Email marketing has come a long way in recent years, and now, through a managed system, you can send messages out to your list in an attractive, graphics-enhanced, email format. An email marketing system is useful for just about every business. Some uses that come to mind include newsletters, new product or services announcements, special offers and promotions, changes in your business, advice columns, and so on. It is a rare business that cannot benefit from improved communication with clients, and professional email marketing is one of easiest communication methods available.

With either of these two site models your key is to,

~ attract a new potential customers to visit your site and ~ then to be motivated enough to want to do business with you.

Your site is like your store front that you not only want people to drop by but you want them to come inside of your store and want to buy!

You as a business owner you must determine exactly what you want to accomplish with your site. Is it to generate inquiries about your business via site or phone, or would you like to handle actual sales through your site?

Most of us know too well that in business, we rarely get a second chance to make a first impression. This is especially true with our small business sites.

Try to put yourself into shoes of your site's first time visitor. What is their initial response when they first view your site? Some of questions that they may have are:

~ Is this company trustworthy? ~ Are they experienced? ~ Are they professional? ~ Are they going to be able to give me what I want?

What is your site's look and content doing to answer these questions? What is your site's look and content stating to your visitors about your business? What is it doing to turn your visitor into a customer?

The fact is, that if your site looks unprofessional, piecemeal, out-of-date, or just thrown together, people will probably think that's how your business is run.

Your business site should be about information first and "look" second. Especially with e-commerce and buying products sites -- it should be easy for potential customers to find information or product that they are looking for, purchases it, and then check out.

So with all this in mind, how can you stand out from crowd? How can you attract site visitors, turn them into customers, and make your small business site a real revenue earner? Here are some tips to help you:

1. Insure Quality

One of most important facts about your site is that it is a window for world to view your product or service business. The design and maintenance should be treated as another aspect of your ongoing marketing effort to world.

Make sure that your site's content looks fresh and reflects your business. Sites that are full of poor graphics, colors and spelling mistakes are not sites that visitors will want to do business with. You wouldn't send a brochure or a sales letter to potential new customers with such mistakes in them, so don't do it within your site.

2. Getting Around

Remember that not everyone uses your site in same way. So provide different ways to reach your information or products within your site. Easy of navigation (the way that visitors get to things they want on your site) means that visitors may choose route that suits them.

3. Contact Information

Include phone and email contact details on each page of your site so that visitors and customers have a way of contacting you. This also provides visitors a method of contacting you for more detailed information to help them make a more confident buying decision.

4. Stay Current

Make sure that clear and up-to-date information on your products and pricing are provided. Do you have a new product or service that you are offering? Do you have a recent press release or a current customer testimonial letter? All would make good content for your site. Just make sure that all information within your site is fresh and current, and not a couple years old.

5. Hosting Service

The actual processing of orders is done through a web host (generally a computer "server" not at your business). Your website hosting service makes sure that your site is up and online 24 hours a day and to keep your payment details secure.

In my experience, best site hosting services are generally found locally and not through a national hosting services. The big national and international hosting services may advertise their cheap hosting fees as a hook to get you to sign-up with their service. Then you may find that their reliability ("uptime") and support services are not as you had hoped they would be.