Digital Marketing Consultant

When it comes to digital marketing, it is important not to get the cart before the horse.  You must put first things first to be successful.   The first step in developing an Internet Marketing program is to determine your market segment or segments.

In order to determine a Market Profile for your business, you must do adequate research.   Having a targeted campaign is essential if you want to be successful.   Research provides a proven track record for success when compared with a strategy of just taking a chance on a product or service.

You will want to look for keywords and also review your competitors websites.  Knowing who is the competition is one of the most valuable steps you can take to assure your business success.  The better the research you perform the better your site will become.  

Just the word research scares a lot of people away.   Market research does not have to be difficult.   Once you start doing research on your niche  you may be amazed at the amount of information available to you.

You may find you need to pare down your segment or number of segments to get to the numbers that can bring you success online. You might want to consider specializing in a particular style or size to get your segment narrowed down enough to be effective.  

There are many new online businesses everyday on the Internet.  The majority of these new business will fail.  Don’t let the business failures prevent you from taking the time and effort to build a strong Internet company. 

You can do a little research and determine the marketing campaign that will be most beneficial to you in the long run.    Finding a good product and then, with the use of keywords, pulling and directing traffic to your products and services is the first step in your business success story.

A warning: THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST STEP.  You have to convert visitors to customers.  Read our free Wisdom Book for more information.

A lot of people today are starting an online business, but one of the first steps to your online business success is profitability.  Before starting an online business, you must first determine what online business can be profitable.  Do a business plan which includes the costs of administration, sales, and eventual shipping.

The reason Amazon and music downloading sites are so profitable is because there is little or no warehousing with many products and even less shipping costs.  Yes, you can build any type of online website you want to build, but the question remains, will it be profitable?   So make your plan and calculations.

Choose something which interests you.  You can be the expert.  It can be a small niche in that your website does not need to have geographic limits.  What you might consider odd-ball music can find a large market worldwide.  You just need to be the expert.

The website is your store.  Building a website that is user friendly is important, but it also need conversion architecture, i.e. the site must make the visitor want to buy or to take action.  And the site must be so intuitive that the visitor does not have to think to use it.

You can increase your sites profitability by adding links to services and products for which you can receive a commission.  You can also increased your profitability by using Google AdWords, links, and even banner advertising.  Another opportunity to improve profitability of your website is to become an affiliate marketer promoting other businesses on your website.

Determine the multiple ways you can make your site profitable before building your website.  All of these methods of making your site profitable can be included in the development of your website.   I will say that most first-time websites are not successful unless you deal with an experienced Internet and Digital Marketing Consultant who can save you from all the pitfalls.

Chances are, you have heard the rule “Keep it simple stupid.”  You know, the one where simple is best for everyone concerned.  Well, this analogy applies to Internet marketing sales.

By keeping the process simple, you will have more conversions on your website.   Internet marketing has become a way of life in our modern world.  The competition has been getting heavier with each new website that is launched on the web today.  With this increased competition, how can you get your website to the top?

The first thing that you must commit to is customer satisfaction.  All the big players on the Internet already know the importance of customer satisfaction, so if you are just starting out, you have to make this commitment right from the start or risk being left behind.   You will be facing these mega sites and you best believe they are focusing on customer service.  

You must remember at all times who is king on Internet marketing.  Yes, you are correct; the customer is king.

The buying process on your site must be both secure and simply.   Your website should be developed with codes and keywords that allow    shoppers direct access to specific products and information about the products.   Once they have connected with the specific product they are looking for, the shopping experience must focus on quick carting and checkout for the products they have selected.  

You will also want to make sure you have a large selection of payment options available to your customers.   A website that only offers credit card payments will miss out on the sales of customers who may not feel secure disclosing this information on the Internet.

The real objective of your site is probably to secure sales.  To accomplish this, site pages must exhibit your salesmanship.  Your pages have to effectively make the sale for you.  This is what we call Conversion Architecture.  See the free Wisdom Book for details.

The Internet has become a constructive tool for Internet users to market their products and get their piece of the Internet wealth.  The number of surfers on the Internet each day continues to grow.  What should you know and do to be effective?

1. Clear Message.  One of the biggest opportunities for promoting products and services is to provide a powerful and positive imprint of your products and website to the image you are placing before your visitors to obtain their attention.
2. Features, Advantages, Benefits.  Some of the Internet success stories indicate the ability of making in one month the amount of money others make in an entire year.  To obtain your Internet fortune, you have to deliver a message to the visitors to your site that they need your service or product. You need to describe the product/service, but also tell the advantages of those features, and the economic benefits if possible.  This will have to be done in a convincing manner in order to be effective.  
3. Credibility.  By utilizing the marketing tools available on the Internet today, you can reach millions with just a click of their mouse.  Your efforts should be placed on attracting those visitors who are interested in and have a need of your products and services.   Your offers should be presented with both credibility and responsibility on your part.   Be prepared to take care of difficult situations that may arise throughout the buying process for your customers.
4. Conversion Architecture.  The website must be as intuitive as possible and as welcoming as possible to encourage customers to understand and buy.  For example, to assist your customers and boost your sales, you will want to set up marketing for related products for items selected for purchase by your visitors.  This is especially profitably when you can offer a product that will enhance the product your visitor just purchased.  
5. Disadvantage One: No touchy feely.  You have a great disadvantage selling on line.  No one can touch or feel the product or discuss the service with you.  Be aware that you must counter this disadvantage as much as you can.
6. Disadvantage Two: Delivery Time.  You must recognize the fact that people use the Internet to make purchases because they are looking for quick easy ways to shop.  But they cannot pick it up and take it immediately (with some exceptions).  Therefore, you must see that your products are delivered as promptly as possible.  
7. Communicate. Learn who your customers are and how you can more effectively meet their needs and provide products they are in need of.   Building methods of interacting with your visitors is a great way to obtain their input.  Applying good Internet marketing strategy to your website will be effective in providing years of good relations with your customers.

I have not talked here about how to get traffic and how the market your product or service.  If you want real information, start with our free Wisdom Book, then ask for more and more and more.

Traffic is of utmost importance in a successful internet marketing business.  It is not so different than it is for a tradition business offline.   A store built on  the corner of a major intersection will usually do better than a business located down a vacant alley.  Let’s take a look at the top methods to drive website traffic.

SEO

It is no secret that SEO (search engine optimization) is one of the best methods to get traffic to your online business.  In fact SEO should be instituted even before your website is designed. 

SEO should be woven into all fibers of your online business.  

SEO is the most effective way to get the attention of the search engines which is used for internet searches by your potential customers.   Understanding keywords and how to effectively use these keywords in content, blog posts, is a vital part of SEO.  

Keyword density is critical to find favor with the search engines and is part of setting up a "perfect page." 

An SEO consultant or expert can provide website optimization for your website.

Once you get traffic to your site you will want to turn the visitors to customers.  This process is referred to as converting or conversion.  Not all visitors will be from your target market but if the SEO is done properly the majority of your visitors will have been searching for your particular niche.

One of the best ways to convert a visitor to a customer is to make sure the services and products you offer are easy to locate and are easy to purchase.  Your site needs a conversion architecture.  A lot of conversions never occur simply because there are too many steps or clicks involved in completing the process.  

Providing incentives to encourage a visitor to make a purchase is another successful tactic that can be utilized. 

Provide content that gives the visitor valuable information (to build credibility) can also improve the conversion rate for your website.

So many factors are involved in SEO.  A serious overview of what is necessary can be found in our Wisdom Book.

I am going to repeat something that I have said just a few days ago: The majority of website businesses do not succeed.   In fact, most end up in miserable failure.  A lot of websites have a pleasing appearance, even great features, and lots of traffic, but the real purpose for a website business is to produce income. 

 

The purpose of the website is obtained by several different methods including:

• Direct product sales
• Affiliate promotions
• Generation of leads

Regardless of the method used, the bottom line goal is to convert the traffic into paying customers, i.e. Conversion Architecture.  A lot of websites fail to obtain the necessary conversions.

I repeat a few of the most common reasons conversions do not occur with one additional  reason:

1.   No compelling sales copy on your website.  Your content should provide information about what you do.  The content should urge and suggest to your customer the reason why purchasing now is best.  

2.  Failure to establish the call-to-action.   Think about what you want your visitors to do once they arrive on your site.   This may be to purchase something, subscribe to something, or to contact you directly.   The key here is do not leave it to the imagination spell it out for them on your.  You job as the owner of your website is to help others.  You should provide the directions your market will need to follow to take the action you desire them to take. 

3.  Make navigating your website easy for the newbie visitor on your site.   People tend to leave websites quickly if they are difficult to navigate.  If you are not sure if people find your website easy to navigate, listen to what they have to saw.  Just by listening, you can discover the challenges people are having on your website.

4.  Have not understood how SEO and SEM all works together.  If you are not spending your life working to make your business website work, you are probably only getting some of the information you need to make your on-line business succeed.

These are just a few of the main reasons some websites fail.   By taking care to know all the reasons, you will probably understand that you need full-time, qualified help and, finally then you can attain the success for your online business you have dreamed of having.

Truth be known, the majority of business websites fail.  They do not fail because of the looks or even because of the products and services.  They fail because of many reasons.  We will only be looking at some of the reasons for website failure.

The goal of a business website that is looking to make money is to attract customers and convert them to paying customers.  This is called Converstion Architecture.  An online business that fails to make the necessary conversions will typically fail.

1. Bad Content.   If you are not a good writer, they you should outsource your writing to a copywriter
2. Call-to-Action missing. 
3. Website is too difficult to navigate.   Make sure the things your customers need are easily accessible from any screen or location. Listen to your customers; they will let you know what that they can’t find.

Far too often the difference between a site that succeeds and one that does not is just the simple identified guidelines above. 

A Search Engine Optimization company providing consultancy services or complete solutions for your website design and marketing can make the difference between success and failure on the web.

The unique thing about a website is that it is truly never finished.   There is always something to add, something to fix, or something to be updated.  

A sure way to allow your online business to fail is to build a great website and then simply ignore it.   There is never a time you can forget about making changes and updates to the content of your website.  

On the other hand putting a little thought and planning into maintaining your website can be one of the most rewarding experiences when it comes to building your online business.

It does take a lot of time and effort to obtain the best ranking available for your website.  A good Internet Marketing or Search Engine Optimization consultancy with expertise in the area of Internet Marketing can easily pay for itself.

Some things in life that are better off not being sticky.   You do not want a child’s sticky fingers on your new suit?  Nobody likes to be in a sticky situation with friends, family or debtors.  But there are some things that are good to be sticky.  Can you imagine a stamp that isn’t sticky or tape that isn’t sticky?  But if you want a successful website, it is going to have to be sticky.  This is part of conversion architecture.

Let’s take a look at what it is going to take to attract visitors to your website and then to get them to stay for awhile.   Be aware that some things you do will actually drive visitors away from your site.

Visitors to your website come with needs and you can build a sticky website by meeting your visitors’ needs. Let’s take a look at your visitors needs.

• How can I find what I want to look for?
  
  • You have to know your target market well enough to know what they are looking for and then to place it right in front of them when they get to your website.
• What is your site about?
  
  • Do not make your visitors guess what it is you do or what your site offers.  Let them in on the know immediately.
• What’s the news?
  
  • First time visitors will want to see up-to-date information.  Returning visitors will what to see current and new information. 
• What is that image representing?
  
  • Graphics provides the ultimate when it comes to personalization and product representation.   Visitors will judge you and your company’s credibility by the appearance and professionalism in graphics.  Make sure the pictures and images on your site look professional.
• Why should I purchase products and services from this company?
  
  • Testimonials and references can help provide visitors with a reason to make a purchase.  Guarantees also help reduce the risk for your potential customers.  Make sure the call to action is included in your website.

All of these points are highly important, so Stickiness is not meant to be just a cute term; it is a vital part of converstion architecture.  See how to optimize stickiness.

First, what is website Stickiness?  It is another way of calling Time-on-site or on-page.  In other words, does your website make people want to stay, want to read, want to go deeper into your website?  If so, that is a sticky site. Stickness is part of website conversion architecture.

Our business is devoted to making your website sticky.  But perhaps you have asked how you can determine the stickiness of your website.  There are several ways to measure the stickiness of a website and we will discuss those in this edition.

Some of the sticky attributes you should have implemented on your website include.
•    Making the information for your target market easy to access
•    Clearly and concisely tell your visitors what you do and what your site has to offer in products and services.
•    Keep your website up-to-date with new information, products, and services.
•    Use professional appearing graphics
•    Provide references, testimonials and guarantees for your products and services.
•    Include an effective call to action on your website

After you have the above attributes actively in operation on your website, it is time to start measuring for success.  Measuring is necessary for every successful internet marketing site.  By measuring the stickiness of your site, you will find areas which you need to make adjustments on and tweak you site to become stickier. 

The number of visitors to your site is an important statistic.  But when it comes to stickiness, importance is placed upon how long your visitors remain on your site.  Remember if your visitors get to your website and then can’t locate the information for which they are searching, they will become frustrated and leave and probably never return again.

For an online business, the customers’ point of contact is your website.  Your website represents your company and you.  The website should be constructed and maintained to build credibility for your company and the products and services it offers.

Most webhosting companies offer tools to track the traffic to your site (see Google Analytics) along with time visitors stay on your site that can be used to track the stickability of your site.   These tools can even drill down to the page level for your site to provide specific areas on which to focus for stickiness improvement.

Developing a website that will communicate in an effective manner with your visitors is one of the first steps of website construction.  The comfort of your visitors must be taken into consideration.  The ultimate goal for your website is to obtain sales and request for your products, information, or services. 

Understanding where your visitors are coming from is essential for you to have a website with their comfort in mind.   Some key components that should be followed for visitor friendly website layout:

1.    Present yourself on the website.   This is your opportunity to introduce yourself to your visitor.  A photo of yourself and your real name are the basics of a good introduction.

2.    Let them know what you do and what your website is about IMMEDIATELY.  Answer the question they will have upon arriving at your website: What will I find and do on this website and Why should I look deeper into this site?.  You will need to provide a clear and concise answer for this question.

3.    Communicate how your unique product, services, or information can provide a unique benefit for your visitor.  The secret here is not to sell but to tell your visitor what benefits you offer them.

4.    Provide the visitor why they need your product or service and tell how you can fulfill their needs.  Know your products and services first hand and make sure testimonials used are from real people who have first person knowledge of the products and services.  Avoid fake testimonials and reviews.   Include details for product description, purchase details, payment options, delivery options, and any specific instructions.

5.    Provide an intuitive pathway for visitors on your website from beginning to end.  Important information should be placed in the most prominent location for the visitor to view.   Prominent locations can be defined by use of headlines.   Stay away from a cluttered website or your visitors will stay away.

6.    Place effective images of your offers remembering that visitors cannot pick them up or touch them.  Great pictures are golden.

You can find great advice on line on how to do everything right.