Business Start Up

Free advise for setting up your new business

Affordable Services Ltd have been specialising in small business website design since 1998. We have helped hundreds of new companies and seen and helped with their mistakes, not only with the web design, but marketing and promotion of the new company. Effect PR has now been launched to help with online effective marketing.

When new in business you will probably have very limited funds for all the areas you need to spend on. The trouble is there are a lot of good sales reps out there who can be very convincing. If you know your goals, before buying any advertising make sure you ask yourself if it will help achieve those goals and will it actually pay for its self.

Sometimes you are better off investing the money an advert would cost on a member of staff or a contractor to actually go out and promote your company.

Online Marketing

Online marketing is enormous business. The companies who get it right will see results and growth in wealth, but being number one in your chosen industry has to be constantly monitored as every other website will be competing with you to overtake and become the new search engine number one.

If you have had your website developed and you are looking for increasing the traffic, a very effective way is buying into Google's cost per click advertising. Basically you pay for hits. The only problem with this is once you remove the advertising your site will immediately disappear. It is important, while you are looking at the instant leads to also concentrate on the longer term marketing. If you would like to get your site up the search engines, then to find out how much it can all cost, you can visit effect pr for a free online quotation.

Advertising

Advertising can be the most important thing you do as a new business, but unfortunately it can also be the most expensive thing. If you are an online business then your advertising has never been more flexible. There are thousands of places to advertise.

If you would like help with your PR and advertising then visit effect pr.

Advertising in magazines is probably the quickest and easiest way to spend your budget, but we have never know a company to pay for the advert through increased revenue by running just one advert.  Be careful and work out if the advertising is likely to pay for its self before committing!

Website Development

Probably the most effective and cheapest way of advertising your companies services is on the Internet. Before the enormous popularity of the Internet, companies had to rely on printed medium, booklets and flyers to promote their services. Not only do you have to pay for the design, but also printing and then distribution.

The biggest mistake we see new companies make is on day one is they want a website that sings and dances, has thousands of photos and covers every aspect possible of the Internet. What is worth remembering is that a website, unlike a printed brochure, is never finished. You can always add to it. That is why, to many new companies we recommend starting with just enough online to establish your professional appearance online. You can always add to the site once business can pay for it.

If you are planning to sell on the Internet, then a fully functional website on day one may be the only way forward, but from experience, we have found time and time again, functionality leads with results over design. If your budget is tight, save on design but spend on functionality.

If you are starting out in business, then we recommend that you get a free online website quotation.

Domain Names

When the Internet initially begun its boom and stories of selling domain names for thousands if not millions of pounds then people started buying domain names like they were going out of fashion. There were two problems with this. One, all the good names were being bought and many small companies could not actually buy the domain name to fit their company. And the other problem was that more and more extensions were being launched. .co., .net, .tv, .info, etc.

It is now nearly always possible to buy a good domain name ending with one of the extensions. We would always recommend buying a name with your profession or service in. If you sell sunglasses, then sunglasses shop. Affordable Websites. To check names then companies like Register.com are great, but if you are ready to buy a name, then check with Affordable Websites as they may well be able to save you money.

Promotions

Promoting your new business is something that should not be overlooked, but at the same time you will not have the budget that the blue chip companies spend on developing their profiles. Before spending any of your budget on promotions, work out exactly what you are looking to achieve.

If you run an online shop then the outcome of promoting your website is very straightforward, but it is always key to success to make any promoting that you do do pay for its self. To get a free quotation for your website then visit effect pr.

If you are looking to target an audience then may websites can advertise cheaply to their targeted database. For example, essexuncovered.com has over 25,000 members, mostly from Essex and between the ages of 18 and 30. Such a detailed target audience can prove effective promoting for clothing or fashion related products. It is also ideal for the telecommunications business.

Publications

It is easy to get talked into advertising in the biggest and best magazines on the market in your chosen industry. If you are new in business chances are the budget is tight and you should only really be spending on things that can guarantee interest and awareness. When you advertise in a magazine to find out how successful the marketing has been and if it actually pays for its self is a difficult job.

Rather than pay out a huge chunk of your budget, for a new company we would always recommend some form of online marketing where you can spread the cost. Something like paying for your clicks on Google can guarantee you a number one placement on the search engine, but at the same time spread the cost over several months.

If you would like help with your online marketing, then you can get a free website health check from effect pr.

Ad Words

Google Adwords - https://adwords.google.com/select/ is an excellent way to generate hits for your chosen keywords. Basically you can choose your customers and this give you enormous power as a retailer. The great thing is that your ads show up on Google almost instantly. Type in your ad text. Select your keywords. Set your budget. Start seeing results.

The downside to adwords is then when you withdraw your budget, the hits stop instantly. That is why it is important to make sure your site will also naturally progress up the search engines. To see how much this can cost then effect pr can give you a free quotation.

Awards

Awards are a great way of getting some really positive PR and there are plenty out there. Call you local council or your local papers. You will probably find that the exposure will win you plenty of new business.

Affordable Services Ltd are soon to be launching the Essex Design award and have just launched the directory for Essex Design companies.

If you are looking for ecommerce services such as ecommerce web hosting or a company to build your ecommerce website, then Affordable Services will have the solution for you. We can develop your ecommerce website at affordable prices.

Ecommerce is now accepted by most Internet users as a safe place to shop. With several companies now offering secure facilities for taking the transaction, setting up a safe shopping site is probably at its cheapest. World Pay, Barclaycard, PayPal are just a few of the companies the Affordable Services works with. They all offer their own pros and cons. With Ecommerce such an accepted way to shop, it is possible to open a shop selling a very specific product, such a spoons!. Obviously as shops are becoming cheaper and easier to launch, there are more out there, so optimising the site and getting good results in the search engines is as important as the good you sell. Visit effect pr for a free online quotation for optimising your website to start generating more sales.