Presents…

1. Presents…

2. Introduce Yourself • Name • Your Business • What you do • What you hope to learn here

3. We’ll Cover… • 8 Reasons You Need a Website • 10 Things to Do Before Launching a Website • Hands-on Brainstorm workshop • 5 Things to Do After Launching a Website • Some Useful Resources & Tools • What we offer

4. 7 Reasons You Need a Professional Website • Gets your business more calls • Website can be used to encourage people to call you • Phone number should be clearly visible • Alternatives: • Online contact form • Email • Postal mail

5. 7 Reasons You Need a Professional Website 2. Gets your business noticed • Creates immediate trust • Establishes a competitive advantage • Colorful graphics tend to capture visitors’ attention • A visitor decides to stay at a site within 7 seconds after arriving there

6. 7Reasons You Need a Professional Website 3. Get and keep loyal, paying customers • Sites allow for many ways to keep customers coming back to you for more! • Online coupons • Email newsletters • Daily / weekly / monthly specials • Have a way for customers to pay for your products online (ecommerce) • Consumers tend to buy on impulse if there is a way to pay for a product online

7. 7 Reasons You Need a Professional Website 4. Increase store traffic • A site lets people know you exist! • A site helps increase business by 80 – 90% • ROBO behavior!

8. ROBO Behavior ROBO – Research Online, Buy Offline • Consumers prefer to research products online, before buying offline at local store • In-store sales start online: • Approx. 90% of consumers pre-shop online before making a purchase in local store

9. ROBO Behavior ROBO – Research Online, Buy Offline • Annually, about $400 billion of in-store sales are influenced by the internet • Internet-influenced sales account for 16% of total retail sales • ROBO behavior will grow at an annual compound rate of 17% growing to more than $1 TRILLION of in-store sales by 2010

10. ROBO Behavior ROBO – Research Online, Buy Offline • Consumers continue to buy in-store after researching online for three main reasons: • Immediate gratification • Ability to view and interact with product before purchasing it • Avoid shipping costs

11. 7 Reasons You Need a Professional Website 5. Replace expensive advertising mediums • Websites are the cheapest form of advertising • Pay ONCE, instead of many times over • Target market is much more efficiently reached than by any other form of advertising

12. 7 Reasons You Need a Professional Website 5. Replace expensive advertising mediums • Online advertising drives in 6 times as much in-store sales as online sales • Each $1 spent on online advertising drives $20 in combined in-store and online revenue • Combining search marketing and display advertising brings a higher return

13. 7 Reasons You Need a Professional Website 6. Demonstrate your expertise • Use your site to illustrate why and how you’re better than the big box store down the street

14. 7 Reasons You Need a Professional Website 7. Compete globally and locally • Having a website enables you to easily compete with big businesses around the world • Why should someone buy a product from thousands of miles away when they could get it from you – locally?

15. 10 Things to do Before Launching a Website 1. Identify your market • What industry is your business in? • How large is your industry? • What is your target market? • What are the demographics?

16. 10 Things to do Before Launching a Website 2. Research & understand your market • Research consumer trends • How does it affect your market? • Consider any competition • What are they doing? • What marketing tools & techniques are they using? • How could you do it better?

17. 10 Things to do Before Launching a Website 3. Assess your project • Consider what you want your new site to do • Should it be a promotional tool (information only)? • Should it be an extension of your business (ecommerce)?

18. 10 Things to do Before Launching a Website 4. Create / modify business plan • Determine a launch date • Set long- and short-term goals for your business • When should these goals be achieved?

19. 10 Things to do Before Launching a Website 5. Brainstorm your site • Create a storyboard and site structure • Sketch at least 3 possible layouts (called “wireframes”) • We offer a FREE 30-minute brainstorm session!

20. 10 Things to do Before Launching a Website 6. Plan your site • Determine a look and feel • Establish a theme • What information should be added? • What features should there be? • Image gallery • Shopping cart • Other interactive features

21. 10 Things to do Before Launching a Website 7. Set up your site • Register a domain and set up a hosting plan • Places to register a domain: • GoDaddy.com (recommended) • SmallBusiness.Yahoo.com • Register.com • 1and1.com

22. 10 Things to do Before Launching a Website 7. Set up your site • Tips: • Domain privacy – approx. $10 / year – hides your name and address informaiton • Register domain for more than one year • Renew domain at least one month before it expires

23. 10 Things to do Before Launching a Website 8. Build your site • Take as much time as necessary • Need not worry about perfecting it – do this later • Growth Curve has the EASIEST way to build it!

24. 10 Things to do Before Launching a Website 9. Revise, Review & Optimize • Make any necessary modifications • Optimize for search engine results • Use keywords that are relevant to your site • Link keywords to relevant pages within your site • Contact Growth Curve for more tips and pointers!

25. 10 Things to do Before Launching a Website 10. Submit and launch! • Submit your site to search engines • Google • Yahoo! • MSN • Ask • AOL Search • Promote promotepromote!

26. 5 Things to do After Launching a Website 1. Promote PromotePromote! • Google AdWords • Facebook • Twitter • Other websites related to your business

27. 5 Things to do After Launching a Website 2. Maintain & Update • Update your site on a regular basis • Edit keywords and page descriptions • Add, change, or update new content every week

28. 5 Things to do After Launching a Website 3. Evaluate & Analyze • How can it be improved? • What can be added / removed? • What are people responding / NOT responding to on your site? • What do the traffic patterns look like?

29. 5 Things to do After Launching a Website 4. Re-submit to Search Engines • Do this every 2 to 3 months • Routine updates to website helps search engines keep your website “active” in rankings

30. 5 Things to do After Launching a Website 5. Repeat RepeatRepeat • Modify business plan according to how your website is affecting your business • Repeat Steps 1 – 4 above

31. Useful Resources & Tools • CJ.com – Earn revenue on your site! • LinkShare.com – Another way to earn revenue! • Conduit.com – Create a FREE toolbar for your business! • Going Up.com - Advanced web analytics! • DaFont.com – FREE downloadable quality fonts! • HTML-Color-Codes.info – Get the codes for html colors! • EffectGenerator.com – Create a FREE flash effect for your site!

32. Useful Resources & Tools • AddThis.com – FREE referral tool! • ColorCombos.com – Determine your site’s color scheme! • ColorSchemeDesigner.com – Design your color scheme! • Whois.DomainTools.com- Find out who owns a domain you’d like to buy! • Balsamiq.com/builds/mockups-web-demo/ - Online website mockup designer!

33. What We Offer • Web Hosting starting at $1.95 / month • 1 FREE Email Account • 1 FREE Add-On • Packages starting at $195

34. What We Offer • Consultations • Ecommerce (shopping cart) for only $199 • Ability to update your own website

35. Presents…