Web Site Marketing Strategies
Web Site Marketing Strategies
"Thanks for all your help with our website and your
suggestions. We get so many comments on our web site.
Web reservations are going great. Your other marketing
advice is working well too!"
Thanks
-Kathy, Innkeeper
Inn at The Rostay, Bethel, Maine
Last week a sales rep from a local printing company walked in to my office to pimp his company's "superior" printing services. I gave him a few minutes and he proceeded to give me his pitch, walk me through his large list of printing capabilities, and show me a smattering of past print jobs that included an impressive mix of brochures, folders and binders with fancy die cuts, foil stamping and intricate embossing.
His sales presentation was actually very good and I imagine that he does a great job of new business development for his company. As I walked him out the door, he handed me his card and some cool branded notepads and I told him that I'd keep him in mind on future print jobs.
Upon sitting back down at my computer, I grabbed his card and typed in their website address. This is where things went down hill.
The Not-So-Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Now let me preface this by saying that I'm a marketing
consultant/website developer by trade. So my critical
eye for proper website design and usability is a bit
more sensitive than the next guy. But wow, this
company's website was REALLY bad. Their design looked
remedial, severely dated and unorganized. Their logo
looked completely different than the logo on their
business card and notepads. The content was poorly
written. There were very few images of printing samples.
And upon scanning their printing capabilities page,
several of the services that the sales person had
mentioned were nowhere to be found.
I threw his card in the circular file (the trash). I
kept the notepads.
This situation serves as a good example of the vital
role that a website plays in your company's overall
sales and marketing strategies. It is critical that your
website convey a consistent brand image, perceived value
and sales message for those soft-selling opportunities
that happen when you're not present.
A Quick Test for Your Website
1. Can a website visitor get a thorough understanding of
your bread-and-butter product/service and reach your
contact info page in two clicks or less?
2. Is your website design and content consistent with
the quality of your company and its products/services?
3. If you looked at your website and sales
materials/brochures side by side, are they conveying a
consistent brand image?
4. If your salesperson were to read aloud your website's
content word-for-word during a sales call, would they
close the sale?
I could go on, but hopefully you get the point. If you
answered "NO" to any of the questions above, your
website probably needs some work.
A Marketing Strategy Lesson
Back to the printing company with the horrid website.
Let's say they've come to their senses and hired me to
revamp their website. In our initial meeting, I would do
a quick audit to learn about the different strategies
and tactics they use to develop new business. Next, I
would find that they execute a nice mix of advertising,
sales and local tradeshows, and since they are a
printer, they have very nice brochures. They even do
educational sessions on the latest printing techniques
through their local Chamber of Commerce.
When I ask about their website, they say, "It's a
low priority and we've always worried about the cost."
With so many opportunities to utilize the online tools
to market your business and sell your wares, it's a
shame that so many companies view the web as their last
priority. And some don't even realize the amount of
clients and dollars that are going to their competitors
who have made an appropriate investment.
5 Ways to Get Your Website on the Same Page
1. Perceived Value - First impressions
are everything. In the first few seconds of a site
visit, your website's design quality and content layout
is subliminally communicating your company's value to
the visitor. If your site's design quality is poor or
unorganized, your company will be perceived as poor
quality and unorganized, and thus, the visitor bounces.
How to Get On the Same Page: Work with
a professional website designer who can help you design
your site's look and feel to match (or exceed) the
quality of your company, products and services.
2. Brand Consistency - Your
company's brand is what people think of you. And whether
people notice a magazine ad, see your booth at a
tradeshow or find your website, it's vital that you
present a clear and consistent sense of who you are at
every customer touch point.
How to Get On the Same Page: Everything
you put in front of a customer needs to look and sound
consistent. This means every ad, every brochure, your
website, corporate identity elements, etc. An integrated
campaign works wonders when designed professionally by a
single designer or agency.
3. Message/Content Quality - I've said
it before and I'll say it again "content is
king." Keeping your website updated with fresh,
high-quality, informative content positions you as an
expert in your field. And people want to do business
with experts.
How to Get On the Same Page: Hiring
a professional content developer/copywriter is a great
way to ensure that your message is delivered in a
high-quality fashion, and with a consistent voice. Have
the copywriter sit down with your salespeople to discuss
the most effective messaging to help convert your
visitors into buyers.
4. Self Promotion: Be Your Own Cheerleader - If you're
not promoting your latest happenings (new
product/service offerings, company news, upcoming
educational sessions, tradeshows, etc.), no one else is
going to. But don't get caught with a site that is
difficult or costly to update. Nothing screams
"dinosaur" like seeing a news page where the last news
item was from two years ago.
How to Get On The Same Page: If your salespeople are out
there telling customers about a new product or an
upcoming educational session, your website should be
doing the same. Frequent site updates tell customers
that you are an active company that is on the move, as
well as providing new content that serves as food for
search engine spiders.
5. Track Your ROI - It baffles me that companies will
spend thousands of dollars each year on marketing
tactics that make tracking your return very difficult
(a.k.a. advertising, direct mail, brochures, etc.), but
they won't spend a few thousand dollars to build a
decent website with an analytics program that
practically gives you a two-way mirror to watch your
prospect's browsing behavior.
How to Get On the Same Page: Website analytics, and even
e-mail marketing, now offers great, inexpensive tools
for customer research and ROI tracking that not only
help you calculate ROI, but also help you hone your
marketing strategies towards the content/messaging,
products and services that bring home the bacon.
The Bottom Line
How many clients has that printing company lost over the
years because of their poor, neglected website? Who
knows? The bottom line is: they lost my business, and as
a marketing consultant, the amount of stuff that my
clients print alone could probably pay for a website in
a matter of years.
________________________________________
About the Author: Brody Dorland - Since receiving
degrees in Public Relations and Marketing from Kansas
State University, Brody worked for both advertising
agencies and corporations creating award-winning,
integrated marketing programs for companies in a variety
of industries. Today, Brody manages
Something Creative, Inc., a Kansas City-based,
virtual marketing and interactive agency.
Obviously we at IMS-21 agree
with Brody. In fact, as fellow Marketing Consultants and
Web Developers we had virtually the EXACT same story. We
thought Brody words captured our feelings virtually word
for word. Find a professional Web Developer who
understands marketing and get your web site done right
if you are going to survive in these challenging times.