The quality of your website is one of the most important things you can do for your business. You need to have one for opportunities, for building trust into your customer’s heart, getting information out there, and for having a way for customers to contact you along with learning more about your business. “It’s important to have an expert and ask for effective strategies,” Joyce Garabedian stated, “You do not have to jump in and do everything at once; take baby steps.” Thus, it is essential to really understand your business and learn what is it that your customers are looking for and need. You can use your website as a tool for learning what your customers are buying and connecting with your customers, which builds up your brand, customer base, and then eventually your business.

Upon that, knowing the elements for building a valuable brand is crucial. Joyce Garabedian explained the process of how you can go about building an effective brand. “Product leadership, operational excellence, great customer service, or a combination of all are fundamentals when it comes to delivering value,” Joyce Garabedian explained. It is also important to keep your promises because if you break them then it can tarnish your reputation and remember it is harder to come back after breaking trust rather than keeping trust, which is an important trait to have when it comes to long-term success. Also, when it comes to your business standing for something think about other businesses and compare how well you understand your business and what more you can do. “Think about the brands you love and ask yourself, ‘What does your brand have that big corporations don’t?’ added Joyce Garabedian, “Know how your brand makes customers feel."

When it comes to learning about your customers it is of essence that you communicate well. You need to develop a good name and logo, design to impress, and be consistent. “Eighty percent of people think that color increases the brand reputation. Color matters. Sometimes people look at the color before the brand name because color has such an impact,” Joyce Garabedian discloses, “People come up with the judgment of their surroundings in the first ninety seconds so you want to come up with your colors first.” So how do you make any design better? Joyce Garabedian went through many helpful tips, such as having fun and exciting images because this will capture the reader’s attention or in this case the customers, headings are the biggest, then subtitle, then a little bit of text, and making sure that your website works on all browsers such as: desktop, tablet, and mobile, and making sure it loads quickly; and you can test this all for yourself, to name a few tips.

Reaching out to your customers in an effective way is as important as sending the type of information that they need or want when it comes to email, otherwise they will transfer that email to their spam box. This is when email marketing comes into play. Email marketing is being able to deliver professional email communications to an interest audience, which contains the information that the audience find valuable and it is a beneficial tool to use because it will create and increase awareness and boost repeat business. Ninety-one people check their email daily and eighty-eight check their email on their smartphones regularly. “Get people’s permission. Give them a reason to join your list and let them know when to except it. The number one reason for unsubscribe is irrelevant content,” Joyce Garabedian expressed. Therefore, when it comes to writing you must write for your audience and put their interest ahead of your own, take those questions that they have and turn them into content. Joyce Garabedian also mentioned some significant factors, which should not be left unknown to you: ask customers to give you referrals and connect with them as well, but do not put the referrals onto your email list, just mention you got their information from that customer, do not use Google images because they are copyright, Constant Contact (beautiful templates, reinforce brand identity, ensure email delivery), Hoot suite (scheduling), MarketMeSweet (interact and engage), Flipboard (curated content), Hootlet (curated content), and Buffer (social media management) are tools you can use. Remember to keep up with technology and do not let your website be or get outdated because this is the first point of contact for your customers and it is not to be put up and forgotten about. You wouldn’t buy a new car and not keep it healthy and let it break down so keep building your website and make it even more healthier.

LAEDA and LAEDA WBC host numerous seminars on a wide range of business topics. Seminars coming up include: WBC's Business Basics For Starting a Small Business on February 9, 2017 at 6:00 PM. and LAEDA's ABC's of Starting a Small Business on February 10, 2017 at 9:00AM. For details visit our calendar of events.

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