Online Success Starts Here

Your website is a marketing tool and with any type of marketing having a strategy prepares you for success. When preparing to put up a website the first thing to consider is not what your website will look like but how will your website resonate with your target audience. Here are four key elements that must be a part of your website marketing strategy:

1. Know Who You're Selling To.

The most important question you need to answer in your website marketing strategy is "Who am I selling to?" The "who" is your target market. Think of them as the group you're willing to spend money and time on to get their business. It's important to understand that even if your services or products can benefit many types of individuals, it is a lot easier to focus your marketing efforts when you have a target audience in mind. In order to do that successfully, you'll need to know who you're talking to, what problems they have and what benefits are they seeking.

Tip: Don't skip this step. It's an integral part of any marketing plan.

2. Speak Their Language.

Once you've identified your target market, learn the words they use to describe the problems they're having or the benefits their seeking. With this information you'll be able to "speak their language" in your website content. You'll also be creating a connection with your audience when you use terms that connect with them.

Tip: Try WordTracker Keyword tool to find out what keywords your target marketing is searching on.

3. Educate Them.

Research shows that most buyers use the internet to search for information before they buy. If your website doesn't provide information to help your visitors in their buying decision they're most likely to leave without contacting you. But if you have an understanding of your target audience you can provide targeted information that speaks to their concerns. My favorite quote is from the department store, SYMS whose slogan is "An educated consumer is our best customer." Apply this philosophy to your website marketing strategy and you'll start to see how easy it becomes to get qualified leads that convert into a sale.

Tip: Educate your clients through Blogs, Special Reports, Mini Courses, Free Teleclasses/Webinars and Articles. Use these tools to get qualified leads on your mailing list or at least coming back to your website so that you can continue to market them.

4. Follow Up With Them.

Research also shows that it takes at least seven contacts with a potential buyer before they even notice your ads. Once you get your website visitors to provide you their email address, continue to educate them through an e-zine (email newsletter) or blog. Create a schedule for your e-zine or blog and stick to it! The content of your e-zine should be at least 75% education and 25% sales. Remember you want to educate your leads so you can build credibility with them. People buy from people they know, like and trust and your e-zine is a start to building a relationship that can eventually lead to a sale.

Tip: Be sure to use an email or blog service that allows you to track if your email subscribers click on any links in your email. Aweber, Constant Contact, iContact are just a few of the e-zine management services out there that include statistics like this.

 

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According to Roger Ailes, president of Fox News and past media consultant for Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and George H.W. Bush, in the first 7 seconds of a first meeting, people make no less than 11 judgments about the other person. And it's no different when it comes to your website.

What judgments are your prospects making about you when they come to your website? Are they thinking you're professional, current, applicable, unselfish?

I recently met a woman who was launching a new high end woman's product and was looking for assistance in getting the word out about her new product. She is new to the product market and her product wasn't out yet but she wanted to build a list of people who would be interested in buying her product when it did come on the market. So I went to check out her website and I was immediately turned off. It looked amateurish, like a neighbor's son who dabbles in websites created it. The layout, structure and information just did not reflect the kind of image you would expect for a business selling a high-end product. My first thought was if she was not willing to invest some money into the look of her website then what else is she skimping on in her business, especially since she was selling a high end product. I made a judgment about her, which may or may not be true, but all I had to go by was my first impression of her website.

Here are some suggestions to consider for making first impressions count on your website:

Have a current and professional look to your website

Websites where the whole site is aligned to the left of the screen and you're left with a huge white space on the right side of the screen where the website ends screams "I'm outdated". It reminds of the big puffy hair dos that women use to wearing in the eighties. It was great for that time but you sure would look outdated if you were to wear that style today. Keep the look of your website contemporary. Most websites nowadays are centered in your browser window.

Check out the competition's website

Do a keyword search for a phrase you would like your website to come up in search engine results pages. Check out all the websites that show up on that first page of the search results. Look at their website design and layout and see if you notice a pattern because these sites are your competition. Now go back to your website and see how yours compares. If your website is not up to par then make it a priority to fix it! Prospects may be judging your entire business based on that first impression.

Know your audience

When choosing the look for your website you've got to know your target audience. Visit others websites that your audience may be visiting and see their layout and style. The look of your website should not be an exact replica of these sites but you can pick and choose the pieces that you like and incorporate it into the look of your website.

Be careful when working with templates

Websites based on templates are an inexpensive and quick way to setup a website however not all templates are created equal. When choosing a template for your website it should have a current look and styling. (Remember your competition's website and the websites your target audience are visiting.) Be sure your template has an updated look that reflects your business, your offerings and has some flexibility for customization so your branding can shine through.

Your website is an extension of you and your business. It's a representation of you when you're not available. It's one of the first places your prospect goes when they're checking you out. It's also one of the places business associates who think highly of you send their referrals. So make sure it's a good representation of you because looks because looks may not be everything but it does count.

Be sure to catch my next blog post, "When Is It OK To Have A Not So Good-Looking Website"

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These figures are the most accurate measure of your website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known as "hits" and what is really effective, quality traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your site. As you can see, hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

The more visitors that come to your website, the more accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, website traffic stats can help you determine effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could, for example, consider improving the link to this page by making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less important, you might consider moving some of your sales copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital information about the effectiveness of individual pages, and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In the case that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a page not designed for that purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it's time to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they find what they are looking for on your site, and even better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find your site will give you a vital understanding of your visitor's needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website by typing in your company name, break open the champagne! It means you have achieved a significant level of brand recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

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