Carry Safely, Inc. has been added to the growing list of our clients at Tom Rumish Website Development.Carry Safely, Inc. provides firearms training to individuals and groups in Illinois and Wisconsin. A major part of the classes that they give are related to Utah Concealed Carry Permit Training and helping people obtain CCW permits and a concealed weapons permit.
Though Illinois & Wisconsin are the only two states in the US that do not allow CCW permits for its’ residents, the Non-Resident Utah concealed carry permit training that they teach will allow people to obtain a permit from the State of Utah which is recognized in 30 states. Both Patricia Snyder and Greg Powell are Utah Concealed Firearms Certified Instructors.
Small business website designer Tom Rumish has helped many clients who have existing websites that are not producing results for their businesses. As a professional website designer we work with and for you during the small business website designing process to help insure that your web site will have a “stickiness” to hold visitors on your website and produce results for you and your company.
HOADLEY'S HALLMARK STORE WEBSITE
Duane and Janeen Hoadley, owners of Hoadley's Hallmark have been in business for over 25 years. They had contemplated establishing a web site for their greeting card and collectable gifts store for the last few years, to take advantage of the valuable marketing power that an online presence has. Duane and Janeen realized that in today's world, almost everyone uses the Internet to look for products and services and that they were missing those people who were unfamiliar with their store and are using the Internet to find businesses like theirs.
In addition to greeting cards and gift wrap, Hoadley's Hallmark sells collectable gifts such as Department 56 lighted buildings & villages, Willow Tree angel & nativity sculptures, Jim Shore American folk art figures, Hummels and Trackster collectable die cast cars. Because such a large portion of the Hoadley's Hallmark Store's business is the sale of collectable gifts, the new website has pages devoted to many of those lines of collectable gifts that they carry in their store.
QUIT DOING BUSINESS LIKE YOUR GRANDFATHER DID
What worked in business marketing during your grandfather's day just doesn't work today. Virtually every business needs an online presence today to continue to grow and succeed. Using the Yellow Pages to advertise is very costly and in most cases too localized for today's mobile society. People think nothing of driving 25 or more miles to find a product or service that they want or need. To advertise in every Yellow Pages phone book within a 25 mile radius is way too expensive, plus people just don't use the Yellow Pages like they did back in your grandfather's day.
We urge you to schedule a free website consultation with professional website designer Tom Rumish Website Development. Learn what a low cost custom designed website can do to help market your small business. With the economy currently being sluggish it more important than ever to market your small business and market it very cost effectively. To learn more about Tom Rumish Website Development and schedule a free consultation and estimete visit www.tomrum.com or phone us at (815) 786-8573
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Most small businesses spent a good portion of their yearly marketing budget on their business website when they first established their company web site. Hopefully that money was well spent and your website has ended up being a successful marketing tool for your small business.
If your web site is successful and is bringing in new clients, doesn’t it make sense to put more money into your small business website, to hopefully make it become even more effective? Continuing to allocate a portion of your marketing budget each year, towards something that has proven in the past to be beneficial will make your small business website an even stronger marketing tool.
IF YOUR BUSINESS WEBSITE IS WORKING WELL
If the web site that you have for your small business is doing well, and what it is supposed to do, you may be following the adage “if it’s not broke don’t fix it”. I too follow that premise regarding many things in my life. But in reality, is that the best thing to do when it comes to your business website? In my opinion, it probably is not best to leave things as they are unless your website and its’ performance as a small business marketing tool is providing you with more business than you can handle.
If you are pleased with the responses that you are getting from your business website but would like more customers from your website, ask yourself a couple of questions. “Am I showcasing all of my products and services thoroughly and effectively?” “Is there something I can do to convert a higher percentage of my website visitors into actual customers?”
After sitting down, taking a good long look at your website and really thinking about the two questions that I asked in the previous paragraph, there is a good chance that you will answer “no” to at least one of the questions.
With a little further thought, you will probably be able to zero in on something that can be added to, or modified, on your website that will help improve your small business web site as a marketing tool for your company. Perhaps it means just editing or adding some text on an existing web page. Maybe adding an additional page to your site will help showcase something that you are not currently putting enough emphasis on. Perhaps your Call to Action is not strong enough and can be improved.
If, on the other hand your website doesn’t seem to be helping your efforts to market your business; perhaps you did not initially spend enough money on your website to make it truly effective. If this is the case, maybe you need to spend some of this year’s marketing budget to expand and improve your website, so that it does end up being the most successful marketing tool in your arsenal.
We urge you to continually review your small business website and look for ways to improve it. If you want your business to prosper and grow you must use every tool at your disposal to its’ maximum potential. In almost all instances a small business website is the most productive tool in your business marketing tool box.
WEBSITE ADD-ON FEATURES
A call to action is defined as follows: "Encourages site users to act to or respond to an offer. Often incorporates an action verb, for example, “download now”.
“CALL US NOW” BUTTONS
Basically Call Us Now buttons work when a site visitor clicks on the Call Us Now button. When this is done a small window pops up in which the web site visitor enters their phone number. Within seconds, their phone rings. When they answer their phone, a phone call to your business is initiated and your business phone will ring. When you pick up your phone you are immediately connected to your website visitor by telephone.
No special phone, equipment or software is required to implement this feature on your website.
WHAT BUSINESSES CAN BENEFIT FROM “CALL US NOW”
Almost any business can benefit from having a Call Us Now button on their website. Below are a few of the many examples in which a Call Us Now button can be used to convert website visitors into sales:
Carry-out and food delivery businesses -- People can view you menu online and place their pick-up or delivery orders by connecting to your business immediately using a Click To Place Your Order button.
Restaurants –- People who are visiting your website to find your location and view your menu can use a “Click to Make a Reservation” button.
E-Commerce sites -- Very often website visitors have questions about products or are hesitant to input the credit card information needed to process an order. A Click to Call button can be used to answer those questions or for site visitors to place an order by speaking to a live person on the telephone.
Lodging & Accommodations businesses –- Most people today prefer to make their lodging reservations online from a website. If your website does not have an online reservation system in place, a “Make Your Reservation Now” button can be used and has almost the same effect as an online reservation system.
LOW COST ALTERNATIVE TO AN “800” NUMBER
Your clients are not charged for the calls that they place using Click to Call services. This fact can and should be prominently mentioned on your web site. Generally speaking your business pays only for the minutes that someone is connected to your business through a Click To Call service.
In most cases Click to Call is a low cost alternative to having an “800” phone number. Unlike “800” phone numbers there are no taxes, line charges, and in many cases no recurring monthly fees. That being said, charges to have a Click To Call button on your site is often much less expensive than having an “800” number for your business. In many cases, depending on the call service provider used, there are no contracts to sign.
INCOMING CALL TRACKING
Almost without exception all Click To Talk providers have client call tracking and a web-based control panel from which you can view a Call Activity Log. Depending on the service provider call logs can include:
- Call time & date
- Caller phone number
- Caller name and optional email address
- Call duration and cost
- URL address from where call originates
And often more information
The information in the Call Log can of course be downloaded and used for future follow-up contact with clients and potential clients.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information about adding Click To Talk buttons & links, online reservations systems and other interactive features to your website, which have the potential to help you and your company gain customers and revenue Click here to speak to us right now. Or, email Tom Rumish Website Development with your questions.
Be sure to visit our small business website designer site to see an example of a Click to Call button. Small business web site designer Tom Rumish Website Development offers a multitude of web site services to small business owners. Be sure to visit our website www.tomrum.com to see all that we offer.
There is constant discussion among website designers about the importance of a website’s Home page. Some professional web site designers argue that a Home page has little to no importance compared to the inner pages of a site, while others argue that the Home page of a website is the most critical page of a website. There are valid arguments on both sides of the issue as far as I am concerned.
Here is my personal take on the whole issue of a website Home page and its’ importance and role.
YOUR HOME PAGE AS A “LANDING” PAGE
In the past, the Home page of a website was almost without exception the “landing” page for visitors to your website. Rarely did anyone arrive at your web site on one of the inner pages.
In today’s world the Home page is probably still the primary landing page for your site due in part to the fact that your site URL (www.mysite.com) is what is printed on business cards, letterheads and other forms of print advertising. But, due to the way that major search engines have evolved, the inner pages of a site have increasingly become landing pages for your sites’ visitors.
Because of the fact that the Home page has decreased to some extent as an entry point for a website, the role of a Home page has changed somewhat compared to its’ role in the past.
SO, WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF A HOME PAGE TODAY
Think of your website as a printed book and the Home page of your website as a combination of the book cover the Table of Contents and the back cover of a book.
Just like the cover of a book, your Home page should grab people’s attention. It must attractive and represent the website favorably through the use of a pleasing layout & colors and have a feature or two that creates a “stickiness” to attract their immediate attention and cause them to want to explore your site in more depth, instead of quickly moving on to another website. In addition, if the Home page is cluttered and hard for people get oriented to they will quickly move on to another site. Remember that First Impressions Are Everything. Landing page = first impression = very important.
The textural content of a Home page can be compared to the Back Cover of a printed book and should give a very brief description of what your site and company are all about. That is to say, it should tell in condensed form what products, services and information you and your company can offer the web site visitor. If applicable the content of your Home page should also have a call-to-action.
Lastly, a very vital function of your Home page is to act somewhat like the Table of Contents of a printed book. It should provide a way for site visitors to quickly find the specific information they want or need and provide a way for them to easily get to that specific information on the inner pages of your website. This is done of course with the use of an easy to use navigation menu and/or links.
INNER PAGES OF A SITE AS A “LANDING” PAGE
As I stated earlier, the Home page is not the only page at which people arrive on your site. Search engines will link to inner pages of your site, thus causing those inner pages of your site to be the “landing” page for many, if not most individuals that arrive at your website as a result of a search engine query.
Because inner pages of your website are often landing pages for visitors, the inner pages should have the same attractiveness and “stickiness” that your home page has. Inner pages of your site should also have easy to understand navigation to all other pages of your web site, just as your Home page has. Be sure to have a consistent look to all pages of your site to avoid possible disorientation.
I always maintain that “Every page of your site should be accessible from every page of your site”.
THE FUNCTION OF INNER PAGES OF A WEB SITE
Inner pages of almost every site are the “meat and potatoes” of what you have to offer your website visitors and what they came for. They are the pages that you have hopefully generalized and briefly mentioned on the Home page of your site and are usually your sales force and money makers. The inner pages of your site is where Content Is King.
The reason that Content is King on the inner pages of your site is because it is on these inner pages of your site where you should not just outline, but go into detail with current information about the various products, services and information that you have to offer. The way that you author the textural content on the inner pages of your site can mean the difference between making money or going broke.
I won’t go into text authoring other than to say that you must accurately showcase all of the products, services and information that you offer and gracefully lead your website visitors down a path that ends with a call-to-action. You can of course implement a call-to-action at more than one point within the page content of an inner page.
HOW DOES YOUR WEBSITE RATE ?
Does the Home page of your website have eye appeal and have some sort of stickiness to grab the attention of people? Is your website navigation complete and easy to use? Can every page of your site be accessed from every page of the web site? Is the text content on all of your pages current? Do you have an effective call-to-action on your pages?
If you do not have a website – why don’t you have one? You are missing out on what is probably the least expensive way to advertise and market your business or organization.
Small business website design and maintenance specialist Tom Rumish Website Development is your answer for low cost web design. Business web site designing, website re-modeling and up-dating and SEO are among the many services offered by professional web designer Tom Rumish. Visit our website for more details about the many affordable web services available.
http://www.tomrum.com/
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Small business website designer and web site maintenance specialist Tom Rumish Website Development recently designed and developed a new ECommerce website for Chris Johnson and Naperville Baggo.
Chris is an avid Baggo - Cornhole player and professional carpenter who owns Creative Touch Carpentry. He had, in the past, manufactured Baggo - Cornhole games for his friends and the church that he attends. After doing some research Chris Johnson decided that there is a viable, niche market for the games. As a result, Naperville Baggo was born.Baggo - Cornhole tournaments and events have become really popular in the Chicago, Illinois area just as they have nationwide. So, Chris decided on not just producing the Baggo boards but also renting Baggo - Cornhole boards to taverns, church groups, civic organizations and the like for tournaments and special events in the greater Chicago area.
Chris decided that the best way he could market his new venture without taking too much time away from his primary business, Creative Touch Carpentry, was to offer his Baggo - Cornhole products for sale and rent online. He felt that by marketing online he would not have to spend a bundle of money to market his sale products & rental services. In addition to the relative low cost to market online Chris is able to reach his niche market, both for sales and rentals. As a result of marketing online, Naperville Baggo's market area for sales is nationwide and he can limit his rentals to northern Illinois.
Due to good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) during the website's design and development by Tom Rumsh, within one day of putting the website online Google showed the Naperville Baggo site as #8 on the first page of search engine results for the broad search term "baggo cornhole sales". Website Search Engine Optimization has become a major part of the design process of the custom websites designed by Tom Rumish Website Development.
For more information about Naperville Baggo, purchasing their products online with your credit card or information about renting baggo - cornhole games for an event please visit their website. www.napervillebaggo.com/
The small business web site design and maintenance firm of Tom Rumish Website Development can help you turn your small business ideas into a reality too. Small businesses are the backbone of the USA and more and more people are turning their ideas into profitable online businesses. Marketing your small business online is a extremely cost effective. By having Tom Rumish Website Development develop an E-Commerce website for you, it will allow your customers to purchase your products or services online by using their credit card.
For more information about ECommerce websites or a custom designed website to showcase your company's products and servies contact Tom Rumish Website Development. tomrum@tomrum.com
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