HubRunner Blog

7 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Small Business Website

There is no neutral impression when it comes to your small business website. When a visitor enters your website for the first time, their impression will either be negative or positive. How can you make sure that the reaction is positive?

The goal of any website is to make visitors (and potential customers) more comfortable with the business. For your small business, this means making visitors want to do business with you. Unfortunately, many businesses – both small and large – make too many mistakes on their website to create a lasting, positive impression.

If you are looking to create leads out of your small business website, the first thing you want to do is to make sure you avoid these seven common mistakes.

#1: Overloading the Website with Information

Less is more when it comes to creating a compelling image on your small business website. You don’t need to include every single detail of your company’s history, and you certainly do not need to overload the website with self-praise. Instead, focus on the customer and how your business can benefit them. Make bullet points and lists, not a 10-page essay.

#2: No Clear & Concise Message

Marketing content must be focused on a target customer, and online copy is no exception. First, decide what it is that you want to convey to your customers and potential clients. Then create a website that conveys that message in a clear and concise way.

#3: Confusing Contact Options

It may seem like a no-brainer, but many small businesses fail to include clear contact information on their website. In general, you want to avoid the generic “Contact Us” web forms. Instead, include a phone number and direct email address, both on the Contact page and in the footer of every single page on your website.

#4: Not Spending the Time to Proofread

Again, this is an obvious item that often tends to be overlooked. Just like you wouldn’t rush the product or service you provide, avoid rushing the website creation process for your small business. Spend time proofreading every single page of your small business website. This small step can help you avoid looking sloppy to new visitors.

Interested in talking with a small business website specialist? Click Here!

#5: Not Creating a Mobile-Friendly Website

With smart phones as ubiquitous as they are today, it is no wonder that most people tend to access information online using a mobile device. Creating a mobile-friendly website is a non-negotiable for any business, large or small. It’s simply part of making sure your customers and leads have easy access to the information you want to provide them.

#6: A Cluttered and Confusing Website Design

You want to make sure that customers – and leads! – can easily find exactly what they are looking for. Take the time to go through your website and make sure there are no dead ends, that the menus are clear and easy to grasp, and that no page has too much information on it.

#7: Not Including a Call to Action on Every Page

A small business website offers you the opportunity to convert leads. Do not waste that opportunity! Calls to action do not have to be limited to a sales page. Have a sign up form, a free download, or even a ‘contact us’ button on each page. This gives the visitor more of a chance to interact, and more of a chance of becoming a customer.

Making Your First Small Business Website: 3 Steps

There’s no question that a web presence is necessary for any small business starting up today. From corner cafés to social media management firms, customers will nearly always look for information online – through both Google and social media.

If you want potential customers to be able to find out who you are and what you do, a small business website is absolutely necessary.

This process can seem overwhelming, especially for those who have zero web design or web management experience. But don’t fear! There are many ways to get a small business website up and running without ever typing a single line of code. Instead, there are expert firms and freelancers who can get the majority of the work done. In exchange, all you have to provide is your vision for the website and what you want to get out of it.

Even if you do outsource the creation of your small business website, there are a few steps that you need to take as the small business owner. Using these three steps, you can get a high-quality and purposeful small business website up and running in a matter of weeks.

Interested in talking with a small business website specialist? Click Here!

#1: Determine the Purpose of Your Website

The very first step in creating a website for your small business is to determine what you want the website to do for you.

Do you want to create a static site that simply gives potential customers your basic information and services?
Do you want your small business website to provide helpful updates and information to your current customers?
Do you want to collect information and preferences from customers to learn how to better serve them?

These are all valid uses for a website, but which one you choose depends on what you want for your business – and what kind of small business you have in the first place. Once you determine the purpose, you can determine what kind of management system and content the website needs.

#2: Decide on a Web Host and Web Content Management System

There are many different web hosts available to small business owners. A quick Google search will show you the range of prices, packages and options for hosting your website. Which one you choose depends on how much content you will be uploading and how many visitors you expect to your website.

The second element of this second step is to determine a web content management system. This sounds fancy, but all it is a cloud-based software that helps you manage your website. The most popular content management system in the world is WordPress – it also happens to be one of the easiest systems to use. With WordPress, you can add dozens of plug-ins that increase the efficiency and usability of your website.

#3: Develop Content for Your Small Business Website

The final step in setting up your first small business website is creating content for the site. This can take the form of informative blog posts, special offers, menus, slideshows and more. It all depends on the purpose of both your small business and your website – as you originally determined in the very first step.

No matter what content you include, it should always be compelling to site visitors and convey why you are the right business for them. If you think of your website as the frontline of your business’ marketing, you are on the right track. If you keep it professional but personal, you should be golden.

Do not hesitate to reach out and contact us here at HubRunner if you have any questions about creating your small business website!

How Outsourcing Can Save You Time & Money

Any leader faces the same decision each and every day: which tasks do I need to complete today, and what can I delegate to other team members? This question applies to meetings, to writing, to smaller decisions, and more.

Small business owners face this decision to an even greater degree: which parts of my business should I handle in-house, and which parts can be outsourced to others who are experts in their field?

Outsourcing: A Cost-Saving Measure

According to Digital Minds International, outsourcing IT can often be a productive and cost-saving measure for small businesses everywhere:

“Small businesses don’t have the resources to fully support all of their IT infrastructure needs. The present in-house staff is most likely very busy putting out day-to-day fires. One statistic suggests 65% of IT budgets go to nothing more than keeping the lights on. In short, staff is busy making sure the printer works or reloading a PC infected by a virus after an employee fell for a phishing email. This means that small firm’s expenditures on IT are not improving operational, efficiency, or enhancing productivity or competitiveness.”

In other words, it isn’t usually an effective choice to keep all IT tasks in-house. Instead, many small businesses could enjoy greater efficiency – and therefore greater competitiveness – by outsourcing everything from data management to WordPress website design.

So how can outsourcing these specific tasks save you time and money?

Interested in talking with a small business website specialist? Click Here!

Save Money By Outsourcing Highly Skilled Tasks

If you own a small business, chances are you don’t need a full time website designer, graphic designer, or WordPress manager. Your website may need a few updates every week, but you can’t justify bringing on board another team member with the accountant. At the same time, you probably don’t have the experience that it takes to create a polished, user-friendly website.

This is where outsourcing comes in. From copywriting to accounting to web design, small businesses can take the headache and questions out of these specialized skills by bringing them to someone who knows what they are doing.

An expert in WordPress, web design, or even social media can take a fraction of the time to either design a website from scratch or make the changes that you need each week. This saves you, as the small business owner, both time and money.

Save Time By Outsourcing Repetitive Tasks

As a small business owner, there is no doubt that you have a lot on your plate. You may find that you are overwhelmed with some of the day to day tasks of your business, or that you let some marketing, blogging or copywriting tasks fall by the wayside. Again, this is where outsourcing comes in.

There are both freelancers and other small businesses dedicated to taking on the repetitive tasks that you, as a small business owner, may not have time for.

More often than not, you’ll find that others can complete these tasks for less than the amount of money you are able to make by freeing up your time for other, more customer-focused tasks.

Think through the tasks you have ahead this week, and then think again.

Getting Meta: A Brief Blog Post on Blog Posts

What could be more fun than writing a blog post about blog posts? It’s what we’re here for – to help you become more successful as a small business owner. With the Internet in play, blog posts are where it’s at, as they say.

There’s no question about it: blogs still rule when it comes to search engine optimization for your small business website.

The thing is, no matter the size of your business, you always need leads. Whether you are an accountant or a 24-hour diner, an effective business turns leads into customers. In the Internet age, many leads are born from engaging online content.

This is where your business blog comes in.

In a phrase, a small business blog acts as a sign post for potential customers. It tells them who you are, what you’re about, and what you have to offer them. It also helps leads find you in the first place. Including a blog as part of your small business website does at least three things for your company:

1) A blog with high quality content can drive more website traffic.

2) A blog with high quality and relevant keywords can put you higher on the Google results.

3) An informative and engaging blog can make your company a leader in your industry.

More than anything, a business blog works to drive more traffic to your website. Most people find their information online. By creating a blog, you create a resource for people to find. From there, they can get connected to your service page, products, and more.

Related to this, posting relevant content with honed long-tail keywords can figuratively put your small business on the map. The more relevant keywords you have on your website, the higher the website will be ranked. The best way to include long-tail keywords on your website isn’t by stuffing product descriptions, but instead by putting out helpful and informative content – in the form of a blog.

Most of your website is dedicated to showing potential customers who you are and what you have to offer. This often takes the form of product descriptions, menus, photos, employee pages – even an “About Us” page.

But as a small business, you also want to highlight why people should care about your company. Why should they trust you? Why are you the best option for them? This is precisely where your business blog becomes helpful.

By creating engaging content that also helps a lead get their specific question answered, you have gotten that much closer to converting a lead into a customer. This is how your small business blog can help you become an industry leader.

So there you have it – the three major reasons why blogs are an important part of your marketing strategy as a small business. Of course, these are not the only marketing strategies that you should put into play as a small business.

But creating a high quality, engaging, and helpful small business blog will undoubtedly bring you more customers. And isn’t that the whole point?

Infographics: The New Wave of Website Optimization

There is no question about it: over the past several years, infographics have become part of the new wave of website optimization. If you are looking to drive more potential customers to your website – and let’s face it, who isn’t – then infographics can help you do exactly that.

Sure, infographics look fancy – but that’s what makes them so compelling and effective in a marketing arena. But more than that, getting a compelling infographic made for your small business is not that difficult to do. There are thousands of writers and graphic artists on the online marketplace with a focus on infographic writing and design.

If that doesn’t convince you, take a look at the basics of infographics and – more importantly – how an infographic can help your small business website. It really is simple, and can go a long way toward building your business.

Understanding the Basics of Infographics

The idea behind an infographic is to present the same information that you would with a webpage or a blog post, but in a very visual format.

With this in mind, an infographic is most commonly styled like a simplified paragraph or blog post. You still have your brief introduction, a few main points, and specific key points or statistics thrown in for support.

However, an infographic is ultimately more engaging because it presents the most crucial information in a very shortened format. A concise infographic may only have 250-300 words. More than that, an infographic is created with images or graphics related to the topic. Since two thirds of people prefer to process information visually, this goes a long way toward engagement and conversion.

Interested in talking with a small business website specialist?

How Infographics Help Your Website

As we mentioned above, the main benefit to including infographics on your website is that it increases both engagement and conversion. For instance, if you have a social media presence for your small business, an infographic is much more likely to engage your followers than a text post discussing the same exact topic. This means more people will like, comment and even share your post. It also means an infographic post will lead more people to your website.

An infographic can also help you with your marketing strategy. After creating engaging content within your niche or your industry, you can reach out to other websites to share the content. Writing a microblog as a ‘guest writer’ (i.e. sharing your infographic) gives you a fantastic opportunity to build links to your website. This is the core of search engine optimization, and infographics give you an easy opportunity for back linking.

The Key to an Effective Infographic

There are many different approaches and styles for infographics. Making an effective one will depend on the focus of your small business and what you are discussing. But every infographic has at least a few elements in common:

A Clear Purpose: Determine what you are trying to convey to your target audience and what this means for your business.
Keep it Simple: Narrow what you want to convey into a few key points. Anything beyond that makes it too complicated.
Make it Visual: Don’t just use pictures around your text – make the images tell the story.

Creating an infographic is an easy and effective way to drive more people to your website, and turn those visitors into customers!

Learn more about small business website services @ HubRunner.com

The Magic of a Call to Action Button

Today we want to discuss something that often goes overlooked, especially by small businesses: including an effective Call to Action button on your business website.

Simply put, having a call to action on your website is a crucial element of marketing your small business. Even if word of mouth remains the most effective approach to marketing for small businesses, a call to action in your web presence will go a long way toward bringing in new customers.

People respond to a clear and accessible call to action. It really is that simple. Instead of making people go through the steps of emailing you directly or filling out a ‘Contact Us’ page, a call to action button allows you to hone in on why a visitor is really on your website.

There is a great deal of information on what an effective call to action looks like, as well as what a well-designed call to action button should include. To cover the basics, we address the three following questions:

What is a call to action button?
Why is a call to action button so important?
What should a call to action button look like?

What is a Call to Action Button?

In marketing, a call to action is a specific instruction to the target audience in an effort to provoke an immediate positive response. Translation: a call to action asks visitors to become customers.

“There’s no such thing as a successful marketing campaign unless there is a successful CTA. Conversions, revenue, business and profit – they all depend on the mighty call to action.”

~ Jeremy Smith, MarketingLand

A successful call to action looks different for every business and every industry. For a catering company, it could be as simple as downloading a sample menu. For online sales, the call to action can be to create an online account. The beauty of a call to action is that you can tailor it to your small business.

Why is a Call to Action Button Important?

Without a call to action, visitors to your business or to your website have no reason to follow up with the information that you present them. You can give potential customers all of the benefits of your business, but unless you ask them to take action then they are much more likely to just walk away.

A call to action button on your business website acts as a digital means of ‘closing’ the deal.

Ultimately, a call to action button is an important element of any small business website because it improves conversion rates. This brings in more customers or clients to your business.

What Should a Call to Action Button Look Like?

There are many different examples of what an effective call to action looks like. The copy included in your business’ call to action depends entirely on what you are trying to get your target audience to do. However, all effective call to action buttons have at least the following elements in common:

CTAs are simple and concise – one phrase to include on the button.
CTAs include action words – ‘get’, ‘download’, ‘sign up’, ‘open’, ‘try’, etc.
CTAs use urgent words – ‘now’, ‘limited’, ‘today’, etc.
CTAs speak in the first person – “Start my free trial” instead of “Start your free trial”
CTAs are hard to miss – the most effective buttons are the center of attention, using bright colors and bold themes to draw a visitor’s attention

Conversion: Optimized Landing Pages 101

There are no two ways about it: your website often serves as the first interaction that a potential customer has with your business. With this in mind, it is important to make the best first impression possible. After all, if your WordPress site does not convert visitors into customers, what is it there for anyway?

Writing a compelling and engaging landing page is not an exact science, but it does take more than a bit of time and energy. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it can seem overwhelming at first blush.

A landing page is there for one purpose: to convince visitors to your website to become customers of your business. While we recommend taking some time to learn what engaging copy looks like, consider this a starting point as you jump into DIY marketing as a small business owner.

These three elements of optimized landing pages are not exhaustive, but they do capture what is most important when writing landing pages that convert for your small business.

Keep it Simple

Let’s be honest: in the Internet age, most people have a short attention span. This is doubly true when visiting websites. The truth is people rarely spend more than five seconds on a landing page before deciding if they want to learn more, contact the company, subscribe, or whatever the case may be.

With that in mind, it is important o keep your landing pages simple. Include a brief headline that highlights your service and keep the main text to a short paragraph with more details. Whenever possible, include bullet points, images, and customer testimonials. All of these have been shown to be more engaging for the customer.

Don’t try to include too much information on one landing page. Have one clear call to action or offer on the page – this is almost guaranteed to lead to more conversions than a page with multiple offers or no call to action at all.

Know Your Audience

The right voice can go a long way toward building a landing page that converts for your small business. If you are a business-to-business operation, it may be advisable to keep your language more professional. In contrast, if you are offering a service or product for individuals, it makes much more sense to keep your writing style more casual.

The rule of thumb is to write how you would speak. It may seem counterintuitive, but people are much more likely to engage with text if it is readable and relatable. Make grammar mistakes if it makes sound more natural. Use conversational phrases and write in the first person. In contrast, avoid cliché marketing phrases, since these can easily turn people off.

Kill Two Birds

You don’t need a fancy outline to make sure that you include every single element of your business on the landing page. Instead, all you need is a headline, a subheadline, and a little bit of text with more details. Within these elements you should do two things:

Make a promise
Outline the mechanism for meeting that promise

By including these two elements, you are telling a potential customer exactly what they need to hear: what you can do for them and how you can do it. It does not have to be any more complicated than that.

Five Blogs All Small Business Owners Should Follow

As a small business owner, it is important to stay up to date with the best available knowledge in everything from sales to marketing. Thankfully, the Internet makes learning anything – about anything – a relatively straightforward exercise.

There are hundreds – if not thousands – of small business blogs. These focus on everything from sales techniques to taxes and everything in between. Not all business blogs are helpful or even relevant. However, there are a few specific blogs aimed at small businesses and equipping them to run a better enterprise from top to bottom.

You should probably avoid becoming overly consumed in some of this content, especially considering how much time running a small business takes. However, taking an hour or two each week to peruse some of the insight that professional marketers and salespeople put out on the Internet is well worth your time. Consider this list of blogs your starting point.

#1: Harvard Business Review

This is the big picture stuff. HBR covers entrepreneurship, innovation and the best leadership practices for the modern day business owner. With guest experts and regular writers, the Harvard Business Review has a large – and well-organized – catalog of everything related to driving growth in your business.

If you have questions about team management, organizational culture, or even human resource management, this is the place to start. You may even find a few pieces on finding a work-life balance.

#2: Small Business Trends

This extensive small business blog can sometimes look like a topical magazine. The site covers gives equal space to both how-to tips in managing your time and the newest developments in the small business industry.

While some blogs may focus in on a specific facet of a business, Small Biz Trends covers marketing just as much as it covers finance. Not only that, but it can make for an interesting Monday morning read, as you drink your coffee and get caught up on industry news.

#3: Hubspot

Hubspot is easily one of the most recognized authorities in marketing around the world. Their blog is ripe with new insight, data and detailed research – especially related to the marketing world. If you want to know what the best practices in marketing for small businesses look like, the Hubspot Marketing blog is the place to start.

Hubspot also runs a sales blog, so if you are looking for more of a person-to-person perspective, the blog has that insight as well.

#4: Marketing Profs

As the name implies, Marketing Profs focuses in on one element of running a small business: marketing. For the cash-strapped small business owner, this topic may be a little overwhelming. But the blog has a wealth of information on low-cost or free marketing strategies. Social media and pay-per-click ads, for instance, are a great place for small businesses to start growth.

To avoid falling down the rabbit hole, pick just one topic that you want to learn more about and start there.

#5: Copyblogger

Again, the name gives it away: this blog focuses in on just one element of running a small business. Content marketing has been shown to be a cost-effective marketing approach for small businesses with small budgets. Copyblogger walks managers and owners through the basics of copywriting, as well as consistently provides content that improve writing over the long-term.

First Impressions Are Everything: 3 Reasons to Have a High Quality and Updated Website

If humans have short attention spans, this fact is only compounded in the online world. This is why it is so important to make a good first impression on your customers with a high quality, updated website.

The time it takes a potential customer to form an impression of your company may be shorter than you think.

“It takes less than two-tenths of a second for an online visitor to form a first opinion of your brand once they’ve perused your company’s website. And it takes just another 2.6 seconds for that viewer’s eyes to concentrate in a way that reinforces that first impression. Given that tight timeframe, making a good first impression should be among your first orders of business.”

~Mikal E. Belicove, Entrepreneur Magazine

In other words, what a potential customer sees when they first land on your company’s website will go a long way toward determining whether or not they will become a customer.

So what can you do to ensure that your website is engaging enough to convert leads?

According to a study from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, there are seven major areas of interest on a website:

Your company’s logo: This really is the first impression, especially since it is included in the header of the website.
Navigation menus: Users get a quick breakdown of the important content on your website.
Search box: It may seem mundane, but this captures a user’s attention and allows them to quickly find what they are looking for.
Social media links: People spend most of their online time on social media, rather than on actual websites. It makes sense that they would look for an opportunity to engage both with your company and with other customers.
Primary image: This sets the tone for the website and for your brand.
Written content: Because users’ attention spans are typically short, keep this content snappy and to the point. But make sure it gets across what your company is all about!
Website footer: This is where you can include additional menus, social media links, contact information, and even a snappy slogan.

Of course, these are not the only areas of a website that you need to focus on. However, ensuring that you have each of these elements – and that they are up-to-date – will help your website stand out from the crowd.

“If it’s been a while since you last looked at your own website, take the time now to identify the top three things you want visitors to do as a result of visiting your site. Write these items down, followed by scheduling a meeting with your web team to review the current site. You may be surprised by what you see.”

~ Mikal E. Belicove, Entrepreneur Magazine

Creating and keeping up a quality website for your small business does take work, but it does not have to be overwhelming. More than that, there is no question that it is worth the effort.

Digital Disruption is the New Expectation

Digital disruption – it sounds a little scary, doesn’t it? With technology changing the way businesses do everything from finance to inventory, it is important to stay up with the times. Thankfully, engaging in the digital disruption that is ever present in today’s economy does not have to be overwhelming for small business owners. In fact, digital disruption – and transformation – is the new expectation for businesses of all sizes.

Insight #1: Digital Disruption is Here to Stay, for Both Small and Large Businesses

The ship has sailed when it comes to the integration of business and technology. Even if word of mouth remains the best marketing method for small businesses, there are some aspects of technology that simply must be integrated – no matter the size of the enterprise.

“Software-led advances in technology are digitally transforming industries and enterprises. Digital transformation tends to be a catch-all phrase these days, but one that nicely encapsulates everything from increased efficiency, lower costs, accelerated innovation, easier and newer forms of interaction with partners, higher employee productivity and enhanced customer experience and satisfaction.”

~ Report from PwC, a global professional services network and consulting firm

While small businesses may not necessarily need the large networks and ironclad security measures of large firms, they do need to participate in the technology available to them. This includes having an active social media presence, using low-cost marketing tools, and maintaining an engaging website for their customers.

Insight #2: Engaging in Digital Transformation Takes Work

It can be a little daunting to jump into digital transformation – particularly if your small business’ industry has nothing to do with tech.

“What holds business leaders back from plunging full-throttle into digital transformation? It’s fear – fear of the unknown, especially since everyone is learning their way around this new world as they go along.”

~ Joe McKendrick, Forbes Magazine

The key is to take the transformation process for your small business step by step. Start with a high quality website. This will allow both current and potential customers to find all of the information that they need on the web – saving both you and them time and money. From there you can start to branch out to social media, direct marketing campaigns, and maybe even an app.

Insight #3: Digital Disruption is an Opportunity for Small Businesses

Even if transforming your business to fit modern Internet technology takes work, it also represents a huge opportunity for growth. Having a user-friendly website can set you apart from your competition by leaps and bounds.

“As new markets emerge, profit pools shift, and digital technologies pervade more of everyday life, it’s easy to assume that the economy’s digitization is already far advanced. According to our latest research, however, the forces of digital have yet to become fully mainstream. On average, industries are less than 40 percent digitized, despite the relatively deep penetration of these technologies in media, retail, and high tech.”

~ McKinsey & Company

As a small business owner, there are a few advantages to engaging in digital transformation for your company:

You can use new payment technologies (known as fintech) to streamline payments for your customers.
You can take advantage of low-cost, high-impact technology (i.e. WordPress websites, MailChimp newsletters, social media advertising, and more).
The social nature of modern technology means that you can keep the personal touch of a small business while also keeping costs low.

If you still aren’t sure where to start in this process, feel free to contact us today. We are here to help!