Why Should Your Company Have a Website?

The answer to this question is neither short nor easy. With a little research you can find hundreds of reasons, but there are a few general statements that may help you realize your needs.

1. Your competitor has one! People refer to the internet as the first source of information, so chances are, if you have a website new potential customers will find you.
2. Presence on the web. A website can reach millions of people that might otherwise not be available for you. Peoples’ habits are changing. People move to a new area and very often rely solely on the Internet to learn about the new area, research and find out who to go to for what.
3. Selling tool. Customers can view products, services, or whatever you want to share from the comfort of their own home. No matter what type of business you are in, there are ways to grow and make money on the web for you.
4. Most people expect that any professionally run business will have a web site. With a well-designed site you can make an impressive first impression; thus potential new business.
5. Add your Web Address to your stationary; business cards, other advertisements and you’ll have visitors knowing exactly where to go for answers to their questions and where to send their friends to for great service.
6. The more people know about you and your company the greater the chances you have for attracting new customers.
7. More Advertising for Less Money. With a web site you can have pages of full-color advertisements that run 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. You get to present yourself and your services to your customers using many descriptive pages, images, etc. This tends to build peoples’ trust, which in turn, makes them more likely to purchase your products and services.
8. Bolster Your Current Ad Campaign. Include your web address in your current ad campaign and people will turn to your site for more information. Gathering more data is often a first response to a well-run ad campaign. With your site address listed in your ad, you will have people coming to you to get that information and your services. A better return on your advertising money is a great reason for a web site.
9. Save Time with Answers to Frequently Asked Questions Online. Do you spend time answering the same types of questions for each of your clients? Well that may never stop but there may be some hope! With a web site you can put the answers to these frequently asked questions online and ask your new customers that you have begun working with to visit these pages. You can even email them out a link to these pages. Your customers will appreciate the knowledge that you will be providing them.
10. Educate Your Customers. The first step of any sale is getting the client familiar with what you are selling. In this day and age more and more people are looking on the Internet to get the information they need to make educated buying decisions. Include articles of interest telling your potential clients about your services. When they call you to discuss your services, half the sale is already done; you’ve already given them your “pitch”. You will even save time (and money) because the ones who do call are interested, warm (and sometimes hot) prospects, not just someone calling to gather data.
11. Get Referrals. Referrals are a number one way for small businesses to get new clients. On your web site you can add a “refer to a friend” link where your current clients (or just visitors) can send your link to a friend who may be interested in your services. This will increase your number of referrals.
12. Create a New Customer Base. Many people are turning to the internet rather than the traditional sources of information (newspapers, yellow pages, etc). With a web site you will be able to reach a whole new segment of potential clients that may have missed your current ad campaigns. A good, informative web site will attract many people who may not have heard of you otherwise.
13. Get Email With your web site you will also get email addresses for your business. On your site will be a link where people will be able to email you for additional information. This is a fast and effective form of communication that enables you to get the answers or information needed for the client at your convenience and send it along.
14. Establish a Relationship with your Clients. People generally prefer to do business with people they “know.” On your site you will give people the opportunity to get to know your business (and perhaps you) and feel more comfortable with you. Once this is established they will be more likely to want to do business with you as compared to the other, similar company about which they know nothing. A picture or profile of you or your associates will make you more real to the client and make the client more likely to contact and communicate with you.
15. Gather Contact Information. A newsletter can be an expensive promotional action. With printing, postage and time spent, the costs can add up. With a website you can have people who would like to receive your newsletter send you their email address. You can then email your newsletter to all of the people in your database. You don’t need to pay for printing or postage for these newsletters. Continual contact with prospects leads to more clients.

This list should get you thinking. A website is a great invesment in your business and knowing how to do a website, what to add and how  to keep it current will pay back in the form of more sales.

Here are the recordings of the class for members of ChiefExperts.com Seminar on Websites. 

Check out this great software for creating a website called XSitePro. If you can type a letter you can create a website. You’ll see XsitePro and other solutions you can use to create and maintain your site.

Another great product that is true;y WSSYWIG is Xara Web Designer

To Your Success!

Dan Baumann

Do You Really Need a Website in Your Business?

Can a website make that much difference in your company?

It really doesn’t matter what the economic climate is. If you’re not online, you are losing business to your competition who is.

Remember 10 years ago? When you needed a service or product, you would go to the yellow pages and find what you were looking for. How about today? If you’re like most consumers, you probably open your computer and search online for information. You can bet that your potential customers are doing the same thing.

Ask yourself -

• Are the people looking for the services you offer able to find you online?
• Do you have a website or want to improve what you already have?
• Has it been a couple of years since you updated your site?
• Do you know how search engines work?

In the 17 minute video below, you’ll get some tips about how your website can become a better source of leads for your company.

I’m not going to mince words here – You have to have a website and you have to get involved online if you really want to be found on the internet. Best of all, it’s really not that hard to do.

How much time did you spend marketing your business in the last few months? Did all of that marketing drive people to your website? You need to get every advantage you can today and your website must be a large part of it.

Join us for an online seminar at
MyConstructionBiz.com on February 6 and 7 to discover:

• Getting Started with a Website
• Posting Information on the Web
• Getting Noticed (Search Engine Optimization, or SEO)
• Developing Content
• Using and Editing Graphics (Photos)
• Making Friends on the Internet
• Blogging
• Email Marketing (Permission-based Email)

If you want to kick start or energize your website, the information in this seminar will get you there.

You can find out more about this seminar here:

I’ve been asked by many about this class and here are a few things you may want to know.

This website class is for everyone that wants to learn more about the internet. If you don’t have a site, you’ll learn how to set one up and what to put on it. If you have a site you’ll learn how to enhance it and get better search results.

This is a 9 hour information packed seminar over 2 days. I know it’s impossible for everyone to make that sort of a commitment so it will be recorded, edited and available for viewing online and/or download for all members at MyConstructionBiz.com (MCB).

This seminar is open to all members at MyConstructionBiz.com. Membership at MCB is a one-time payment of $97.00 and then if you decide to stay on, it’s only $12.95 per mo.

The web is here to stay people! Get on it and get involved in it. Your efforts will be rewarded for years to come.

Please use the comment box below if you have any questions.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Dan Baumann

PS – After you watch this 17 minute video posted at HardhatConnect.com, go ahead and create a free online account and make me your friend. It’s easy and will give you a chance to experience and get involved in an online community focused on the construction industry.

Has Your Web Designer Disappeared?

Here’s what you need, to save your website

A strange phenomena has been spreading like a virus over the past few months. Recently I’ve learned from some people that their website designer has “disappeared.” No return phone calls, unanswered emails. Gone, gone, gone.

Kidnapping? Hardly. When the economy gets tough, many website designers (small business owners themselves) simply go out of business. Some get full-time jobs in corporations, some just shut their doors. If they use a lot of sub-contractors to fulfill project demands, they find that the sub-contractor pool is drying up, and they may become less responsive to your voicemails and emails.

This is a huge problem for small business owners, who rely upon their website designer to maintain and upgrade their websites for them. There’s not much you can do if your website designer goes out of business. But you can protect yourself and prepare yourself to move to a new website designer. You just need to have access to all your files before your website designer disappears.

If you work with a website designer be sure they give you the following information immediately:

• Login information for the hosting company control panel (CP).
• FTP login information.
• Blog login information (this may be different than 1 and 2 above).
• Email address login information for each email account (you may have more than one email address for your domain, such as office@domain.com or mary@domain.com or info@domain.com).
• Other login information to auxiliary software, like membership software, forum software, content management systems, etc.
• Logins for Google Analytics and Google Adwords, if you use either of these services.
• A copy of all your website coding, graphic, audio, video and animation files, including the original source files for all your graphics and Flash files (typically Photoshop for graphics and Flash for animation), on CD or DVD.
• Written confirmation that YOU own the content of the website and have the right to transfer it, edit it, submit it to Federal Copyright Office, sell it, etc.
• For security purposes, if your website designer disappears, change ALL login IDs and passwords on your accounts. In addition, if you have given your website designer your credit card information, you may wish to cancel the card and have a new number re-issued.

We may see more of this happening in 2009. I recommend you get the above items from the person who maintains your website today so that you have full control of your website — and your internet marketing — for the future.

Websites for Dummies?

Hi Everyone

Technology – Gotta love it! (or not), It’s here to stay and we better get used to it. Sometimes it makes all of us feel sort of stupid. Including me. The challenge to keep up with all of the technology out there is enough to make a rouge scholar feel sort of incompetent.

It’s not that any of us are dumb. The real problem is there is just not enough time to figure all of this out. We could hire someone to do it but will they do a good job, will it work like we want and can we afford their services.

We’ve talked a lot about websites lately at ChiefExperts.com and It’s time to take action.

We’re done a a one and a half day online class for current members of ChiefExperts.com. We’re discussed you how to set up and maintain a website from A-Z. And in plain English.

If you don’t already have a website you need to get one. If you have one and want to improve it and take control of it you’ll know what to do. If you’re working with someone on a site you’ll know what to tell them.

This is cool stuff. I’ve been a student of this for years and I show you how to do it.

This is really important – The first thing that a potential client will do when looking for contractors is look for your website. It’s the least expensive and best form of advertising you can do. In fact all of you advertising should lead people to your website. There you can show them how great you are.

Take a look at your site. If you were looking for a contractor would you trust the company represented by your website. That’s the first thing to ask yourself. You’ve got just a few seconds to convey trust.

Our focus was show you everything you need from how to get your web URL to what to put on each page and everything in between. This is going to be fun!

I need to ask you a favor. Could you please leave a comment and let me know if you would be interested in another class like this. If so what sort of things would be helpful to you. You feedback is important and very valuable.

I also want to make you aware of the software that I’ll be using to teach the class. This is world class software and it’s as easy to use as a word processor. I’ve been looking for a platform that is simple enough for anyone to use and this is it. It’s not free but for $197.oo it’s the best value for what it can do that I’ve ever seen. You can download a free 30 day full working demo to check it out. It’s powerful stuff and I’ll show you exactly how to use it as well as the other things you’ll need to know about setting up a great website.

The software is called XSitePro. Here are some links for you to check it out:
XSitePro Home Page
Product Video
Product Training Video
Product Brocure
Order Page

I’ve worked with lots of website software but this company really gets it. They make a great software, back it up with great support and are building an unbelievable community. I’m excited to be part of it.

Check it out and learn as much as you can about the software. That way when we do our class you can focus on creating your website and not so much on the software.

Remember to leave your comments and I’ll keep you informed as we firm up what we’re up to.

To Your Success

Dan Baumann

Website Review Webinar

Last Friday was a great day at ChiefExperts.com.   We hosted a webinar addressing the new world of marketing and how critical websites are to your marketing efforts.  We had a very informational session with over 100 people enrolled.  Dan Baumann led the discussion on marketing as it evolves from the traditional 4P’s of - Product, Price, Place and Promotion to the new world of social marketing and the 4R’s – Reveal, Reward, Respect and Retain.  He also discussed all the mental triggers that your marketing efforts, especially your website, should address. 

We also offered to review your websites and offer our advice on areas of improvement.  Wow – we were overwhelmed by your response!  We had over 50 requests to review your websites.  We loved it and have really enjoyed visiting your sites and giving them a critical eye.   We have seen some excellent sites and some not so great sites.  We talked about a few during the webinar, with much more to come.

There is so much contractors and designers can do on your website:

• highlight amazing galleries and portfolios, 
• promote your awards,
• video testimonials from clients, subs, employees,
• photos and bios of your staff,
• private client areas,
• your contracts,
• education for your clients,
• your community involvement,
• & blogs, of course. 

The list keeps growing every day, it’s really exciting.  Your website is a great place to differentiate yourself in the competitive construction industry.   

If you want to hear the whole webinar, current members can check it out at ChiefExperts.com, it’s very interesting and will get you thinking about how you can adopt these new marketing strategies and enhance your website to make it more effective.

Good luck!