When it comes to web 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, 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, 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 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, 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 when the time comes to take definitive action the step is taken willingly.

It’s a call to action. The simple phrasing that tells your visitor what you want them to do next: “click here,” “sign up here,” “buy it now.”

While you may think it’s obvious, the action you want the visitors to take, most people want to be guided through your site, so if you tell them that they need the newsletter to save more money, many of them will take the action.

Unfortunately, seeing the frequently used phrases mentioned above has made visitors somewhat immune to the appeal so use your imagination when creating your call to action messages for a better response rate.

6. Gotcha!

It should be very easy to set up conversion points on the site that actually capture marketing data (email addresses, company info, etc.). The point is that your site needs to have these points placed strategically and frequently

7. Say it with graphics.

Having a well designed logo, website header and consistent font styles throughout the site goes a long way towards credibility. Credibility is important when you are asking a complete stranger to give you personal information (yes, even an email address is considered personal) or money.

Online poor graphic design makes your company look small, inadequate, and less trustworthy. In this day and age of graphics people place a lot of emphasis on the quality of your site graphics as a measurement of your company’s success and verities. If the graphics look good then the visitor will take the time to read lengthy text.

Good design compels people to spend more time considering the real message of a product and service. Graphic design SUPPORTS (not replaces) a well-defined and well-implemented web marketing strategy.

8. Can I put it on the search engines now?

When you have completed all the previous steps, your site is finally ready for visitors so you’re ready to really launch your internet marketing campaign.

Your internet marketing campaign should include search engine marketing and email marketing at minimum. Additional channels to consider: pay-per-click campaigns, banner ads, blogging, and podcasting.

9. Did you remember your compass?

With any marketing program measurements are a necessity, but it’s surprising to find how many website owners don’t know the basic numbers: number of visitors, page views, bounce rate, time on site and conversion rates. It’s important to know how the site is performing so you can better refine your goals; it’s the difference between wandering in the woods and wandering in the woods with a compass.

The web is unique in that it is the only marketing medium that allows you to know, unequivocally, that something is happening. Even better, you can split test page formats to discover which one gives you the best results.

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This article written by Teajai Kimsey, Interenet Marketing Strategist, Ideas That Work - August 2007
It may be reproduced and reprinted provided the author's information including web link is kept intact.