IN THE PRESS: Top 111 Businesswomen on Twitter

Amanda Gonzalez writes.

I'm simply honoured to be listed in SPROUT's Top 111 Businesswomen to follow on Twitter.

The list has been published in Sarah Prout's popular eBook, Twitter Inspiration. Amongst the list is incredibly successful businesswomen such as Alexandria Brown from the US and Valerie Khoo from Australia.

Featuring in an eBook can give you invaluable international exposure. Whilst this exposure may not be in line with your target market, it heightens your credibility and gives you an edge over your competition.

Most importantly, it's free publicity, not paid advertising - so again, the information is more credible since you didn't have to pay someone to list you.

So why Twitter? Stay tuned for a full post in March 2009.

Websites VS traditional advertising - who wins?

Amanda Gonzalez writes.

Traditional advertising for small businesses is effective. Small business owners have been using this method of advertising for years, reaping the rewards.

But is there another way to gain more customers – for less money? Check out these five arguments to help you decide.

1. Websites can be updated instantly and frequently for virtually no cost.
Imagine printing 5000 copies of your weekly special to letterbox-drop in your local area. Apart from the time taken to design, print and distribute the flyers every week, the cost of printing, paper and ink is expensive.

How many hours of your time and how much money do you need to spend for this type of advertising?

Now imagine this. Using an editor similar to Microsoft Word, you can type in your weekly special to feature on your website. Once you click save, your offer is instantly displayed on your website.

Not only has this reduced your hours involved significantly, but you will reach an audience far greater than 5000. An audience who, with a click of the mouse, can recommend your business to their friends. Could they do this with traditional advertising?

So how much does this method cost? We charge $10 per month to use our CMS editor. Yep, $10. Not a bad way to attract more customers for far less time and money, hey?

2. Websites can respond to the market and competition instantly.
Tuesday is a slow day for your café. Perhaps you could place an ad in the local rag offering a free muffin with every large coffee on Tuesdays only. Running the ad once would have little or no impact, so could you afford to do this every week?

Now, if you could add this offer to your website, not only would you have no printing or advertising costs, you could change the offer as often as you liked to keep strengthening the weaker areas of your business.

3. Websites do not incur expensive printing or advertising costs.
Websites simply don’t have printing or traditional advertising costs – costs which can easily run into the thousands.

You can use online advertising (a small part of Internet marketing) where you control exactly what you want to spend. I’ll cover Internet marketing in a later post, since there’s plenty to discuss!

4. Websites are measured easily for little or no cost.
You’ve place an ad in the paper. How do you track readership? The fact is you can’t tell who has (or hasn’t) read your ad. Can you measure how many took up the offer? Yes, but with difficulty, diligence and time.

Will you know if your ad was worthwhile and should run again – or be scrapped because there was very little response?

This information (plus much, much more) can be tracked for your website using an analytics tool.

Statistics such as which is the most popular page on your website, where your website visitors live and which page most visitors are leaving your website from are invaluable to help you understand what your customer really wants. Did I mention this tool is free?

5. Websites are permanent.
An ad in your local paper is only alive for the duration of the edition. If your local paper is weekly, then your ad will only be around for one week.

Websites have a longer shelf life. Ongoing costs for websites (with the ability to update content) can be as little as $25 per month. So any offers you have on your website can run for as long as you please – you decide, not someone else.

Traditional advertising still has a place for many small businesses - but get more bang for your buck by also having a website. Imagine how many more visitors your ad will attract by listing your website address.

Instantly, your potential clients can find out much more about you than you could ever fit into your ad, simply by listing your website address.

And think of how many less telephone enquiries there’d be to answer! The questions would answer themselves on your website. Answers, of course, you could update anytime.

Websites versus traditional advertising – is there a clear winner? Or should they work hand-in-hand? You decide!

BUSINESS IN PROFILE: Planning for Babe

Amanda Gonzalez writes.

WHO:
Planning for Babe
PO Box 3313
St Pauls NSW 2031
0411 126 325

Check out their website

WHAT:
Like a wedding planner to a wedding, Planning for Babe is a baby planning service.

With so many baby products and services to choose from, it can be difficult and overwhelming for first-time parents to determine what they actually need - and more importantly, don't need - for their baby.

Planning for Babe matches the most suitable products and services to the parent's unique lifestyle, ensuring they buy the right products and services first time around.

WHY:
As a brand new concept in Australia, Planning for Babe wanted a website which could educate and entrust potential clients on what baby planning actually is.

They also wanted to offer free resources to help gain trust, and to give potential clients an incentive to return to the website. They felt that a blog would be the best method to do this, and we agreed.

The website and blog also had to be stylish and sophisticated to match their branding and market.

WRAP-UP:
Planning for Babe has heightened their credibility and engaged potential clients, predominantly through their blog.

Attracting media coverage from Channel 7 News to invitations to write for high-end magazines, their online presence has strenthened their branding and reputation.