how to make your website an effective business tool in 2016
TRANSCRIPT
Presented by: Michael Ginsburg
MG Web Design & Social Media
http://michaelginsburg.info
Make your websiteAn EFFECTIVE business tool
Reasons to stick around till the end of this webinar
1. You’ll learn which features you need to have on your
website in order to make it an effective business tool.
2. You’ll learn how to add these features to your existing
website or incorporate them from the get-go into a new
website.
3. You’ll get ALL your questions answered! The Q&A session
will go for as long as you want it to.
4. There will be a nice bonus on offer for you which I have
never offered before (and probably will never offer again!).
Who Am I and what qualifies me to talk to you?I have a professional background in IT & Management consulting
After almost 15 years working in the corporate world, I just had enough of
the stress and long hours and decided to start my own online business.
With my background, I thought it would be a “walk in the park”.
Boy, was I wrong!
I spent years doing the ‘trial and error’ thing trying to figure things out
before realising that: “a website is not a billboard, it’s a business tool!”
Once I realised that, I was able to transform my first online venture into a
thriving community serving thousands of people while generating
decent revenue.
I don’t want to see other small business owners wasting years on trying to
figure things out on their own and that’s why I created my own web
My first online success - Spending Hacker
Some work I did for clients
The NUMBER 1 mistake people make with their website
Not collecting emails from website visitorsMost people who visit your website will never come back (and not
necessarily because you did a bad job!)
Email allows you to communicate directly with prospects and
customers without having to rely on Facebook (and their
algorithm which changes almost on a daily basis) or on ranking
on the first page of the search results.
66% of people who have an active email address check it several
times a day with 13% out of those checking their email every
hour or even more.
An email database gives you the ULTIMATE level of flexibility &
control in your business
The ONLY platform you should consider for your business website
WordPress or bust!NEVER use a proprietary platform like Weebly or Wix, especially if it
bundles the website software and hosting together.
WordPress is not only completely free but also ‘open source’ which
means no one entity, person or corporation own it.
You can choose your hosting company and also easily transfer
your website to another host if your existing one is not good
enough!
No other website platform offers you the same level of flexibility
and ease of use.
WordPress powers more than a quarter of the web (including the
websites of NASA & CNN) and is supported by a massive
community.
The features you need to have on your website to generate sales & leads
The 7 features of an EFFECTIVE website in 20161. Responsive design - most of your visitors will open your website on their
smartphone. Your website needs to automatically adjust to fit any screen size.
2. Location Map - make it easy for them to find your premises without having to
search.
3. Make your phone number clickable - so that they can dial it easily instead of
having to copy and paste on their phones.
4. Have a contact form - make it easy for them to email you without having to
open their email app and copy & paste your email address (but still make
your email address clickable!)
5. Opt-in box or even a dedicated page - this has one mission only: convince
them to give you their email address and agree to receive future
communication.
6. Make it easy for them to follow you on social media without having to leave
your website
How can YOU implement these features on YOUR website?
Responsive Design
How to have a responsive design on your website?First and foremost: Use WordPress!
Choose a website template (or ‘theme’ as is the more
common terminology) which is designed to be
responsive
There are thousands of completely free themes and
even more paid (or ‘commercial’) themes to
choose from.
You can easily make your website look unique and
different than any other website (even if the other
website uses the same theme) while also being
fully responsive.
Location Map
How to add a location map to your website?Did you know that Google allows anyone to embed
locations from their maps on their own website free of
charge?
There are hundreds of free plug-ins (software which adds
functionality to your WordPress site) that allow to easily
show a location map of your business and its
surroundings on your website.
Many WordPress themes also support that ‘out of the box’
so no extra plugin is even needed.
Amongst the free plugins that offer this feature are the
‘Contact Info widget’ of JetPack and the Stellar Places
Plugin.
Clickable phone number
How to make phone numbers clickable on your website?You need to set your phone number as a special kind of link
or you can use a free Plugin like Speed Contact Bar or
Mobile Contact Bar.
Some Themes also have built-in support for that feature.
Contact form
How to add a contact form to your website?People will be able to type their message directly on your
website instead of in an email.
You will get their message instantly delivered to you via
email and will be able to reply to them directly.
You can also add protection from spammers using the free
reCaptcha tool from Google.
You can easily add contact forms to your website using
free plugins like JetPack contact form, Contact Form 7,
Tawk.to & Secure contact form (which allows them to
also include files as attachments).
There are also paid plugins like Helloify that offer even
Autoresponder email software + opt-in boxes or page
How to add opt-in boxes to your websiteEmail marketing is permission-based which means people need
to give you their explicit permission to send them emails
before you can do so. Without it, you’re breaking the law!
This permission is called an ‘opt-in’.
An opt-in box or form on your website is where people enter
their email (and other details you may need) in return for
something you give them (report, course, discount etc).
There are HUNDRED of plugins that allow you to create such
opt-in boxes or forms (both free & paid).
Amongst the free ones, my favourite is Rapidology and
amongst the paid ones are MailMunch (which also has a
free tier) & Gravity Forms.
You can get started with email marketing for FREE!Your first 2000 subscribers are free but you don’t get
autoresponders and can’t send more than 12K emails a
month. Get started for free.
Your first 2000 subscribers are free and you get access to
Autoresponders but there is a bit of setup involved.
However, as a self-hosted solution, it is the only tool
which gives you 100% control over your email database.
Get started for free.
Your first 1000 subscribers are free and you get access to
all the features and no sending limits.
Pricing is much better than MailChimp once you do start
paying! Get Started for free.
Encourage people to follow you on Social Media
How to add social media follow boxes to your websiteYou can get people to follow you on various social media platforms
in one click without ever having to leave your website and go to
that social media platform itself.
All that is needed is for them to be already logged into that social
media platform on their desktop or mobile.
All the major social media platforms offer this feature: Facebook,
Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube and now even Instagram.
There are many free plugins that allow you to add such follow
boxes to your website.
My personal favourites are JetPack for Facebook, Twitter &
Google+, Google for Wordpress for YouTube (can also be used
for Google+ follow box) , Add Pinterest Follow for Pinterest and
Instagram Followers widget for Instagram.
Call to action
How to add Call-to-actions to your website?Every page on your website should aim for visitors to do
something there.
That “something” can be: email opt-in, make a purchase, download
a brochure, get in contact with your business or follow you on
social media.
This is called a “Call to Action” and ideally, you should have only one
per page (so that you don’t confuse people)
A ‘call to action’ can be an opt-in box, a contact form, a buy button,
a download link or a social media follow box.
I’ve already covered how to create an opt-in box, a contact form
and a social media follow box.
For selling thing through your website, you can use anything from
a basic tool like Easy PayPal accept to a complete ‘online store
How about if you could implement all these
improvements yourself without having to pay thousands to a web designer or developer?
How about if you could do all that even if you have ZERO
experience or prior knowledge?
Introducing:
What is it?A 12 week structured program
teaching you how to build a
professional online presence
from scratch.
Who is it for?It’s for any small business owner who has a
computer and Internet connection and wants
to have a professional online presence for their
business.
If you can use a Word Processor like Microsoft
Word than you already have all the ‘prior
knowledge’ you’ll need (yes, really!)
What will you learn?How to build an effective website for your business using WordPress?
How to make sure your business gets found on Google?
How to easily build an online store on your website and sell both digital and
physical products without having to pay a cent for the privilege?
How to build an email database of prospects and market to them effectively &
ethically?
How to gain exposure for your business through social media platforms like
Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest?
How to advertise your business effectively on Facebook and accurately measure
What do you get?1. 12 easy-to follow video lessons (delivered one at a time to make sure you
don’t get overwhelmed) + weekly ‘to do’ list and optional further reading.
2. Ongoing support via weekly ‘office hours’ and a dedicated Facebook group
(coming soon!).
3. You can email me questions any time and replies are guaranteed within 1-2
business days.
4. Lifetime access to all the course material (including any future updates) for no
extra charge.
5. 20% discount on all my web design services for 12 months from course
completion.
All this for just A$295(that’s US$220/£168/€200)
The Special bonus!Whether you already have an existing online presence or you are going to
build one throughout this training program, you will get a 1-on-1 detailed
consultation with me FREE OF CHARGE in which I will review and critique your
existing setup and provide a written report on potential areas of improvement
and how to achieve them (including recommended tools).
This normally costs $247 (with the price going up soon to $497)
But you get it for no extra charge when you purchase the
“Online Presence Accelerator” program within the next 7 days only.
Presented by: Michael Ginsburg
MG Web Design & Social Media
http://michaelginsburg.info
Q & A timeAny Questions?