An online venture has its work cut out in terms of establishing its own distinctive online presence. The competition is tough and its only chance of success is reaching a wider target audience. If you are launching an online venture, it’s your branding efforts that will determine the success or failure of your business.

The most decisive component of your branding strategy is your online presence in the form of a website. But, gone are the days when this presence could only be limited to the web; your online presence now needs to go mobile. Also, this presence should be such that it can be accessed through a variety of devices such as desktop, laptops, mobile phones and tablets. Limiting its accessibility will have a negative impact on your branding efforts.

Mobile Users are a Rapidly Emerging Target Audience

If there is one development that is getting noticed by online marketers, it is that people are getting increasingly tech-savvy. This is reflected in the ever growing number of mobile users and the fact that a large percentage of these mobile users are smartphone users, who are accessing the web from their handheld devices. In doing so, they are no longer dependent on a desktop/laptop for accessing a particular website. Now, a large part of these users will comprise your target audience and you can’t afford to ignore this audience as it is a potentially lucrative source of revenue.

The mobile website as an important branding tool

In order to target your audience of mobile phone users, you need a mobile compatible website. This is the kind of website that can be accessed from the mobile phone of your target users. The importance of mobile website as a branding tool can be estimated from the fact that more and more mobile users are becoming ‘mobile only internet users’. This means they are accessing the internet only from their mobile phones. A large percentage of these users are likelier to buy from retailers that have a mobile website. So, having a mobile website makes tremendous business sense!

Although not as popular as smartphones, tablets such as the iPad are slowly but surely making their presence felt.  The ensuing years will see increased website viewership on the mobile operating systems that a tablet runs on. So, your online presence also needs to be tablet compatible. It helps you establish a presence in the minds of an emerging audience.

Something else that is capturing the imagination of mobile users is the mobile app. The various mobile OS specific apps stores are full of innovative and highly engaging apps that are eagerly being downloaded by users. A well-designed and engaging mobile app is an efficient way of capturing the attention of a mobile user; and integrating the mobile app with a ‘splash page’ is an innovative way of marketing your online venture.

In order to optimize the marketability of your mobile website, it’s important to identify the smartphones and tablets used by your target audience and design a website and/or mobile app that work perfectly on your user’s mobile devices.

A concerted marketing strategy

Be it a desktop website, a mobile and tablet compatible website or a mobile app, they must offer the same message. Yes, the limitations or freedoms offered by certain devices/operating systems will determine the way this message is expressed, but the gist should remain the same. 

Here are a few pointers that need to be taken into consideration to ensure successful use of your presence on the web and mobile.

• There should be no distractions on your Desktop/laptop website, mobile and tablet compatible website, and mobile app. Distractions dilute the message of your website and lead to unnecessary confusion. So, they need to be avoided at all costs.
   
• You need to ensure that you use the same logo & design theme across all websites and even your splash page. It ensures a commonality between all your online presences and helps you make a much stronger and concerted marketing effort.
   
• Your information should remain the same across all platforms, but its presentation can change keeping in mind the space constraints of certain devices. When it comes to a mobile website and mobile app, the information should be to-the-point and mention only the important points.
   
• It’s also important to provide links to your mobile website and app on your main website.
   
• If someone tries to access Desktop/Laptop compatible website from the mobile browser then this user should automatically be redirected to your mobile compatible website. This fact is relevant to the tablet as well.

The process of establishing a successful presence doesn’t end with just building a series of compatible websites or mobile apps. It also includes marketing the website and/or app in the best possible manner. So, even mobile marketing plays an important role in ensuring your online venture reaching a wider audience. Taken together the combination of an online presence on desktop/laptop, mobile/tablet, mobile app and penetrating mobile website marketing solutions, ensures a formidable internet presence that reaches and makes an impression on a wide target audience.

Guerilla marketing is unconventional, radical, imaginative, energetic and affordable. In spite of being described in such impressive words by just about everybody, it comes as a surprise that guerrilla marketing is not commonly used for website promotion. A number of webmasters and business owners are skeptical about using such an unusual system of promotion.

But the fact is, today, it’s only the "unusual" that works. Conventional marketing won’t be able to take you the distance. Adding a few guerrilla elements to your marketing efforts will definitely help benefit the performance of your website with respect to its popularity and sales figures.

So, here are few tactics that can help the popularity of your site head northwards.

• Running a competition
  
  This tactic figures first in the list because it’s so simple. Host an online competition on your website – The Prize? – Your products and services. You lose nothing and gain everything if you run a competition on your website. It’s free publicity for your products and services, with very little or no investment.
   
• Offer Freebies
  
  Again something that many website owners loathe to consider! It’s surprising really! All you need to do is offer visitors or even prospective visitors a free sample or two of your products and services. You might also think about upping the ante and offering them a freebie that they wouldn’t dream of ignoring.  Remember, this is a successful guerrilla tactic only if there are no terms and conditions attached to the freebies.
   
• Forum Participation
  
  Participate in various forum discussions, and at every step of the way share your website URL. It might not sound like a great tactic, but this is only if you aren’t creative enough. If you share your link without being too ‘in your face’ it will work wonders for you. Be a part of as many forums as you can. Someone somewhere is going to click on your link.
   
• Making your Website the Home Page
  
  This is a highly localized form of guerrilla marketing. But very effective, if you manage to do it! Do a deal with public internet cafes to make your website the home page on all computers. You will need to make an investment for this to happen; but it’s worth every penny that you put into it. Think about it for a second. Somebody opens a web browser, and it’s your website that opens!
   
• Avoid Sneakiness
  
  For many people guerrilla marketing is about being sneaky. Well, you can be sneaky if you want to, but it won’t work for you for the short term or the long term. You might pat yourself on the back and gloat on how you fooled some people into buying your products and services, but sneaky guerrilla marketing is always detrimental. On the other hand, if you are upfront about what you want to achieve, it lends credibility to your efforts. It shows people that you are serious about promoting your websites and its products and services.

While choosing a guerrilla tactic to market your website, it’s important that you don’t think too much about being a genius. Thinking about a rocking new tactic, that nobody had thought of before will earn you a few brownie points. But, using a tactic that brings in visitors will help improve the sales of your products services.

Think about it, which is the better tactic?

PPC is a great online marketing tool, but only if it is used effectively.  At times, many online marketers get caught in a web of myths that surround PPC. While there are others who get caught in a flood of PPC literature that educates but confuses at the same time. All this has lent a mysterious aura to PPC; and many people fail to understand this important online marketing tool.

But, here’s the thing. There is nothing remotely mysterious about PPC and a PPC campaign. It’s all straightforward and if you get your basics right, it’s going to work for you like nothing else will.

Here are a few pointers that will help you decode the mystery of PPC.

• It’s all about ROI
  
  Yes, the money comes first. You might have come across phrases such as ‘manage budget’, ‘use money sensibly, ‘affordable keywords’, and ‘expensive keywords’ etc while reading about PPC campaigns. Let’s cut through the fluff and get down to the brass tacks. PPC is all about getting the maximum returns on your investment. The ROI plays a crucial role in determining where you PPC campaign is heading and whether it will be successful or not.
  
  While bidding for keywords, make sure that a particular keyword will give you the kind of returns you are looking for. Focusing on ROI will help you develop a highly successful PPC campaign.
   
• Ad Content is Important
  
  Yes, the keyword selection is definitely important. But what many people forget is that the construction of the Ad in terms of format and content is equally important. It’s your PPC ad content that determines its credibility and efficiency. Firstly, your content needs to be as focused on ‘call-to-action’ as possible. Also, it must have a local flavor in terms of the geographical area that the Ad targets.
  
  A well written ad has no grammar errors, is clear, concise, persuasive and interesting.
   
• Focus on Unity
  
  PPC is all about giving attention to the complete picture. If you can see the whole picture, it will be easier for you to develop a highly successful campaign. Elements such as bidding strategy, selection of keywords, consideration of demographics and local keywords harvesting etc should all come together seamlessly. You need to have a clear picture as to what your PPC campaign is all about and what are your expectations from it, in terms of quantifiable results.
  
  If you think an important element is not jelling with the existing elements, don’t be scared of reworking your strategy.
   
• Give it time
  
  Let’s phrase this in another way – Take your time. PPC isn’t going anywhere. So, you can time out to understand the various factors that go into the making of a successful PPC campaign. Take your own time to decode the mystery of PPC. When you do that, you will find that there is nothing mysterious about it at all. It might challenge your grey cells; but you will soon get the hang of it.

To put it simply – If you don’t confuse yourselves, PPC is nothing to lose sleep over.

Businesses cannot function without a content management system (CMS) in place. It lies at the very heart of all well-managed business processes and needs to be integrated into a business website to ensure data management and control.

What is CMS?

CMS is essentially a coming together of various procedures, whose primary goal is workflow management in an environment that facilitates collaboration. CMS is mostly computer based and performs the following functions:

• It enables data contribution and sharing of stored data amongst a large number of people
• Data access is based on user roles
• Facilitates convenient data storage and retrieval

The functions of a CMS can change from one organization to the other depending on their scope and scale of workflow. But, its core concept remains the same, which is making sure that all business data is managed and controlled in an effective and result oriented manner.

Why CMS?

Its functionality apart, why is a CMS important for businesses?  The answer lies in the kind of benefits it brings to organizations, irrespective of their size. When it comes to a CMS for a website, a well designed and structured CMS helps edit, modify and update website content easily and quickly. More importantly, it helps in faster decision taking.  With a CMS in place, you can not only upload data, but make sure that it is used in a way that helps promote business growth.

Why Open Source CMS?

Now, you can either get a CMS developed from scratch or you could think about going for an open source CMS. The latter is a very good idea for small business websites, because of their affordability. But, being cost effective doesn’t mean they lose out on the performance aspect. Open Source CMS is the kind of system, which makes available ready-to-use modules that only have to be integrated into the website. These modules can be customized to suit the needs and requirements of the business. Its good news for small business as these modules are readily available; can be customized quickly and deployed securely.

Types of Open Source CMS

There are numerous choices available when it comes to open source content management systems. Here are some of the more popularly used systems:

• WordPress - WordPress is web software that is popularly used for the creation of content management systems. The popularity of this platform stems from the fact that it is secure, stable and gives a numbers of customization choices. It’s been around since 2003, so there are thousands of widgets and plug-ins available that can be used to give CMS a boost.
   
• Drupal - Drupal is one of the most commonly used content management platforms that can be customized in accordance with any business need.  The reason why so many small business websites have a Drupal based Content Management System is because of its robustness, flexibility and the fact that constant improvements are occurring on a daily basis.
   
• Joomla - It’s easy-to-use; has proven extensibility and offers a platform for the creation of a powerful content management system. A large number of developers out there swear by the efficiency of Joomla, which is why it’s an integral part of numerous small business websites.
   
• TYPO3 CMS - TYPO3 is a CMS solution that assures maximum compatibility and improved longevity for a website. One of the many advantages of this open source system is that it has been specifically developed to cater to the requirements of small and medium businesses. With its detailed user permission system, it has emerged as one of the top choices for designing a website for small businesses.
   
• Expression Engine - Expression Engines supports each and every website design and is used by developers because of its flexibility, stability and security. It’s been in business for over ten years, which means there is a tremendous amount of support system available for its CMS.

Choosing the right Open Source CMS

The choice depends on your needs and objectives. Either one of the content management systems mentioned above, can do the job for you. But, it’s best that you get an expert developer’s opinion on the matter. There might be a particular feature or functionality that you want, but it might not be available on some of these systems.

Choosing the right open source CMS is in large part also dependant on the experience and expertise of the web development company that you choose to do business with. It’s only a company with a proven track record in the field of designing small business websites on open source platforms that tells you which CMS is your best bet. Not only that, but such companies will also help you optimize the use of the CMS chosen by you.

Small businesses are now thinking big. They might be small, but they want to compete with the big guys and on their own terms. One of the better ways, they can do this is, by getting a website and leveraging their online presence for business growth. Yes, they do want their overhead costs to be kept at a minimum and No, affordability is not the only benefit they are looking at, when it comes to website design.

The Myth

So, how did this myth come about?

In the beginning, small businesses were perfectly happy with just getting their online presence up and running. For them, a website was not a means to improve business performance but more of a status symbol. And, they wanted to be online is as little cost as possible.

But, overtime the mindset changed. They wanted their websites to become vehicles of growth rather than just showpieces. Website design for small businesses graduated from being merely impressive to highly functional. This meant that affordability was no longer the deciding factor.

It’s surprising, in spite of proof that small business website design is no longer just about affordability, the myth continues to persist.

Small Businesses Want More

They want more and they are getting it! Website design for small businesses is no longer about using general web templates. It’s all about focusing on the core strengths of the business and a unique design that reflects those strengths. The design is also about SEO. It should be search engine friendly, which will help the website rank right at the top of the search engine rankings. This improves website visibility, which in turn leads to more visitor traffic.

It’s true that small businesses cannot afford to spend a fortune on website design. But this does not mean that they cannot optimize the use of website design for promoting their business.  A limited budget doesn’t mean they can’t expect something more. For them, affordability is just one parameter of small business website design.

What they want more than anything else is that their website design should give them the necessary competitive edge.