E-Class #22: Marketing Materials: Your Website.

Checkpoint:

• You have created a target list for your direct mail campaigns
• You have written and designed a direct mail postcard, letter or brochure
• You have a system in place to track and measure the success of your campaign

Your website is the foundation for your online presence.

It doesn’t matter where or how or how often you advertise online, all the leads you generate land on your website. So, it only stands to reason that your site needs to be clear, useful and well designed for the needs of your audience.

Before you start worrying about Google AdWords, banner ads, Facebook or search engine optimization, you need to make sure that your site is effective enough to convert all those website hits into qualified leads. Otherwise it’s like sending all your friends to a bad restaurant – no one is going to want to go back.

The quality and quantity of ‘useful’ information on the site will impact how many people can find it in search engines and consequently the number of daily ‘hits’ your site will earn. The more hits you earn, the more your online marketing will drive sales and profits, and isn’t that the goal?

Ready to get started?

In this E-Class we will cover:

• How to create a website that is user-friendly
• Why your site may need to be redesigned or updated
• The benefits of using a firm to build your site
• A step-by-step process for creating a website
• How to optimize your site for search engines

Create a website that is designed for your existing and prospective customers to use.

Many business owners get really excited about creating their websites, and get completely wrapped up in the design process. Usually this results in fancy flash sites that are difficult to use, take forever to load, and drive customers away.

The website is not about the needs of your business, but about the needs of your customers. What do they need to know about how your product or service will solve their problem or meet their need? What additional information would they benefit from learning from you? What do they need to know before they pick up the phone and contact you?

Every business is unique, and will have a different purpose for their website. Some will have an online store, while others will have three simple pages relevant product and contact information. An effective website is one that meets the needs of the target market.

If your business has an existing website, it might be time for an update or a complete redesign.

It’s time to take a critical look at the website your business currently has online. Of course, if your site is experiences a high number of daily hits and has a high conversion rate (converting ‘hits’ into leads), you may not need to revamp it. However, I recommend you always look for opportunities to improve.

Does your website look professional and of a high quality design?

There are millions of websites out there, but unfortunately many look sloppy, templated, and unprofessional. In all areas of your business your first impression matters and this includes your website. Prospects who know nothing about your company will judge your product or service based on how your homepage looks and feels. A well-designed website will attract customers and begin to build trust and confidence in your offering.

Has your business grown since you built your website?

If it has been a while since you built your site, chances are your business has grown and so has your customer base. This is great, but you need to check in with your current website and make sure it still provides accurate and relevant information about your products and services.

It also may be time to take your site to the next level. Here are some suggestions:

• Online customer support
• Online purchase of products or services
• Frequently asked questions
• Customer feedback form
• E-mail newsletters or auto-responders
• Free ‘expert’ information

Where does your website rank when searched on Google and other search engines?

When you take the time to build a website, you want to make sure that people can find you when they search the major online search engines. If you are a dog groomer, you want your site to be in the top 10 when people search for dog care and products in your area. You want your site to rank higher than the competition on the list.

If you didn’t design your site for search engine optimization (SEO), then redesigning it to rank higher is a smart investment for any business. I’ll explain more about SEO and using keywords later on in the E-Class.

Unless you’re a web designer, I highly recommend outsourcing the creation of your website to an experienced person or firm.

The reason for this is simple. It’s really hard to create a site that looks and functions professionally when you have little experience in web design. Plus, you’re busy running and growing your business, and building websites can be a huge drain on your time – especially if you’re building your first one.

Customers’ don’t trust sites that look like amateurs have created them, so spend your time choosing a good web designer and leave it up to the experts. Here are some tips for finding a firm or freelancer:

> You get what you pay for. Avoid the temptation to go with the cheapest web design company or contractor. If you end up with a poorly designed site, it will cost you more money in the long run, driving away customers and needing to be redone.

> Ask around for referrals. Ask colleagues and other business owners who they used to build their sites or can recommend anyone. You can also do a search to locate local web designers.

> Contact a few firms for a quote. Make sure they can turn the quote around in a timely fashion, which shows they can give you the time and service you require.

> Get a fixed fee quote with a payment plan. A fixed-fee quote will keep your costs predictable. Make sure the payment plan is fair; don’t pay more than 50% up front before the project is completed.

> Check out the company’s portfolio. Aside from deciding if the company is a good working fit for your business, make sure they do good work. Look at their past web projects and make sure they design good-looking, easy to use sites.

> Make sure they make Google-friendly websites. The majority of websites are found through search engines, so if your business doesn’t show up on the first two pages of Google searches for related keywords, you’re going to have a hard time generating hits.

Whether you choose to hire a design firm or build your site yourself, here’s a step by step process for creating a website for your business:

1. Decide what your customers need from your website.

Just like any of your marketing materials, when creating a website you need to first stop and think about your target audience. In this case, you want to consider how your market is going to use your website, how web savvy they are, as well as how much information they need to know about your business before they contact you.

Ask yourself:

• Who are my target audience?
• What is the purpose of my website?
• What do viewers need to know to convince them to make contact?
• Will I need to sell products or services online?

Based on your answers, there are basically two types of sites you could set up for your business:

1. Content Site. This is the type of site you see most often, as it is fairly inexpensive and easy to create. It provides product, service and company information, as well as other useful information relevant to the business offering. The customer has to go in store or contact you to make a purchase.
2. E-Commerce Site. This is a site that sells products or services online through PayPal or a credit card processing company. This is a more expensive site to create that requires much more maintenance and attention. Other considerations include shipping, payment security, inventory updates, order forms and customer relations.

2. Register a domain name that’s easy to remember and then select a web host.

Choose a domain name, and register it online.

A domain name is your ‘address’ or ‘location’ on the Internet. It’s the phrase a customer will type in to find your website. Your domain name can be any combination of letters and numbers up to 63 characters, and followed by an ‘extension’ like .com, .ca, or .biz.

A good domain name:

• Is short and easy to remember.
• Is simple and easy to spell.
• Reflects your business.
• Usually ends in .com

To register your domain name, simply search “register domain name,” and find a registration website. You will need to first search the availability of your domain name, then secure it by registering it to your name for one or more years.

Choose a web host.

A web host is a company that stores your website on their servers and transmits the files to the internet so that when someone goes to your domain name your website appears.

When you have your domain name registered, you will have to choose a hosting company. The key here is to find a host that offers great tech support and is available 24/7. If something happens and your website goes down, you’ll need to be able to reach them quickly to fix the problem.

There are a variety of web hosts out there, and many major Internet providers will also offer hosting services. If you are using a web design company, they will be able to recommend a quality host.

3. Hire an expert to help build your website.

Like I said above, I highly recommend using a web design company to build your website – especially if you are building an e-commerce site. The process for finding and hiring a firm is explained earlier in this E-Class.

If you do decide to create it yourself, there are many website-building programs out there, and some web hosts even offer templates for you to use. If you choose this option, ensure that your copy and images are as clear and simple as possible. Don’t attempt to earn any design awards, or you may run the risk of producing an amateur site.

Remember that attractive web design will draw visitors to your site, and engage them in what you offer. Many people will judge a product or company based on the design of the site, which means that a good web design can potentially help your business grow.

However, also be aware that content is still king. It’s easy to get wrapped up in flashy design and lose focus of the content or purpose of your site. Make sure there is a healthy balance.

4. Use keywords throughout your web copy.

One of the key strategies for search engine optimisation is the incorporation of keywords in your body copy. Keywords are the most common words and phrases that people use to search for when looking for businesses like yours, or any other type of information online. When the words are entered, the search engine delivers the top sites that relate to those keywords – there may be millions of them.

If your website is search engine optimised, it will appear in the top 20 to 30 sites displayed, which will usually generate a higher volume of traffic to your website. If you don’t use keywords, you will have a difficult time bringing your website up the search engine rankings.

If you’ve hired a web design firm, they should be well versed in SEO and able to help you write your copy with keywords in mind. To find out what keywords you should incorporate, go to keywordspy.com, google keyword tracking tool or WordTracker.com and follow the steps.

You will enter some common search phrases a customer may use to find you, and hundreds of similar search terms will be listed, along with frequency. The more often you use the high frequency search phrases in your copy, the better the SEO of your site.

5. Publish your site.

When the files that comprise your website are complete, you will need to upload them to your web host’s server in order to ‘publish’ your site or make it live.

If you are using a web design firm, they will usually take care of this for you. If you are building your site yourself in the old way and not using something like wordpress then you will need to use an FTP program like FileZilla to login to the host server and upload the files to your domain.

In this case if you want to make edits to the site yourself, you will have to download the files to your computer, make changes, and then upload them to the host server again.  Using wordpress ,Joomla or any of the other wordpress alternatives gives you an easy way to manage the hosting and more importantly the content management, without the fuss of downloading files and uploading them again when the content is amended.

If your using a design company then be clear with them about the procedure for making changes. Specify that you need an easy to use CMS (Content Management System) so that you can manage yourself. It can get expensive if your updating your content a lot and having to use external suppliers to do this for you.

6. Test your website for usability.

When your site is published, invite your friends and colleagues to “test drive” it for user-friendliness. Watch them as they fill in forms, submit quote requests, edit user accounts or profiles, make a purchase or even just find key information. Don’t help them along, just sit back and see how easy it is to navigate around your website as a customer. You may find areas that you need to tweak or improve.

7. Register with search engines and tell everyone about your site.

Ensure that your site will get listed with major search engines. Register your website address with the top search engines so prospects can find your business. 70% of web surfers find sites through search engines, so you really can’t afford not to. The key ones to get registered are Google and Bing as they control over 90% of all search traffic on the web.

Go to the following links to register your site:

• Google: https://www.google.com/webmasters
• Bing: https://www.bing.com/toolbox

Send your friends, customers and colleagues an email announcement. Send an email announcement to your customer database, as well as your business partners and colleagues announcing the launch of your new site. Provide a link for them to easily access the new page.

Exchange links with complementary businesses. If you know of other complementary businesses with websites (make sure they’re not competitors) offer to exchange links and post them on each other’s sites. Generally, the more sites that legitimately link to yours, the higher your search rating will be.

Promote your website offline too! Don’t forget to include your website address everywhere you include your contact information. This goes for ads, brochures, direct mail pieces, business cards, business listings and letterhead. Use an email address with your domain name.

8. Implement a system for tracking traffic on your website.

Establish an in store system for tracking leads generated from your website. Include your website as a lead source in your tracking systems, or when you ask customers where they heard about your business. This will give you a sense of how many people you are converting from website hits to qualified leads.

Build a tracking system into your website with Google Analytics. Use an online metrics measurement system like Google Analytics to monitor the traffic your site generates. Google Analytics is free to use, and easy to set up. Register at http://www.google.com/analytics/ and have your web design company insert a small tracking code on each of your web pages. Google Analytics offers a comprehensive range of tracking and web analysis tools, and will measure metrics like:

• how many people visited your website
• which pages they visited
• where they came from (geographically)
• where they came from (online – search engine, link, other site, direct)
• at which page they left the site

You can then use this information to restructure the copy on your website so that the pages with the highest traffic also have the most important messages. You will also be able to see which advertisements are drawing the highest traffic, and drop the ads that are generating the least.

The world of online marketing can be a confusing and challenging place, but the best strategies start with a strong, user-friendly website.

Once your website is up and running, remember that it’s an evolving tool for you to use and change as the need arises. Keep the content fresh, and look for new opportunities to make it more useful to your customers.

Don’t forget to monitor the site’s performance on a weekly or monthly basis. Like everything else in your marketing plan you need to track the results to find out what is and isn’t working.

That’s actually what the next E-Class is all about. I want to spend some time showing you how to interpret the results that you’re tracking and make profitable changes.

Speak to you soon!