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.
Posted by: Janice Gentles-Jones in Untagged on
Aug 16, 2008
1. Set clear goals for your day, both professionally and personally
If you do not have clear goals set for your day, then you will more likely fall for distractions and interruptions that may prevent or delay you from achieving the things that are most important to you. Without goals, it makes it difficult to make wise decisions on what should get your immediate attention and what can wait. It can also result in lots of wasted time, unnecessary stress and poor work/life balance.
2. Follow the 80/20 principle
20% of what you do produces 80% of your results. Schedule an hour and a half (20% of an 8 hour day) of uninterrupted time each day to work on what's most important to you. During this time, inform your staff that you are not to be disturbed. Close your door and then work, uninterrupted! Sometimes you may not be able to realistically accomplish everything you would like to do, but if you do make time to work on what's important to you, you can steadily achieve your goals.
3. Teach people how to use your time
Tell people how you make decisions and how you prefer to receive information that requires a decision from you. This teaches people how to get the best from you. Be consistent and follow through on your word.
4. Every conversation should have a purpose
Let your staff know what you expect of them when they meet with you. If they can't summarize what they need to tell you in one or two sentence, they are not ready to talk to you.
5. "Can that request wait?"
Ask that question every time you are interrupted and asked to do an unexpected or unscheduled request. Most times we stop what we're doing and start working on the new request because we assume it needs to be done immediately. However, more times than not, the request is not an urgent matter and can wait. Be sure to add the new request to your to-do list and follow up with the person. If you don't then people will start to tell you everything is urgent.
6. Do not keep anything in your head
Get all tasks, big or small, out of your head and on to a to-do list. The list can be electronic or paper-based. Choose what works best for you. You can work a lot faster and more efficiently if you only have one place to look for all your action items. It also makes it a lot easier to make decisions of incoming items and interruptions. If you can see all the things that you need to do in one place, when new or unexpected tasks come in, you can easily prioritize them. It's difficult to prioritize your work if you don't have a good handle of all that you need to do.
