“Make sure you’re ready to answer the door” my husband said. “Huh?” I replied, clueless as to why I would answer the door when his office is on the 1st floor and mine on the 3rd.
A few hours later I heard a voice calling out and descended the stairs to discover a man holding a lovely bouquet of flowers. A gorgeous arrangement in yellow and white. With a bow. And a card. A wonderful surprise delivered by our local florist.
Have you ever received flowers-by-mail? I did, once. I happened to be out of town on my birthday and my daughter decided to order flowers from one of the flowers-by-mail companies. She meant well, and I love her dearly, but this is not the way to show someone you care.
Rather than receiving a lovely arrangement, I received a do-it-yourself-project-in-a-box. The first challenge was figuring out how I was going to remove the contents since they were secured with tie wraps — not the twisty kind, but the kind you need to cut with a scissors or very sharp knife. Such things are not typically part of my travel kit. The nice person at the front desk found some scissors for me and back to my room I went. I was still puzzled, however. There were some flowers, a small basket, and a tiny vase. There was no picture to show me what my DIY project was supposed to look like when completed, and the vase didn’t actually stand up when placed in the basket. What was supposed to be a wonderful surprise turned into a frustrating experience.
Sure, I was in a town that neither or us were really familiar with but with one call to the hotel she could have asked about a recommended local florist or two. And I would have received an instant bit of cheer to brighten my day and the rest of my stay.
When we owned our restaurant we would frequently order flowers from our local florist for our staff and special customers. As the economy started to go south, so did our florist, and within a few months we were without a vital member of our business community — one that we could always rely on to put together just the right arrangement for the person and the occasion. I’m not saying you should buy more flowers (although you definitely should if you can afford it!) but when you do buy flowers, buy local.
Be sure to check out the 3/50 Project for more information on supporting locally-owned businesses.
… your website’s home page, that is.
Take a look at your website home page (if you have one). I don’t mean your blog; while a blog may be part of your overall website, I’m talking about the first thing someone sees when they click on your website URL. Hopefully it’s not a blog. Read on and you’ll discover why.
Does your home page look warm and inviting? Does it represent the atmosphere one would feel in your brick & mortar establishment?
Can you easily find on the home page — and clearly read — the following:
- business name and logo,
- location,
- phone number,
- hours,
- newsletter sign-up form, and
- email address?
You see, your website home page should be a static page, consistently displaying the same information you’d place in a newspaper or yellow pages advertisement. If someone is trying to find you, they don’t want to have to wander around your site, clicking links here and there, to try to find the information they need. They’ll give up, and move on to the next site.
Once you’ve gotten the prerequisites down, the next step is to incorporate a picture. One. If you’ve got a great designer, maybe two or three artfully placed, but the goal is not to distract the viewer from the main content. It should capture the essence of your establishment. If possible, put yourself in the picture. Let your personality shine through. It’s all about building relationships.
You might also want to have an area on the home page where you feature a current event of some sort. If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, it’s easy to incorporate a ‘widget’ that can pull in dynamic content. Just make sure it only takes up a small portion of your home page and doesn’t distract from the core information.
Make sure your home page isn’t cluttered, with lots of different elements fighting for the viewer’s attention. Keep it to two or three typefaces at the most; you don’t want your site looking like a ransom note. Same goes for colors. They can bright and bold, subtle and subdued, or anything in between. Just don’t use too many. Pick a palette and stick with it. If you must put music on your site, make sure that it doesn’t start playing automatically.
Now, check your home page. What do you see? Be honest with yourself. Do you pass with flying colors? Congratulations! You’re further along than 70% of the small business websites I’ve visited recently. If you’re not happy with what you’re seeing (or don’t have a website at all) there’s a number of options available to you.
If you’re not happy with your current site but don’t know exactly what needs to be fixed or how to fix it: feel free to drop us a line. We’ll have a peek and give you an idea or two.
If you’re comfortable making changes to your website: Get busy! Make a list of the changes you want to make and schedule a block of time to get them completed. You might need a couple of blocks, depending on the number of changes and the amount of time you have available. Focus on the most important tasks first.
If you have a webmaster: Send them the list of changes.
If you don’t have a website: Get one! BlogArtisans offers an eCourse that will walk you through the entire process, as well as SetUp and Hosting Services.
Now sit back, relax, and enjoy your new home!
