0

9 Unconventional ways your website makes you money

Everybody knows that:

Websites>traffic>prospects>leads>sales>profit

This is the basic formula that revenue producing websites have worked since the dawn of the internet. When a website is promoted, people visit it and a certain percentage convert into sales(conversion is a whole other subject we will be covering next).

In this post we’ll look at some unexpected ways a website benefits your small business. These angles are unfortunately overlooked, but can be a source of extra sales and saved costs.

1. Credibility is king. Owning even a basic site gives you a huge edge on businesses that don’t. A business site is proof that you’ve taken the time and expense, common of a legitimate and permanent operation.
2. Interaction. Simple communications such as About Us pages, or even industry related news (not to mention blog articles, online specials, coupons, newsletters) gives your website and by extension your company a connection to the customer.
3. Evidence. A big use of search engines is research. Hand out business cards, or send mailers: many of your targets will use search engines to learn about you and your company. How your website appears these searches is critical.
4. Retention. Made a favorable impression on someone? What if they lose your card? If they are interested enough in you,  and can find your site by search engines- you’ll never lose a sale from misplaced contact info.
5. Reference. If you have useful information on your site, customers will return again and again for reference. They may even pass on the site as a tool for friends and family.
6. Convenience. Most of us can be forgetful and sometimes careless. But if your website is memorable and easy to find- customers will be more likely to return and refer it.
7. Networking. There may be products and services related to your business, or area referrals. But you’ll only get these by hunting for them- or by being found. When potential affiliates can find you and learn about you, business booms.
8. Image. The content and wording of your website influences what types of customers you’ll get. By using it as a filter, you can weed out just-looking types and sell more efficiently. As everyone knows, time is money.
9. Support. Having common FAQ’s, documents and forms on your site will reduce support calls. People will solve their own problems if there are resources to allow it. Spend less time on customer service.

Want to talk more about the benefits of a website? Call 916-629-4266

0

Special Deals for Febuary – Website Combo $695 and more

Valid through Febuary 29th, 2010

Google Apps™ Service $395

Are you revolutionizing your business and joining the cloud? While Google Apps™ service is a simple and effective thing to use, setting it up can be quite complex. There are a list of technical settings you’ll need to make on your server and domain nameservers(DNS). That’s just to start, and then you’ll need to migrate documents, email and calendar to the cloud. Avoid downtime, uncertainty and error when installing the Google Apps™ Service – use SearcherMagnet deployment service.

• Analysis and custom plan for your server and email setup
• Email configuration(send+receive)
• Email, calendar migration
• Company-wide install of helper products such as Google Sync and Google Notifier
• Setup of administrator account(s) + training
• Setup of all user accounts + training

We’ve set the promotional price of this service as a one-time-fee of $395. Get this started today!

Lock in this price: 916-629-4266

Please note that according to the latest information Google Apps™ user cost is $50/user/year. Searchermagnet is not affiliated with nor is a reseller of Google™ products. Promotional price does not apply to: installs with over 5 accounts, non-email/calendar data migrations, or other substantial deviance from the plan of service above.

Website Combo Deal $695

Recently we took on a client that had been paying upwards of $1,000 monthly for his website. While insane, that’s unfortunately typical. What’s also typical is enforced hosting and monthly charges. Searchermagnet is different-we don’t charge a monthly fee for our work. On the other side of the coin some people think they can get away with website builder, premade site or something their kid made. A bad website damages your business! The only thing worse then a bad website is no website. No matter what you sell or service- a website will provide amazing value.

Get a new website or redesign of an existing site:

• 5-10 page website with any template selected by client (or existing design)
• Content written to client specifications
• 7 Images of your employees, company or other choice uploaded
• Company logo, contact phone/email on site + contact us form with validation
• Wordpress blog installed with matching theme
• Social media links from your Facebook, Twitter, Linked In etc
• Google maps directions service & Google website translator
• Level I SEO: Meta Tags optimization, basic directory submission & Google maps/Yelp listing

We’ve set the promotional price of this service as a one-time-fee of $695. Get this started today!

Lock in this price: 916-629-4266

Please note that there are maintenance costs involved with a website beyond our fee. These include: domain name registration(about $10/year) and website hosting (about $25/year). Larger and/or complex projects may require upgraded hosting plans, licensing fees, software use costs, subcontracted programming work or other fees. All above listed fees are paid to 3rd parties and not SearcherMagnet.

0

Local Sacramento Businesses turn to online marketing in 2010

Online marketing spending has increased at a rapid pace for about the last decade. In fact it is the only category of marketing/advertising that increased significantly last year. There are a few major channels of marketing, and in this article we’ll talk about why online marketing is on the top of the pile.

So we’re now [officially] in a recession. Recovery outlook: divided, some leaning for a quick recovery in 2010 and others betting on a slower return to health. Then why is online marketing posting gains, when all other traditional channels(such as radio, television etc) are getting slaughtered? There’s a budget freeze and spending limits on every US business, from the Fortune 500 to your local taco truck- understandable that dollars would get pulled from traditional advertising. But why are they going into online marketing?

The answer lies in the method of traditional marketing. Let’s examine the major marketing channels that exist today:

• Radio
• Television
• Print (magazine, publications, newspaper)
• Display(Billboards, corporate sponsorships)
• Direct Mail (aka ‘junk mail’)
• Direct Marketing (Door-to-Door canvassing or Telemarketing)
• Internet

Now we’re going to tell you how all these channels of marketing are different from the internet.

1. Scale. A Fortune 500 company has a marketing mix hitting all of these channels constantly. It’s a simple move to pull dollars from one part of the mix to another. For the small business, it’s a different story. The taco truck owner doesn’t have 5.0 mil in his budget, he has $500. Correct selection of where his marketing dollars go becomes the highest importance. He can’t afford waste.
2. Placement Costs. Internet has the lowest minimum cost of any kind of marketing. Want a radio or tv spot? What about the yellow pages? Those will set you back a few grand at least. But the point at which a small business can enter the market is so low, literally any business can do it.
3. Startup Costs. You want to send out a direct mail campaign? You’ll need a mail list, and mailers designed. Want to put up a TV spot? You’ll need to hire a camera guy and an editor. Printing an ad? Writers & graphic designers. Want to telemarket- OK, purchase an autodialer and hire some phone jockeys.  All these support services inflate what you are actually paying for your marketing.
4. Targeting. This is a big one. Say you purchase a tv spot. Sure, you can say when it airs, and on what channel, but past that there is no control. Even more so with radio. And direct mail- why, it’s fortune if more than .5% of your list opens the letter. As far as who’s opening that letter- you’ll know about as much as the phonebook does. With online marketing, you can laser focus your campaign to the finest detail.

The real problem is your average small business can’t afford a full marketing mix. Often, their budgets shut them out of other more costly types of advertising. Frustrated, and without the type of collateral to start a real campaign, most businesses fall back on Word of Mouth and referral marketing.

But this is where online marketing really shines. If you spend money to create a functional, content rich website for your comapany,  you’ll double your referrals over time. How? Someone gave you a business card the other day. It’s already lost, forgotten in some desk drawer. You’ll never refer that to anyone. But compare with the last time you found something useful or funny online- didn’t you send it to your friends? Build a relationship not just between you and your customer, but you and your website.

In truth, the website is the most important asset for the small business.

0

Current list of sites

As far as I can tell, this is the most up to date list of sites we’ve worked on:

www.granitequityinc.com
www.modifymortgagemyself.com
www.mccoylegacy.com
www.cementingproducts.com
www.noveloappraisal.com
www.novelorealty.com
www.usloanauditors.com
www.virtuemgmt.com
www.harrisappraisal.com
www.jenicahorn.com
www.sacramentorealestateblogging.com
www.sunrisevista.com
www.creditfixed.com
www.nocreditnocontractcellphones.com
www.jazzmens.com
www.tahoechaletrental.com

Please note that these are just some of our past clients, in no particular order. For any given site, we may have done design work, web app programming, SEO, marketing/promotion or some combination of it all. And, we are not currently working with all the sites on this list.

0

Hello Internet.

My name is Aaron Opfell. I am the ‘brain’ of SearcherMagnet. We’re a web design, marketing and applications firm located in Roseville CA- proudly serving local small businesses of the Sacramento Area.

I am pleased to announce that the redesigned site is complete. There are of course a few things we have planned, and which will roll out over the next month:

• Our entire website portfolio will be meshed into the blog. Each site will receive it’s own blog post, which will be tagged according to nature and scope of work. So for example  if you wanted to find all sites we’ve done SEO on, or web applications, you’d be able to quickly filter them.
• You will see us consistently write about new projects
• A new campaign is underway for a service involving Google Apps and small businesses transitioning from exchange servers/local network into the Cloud. You’ll see a lot of content about this part of SearcherMagnet.
• Other remarks, complaints, tips and observations will be posted here as my mood allows. The subjects could range from business enterprise, SEO, PhP, other web acronyms to the ludicrous and bizarre. No express or implied warranty.

Most importantly, happy holidays. A toast to the new year is in order.