Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

I am the owner of a small furniture assembly service in NYC. I sunk my everything into this business and I need some help and suggestions. I would like as many people as possible to view my website and give me ideas,suggestions, and what is wrong. I also need help on marketing itself, like what should i put an a ad as my benifitd and features. I can think of a bunch, but are they right? I wish I could afford to hire a pro, but it just isn't in the cards. I'm sure that there are many great minds that can and will help me with some ideas ang guidance. Thanks a millon in advance.

Christopher

Funny, John, I just said essentially the same thing to a new client this morning. We're going to work on it!

Christopher, I just took a quick look at your site and I have some suggestions.

1) Take out the Flash.

It slows people down and requires extra steps to reach your site. The harder it is for people to get the information they want, the greater the chance that they will abandon your page and go elsewhere.

Plus, you’re talking to consumers, who are more likely to have dial-up connections (which will choke on the Flash page).

2) Use some colors! It's the Internet, you don't have to pay extra to print them, and they attract more attention. ?

3) You're stuck on features, rather than benefits. Talk less about the kinds of furniture you assemble and more about what the customer will get by using your services.

For example, "Tired of struggling with 'easy to assemble furniture' that isn't so easy? Stop fighting with screwdrivers and allen wrenches and let our experienced technicians do the work for you."

Hope this helps.

Good comments, and I'll send you some other comments too:

1) Start a "furniture assembly help" blog - that will help you with Search engine optimization for your keyword terms.

It will also allow you to share stories about what kind of projects you're working on each day. Big and small.

2) Rate the manufacturers: You've put together a lot of stuff - who makes the best? Easiest to assemble? Sauder? Ikea?

3) Trim down the header graphic- show what you do: "Let us take this" (Show pictuer of flat shipped box) "To this" (Show picture of finished living room) "While you do this" (Show couple sitting on couch enjoying life)

4) Referrals might be your best focus for increasing your business - So think up a great way to collect testimonials and referrals - but you have to "DO IT FOR THEM" - Here's what I mean.

When you do a job, offer an instant $5 (or whatever is appropriate) discount to allow you to send an endorsed letter to 3 or 5 of their friends.

"Mr.Smith, You found us by (looking online) or referral - and we find the best way to find people just like you, is ask for referrals..."

John, one thing you brushed on but stayed pretty neutral about is that there is software to "create business plans in 24 hours". In my opinion these should not be used and the structure that the SBA or the books tell you to use should not be followed beyond the table of contents. Following these may impress the banker but hopefully that is only the beginning of your business venture.

A business plan should not only show people what they need to see but it should be functional for you to operate your business out of. If I need to know how to order raw materials, it's in my business plan. If I need to know cost for various services I provide, it's in my business plan. If I need to get a loan to complete a project, all the necessary papers are in my business plan and up to date. No, I don't take the whole plan to them but the particular documentation I need is clearly listed so that I can print it out. Notice I said they are up do date, that means my plan is updated quarterly if not monthly.

You should review various parts of it and revise what is not working. Most recently I did this to my marketing section. I help manufacturers increase their productivity and reduce their downtime by improving their industrial controls and processes. One thing that does not come easy in this field is sales. I realized that and decided I needed to revise my 8 line marketing section in my business plan. Does it follow what the SBA or any of the other institution says it should? Absolutely not. I purchased John’s book and used it as the basic structure for my marketing section. I didn’t follow it word for word but I pulled out what was relevant to my business. I can tell you that revising this section has tremendously improved my sales skills and benefited my company.

I see I’m getting long winded as usual but my point is if you use on of the packages to create your business plan for the bank, be sure to throw it away when your financing is secured and create yourself a working business plan.

Yes, definitely long winded. I’ll get to you in the next on Christopher.

TW

Christopher, I work in one of the most high tech industries there is and I can’t make it off of internet marketing alone. You’re going to have to do a little more than that. Get Johns book and follow the above instructions. It will help. I’m actually in the process of evaluating some of the methods of John’s book and am writing an article about it. Perhaps John will provide a link to it for others to read when it is published.

But here are a few things about your site.

If I go to a page that has flash, I just hit the back button. You’re loosing at least half of your visitors right there. Ditch the flash; I'm sure you paid a lot of money for it but just write it off. Flash has a place but...well I can't think of a single place that flash fits but perhaps someone else can jump in and help me out on that.

The pages are way too long. Best I can tell you only have 5 pages. Google isn't going to waste too much time with you only having five pages. Break up your content. No one wants to read a lot. Short and to the point

Make it easier for someone to contact you and definitely have it on your site instead of jumping to that other site.

Tim,

Thanks - I would l love to see what you come up with from using my book.

Also, I agree on the business plan software - most of it is designed for folks looking to raise money - not run a business.

I'm working on creating my own Duct Tape Marketing business plan outline and tool and will keep you posted on it.

I look forward to seeing your business plan outline. I've still got some "i"s to dot and "t"s to cross on the marketing section of my business plan. I'll send it to you once I get all the blanks filled in.

Note that I said the blanks are filled in. A business plan is never complete.

TW

I really want to thank everyone for the help, suggestions, and constructive critism. Jodi, I really liked the way you implimented the benifits, and I went ahead and used exactly what you wrote. I intend to remove the flash as well. I also liked David's suggestion to show the header picture of a box to the couple by the finished piece. Once I figure out how to do such a picture it will be up there. I also did some direct marketing this weekend by going to the Port Authority in NYC where IKEA provided free busses to and from their store in NJ all day. I distributed small flyers witha 10% off. I;m also in the middle of making a dresser costume out of cardboard that I am going to wear outside the next home show while handing out flyers. Once again, I want to thank everyone!

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