Marketing and selling over the internet allows you to enjoy the ever-so-fabulous pleasure of sitting around in a nighty and bunny slippers while you watch the sales and leads roll in. But no matter what you’re wearing, your web presence must still be dressed to the nines. Bad marketing is sometimes worse than no marketing at all. As you expand your marketing strategy to the far reaches of the internet, you want to make sure the same great branding you’ve put together for your traditional marketing is mirrored on the web.
1. All that Jazz
Your branding, logo, color, palette and design need to be eye-catching. You should have a compelling logo that looks appealing to the eye, alludes to what your company does and has colors and a shape that your niche market will be attracted to. For example, truckers probably won’t look at a webpage that has kitties and flowers in pink and purple all over it, and creative and artistic types don’t tend to gravitate to squares and lots of boxy edges. Consider these factors very carefully and use your network as a test market, remembering to value highly the opinions of those that fall into your specific niche.
2. The Chat
Be clear, concise and compelling. Make sure that at least three sets of eyes (one being a professional set) look over your content and that between the three of you there are at least five revisions. Reading copy slowly out loud is an excellent way to catch wording errors that a spelling and grammar check and a weary or hurried eye might miss. Now, don’t be too chatty; maintain caution when making information your competition shouldn’t see readily available.
3. Get Your Point Across
You want your message to really speak to your target audience. To do this, you must first know who they are and why they came to your site. Interrupt the mental conversation they are having in their own mind by speaking directly to them. The purpose of your website is to be able to reach certain people, so speak their language and address their individual needs, concerns and desires.
4. Research, Honey
You certainly need to research web companies that you are considering using. Ask others about their experiences to get some tips. Ask your business owner colleagues about common issues that they struggle with on the web and then ask your vendor prospects how you can avoid them. Check out what similar companies are doing with their web strategy. Find what you like and don’t like and tweak it to make it fit your unique positioning and differentiating strengths. Collect samples of what you like, so you have plenty to show and tell when you are describing what you want.
5. Cha Ching
Defining your budget at the beginning is very important. Website design and redesign projects can become similar in scope progression to home remodels. What starts out as a small project can quickly turn into a small fortune when all those it-would-be-nice-to-haves start adding up. A defined budget will help ensure you stay on track and keep the shirt on your back. However, you should also plan on having a certain amount of reserve in case things do go over budget, as this is quite common. A thousand dollars in your reserve is a minimum must. Research what you want and need and then build your budget piecemeal before committing to anything.
6. Keep Your Eye on the Prize
Designing a website can be a time consuming process and should be managed using good project management skills and methods. The project should have a deadline and project plan and everyone should know their roles and the expectations for their participation level. Time and resources need also to be budgeted and allocated in order to keep this effort moving along smoothly. Buying a website is not a point and click transaction. While the domain itself may be easy to procure, even if you hire someone else to design it, you, someone on your staff or an outside consultant will likely need to be heavily involved to pull this all together. Don’t let toiling with your website derail other important sales activities.
7. Work It
A website is essentially a virtual salesperson, and like any good salesperson, it needs to be goal-orientated. While it is nice to give out a lot of free information, if your web marketing doesn’t drive someone to do something, what’s the point? You want someone to take an action that allows you to begin or deepen your business relationship with them as your ROI for your investment. Your ultimate goal should be to get people to call, order, contact you or signup for future communications by giving you their details. You want to make money, honey. So, design each page with that in mind. What are you offering people? We’ve all looked at websites that were so poorly put together that you can’t even figure out what it is they sell. Don’t join this crowd. Tell your customers what you are selling and why they need it. Have a succinct statement of exactly what you do on the homepage and make it intuitive so people can find more in-depth information explaining your products or services.
8. Automate to the Max
Your online strategy should create more revenue, not more work. You went on the web so you could sell to the world, but you probably don’t have time to do that manually. Luckily, websites are easily integrated with all kinds of fun automation technology. Visitors’ actions on your website should set off a chain reaction of automated events. Whether it is sales, customer service or marketing, all of these can be set up to run automatically as soon as someone does something on your website. You can automate your processes using email marketing services, auto responders and an integrated fulfillment warehouse. By understanding the process that you are guiding your customers through, you can automate much of the backend for minimal effort on your part.
9. The Scoop
What kind of customer information do you hope to pull from your site for future marketing? What information can you get customers to give you so that you can better market to them and better serve their needs? Do you need a CRM system? Make sure you are capturing this data in a usable way, so you can mine it for repeat business gold later.
10. The Dish
Gather and analyze your data on what people are doing on your website. Where are the most popular spots, what are the areas where there seems to be little interest? What is the most popular point of entry to your website and where is the most popular point of exit? Look for ways you can guide your audience. Start by deciding where you want them to go and how to get them to stay longer. They should see you’re most compelling content, which should drive them to a desired action. Solicit feedback and consider adding a blog to make your website even more interactive.
Elizabeth W. Gordon is President of Flourishing Business, an advisory firm for entrepreneurs and author of The Chic Entrepreneur. For more information about business best practices for women business owners, visit www.flourishingbusiness.com/chic and learn how you can become a Chic Entrepreneur too.
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