What’s your plan?

When it comes to digital marketing, it’s all about “conversion” – how many of your site visitors you can convert into a lead or sale. Here are the key elements to cultivating quality leads, and sales — conversions.

1. Know your starting point – have your eye on the end zone.

Whether you are taking a road trip or going to the grocery store, you generally have a plan. You have the starting point, you know what you want to accomplish, and you have a goal. Your internet marketing plan requires no less than a solid plan with identifiable goals.

Goals will help you: determine specific site navigation, write specific content, and simplify the entire design process.

Once you have your goals you’ll have the baseline and benchmarks to measure the effectiveness of your internet marketing campaign.

2. Who do you want to reach?

This may seem to be an obvious point but many companies miss the mark when it comes to their target audience. Knowing your target market includes not just needs, wants, and, often overlooked, their level of knowledge. Often the process of defining a target audience is the process of elimination but on-site surveys can be very effective in identifying hidden markets.

Once again, when you know who you are trying to reach, your site design will naturally cater to that market with text, images, and specific call-to-action messages. You’ll also be better equipped to utilize other forms of marketing.

3. Don’t beat around the bush!

The core message of the site must be clear, focused, and compelling. It’s not a mission statement or your company history – it’s the specific why and how they should do business with you, written as if you are the customer.

Don’t fall into the common trap of writing from your own perspective in technical jargon. People who visit your site want to know one thing – do you have what they want, that’s it. The best way to achieve this goal is to have a neutral, third party who doesn’t know your product well, read through the site and tell you what’s missing.

Once you’ve got the core message, you’ll have a specific marketing message that can be used across all marketing channels, including your website.

4. Think like a cartographer (map maker).

Don’t just post your brochure online; make your site interesting by giving visitors incentives to browse through the content and travel further. The vast majority of websites have a lot of “back button” clicks and people bounce away without finding a reason to stay with you.

Like any sales process, there is a beginning, a middle, and an end. The trick with a website is that visitors can jump in on any page so each page must have some elements of the beginning, even in the middle. Lead your visitor through the process of doing business with you step by step. Guide them along so that when the time comes to take definitive action the step is taken willingly.

It’s no longer enough to just “design” a website. In today’s world, your audience dictates how your site should look and function. Your audience defines whether or not your internet presence meets their expectations. Your audience decides if they will click your link in the search engines.

That’s what sets me apart from others, a solid background in digital marketing combined with human factors and psychological training. When you hire me to help guide your digital marketing I’ll help you focus on more than just search engine optimization. Together we’ll take a look at the overall strategy to discover why visitors aren’t contacting you or buying from you. You’ll get plenty of information and ideas to help you get the most from your digital marketing.

Need help with a marketing strategy or implementation? I can certainly provide those services as well.