Use Internet
Marketing
to Get More Sales from Your WebSite
1) Tell them who you
are, what you stand for and why they should buy from you -
Customers don’t know who you are so educate them about your
business beliefs and your products. Don’t be afraid to tell them
about you and your company - put your picture, a street address,
an “800” number, if appropriate, how long in business and your
regular phone number in your site information - this lends
credibility to who you are and adds trust to your message.
The often-quoted saying
“The more you tell, the more you sell” really applies on the
Internet. Make your site is as secure as possible to protect your
customers’ information and let them know exactly what you’ve done
to keep their information safe
2) First impressions
really count on the Web! You only have one chance to catch
that quickly moving prospect. Use powerful compelling headlines
on every page of your site.* A good headline along with compelling
copy can attract attention to what you have to say and keep the
visitor at your site longer. Make sure that visitors will return
to your site by advertising coming attractions i.e. new
information or other items to keep them coming back.
Add new things to your
site periodically to keep up with what’s new and attract on-going
visitor support. New things also help you to maintain search
engine ranking. Offer to e-mail visitors to let them know when
changes have been made to your site. Use a bulletin board and add
helpful information regularly to build your community. Use surveys
and requests for feedback to see what your customers want.
3) Try to develop site
content that will appeal specifically to your potential customers.
The more valuable content you develop, the more likely your site
will rank at the top in the search engines.
4) Make sure that your
graphics load quickly! How many times have you left a site
because you didn’t want to wait for the slow loading graphics?
5) Give visitors some
reward for each mouse click but keep it short. 250 words (two
screens long) per page is the max unless you’re communicating
important information to clients such as articles and white
papers. Make your writing style lively and quick (like you talk)
rather than formal. No more than three mouse clicks should get
someone anywhere on your site.
6) Build a relationship
with your site visitors through an e-zine (email newsletter) or
regular site updates. Get their e-mail addresses for opt-in e-mail
promotions. Don’t ask people to leave their names and addresses or
e-mail addresses without explaining exactly what you will do with
this information. Develop a privacy policy for email addresses and
other confidential customer information.
7) Give customers a
reason to come to your site, a reason to stay and a reason to come
back (i.e. contests, giveaways, coupons, weekly specials,
specialized information and new information).
8) Organize your site in
an easy-to-understand and intuitive way so that customers
immediately know what to do when they visit. Good sites are easy
to get around in with clear instructions on how to quickly
accomplish an objective.
9) To get people to come
to your site, give something away or create a great resource that
everyone wants to link to. As you know, one of the most
remarkable things about the Internet is the amazing amount of
“free” stuff you can find. When you give useful things away,
people appreciate it and want to support your business.
Here are some ideas for
free things you can give on your site: free samples, free e-mail
reports, lists of web resources, free advice, articles and other
kinds of information, customized news, electronic newsletters,
e-books, e-zine subscriptions, book reviews, stock market quotes,
humor, links to resource web sites, etc.
10) Make sure that your
domain name means something and is easy to remember! This gives
customers a sense of confidence in your enterprise because you
have a straightforward name that is registered online. Also, the
most logical way for a potential customer to try to find your site
is to type in your company name with a .com after it.
11) When designing your
site, don’t forget that there are many different browsers and also
many people will be using a small monitor to view your online
offerings. Make sure your site takes this into account.You should
not have fancy Java scripts, streaming video or audio in order to
sell your products. Using these gimmicks risks alienating many
potential customers if their browsers do not support the
technology. Large photos and other graphics should be optimized
for the web so they don’t take forever to load.
12) Track results you’re
getting from various new ideas that you try out on your site and
continually test new ways to get business. Good traffic tracking
software is a must!
Find great articles on
Internet marketing, search engines, sales success, web copywriting,
web marketing and SEO resources and much more!
http://www.websuccess77.com/
Copyright 2005 Teddi McDonald
Please feel free to use this article on your site or in your ezine
including the information box with live hyperlinks and the
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