With the internet being more popular than ever, launching an online presence for your business is critical to its success, whether you’re selling products or providing a service.

At Solutions Four we understand that many new companies don’t have a big budget to spend on a website which is why we’ve created a fixed price CMS web package on our new site www.minifour.co.uk

Grow your business at your own pace

The last thing you want to do when you start your own business is to overstretch yourself financially.

Our Mini Four website package is perfect for start-ups and small businesses who want an affordable and professional online image without breaking the bank.

If your company develops and expands over time and you outgrow your Mini Four site, we can use our wealth of web and marketing knowledge to provide you with a new site that reflects where your company is and where it’s going.

Solutions Four always look to develop long term partnerships with their clients and our Mini Four customers will be no different.

Why Choose Mini Four?

• Fixed price package means you know what you’ll be spending
• Years of expertise in CMS web design and promotion
• You can update your CMS site yourself instantly and at no extra cost
• Our web package is comprehensive and provides everything you’ll need
• Speed – your new site can be up and running within 7 days

To discover more details on cost and what you’ll receive for your money, go over to www.minifour.co.uk.

On the face of it, you may think that copywriting is well, copywriting.

Is there really much difference between writing for magazines and newspapers and writing for the web? The simple answer is yes.

What’s right for offline media will very rarely be effective online.

Does your web copy do all of the following?

• Attract attention – People read differently online from reading a newspaper or magazine. Internet users have a very short attention span and if you can’t get their attention within a few seconds then they’ll lose interest and go to another site.
• Get to the point – Once you’ve grabbed someone’s attention you need to get your message across simply and effectively. Bullet points are a good way to do this as people won’t read through large paragraphs of text online.
• Scan well – Like it or not, a lot of the copy on your website won’t actually be read in great detail. It’s therefore crucial that you use headings and sub headings well because people scan through web pages quickly to find relevant information.
• Ask for the sale – Advertising in magazines and newspapers often consists of an image with a catchy slogan and not much else. If you’re selling online then you have your potential customer right where you want them.
  Simple calls to action such as “Order yours online now” with a link to the relevant page can improve your online conversion rates.
• Mention relevant keywords – Shopping online for goods and services is all about relevance. Are people searching for what you’re selling? If so, have you mentioned the most popular keywords and phrases in your content?

Unlike more traditional advertising methods, keyword research is critical when it comes to selling online; it’s all about being found by people who are searching for what you’re offering.

Here’s the technical bit

In addition to the points above, there are a few more technical areas involved in web copywriting that don’t apply to offline selling.

Here’s a brief summary of just some of these important areas;

• Meta titles: Sometimes known as browser titles, these are the first thing people will see in their search engine results so they need to be relevant.
• Meta descriptions: The two lines of text that appear under your Meta title in the search engine rankings. This is your chance to persuade people to click through to your site.
• Internal linking: Using descriptive and keyword rich links between the pages on your site will benefit users and improve your search engine ranking.

Our experienced web copywriters will focus on all of the above and more to transform your online sales.

Benefits of well written web copy

The text on your website is your online sales force and if you fail to invest in your content then your business will suffer.

So what are the main benefits?

• Keep your site fresh and interesting to encourage repeat visits
• Generate more traffic for your site via incoming links
• Target specific keywords and phrases that people are searching for
• Improve your search engine rankings and online sales
• Ensure you get a positive ROI from your website

Design and content: a winning combination

It’s all very well having an all singing and dancing website that looks fantastic but if it’s not generating sales then it’s a liability to your business.

An effective website should strike the right balance between great design and persuasive copy that’s going to encourage people to buy.

Online content is often overlooked in the process of building a website but it’s too important to ignore.

Connecting with your target market

Well written web copy enables you to connect with the people visiting your site and explain the benefits of using your service or buying your product.

A common mistake many companies make is that they write their own web copy.

All too often this focuses on the company itself rather than getting into the mindset of their potential customers and persuading them that they need the product.

Writing for robots?

Online content shouldn’t be written in a spammy way that targets the search engine robots but leaves visitors to your site bewildered.

Remember that it’s real people who are going to buy your product or service, not robots so the words on your site need to attract attention, engage and persuade.

However there are critical areas on every website that have more emphasis placed on them by the search engines.

Knowing what to write and how to write it will improve your search engine rankings without turning off your target market.

It’s the right time to improve your content

With more and more people turning to online shopping in search of a better deal it’s crucial that your website doesn’t miss the boat.

By keeping it fresh with unique and relevant content you’ll not only attract more visitors but also improve your online visibility.

It’s time to fire that under performing online sales force and drive your business forward with web copywriting that gets results.

OK, a CMS is simply a database that sits behind your website, that you (as the user) can access (via the Internet), by going to a website address and entering a password.

Once you have logged into this area, you will then see a list of the pages you have on your website. From here you will be able to go into your pages and edit the content, which, when saved, will immediately change your website.

For business owners this gives you several massive benefits:

• urgent business  / marketing decisions can be implemented immediately (such as menu price changes)
• no more charges from your web designer for making simple content changes
• no waiting for typo’s or errors to be corrected – everything can be changed instantly
• changes can be made when you want them to and can be scheduled when you need them

Good website content management systems also offer several features that can improve your rankings in the search engines (eg. Google). These include:

• the ability to individually title your website pages
• the ability to customise your url extensions (website addresses)
• the option to add specific page intro information you want the search engines to display
• new pages that are automatically added to an XML sitemap

Remember, just because you have access to a CMS it does not mean you have to take on all the burden of updating the website yourself. Share the responsibility with other people in your business or your website team – this is another benefit in that website CMS’s are so easy to use that several people can all chip in and help.

Overall, content management systems should be a must for anyone investing in a new website. With the speed of modern business it is essential that you have complete control over as much of your advertising and marketing as possible.

Next steps and further sources of information:

Would you like to see a demonstration of our Website Content Management System?  We will gladly come to your business and explain the benefits in more detail.

Would you like our team to evaluate your current website?  We offer free website evaluations and will gladly help you understand how effective your current website is.

Would you like us to quote for a new website for your business?  We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you and discuss a range of website options that would be available for you.

A simple reason really – if people are searching for companies that design websites in the UK, that’s what they search for on Google, Yahoo or any other other search engine, which makes this the phrase we want to be found under and associated with.

That’s why we sign off our websites with ‘Web Design UK’ to help anyone searching for suppliers within this arena find our company.

Subsequently, if they click on the link and go through to our website they will be able to click on countless examples of websites we have designed within the UK; flash driven, CMS driven, e-commerce, RSS, movies and multi-media – there are ample for them to view and gain a good indication as to the quality of our work.

Key links & further sources of information:

Solutions for Impact website – web design UK

Portfolio – websites designed by Solutions Four Impact

Contact – contact details for further information

More money
   . . More expenses
     . . . Something else to manage
         . . . More risk to me

We know that’s what you’re thinking, because we think that everyday too; running our business. Yes, we are business owners just like you and yes, we feel the exact same pressures you feel.

Yet, we have one other bit of background to share with you – everyone involved in our business actually ran hospitality businesses before we started Solutions Four. In fact, this was the exact reason we started it – because there was not a company out there that truly understood the daily pressures we faced & you currently face.

We do understand, and we’d urge you to read on so that we can share with you the concepts that we implement within our own business and the businesses of our clients.

 Why do we know our website & marketing concepts work?

Firstly, because we are proud that our customers come back to us time and time again – and we would gladly let you chat to them so that you can hear how we have helped their business in their own words.

You could speak with Kevin Matthews, Group Marketing Manager for a range of businesses from recruitment to printing. Or Dave Devaney, the Managing Director of the largest indoor ice-skating and bowling centre in London.

We also have facts and figures to back it all up, with accurate case study material detailing exactly how much additional income we have generated for our clients, Ronnie Scotts Jazz Club being one such example.

So, how do we add direct value to your business?

For a start, we don’t bull-***t you. We’ve been on the receiving end of that in the past from suppliers and we didn’t like it.

We’re enthusiastic about our work, we take pride in what we produce and achieve for our clients and we’re honest. We keep it simple and we chat to you without hiding behind technical terms and phrases. We justify any of our recommendations and back them up with real life facts.

Can you show me some examples?

We’d love to! Click through the following links and you’ll see some real-life case studies with businesses you can relate to.

What next?

We’d like to come and have a chat to you and help you learn more about us and us learn more about where your business is now and where you want to take it in the future.

In the mean time, we have always prided ourselves on the fact that we can provide a total marketing solution to our clients (from logo design to website management), so please click on the following link where you can learn more about our range of website design, print and logo design services.

We hope to see you soon and if you have any immediate questions, please do not hesitate to call.

Whatever kind of small business you run, a London-based plumbing firm, chain of florists in Ipswich or a car dealership in Glasgow, more and more people are now searching for your products and services online. And what’s more, they are choosing their service provider from the list of small business websites which appears on the first two pages of the search results.

It’s as simple as that.

Even if you’re leaps and bounds ahead of the competition in terms of service or quality, if your website does not appear on these key pages of search results, then you’re not going to get the business.

People want to find solutions to their consumer needs quickly, and preferably while they are where they spend most of their time – in front of their computers. They want to run a search and find an answer in seconds, and any company who can’t provide instant gratification of this kind simply won’t get a look in.

Many small businesses however, in London in particular, still baulk at the idea of a website through mistrust or fear.

There’s a common misconception that investing in a website is a minefield and that it will lead a small business into a nightmare spiral of full of hidden costs, complicated technical issues and mounting invoices which fail to yield any new custom.

We’re here to tell you that this isn’t the case.

“We hear the occasional horror story from customers who have previously invested a lot of money in a website only to find that it doesn’t appear in search engines and they can’t update anything on there without paying for further development work. Clearly there are some web design companies out there offering bad advice and a poor service to their customers.

In general though, most of the small businesses we deal with have a very positive attitude towards the web and the opportunities it presents. We then help them to understand that a website which has been properly designed, constructed and prepared for search visibility is a sure fire way to boost their image, profile and profits.

With the advent of content management systems, small business owners are also learning that you don’t even need to have good IT skills to amend and update a website anymore either. Web technologies are becoming more and more user friendly.”

A word of warning though, you can’t expect your website to work hard for you if you just leave it to languish when it has gone live. All successful websites receive regular TLC.

“We always advise our small business customers on the importance of ongoing maintenance and optimisation work on their site. The addition and development of content is vital in ensuring good search rankings even if it’s just adding the odd search optimised news story.

We want to encourage any small business, whatever their industry or location, to get in touch with us. We are happy to offer advice about the website process and to talk through any concerns that they may have.

The internet is so fundamental to how we communicate and do business now that it just can’t be ignored. For small businesses there is a world of opportunity out there, and we’re all about helping them to access it.”

Paula Mackie
Customer Service Manager
Solutions Four Ltd.