Monthly Archives: May 2011

Create an FAQ page! Step by step instructions!

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Create an FAQ page! Step by step instructions!An FAQ web page is used to answer frequently asked questions your clients want to know when choosing your products / services.

 

It can help remove barriers as well as cut down on repetitive queries by offering visitors information before they ask a question.

 

The additional benefit of an FAQ is that it’s an easy way to add new and relevant content. And Google loves that! So for the next three weeks -

 

1 Create a new FAQ page in your admin.

 

2 Each day think of a question you get asked often by your customers. Write the question in bold on the FAQ page and below it write a brief explanation. In three weeks you will have 15 short paragraphs of content!

 

3 Each time you get asked a typical question by a client, take 5 minutes out to put the question and the answer on your FAQ page.

 

 

Does a blog fit in your business?

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Before asking this question, it’s worth asking another one first.
Are you currently updating and adding content to your existing website on a regular basis?

 

Your website is the most immediate and obvious place you can be updating content for your clients and for Google to find and read. After all a blog is pretty much about structuring specific content that you add on a regular basis. On the simple end you can start the same thing by creating a News page, or even a page called Blog on your website.

 

Bookmark in your calendar and write that interesting 5 or 6 line paragraph every Friday morning. Clients will get relevant bite site bits of information and Google will love you for it.

 

Does a blog fit in your business?Sometimes a specific Blog component can be a great addition to your website.

 

Take the Surefire Design Blog for instance. We use our blog to store and structure the articles we write for the YourSite newsletter we send out every three weeks. We have a large body of content added over time on a regular basis, and largely on a specific topic. The blog is a great way to order this in categories and provide an easy way for clients to search the blog history and look for website marketing and technical help.

 

There are plenty of free blogging tools and sites out there. However if you want to get the real search engine optimisation benefit out of all that great content you are writing, you really need your blog to be on the same domain as your website.

 

You can see how the Surefire Design Blog is simple at http://www.surefiredesign.co.nz/blog/

 

If your creative juices are flowing and you decide a blog is for you, send us an email at contact@surefire.co.nz and we can talk to you about our blog add-on package.

 

 

Ask for one client Testimonial per day!

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Ask for one client testimonial per day!Testimonials are an excellent way of marketing, and a useful addition to the content on your website.

 

As Kiwis we may feel uncomfortable asking our clients for testimonials. However testimonials provide the following-

 

* Credibility
* Trust
* Essentially a written referal

 

So imagine it the other way around – think of a great quality supplier you use, now you wouldn’t mind giving them a two line testimonial would you?

 

Asking for testimonials can be really simple, and not embarrassing at all, so for the next three weeks -

 

1) Choose one client each day that you know you have a good relationship with.

 

2) Email them and ask if they could provide a couple of lines of testimonial for you to use in your marketing. If they are another business, you could offer to link to their website in return.

 

3) Make it easy for them (to say no, or to write a testimonial) – “I was wondering if we could ask you for a short written reference that we could use on our website? Please don’t feel any pressure to do this, just if you have a moment and feel like it! Something short would be great, and if you are lost for an idea maybe something about the level of service we have provided to your business?”

 

4) Put the testimonials on your website! Either create a testimonials page, or spread them through the site at the bottom of pages.

 

 

Survey Monkey – ask your customers what they think.

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We always get told “Put yourself in your customers shoes”. As business owners we can sit around trying to guess what our clients need/want/value, and it can be really hard to get an accurate picture.

 

Survey MonkeyAs usual we really aren’t plugging any particular service, but when we find something we genuinely see value in, we do like to pass it on to Surefire Design clients. Several of our contacts have used Survey Monkey and it caught my eye.

 

Essentially you can create and send out professional surveys.

 

      * No software to install.

 

      * Various questions formats

 

      * Insert your logo and link back to your website

 

      * Turn your survey into a portable PDF

 

      * Real time results

 

    * Charts and Graphs

Survey Monkey have a variety of packages, with the BASIC package starting at 10 Questions per survey, 100 responses per survey for FREE!

 

Their plans can be found here. I’ll be honest I’ve only been on the responder end of their surveys, but even then I was really impressed with how simple and easy it was to complete.

 

Got those burning questions to ask your clients? Maybe try their free package out by sending surveys to several smaller groups of clients. If you do, we would love to hear your feedback!