How to Market Your Site Before You Submit!
by Brad S. Konia
If
there's a marketing mantra of the 21st century, it's "traffic." You hear
it everywhere you go -- in business meetings, restaurants, airports and
occasionally just walking down the street. And no, I'm not talking about
the variety that clogs up the highway on your way to work.
Anyone
that derives even a portion of their income from the Internet thinks
about how to bring more visitors to their Web site. It's true that
traffic is an important part of building an online business. After all,
if no one comes to your Web site it would be impossible for you to make
an online sale.
As
critical as generating traffic is, whether those visitors come from the
search engines or from other sources, don't become so enamored with the
idea that you lose sight of the bigger picture. Traffic to a Web site is
only one slice of a pie called "online marketing." Online marketing is
just one slice of an even larger pie called "marketing."
Defining Your Web site's Purpose...
In my
experience, the majority of online businesses fall into the trap of
focusing their marketing efforts on more traffic, to the exclusion of
all else. Before you focus on new ways to bring more visitors to your
Web site, you should first think about what is your site's primary goal.
In
other words, what are you trying to do with all those people visiting
your site? Unfortunately, most business owners give little consideration
to this most fundamental aspect of marketing. Instead, they blindly
entrust the creation of their site to a web designer. The designer, who
usually comes from an art background rather than a marketing background,
may have no knowledge of how to design a Web site that sells.
People
may be momentarily impressed by an aesthetically appealing Web site, but
without a mechanism for collecting leads and converting those leads into
paying customers, your site will never realize its full potential. If
you're lucky enough to find a designer who understands both the
principles of good design and marketing, then you're way ahead of the
game. If you're not so lucky, then it's up to you to work with your
designer to implement good marketing practices within your Web site.
When I
look at a client's Web site for the first time, I always ask myself,
"What does this Web site want me to do?" In most cases, I have no idea
what the site wants me to do -- and that's a big problem. If your site
does not have a clear sense of direction, a path for your visitors to
follow, then they may leave without doing anything. In fact, that's
often exactly what happens.
Therefore, the first step to building an effective Web site is to decide
what you want people to do when they arrive. I know, you want them to
buy something. In a perfect world, people would search for whatever it
is that you're selling, find your Web site in the search engines, click
through to your site, and immediately head for the order page. However,
in the real world it works more like this:
-
Customer searches for something like "best digital cameras."
-
Customer finds thousands of Web sites that all sell or discuss digital
cameras.
-
Customer clicks through to several of the Web sites in the search
results. If you've moved your site to the top of the search results
using WebPosition Gold or another method, you'll have an opportunity
to connect with them.
-
Customer clicks around on various Web sites, trying to decide which
digital camera to purchase and from which site.
-
Customer becomes confused and overwhelmed. Each Web site claims to
have the best digital camera or to be the best digital camera vendor.
They can't ALL be the best can they?
-
Customer decides to do more research and puts off his buying decision
for another day.
Most
people don't make an immediate purchase on their first visit to a Web
site. However, by following the following suggestions I will give you in
this and potentially subsequent articles, you can increase the
percentage of first-visit purchases.
The
main piece of advice I'm going to offer you today is to change your
mindset altogether. Forget about trying to convince every visitor to buy
immediately. Most people aren't going to buy on their first visit no
matter what you sell. The harder you try to convince them to buy, the
greater the likelihood that they'll become turned off and go elsewhere.
So back
to my original question: What do you want your visitors to do when they
come to your Web site? In most cases, you want them to at least raise
their hand and say, "Yes, I'm interested in purchasing a digital camera.
Tell me more." In literal terms, you want them to give you their name
and contact information when they don't go straight to your order page.
Once
you have their contact information, you can then begin a follow-up
process, which may eventually lead to a sale, or to additional sales.
Therefore, you must transform your Web site from a passive brochure and
order form into an active lead-collecting machine. If you can take this
first step, you will have gone a long way towards distancing your
company from the competition. In order to acquire your customers'
contact information, you must:
-
Give
them a reason to contact you
-
Give
them a choice of several different ways to contact you
-
Clearly
ask them for their contact information
Here
are some tips to accomplish this:
-
Make
sure that you're starting with a professional looking Web site. Your
Web site's appearance represents your company. If it looks home made,
or amateurish in any way, this can reflect poorly upon your business.
If you can afford to do so, hire a professional to build your site. Be
sure to check their references and study examples of their past work.
You'll need to become educated enough in marketing and Web site design
to discern the difference between a good Web site and a great Web
site.
If
you're inclined to do it yourself, there are many excellent
resources, including inexpensive web design templates. For example,
take a look at some of the designs offered on
Develop My Site for as little as $39. They can be a great way to
start a site or to jazz up an existing one. Compare your site with
these designs and ask yourself which looks more professional.
Sometimes, it's hard to look at your own Web site objectively, so
survey your customers, family, friends and business associates for
their opinions.
-
Learn
effective copywriting, or hire a professional copywriter. Clean,
compelling text goes hand in hand with professional web design. The
combination of these two elements will shape your customers' first
impression of your business. It should go without saying that spelling
and grammatical errors are unacceptable. However, good copywriting
goes far beyond just spelling and grammar.
Good copywriting is persuasive without being too pushy. It is
structured in a way that gently leads the prospect towards the next
stop on the path to becoming a paying customer. Professional
copywriters can be extremely expensive but are worth it if you're
serious about your company's success. If you simply don't have the
budget for this, there are many books where you can learn to write
good copy on your own. One that I recommend is Nick Usborne's "Net
Words", which is available from
Amazon.com.
-
If
you don't have a toll-free number, get one. Plaster it at the top of
every page on your Web site. At the very least, place it prominently
on your contact page with frequent links to the page. There are plenty
of people out there who still prefer to pick up the phone and talk to
a real live person. Out of this group of people, a significant
percentage will only call companies that have toll-free numbers.
-
Reinforce the fact that your number is toll-free, by putting the words
"Toll Free" next to the phone number. Yes, everyone knows that 800
numbers are toll-free, but many people do not know about the new
toll-free exchanges, such as 888, 877, and 866. Also, include some
copy that indicates that they can call you to ask questions, not just
to place an order. Many people are reluctant to call a company.
They're afraid of getting an "order monkey" who is unable to answer
any questions beyond whether you accept MasterCard and Visa.
-
Consider offering live chat on your Web site and put the live chat
button right next to your toll-free number on each page of your site.
You may be a bit skeptical about the value of this feature, but there
are now millions of people who communicate with chat services every
day. In fact, it has become the preferred method of communication for
a great number of people. My company has acquired many new clients via
chat and every time one of my clients has tried it on his site,
they've been thrilled with the results. We're using a new live chat
service that allows people to chat with you from your Web site via
AOL, MSN, ICQ, or via a browser chat window.
Contact me directly if you want more information on this service.
-
Automate the lead collection process by placing an opt-in box on every
page of your Web site. Make sure the opt-in box is in a prominent
position, such as in the upper left-hand corner of each page as you
see at WebPosition.com. An
opt-in box is a mini-form that collects peoples' email addresses and
sometimes other information such as name, address, and phone number.
"Opting In" means that the visitor agrees to receive email from your
company. There are very strict rules regarding unsolicited email, so
make sure your visitors understand what type of email you will be
sending them when they opt-in. Make it clear that their e-mail and
privacy will not be abused. Joining the BBB Privacy Program is one
way to help get this message across.
-
Give
your visitors an incentive to opt-in to your mailing list. When
someone gives you their email address, they're giving you something of
value. Because of the fear of spam, many people will only give you
their email address if you give them something in return. Here are
some ideas for incentives that you could offer:
-
Newsletter subscription
-
Free
trial download of a software product
-
White
paper (i.e., additional product information)
-
Some
type of promotional merchandise, such as a T-shirt, hat, etc.
-
Free
software
-
Free
E-Book
-
Sweepstakes entry
-
If
you sell an e-book, give them a free download of the first couple of
chapters or of an e-book on a related topic.
-
If
you sell an information service, give them a free sample of your
service
The
easiest way to put an opt-in box on your Web site is to use a service
such as Constant Contact. The benefit of using Constant Contact is
that it doesn't require any technical expertise to implement and they
manage your entire database for you. You can use the service to
automatically schedule follow-up emails to be sent to your customers
at pre-determined intervals and they include tracking features so that
you can measure the response to your various follow-up letters.
Click here to learn more about Constant Contact and sign-up for a
free 60-day trial.
As you
may have already discovered, getting traffic to your Web site is only
half the battle. Two Web sites selling an identical product with
identical traffic can be vastly different in terms of the profit margin
that each one generates. Capturing names for effective follow-ups is
critical to maximizing sales. Therefore, while you should continue to
focus on optimizing your Web sites for the search engines, don't forget
the marketing fundamentals!
Brad
Konia is the CEO of Market My Site, a leading search engine optimization
and online marketing firm. Market My Site offers a suite of full-service
and self-service solutions designed to increase traffic to your Web site
and convert that traffic into paying customers. Mr. Konia is also the
author of "Search Engine Optimization with WebPosition Gold 2" and the
developer of the official WebPosition Gold 2 Video Tutorial. Visit
Market My Site on the web.
This
article is copyrighted and has been reprinted with permission from
FirstPlace Software, the makers of
WebPosition Gold. FirstPlace Software helped define the SEO industry
with the introduction of the first product to track your rankings on the
major search engines and to help you improve those rankings. A
free trial of WebPosition Gold is available from their Web site.