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Why Squarespace Is Great For Small Business Owners by Sierra Kellermeyer

May 21, 2018 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

As a business owner in 2018, you know you need a website for your business. But there are an overwhelming amount of options out there for someone wanting to build their own website. It can be hard to figure out how to pick a platform.

If you’re trying to figure out how to get your business online, let me suggest Squarespace.

Let me tell you why.

IT’S COST-EFFECTIVE

If you’re a small business owner, you have to make smart financial decisions to keep your business running. This means balancing cost with functionality. Squarespace may not seem like the cheapest option at first glance, but it will save you money in unexpected ways.

Domain Hosting & Design In One Spot

You can purchase your domain name (www.exampleofadomainname.com) from Squarespace as well as design your website from the same login portal, which means you only have one monthly (or yearly, depending on how you choose to pay) bill for your website. You can also purchase your own email address using Google’s G-Suite through Squarespace for just $5/mo. So a basic website, with a custom domain and custom email address could cost you as little as $21/mo.

Customizable Templates

Custom-designed websites cost an arm and a leg, but you don’t have to muddle your way through a boring template in order to have a budget-conscious website. Squarespace templates are beautiful, with many options for customization, so you don’t have to choose between paying thousands of dollars for custom code or have a generic-looking website.

Mobile-Responsive Templates

In 2016, mobile users surpassed desktop users in overall internet use. (Source.) To create a mobile-responsive website usually involves a lot of extra coding, which means spending a lot more money on a web developer. However, ALL of Squarespace’s templates are already mobile-responsive, which means no extra costs for you! (Bonus! Mobile-responsive sites also rank higher on Google.)

IT’S EASY TO LEARN

Clean and Simple Backend

What I’ve found with website hosts cheaper than Squarespace is that while you may pay less out of pocket, their backend is so confusing that you waste hours of your life just figuring out how to change or update one thing on your website. In contrast, Squarespace’s layout is a toolbar with simple categories on the left-hand side of your screen with your website on the right. On top of that, any change to make to your website you can see in real time.

Excellent Tutorials

If the rest of the benefits hadn’t sold me on Squarespace, their tutorials would have. Their instructions are clear, thorough, and incredibly easy to follow. They even has specific tutorials for each template, so if you’re running into trouble with your website, you don’t have to follow generic instructions – you can find some directly related to your template and problem.

IT HAS EXCELLENT SUPPORT

I could have added this as a point under #2, but this is such a big deal in the website industry I thought I’d call special attention to it.

Every time I’ve made contact with the Squarespace support team, they’ve been courteous and efficient, and my issue has been resolved within 48 hours of my email. I find this especially important as a business owner, because having my website go down at all can cost me significant time and money. I never worry about that happening with Squarespace support just an email away.

No other website hosting platform has impressed me nearly as much as SquareSpace has, and they continue to add new templates and features. If you’re looking for a website solution for your business that won’t waste your time or money, I cannot recommend SquareSpace more.

Sierra Kellermeyer who helps business owners who are tired of their marketing efforts pulling “okay” results. She helps them stand out online by designing a noteworthy visual brand that attracts their ideal clients effortlessly. She says, “My favorite part of brand design is the marriage of creativity and strategy. I’m not simply creating something beautiful, I’m creating something beautiful that works and has a purpose.”

There’s a lot of misconception about visual branding, with people thinking it’s just about looking good, but it’s more than that. “Your visual brand is a communication tool, and if you’re only trying to make something that looks nice, rather than telling your audience about your business, you’re missing out.”

Sierra will be sharing her visual branding tips in February, May, August, and November. In the meantime, you can find her online at:

https://www.skellermeyerdesigns.com/
https://www.facebook.com/skellermeyerdesigns2014/

Professional Bios: One Size Does Not Fit All

August 8, 2016 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

People love to know who they’re doing business with. Most small-business websites include an ‘About Me’ or ‘Biography’ page. It’s not because the business owners are self-centered and waiting to talk about themselves. It’s because potential clients and customers want to know more about the business owners.

In fact, many business owners don’t like to talk about themselves, and their bios are evidence of that. Whether the bios are long and rambling or short and uninformative, the result is the same – people go away unsatisfied.

Don’t disappoint your website and social media readers. Give them a well-written, easy-to-read bio that will help them get to know you.

Consider the Site. On your website, you can devote an entire page to your story. On social media sites, however, people scroll through quickly. Give them a quick glimpse that will inspire them to find out more.
Know Your Audience. LinkedIn is a professional, business-oriented site; your bio should reflect that side of you. On Twitter, however, your space is limited. Sentences don’t matter. You want to give as much information as possible as quickly as possible. But when people come to your website, they’re either looking specifically for you or your services. Let them know who you are.
Tell a Story. This isn’t a resume. Avoid saying, “In 2000, I did this. In 2005, I did this. In 2007…” Yawn. You want people to know about your certifications, education, and accomplishments, but also let them know why you picked your career and what you love about it. If you’re in a profession where relationships are important – say a counselor, clergy, or even a portrait photographer – it’s okay to add even more personal details.
Scout the Competition. There’s nothing wrong with visiting your competitors’ websites to find out what you like and don’t like about their biographies. That will help you decide what kind of information you want to include in yours.
Skip the Humility. Remember, you’re telling a story, so this isn’t just a list of all of the great things you’ve done in your career; however, you want people to know that you’re an accomplished professional who knows the business. If you’ve spent twenty years in the industry, go ahead and talk about the classes you’ve taken and the awards you’ve won. Show your reader that you know what you’re talking about.
Get a Beta Reader. Have someone review your bio. It may seem complete to you, but your reader might have questions (or she might be bored). Have someone read through it to make sure it’s coherent and well-written.

By keeping these things in mind, you’re on your way to creating captivating biographies for any online outlet.

Photo Credit

Make It Yours: 5 Ways to Tailor Your Content

July 25, 2016 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

One of the worst things you can do for your website (and your business) is to reuse someone else’s content. It might let people know that you’re a locksmith in Minnesota, but without any custom-written content, you’ll look just like everyone else. No one will know what makes you uniquely qualified. No one will know why they should hire you. (Not to mention, it’s stealing.)

Before you copy and paste someone else’s words, learn how to tailor your content to meet your – and your customer’s – specific needs.

Identify Your Audience: Who do you want to reach? Perhaps you like the website for a company in Los Angeles, but you live in rural Minnesota. Your audience will have different needs and values. They’ll even talk differently. Your content needs to reflect that.
Interview Yourself: Imagine you’re considering hiring yourself for the job – what would you want to know before you sign a contract: Who are you? Why did you get into the business? What’s your educational background and training? How long have you done this? How can you help? Once you’ve answered these questions, keep asking yourself “why.” That will give you the in-depth, personalized content you need to express yourself.
Avoid Generalities. How many companies do you know who have launched “new and improved” products? Don’t settle for that generic description. If you bought new equipment for your locksmith business, be specific. Instead of “new and improved,” tell your customer – our latest technology lets us get into your secure places 25% faster and with no visible damage.
Skip the Clichés. It’s tempting to use popular phrases, but don’t. Put your content in your Don’t tell people you’re the hardest working man on the block. Tell them you’re the hardest working locksmith in eastern Minnesota.
Have Someone Else Read It. I always have someone proofread my books, and I write hundreds to thousands of words on a daily basis. When you’re trying to get the right tone, when you want to make sure the content makes sense, there’s no better test than having someone else (especially someone unfamiliar with your business) read your work to make sure that it makes sense.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to emulate another person’s website. By all means, if the layout and content work, why mess with it? You do, however, need to take that content and make it your own. Give it your voice so your customers will know who you are and why they should hire you.

What You Should Know Before Building Your Website

June 27, 2016 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

There are three basic types of website owners: those who do it all, those who do nothing, and those who need help getting started, then maintain it themselves. First, let’s identify who these people are.

Do It All

As you might expect, these folks aren’t looking for help. They’re going to go to Wix, Weebly, or WordPress to do everything for themselves – layout, design, hosting, etc. They make every decision.

Do Nothing

This owner is completely hands off. He hires someone else to build, design, and maintain his website. He can’t tell you where his site is hosted, and he’s okay with that.

Maintainers

These people get help building and designing their websites, but then they take over. They know enough about creating and maintaining pages and posts to do a lot of the work themselves, but they don’t want the hassle of getting things started. (I fall into this category – there are too many layouts and design options for me to pick one for myself, but I know how to do much of the maintenance.)

Regardless of which camp you fall into, there are some basics that you need to understand. Knowing (and having a basic understanding of) these things will make easier for you to maintain your website or have someone else take over its maintenance.

Servers, Hosts, and Domains. These are essential to your website, and you need to know who’s in charge of each one. There are companies that will take care of all of these for you, and if you have someone build your website he may host and serve the site for you. Regardless of which option you choose, you need to make sure you know who does what.
Use Your Primary Email. Your server, host, and domain provider – or your webmaster – will contact you when it’s time to renew. If you’ve registered any of these accounts to a secondary email account, you’ll miss your notifications. If you miss your notifications and don’t pay your bills, your site will go down.

These next two points apply to the Do Nothings and the Maintainers. Even if you’ve designed your website yourself, take note (in case you want someone to help you later on).

Insist on a Master Email. It’s not enough to use your primary email. When you work with someone else, insist on using your primary email as your master email. Anything that needs to be registered goes to the same email account – yours. As you won’t do all of the registering, insist that your designer use your primary account. Don’t make it an option.
Communicate Well. Do you want your web designer to become your webmaster (taking care of all of your registrations, designs, updates, etc.)? Then make sure you explain that. Likewise, if you want to be able to take over your website after it’s been set-up and designed, make sure your designer knows that. You don’t want to have your website designed using a plug-in that you don’t own or understand so you can’t make any updates or changes later.

These are very much the foundational basics, but they are of the utmost importance. I didn’t understand any of this when I created my website, and I’ve been paying for it ever since. My original designer took a full time job and wasn’t available for updates, so I went with a gal out-of-state. When I wanted to expand, I decided to go locally, but we were unable to communicate well, so I had to find someone else. After several changes to my business, I wanted to make changes to my site, but I couldn’t because one of the designers used a third-party plug-in that I didn’t understand.

So that’s four designers, and because I didn’t take the time to learn about the basics, I have separate accounts for my server, host, and domain registration. Two of them are registered to my email, but I’m still trying to get the third transferred from my designers email over to mine. It’s taken me over a year to figure all of this out for myself. If you can get a handle on these basics, however, it should make your website creation a little less stressful.

Photo Credit

2 Tips for Personalizing Your Content

December 14, 2015 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

Earlier this week I saw a job posting for a company looking for a writer to help them with the About Us section of their website. The company found a description on a competitor’s website and they wanted to use the same description on their website. Thankfully the potential client knew enough not to copy-and-paste the content, but he still wanted to reuse someone else’s information.

The problem with this technique – other than the possibility of plagiarizing – is that you’re essentially taking someone else’s clothes and trying to make them fit you. Of course there will be some pieces you can get into, but they won’t fit well and they won’t reflect your unique traits.

How does that apply to content?

It’s highly unlikely that your company does the exact same thing as any other company. Even if you provide the same services and products as someone else, your background and education will be different. Your influences are different. The way you treat people and talk to your clients are different. When you copy someone else’s content (even if you rearrange the words so you’re not technically plagiarizing) you’re still telling someone else’s story. When you do that, you’re not showing people what makes you different – you aren’t highlighting your unique qualities.

So, how do you make your content your personal story? If you don’t have the time to learn how to write effective copy or the money to hire an editor, here are two tips you can use to help your content reflect you. (There are plenty of other techniques you can use, but these two will have the most impact.)

Vocabulary. The words on your website should mimic the way you speak. Don’t use words from someone else’s site just because you like the way it sounds. If it’s more casual or more professional than you actually talk, it won’t take long for your customers to figure it out. Your website isn’t just promoting your business, it’s promoting you. Make sure the reflection is accurate.
About you. Most plumbers do the same thing, so listing your services isn’t enough to set you apart from every other plumber online. If you want to stand out, let people see who you are. Spend some time on your biography (or About Me) page. Let people know who you are, why you do what you do, and what you love about your job. Tell them why you got into this business, how long you’ve been doing it, and why you stuck with it. Let them see why you are the person they should hire.

After all of the time and energy you’ve put into starting your business, don’t settle for someone else’s description of another person’s work. Take a little more time to make sure your site reflects you and no one else.

Why Squarespace Is Great For Small Business Owners by Sierra Kellermeyer