Many small businesses are using social media (like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs) to drive sales. One firm has their sales targeted to reach $1 million this year.

Here are a few excerpts:

Two-thirds of all online users visit social networks and blogs, according to data from Nielsen Online.

There’s no better reference than your friends telling you about something. It’s that exact interaction that happens on Facebook

Read the entire article here.

Mindspring Design can help you to establish and design your blog, and link your website to Twitter and Facebook accounts.

This short video interviews John Marshall of MarketMotive (former CEO of ClickTracks) and explains how small businesses can make the most of their analytics software. He recommends you answer 2-3 business questions you’ve crafted in just a half an hour using your analytics program. He recommends 3 different web analytics tracking programs. And he also offers resources for help deciphering your analytics reports.

Maya David is a licensed New Jersey teacher who gives private Math and Reading lessons to students (grades K-8) who may need more personal attention than is provided during the regular school day. Maya is also a licensed Spanish teacher who has taught the Spanish language to adults and children, both in the classroom and privately. Here she highlights the joys and challenges of running her tutoring business.

Mindspring Design: What made you start up your tutoring business?

Primero Tutoring (Maya David): I used to tutor in college, and I enjoyed the personal attention and time I got to spend with each student. After I got laid off [from teaching in elementary school], I decided to give it a try on my own. I worked with a tutoring agency for one summer, and I realized I could make more money and get more contacts on my own. So I went off to do it on my own.

How did you develop the concept for Primero Tutoring?

Since I majored in Spanish [in college], I was going to focus on Spanish and also elementary math and reading. I thought that the name [Primero Tutoring] was a good combination of both themes – it encompasses Spanish along with general tutoring. And “primero” means number one!

What do you enjoy most about your business?

I like being able to really see students make progress on an individual level. Because when you teach in a classroom, you don’t get to give enough attention to each student to work on his or her specific needs. And I feel like I can accomplish a lot. I also enjoy the fact that I get to be a support to the family, not only educationally but also emotionally. I feel like I have a more personal connection with the families I’m involved with, and I like that a lot better than teaching in a classroom. I could teach like this all day long!

What are your biggest business challenges?

Finding enough time to find business and staying organized. Also keeping up with developing my professional skills.

Do you have any advice for other small startups?

If you don’t succeed the first time, try again. I tried this a couple of years ago and it didn’t go very far. The second time I did more reading and research and it went better. Keep trying, studying and researching, and that will help improve your chances.

Check out Maya David’s website and blog at www.primerotutoring.com.

Are you a small business owner or marketing manager seeking to hire a website designer or graphic designer? Before you do, you must read this great article by Andy Rutledge entitled Don’t Walk; Run.

He discusses how to save yourself time and money, and to get what you want out of your company’s creative projects. Too many designers simply don’t ask questions or ask the wrong questions, and are more concerned with where a pixel should go rather than meeting your business needs. Rutledge’s article is frank and to the point, and will help you identify a designer who is just as passionate about achieving your business goals as you are.

When choosing a printing company to produce your marketing materials, you want the best quality for your money. Here are a few tips to help you find the best printer for your marketing needs.

Get multiple price quotes from reputable printers. Make sure to send each printer the same project description so that you can compare apples to apples. Include the size of the paper, whether or not the artwork bleeds off the paper, number of ink colors, number of pages, type of paper, file type, etc. Be as descriptive as possible, a good printer will often follow up your enquiry with additional questions and suggestions.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Price Quote Request [PDF Example]
And check out this glossary of printing terms so that you’re not left in the dark!

Aside from your graphic designer, ask your printer any questions you have. They are knowledgeable about design layout, paper weights, ink colors, and more. Once you find a printer you like, try to build a relationship. You may even be able to visit the press facilities for a tour. This has been very helpful to me in the past.

Local Printers

I’ve had good experience with these local south Jersey printers. What printers have you used? Have you had good or bad experiences?

• Alphagraphics
• Kiva Printing & Graphics
• Minuteman Press
• Pirolli Printing
• FedEx Kinkos (the Cherry Hill branch is open 24-hours — I’m listing it only for if you’re in a bind, but don’t expect miracles at this location, let alone a good print job)

I’ve also had good experiences using online printing services for pop-up banners, tablecovers, t-shirts, and direct mail postcards. Just make sure you use a reputable company that gives you a proof (so you can see what your final will look like) and has a good return policy. And make sure to call their customer service reps for any guidance and practical suggestions.

Ways to Save Money

• Design with only 1 ink color.
• Don’t let your design bleed off the paper.
• Choose standard paper sizes.
• Avoid folds, special cuts (die-cuts), special colors (like metallic inks).

Have you found a creative way to save money in your business printing endeavors? Let us know.

Website Grader claims to measure the marketing effectiveness of your website based on search engine optimization, social popularity, inbound links, Google page rank, page source code, and other factors. Simply enter your website URL, wait a few seconds, and get your website score along with a full report emailed to you.

Why should I use this tool?

Website Grader is a good tool to let you know how you rank compared to your competition in selected online marketing efforts. It also alerts you to areas in which you could increase the scope and effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

But don’t sweat the small stuff…

This tool doesn’t score you on everything you are doing with social or viral marketing, or show every directory you are listed in. In addition, it didn’t pick up all my inbound links, although other search engines picked them up.  Some alerts that it reports are not to be overly concerned about. I’m not sure I agree with the readability level scoring either. It seems that more technical sites might come up with a “Graduate” level readability score simply because they include some technical terms.

Overall, I believe this is a useful tool. Grade your website and use the report card to lay out specific steps to improve your online marketing strategies.

So you’ve spent lots of time and money designing your small business website, and you’ve just launched it for the public to see. But wait! Do you know you could be ignoring a large percentage of the population and thus reducing the market audience you are targeting?

You might take for granted that some users cannot use a mouse.

When designing your website, you should design web content in an accessible format (not as an afterthought), keeping in mind people who have:

• Visual impairments (Blind, Color blind, Senior citizens)
• Hearing impairments
• Physically disabilities
• Learning disabilities
• English as a second language
• Slower internet connections
• Access to Internet content on multiple platforms (mobile phones, etc)

You will reap several business benefits by following web site accessibility standards:

• Improve the searchability of your website.
• Increase usability and help to improve web conversions.
• Increase information access to more people using assistive technologies and adaptive technologies.
• Accessibile web design is required by law in some places, so your business brand will benefit by complying with accessibility standards.

9 Accessibility Mistakes to Avoid When Designing a Website:

1. All your links read: “Click Here.” This could be confusing to visitors using screen readers and other assistive technologies. Instead, use a descriptive link that gives useful clues about where you’ll take them once they click.
2. You use tables to layout your web pages. Instead, use tables for organizing ‘tabular data’ (for charts and such) to eliminate confusing and repetitive table tags. Opt for CSS to layout and style your web content.
3. Your pages use extremely small type (because “it looks cool”) that can’t be resized in the browser. People with sight disabilities may need larger text in their browser. If your design breaks or doesn’t allow that, they will have to leave your website.
4. Color is used as an integral design or navigation element. That would confuse those who are color blind (take the color blind test). And remember some monitors don’t display colors accurately.
5. You’ve got light grey text on a white background or dark grey type on a black background (because it’s “so Web 2.0″). This makes reading a difficult and painstaking process. You need to use a bit more contrast for users with challenged vision. You don’t have to completely sacrifice design for functionality, but do keep this in mind. And do allow users to make their own decisions about how they browse your page.
6. All description, title and alt tags have been left blank so people must guess what your page and images are all about. Make sure your web designer goes that extra step, labeling and describing the contents of your page. This may mean that you, the business owner, must provide content for the designer to input.
7. There are no captions on any video or audio recordings, and no transcripts are provided for the deaf. Physically challenged users might miss out on this quality web content. So don’t leave anyone out, and make sure to offer alternative versions of your audio/visual content.
8. There are no descriptive tags in web forms explaining how to fill them out. Close your eyes and imagine filling out an online form. Where do you start, what should you type, in what format? To ensure that you recieve high quality form submissions (or recieve submissions at all), try including descriptive form tags. You web designer should also insert any instructions (like “enter year with four digits: 2010″) before the form fields, not after.
9. You used an online validator, but didn’t do any web content accessibility testing on actual users with disabilities. An online validator is a good place to start. But it is not a good substitute for a person. Testing your page on a group of people who have disabilities will give you most invaluable feedback about your site.

Recommended Reading:

• Website Accessibility Under Title II of the ADA
• Understanding Disabilities When Designing a Website
• Beyond ALT Text: Making the Web Easy to Use for Users With Disabilities: 75 Best Practices for Design of Websites and Intranets, Based on Usability Studies with People Who Use Assistive Technology
• Web Usability Accessibility and Usability Resources

Resources:

• Web Site Accessibility Tools, Checklist & Guidelines
• Test URL in Online Checker
• List of Screen Readers

Many small-business owners cringe at the thought of email marketing. They think: I already get too many emails … Isn’t that spamming? … Will I get in trouble for that? … Won’t people be annoyed?

Personally, I don’t mind receiving something I’ve signed up for. I may delete it if I don’t have time to read it, but at least I know that another email will be coming my way soon enough.

So relax, because not only is this marketing method legal (when you follow best practices), it’s also effective and fun. Let’s consider how email marketing can help you to increase sales.

Benefits of Email Marketing

• Cost effective – Achieve a solid ROI considering you can produce your own emails in-house using cheap tools, DIY templates and wizards
• Build relationships – starting a dialogue with your target market can offer new business ideas, improve service or product quality, bring attention to weaknesses
• Build brand consciousness – get people used to seeing your logo, your ads, your face, your identity
• Increase website visits – emails are a great way to pique a person’s interest and direct them to your website, forum, blog, store, whatever
• Keep custumers informed – they will feel priveleged to be in the know about discounts, events, news, and other valuable information

Harvest Emails with a Professional Email Marketing Policy

There are both reputable and shady ways to get email addresses. The safest way to collect emails is to use an opt-in form on your website. A person opts-in (in effect saying, yes! send me emails!) and then confirms their subscription through a link in their email inbox.

Other ways of getting email addresses include purchasing or renting a list, and emailing people asking if they’d like to receive emails in the future. Many people don’t like receiving these unsolicited emails and will consider them spam. Use good judgement and tread wisely.

You should always have an opt-out or unsubscribe option available in your emails. This is in case someone decides they don’t wish to receive any more correspondence, or if they’ve received an email in error.

Plan to Be Consistent and Informative

In order to have a consistent and productive email marketing plan, list the topics you’d like to cover. Decide with what frequency you will be corresponding with your contacts. Schedule everything out — some businesses email once a month, others more freqently. You may want your emails to coincide with the seasons or sales cycles.

What can you write about? Write about new products, new services, discounts, customer stories, educational articles, contests, FAQs, etc. The possibilities are endless. Elicit  ideas from your staff members, other business owners, and from customers themselves.

Maximize Your Design and Optimize Your Content

It is a good idea to hire a professional web or graphic designer to create a customized template just for you. This is the best, most professional way to go. He or she will be able to ensure that your email newsletter will look good in the most email clients.

Make sure your newsletter is not so wide that it’s hard to read from an email inbox. Also, your most important content would be towards the top, so that no one has to scroll down to see it. For this reason, some list links to the newsletter’s topics at the top of the email.

Use eye catching graphics (note: not loud, flashy, tacky graphics) and make sure your header and footer blend well with your company’s brand image. Include your contact info and liberal links to your site.

Make sure your newsletter title is catchy and descriptive. Your email ‘subject’ and ‘from’ email address should be instantly recognizable by your readers. Use keywords that your target market would be searching for and interested in. Body copy is usually scanned quickly, so keep it divided up into short chunks or bullet points.

Partner with a Powerful Email Marketing Service

There are tons of email newsletter services - Constant Contact, Vertical Response, Mailchimp, and the list goes on. Find the one that’s right for you. Some incorporate free, editable email templates. Some offer the option to send HTML and/or text-only emails. Some do surveys and even direct-mail postcards as well. 

Definitely look for one that keeps track of your collected email addresses and newsletter campaign stats. Search for one that meets all your needs, because it’s probably out there.

Work to Meet Your Marketing & Sales Goals

Set concrete goals you’d like to achieve, be it more web visits, more phone calls, increased sales, etc. And after each email is sent out, monitor your stats using your email newsletterprogram. This valuable information will help you to make adjustments to your design or content.

For example, I noticed that one newsletter was not getting many click-thrus to the company’s website. I realized that by sprinkling additional, descriptive hyperlinks throughout the newsletter, people had moreoptions of interest to click on. And with that, the click-through rate increased considerably, as did product sales.

These tips should get started marketing via email.

Is your company already successfully marketing via email? Talk to me!

These days it seems everybody and their mom has a blog. Rock stars, politicians, and 13 year old millionaires have blogs. Does your company need one? We’ll discuss what blogs can do, the benefits, and the risks.

What on earth is a blog anyway?

For those who don’t know, “blog” is a term that combines the words “Web” and “log.” So it logs (or lists) entries (often called “posts”) containing text, graphics, or video content created by somebody. Learn about blog types and history here.

You are reading Mindspring Design’s Blog right now. Take a minute and look around! Many blogs follow this format. You are reading a post. You can read other posts by searching the categories and other links in the sidebar. At the end of each post, or entry, you can view or add your own comments.

Why would somebody blog?

• It helps you get found by search engines.
• Posting regularly adds valuable, searchable information to your website.
• A blog helps you to reach a wider audience.
• It’s beneficial as a marketing tool for brand awareness and education.
• You can use a blog to open up a dialogue with your readers/consumers and get valuable feedback.
• Using a blog to design your whole website gives you an easy content management system.
• Think of some more benefits? Let me know!

How do I get a blog?

There are many free online tools you can use to start your own blog. Blogger and WordPress are both free and popular. Blogger can be hosted on their website, WordPress is hosted on your own server. I am using WordPress for this website, for example. I downloaded their free blogging software and easily installed it onto my own server. (You will need access to a database to do this yourself.  The WordPress website offers lots of help though. And several hosting providers, like Superb.net, offer a blog for free with set-up already done for you.)

Are there risks involved in a company blog?

• Offensive content
• Legal issues — giving out sensitive company information
• Copyright infringement
• Angry, dissatisfied posts by customers (you do have control over this through an admin panel; you could potentially turn this into a positive by addressing the issue and improving your product or service)
• Any I missed? Let me know.

My personal experience with blogging has been positive. I appreciate any and all comments. I find that I must keep up with what small-businesses are interested in, and the graphics industry. And the added website content helps to attract more people to my site.

Some of the latest WordPress Templates:

What is it?

Genbook is a web appointment scheduling service that offers several features. I installed the free version on my site for testing purposes, and decided to keep it since it fits my needs.

Who needs it?

I recommend online appointment scheduling to anyone who meets with customers. It’s great for hair stylists, dentists, trainers, etc. This is an easy, non-in-your-face way to invite people to talk to you, meet with you, purchase your services.

Everything’s done online and takes about five minutes for you to set up and two minutes for customers to book. A customer chooses a service you offer, books a time, and confirms. You both receive notification via email.

Features

• FREE
• invite customers to make appointment
• view calendar
• book up to 4 weeks in advance
• email notification
• your logo
• sends customer email reminders
• send up to three customer messages when they confirm their appointment
• free book now button on your website
• additional features are available at cost.

Pros

This saves time and can boost sales and visibility. Upgrading to a paid plan allows you to save contact information for business marketing and to capture credit card info to make sure clients show up.

Cons

You can’t have multiple user sign-ons on the account. But you can offer several staff members’ services on the same calendar. There is a small Genbook byline and logo on the booking pages, and you can’t weave the booking software into your own site’s layout and design.