Business Development Advice

Yesterday I listened to one of the archive recordings available through the Guerrilla Marketing Association.

Roger Parker interviewed Greg Cesar, webmaster to the gurus (he has designed sites for Rich Schefren, Stephen Pierce and Roger Parker) about the common web marketing mistakes.

It was a fascinating call and I have blogged about the topic of website exit strategies on my Business Coaching Blog.

Let’s go back to basics.

What do you want from your website?

How do you know if you have a website that works?

Two fundamental questions that Greg recommends that you ask yourself before starting any website.

“I Want My Website To Make Money”

Websites are not free so it is reasonable to assume that most business websites are created to help make money, either by selling directly from an ecommerce site, prompting a telephone call or by starting a permission marketing relationship by signing up to a newsletter.

But how does that process work?

Until you are clear in your own mind how your website is going to make money, you can’t make effective decisions about your website design and copy. This idea of focusing on exactly what you want is a fundamental component of the 7 Step Guerrilla Marketing plan.

The essential core of any website is that it has to provide value to the customer.

If it is an information site, it must give valuable information.

If it is an ecommerce site, it must be easy to use.

If it is a focused sales page, the copy must be written to sell by explaining the benefits of the product, what it is and does and provide testimonials from other people who has successfully used it.

“How Much Marketing Experience Does Your Website Designer Have?”

There is a big difference between attractive looking websites that look pretty and effective websites that make money.

Too many website designers focus on appearance because they come from a technical or design perspective rather than from a business/marketing focused view of “how do we make more profit from this website”.

Conclusion

I have only scratched the surface of the topics covered in the Guerrilla Marketing Association call with Greg Cesar and it is a call that I will listen to again. It was that good.

I used FasterAudio to listen to the call at 160% of normal speed, saving myself more than 20 minutes without losing any of the value. The mind can work far faster than the normal speaking voice.

I had planned to write a great introduction for the Guerrilla Marketing Association, the essential marketing update and advice service for small businesses but unfortunately I couldn’t make my WordPress blog accept the YouTube video codes.

So instead I ask you to visit my Business Coaching Blog and find out why the Guerrilla Marketing Association is probably the best small business marketing service in the world.

Or you could just take my word for it, miss out on the amusing Carlsberg advertisements for “probably the best…in the world” and go straight to the Guerrilla Marketing Association.

I recommend that all my clients and contacts who are interested in developing their businesses and who are prepared to invest in increasing their knowledge, sign up to the Guerrilla Marketing Association and the BusinessSummaries business book summary service. Both have great free trials so that you can before you find their services as good as I do.