getting irish business online

GET YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE

LIAM, HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING SERVICES MANAGER, IS ONLINE www.aacservices.ie“ I see the GETTING IRISH BUSINESS ONLINE initiative as an opportunity for a business like mine to have a constant presence in every home or office that contains a computer.”

HERE ARE THREE GOOD REASONS TO GET ONLINE NOW

1 BE WHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE

The number of online users in Ireland grew from 66% in 2009 to 77% in 2010.

2 MAKE SURE YOUR BUSINESS CAN BE FOUND

Over 75% of Irish customers use the internet as their primary tool for researching new companies and products.

3 DO MORE BUSINESS

71% of Irish internet users have shopped online.

Sources:!ComReg Consumer ICT survey, 2010, www.comreg.ieConsumer Barometer, TNS Infratest, 2010, www.consumerbarometer.eu

GET YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE 1

AND IT REALLY ISN’T HARD…

Honestly - getting your business online couldn’t be easier thanks to the GETTING IRISH BUSINESS ONLINE initiative.

The steps we’re about to show you for getting your business online don’t require any specialist technical skills to implement. All you need to do is take a little time to learn, set up and maintain your online presence.

Just go to www.gettingbusinessonline.ie/guide, follow our simple guide and you’ll be online in no time.

2 www.gettingbusinessonline.ie/guide

3JUST GETTING STARTED? Go to Phase 1 to find out how to get your website set up!

11ALREADY HAVE A WEBSITE BUT WANT TO IMPROVE ITS PERFORMANCE? Go to Phase 2 to find some ideas for improving your content and design

17WANT TO UNDERSTAND YOUR VISITORS AND GET MORE OF THEM?Go to Phase 3 to learn about tracking and promotional techniques

CONTENTS

GET YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE PHASE 1 3

PHASE 1SET UP

Our tool will help you create your website with a quick and easy step-by-step process:

4 SELECT YOUR PREFERRED DESIGN

Choose from a range of designs and see how your content looks before you decide on your favourite. (page 7)

3 CREATE YOUR HOMEPAGEType a brief description of your business and our tool will automatically create your site. (page 6)

2 GET YOUR WEBSITE ADDRESSChoose a name for your website and register your business to secure it. (page 5) You will need:

– Your business address and details. – VAT number or company number. – A mobile phone number so that

we can text you a code.

5 YOU’VE GOT A WEBSITE!At this stage you are online and your potential customers can find you. If you want to add more pages, more content or images etc. you can do so at any stage (page 8). Learn how to do more with your website in Phases 2 and 3.

1 SET YOUR GOALS Businesses go online for different reasons – what are yours? (page 4)


1 SET YOUR GOALSBusinesses go online for different reasons – what are yours?

Do you want to increase sales? Get more inquiries or leads? Provide your customers with extra information about your products?

Your answers to these basic questions will help you design a website that makes sense for your business.

Your customers: – Who are the customers you want to reach? – What kinds of information do these customers find useful when making

purchasing decisions? – What are your customers already saying online about your products or services?

(A Google search for your business name can give you an invaluable insight into what your customers care about, love and hate.)

Your competitors: – Are they online yet? – If so, what are they doing online?

Your offering: – What are your business’s main selling points? – What is the story behind your business? – Will you sell products online?

Keep your answers to these questions in mind as you create your website and make decisions about your business’s online development.


2 GET YOUR WEBSITE ADDRESSChoose a name for your website and register your business to secure it. Your unique website address (e.g. www.yourbusinessnamehere.ie) is also known as your domain name or URL.

Choosing the right website address for your business is an important decision. Here are some things you should take into account:

– Are you happy for this to be your business’s permanent online address? Even if you move premises, your online address will generally stay the same.

– Make it short, easy to remember, clear and unambiguous when spoken – any name that requires spelling out or explanation should be avoided.

– Make sure it relates to your business – ideally it should be the full or abbreviated version of your company name or a word or phrase connected to your industry.

– If you’re targeting customers in a specific location you could consider including the name of your location in your domain name e.g. www.tropicalfishcork.com.

If your first choice of website address isn’t available, try searching with a variation of the name e.g. including the location of your business. Once you’ve chosen your domain you will need to sign up and register your business, it’s only at this point that the website address will be secured for you and you can start creating the website.

Choose a domainEnter your business name or a few words that say what you do, we will try to find a domain that suits you.

find mans best friend

Unavailablemansbestfriend.ie

Select mansbestfriend.eu

mansbestfriend.com Unavailable


3 CREATE YOUR HOME PAGEFirst impressions count – and your homepage is the first impression many visitors will get of your business. Imagine your homepage as your online shop front. Make it clear what it is you offer, make it easy to access, and make it attractive.

When considering what to put on your homepage, think about the most important thing you want customers to do with your site. Do you want them to view your products, write a review, call you… or something else? Whatever you want, make sure that this action is clear and simple for your customers.

Write a brief description of your business in the ‘About’ section. You can come back and add pages to your website if you need to, so don’t feel like you have to put everything you do on the homepage. Our sitebuilder tool lets you change fonts, sizes and colours if you want to – kind of like using a word processing tool.

Site Home Page

For now we want some basic information to put on your homepage. Later on you can change any of this from within the sitebuilder at http://cp.blacknight.com

Site title

Description

About

Mans Best Friend

Dog Walking


4 SELECT YOUR PREFERRED DESIGNThere are a range of design themes to choose from – just click on the one you like best and the tool will do the rest.

After you select a theme, choose your username and password (please keep a record of these as you will need them to update your website).

Then click the button ‘Complete’. Your details will be verified and your new website will be live (visible to everybody on the internet).

Once you have completed this stage, we’ll send you an email to confirm. In future, your website can be updated by logging in at http://cp.blacknight.com

Choose the lookChoose a template for your website to give it a unique look and feel.

Theme selectorPick from one of the following themes for your site. Take your time and find the theme that is best for you.

Clean Forbairt Crisp

Login detailsChoose a username and password to login at http://cp.blacknight.com

Next >>

Username |

Password

Confirm Password


5 YOU’VE GOT A WEBSITE!If you’ve followed all of the steps and completed sign up, your website is now up and running. There are a couple of things you should include straight away, which will appear on your homepage.

A CONTACT DETAILS

Not every business or sole trader has premises – or you might be working from home – so when your website first goes live it won’t automatically display your address and contact details. We recommend you add as many details as possible – it couldn’t be easier!

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO: – Go to http://cp.blacknight.com – Enter your username and password – Move the slider to show or hide your address

B ADD A GOOGLE MAP

You can choose to show your address along with a Google map showing people how to find your business. Having your address displayed as text on your page is useful for Google’s search engine and a map is really the easiest way for people to find your business.

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO: – Go to http://cp.blacknight.com – Enter your username and password – Move the slider to highlight ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’


Many smaller businesses will find that a simple one-page website like you’ve just created is plenty. You can, however, add to your site at any stage. See tips for the next phase starting on page 11, and don’t forget to promote your new website, no matter how big or small it is.

QUICK TIPS

Pages and updatesAfter you sign up, you’ll have one page: your home page. This is an important page and acts like an overview page of your business. You may add other pages to your website from here from the outset (About Us, News, Services etc.) For tips on how to add more content see Phase 2, on page 11.

ThemesThink your website needs a face lift? Perhaps you rushed through your application eager to get online. Don’t worry! You can change to one of our other themes at any point.

Your address

39 Canal View

Rathmines

Dublin 6

Show address

Use Google maps

Save Settings

Hide

ON

Dublin


BARBARA & JENNIE, OWNERS OF DESIGNIST, ARE ONLINE www.designist.ie“ The website gives people a taste of the shop before they get here. A huge percentage of the people who come through the door tell us they looked at the website before they visited.”


IMPROVING YOUR WEBSITE

Improving and developing your website is easy with our sitebuilder. Follow our tips to work out what you need for your business, and how to get it out there. 6 DECIDE ON YOUR WEBSITE STRUCTURE 7 IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE CONTENT

PHASE 2

Login

Username |

Password

LoginForgot password?

REMEMBER:If you want to make changes to your website, you need to enter your username and password into our sitebuilder: http://cp.blacknight.com


6 DECIDE ON YOUR WEBSITE STRUCTUREThe easier and quicker it is for customers to navigate a website, the more likely they are to use it. Break down and arrange the information you’re intending to put on your website in the most logical and user-friendly way. One way of approaching this task is to draw a simple map or outline of the site on a sheet of paper.

About us Contact usOffers/Products Reviews / Testimonials /

Awards

Our location

Home page


HERE’S A TYPICAL WEBSITE STRUCTURE - FEEL FREE TO ADAPT IT TO YOUR OWN BUSINESS’S PARTICULAR NEEDS:

Home page The first page your customers will see - and therefore the most important part of your site. This page needs to make an instantly positive impression and encourage visitors to stay and investigate further. You should include clear links from your homepage to the other main pages of your site, so that customers can easily find and click through to those pages.

About us This is where you describe your business – who you are, what you do and how you do it. Include details of your business history, experience and customer testimonials.

Offer/Products Here’s where you describe what your business has to offer. Clearly communicate the benefits of your products and services - and what makes you stand out from your competition. Include prices and photos or videos if possible and appropriate.

Reviews / Testimonials / Awards

Use this section of your website to let others do the talking for your business – quotes from satisfied customers, reviews from general or specialist media, and details of industry awards.

Contact us This is where you’ll display your business address, phone, email address and other contact details. You may also decide to include your phone number and email address at the foot of every page of your website.

Location This is for the benefit of customers or suppliers wishing to travel to your business’s physical location – do give accurate road directions and, ideally, a map which they can print.


7 IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE CONTENT Once you’ve decided on the right structure for your website, the next step is to decide on your content – the actual text and images which you’ll be featuring on the site.

This is where the notes you’ve taken when you Set Your Goals (page 1)really come into play – what kind of content will be most appropriate for your business and useful or interesting to your customers?

HERE ARE SOME GENERAL TIPS:

Find your voice Your website should reflect your business’s personality. So choose a tone of voice for your content that reflects that personality - funny or serious, emotive or clinical, informal or formal.

Tailor to the mediumUsers interact with online content differently than they do with newspaper ads or direct mail pieces. So existing offline content needs to be adapted for your website. Use short sentences, clear headings and bullet points.

Most important information firstMany users won’t scroll down through a whole piece of content. Always put the most crucial information at the top of the page where it can be seen immediately.

Speak their languageWrite content using the kinds of words that your customers would use, not your colleagues – avoid industry jargon.


Use images Wherever possible and appropriate include good-quality visual and audio-visual content. Useful and interesting photos and film clips can add immensely to the appeal of your site.

Clearly communicate your benefitsInclude the information about your products and services most likely to persuade customers to choose your business over your competitors.

Clearly brand your siteMake sure people know they’re in the right place by adding logos and making it look consistent with the rest of your marketing materials and stationery.

Keep your content freshOver time, there’ll be changes in your business – you’ll offer new services, discontinue products, win awards or move premises – and your website will need to be updated promptly to reflect those changes.


BRENDAN, PRINCIPAL OF DILLON SOLICITORS, IS ONLINE www.dillon.ie“ Having a website is a basic business tool that shouldn’t be ignored. Many people nowadays do not consider you a professional if you’re not online.”

PROMOTING AND TRACKING YOUR WEBSITE

Adding your new website address to your business card, invoices, flyers, business vehicle and shop front signage will help get the word out about your website. There are many more ways of ensuring a potential customer can find you if they are searching online, free or otherwise. In this section, our tips will help you promote your website and give you advice on tracking to make sure you understand who’s visiting your website and what they’re doing on it. 8 PROMOTE YOUR WEBSITE

9 ADVERTISE ONLINE WITH GOOGLE ADWORDS

10 USE SOCIAL NETWORKING 11 MEASURE YOUR WEBSITE’S EFFECTIVENESS 12 LEARN EVEN MORE


PHASE 3


8 PROMOTE YOUR WEBSITEYou’ve got your website up and running. Now you need to get customers to visit it. Here are some promotional ideas to try out:

A ADD YOUR WEBSITE ADDRESS TO YOUR MARKETING MATERIALS AND STATIONERY

Your website should become the first port of call for anyone seeking more information on who you are and what you do.

Your website address should appear on any materials your business uses to communicate with the public, from letterhead, business cards and invoices to t-shirts and promotional calendars.

Similarly be sure to include your web address in all advertising or other marketing materials.

B MAKE SURE GOOGLE CAN FIND YOUR WEBSITE

In order to make sure that somebody searching for your kind of business finds you, you need to make sure that your website comes up as early as possible on that person’s Google search results.

Here are a few simple tips on how you can make your website more easily found in Google search.


TextWhile Google can analyse many different types of content on your website, text is still the easiest for it to understand. The more you can make the words on each page of your website relevant to and focused on your core business offering, the easier it will be for people searching on Google for your business to find you.

External Links and RecommendationsJust as in the offline world, you build your online reputation through the recommendations of others – which typically means having other businesses and individuals linking their websites to yours. Ways in which you can increase your online reputation include:

– Contacting your local chamber of commerce or industry organisation and asking them to link from their websites to yours, and/or list your website address in any relevant offline publications or listings.

– Participating in relevant professional online forums and sharing advice and useful information with other internet users.

– Encouraging satisfied customers to write reviews of your products or services and publishing these on your site.

For more tips go to www.google.com/webmasters

If you just want to learn more about how Google searches work go to www.google.com/howgoogleworks


9 ADVERTISE ONLINE WITH GOOGLE ADWORDS

With Google AdWords, you can create and run ads for your business, quickly and simply across Google and!a huge network of partner websites.

– Advertising with AdWords allows you to reach new customers at the precise moment when they are searching for your type of products and services.

– You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, and you control how much you spend on each click, your daily budget, and where your ads appear.

– AdWords accounts also include graphs and performance data so you can track what’s working and edit your ads accordingly.

– You select where you advertise. You can decide whether to show your ads only to people in your own local town or region, or to the whole world.

Why not try out Google AdWords to attract more customers to your website? Call us on 1890 907 098, you’ll receive an AdWords credit* and one of our friendly AdWords experts will help you set up your account. If you want to learn more go to www.gettingbusinessonline.ie/befound

*Terms and Conditions apply.


10 USE SOCIAL TOOLS TO CONNECT WITH CUSTOMERS

The explosion in the popularity of online social networks provides enormous opportunities for your business. Here are some ways in which social media can be invaluable in helping you promote your business:

Keep your customers up to date. Set up an account on a social media site, write a blog or send out an email newsletter to provide your customers with news of new products, promotional offers and usage tips. It’s important to refresh information regularly – the less you update your blog or social network profile, the less often people will return to view it. You should also check the legality of emailing customers to make sure you are complying with email marketing policies.

Listen to what customers are saying. Aside from any direct feedback you may receive via social media, you can find out what’s being said about your business, your competitors and your industry by regularly checking in on review sites, online forums and social networks relevant to your business. There are a number of specific tools available to help you find these sources of customer feedback: – Google Alerts. Simply sign in with your Google account, enter some keywords and

you’ll be alerted whenever Google finds those keywords used anywhere on the Internet. www.google.com/alerts

– Google Blogsearch. Find blogs focused on your industry and products plus one-off mentions of your products in other blogs. www.blogsearch.google.com

– Twitter Search. See what is being tweeted about your business, your products, and your industry. www.search.twitter.com

Once you’ve identified a useful source of information, get used to checking in regularly.

Monitor and be proactive about reviews and ratings. Many local business directories and consumer websites feature user ratings and reviews. It’s important to pay attention to what other sites in your industry are saying about your products and services – and to respond promptly to any reviews or queries regarding your business. Try to boost your business’s profile on these sites and be proactive in encouraging satisfied customers to post reviews.


11 MEASURE YOUR WEBSITE’S EFFECTIVENESS

Once you’ve got your website up and running it’s important to keep track of how it’s working for your business.

There are a wide variety of tools available to enable you to track and analyse your website’s impact on customers - how many people visited your site, how many of those visits led to purchases, and so on.

You can also understand and improve the effectiveness of your advertising and promotions online by carefully monitoring the results of each burst of marketing activity.

SIMPLE TRACKING TECHNIQUES

Here are a few of the more straightforward methods of measuring your website’s effectiveness:

– Use a new phone number (i.e. not your regular business number) for your website contact details – you’ll know whenever you get a call on this new number that it’s from an online customer.

– Make special offer coupons available on your website – every customer who redeems a coupon has come via your website.

– Ask new customers to complete an online form – or simply ask them on the phone or in person to find out how they heard about your business.

– Use an online statistics counter to track how many visitors your website is attracting. Search online and you’ll easily find a free tool to help you.


MORE ADVANCED TRACKING TECHNIQUES

Some of the more advanced things you can find out through tracking are:

– Referring Sites. Where are people coming from, and which of your ads and promotions are driving them to your website?

– Keywords. Which words and phrases are visitors using in their searches to bring them to your website?

– Content by Title. Which pages of your website are visited most often? – Specific Link. How many people clicked through an individual link included

in a particular email sent or ad posted by you?

When analysing activity on your website, you’ll want to focus particularly on the rates of conversion – how many of the visitors to your website actually signed up for a newsletter, made a purchase, or contacted your business.

Google Analytics is a powerful free tracking and analysis tool which allows you to get detailed information on where visitors to your website are coming from, what drove them to you, and what they do once they arrive.

Google Analytics can also help you analyse the effectiveness of your online advertising with Google AdWords (see page 20) and other e-commerce solutions.

You can find our more about Google Analytics at www.google.com/analytics


12 LEARN EVEN MORE...By setting up your business website and spending some time developing basic strategies to promote yourself online, you’ve already done your business a big favour.

There are many more ways in which you can use the online environment to promote your business – and with a little time and motivation you could master these more advanced strategies too.

There’s lots of useful information on promotional and advertising techniques, search engine optimisation, e-commerce and advanced measurement tools available absolutely free at www.gettingbusinessonline.ie

GET YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE 25

SIMON, OWNER OF SPARTAN BOXING, IS ONLINE www.spartanboxingfitness.ie“ I’ve wanted to set up a website for a while now. One of the main reasons I hadn’t was I didn’t think I had the time or the knowledge but with GETTING IRISH BUSINESS ONLINE it’s been easy.”

ROSIE, OWNER OF BROADWAY BAGELS, IS ONLINE www.broadwaybagels.ie“Being online has opened my business to the world.”

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