How To Get A Small Business To Convert?, Overcoming trust issues and getting enough traffic Options

[JoeD]

It seems to me that unless an SEO is working for a public corporation, one of the toughest challenges s/he faces is generating enough traffic and getting that traffic to convert.

Try this experiment:

Ask your non-seo friends to list the places they've shopped at online. See if you can find a mom and pop level business that they bought from? If so, what percentage of the list is mom and pop?

I'm going to try this myself, but used this question to illustrate to a client of mine today who wanted to know how to convert sales. I asked her how many times she bought something online from an outlet of her size and she said Zero... Amazon, yes. Major fashion outlets, Yes. Mom and Pop, none..

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I'm going to share some of my ideas on solving this problem, but would invite others to add their two cents...

1. If you have basically no traffic, pay for some PR. Hire someone professional to write some press releases.

2. Join social media sites. Flickr, Facebook, Digg. Create some viral content to share on these sites. And find any angle to take lots of pictures to share on flickr. This builds some trust and will get you a bit of traffic/traction.

3. Once some of the PR kicked in and you got some media, take the logo of the media you got and liberally sprinkle the logos on your site in a column marked with "as featured on", or similar verbiage.

4. Establish a reputation in forums.

5. Advertise in niche sites.

6. Write articles on your topic.

7. Start a blog with a particular theme and try to get noticed.

8. Once you've learned how to convert traffic, think of starting an affiliate program. The good sites will want to use someone who converts the traffic they send...
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Is this enough? I don't really think so. I think building enough trust to get a stranger to plunk down money is really really hard. And getting large numbers of same is even harder. If you can achieve this and make the customer more money than you charge them to build this, you've got yourself a great SEO business.

Anyone else have ideas that have worked?

[earlpearl]

I run a small business in an industry w/ all mom and pops. There are online sales.

They are infrequent. One of the best and most consistent commentators on this phenomena is Greg Sterling, who writes at screenwerk.com.

His posts on this topic are too numerous to cite. The basic thesis is that the dramatic web scene for small and local businesses is the following:

Research and find out about things on line. Call and buy directly.

Far fewer conversions and direct web sales is a fairly universal phenomena occuring for large and small businesses in which there is a brick and mortar alternative and an opportunity to touch and feel.

I think there are two offshoots of what you are describing: one is a small business that is web oriented and the other is a small local or regional business.

From a local perspective.....after all else is said.....I suggest work work work to get rankings for key phrases. The web is like a bigger better easier more vital yellow pages. Getting ranked highly for what people are already "thinking" about buying works.

From a small business web perspective...I think you have fine ideas.

[JoeD]

Great comments.

In this case customer is small (mom and pop) manufacturer actually and I suppose it would be good to view her website as a support to offline sales. I guess the problem is once you send a customer to one of her stores, they may buy something else there And it's real hard to measure how helpful the website was when the brick and mortar is not your own...which is why online sales are preferable..

[tam]

I think small businesses have a real advantage. They can get involved in a community and create trust. People will buy from people they 'know' over highstreets etc. I see that a lot of forums and also take advantage of that for my own book sales (over 60% of sales are through our website even though you can buy it for 90p cheaper on amazon).

I guess it depends what your niche is. If you're a general bookshop then unless you're offering something different eg better prices, local pickup service then yep, I'll go with Amazon.

Unless... I didn't log on looking to buy a book. If I logged on for info and you showed me that and persuaded me into a book I'd probably go with you.

I've brought plenty of times from small companies/individuals - always because they are offering something better than I can get elsewhere. eg a bigger range of specialist items, better quality, quicker service, products that are actually in stock.

My advice would be:
1. make sure your website is very clear about the advantages you offer.
2. make yourself a recognised expert & friendly face in your field.

Tamsin

[EGOL]

I think that you have some good ideas on how to generate reputation and traffic. A lot of them will require a great amount of time to pull off, but if the people who own the website are willing to contribute then they could get the benefit. One thing about some of them is that they require perpetual work. If you ease up on the work your benefits evaporate. I would focus on something that is evergreen... Content.

Now, thinking along the lines of accepting clients, here is an idea..... accept only those clients who are busting out with content or who impress you that they can deliver jaw-dropping content. BEST ON THE WEB in their niche. Tell them that is a condition of you working for them. Suggest some content and brainstorm with them... tell them when they are ready with something that will knock your socks off - and nothing short of it - then you then you are ready to begin working for them.

I believe that creating the content for the links is the client's job. If they are not able or willing to do that then maybe they don't have what it takes to compete - especially in the mom and pop format they need to show that they are rabid over their business theme. This is their site, not yours. They should *OWN* it fully and be dedicated to it. If they are looking at you to make the a million then here is what I would say....

..... If you don't have what it takes to populate this site with the content needed and you are looking to me to do that for you and get it ranked, then why should I do that for $30,000 (or whatever the number is). I should just build that site for myself and get the guy down the street that sells the same product line to ship the goods for me. Then instead of earning a one-time $30,000 for making the site I will make $50,000 per year on revenue of $200,000 - every year. No brainer.

Most websites only make money for two people, the developer and the hosting company. The owner doesn't make money because the developer is unable to deliver the $200,000 / year revenue site. If he knew how to do it he would be creating it for himself.

What you are looking for if you are a developer is the exception to the above. That occurs when you have a client who can make kickass content. Then you have a balanced partnership. Otherwise build the site yourself and own it.

[bwelford]

From a local perspective.....after all else is said.....I suggest work work work to get rankings for key phrases. The web is like a bigger better easier more vital yellow pages. Getting ranked highly for what people are already "thinking" about buying works.

Well said, earlpearl. By focusing on the local scene, you may well pick up local visitors, who happen to be doing searches. You need to be sure, if at all possible, that you dominate search for anything in your field that specifies your locality.

[SEOigloo]

Great topic!

A concept I struggle with is that of loyalty. My mother and other women in her age group do actually develop strong loyalty to small businesses that have neat things they are looking for. My mother is always sending me to mom and pop shops she's found that carry something she's been searching for for ages. She expresses gratitude when a store has that 'it' she's searching Google for.

But, here is the problem. Once you buy 'it', what else do you do? If the store doesn't offer anything else you want, there is no reason to go buy 'it' again from them, so long as 'it' isn't something perishable like food.

You know...this topic has inspired me to go blog about this. I think it deserves some further exploration.

Very interesting reading all the comments on this.

Miriam

This post has been edited by SEOigloo: May 16 2008, 05:29 PM

[earlpearl]

I love reading EGOL's comments about content. Alas....I've been doing this for years. I'm content dry, worn out, depleted. hah.

But pictures, videos are worth a thousand words. It so much depends on the product manufactured, and how to create an excitement about that particular product.

If its really great, it will generate commentary....and positive commentary.

One strategy that is gaining momentum on the web are the review sites that are growing exponentially around the web. Yelp is a great example. There was a recent article about Yelp in a business publication wherein a hair cuttery in the San Fran area got a lot of yelp commentary via wining and dining its customers for expensive cuts. It absolutely created an explosion in sales.

If a product is great, a variety of business people have forwarded examples of their product to active bloggers. If the bloggers have liked it they've written about it and expanded its visibility through their own active blog communities. I think wine manufacturers have used this.

One might generate more activity through the logical niche sites, as you referenced, Joe, and alternatively one might reach out to a world of existing communicators, send them the products and see if they will extol its virtues to their own existing communities.

just an extra $.02

[JoeD]

I think that you have some good ideas on how to generate reputation and traffic. A lot of them will require a great amount of time to pull off, but if the people who own the website are willing to contribute then they could get the benefit. One thing about some of them is that they require perpetual work. If you ease up on the work your benefits evaporate. I would focus on something that is evergreen... Content.

Now, thinking along the lines of accepting clients, here is an idea..... accept only those clients who are busting out with content or who impress you that they can deliver jaw-dropping content. BEST ON THE WEB in their niche. Tell them that is a condition of you working for them. Suggest some content and brainstorm with them... tell them when they are ready with something that will knock your socks off - and nothing short of it - then you then you are ready to begin working for them.

Interesting comments and approach which fits for some industries...but not all..

Let's say the client is a small business selling handbags (not the case in my example, but close enough). How much content can you create around that? How to make a handbag. Latest handbag designs. Etc... Sure that can bring in some visitors, but do potential clients of a handbag really care about how to make a handbag? When shopping for a handbag, you want one that fits nicely, is in fashion, useful, etc... Most women buy handbags. Ask them what the best handbag site in the world is? I have no clue, but I bet no one here would have a good answer to that. Maybe there's a handbag blog, but probably not one that sells their own brand.

Same for wallets let's say. I have a great wallet buy Montblanc, but don't know any wallet sites, and wouldn't care if I found the site with the best wallet content in the world... I don't care how you make a wallet.

[EGOL]

I know very little about handbags. Maybe that niche is easy prey if good sites are not posting good articles. So, from a position of complete ignorance I offer these ideas....

1) What materials are the bags made from. Some people want natural materials (link to pages where those can be purchased) some don't want animal materials. Go into detail about what is durable, easy to clean, etc.)

2) Where they are made (some people don't want certain countries, some want to buy US made - link to pages where they can be purchased

3) Who uses what type of bag... famous people seen with certain types of bags (link to those pages for purhase).

4) History of the handbag (link to items that are historical favorites).

5) Types of bags for different types of lifestyle (link to those pages for purchase).

6) Care and cleaning of different types of bags (link to pages that sell leather care products).

7) What types of handbags are popular in different countries (might inspire people to try them - link to pages with bags popular with people in Italy)

8) Review bags of a specific manufacturer.

9) Review a variety of bags of a specific style.

10) What's hot in handbags - what are people buying this year. Popular with teens, popular with soccer moms, popular with executives.

11) What type of handbag to carry at certain types of events (link to them for purchase)

12) The most common items carried in handbags (link to some for higher shopping cart totals)

13) Picture of items dumped from the bags of a few types of people (link to some for higher shopping cart totals).

14) Handbag popularity by color, by size, by maker

Anything useful there?? You can probably do a lot better than me because you know the product... get me on a subject like Mountain Bike tires or spectrophotometers and I'll do a lot better.

[JoeD]

Not bad

[A.N.Onym]

You can always bring on something the social communities are emotional about, such as:
- celebrities
- most expensive things
- the cheapst, yet useful things
- electric, digital gadgets (solar lamp, for example)
- the sexiest things
- you know, those bags with drawn images, like a Magnum on a paper bag with a handle being the trigger? List 10 most amazing of them, or 10 handbags for men, women, teenagers, Aged ladies (btw, handbags for aged ladies must be an underdiscovered market, but I am as educated about handbags as EGOL is, I'm afraid).
- Top 7 Sexiest Ads for Handbags (NFSW)

Connect your product with any of these (Top 10 Most Expensive HandBags Ever (with Pics)) and you have a winner. Or better yet, find ways to connect with emotions.

Also, know where to promote. Any relation to technology goes well on Digg. Womens stuff (handbags) goes well on sk-rt.com. Find the social site of your niche and participate there.

[A.N.Onym]

So, you say that you can't linkbait in the morgage industry.

Wrong.

[JoeD]

Thought some more about this...

One of the biggest advantages of Mom and Pop stores over corporations is that the corporation is faceless. Ever try to get a refund from Sprint or TMobile or any cellphone provider? They have a salesperson to sell you, but walk into the store and if someone is willing to help you, they have to call the same number as you do and wait in voicemail hell for someone in India to say NO. With Mom and Pops, what few there are left, you are dealing with humans. People like that.

Therefore, if a Mom and Pop tries to compete by having a flashy ajaxy site, they are playing to the strengths of the corporations who have the funds to make a site real nice...and impersonal. As a Mom and Pop, you should do everything you can to personalize. If you have a storefront, post a pic of it. Make a nice about us page, with lots of details about you...your background, etc. Have a blog with open comments. Solicit feedback from your customers. Start a dialog. And use the blog to really communicate. Develop a relationship.

Also post pictures of yourself. I've had one customer tell me that the picture was HUGE for helping him close deals.

Also, be liberal about posting phone numbers if you can. And call customers if you can. There are some services that let you IM customers. Something like LivePerson. Got a question? Click here to speak to a human. And it lets you say if you are logged on or off.

[Black_Knight]

In a nutshell, the small business needs to compete on service. Just as mentioned above, we all have this concept of the big corporations being inhuman and faceless, a huge mass of automatons following scripts - very inhuman. By contrast, we feel that the small business offers personality, personal service, and still worries about the individual customer.

To the small business, the customer is not just one small decimal point on a balance sheet, we feel.

So, the thing is to portray that online.

That means that the products you sell should never use the default, manufacturers descriptions. It should have the personal touch, portraying care, experience, and personal service. Add in tips on use if possible, tips on maintenance.

Blogging is great for the small business. You can talk about your goals for the business, the things that turn you on, and why you run your own small business with all its ups and downs rather than accept a steady paycheck from some large company with barely any risk at all.

Get personal. Show you care.

The bigger companies have real trouble even trying to compete here, even though many try. Look at how hard Ben and Jerry's try to sell the personal touch and pretend they are still the small company against the bigger rivals. But does it really gel, and is it really credible that Ben and Jerry care about you?

Use your size to your advantage.

[bragadocchio]

The bigger companies have real trouble even trying to compete here, even though many try. Look at how hard Ben and Jerry's try to sell the personal touch and pretend they are still the small company against the bigger rivals. But does it really gel, and is it really credible that Ben and Jerry care about you?

Funny Ammon, but that was the impression that I had when I read Udi Manber's recent post at the Official Google Blog:

Introduction to Google Search Quality

The post is an attempt to make Google more personal, more transparent, and more human. I'm not sure that it worked. Maybe a picture of Udi would have helped.

[SEOigloo]

Bill -
Google has got some serious work to do if they want to get more personal. Maps is the example that springs instantly to mind (I know Dave will agree!). I've written about Google needing to adopt a good neighbor policy if they want to win the hearts' of small, local businesses. Right now, they are like a big black box behind a dense brick wall.

This post has been edited by SEOigloo: May 21 2008, 05:24 PM

[RisaBB]

Great brainstorming, EGOL.

get me on a subject like Mountain Bike tires or spectrophotometers and I'll do a lot better.