerSites Blog

By Jason Feller, PowerSites Content & Community Manager

Social Media: Online communities where users engage with one another and their favorite brands in an interactive format.

Competing with the big boys as a small business isn’t easy. The major brands have inherent advantages that can be very difficult to overcome.

Thanks to social media, however, small businesses can turn the tables and capitalize on their strengths.

Let social media serve as your megaphone.

Two of the most significant ways in which small businesses have an edge are in customer loyalty and word-of-mouth advertising.

Social media allows small businesses the opportunity to build on both.

In his blog post Why Small Business Have A Huge Advantage Over Brands In Social Media, Francisco Rosales adroitly points out “Brands are far from becoming human and getting the user engaged for real. … They will take advantage of your special deal or rant about bad experiences but that’s it. When it comes to small business, it’s easy for an individual to become the voice of the company, a personal brand that builds trust around a product or service with a human touch.”

That distinction is critical. Small businesses have thrived for generations because of their ability to create personal relationships with their customers. This leads to customer loyalty and prevents those customers from taking their business elsewhere.

The same concept applies with social media. The major brand might have five million fans/followers, but those five million could be less valuable than the 500 a small business has, because the small businesses’ community is likely to be much more engaged.

Another key to remember is that building customer loyalty is a long-term strategy. Print ads in the PennySaver are still probably your best bet for having an immediate impact.

As Mark Schaefer explains in his article, How does a small business move into social media marketing?, “For many small companies, the result from social media marketing is more like the long-term benefits of networking at a chamber of commerce meeting. … short-term benefits are certainly possible — but in general, aim for long-term benefits such as increasing customer loyalty.”

When it comes to word-of-mouth advertising, social media has immense potential. It’s much more common for people to tell their friends about some new burger joint they just discovered than it is for them to talk to their friends about some major brand.

The beauty of this is that it doesn’t even require you to do any work, but having a great product. Your product will spread through social media organically. And by paying attention to when your product is mentioned on social media in a positive (or negative) light, you can respond directly to your customers and help spread the word even more.

By Som Mathur, PowerSites Marketing Analyst

Why do so many businesses in a recession struggle to get by?

It’s not because of bad luck, a lack of funds, or even a drop in sales. These are symptoms, not causes. The big reason is the lack of willingness to adapt to change.

Many businesses don’t bother to look for changes in their customer base or their market. In fact, many of them don’t even know how.

The more you know about your customers, the better.

By adapting your business, you can get ahead of the curve and even possibly increase sales in a downturn. It’s not as hard as you think either …

If you track just two simple metrics, you can get all the information you need to make it through hard times. You might even thrive in a market that was hidden before.

So what are the two metrics to track?

1. Sales
2. Repeat Sales

That’s it.  These metrics give you the best chance for surviving a recession, and put you ahead of 95% of your competitors.

Sales tell you where your marketing efforts are working and on what demographics. Repeat sales tell you who your best customers are. Focus your marketing efforts on getting more repeat sales.

Many business don’t keep even the basic info (name, address, email,  products/ services ordered) on their customers when they get orders.

It’s harder for some business to get customer info, like fast-food restaurants. Still, they can use contests, prizes, short surveys, and similar tactics to get that info.

Either way, do what you can to get background info on your customers. This includes getting your customer’s name, address, number of orders, products/ services purchased, email address, and phone number.

The more info, the better. If you can’t get this info from all of your customers, try for at least 10% of them.

Use that info to get a clear picture of who your repeat customers are. They are the ones that bring you the most money. Then contact them and find out the reasons why they buy from you and not someone else.

Don't let this happen to you.

Take that information to gear your sales and marketing campaigns to appeal to those repeat customers, or turn some more one-time buyers into repeat customers.

The longer you track both metrics, the easier it will be to see which customers are leaving or staying when there’s a downturn. Then you can change your marketing and sales strategy to appeal to your best customers and keep your sales up.

There are sales-tracking software programs available, too. They can you save you a lot of time when tracking and organizing your sales data. In fact, you can get most of the functions you need by using Google Docs, absolutely free.

The best part is that your competitors won’t figure out what you’re doing, so you have a special competitive advantage.

Don’t just hunker down in a downturn. Get the customer info you need to take evasive action.

By Isaac Taylor, PowerSites Jr. Product Manager

Step 1

Define your target audience (who’s looking for my products/services?)

Before you try to optimize your site for search engines you’ll need to figure out who you’re trying to attract to your site.

You may operate the best auto repair shop in your area, but if you’re not targeting people who need repair work for their vehicles then your site won’t be of any value to you.

Step 2

Define the geographic location of your target audience (where are they going to make their purchases?)

Most business owners should have a pretty good idea of where the majority of their customers come from. If you’re just starting out as a new business then you’ll probably just want to begin with focusing on the city that you’re business is located in.

People no longer go to the phone book to find local businesses. Now they go online. The way you get found online is through search engine optimization best practices.

Another great way to gather this information is through the use of a call tracking number. This is a service that’s included for free with every PowerSite. A call tracking number takes your existing phone number and automatically forwards a new phone number to it.

Step 3

Define what you want to share with your target audience (why are they looking for my products/services?)

By completing steps 1 and 2 this next step will almost take care of itself. You’ll simply need to consider why your target audience is looking for your specific products and/or services.

An auto repair shop that’s really good at repairing radiators will want to share their knowledge of various radiator problems as well as what can cause those problems. This sets them up as experts in the eyes of the visitors to their site, and it will help their visitors to feel empowered by gaining a better understanding of why their radiator isn’t working properly.

Step 4

Consider the keywords that fit your message (what keywords are your target audience using to search for your products/services?)

Now that you know who you want to speak to and what you want to say, you simply need to determine what the best words are to say it. Again, this will be a fairly straight forward process. Just think about what people are going to be asking about when they’re searching for your products and/or services.

These words are called “keywords”, and the keywords that people are using to find your products and/or services should influence the language of your site.

Using the auto shop as an example, we’ll be able to determine that “radiator” should be one of the keywords, and more than likely, the main keyword on the site.

The auto shop owner should know of some additional industry specific keywords that people may be using based on past experience. However, if you’d like some additional help there is a tool known as the Google Keyword Tool that people can use to help them find the ideal keywords for their websites.

You’ll want to avoid using keywords that have more than a couple hundred thousand local monthly searches because those will be highly targeted by big companies. You’ll also want to avoid keywords that have fewer than 20,000 local searches because you generally won’t see much action from those.

Step 5

Using your chosen keywords, write the message that you want to communicate to your target audience (How do I fulfill their needs?)

Now that you’ve chosen the main keyword that you’d like to build your site around, as well as several other ideal keywords that will get your site listed in front of your target audience, you’ll be able to complete all of the content for your site.

If I’m an auto repair shop owner that’s trying to get found by people in Chino, CA who need their radiators repaired, then I’m going to ensure that the majority of my content is about that very topic and relevant to people in that area.

The first place to start is with the very first sentence that will appear on the homepage of the site. This sentence should contain the main keyword along with the target location of my site, but it shouldn’t be forced in there, it should read naturally.

For more detailed SEO guidelines please check out the upcoming e-book we plan to release on the subject.

By Isaac Taylor, PowerSites Jr. Product Manager

What is SEO?

SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s the process of optimizing websites for inclusion in organic, or non-paid, search engine listings. It is essential to familiarize yourself with SEO because this is what will open up the gates to the wonderful world of increased revenue streams.

Why is SEO important for my business?

The purpose of a business website is to attract potential customers searching for the products and/or services that you offer; but if you step back and look at the World Wide Web from a grand perspective you’ll see that it’s literally a “web” of billions upon billions of websites which is growing bigger every day.

You want the #1 spot in the search engine rankings for your category. PowerSites helped deliver the top ranking for its customer AA Smog Inc.

Most websites link to only a few similar sites, so if you consider navigating this “web” of sites from the perspective of a single user who’s logged into the internet from their home computer, you quickly realize that this one person couldn’t possibly have a clue about how to find what they’re looking for without some expert help to guide them.

Search engines are those experts, driving users to the content they want.

Search engines are essentially groups of high-powered computers that continuously crawl through the web like spiders; they’re always looking for new websites or changes to existing sites that they can add to their indexes.

As these very powerful computers add the sites they find to their index, they’re also analyzing each site’s content to determine what it is about. Search engines will then rank each site for keywords that the search engines believe relevant to the content of the sites. It’s this indexing and ranking process that website owners hope to influence via SEO work.

As you may have already discovered, not every business owner who creates a website is able to clearly communicate what products and/or services they provide. This often leaves search engines scratching their proverbial heads when they try to index websites that claim to be about one thing but have the content of something completely different.

An example of this would be a website that’s labeled as a plumbing site, but all of the content on the site is about digging trenches and clearing out roots. The plumber may be really good at lying down drainage lines, but in their excitement to share the details of how they prep the ground for their work, they completely forgot to mention anything about the plumbing process itself.

To combat the problem of site content not matching its site labels, search engines have provided ‘website creation best practices’ which I will cover in more detail in a later post.

SEO is important to your business because with proper implementation your site will appear in front of more potential customers who are searching for the products and/or services that you provide.

By Isaac Taylor, PowerSites Jr. Product Manager

What are SEO and SEM?

SEO (search engine optimization): The process of optimizing websites for inclusion in organic, or non-paid, search engine listings.

SEM (search engine marketing): The process of marketing web sites through internet search engines using non-paid as well as paid channels.

Is SEO a part of SEM?

Yes. SEO is leveraging the non-paid listings of search engine result pages (SERPs) and is considered to be part of the SEM channel.

How is SEO used in an SEM campaign?

The process of optimizing a site for search engines includes one or more of the following:

• Placing relevant, high quality content on a site.
• Optimizing keywords to match the site’s content.
• Keyword rich meta tags
• Entering geo-locators if the site should found by people in a specific geographic region
• Back-link building
• Properly structured sitemaps
• Adding multi-media and graphics with correct alternate text

By correctly leveraging the elements listed above, which will be discussed in greater detail in a later post, you can influence search engines to give more weight to your site over your competitors’ sites. If a search engine believes that your site has more relevant content for your target keywords than your competitors’ site does, then your site will be listed higher in the organic search results area when people search for those keywords.

Though SEO is an ongoing process, once the foundation has been properly laid, you’ll be able to focus on and move forward with other elements of your SEM campaign.

What else falls under the SEM umbrella?

• Search engine directory submissions and management
• Paid inclusion
• PPC (pay-per-click)
• Link building and management
• Performance monitoring and reporting

So…Pay-Per-Click isn’t the same thing as SEM either?

Correct, pay-per-click (PPC) is only a single part of an SEM campaign. Many people have mistaken PPC and SEM as being the same thing; however, PPC is just part of a much larger endeavor to get your site found online.

Where are the organic and paid listings on a Google search result page?

Paid listings can appear at the top of the page, the right hand side of the page, and sometimes at the bottom of the page.

Organic listings will appear in the middle of the page if there are paid listings above them. If there aren’t any paid listings above them you will find the organic listings beginning at the top of the page.

A graphical view of paid vs. organic listings on Google’s search engine results page (SERP).

SEM contains many tools that can help you increase exposure to your web site using both paid and non-paid channels. By leveraging such tools as SEO and PPC you’ll see the quantity and quality of your site’s traffic improve.

By Howard Young, PennySaverUSA’s Vice President of Sales, Northern California

People find and select the businesses they choose to frequent through a variety of different means.

Given that fact, you obviously want to give potential customers every opportunity to find you, no matter what method they use.

You can improve your advantage of being found and selected by positioning your advertising on both print and the internet.

Why does this work?  One potential customer looking for services or products will see your ad in print, and another will find your web site in a Google search. Contact a local PowerClicks rep to learn more about how we can help you get seen on Google and other search engines.

More consumers will see your business positioned as a credible entity, and they will also see it more often because it’s in print and online. This leaves an indelible mark that engenders confidence and trust that can lead to an initial purchase and oftentimes a loyal customer who identifies with your brand.

Consumers are increasingly cross-referencing businesses they have chosen in print by researching them online. They visit the business web site, use Google or other search engines to find additional information, reviews, comparative pricing, social media links, maps & online coupons.

People hear about your business in print and then go to your web site to find more information.

Your print ad remains important and often serves as the gateway to the massive internet audience and provides an opportunity to promote your web address.

The expansiveness of the web site allows you to communicate so much more information to the consumer, including testimonials, company history, pictures, specialized information, upcoming events, philosophy or values, biography of key personnel, reviews, customer declarations, and a Contact Us’ email link for questions or customer care.

Social media is on fire! By having a print and online presence, you give your web savvy customers the ultimate satisfaction of being able to rave about you instantaneously.

Every customer that accesses you on the web can include that link in their Tweet about you, write a Yelp review while visiting your business or “check-in” at your business on Facebook to tell their friends and invite friends to join them.

The more opportunities you give your customers to find you and spread the word about your amazing business, the more successful your business will be.

Looking to build your online presence? Ask your local PennySaverUSA rep about Powersites – our all-in-one website hosting, creation, and marketing service.

By Drew Fortin, Marketing Director of Digital Products at PennySaverUSA

While many large and medium sized businesses are busy gearing up for the umpteenth iteration of their website and are busy connecting with their audience in social media, many small and local businesses are so busy just running the day-to-day business, they haven’t emphasized their online presence.

The main rejection is always the same – “I don’t have the time or the money to make it worth my while.”

The Internet can be a daunting place.  Where do I start?  It costs how much to get to the top of the search engines? How long will it take to rank at the top of the search engines without paying?  How do I know if all of my online investment is paying off?

All of these questions make complete sense.  However, leaving these questions unanswered is simply an excuse.  Here are six reasons why every small and local business should have an online presence:

Many consumers now do online research before making a purchase. You'll be left behind if you don't have -- or fail to monitor -- your web presence.

1. Expanding your customer base

Gone are the days of placing an ad in the phonebook or relying on 411 directory assistance to direct foot traffic to your storefront.  While there is certainly something to be said for curb appeal, the web is one of the first places a majority of consumers go when they need a product or service.  PowerReviews 2011 Social Shopping Study revealed that “50% of consumers spend 75% or more of their total shopping time conducting online product research, with 15% spending 90% or more of their shopping time in this manner.”  Simply put, if you are not online you cannot find new customers and they cannot find you.

2. Brand management

If the internet were nonexistent, managing your brand presences and sentiment would be much simpler.  You could rely on some community involvement and good reviews from the local newspaper to remain in the good graces of your patrons.  That’s just not the case anymore.  Sites like Google Places, Yelp, and many others have made it easier than ever for consumers to talk about their experiences in your store and with your brand.  If you provide good service, more often than not you will receive positive accolades.  However, as the saying goes, the squeaky wheel always gets the grease.  There are always those customers that were impossible to make happy.  If you are not online to respond to their concerns and resolve their issues (politely I might add), you could potentially be losing not just one customer, but hundreds.

3. Cost-effective marketing

If 100% of the money you spend on promoting your business is through print media, chances are you are not making the most efficient use of your promotion budget.  Although solely relying upon print advertising and signage may have done it for you in the past, chances are your buck will go much farther online as tools like Google AdWords and Facebook allow you to fine-tune campaigns and messaging to target your ideal audience and drive qualified traffic. A lot of small businesses have already caught on. According to Borrell Associates  2011 Outlook Survey of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the average SMB planned to increase their entire promotion budget 4.5% from 2010 to 2011 (still waiting on 2012 report).  When it comes to online marketing specifically, the average SMB planned to increase spend 29% year over year.

4. Effort will pay off

Although cutting an agency or advertising service a check for online marketing services may help you promote your brand and increase sales, it doesn’t go nearly as far as organic marketing efforts do. There is certainly a benefit to paid advertising both online and offline, however small and local business owners need to find the right balance between paid and organic efforts.  You’d be surprised how spending a little time online participating in social media and organically promoting your business is not only incredibly effective, but it’s FREE.  The internet has made it easier than ever for businesses to speak their mind, engage with customers, and promote their brand.

5. Creating loyal customers

Trying to compete in a local marketplace can be incredibly difficult, especially when there is usually a big box store right around that corner that can easily trump you on price alone.  Not to fear – the Internet has made it easier than ever to personify your brand and show people that you are there, willing to listen, and fight for their business.  This type of engagement with your audience via social media or even through telling your story on your website will help set you apart from the big guys.

6. Growth of mobile devices

With smartphones, people can now find your small business from anywhere -- even on the back of a motor scooter.

According to Nielsen, as of February 2012 just about 50% of US mobile subscribers own a smartphone.  That’s right – about every other current or future customer you come across has a mobile device capable of checking email, surfing the web, updating their social status, and/or receiving/sending text messages.  With all of this functionality comes a lot of power, and not just for the consumer.

For instance quick response or QR codes allow you to promote your web site, social media page, or promotions via a bar code within your store or in one of your print ads.  Also, services like FourSquare allow you to offer promotions specifically to customers who check-in at your store and give you the added benefit of syndicating your customers’ check-ins across Facebook and Twitter.  Mobile has really done wonders for local businesses, and the ones who get on the band wagon now will see huge benefits later.

No matter how small your business or whatever industry you play in, your audience is online.  There is TONS of opportunity knocking.  At the end of the day you have to go fish where the fish are.

Are you a local business looking to boost your online presence?  PennySaverUSA has a proven track record or connecting millions of buyers with thousands of sellers since 1962 both offline and online.  Ask us about PowerSites – our all in one website hosting, creation, and marketing service.

Drum roll please … The newest PowerSite of the Week belongs to: Xtreme Wireless in Pacoima, Ca!

As mobile phones, especially smart phones, become more common with every passing day, stores like Xtreme Wireless are well situated for success. In order to set itself apart from an increasingly crowded marketplace of cell phone stores, Xtreme Wireless made the wise decision to start a PowerSite.

Xtreme Wireless is one of the best cell phone stores around.

And what a PowerSite they started. They masterfully promoted their brand awareness by placing their snazzy logo in the top banner and made it easy for potential customers to contact them by putting their phone number in large text right below.

Xtreme Wireless also does an effective job of alerting potential customers to a pair of great offers they are running. Next to their phone number, they have notices for a free accessory with new activation and a $19.99 Bluetooth with new activation.

Farther down the page, you find the Xtreme Wireless bio and a handy google map app that shows you the location of the store.

There are also sub-sections for their great coupons, a slick video, a photo gallery and feedback. They are even bilingual, so don’t hesitate to tell your Spanish-speaking friends about Xtreme Wireless.

What are you waiting for, visit our PowerSite of the Week, Xtreme Wireless, today!

Johnny’s Tacos and Sports in Redlands Ca. is a great place to eat and hang out. Once people visit, they tend to enjoy themselves so much that they can’t help but come back repeatedly.

Using PowerSites.net to create a web site has helped Johnny’s increase its reach significantly and its customer base continues to rise. Check out the video.

The well-deserved PowerSite of the Week honor goes to Vesuvios Pizza in St. Petersburg, Fla. this week.

Without even looking at the rest of the site, the delicious-looking pizza at the top of the page is enough to already make your mouth water in anticipation of visiting Vesuvio’s.

There are few techniques more effective in gathering a web user’s attention than presenting them with an amazing photo of your product – especially when it’s pizza.

Even better, the phone number and address is in large type right below the pizza image, so you can immediately address your sudden pizza craving.

Visit Vesuvios Pizza now for a tasty lunch or dinner.

If you are unable to get your pizza at that moment for whatever reason, Vesuvio’s is open seven days a week, so you can always go back later (or get seconds for that matter).

Once you move down the page, Vesuvios’ PowerSite shows it has more to offer. There are some outstanding coupons on the right side with more photos through the middle. After a brief store description, there are several testimonials at the bottom of the page.

It can be very frustrating to visit a restaurant web site that does not have a menu, but Vesuvios’ PowerSite has not only one, but two menus. The first is the normal menu, and there is another option for the healthy menu. They also have a special tab for weekly specials.

As you can tell when you look at the menu, Vesuvios has tons of choices besides pizza. Should you be more of a pasta or salad person, they also have several scrumptious meals for you to select from.

In addition to having great food, Vesuvios Pizza is also intelligent. By deciding to have a PowerSite, the restaurant is reaching a whole new audience . If you own a small business, visit www.PowerSites.net to sign up for your own PowerSite and experience the success of Vesuvios.

Alright, time to go eat some pizza …