Blockbeta Insights: Creative Ideas Driven by Strategy

Looking Professional without a Logo Isn't an Option

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 19:14:47 GMT

Here's a Low Cost Solution

Logos represent your brand and help you look professional. It's the first image website visitors see, and it's how your company or product is recognized on a store shelf. It's the first step in creating a consistent and integrated image for your company.

Logos consist of a font or typeface, at minimum, and sometimes include an icon or graphic, although this isn't absolutely necessary. It should be clear to the reader and distinct from your competitors.

What's a Logo and Why You Need One

Do It Yourself or Hire a Professional?

There are generally 3 ways to create a logo, from cheaper to more expensive:

Do It Yourself
Use an online provider, like 99Designs
Hire a freelance graphic designer

I don't usually recommend the do-it-yourself option if you have no design skills. However, no matter what method you choose, the more you understand what you want your logo to represent about your company, the better the results. That's why we recommend putting together a Logo Creative Brief described below.

Do It Yourself

At the very least, whatever you're using now, trade up from ordinary type to an interesting font. Then, you can manipulate the spacing or shape of individual letters to make it unique. These are known as lettermarks or wordmarks.

You could start by playing around with ideas of your own at a website like Dafont . You can type in your business name, search by font style, and it will show you your name in those fonts. Be sure to try upper and lower case letters or a combination of both. You could stop there or have something to show a designer to give them an idea of what you're looking for. If you use one of the fonts, you'll most likely need to purchase it. Not all of them are available for free.

Online Services

These online services can be less expensive, although not necessarily better. Be sure to give precise direction about what you want for your logo. Many don't always ask for it, relying on AI and a few simple prompts. The results are less than stellar. The more niched the business, the worse the results. The ones below do ask more in-depth questions, and some have human designers behind them, so you may get better results.

Warning: Watch out for "swoosh" type logos and other cliche images. They include some type of font with a common emblem, like a spray or line of color as the icon. These aren't logos really, because they don't represent any specific company. There are "designers" who will try to scam the system by providing these so-called logos. Your logo should be unique to your business.

99 Designs
This is an inexpensive option where you submit requests to actual designers.

Design Crowd

This site is also affordable and gives you access to real designers from around the world who compete for your project. They design all types of graphics in addition to logos.

Hatchwise
Another one offering similar services from real designers. They claim to offer completely original custom design work from thousands of designers, delivered in all formats for web and print.

Hire a Freelance Graphic Designer

Before you even consider hiring a graphic designer, put together your creative brief as noted below. It gets everyone on the same page and will help ensure you get what you're paying for.

Design fees vary widely from somewhere around $400 up to thousands of dollars. In our experience, those who charge less than $400 (unless it's a personal friend), have little experience in logo design and want to beef up their portfolios.
Sometimes you'll run into illustrators who want to design your logo, but illustrators don't typically have a marketing background. An illustration can be part of a logo, but illustrations are not logos.
Not all graphic designers are good at logos either. Try to find someone who has expertise and experience specifically with logos. Creating great logos is a specialty; not everyone is good at it.
Check out the designers' portfolios before hiring them; look for logos you like and be sure to tell the designer the ones you picked and why.
Ask them about their process for creating a logo. See the logo design process below. It's a good test to see if they truly are professional logo designers.

The Logo Creative Brief

No matter who you work with, you should put together a Creative Brief. It will help them understand what your business is about and what the logo is supposed to represent. It will help ensure you get what you want. Your Creative Brief should include:

Objective, i.e., I need a logo that will...
Business description (attachments as necessary)
Brand description
Competitors, so the designer can see what their brand identity is (logo and color palette) — if you can provide the designer with an explanation of how you want to be different, all the better
Style: tone, language (give examples of what you like/don't like)
Required or excluded elements, i.e., images or words you don't want used
Specific deliverables, i.e., due date
Budget or “not to exceed” amount

The Logo Design Process

There's a method to the madness when it comes to creating a logo. Be sure the person you work with is familiar with the method.

The designer should start with black and white roughs or concepts to see if they've nailed the idea. How they capture your brand is of utmost importance, and besides, you won’t always be able to use more than one color.
Once the idea is fixed, they'll start looking at different fonts and variations on the theme.
The design should work in various sizes, both very small, like on a mobile device if applicable and very large, like on a banner.
Color comes next and should also be representative of your brand. One, two or three colors is typical.
Once everything is finalized, get the completed logo in a file format that won't get distorted no matter what the size. This is what is known as a vector — the file extensions are EPS, SVG and PDF. Also get a version in reverse; in other words, one that would work on a dark background. And in 1-color. If your logo has an icon, get separate files for the icon and for the font-only versions, so you can use them separately if needed.
Finally, the designer should provide branding guidelines and/or a style guide on how to use the logo to ensure it is used consistently and correctly. They should also specify the color palette in: CMYK (print), PMS (print), HEX (Web) and RGB (online display).

Combining a logo with a tagline can really set your brand apart on all your marketing materials. Learn more about taglines and how to write them

How to Write a Tagline

Do I Need a Tagline and How Do I Write One?

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 17:59:11 GMT

What's a Tagline?

A tagline, sometimes called a slogan, is a brief statement that captures the essence of your business (or your unique selling proposition) and your brand, making it easy for people to quickly understand what you offer, and differentiating you from your competition. It's a tall order for a little line.

A tagline is not a headline, which is more specific to a specific ad or a paragraph of text, like what you might say on your website. Taglines get used repeatedly; headlines typically do not.

Taglines may be portrayed in audio, text or multimedia, and are used in all types of communications, such as on a website near your logo, at the end of an ad, or on a business card. Combined with a logo , they can really set the tone for your brand.

Famous Taglines

Let your fingers do the walking (Yellow Pages)

We bring good things to life (GE)

We try harder (Avis)

The ultimate driving machine (BMW)

Have it your way (Burger King)

What’s in your wallet? (Capital One)

All the news that’s fit to print (New York Times, 1897)

Some would argue that taglines have gone the way of the flip phone. But in this New York Times branding article , the "Nationwide is on your side" slogan still cuts through the clutter.

Other well-recognized brands may feel ready to drop the tagline, but for a small business, it’s an opportunity to distill the idea of who and what you are in the minds of customers quickly. Remember, you’ve only got those 8 seconds to make an impression with your website. So why not take advantage of your tagline, combined with your logo , to communicate what you're about.

Tagline Writing Tips

Taglines are a reflection of your positioning, in other words, where you fit in the customer's mind.

Think about the top words or phrases that define your business. For Blockbeta, that's: strategic, small business, and marketing.
Before trying to be clever, write several straight forward statements like the one I started with, “Startup and early stage business consulting.” Pretty dry, and it didn't capture the key words.
Get creative by substituting words that no one else is using, but are still understood by your audience. One of my favorites from the MacArthur Foundation , is "Building a more just, verdant and peaceful world." Verdant is such a memorable substitute for the overused environmental or green, and works well for the audience they're trying to reach.
I replaced the scary word "strategic" with "big picture approach" on the Blockbeta tagline. Big picture also gave me a play on words — big and small, which makes it catchy and memorable.
Avoid writing in general or superlative terms, such as, "We're the best plumbers on the planet." These types of taglines don't communicate anything specific about your business, and they aren't believable.

There's No Substitute for Good Old Fashioned Brainwork

There are loads of websites claiming to help you write a tagline automatically, and backed by AI. Some provide results which aren't half-bad, like this one from Grammarly . The more input they request, the better the result. The one from the slogan generator only asks for your brand name, so the results are very generic. You could end up with a lot of junk that will waste your time and throw you off track. I would suggest starting with the basics outlined above, and even if you do use an AI tool, you'll have information read to plug into it.

If you get stuck, maybe it's time to hire a professional (like us!).

Attraction Marketing: 15 Laws to Win Customers Every Time

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT

The Laws of Attraction: They are as old as time itself. For the sake of argument, there are 15 give or take.
You catch more flies with honey : In other words, it’s easier to get them to fly to you, rather than using all your energy to go after them.
Start by making yourself attractive: You must first figure out what is attractive to the fly. How? Do your research. On the Internet. Hang around. See what they like to do. Listen to their buzzing. In this way, you will come to understand them — like why they fly in endless circles.
Create your target fly profile: Document their distinguishing characteristics. Color, wing size, favorite haunts, the flowers and bees they prefer to make their honey, and of course, the number of hairs on each leg.
Be memorable : Knowing the flies will help you relate to them. They will feel understood, and they will see you can solve their problem. This emotion creates memory. It’s good to be the one they remember the next time they get a honey craving.
Focus your energies on the flies you want: Don’t go after every fly. Some may want more honey than they are worth.
You cannot be attractive to every fly : That’s just the way it is. If you were, there wouldn’t be any honey left for anyone else.
Do not smear yourself with honey: That’s cheating. You will be attractive for what you are not. Most flies will see through your disguise. This is not sustainable.
Don’t just offer regular old honey: Design your honey for the flies you want to attract. Make it so delicious they’ll want to share it with their swarm.
Be different in a way the flies care about: The flies will be attracted to what makes your honey special. Explain your process for making honey, and how it makes their lives better, easier, faster or cheaper.
Take creative risks: Remember what makes you different is you and the honey you create. Only you can be you. Be confident in that. Dare to be different.
Help the flies understand what’s so wonderful about your honey... and why it’s perfect for them. Use fly-speak that’s as distinct as your honey. Don’t use superlatives like the best, the sweetest or the stickiest. And remember to buzz within reach of their antennae.
Don’t underestimate the flies : They are smarter than you might imagine and will see through false words. Flies aren’t attracted to honey they don’t trust. Of course, there are always exceptions: PT Barnum wasn’t entirely wrong when he said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Some would argue he never actually said it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true.
Prove your case: Use pictures. Make comparisons. Give the flies just a little taste, so they can’t resist wanting more. Show don’t just tell.
Avoid friction: Don’t put fly swatters in their way or allow them to be distracted by zappers. Make it easy for the flies to find you.
Remove the risk of purchase: Like with a honey back guarantee.
Be responsive: Let them know you care. Listen to their complaints. Resolve their issues. Show them your love. Be generally helpful. Take a cue from Zappos.
Attract the flies most interested in you: Which will make catching them a whole lot easier. Follow these laws of attraction and you will become lord of the flies.

Lovingly created and voiced by Robbin Block

Honey & The Flies: Transcript

Targeted Website Triples Business for Niche Creative Entrepreneur

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 21:50:34 GMT

"...trying to get people to understand that I can meet their needs is a big hurdle for getting people to find me on Google."

Heather Zager, owner of MADE Apparel Services, explains how Blockbeta Marketing helped improve her website, resulting in nearly 3X growth.

MADE works with designers who want to take their sewn product ideas to manufacture. Blockbeta is a marketing consulting firm specializing in niche businesses with unique business models.

Video Transcript

My name is Heather Zager, and my business is MADE Apparel Services. And, I help designers with ideas for sewn products get into manufacture. I started my business a couple of years ago as an idea, and it gradually grew and now it is sustaining me every month.

I started with Squarespace and got my website up as best as I could. Did a lot of research, a lot of studying about what it took to build a website for the very start of my business. But eventually I realized my limitations in not only my time, but in my abilities and my understanding of the backside of websites when it has to do with: search engine optimization and getting people to click through on things, or getting customers to actually call me and allow me to answer their questions, and explain a little bit more about what I do.

So trying to get people to understand that I can meet their needs is a big hurdle for getting people to find me on Google. And I knew that would be a difficult area, so I needed to find somebody who could help me with that. I started working with Blockbeta about a year and a half ago.

The Challenge of Target Marketing

One of the challenges that I ran into was understanding the different types of clients that I would be working with. I had experienced numerous different clients, and I couldn't quite put a finger on it, and Robbin helped me to understand that I had segments in my client base. We looked at analytics, we looked at where people were coming from, and got more information, and outlined that I actually had a difference between fashion designers looking to launch a design versus people who had innovative ideas that had never been sewn before, and they wanted to get into manufacture.

And then I had people who just had products; were out there, but if they wanted to make improvements, and they needed a tech pack for manufacturer also. So that was the part I knew I was missing in my website and getting it targeted. But also getting the conversions, looking at where they were coming from. All of the behind the scenes stuff that made all of that happen; to have good clients that were what I was looking for, and I was what they were looking for.

A Professional and Cohesive Result

My website has gone from something rudimentary, but visible and acceptable for starting a business and turned into something much more professional and cohesive across the different pages; took my clients and my customers down a more correct journey for what their needs were. Created value, helped them to understand what it is that I do, became educational, and these were all things that were my vision, and I just could not figure out how to get it to be cohesive and wrapped into a website.

And today it is full of analytics and information and working links and all the backend stuff. I'm a lot more confident about than when I first started trying to do that on my own.

My business has continued to grow.

And I've probably doubled, almost tripled, my revenue since I started working with Blockbeta.

So we've come a long way in the last year and a half, and now that my understanding is a lot clearer and I understand marketing better, I've come to realize it is something that is constantly moving forward and merging and congealing, and it's always different and growing. And I will always need marketing on a regular basis to keep in line with my business and its growth and the different clients that I see coming in and the different ideas that I have.

Robbin has been my go-to person, and at this point I know that she will continue to be my go-to person.

Reasons to Package Your Services Now for a Win Win

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 18:04:48 GMT

Increase Profitability While Making Clients Happy. Yes You Can.

As a consultant or subject matter expert, you offer a range of services that fulfill your clients needs and solve their problems. Most of the time, if not always, you charge by the hour. Not only can this be confusing for clients, it isn’t how you’re going to optimize your time to get paid what you’re worth.

Creating service packages customers can easily understand and purchase not only helps you successfully sell them, it makes them a lot easier to deliver and to get paid.

Here are the most pressing reasons why packaging is essential for the financial success of your business, with an introduction about how to do it.

Updated: June 19, 2025

Marketing intangible services, like consulting ideas, requires a different approach than the one used for tangible goods. Intangible means a buyer can’t see, touch or try before they purchase, so it’s up to you to provide evidence that your services can be delivered with some reliability. This “proof” may come in many forms as noted below.

Selling a Service is Not Like Selling Vacuum Cleaners

Portfolio

Client list, case studies, publicity, testimonials, references, awards, licenses, etc. Here are 44 more quick and easy ways to build trust

Referrals

Getting someone to recommend you is the ultimate proof. You can provide your contacts with materials, like a referral "magnet" to help with this process.

Professional Website

Essential for communicating what you do in a compelling and converting way and to establish authority. It should have a clear value proposition on the home page.

Articles, brochures, white papers, checklists, handouts, slideshows, videos, diagrams, infographics, podcasts, etc. This content is useful for a whole host of reasons from helping to drive traffic to your website to convincing visitors you know what you're talking about.

Promotional Materials

Information about how you do what you do, like an explanation of your process. The more a client understands how you solve their problem, the more likely they’ll appreciate what you do (and pay you handsomely for it). People "get" what a lawyer does, but not all services are so easy to grasp. Be sure to communicate what and how you do it at the level of the client’s understanding.

Social Capital

Followers, comments, reviews, and other engagement measures provide validation from independent sources.

Client Education

New Paragraph

Beyond the evidence, you need to give your services the “characteristics” of a product to make them seem tangible. Before we get into how to start that process, here’s why you should — from acquiring new business and fulfilling your promises to increasing profitability.

Ironically, You Need to Turn Your Service into a Product

14 Reasons Why You Should Package Services

Avoid selling hours

They’re difficult to track and you’ll never scale. Like me, I bet some of your best ideas occur when you’re off the clock too. If you're always selling your time, you'll never grow beyond your own capacity or have the ability to scale. Build value into a package of services that take less time to deliver, but result in more perceived value. Hours are also really tough to track, especially when ideas can strike you at any time (um, in the shower?) — you should be compensated for those. Clients also don't like the idea of a bottomless pit of hours, especially when they don't understand how long something will take.

Make your services easer to buy

People love neat and tidy solutions, like kits and systems. They often don't understand what they're buying from you, and if you focus on what you're delivering, rather than a myriad of details, it's easier for clients to "acquire" what you're selling. Plus, it may also reduce the need for negotiations. Of course, if they want those details, you'll need to be ready to supply them.

Differentiate your services

How you package your services is another way to help you stand out from your competition. This may work especially well if you can create a package that uniquely suits your particular target audience.

You can't always guarantee an outcome

When you're offering a specific service, it's almost impossible to guarantee that someone's business will be more profitable. There are often too many variables that are outside your control. For example, in marketing, if a client's product isn't market-ready, all the advertising in the world isn't going to work. But with a package, you can guarantee that you will deliver the services you're selling. If you can also make the case that a package of services has worked for other clients, that lends credence to it.

Save time writing proposals

We love writing those, don’t we? This one is huge for me. I'd rather spend my time working with clients than doing what feels administrative. When you offer fixed prices for a set of services, it's just so much simpler to put together a bid. Hopefully, you'll cover 80% that's repeat, and then the remaining 20% of your time can be devoted to customizing it.

Spend a lot less time explaining your services, and put that time to better use.

When you create fixed packages, you can write up the benefits, which will make them easier to market and you won't have to repeat yourself. Plus, you can provide checklists, tip sheets, and other materials that support the package. This will lead to an increase in perceived value and tangibility of your services.

Reduce scope creep — egad!

A fixed set of services means everyone knows what to expect for a set price. Everyone is on the same page. It will become clear if anything is added or changed, which will help you justify additional charges.

Increase referrals

Packages may even help you get referred, because people will have a clear understanding of what you offer and the value they received.

Deliver services consistently to increase your margins — happy you, happy clients.

Packaging helps you streamline your operations. You'll become more efficient at repeating a process over and over. When you get really good at nailing down your process, you can start to hire less expensive people to help you deliver it with less oversight, which leads to higher margins (booyah!).

It’s clear there are many benefits to packaging your services — it’s not only more efficient, it will improve your marketing overall in terms of differentiation, pricing, product innovation, and promotional opportunities. Best of all, you’ll have a more robust bottom line.

Packaging Leads to More Successful Marketing

Convinced? Start with a Baseline Service Package

You don't have to package everything at once. Bundle together a few tasks you're always doing for clients. Give it a good name. Price it. Write up what the package includes and then describe the benefits and highlight the value your client will derive from it. Practice your sales pitch, remembering to say how well it has worked for clients in the past. Post it on your website and offer it during sales calls. You'll be amazed at how much simpler, and profitable, your work will become.

Fierce Competition Didn't Stop this Website from Increasing Traffic

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Sat, 06 Nov 2021 22:36:53 GMT

Updated: May 5, 2025

This case study explores our strategic approach to marketing a client’s dog product, and then used content marketing, to increase website traffic despite operating in a highly competitive category. That made selling what is a fairly simple product like dog leashes difficult to promote online. Leashes are ubiquitous; you can buy one almost anywhere, from drugs stores to big box, let alone on Amazon.

The first step was to look at the product’s attributes to help us determine what might set our client’s line of dog leashes apart from others in the category. In other words, to find its differentiation value. The most significant differentiators were:

Grippy rubber threads woven through the leash material
Leather bands sewn at periodic intervals

Defining Benefits to Develop the Value Proposition

A Creative Content Marketing Strategy was the Solution

We then needed to come up with questions to answer that didn't have an overwhelming amount of content written already. This was where we got creative to find a topic or angle that wasn't crowded, so we would have a chance of showing up on the first few pages of Google search results. Based on the deep knowledge my client has about dogs, and the following methods, we came up with a list of typical questions people have.

Our method for discovering FAQ’s
Answer the Public, which shows you the questions people are really asking on Google
A Google search for the topic to see what came up. We looked for “snippet” boxes that provided questions and answers.

Bingo! Leash Length is a Hit.

The question we decided to create content around was:

“What leash length should I buy for my dog?”

To build out the content, I asked my client how she would answer that question. She created an outline, and we proceeded to write and create a page to answer that very question. Of course, we optimized it for search as well.

We then did keyword research and Search Engine Optimization , along with other basic marketing attraction techniques. Next up, content development to drive traffic.

Messaging translated into product copywriting, such as:

A Reliable Grip is a Safe Grip

Trainers and pet owners love these leashes made with grippy material superior to plain nylon for control and comfort even in wet and cold conditions.

We used this approach and built out the site from there to support the messaging, with appropriate product and lifestyle imagery, and then fully ecommerce-enable the site on Shopify.

The next step was to define the benefits of that grip, who would benefit most, and in what situations. This formed the basis of the value proposition :

RuffGrip dog leashes have a non-slip and comfortable grip which provides greater control of dogs in all types of weather, hot, cold, wet, or dry, leading to a safer experience for pack leader and dog alike than plain nylon leashes.

Product line messaging came next, such as:

Lightweight, yet strong, and available in a variety of vibrant colors.
Leather short stops provide extra grip every time you need it. Never tie a knot in your leash again.

Developing Content Ideas

Knowing that Google likes to surface sites that answer questions, we had to determine the types of questions dog owners had about leashes. It couldn’t just be any questions. In a competitive category, you have to reach people before they’ve had a chance to shop around too much or are already accustomed to a particular brand or place to buy. So new dog owners, who needed to buy a leash for the first time, became our target. Their trigger event, or what would cause them to search for a leash in the first place, would be getting a new puppy or rescue dog. Being new to dog ownership, they're more likely to seek advice before buying. That's where my client's knowledge about dogs came in handy. We could use that to come across as subject matter experts, which Google especially likes as part of the EEAT algorithm.

Content Born from Strategy

Results

After 6 months of publishing the article, overall traffic to the site increased 16%.

We first published the piece back around May 2021. Even with competitors jumping in with similar articles, Google continues to reward us with great position (most of the time in first place). In addition:

It generated 71% of organic Google search clicks to the site in the past year.
RuffGrip gets a snippet for leash width, even with many, many articles about leash length.
In the past year, the page got 258K impressions vs. 52K for the home page.
RuffGrip is appearing in Google AI search results now too.

It's the Gift that Keeps on Giving.

Not all of the content you create is going to yield the same results. What’s important is that you start with a strategic approach, apply creativity, and measure your results. If the numbers are good, follow the same process. If not, analyze your results to determine what you can tweak up and try again. It’s not always easy to find the sweet spot, and there’s a lot more that goes into the content game. With a good strategy, that's also creative, your odds of boosting website traffic go way up.

How We Beat the Odds with a Stronger, High Converting Website

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Sun, 17 May 2020 22:36:45 GMT

Updated website strategy increases traffic by 35% resulting in new orders for Seattle area small business

Home-based businesses have an advantage right now, but that doesn’t mean growing one is easy. Here’s how a small business located in Bonney Lake, WA, continues to increase orders and revenue while the rest of the world seems at a relative standstill.

Image: Google Analytics Year-over-year organic traffic. Covid Shutdown:3/15/20 Website Relaunch: 3/26/20

Updated: 5/6/25

Tom Watson runs Watson’s Wooden Words from his home studio and workshop. It wasn’t always the case. He was a retail manager for Office Depot for 30 years before starting his custom sign business. The idea of doing this for a living started way before his retail days. As a boy, he helped his Dad create trail signs for the California State Parks Department. He knows his way around wood and CNC equipment, and works with a team for painting and finishing.

Rather than punching out cookie-cutter signs, he enjoys the creative side the most, working with clients to translate everything from old photos to napkin sketches into works of art.

About Tom and His Custom Sign Work

A couple of years ago, Tom decided to learn more about how to grow the business. I met him at a class of mine he attended at the Bellevue Library. A few months later he contacted me to ask how we could work together.

His website was my first stop. After a look at the site and review of the data, it became clear Tom was getting a decent amount of organic traffic. It was supplemented with Google Ads, referrals, and just a bit from Facebook, but the website was a dinosaur, resulting in very low visitor quality and conversion. Leads were just dribbling in, 2-3 a week.

Organic Traffic Wasn't Enough

Watson's Wooden Words' old website was getting organic traffic, but quality metrics were low.

There were a number of issues we encountered right away:

The back end of the site was difficult to use.
The look and imagery was really hurting. Tom’s work was a key differentiator, yet it wasn’t presented in the best light.
The template available to use for the site were very basic, with no standard grids. That made it difficult to maintain with a consistent, professional look. In terms of the website builder tools available, little custom HTML and CSS was needed anymore.
The architecture was confusing.
The language was written for some old Google algorithm, not human beings — you know, the people that actually buy stuff.

Using Google Analytics to Identify the Problem

The old website was getting organic traffic, but quality metrics were low.

From the beginning, I wanted to update his website so we could increase conversions from the existing traffic. At the same time, increase organic traffic that was more qualified and engaged, so as to lead to higher conversions.

Tom wasn’t excited about building a completely new website. He had spent quite a lot of money on the old one (and a couple of others before that), and he was leery of throwing more money at the problem. So as a first step, we cleaned up and edited the content and added keywords. The traffic increased somewhat, but we were still experiencing low quality visitors, participation, and conversion.

We needed a much better way to show his portfolio; the whole website needed to be more visually appealing and branded. After about a year, I finally persuaded Tom to do the site overhaul and thorough on-site search engine optimization.

The Move to a New Website Platform

7 Changes Lead to Increased Traffic & Conversion

Let’s just say, his online presence went through a drastic change on 3/26/20. Here’s what we did.

Website builder platform:

We moved the site to Squarespace, because it presents images beautifully. It has an overall “design” appearance that underscores what Watson’s Wooden Words is all about, and it had the features and functionality we needed.

Overall design and personality:

We chose fonts and colors for their warmth and to reinforce the personal brand. We added lifestyle images from customers (which saved money on photography), rather than showing signs alone. We resized all the images to better show detail, while optimizing size for less impact on site speed.

Less is more:

We reduced the number of items in the main menu to feature popular pages (based on website traffic data), and moved secondary navigation into the footer. Content was edited down to focus on key differentiators, while making it easier for visitors to acquire information, and to ultimately drive contact and purchase.

Content that converts:

We added what I like to call “Decision Helpers” and “Money Pages.”

Decision helpers , as the name suggests, build trust and remove the confusion buyers experience when purchasing high involvement products, like creative services.

We added pages demonstrating the sign making process. This “bucket” allowed us to add more content later, like photos and video. This type of content is also valuable for generating organic traffic.

Money pages provide a key signal in the buyer journey, indicating a visitor is on the verge of making a purchase (or generating a lead). It’s important for measuring value, especially if a site isn’t set up for ecommerce.

The “How to Order” page in this case is a good example, so a key strategy is to direct visitors to it and to understand which source is sending that valuable traffic. It’s not surprising that Google organic is driving more than 50% of the visitors who end up on that page, because we know that organic has higher purchase intent.

Social proof:

We used a third party tool to embed Google reviews, and added a “Latest Creations” page with feeds from Facebook and Instagram. It allows Tom to keep the site fresh without a lot of effort.

SEO:

We made improvements to titles, descriptions, H1’s, etc., while keeping the URL’s of the pages that had decent traffic.

Position has remained relatively the same for key search terms, yet there’s been a tremendous improvement in impressions, click through and actual clicks.

Operational improvements:

Operationalizing the creation and sale of custom made products can be a challenge. So beyond driving more traffic and increasing conversions, we wanted to use the website to help Tom be more efficient when working with customers.

We built in functionality on the Contact page that allowed visitors to upload their artwork, added a design resources page, and built a “catalog” for sign hanging hardware to encourage add-on sales.

Improved SEO results in better rank, impressions, and click through to the website. Source: Google Search Console (earliest tracking available 4/29/19)

Beyond improved acquisition numbers, year-over-year quality metrics are way up thanks to the site redesign. Visitors are sticking around to see what Watson's is up to. All indicators are positive, and we’re ticking all the right boxes (year over year data):

Organic traffic has increased by almost 35%.
Quality metrics — page views, pages/session, average session duration, and bounce rate — have all improved.
Tom, on average, is now getting 2-3 leads per day, not per week, and he's a great closer.
The value of each sign order has gone from $100-$200 on average to more than $300. Bracket sales are up too.
More leads are coming from businesses, including one from Facebook.
Leads are coming in from further afield, including Alaska, New Jersey and Florida.
More Google reviews are flowing in, which in turn will help improve search rank.

More than 35% Increase in Qualified Traffic — Conversions and Sales Way Up

Beyond improved acquisition numbers, year-over-year quality metrics are way up thanks to the site redesign. Visitors are sticking around to see what Watson's is up to.

While walking his dog Rambo, he called me to say, jokingly, he had gotten too much work. In fact, we had to turn off his ads until he could catch up with all the orders. That’s a problem most small businesses would love to have.

Watson’s Wooden Words , located in Bonney Lake, WA, creates custom wood signs for homes and businesses using old world craftsmanship and modern technology to create his one of a kind signs.

Tom Couldn't Have Been Happier

Find the Missing Link in Your Social Media Strategy

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 20:36:44 GMT

Find and Use the Right Social Sites to Reach Your Audience

An effective social media strategy means getting in front of people on the sites they're already using. If you don't, no matter what you say or how clever you are, they're never going to see your message.

Beyond the major social networks, which attract a large, generalized audience, there are plenty of niche sites which will help you build exposure and website traffic.

Benefits of Niche Sites

More targeted: Relevance trumps size
Buyers, not browsers: Leads to more qualified, convertible traffic
Big fish, smaller pond: Less clutter and noise, more chance to get noticed
More meaningful sharing and engagement

Be Where They Are

The point of using social media for business is to get in front of potential customers, which means you want to be where they are hanging out. Whether you choose major or niche sites, define your audience using the following and then match it to the sites that meet your criteria:

Geography:

Neighborhood, city, regional, national, international.

Interest:

Consider the site’s focus: i.e., design, games, business, etc. Drill down as much as possible to match your target audience.

Demographic:

Easily identifiable stuff about participants, like age, income, education. For data about social sites, start your research at PEWInternet.org . For small sites, you may have to find out from the site itself. Look for advertising information in the footer (just for info, not to advertise).

Activity:

What people do at the site, i.e., simply commenting vs. watching videos. Think about the kind of content that fits with what your business is about, i.e., if you have a visual business, Instagram and Pinterest may be a good fit.

Affinity:

What participants have in common, i.e., people planning a wedding or those that like to invent things with Legos. When people have an interest in common, they're more likely to share posts to people who haven't heard of you before. That will help you create awareness for your business with new people.

Many people participate in both major and niche sites, so select a balance of each. If you choose a major, join subgroups that match your audience, ie., a food related business in Seattle could join the Seattle Foodies group on Facebook.

Where to Find Niche Sites

The more sites seek to create interactivity and engagement, the more they’re likely to offer social opportunities to participate in. Start with the associations and groups your audience belongs to (ask them), then look for social opportunities in the following places:

Search Google with keywords, like a customer looking for a product like yours, and see what social sites come up.
Leverage AI by using prompts to search (perhaps based on the list below), either on Google or ChatGPT
Industry Associations
Online Publications
Social site directories
Check competitors’ sites for their social badges
Look at your own referral traffic data
Vendors sometimes have their own social networks too
Search Google for “niche social sites” + your area of interest
Go local (websites, blogs, publications, etc. in your geographic area)

Don't Spread Yourself Too Thin

Once you’ve narrowed down your list of niche sites, finding the best match you can, prioritize them by highest amount of traffic. Then, start using them and track the referral traffic to your site, using something like Google Analytics to see if all that effort is paying off.

Updated: April 30, 2025

44 Quick and Easy Ways to Build Trust to Increase Online Conversion

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 18:22:13 GMT

People buy from people they trust. Convince website visitors you're the real deal with this checklist of trust factors — some are so simple, you may have just forgotten about them. Google ranks trustworthy websites higher too, so be sure to read through to the end for ideas that work to improve your rank on search engines.

Write clearly without hidden meaning or jargon.
Everything should be up to date, grammatically correct, and without typos.
Use a well designed template integrated with consistent, branded components (logo, fonts, colors, icons, and imagery).
Build your site on a mobile responsive template, so it looks good on all devices. If you're not sure if your site is mobile-friendly, take the test .
Create navigation and menus that help visitors find what they need quickly.
Remove obstacles, like broken links, competing colors, inconsistent images, etc.

Let's Get the Basics Out of the Way

Before we get into the meat of the list, here are some general good practices:

Add Simple Trust Signals

Current copyright and date
Various legal language, like the following. If you need to create them, try this service
Terms and conditions
Privacy policy
Shipping and return policies for e-commerce
Affiliate disclosure
Professional licenses, numbers, and icons
Membership icons
Accreditations, certificates, and awards
Testimonials: Place them strategically near claims you make about your business, rather than a full page of them.
Partner and/or client logos and text links to their sites
Media and press mentions; especially useful from known experts and influencers in your market. Use logos and link to their sites (outbound links can help your Google rank too).
Icons, logos, or text links of organizations you belong to. Apply this same idea to clients who are okay with being listed. Links to organizations your visitor belongs to or knows helps create affinity with the visitor ( look, we’re part of the same group ).
For ecommerce sites, add icons for your payment processor. Some builder tools, like Shopify , make this easy to add.
All sites should have SSL certificates, especially if you’re collecting personal information or using ecommerce to sell products. Namecheap offers SSL certificates at a decent price. Plus, here’s how you can get one for free and when it's appropriate to use it. Many website builders (if not most at this point) like Squarespace include SSL with their packages.

Add immediate credibility with any of these:

Building trust can be especially difficult when promoting services because they're intangible. These tips will help you sing your own praises:

Build Out Your Content

Come across as the expert you are by including your professional background, education, portfolio, awards, memberships, bio, headshot (people like to see who they’re working with, attaching a face to a name), and a LinkedIn link.
Case studies help explain what you do and demonstrate your capabilities. Visitors will relate to your stories, which gives them confidence that you can solve their problem.
Visual before and afters are great way to demonstrate customer successes.
Avoid using too many stock photos that look, well, fake.
If you work with a team of experts, use consistent-looking headshots.

Optimize Your About Page

A very clear statement about the type of business you are, i.e., We are a real estate benefits company.
We’ve been in business since…why you started the company…we’re based in…
Purpose or business philosophy: “We strive for…”, “We believe…"
How you are able to accomplish what you claim to do, and why you’re uniquely qualified to offer this service. Brag a little if you can. It can be a rewording of your Value Proposition and Messaging
Tell a story that kicked off your business idea
Provide staff details (photos, biographies, qualifications)
Mention key clients
State your business hours and/or when visitors can speak to someone live

Your About Page shouldn’t be an afterthought. People like to know who they’re doing business with. Here's what to include:

Customer Support

Give visitors a way to get their questions answered. At minimum, provide an FAQ.
Add a support page or live chat.
Make it easy for visitors to ask questions by making the phone number and email readily available, or encourage the use of a contact form, depending on how much inbound contact you can handle. Give people an idea of when you'll respond and stick to it.

Help Google See Your Site as Trustworthy Too

Google wants to make sure they’re sending searchers to useful sites. Here’s how to look good in their eyes:

A Little Tougher, But Worth the Effort

Get links from high authority sites and well-trafficked directories. Start with free rather than premium listings on sites that rank high in your specific industry. For example in the industrial space, get listed on ThomasNet. You’ll get website traffic, Google likes it, and you’ll experience a halo effect from the association with a respected site.
Use “linkbait” articles to get other sites to link to you so you come across as a valuable resource, subject matter expert, or authority. When linking, get them to use your name as the link — in our case “blockbeta.”
Ask for reviews from happy customers and clients, especially on Google Reviews. These show up in search on the right side of the search engine’s results page for businesses who have signed up for Google Business Profile . The review button will be there too — be sure to send happy customers to it, so you can get more reviews.
When you get great reviews on other sites, be sure to link your website to those reviews.

That's our exhaustive list of trust factors, just part of Homepage Homeruns — our 129 page guide, packed with strategies, images, examples and checklists that shows you how to connect with visitors to convert more of them into buyers.

Updated: June 13, 2025

Help Website Visitors See You as Trustworthy

Register your domain for 2+ years. It lets Google know you’ll be around for a while.
Register an original domain name; in our case, blockbeta.com. Back in the day, a domain that was all keywords, such as seattlemarketingconsultant.com, was a good idea. Not so anymore.
Make it public: Real companies don’t have private whois, so make sure the address you list is real. Unless you’re uncomfortable showing, for example, your home office.
The sites you link to reflect positively on your site, so link to authority sites that have these extensions: .org, .edu, and .gov; also link to high traffic sites, such as news, industry publications, and other media.
Keep your bounce rate low by attracting qualified visitors and giving them the information they’re looking for, so they don’t leave after visiting only one page (read Create a Savvy Homepage from a Simple FAQ ). This will also improve your quality analytics, such as number of pages visited and session length.
When writing your blog or other website materials, include sources, attributions, or references at the end.
Get that SSL certificate, and remember to add the legal language, mentioned above.

Once you addressed the relatively easy items, you'll want to start creating content that satisfies Google's EEAT algorithm. That stands for Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trust. Read this case study about how it worked for one of our clients in a very competitive dog products category.

10 Reasons Why Discount Pricing is Bad for a Small Business

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Sun, 08 May 2016 18:31:54 GMT

Why Service Businesses Should Avoid Discount Pricing

If you’re a consultant, expert or provide another type of service, you may be wondering if you should reduce your price to acquire new customers. Discounting is the marketing tool of last resort. Here's why it’s a bad strategy and what you should be doing instead.

As with any marketing strategy, there are always exceptions. Read through to the end to understand the few situations where discount pricing makes sense.

1. Price is Only Part of the Customer Equation

Price isn’t a customer’s first thought. There’s a lot going on in their minds before they get to that question. Although it may seem like price is their first concern, these come before:

“Does this business understand my problem?”
“Can they solve it?”
“Do I trust them?”
“Do I like their approach?”

Imagining what your prospect is wondering about gives you the opportunity to make the case for your services before getting to the pricing question, “Can I afford it?” It will come up, but the question of price only becomes relevant when they’re considering making the purchase. People will pay if they believe you’re worth it, so use the right language to communicate that you are aware of their need, problem or pain. Then, make your pitch.

2. You’re Going After the Wrong Customers

If your fee is a prospect’s only worry, you may be targeting the wrong market. If the discount is the only reason they hired you, you’ve cheapened yourself and you’ll end up with cheap customers who will always battle for low prices.

3. You Shouldn’t Earn Less than You’re Worth

If you set your price at a certain amount, there should have been a reason for it. If you think you’re worth less, then you should be setting your price lower. Hopefully you’ve done your pricing research before this point — that is, looked into what competitors are charging or at least found out what’s typical for your industry. If you don’t think you’re worth that much, then you should be charging a lower price. If that’s not profitable, then you need to revisit your business model.

If you need help researching prices, this article from Nolo answers the question, How Much Should You Charge for Services?

4. You Don’t Have Enough Clients

I get it. That’s why you’re considering discounts. Think about it this way though. You’ll never recover the time you spent and you won’t be able to make up the shortfall with other customers who pay full price, because you’re not in a volume business. You’re not Walmart.

Updated: April 25, 2025

You're Not Walmart

If you’re not busy with client work, you should use the time to promote yourself, come up with new services, or research a better target market. Do these things first before discounting your prices. Better yet, consistently do these things so you don't get caught short.

5. Price is Only One Aspect of Marketing

Starting with the right product for the right market is where success begins. One way to do that is to avoid selling naked services at an hourly rate. Instead, create a suite of bundled services, a package with a high perceived value so customers feel they’re getting a good deal. Design it to meet a specific customer need with clearly defined benefits, and offer it at a flat and profitable price.

6. Price is Not a Differentiator

When asked this question, “Why should I buy from you?,” your answer shouldn’t be “Because I’ve got the lowest price.” It should be, “I’m the only one that does X” or “I’m faster or better.” Carving out a differentiated space defends you against competition and may allow you to charge a higher price than the norm, rather than a discounted one.

7. Your Problem is Lack of Awareness, Not Price

Setting a low or discounted price is only something you do once people know what you can do for them. It’s not the way to let people know you exist. You can generate awareness and leads through a combination of search engine optimization (SEO) and search marketing, advertising, public relations, content marketing and social media to drive traffic to your website.

8. You’ll Lose the Price War

Trying to compete by offering discounts is a downward spiral, a game of how low can you go. You probably don’t have pockets deep enough to outbid your competition.

9. You Get What You Pay For

It’s difficult to make apples to apples comparisons between service providers, so people use price as one indicator of quality. Setting your price too low or discounted could raise eyebrows.

10. Before Closing the Deal with a Discount, Consider This

There are many ways to get closer to the deal, way before you need to sweeten it with a discount. Consider offering something that doesn’t cost you anything — like a free ebook. Or even a free first :30 phone call — something you may need to do anyway to vet out a prospect. This will give you another opportunity to convince them that you’re the best choice and worth the price.

When a Discount May Make Sense

With so many ways to market yourself, reducing your normal price should be the last on your list. However, there are times when you may want to use discounts:

When you’re up against a deadline and need to close quickly to recover some of your costs.
In situations where you want to entice customers to sign up — like for an event early bird special.
As a final incentive at the tail end of the purchase path. Once you’ve built awareness and fully made your case, it may help you land the bigger fish, but make sure you set clearly defined boundaries around the offer. In fact, if they’re happy with you but can’t afford you in the short-term, consider offering them a payment plan instead.

Create a Savvy Home Page from a Simple FAQ

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 00:15:31 GMT

The Powerful Key to Strong Content

We're all familiar with the website staple Frequently Asked Questions , designed as a quick way to provide customer support. What you may not realize is how powerful they are for creating more effective homepages, especially for service-based businesses.

Answering Questions Sends Strong Signals to Google Search

Integrating FAQs into your homepage is essentially the response to what visitors are searching for. They also make your website more attractive to Google, because its goal is to help searchers find answers. You're making that connection between the Q and the A. Once visitors are drawn in, they're likely to dive deeper into your site to get more detail. That, in turn, is a positive signal to Google that they've sent visitors to the right place, because they're not bouncing or just visiting one page. This is a strong contributor to your position in search results.

Answering questions also aligns you with Google's EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust) principles, which are increasingly important for ranking. If you're a subject expert, consultant, educator, or any type of authority, this is a true bonus.

Beyond rank, they impact how you might appear on Google's search results page, if your site is well-optimized, in the following ways:

AI Overviews
Featured snippets

Make a Connection with Visitors

Creating an FAQ is relatively easy and a concrete exercise which will help you understand customers. Thinking about what customers ask helps you understand what they care about. That will help you build a homepage that’s relevant and therefore resonates with them.

Answering questions demonstrates you understand their needs. When people feel you understand them, they're more likely to believe you can help them.

Build Your List of FAQs by Asking the Right Questions

Come up with a list of 10-15 questions you get asked most often. At this point, don’t worry about pricing, payment or post-sale questions, like "How do I install x?" Go broader, more high level.

Think about issues they deal with, such as "Should I use coupons to promote my business?"
Concerns they have about what you do, such as, "How can you help me build a mobile website?"
Matters that involve your expertise, such as "What does it mean to build a brand?"
How you deliver your product or service, such as, "What is involved in building a website?"

Some tips to get you started:

Consider the questions you get during a sale, a phone call, sales presentation, or other situation where you interface with a potential customer.
Compile past emails or contact forms you’ve received.
Start by asking who, what, when, where, why and how.
If you haven't opened for business yet, check out your competitors' FAQs.
Imagine what people would ask. Research the topic by plugging something like this into Google (or ChatGPT), “What do people ask most about [your type of business]?”
Guess at a question and type it into Google to see if related questions come up. Google may provide a "people also ask."

Write the Answers

Stick to one topic per Q&A; if you need to, break them into singular ideas and answer each one.

Write answers in a straight forward way. Don't try to sell, but be sure to include what makes you special or different, in other words, your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). You could write in a way that puts you up against what the competition does or doesn't do — in essence, positioning your business.
Answers should be more than a simple yes or no. Explain with a bit more detail, but not too much. You can always link the reader to another page. For example, "Yes, we build mobile (responsive websites) that may be viewed from any device and are easily maintained without coding or technical skills. View our portfolio."
Don’t worry about writing for public consumption — not yet anyway. This is simply to capture the information into an organized list. Keep it handy, because the material may be used for creating an actual FAQ page, repurposing it into more content for your site, such as your blog, and promotional fodder for social posts, printed pieces, handouts, checklists and more.

Transform Your FAQs into Homepage Content

Prioritize your FAQs by selecting the top 3-4 that provide a big picture view of what you do. Think about what you can include to reinforce how you're different from your competition.

Convert these questions into benefit-oriented headlines by making them declarative statements. For example, one of my clients is a personal concierge, and she’s often asked, “Isn’t it more expensive to use a concierge?” An objection like that can easily be turned into: “An Affordable Way to Manage Everyday Chores”
If you can, work some keywords into your headlines to grab even more of Google's attention. These are the actual words people are using to search for businesses like yours.
Once you’ve got the headlines down, use the answers you wrote earlier to write a brief paragraph to support or explain the headline. Use clear, concise language without jargon.
Then, look around your site for a good place to answer the rest, creating links from your homepage or footer to additional pages that address each topic.

Using an FAQ to create a home page that resonates with visitors involves thinking like your customers and knowing who you are as a business. It will help you build a solid foundation for your website's content, but it isn't everything. You'll also want to consider writing in your branded style. Adding key components like a call to action and trust factors will help you round out a smart and effective home page.

FAQ's Can Be the Basis for Your Content Strategy

FAQ's are a good place to start to build out content to build awareness for your website. Once you've written the brief answers, you can write whole articles that go into greater detail on the subjects. You can post them to your blog, and use the brief answers as links to this deeper content.

See an example of how we've done this for our clients —>

You can also self-publish them to other websites, like LinkedIn, Medium, Substack, etc., where potential customers might see them, and then click back to your site for more information.

Updated: May 6, 2025

Coupons as a Marketing Tool: Pros, Cons, and Tips

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:06:19 GMT

Should you offer coupons to boost your business, or is it the marketing tool of last resort? Here's a checklist to help you decide.

A lot of businesses think offering a reduced price on products or services is going to improve their bottom line. Not necessarily. The following pros and cons list, and the considerations at the end of this post, will help you decide when it's right to offer a lower price or discount.

Updated: April 15, 2025

Discounts Should Be Your Last Promotional Tool. Not Your First.

yet not always

Using discounts or not depends on many factors, including your business model and what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s not always the quick fix you hope for, but sometimes it can be the quick fix, say, for acquiring new trial or getting rid of outdated inventory. Some quick "research" using AI shows lots of positive results, yet it depends who, what, and how you're using them. That means you need to think about how the can be used successfully in your business to meet your goals.

The simple truth is coupons or discounts are advertising. That is, you’re paying to attract customers. Think your strategy through before you take the plunge.

May result in a quick infusion of cash.
May be a quick way to unload inventory.
Like sampling, coupons remove some of the barriers to first-time trial, making it easier for people to try before they buy (at full price).
May encourage brand switching.
Getting people in the door for the initial offer may lead to add-on sales for items that weren't discounted.
May attract first-time buyers, which could increase your customer base for the long-term.
Some coupons are never redeemed, so you get some of the awareness-building effect for free.

PROS

CONS

Can be costly; be sure you understand what you can afford to give away. Don't forget to include the coupon service's share in your calculations. See the math article referenced under Tips.
May not be sustainable as a promotional strategy – customers may only buy the discounted item. New customers may not come back.
Cannibalization of existing revenue. In other words, you’re giving a discount to those people who would buy from you at regular price anyway. One way to avoid this is by limiting the offer to first time buyers or setting the geographic distribution of the coupons outside your normal target area (which may not be possible with some social couponing services).
P.O. Factor – could alienate the people who aren’t offered the discount. For example, loyal customers who feel they should get some kind of reward, rather than only catering to new customers.
May lessen the perceived value or quality of the item being offered, especially when it comes to products or services people value based on their price.
Potential negative impact on brand image – could make you look cheap, especially if you have a luxury brand or are discounting items no one would want anyway.
Customers may get used to waiting for deals, rather than paying full price.
Discounted customers may crowd out your regulars if you have fixed capacity.
Your employees may limit the quality of their services if they feel they’d be tipped less based on the decreased amount of the bill.

Did I miss any pros?

If you can think of other positives or ways you've used coupons or discounting successfully, LMK

Competing on the real value you provide is always better than competing on price. Focus on promoting your benefits to the customer, rather than discounting your price (unless that’s your business model and you expect to do a great amount of volume, like the Dollar Store).

Compete on value, not price

Know your profit margin, not just costs

Understand your profit margin on an item before you decide on the discount amount; be sure to include overhead in your calculation. It shouldn’t just be the cost of materials, but of producing the item as well. If you run at pretty thin profit margins, offering coupons could mean you’re offering items at a loss – otherwise known as a loss leader. That may work great for supermarkets, because they expect the buyer to purchase a shopping cart full of items at the regular price. You may not be able to afford that luxury. Jay Goltz explains the math well in his New York Times article .

Always consider your offer from the customer’s point of view. Will they find it valuable? Will they buy more than the discounted item? Will they come back again after the initial purchase without the discount incentive? Will they think less of your business because of it?

Assess what the impact will be on both existing and new customers.

What is your customer's POV?

Take the long view

Weigh the cost of acquiring the customer against their lifetime value, not just what you’re going to make on that one-shot deal.

Don’t forget, if the customer is smart (and please don’t underestimate this), they’re also considering what it will cost them over the lifetime of use. In other words, one month free phone service is pretty insignificant compared to the long-term expense.

Don't underestimate customers

What's the impact of the discount?

Similarly, consider the impact of the percentage discount on an item, i.e., $300 off or 1% off the purchase of a $30K car will not motivate a buyer to purchase.

Customer value vs. your cost to deliver

Ideally, the perceived value should exceed the actual cost to you of providing the discount. For example, if your business model involves high fixed costs, like a movie theater, it doesn’t cost much to give away a seat that may go unfilled anyway.

Set the terms

Set limits when appropriate and available, such as expiration date, minimum number of buyers required before anyone can redeem, “first time buyers only”, restrict to less expensive or easier-to-deliver services, small denominations that can’t be used on the same purchase, like a minimum amount off per meal. Alex Salkever in his article “Is Groupon Changing What People Are Willing to Pay?” said it well, “Watered-down offers will inevitably result in watered-down interest, because customers aren't stupid. But small-business owners aren't either, and they're the ones who must find the balancing point between deals good enough to lure customers in, and deals so good they make customers rethink their idea of fair value.”

If you’re offering a service, the first-time delivery of that service may be at a high cost to you. However, if subsequent services cost you less, it may make sense to pull in those customers for a first-time deal, because your cost will decrease over time; which means you’ll get a bigger margin over time. A good example of this could be housecleaning, where the first cleaning is more costly, but return touch-up visits require less work.

Attract new customers

Get Demographics and Psychographics by Zip

robbin@blockbeta.com (Robbin Block) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:32:30 GMT

Free Data Available to Support Business and Marketing Plans

If you're putting together a business plan, trying to market locally, or just want to see how geography is your destiny, you can access free data from Claritas by typing in a Zip Code you're interested in.

The system defines every household in the U.S. by lifestyle types (segments), so you can get an idea of who lives in what location and what they're like. You can view a neighborhood’s top 5 household segments and associated characteristics within any ZIP Code.

It's just another way you can get inside your customers' heads to market more effectively, whether you're developing products and services, creating a marketing campaign or choosing media.

After you're done reading this, be sure to check out Dempsee for help doing market research for your startup or small business.

Get a list of what makes up a customer profile, including demographics and psychographics, and other helpful marketing tip sheets