The Internet is a very powerful tool, and when used correctly, it can act as the automated marketer for your business or organization. To do this, you need a quality website and effective internet marketing.
So what is a ‘quality website’ and ‘effective internet marketing’ you ask?
QUALITY WEBSITE
Your website must do 2 things;
1. Someone (ideally already interested in your service or product) comes to your website.
2. The web design turns this visit into a potential sales or sale customer.
It’s as simple as that, but I’m amazed at how many web development companies overlook these two critical points. I see so many websites acting as showcases for some artists and others with full screen animations, but they are not doing their job!
Easy?? How I do this?
Quality content
A quality web design is not about fancy graphics and animations, it is about quality content.
1. The text, image and video content must be clear, without jargon and must inform the visitor of the benefits of your product or service. It is usually a good idea to focus on results or benefits, rather than a detailed description of your product or service.
2. Images are important, you can convey a lot in a correctly chosen image.
3. Photos of people can help build a sense of trust.
4. Be brief. It’s tempting to keep writing, but most people will lose interest and go elsewhere.
5. Video is also very important now. Video can communicate a product, service, or concept in a much more powerful way than text.
Search engine optimization
Your website should be designed and content written in such a way that search engines crawl and index as many pages as possible.
1. This is a very complex topic, but include your important search keywords for your niche in your content (but keep it human readable).
2. Use keywords in your page titles (again, it should be human-friendly!)
3. Use a sitemap and use CSS menus, not Flash.
4. SEO is much more, but you would have to write a book.
Calls to action
These are simply something that helps visitors take action. They range from a simple “call us now on …” text message to email marketing capture boxes and much more. Do a call-to-action search online and you’ll learn most of what you need to know.
Testimonials
User testimonials or reviews (if you are running an online store) from your customers (don’t make up testimonials … it will hurt you later) help build trust. Video testimonials are great too.
Blog
A swamp helps show updates to your customers / visitors and can help them come back for more. It is also important to have a Breaking News section on your home page. This helps your visitors and SEO.
Social video
You can get free marketing effectively, if you can integrate video and social sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, within your web design.
Landing pages
When your potential customer clicks on your website through “organic” (free) search engine results or your internet ads, you need to send them to a landing page. This is a page written for what the person was looking for and will help you turn them into a potential sales customer.
EFFECTIVE MARKETING ON THE INTERNET
You need to get targeted traffic to your web design. They are people who are already interested, in one way or another, in your product or service, improving the conversion rate (the% of people who visit, who become a sales / sales lead)
Ok, I understand what targeted traffic is, but how do I get targeted traffic?
Keyword research
This is simpler than it sounds. You can use one of the many utilities or keyword research websites (just search for “keyword research” and you will find several options) and you can check out competing websites. You use these keywords on your website and also in your various advertisements on the internet.
Building Links
When search engines find links to your website from other popular websites and websites in your niche, then (it will help) rank your website higher, which means more visits, more sales.
It will take a long time. Start slowly and make only a few links a day.
Don’t use companies that make thousands of useless links.
Some ways to add links are;
1. Search directories
2. Some blog comments (although many are NOFOLLOW now, so they won’t help your ranking, but may help drive human traffic)
3. Forums (but never spam links in your forum posts. Become a valued member before posting any links and even then, keep the link within a valid useful post)
4. Articles (again, always write an article that gives real value to the reader)
5. Product reviews
6. Agreements with other websites.
Research your competitors
Check out what your competitors are doing for their websites and ads on the internet. You will probably learn something that can help you.
PPC
Pay-per-click advertising (for example, Google AdWords) can be a profitable form of advertising, as you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
This is a very complex topic and I only recommend that you run your own PPC campaign if your market is not competitive at all (meaning not many of your competitors are doing PPC ads or doing very poorly!).
Unfortunately, it is too easy to set up a very bad PPC campaign and this will simply cost you a lot more per click, it will make PPC unprofitable.
I suggest you use a reliable PPC / Internet marketing company to create your PPC campaign. If done correctly, the initial setup cost they charge will pay for itself.
RESUME
I hope that reading this was not too boring and I hope it helps you or your business / organization to use the Internet to become your automated marketer.
