strategy....

overview...

As a business owner, you are in business to grow your sales and profits. Your business web site and your marketing strategy should help you do both, otherwise you are wasting time and money.

Chances are you fall in one of 3 groups today:

1. You don't have a business web site or e-marketing strategy.

2. You have a web site and/or Facebook business page, but aren't sure it's helping your business as much as it could.

3. You have a web site and perhaps a comprehensive e-marketing strategy and like what it's doing for your business.

Let's start with the 1st group. Every business that relies on a customer actually walking into their place of business should, at a minimum, have a web site and probably even a Facebook business page. Many of your customers and prospects are web savvy, and they'll use the internet to search for a business or find out more about one they already know. It's a good bet that your competitors are already on the web, especially if they are part of a chain or franchise.

If you are a retailer, restaurant owner, or have any type of business where customers come to you, you need to be on Google Maps and your web site needs to have an interactive map with directions embedded within it. You should also be on the leading social networks, like Facebook and Twitter. More on that in a moment....

sound marketing principles apply on the web too...

Maintaining an effective and professional looking presence on the web doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming. Your business web site should reflect the unique style of your business, and most importantly, be informative. The web may have changed HOW you communicate information about your business, but it doesn't lessen the need to explain WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and WHY.

I advise business owners to develop and deploy their internet marketing strategy in phases, starting with a basic but professional web site that covers the five W's. After measuring market response to the site, tweaks and expansions can take place in phases. The old adage that it's important to choose the "right tool for the job", is just as true today in the internet world as it was when we relied mainly on printed media. You wouldn't try to drive a nail with a sledge hammer, so why would you do more and spend more on your web site than is effective for your business?

strive for cost efficiency and effectiveness...

It isn't uncommon for expensive, graphically sophisticated and visually beautiful web sites to omit critical pieces of information. That's because the sites were designed by graphic designers and not marketers.

Many providers in my business try to equate expensive with effective and conversely, cost efficient with unprofessional. In the internet world just like the real world, that's not always the case. The real test is not how visually stunning your site is, it's how good a job your site does at driving customers into your store.

To be effective from a marketing standpoint and efficient in terms of initial and ongoing costs, a web site should look professional AND be built on sound marketing principals.

if you have a web site already, is it working hard enough for you?

Lots of business owners are in the 2nd group – they've established a presence on the web, but aren't sure what they're getting for their investment.

Too many business sites are difficult to navigate or worst of all, inadequate in providing the basic information customers are looking for to begin with. These sites may win design awards for the developer, but they often don't help increase sales. If you already have a web site and/or and internet-marketing strategy, ask yourself these questions:

√ Is your current web site working hard for you – pushing new customers into your door and helping you keep your existing customers interested?

√ Do you believe the investment you've made in your web site has yielded positive returns - has it been a good use of your time and money?

√ Do you have a presence on the key social networks, especially Facebook and Twitter?

√ Is your business identity consistent - in other words, is your name, logo, trademark or tagline and the overall look and feel of your business consistent across in all of your marketing and promotional materials?

If you can't check off all these items, you could be driving more customers into your door, and Brewer Marketing can help.

we're here to help you drive business...

If you have a web site and comprehensive e-marketing strategy and confident it is working hard for you, congratulations, you fall in the 3rd group. You are in select company and are probably reaping the rewards in terms of sales and profits. If you are somewhere in between, or simply don't know where to start, then lets talk.

Brewer Marketing is in business to help you drive your business. We look for the most efficient ways to get your e-marketing program up and running.

We can utilize several nationally known and recognized hosting companies to actually "host" your static web site and e-mail services. Why is that important? First of all, it's less expensive for you. We don't mark up the hosting services one cent. You see the actual invoices. Your domain and hosting accounts are in your name, we're just your agent, and that agency can be revoked by you at any time. Second, it's more reliable for you. Small hosting companies can't usually match the scale and redundancy of the national providers.

Hosting for IMS and your IMS powered site is provided by Business Catalyst, an Adobe company.

I thought Facebook and Twitter were for kids, those aren't business tools - are they?

There was a time when a web site alone was sufficient, but that time has passed. First off, the leading social networks provide another place for your business to be found. They allow you to create a "buzz" about your products or services. As your friends, family, and patrons visit you on the web, they can "like you" or "follow you" and thus share info about your business with their friends, family and coworkers - all of whom are potential customers for you.

Facebook isn't just for personal profiles, business pages are becoming an important tool. Business pages can help enhance the chances you'll be found in Google searches, and they can serve as your business home on Facebook. Recently enabled iframe support within business pages allows us to develop fully functioning mini-web sites within a Facebook business page. You can use this mini-web site as a robust landing tab for your business page, complete with flash animation, links to your full website, and much, much more. Here's an example.

Also importantly, many of the most popular social networks, including Facebook and Twitter, provide "widgets" that can be embedded into your web site. Why is this important? For starters, it allows your web site to be dynamic. That means that you can update your web site just by logging into Facebook or Twitter and posting an update. The widgets can be customized to meet a wide variety of needs and formats.

Here's an example of an integrated Facebook widget, used on the City Center Dance web site.

All the folks at City Center Dance have to do is logon to their Facebook account and post an update, photo or photo album, even a video. That posting automatically shows up on their web site within the embedded Facebook widget.

Twitter offers a similar functionality. In fact, those two social networks can be "tied together" so that updates are shared between the two. There are even tools available that allow you to manage multiple social networks from a single interface.

This concept applies to other popular web services, such as Flickr. Clients can update a Flickr album, and their changes or new photos are automatically embedded into the slide show on their web site. This capability is featured in the Craig's Marine Canvas web site. Take a look at Craig's Gallery page, which is driven by photos stored in a Flickr album. Craig's Marine Canvas shares photos from their iPhoto application to Flickr, and their website dynamically pulls in the images without any additional programming or changes. This allows Craig's Marine Canvas to add or change photos on their website at any time, directly from iPhoto.

Restaurants can use these types of "dynamic updating" tools to feature daily specials, menus, and special events. The updates can be photos or even PDF's that you upload yourself, and your web site will pick these changes up automatically.

 

the Brewer Marketing difference...

We are not a graphic design company that builds web sites, we're a marketing company that utilizes the web and internet technology as a part of your overall marketing strategy. The best e-marketing strategy in the world won't help a business with poor fundamentals or lousy customer service. Driving more customers into your door who leave disappointed is a recipe for going out of business even faster.

One last point. Any web site or code we create for you is your property. We use industry standard software applications, and make all source files available to you electronically. In fact, all your source files are backed up in a secure, password protected region of your web site. If for any reason you should decide to take the maintenance of your site in-house or to another provider, everything we used to get you up and running is readily available, on-line.