NEXTFLY

Every year I do something that many of my colleagues think is a little crazy.

I visit the websites of my competitors and I crawl over them at a painstaking pace. I study and privately critique every little nook and cranny on those websites. Then I make purchases on them.

Sometimes those purchases are extremely small in terms of dollars and cents. Other times I’ll drop $50 to $100 and more. Frequently I will find a reason to complain just to see how strong their customer service skills are. I make sure they have no idea who I am by using a personal credit card or PayPal account.

I might even have a family member pay for me, if I’m worried I might get discovered.

Why in the world would I become a customer of my own competition?

That’s easy. It helps me to make my own business even better by presenting myself simply as just another internet customer placing an order.

The Denver Business Journal’s Small Business Center definitely advises secretly shopping your competition, as does Heidi Cohen, president of Riverside Marketing Strategies, who wrote “What You Can Learn From Your Competitors:

“When it comes to strategic marketing,” she wrote, “Competitors can provide the best insights. Brick-and-mortar marketers have shopped the competition forever. You should, too.”

It’s extremely good intel, if you are a business owner who visualizes sales as a battlefield. You need to know what that “army” is like on the other side of that battlefield. You need to know just how powerful that army is.

As such, it never hurts to make the business of your competitors your business. You can learn a lot about the strength of your competition in the process.

For instance, here’s the kind of insight I’m able to draw when I conduct these “intel missions” on my own competition :

* How well they’re doing as a well-oiled “machine” by how professionally I’m treated representing myself as just another average customer.

If they jump right to the task of handling my order with a swift email acknowledgement and there are no glitches in getting a quality product or service I’ve paid for out to me, I can surmise from my own experience that they are “all they can be” in terms of what they do.

On the other hand, if I receive no email response, hear nothing about my order for 24 hours and my first customer service directed request for an update still illicits nothing – I can pretty much tell that this is a slipshod operation more in the business of losing customers than aiming at gaining new ones.

It doesn’t happen very often, you say?

Au contraire! You’d be amazed how many of your bigger retailers and service providers just plain do a crappy job in business. I could name some easily-recognizable names here and some that might outright shock you to be in this category, but I won’t.

As a small business owner, you need to do your own legwork in terms of gathering this kind of intel to help make what you do even better.

But don’t just focus on the Big Dogs out there…the little guy you compete with can chip away at your business if he excels where you don’t!

* I’m able to use the poor business practices of my competitors to my own best advantage.

Are they over-priced? Cheap but providing shoddy products and services? Does their customer service department downright stink? Is that website they’re running outdated and full of typos?

It’s these things that make my routine market studies of the competition worth more than the bucks I shell out to buy from them. And of course, if you are just too busy yourself, you can always hire a private mystery shopping company. They’re professional, reliable and discreet.

Consider that if the competition has a clunky, less than professional website in place (which far too many of them do), you can rest assured that your own is superior to theirs.

If you take a few minutes to read some good marketing articles on the Web, you’ll find they all echo the advice of successful small business owner and marketing strategist, Kanaga Siva, who wrote, “Small Business Competition Strategies”:

“Have a professional looking website. A well designed professional looking website is absolutely essential. By providing all the information about your business, products and services, it will add credibility to your small business.”

Bingo, that’s the true linchpin right there – particularly if you do the majority of your business on the internet. Find out if your website fits the bill by asking for a free, no-obligation consultation with one of Nextfly’s web design experts.

The potential for a nice upward swing in future profits for your business could make you awfully glad you did!

A military couple I know is currently in the process of transitioning their careers from active duty to civilian life by starting a home-based bakery business.

James and Antoinette are hoping that by the early part of 2010, they will be able to comfortably roll their efforts into a successful operation.

So far, they’re doing well enough with their home baking business, selling exquisitely-made cakes, cookies, exotic pies and breads to their friends, neighbors and a handful of personnel working at their respective Navy commands.

They’ve financed alterations to the large kitchen in their home to legally accommodate such a home business.� They’ve also obtained a small business license.

What they don’t have is a website – something neither of the Morgans feel is important at this stage of their fledgling business.

“We put up posters and give out business cards,” James says.� “A website now would seem like a waste of money.”

“Why have a website now, when word-of-mouth advertising is bringing in most of the business?” Antoinette asks.

According to Small Business.com – a a collection of resources for those seeking information and assistance in starting and running a small business – a website is essential as a new business is just beginning:

“Today, most small businesses need an online presence as much as they need a phone or mailbox. Customers and clients – current and potential – expect you to have one.� For some small businesses, a website has become the primary selling tool, a means to access inventory or collaborate on client projects.

And perhaps most importantly:

“Most people begin their search for a product online using a search engine like Google, Yahoo or MSN. Having a website, especially a web site that is designed to be an effective Internet marketing tool, can be very valuable for small businesses. Without the right web site, people will not be able to find your business. “

The Morgans don’t realize that building a website at this point in their new bakery business will only make that business stronger, more established and viable in terms of competition once they do take that leap out of their Navy uniforms next year.

I can certainly attest that having a website is a “Must Do” early on, rather than later.

My own consulting business was extremely home-spun and small in stature back in 1993.� I, too, profited mostly from word-of-mouth advertising in those days.

Still I knew, as the internet commercially left its infancy and began to flourish in those days, I needed to be out there.� I needed to establish and validate my business where people were going to start bringing me up in searches.

I Needed To Be Online.

I jumped at the chance to get that website up as soon as possible.� It didn’t mean I was seeking a global market or planning to take the business world by storm. (Okay, yeah, it kinda did.)

In practical terms, it simply meant that I had an established virtual storefront with the domain name I needed to represent my business as the internet continued to evolve (and my business grew as a result).

My guess is that the Morgans are thinking the website can come much later once they’re working their business full time, once they roll out their business “for real.”

They’re missing the point that getting a website up and running now will enable existing local customers to find them in a pinch online when they need those bakery items and have possibly lost their phone number.

It also enables new potential customers locally to find them online without having to page through a phone book which doesn’t contain an ad for the Morgans’ home bakery business.

What happens to those customers who can’t find James and Antoinette without that website waving it’s arms in the air shouting, “Hey guys, here I am…Morgan Baked Goods in Norfolk, Virginia!”

Yup, they buy those cakes and cookies somewhere else.

So to all the entrepreneurs out there, the following words of advice:� As you are getting the bugs worked out of that new home business, make it the #1 “Must Do” on your list….get that website up and running!

Not sure how to go about it? Talk to the experts here at Nextfly.� They’ve got tons of ideas and won’t over-sell your needs as others in the industry might just to drive up the price of that sale.

Speaking of sales, Nextfly has some great special offers advertised….check ‘em out.

Contact Music recently reported that singer/musician John Mayer has been having trouble writing new songs because his fans think they know him too well.

He’s quoted as saying, “This is not because people know so much about me, but because of what they think they know. So I find myself trying to guess what they think they know and then trying to steer clear of it and find another way to explain myself.”

The same is true when you’re blogging about your business.

Expressing yourself so that your audience gets to know you is great. Making sure familiarity in your posts doesn’t hold you back from being multi-dimensional about your business as you add more pages to your website for Google ranking with any given keyword phrase is even better.

For instance, if your business is all about selling windows and doors, of course these products would be at the core of your blog. But don’t just write your blog offering the usual information about doors and windows. Write about the subject creatively, cleverly.

Find unique ways to bring these products into blog posts using new keywords to get a leg up in Google ranking by paying attention to the news, what’s trendy in terms of door and window hardware, how to incorporate your products into the lifestyles of those who are possibly in the market to buy from you.

Don’t just put your thoughts out there, get excited about your business! Give your blog readers details on current jobs your business is involved in or why you think the windows and doors being installed in a new subdivision in your area will or won’t work for the long haul.

Discuss in your blog the ins and outs of buying a cheap door or window versus buying higher quality ones. Share with your readers the window and door challenges you’ve encountered in the past and how these problems were remedied by your business.

Look beyond your own market to bring the message home to your customers they should buy from you. For instance, let’s say that you happen to read Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt bought the unfinished shell of a new mansion in northern California and they have hired contractors to complete the work so they could move in before the end of the year.

You could use this tidbit of celebrity gossip to make posts on your blog about the windows and doors you hope those contractors are installing (falling back on your own expertise to explain the reasons why) and in doing so educate potential high-end customers who will appreciate this information as they are building their own million-dollar homes.

If you have a commercial niche that seems difficult to blog about on your own, do the next best thing: Hire a blog writer.

A plethora of bloggers are available right here on the internet and most of them will work pretty cheaply simply for the writing credit to add to their resume. To pay $10 – $15 a post to start, with a byline given on the blog and a pre-arranged number of posts each month, is not out of line.

Many will even work for free. (But be wary if you take on a blogger who works for free. Often, they are using your blog as a vehicle to land a paying blogging position elsewhere…you could find yourself without a blog writer after a month or two.)

Why go to such lengths looking and seeking for new angles on your business to blog about?

For one thing, the days of thriving commercially with just a non-interactive website are over. For another, blogs are highly competitive these days and not only keep your business thriving within the e-marketplace, they also keep you active in terms of keyword search phrases for ranking on the internet.

Bottom line, being creative in the way you post about your business is good for your blog. It’s good for your Google ranking. It’s also extremely good for your business in general.