You never know when someone is going to visit your site, pick up your business card, or do a Google search and
find you (well your website that represents you). As online boutique owners, we do a lot of marketing and networking to increase exposure to our businesses. It’s true most times you never know when someone will find you, but there are those times when you do.
Sometimes we get lucky, all of that hard work marketing pays off and you get a little breakthrough. A featured guest post, a speaking gig at a local event, or even an appearance on TV; a whole 15 minutes of fame ready for you to seize the Day, Carpe Diem.
SO WHY ISN’T YOUR WEBSITE READY FOR IT ?!?!?!?
The great thing about 15 minutes of fame is you usually know days, weeks, or even months before it happens. You have time to get a new outfit, print new business cards, and get your website in order. But the sad truth is many small businesses don’t. For some reason, they believe people will understand because they are small, or they think so no one is really looking at the site because they’ve seen them in person. Well, the sad truth is NONE OF THAT IS TRUE. The minute you hit the stage, screen, or blog post everyone is clicking away trying to find more about you, what do you do, and even worse are you worth listening to. If your website isn’t updated then you lose credibility and potential customers.
Let me tell you a story, a few years ago, I was watching my Sunday TV lineup when one of the castmates on Real Housewives of Atlanta, Kenya Moore, mentioned she had a foundation the Kenya Moore Foundation, immediately I Googled the foundation to get an idea of what type of charities she supports. But instead finding the site of a thriving foundation that she described, what I did find was a site with outdated photos, 2009 copyright, and nothing about her foundation. I knew she was a phony at that very moment!
That same night, Oprah’s Favorite Things was on. As they announced the favorite things from gourmet Popcorn to designer handbags, one by one I went to the online boutique websites. Other than a little slowness from the hordes of traffic, every site was beautifully designed, update products and information, and the best part they already had the little Oprah logo and special pages that they were featured on Oprah. The special pages where a great extra touch, just in case you weren’t sure if you made it to the right site they let you know that yes, they are the ones who were featured and they are ready for your business.
So what does this story tell you? There is no reason to not be ready when you know it’s coming.
Now that I’ve scared you into updating your site every time you leave the house, let me help with a few quick tips on getting your site ready for your 15 mins of fame:
- Update your Copyright date it really should be older than last year
- Update Contact information and test contact forms, error messages are the worst things a user can get on your site
- Post a logo, special page, or welcome to the people coming from for your 15 minutes of fame place.
- Update photos, nothing worse than looking at the site and not seeing someone that looks like the person you just saw on stage or TV.
- Take down all coming soon pages, buttons, etc. No one needs to know you’re not ready, but you and your designer
- Make sure you match all of your other marketing material. If your online boutique card is pink your site should be green
- Put up an optin box, even if you have nothing to give away. 15 mins isn’t a long time, so try to hold on to those users by getting them to leave their email behind
These are just little changes, but being a little prepared is better than a major fail. You only get one chance to make a first impression and on the internet, that chance can be faster than a blink of the eye. I hope this has helped you jump into action and take a hard look at your site. And don’t forget, you don’t have to wait for a big opportunity to come up to get your site in order, you should check your website regularly and at the least make sure there is nothing screaming “I haven’t been touched in years”.
Oh, and did I mention the Kenya Moore’s site is updated now, a few seasons and a million fans to late ?