By Debbie Gregory.

Humanizing your business will make you a lot more memorable to prospective clients and help keep their attention on you.

With all of the advertising we are bombarded with day in and day out, it can be challenging to reach or hold the attention of your target audience. People are becoming more and more selective with their attention span and it is shorter than ever. With so much to choose from, it’s more challenging for your business’s marketing message to resonate.

What can you do?

Content that consistently grabs and holds people’s attention has three things in common:

1. It tells a story.
2. It is personal.
3. It is visually stimulating.

How Do You Incorporate Into Your Marketing Campaigns?

This part may sound difficult, but it is surprisingly easy with a bit of thought, planning, and research. Start with a setup or situation that is interesting to your target customers, add a challenge that arouses their curiosity, and then bring it home with a conclusion that is satisfying to their needs. When we talk about ‘satisfying’ in marketing we mean getting your prospect to click on your website, call your business, and/or buy your offering.

For example, find a common situation that your target customer finds themselves in and start your story with a setup that can relate to. Is your business in landscaping? Maybe your clients have trouble with invasive weeds or not knowing how to properly trim a hedge? The challenge is what is standing in their way. Using the same example of a landscaper, this could be the proper knowledge and tools, or time to do the work. The conclusion is how you can solve this dilemma for them.

Just keep in mind that you need to tell your story in a way that your target customers want to hear it.

Including:

• Live video streams
• Recorded videos
• An animated video with cartoon characters
• Podcasts
• Social media posts with photos
• A brochure or flyer
• An ad in a newspaper, magazine, or other publication

…but how they want to receive it all depends on your target customers. You will need to do your research and find out what type of content they like best.

What makes people disengage?

• The story is not challenging them mentally.
• The content lacks any personal resonance.
• There is just too much text.
• Not enough visually appealing photos.

Also, make sure that your message is consistent across all of your marketing materials and make sure that you back it all up using your website’s “about us” page and your social media feeds. Customers are a lot pickier now-a-days due to the vast amount of options they are presented with. Make sure that your business resonates with them personally.

By Debbie Gregory.

You know you need a great website for your small business. But before you start building your website, you should know exactly what you want it to do for your business. A well-designed site does not begin with a beautiful layout or catchy writing. It begins with clarity of purpose, answering the question: what do you want people to do once they get to your site?

The answer will depend on your business, and will determine how robust your site should be. Do you want visitors to purchase a product, sign up for your email list, read your content? Your website should actively be functioning to meet the needs of your business.

Your “home page” is usually the place where visitors will land first. This is where you will have the opportunity to introduce your company and feature your most valuable content. This could include an explanation of your services / products, reasons visitors should work with you / buy from you, a link to your blog, customer reviews, and a call to action. It should also have links to your social media, and trust signals such as any money back guarantees, payment security certifications and accreditations. To make your website especially user-friendly, it is a good idea to include a search bar.

Another key page is your “about us” page. People do business with other people, and visitors will want to know who the people behind your company are. The page should give a brief summary of who you are, who your employees are, how you are different from your competitors, and your company story.

An FAQ page is a self-service area where your customers can get answers to the most frequent questions you are asked. Chances are, their question will fall into this category, and will save you the time it would take to answer these individually. On the off chance that there are questions and answers not addressed here, make sure you include contact information on your site. This can be in the form of your social media pages, a phone number or an email address. Some companies prefer to use a contact form instead of listing their email address for spam prevention purposes.

A privacy policy is must for every website as it lets the visitor know what you’ll do with the personal information they give you. Here you will detail if you use cookies, what you will do with email addresses (especially if you have a registration form for a mailing list), and whether or not this information will be shared with third parties. You will also want to state your terms and conditions, which are the rules and guidelines you expect users to adhere to.

Optional pages would include a blog page, testimonials/reviews, press or news page, and a sitemap.

A website with 200 words and a single picture can be more powerful than a website with dozens of pages and several blog posts if it well designed to serve your ultimate purpose, whatever you define that step to be.

Veteran and Military Business Owners Association, VAMBOA,