Let's face it. Internet marketing is confusing. As if designing your website to rank well and getting other websites linked to it wasn't enough, now you have to factor Web 2.0 and all that entails into your internet marketing plan. You've got blogging, social networking, podcasting and videos. You could spend all your time marketing your business instead of actually running your business! I'll be honest with you, it even drives me nuts and I'm an internet marketing consultant! But, I was explaining internet marketing to a new client the other day and it all became quite clear. Here's what it boils down to.
The goal of internet marketing is ultimately to get people to buy you have to sell. Whether that's a physical product, an information product or a service, it doesn't matter.
There are two major areas that you to focus your attention to increase internet sales; drive more traffic to your website and convert that traffic to customers by giving them what they want.
This sounds pretty basic but once you get caught up in all the ways you can market your business online, you can easily lose sight of your goal. We tend to focus on statistics like: how high my website ranks when using certain key words, or how many individual visitors were there last month, or the number of people that signed up for my newsletter or blog feed. But you know what? None of those things are the main goal. They might contribute to your bottom line but they are NOT your goal.
Would you believe there are only two things you need to do to make online sales? First get people to your website. Second, give your visitors what they want. That's it! So how do you do those two things?
The way you drive traffic to your website can be done in two ways.
1. You have an individual who needs what you have to sell, so basically they need you before you need them. They have a problem which they recognize and they're seeking a solution which you have to offer. They go to a search engine like Google or Yahoo, type in a key phrase and as a result they find your website. This is the way we tend to assume all our customers find us.
2. Your customer may be aware that they have a potential problem but aren't really looking for a solution. They hear about your company in an article, blog, forum, podcast, video, social media or social networking website and just because they are very interested in what they hear about you, they take a visit to your website.
When people arrive at your website it's time to make certain you can give them what they want. It's a lot of work to get customers to your website and you want to make certain that you're fully capable of giving them what they are looking for. If you don't give them what they want, you've wasted a tremendous amount of time and money. That's why a customer centric website is crucial to converting visitors to customers. It's also the area that is most often overlooked and can cost you a lot of sales in the long run.
I'm not going to tell you what I think your website should say because I could write the most brilliant analysis of what needs to be on your website and the majority of you are going to tell yourself, "My website says that." If your website isn't getting the phone ringing or making sales, it doesn't. It's that simple.
Do you really want to know why all those visitors aren't regular customers? Have a friend (who doesn't owe you anything and will tell you the truth) look over your website. Then shut your mouth, stop fooling yourself into believing it's the best it can be and change it!
That's it. That's all. The two things you need to know to do to sell your service online are to get people to your website and give them what they want. Now go do it!
