Anne-Marie Saint-John, Alva, Long Island City, NY >
Child Care Business Development
Childcare is a major growth industry in our community. Despite the need for such services, most childcare providers fail due to their lack of business skills. To address this, we provide business development services to home- and center-based providers in Upper Manhattan. The program includes a 26-session Spanish-language classroom training seminar that assists enrollees with marketing skills, accounting systems, finance, taxes, contracts, liability issues and success planning. Upon graduation, participants receive one-on-one business counseling and assistance in securing grants and BO$$ loans. The program has completed 33 cycles, graduating 425 providers, who have opened 242 new childcare businesses, and created 403 new jobs and 1,480 new childcare slots in our community.. Our 34th cycle begins February 2022 (Spanish).
#3 – It Drives Customer Engagement & Loyalty
Do you have a news section or a blog on your website? If so, when was the last time you updated this? Do you have an about us page with information about your team members? The same question applies.
Aside from the many reasons you should write a blog for your business, writing content for your blog or news section is a great way to offer value to customers, and it’s great for engagement on the site too. Similarly, with a news section, it’s a quick and easy way to keep the world informed about key developments in your company, along with news of any new team members or new services/products.
Updating your team or about us, pages with team bio’s for individuals as they join is also important as it helps people put a face to the names of the people they are speaking to, and this only serves to improve your engagement and loyalty.
As a final question to consider, when was the last time you posted news of a project or shouted about a lovely review from a client? All of these events should be seen as opportunities to update your website while boosting the power of your online presence at the same time!
#4 – Visual Appeal
Another key reason why updating a website is a good idea relates to the visual side of things, and more importantly, how easy your customers find it to use your website. Over time, the design of a website will become outdated; this is perfectly normal. Regularly updating your website with new images of people, products, or projects is a great way to keep things fresh.
According to new research by Google, simplistic website design is best for both user experience and conversions. As such, you may also want to periodically check and update your website to ensure it remains in line with modern preferences.
While there are lots of other valid reasons why a website should be updated on a regular basis, these four are the most compelling of all.
What type of information can you use to update your website?
We’ve already covered the nuts of bolts of why you should update your website regularly, but to make things just a little easier for you, here’s a list of the different types of information you can utilize in order to keep the content updates flowing.
- Company News, Announcements, PRs
- New Team Members or Promotions
- Business Blogs or How-to-Guides for Customers
- New Service or Product Descriptions
- Fresh Images
- FAQ section using questions from emails or support logs
- Testimonials from Customers
- Latest Projects
- Awards
While most of the usual tasks that relate to the ongoing maintenance of a website are often be viewed as technical, these updates can often be performed quickly in-house by a person with little to no website knowledge. If you have a developer who works with you on your site, they’re also usually happy to add a post or new content for you if this isn’t something you feel comfortable doing yourself.
The key to success is to not overwhelm yourself with content updates, or even to put things off. Instead, try to start with just 30 minutes a week or whatever amount of time you can find on a given day, get into a routine, and keep it consistent. This way, you will start to reap the rewards for your business and maintain your commitments to keeping your site updated.
