The Team

Defining Your Online Business Goals Will Lead To Web Success


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So you are ready to start (or enhance) your online business. Running a business on the web is no different than running it offline. Once you have an idea in mind, determine your business model, write your business plan and establish your:

  • Goals and Objectives
  • Services and products
  • Unique selling proposition
  • Expected ROI and how to achieve it
  • Branding
  • Marketing and promotional efforts
  • Competition
  • Budget

Now you are ready to try this online. Before you hire a web developer you need to define the purpose of your website. Start with the selection of a domain name that represents your product and services. A URL address is where your business branding starts. Your name will be your identity and how you will be known in the web world.

Your next task is to determine keywords for your site. This is your first form of online advertising. Keywords can determine what your products are and even where your business is geographically located and of course, how you will be searched.

Next you are ready to build the site. It is essential that your site is optimized for the search engines. Choose a webmaster that understands the main components of search engine optimization and direct response web development. Your objective should be to make your website organically searchable (rankings on the free side of Google) and designed to increase your conversion rate by having visitors take action.

Your site should be attractive to viewers and it should also offer incentives and take-a-ways to keep them on your pages or to guide them to your conversion pages. Always keep your branding in mind. Visitors can return to your site up to six times before they make a decision so you want them to remember your identity, your unique features and benefits and ways to bookmark or download a free report to keep your branding on their desktop.

A certain amount of your hits must have a desired outcome. Whether it's to buy a product, fill out a form, or perform any other desired action (click on an advertisement or stay on the site for a specified period of time). Increased conversion rates turn more visitors into customers. And if the site is designed correctly, instead of leaving your site, visitors will stay and find the information they want. And of course you want more return business. Draw your customers back to your site with newsletters, special offers, and other campaigns that will dramatically increase your back end sales.

Once the site is built or rebuilt (if an existing site is not working up to expectations) and optimized for search engines, the next critical step is Search Engine Marketing (SEM). The purpose of SEM is to create a continual and increased flow of traffic to your main website. Simply put, the more visitors and more page views, the more opportunity make a sale and increase your profits. Sometimes known as off page marketing, SEM is often the forgotten child of marketing. Budgeting for this area is essential. To be successful online requires implementing SEM strategies and techniques that include online PR, blog, Pay Per Click, niche micro sites, social media networking, building and communicating with your email list; submitting to directories, search engines and local search, special offers, e-zines and viral marketing.

Another key component of a marketing mix is to constantly review your statistics. Analytics help take the guesswork out of a website's effectiveness and is hard concrete evidence if a page or promotion is working. Testing and tracking, tweaking your content, updating keywords, doing A / B testing of a promotion or webpage will give you a flow of marketing information based upon visitors behavior that is invaluable.

Often times your competition can unwittingly help you succeed. By analyzing how they conduct business online, where they are spread on the Internet, the effectiveness of their site (choose only those that rank high on Google), how they are branded, positioned and selling - will tell you a lot about your improving your online business.

And finally, you need to budget for success. Do not put all your eggs in one basket (i.e. building a beauty site with little else to support it). Traffic is the life-blood of any website. That is why Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) should be a focal point in any marketing plan if you want to succeed on the Internet.

These tips are meant to be used as a guideline to improve traffic to your site, Increase your conversion rates, help turn visitors into buyers, and keep you ahead of the competition. Turning to a web marketer can ultimately save you time and money and increase your success online. The Web Success Team has many proven marketing strategies and techniques that can be viewed at http://www.websuccessteam.com. The Team would be happy to discuss your web marketing needs with a complimentary consultation and web marketing assessment of your current site. Simply mention this article when contacting Bob@websuccessteam.com or call 818-222-5643 for an appointment. To your web success!