Website Series: Success Starts Here
There are some common issues that pop up a lot. Here’s a quick list of things to do to set yourself up for success.
Create a Google presence: When potential clients are looking for local services they typically start with a Google Maps search, looking for nearby services that match their needs. When the search results come in, you want your business to be listed and for all the important information to be filled in and accessible. Having a website listed also helps turn your potential customer into a paying one. Give them all the information they need to see your product, learn about your services, and build trust with your business. Having all this listed is really important. You don’t want the customer to have to hunt for your information or they might end up going somewhere else.
➡️TO DO: Create a Google listing with correct business and contact information. It well known that adding your business to google is a great way to increase traffic, especially if you work in a specific geographical location.
Create a Website Presence: Have all your marketing ready for the big push. When launching a new restaurant or any new business, create at least a single page web page with contact info, address, business hours, and one or two nice pictures of your service offerings. If you are a restaurant, be sure to have your menu listed. Your grand opening announcements are likely to get a lot of views through local Facebook Pages and town social media. This is a great time to tell your potential customers the who/what/where/why about your business. Again, if you are a restaurant, you want to have your phone number and menu available. People will be enticed to order from a new restaurant and you want to have very low customer friction, especially during these big marketing pushes with the most eyes on your service.
➡️TO DO: Play off of great press. Have the basics of your website and necessary content ready to go before big publicity pushes that will get your lots of views. These publicity pushes offer a limited window of time for the extra clicks.
Create a Consistent Experience: Having multiple platforms to stay updated on is difficult, but Consistent information is another great way to reduce customer friction. If you have multiple ordering platforms (website vs Grubhub etc) make sure the menus are consistent. This is especially true if you are trying to entice your customers away from Grubhub to your own lower cost ordering platforms. While some customers may not mind, you might be unknowingly loosing orders to other businesses. Inconsistent information makes customers weary of the service or product they are getting. People with food allergies or sensitivities will also appreciate accurate descriptions.
➡️TO DO: Build trust with consistent content across platforms. There are always days where something might be off (especially in a restraint that might run out of a specific food) but the closer to accurate these are, the more trust you build with your customers.
Maintain Control of Your Accounts: Maintaining control of some accounts is easier than others. Social Media, for example, was not really built for businesses and many many people get caught in really bad ownership situations. Always retain control of your accounts. As the business owner, you should set up your own social media accounts and never give employees direct access to the admin credentials. An angry employee or even something like a health issue could render you unable to access your accounts, and the platforms are unlikely to help you regain control of your accounts. Use services like Facebook’s business platform to assign employees or contractors access to your accounts. This allows you to limit their permissions and revoke access if you need to. If you are hiring an outside vendor (like All The Technology) to create social media and web accounts, make sure there is a contract in place that ensures you will be given admin access to those accounts at some point in the project (we stipulate that in our standard contracts). When you are setting up your accounts, make sure to set two-factor authentication too. Passwords are okay, but you want that second level of protection for these assets.
➡️TO DO: Always retain control of your accounts. Set up your own social media accounts and never give employees or contractors direct access to admin credentials. Use services like Facebook’s business platform. Setup two-factor authentication and store your backup codes safely. Have good contracts in place with vendors.