When I began my gift basket business in the early 90’s I didn’t even own a computer, a website and certainly not an e-commerce system.

My first customers were friends, relatives and people I met at networking meetings. They ordered by telephone and paid by check or cash.

Even after I invested in a computer, I still didn’t have a website for about a year. Of course, many other businesses had not moved into cyberspace either. When my customers would call for information I would describe some basket ideas on the phone and mail them a brochure.

The Internet has definitely changed the way I do business, and I suspect it has changed the way you do business as well. If you want to be profitable, there are three ways you must change your business now that the Internet is at the hub of modern communication.

1. How you get customers

Meeting potential customers at networking meetings, Chamber events, holiday boutiques are still popular ways to attract new customers.  But with the advent of the Internet you have access to larger number of potential clients and can meet them at a much faster rate.

Now you can get at these potential clients by going to them virtually.  One way to do this is be sure your website is optimized to place you near the top of the top page of search engine results.  This happens when you carefully select and place keywords.

The second way is to build up leads by offering a free newsletter or other incentive that appeals to your customers.  Once you have the email addresses of your leads you can keep in frequent contact with them, reminding them of your services and announcing new products.  Unlike regular mail that takes time and costs postage, email enables you to create one message and send it to an infinite number of people for a very low cost.

The third way to get customers is to build online relationships on social media sites. Facebook and Twitter are at the top of these. On YouTube you can post movies that you’ve created that give some advice or offer demonstrations.

To neglect any of these ways to get customers via the Internet and you’re leaving money on the table.

2. How you serve customers

Unless you are intentionally restricting your sales to just a few customers, you need a website to extend your reach.  And not just any website.

Because your website is competing against thousands of others who sell gifts, gift baskets, flowers and other retail gift items, it needs to stand out.  In addition to being attractive and easy-to-navigate, it must also have a seccure and easy-to-use e-commerce system. Reassure your customers by using a safe system and announcing it on your site.

Modern customers expect a variety of choices, options to customize and payment system that not only takes their credit card information, but confirms their order with an email that arrives within minutes of the sale. Customize the thank you email so that it takes customers back to a page on your website where you can also list other similar items and services for sale.

In addition, to be competitive with other online sellers your shipping method should provide tracking information so that your customer can follow if she wishes.

Once visitors land on your website the selection of a gift or gift basket through payment should be a smooth, seamless process.

3. How you keep customers

Regular contact helps keep your customers coming back to you. When they make a purchase be sure to follow up with a thank you email. Reward loyal customers with something special, a bonus or an add-on.

Find out what your customers want and need by asking them on a survey. This will help you better serve them when you shop for inventory and supplies.

One of your most powerful Internet tools in staying in touch with your customers is email. You can set up regular emails to go out through an autoresponder program such as AWeber. It is a proven business fact that it is much easier to sell to existing customers than it is to get new customers. So once you have earned a customer’s trust and business, nurture it by frequent contact.

One of my subscribers sends out an attractive newsletter to her customer base and has experienced increased sales. Here’s what Jean, owner of Bountiful Baskets by Jean said,

Since [I began sending out my newsletter] I think [sales have] increased at least 30 to 40 %. Consistent reminders of holidays have improved my customer contact and have also given the ones that have never ordered ideas on what to order!

Another way to stay in touch with your customers is to find out where they hang out. If your customers are active on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and other social media, connecting with them there will help strengthen your business relationships. Be sure to post the social media icons on your website to encourage them to follow, friend and link with you.

Speaking of rewarding loyalty

To thank you for being a loyal subscriber I’ve set up a special 48 hour sale of my special report, Prescription for a Successful Gift Basket Website. This report will save you money and time by avoiding the mistakes I made in the early days. It will also point you to tips, strategies and advice I gained from my experiences and those of other successful businesses.

In addition to my 96-page special report, you will also receive as a bonus a report by marketing expert Marcia Yudkin, Charge More and Get It where she gives actionable advice on pricing your products and services. You will be able to download both reports as soon as you place your order.

Follow this link to download this 90-page special report and the free bonus report. Remember this sale only lasts 48 hours and will end promptly at midnight on Thursday, October 1, 2009

If you think that people who frequent Facebook, Twitter and other online social media sites are holed up in their offices or homes working in isolation, you are wrong.

Increasingly, business people who have first met on line are meeting in person to further connect and cement their business relationships. Consider extending the reach of your business by getting engaged on and offline.

One example of the online and offine worlds coming together is when participants on Twitter hold in-person gatherings, called Tweetups. They get face-to-face contact with friends who were until then just user names .  My first Tweetup was at a local Italian restaurant where 90 other twitterers gathered, eager to exchange business cards and look to connect with others in their interest areas. The organizers prepared gift bags with donated items and invited the marketing representative from a local shopping center to attend and invite all of us to a media-only event. It was a lively and fun event.

While still at my first Tweetup, a colleague, Edward Phillipp, and I discovered that we were both going to be attending the same seminar the next weekend. We scheduled a Tweetup to take place when the last session ended on the first day of the seminar. We met with a few other twitterers to chat about the highlights of the speeches we had heard that day.

Attending the Tweetup that Ed and I scheduled was Warren Whitlock, BlogTalk radio host, speaker, blogger, social media expert and co-author of “Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online.” Since Warren’s show airs on Friday nights, he recorded our Tweetup as part of his show via his cell phone. (The photo above shows me attending this Tweetup.)

Another example, Biznik, is an online community of entrepreneurs and small businesses dedicated to helping each other succeed. By sharing ideas with others of like mind you grow your business and even find new clients. Biznik members who live in the same geographical area schedule meetings, seminars and mixers to meet in person. One member, a marketing consultant, hosts weekly meetings at a popular Los Angeles restaurant.

No matter what product or service you offer, your business will benefit when online and offline worlds meet.

This week we’ve been talking about reasons your website sucks.

Reason #5: You are too timid about promoting your website online.

Networking online is fast, efficient and powerful, and yet many companies are not sure they should network online.  Are you one of them? Let’s take a look at another popular social network website, Facebook.

Originally called thefacebook, Facebook was founded by former Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg (while he was at Harvard) who ran it as one of his hobby projects with some financial help from Eduardo Saverin.  Facebook become popular within months across dorm rooms at Harvard, and soon at Stanford
and Yale.

When Mark was joined by two other fellow Harvard students–Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes–Facebook grew to become a national student network phenomenon. In August 2005, thefacebook was officially called Facebook and the domain facebook.com was purchased for a reported $200,000.

You still needed to be enrolled in one of the participating universities to be on Facebook until 2006 when anyone 13 or older could join. By January 2009 Facebook had moved ahead of MySpace in popularity.

While many businesses questioned whether MySpace was right for them, there was less hesitance for many businesses considering membership on Facebook.  A noticeable difference between the two may account for how they’ve been received by businesses.  MySpace allows to members to customize their pages with HTML and Cascading style Sheets, whereas Facebook mainly allows plain text and now photos, as well as a free classified ads in the Marketplace.

One glance at my grandkids pages on MySpace convinced me that I didn’t want to list my business there (To call their pages and those of their friends “garish” is being polite.) But Facebook has a more professional and controlled appearance. Besides, the History Channel has a Facebook page.I also like the fact that Facebook now has the capability of  linking to my articles from Ezine articles, my blog posts, and my radio episodes from BlogTalkRadio.

You are right to be thoughtful about what personal information you share on any website, but people want to know who you are before they trust you with their money and their projects. Networking websites give you the option of keeping some information private or limiting who views it. That can be useful when you build a big following.

Regardless of which social networking site you select, keep in mind that you’re there to make contacts, offer information, and be a resource.  By building relationships you create friendships and connections who sometimes turn into fans. That will grow your business in ways that old fashioned advertising never could.

Companies who invest in the $1 trillion advertising and marketing industry are seeing half of their investment go down the drain reported an Economist article.That’s because consumers are increasingly relying on other ways to make their buying decisions. Word of mouth, an old way to spread news, is still the fastest and most affordable to advertise. Here are some ways to put word of mouth to work for your gift basket business:

1. Get current happy customers talking by asking for referrals. Put it on your business card, fliers and brochures. Offer incentives for new customers who result from these referrals.
2. Give customers and visitors to your website something to talk about: contests, giveaways, but most of all, provide great, unique products.
3. Provide customers with frequent information and updates about your business such as with a weekly newsletter. Ask for their opinions, questions and reactions. Encourage them to forward your e-newsletters to their friends.
4. Give your customers the tools to get them talking. Start a blog, message board, or chat to encourage customers to speak out.
5. Use social media to get the word out about new products, services or to ask for information. The most popular are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. You can visit me on all three:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Get word of mouth working for you and watch your profits grow.