Digital Marketing Consultant

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.

Being under construction for a successful website in reality means the foundation is being developed.   The foundation of any successful website or online business starts with the content.   Everyone understands the need to have a good solid foundation in the construction of a building or road.  The same applies to a website. 

You can’t construct a lasting building on a foundation consisting of a couple of 2x4’s.  Likewise, you can’t build a successful website with just a page or two of content.  You need to prepare to have a lot of content for your sub topics and all of your products and ideas.

Having established the need for a lot of content, you will need to structure the content to facilitate both navigation by your visitors and recognition by the search engines.  

Traffic to your site is dependent upon how well your business, products, goals, and even your reputation are woven into the content on your website.   The layout of your content on your site is equally important for both visitors and search engines.   Once this is accomplished, your website represents good construction from the top to the bottom.   Your website will function as great running machine that is ready for business.

You want both your visitors and the search engines to be able to drill down through your content with the easiest path for the specific product that are searching for.

The following steps can help you organize and categorize your content:
1.     Take inventory of your products and services identifying the main category and various groups of sub categories.
2.    Use a keyword tool such as Google Adwords to take a glimpse at words and phrases potential visitors to your site would use to find your products and services.
3.    Take the time to compare your product listing with the results found with the keyword tool to develop your final categories.
4.    Drop your products or services into the appropriate categories.  You may find some products and services fit in more than one category.
5.    Add relevant content to the products or services to describe the products and services for both visitors and search engines.
6.    Enhance the flow from each point of your site to another with a number of links for your visitors and search engines to have to go from one point to another point.

Yes, you will need to do a lot of work upfront to identify the most competitive keywords.   Keywords, content and layout, title tags, navigation, internal linking provides for the strongest foundation in the construction of your website.   Following these basics will set your website in the best advantage for success when your under construction sign is taken down and the traffic begins to flow.

If you think this sounds too complicated, it is only part of the work.

Although Digital and Internet are used interchangably in this article, Digital Marketing includes Internet Marketing and all the surrounding tools and opportunities.  It has many facets and it can be easy to get off track if you are not careful.  This is where a successful Digital or Internet Marketing Consultant can be of the best help in moving your business to the next level.

An Internet or Digital Marketing Consultant will provide energy and enthusiasm for your project.  As a minimum, a Digital Marketing Consultant should be skilled and have proven expertise in the basic areas of Internet Marketing that describe and are included in Search Engine Optimization:

•    Tagging and meta description and keywords
•    Website design and internet marketing to capture the needs of your target market and offering solutions for these needs
•    Website design
•    Website content
•    Website development

Is a consultant needed after the website is developed?

Yes, development of the website is just the first step.   Ongoing marketing will be needed to maintain search engine ranking and maintain traffic flow to your website.   A Digital Marketing Consultant can also help keep you abreast of the evolving technology that will need to be incorporated into your online business for continued success.  The rules and the tools change every day.

Qualities of the best Internet Marketing Consultant include:
•    Experienced in Internet/Digital Marketing
•    Knowledge and understanding of sales and marketing and, preferrably, your industry and/or market sector
•    A vision of the future in Internet Marketing; what to use and what not to use today
•    Skill level ranges from basic to advanced; you need it all.
•    Will have a good track record.
•    Will have built in accountability.

And if you want to export anywhere, it would be preferrable to have a consultant that knows, lives, and understands other markets.

Carefully select an Internet/Digital Marketing Consultant with whom you feel is working with you to make your internet marketing business a success.  Developing a long-term relationship with a trusted and knowledgeable Internet/Digital Marketing Consultant should be profitable for you and your business.

An excellent opportunity to learn more is to attend our free webinar and to download our free whitepaper.