New Website Tools Give Small Business The Advantage

It started with a magazine article. An article called The Long Tail, all about the remarkable things that happen when customers are offered better choices.

People take them.

That same day I decided it was time to leave IBM and start my own business. My plan was to help businesses get in front of new customers online and be part of offering them new choices.

When people are given better choices, they take them. Right now, there are people - potential customers of yours - who are buying some other product or service. They haven’t seen a better choice. You.

So I did it. I resigned from IBM and got my business going - OM4. OM4 runs websites for small business. Websites that get search traffic, generate leads, generate sales.

If you are running a business that is not online it can be shocking to discover how different the tools are. While some things are the same (customers want great products and great service), there are some big changes in the way that business works.

Many of the tools for doing business have changed. Not only that, an amazing shift had occurred.  The advantage has moved from the big outfits in main street to the little guys. I was intrigued and very keen to learn more.

Hey let me tell you when I say the NEW tools I am not kidding! I’ve worked in computing and business communities for twenty years, and was no stranger to the web. I came to see that building a small business website that finds customers and converts them online is no small feat.

When I launched my first business website, it looked great but I didn’t see great results. While I had worked with large organisations on how to do business online, suddenly for a smaller business I was at sea.

So I went back to the drawing board, decided to study every aspect of running a smaller business online, but from a small business perspective. I went looking at people who had websites that worked really well, and studied what they did.

You know what? A lot of people are kissing frogs out there, hoping to find a prince or princess. Shelling out money to get websites that don’t really work.

And believe me, if you have a website that works, you’ll know what it feels like. And if your website doesn’t work, you’ll probably know that too.

So, what is involved in finding a customer and converting them online?

Well, for a start, there are tools that take a lot of the guess-work out of finding your customer in the first place. Like fishing with an echo sounder instead of dropping a line in the river and waiting.

When your customer uses Google to search, they use keywords. Understanding keywords can unlock profits.  Here is how one of our customers, Wendy, explains it:

“More important than the overall professional image of our OM4 website is the keyword research they did. If you don’t have this – you don’t have a website. Our website is helping so very much to gain business from people who had never heard of us. That’s very powerful!”
Wendy Payne
Seahorse Sanctuary

Just like an offline business, you have to be where your customer is looking. There are tools that tell you exactly how many people are looking for what keywords. It takes away a lot of the guess work Instant market research that points the way to how your customers are going to find you.

Are you there yet? Maybe. Maybe not. These concepts are quite new, and business owners that don’t know can stumble around wasting money in buckets when it is possible to zero in on customers from day one.

So OK, knowing what keywords to target is one thing, but what do you build? Well this is where I can really help you. What you need is a website that allows search engines to understand what you have so they can match it up to customers looking for you.

Brochure style websites often do not have the right structure ‘under the bonnet’ to let this happen. I find it utterly heartbreaking when people ask me to look at their new expensive website and there are barriers that will stop Google understanding the site. Just like buying a car, you can buy a website that is a lemon when it comes to search engines.  All I can say is decide now that you will not be the one finding out - sometimes years later on - that you have been driving a lemon.

A great website helps you find customers and convert them online. One of the key ways to find customers online is to help Google bring customers right to your door.

Armed with a lot more knowledge and experience of websites that worked in the real world, I helped some friends - Paul and Jenny - relaunch their business online. They were pretty sure they had their market covered, and Jenny didn’t think an upgraded website would make a major difference to their customer base. This is what she says now-

“OM4 has put us where people can find us and to our surprise the market was much bigger than we imagined… I’ve moved from skeptic to evangelist. These days I talk about our great website to strangers on plane trips.”

Jenny Geelen
Artificial Eye Services

Let me tell you the results blew me away too. The Geelen’s business is good example of the transforming nature of an effective business website. Their website brings them many new customers. It has also made them a trusted authority in their industry -  the media have approached them on multiple occasions and they are contacted by people from around the world.

They way it works is that the more specific your business is, the more benefits an effective website can deliver for you.

If you are selling something unique it is time to put your seat belt on – boy are you in for a ride!

Our customers are people doing really interesting things. I’ve got customers who are tour operators, wildlife enthusiasts, farmers, artists, university professors, small business operators.

These are people who are passionate about what they do and run their own business online, just as I am passionate about what I do.

I love helping small businesses like these really fire. Reviewing our client websites is always interesting - I am just so proud of what they are achieving online.

Would you like to work with me to improve your business online? You don’t have to know much about computing or the web business:

“When we first realised that we would need to start looking into websites, the task seemed daunting due to pricing and the new generation of technology. OM4 have made getting a website affordable, exciting and easy for anybody to do.”

Jon Jessop
Edge Resorts Group

Our customers get very excited when plans start to work, and so do I. Among all the new tools in the kit – Google Analytics can tell you exactly who is coming to your website and all sorts of valuable marketing information that will blow your mind.

Analytics is fun (and horribly addictive) because you can see the results of your actions. But it is nothing compared to the buzz when those enquiries start coming in.

Getting visitors to your website is one thing – converting is another. Converting online - persuading a website visitor to send you an enquiry or pay you money for a product or service - is a new science as well.

I can help you there – our websites are built to make enquiring or buying easy for your customers.

So let me summarise.

I jumped ship from the world of helping large businesses because what was happening for small business was so exciting.  I’ve immersed myself and my company into the emerging technology of online commerce for small business.

If you are a small business I can help you get online with an effective business website.

An OM4 business website costs $45 AUD/mth with a one off setup fee - and we’ll give you a fixed price quote for this.

You get a website that gets to work for you, and gives you access to the tools needed to market your business.

For our setup fee, we study your business and your customers. We present your business online, and create the all important facilities to collect leads and/or sales. We’ll educate you so you can update your website anytime. And for our monthly fee we will manage your website for you, applying upgrades and patches and managing the hosting for you.

We will also enjoy your success with you.

If you decide to get stuck into it and grow even bigger we can point you to even more tools than just the basic ones. We can help you implement online strategies to grow your business.

This is serious fun and we can do it fast. We send you a simple questionnaire – you tell us about your business and gives us our brief for the design and content. My promise is to get your business online within fourteen days of you providing the completed brief.

With an OM4 website, you will have a world class web site:

• You will be friendly to search engines so they can send customers to your website
• You will be friendly to customers who can enquire about your products or buy them online
• You can keep in touch with your customers by publishing your news and special offers
• You can forget the cash register and accept payments on-line (it is great fun to get an email advising you’ve received another payment)
• You will have business email addresses at your own domain name

Your website makes things easy for you:

• You can change the details on your website – it’s easy and it’s free
• You can include TV or video footage about your business
• You can publish pages and blog posts about your business
• You can easily upload new photos
• You can show locations to your customers using Google maps
• You can showcase events to your customers with calendars

You experience peace of mind:

• You can feel the security of our on-going site management
• You can relax because of our automated and secure backups of your website’s content

Any help you need:

• You will have access to our client only user forums - ask questions ranging from simple update questions to questions about business strategy.
• If you get too busy to do updates you can hire us to help you at a simple hourly rate.

So I need to ask you - are you currently paying money for advertising that doesn’t work? Putting up with an old website that doesn’t bring customers? If so, it is time to invest in getting your business online and effective with an OM4 website.

Let me help you become an expert online marketer. Now that I have put in the years of work I can make this really easy for you. I can also make it quick and affordable.

In this business, like so many others – once you are ahead it is hard for competitors to catch up with you. Search engines recognise quality websites that have been around for longer as having more authority and puts you higher in the search results.  The sooner you start the more advantage you can get over your competition.

So don’t muck about. Decide now you are going to take the guess work out of finding your customers and get us working for you today.

I am keen to start work on your business website. So get serious about getting ahead of your competition using the best online marketing skills available to put yourself in front of your customer and get their business.

“Nearly immediately, things have changed with a new and fresh website…business is really booming!”

Lunch Doudle
GoinOffSafaris

Can you imagine how good it feels to be in this business and hear customers say things like that? I just love it.

I want this to be you. You’ve worked hard building a great business and now it is time to partner up with us and get truly competitive online.

Write me an email using the form at the end of this page and it will come straight to me.

We’ll sort out exactly what you want on your site and how to get the payment sorted, and off we go. 14 days from the date you send in your completed brief and your site will be live.  It really is that easy.

Glenn Nicholas, OM4.