How to Get the Most Out of Your Website Marketing – Part 1: Getting the Right Start

In today’s business world, technology is the hub of the wheel. It connects you to customers, allows you to manage all of your processes and acts as the advertising channel that casts your net the farthest. Customers need to validate you to build trust and, these days, they’re doing it online. With all that, how could you NOT have a web presence to push you forward with an updated brand image?

Having a website, no matter how well designed, is only the beginning. You must also employ methods of getting your brand out there and building a community around it, in order to see the kind of results you expect of it. Effective website marketing takes time, diligence and is often a learning experience even for seasoned marketers, due to the ever-changing nature of the Internet.

Know Your Audience

First thing first – you need to know who your target market is! Otherwise, how can you effectively market to them? Ask yourself the following questions:

• Who are they? Are they young or mature, B2C or B2B, primarily male or female? What is their median income? Determine their basic demographics for the best idea of who your customer is.
• Where are they? What websites, forums, social media or other online ‘hangouts’ are they on? The second step is knowing where to find them, and aim your marketing efforts.
• What do they expect from a product/service like yours? Is yours a product that is more suggestive of innovation, top-notch customer service, high quality or low cost? Of course, there should be elements of each, but which are most prominent? You need to know what it is your company offers the industry and its customers, so you can highlight your best features.
• What will they respond best to? Does your audience want to be informed, entertained, enticed or perhaps some combination of reactions? Knowing how your customers expect to be wooed puts you ahead of the game, in terms of crafting content that converts.

Being able to answer these questions will give you the information you need to craft your brand message, develop your marketing plan and determine which types of ads work best for your audience (i.e. community or relationship marketing, cause marketing, benefits/results-based, etc.).

Choose Your Words Carefully

One area of internet marketing that’s given prominence is search engine optimization (or SEO) and with good reason – it covers ground in all areas of your online marketing, from content/copywriting to your ads. While the content itself is what converts, it’s the plugging in of the right keywords that produces a higher visibility in search engines, making you more likely to be found by the right people.

Google offers a free keyword research tool that allows you to type in the words you think describe your brand and would draw customers. It then gives you the low-down on how competitive and popular in searches they are and offers suggestions on other words and phrases that would fit. There’s no hard and fast rule for choosing keywords, especially as search engine algorithms keep changing, but the general goals are:

• Locate words that are Low or Medium competition, whenever possible. This enables you to get more mileage out of the words you choose in the search engines and can even save you money on PPC ads, as the High competition words often cost a premium. If you really want a particular, High competition word, combine them with lower competition words and use them wisely (i.e. in well-written content that is well-distributed)
• Choose words that are popular, but not too popular. This goes with the previous point, in that a High competition word that is extremely popular in searches could drown out your content. You want a word that’s popular enough to be searched for widely in your market but you also want to balance that with lower competition to ensure the best exposure and visibility for your website.
• Be mindful of the density. While frequency of use is a topic often debated, you should consider the keyword density in your content. The general guidelines are said to be between 2-7%. However, it’s a bad idea to clutter your content with keywords that don’t make sense in the overall scheme of your writing in an attempt to force better search engine rankings. Keep it within a logical flow that reads well, delivers relevant info, and your web optimization efforts will still serve you well.

All Systems Go (For Keeping Track, That Is!)

A database is an important tool that’s very useful for maintaining your internet marketing efforts by helping you organize the information you gather on your customer base, track sales and keep up with campaigns and communications. Its usefulness in marketing is sometimes overlooked but profound, in that it provides a structure to your marketing plan, helping you to determine customer preferences, who responds to what ads and even what developments or improvements to make to your products and future internet marketing campaigns.

The most important thing to keep in mind when using a database is that they have a dynamic quality to them. They aren’t meant to be a "paperweight" full of information and work best for you when they’re kept updated and used regularly. The benefits of having a healthy database include:

• Ability to tailor communications and products, etc, based on customer preferences and gathered information (i.e. purchase history, advertising preferences, etc.). This can be done on a mass, grouping or even an individual level.
• Setting up and maintaining loyalty programs. When used to track individual referrals, sales and even a significant amount of online ‘word-of-mouth’ (i.e. via social media sign-ups or email forwards), a database can help you set up a loyalty program designed to engage your brand ambassadors and reward their participation.
• Creating marketing campaigns to draw new prospects. Checking in on the preferences and sales histories of your current customer list can serve double duty by zoning you in on what’s working, and what isn’t. This info can be used to tailor new ads aimed at opening up fresh markets (or fresh angles of your current one).

Internet marketing isn’t rocket science but it does require a balance of technical know-how, customer psychology and finesse. Putting together a solid plan of action gives you the right start, providing the structure you need to build your marketing strategy into one that will propel your business into success. If you find you need assistance getting started, don’t be shy about contacting us for a consultation to discuss your website marketing needs and where the best first steps are.

Stay tuned for the next installment in our internet marketing series, Effective Online Marketing Campaigns to Reach Your Audience.