What does it take to get results from your website?

Today, you can get more bang for your buck when it comes to monetizing your website than ever. Of course, everybody knows that and it constantly increases competition.

There are more opportunities for you to get prospects, leads, customers, sales and visitors than ever before.

The catch is that you need more than a website. Don’t get me wrong you must have a website, but it doesn’t end there. You have to do a lot more than just to have a website.

Just as businesses have more opportunities online than ever, so do customers. What that means to you that you have to work extra hard to stand out.

Do you want help to get the maximum out of your website? Contact us now!

The following tips will help any business maximize its web presence:

Consider your market.

Nobody should know better the market you are serving than you. Do not spend a penny on marketing until you know your audience.

To get a clear definition of your market, answer the following questions:

• Who will buy your product?
• What are the demographics of your market? (sex, age, education, income, location, etc.)
• What are your customers’ interests?
• What influences their buying decisions?
• What websites, social networks, groups, and forums do they frequent?

You should be able to figure out the number of potential customers after you have answered the above questions. Without a customer profile you are going to waste your money on advertising.

Set a budget.

People contact us to get help with their websites or to help them with marketing. When we ask them about a budget, the answer is “I don’t know”. You are unlikely to succeed if you don’t know how much money you can spend on marketing your business.

Answer the following questions to help you come up with a realistic marketing budget:

• How much money will a customer spend with your company? If you are a web designer, your customers will spend several thousands of dollars on a new website. You will have a much smaller amount per sale if you sell books.
• How much profit do you expect on each sale? The more profitable your business is the more you can afford to spend on acquiring new customers.
• What is the expected lifetime value of a customer? Don’t just think about the first sale. Think about lifetime value. For example, a web designer will not only sell a website to a customer. Throughout the years the same customer might come back for website updates, SEO, ecommerce setup, graphic design, logo design, marketing, branding, and more.

Seat measurable goals.

If you don’t set goals, you won’t reach them. Goals must be measurable. What are your goals with your website marketing? Most likely you have multiple goals. Set your goals and alter them as you learn about your market.

Here are some measurable goals to set:

• Total number of leads per month, quarter, six-months, year.
• Total number of prospects per month, quarter, six-months, year.
• Total number of sales per month, quarter, six-months, year.
• Website visitors.
• Total number of Facebook likes and Twitter followers, etc.
• Total number of email addresses.

Build your brand.

People want to buy from the best. Set your business apart from the competition. Become an industry authority. There are more companies trying to get customers than available customers.

Position your business that buying from you is the best option for your customers.

There are several ways to differentiate yourself from the competition:

• Have a professional website built and designed by a professional. It is true that you can get a cheap website, but it won’t help your business. The money you save today will cost you a fortune in the future.
• Make sure your website is a responsive mobile-friendly website. Most websites are not mobile friendly. The result is less sales, decreased traffic, and poor results.
• Publish excellent quality content on your website. Most websites have little or no content that is of any value.
• Build a strong social network presence. Identify one or two social networks where you remain active.
• Grow your email subscriber list. Email marketing is the most cost effective marketing method. Your job is to aggressively grow your email subscriber list.
• Become a speaker at events and conferences.
• Write a book.
• Network with industry influencers.

Search engine optimization is your friend.

SEO today is not about stuffing keywords throughout your website. SEO is about creating great content and promoting the same content. Most entrepreneurs add too little content too infrequently.

Here are some examples of possible content ideas for your website:

• Blog posts.
• Press releases.
• White papers.
• Studies and surveys.
• Infographics.
• Training and how-to videos.
• Podcasts.
• Lists.

There is no such a thing as too much content.

SEO = great content + content promotion.

Do you want help to get the maximum out of your website? Contact us now!

photo credit: Finger face with a question