Using Marketing To Improve Your Website ROI

We apply time-tested marketing principles to the relatively new marketing medium of the Internet. The Internet makes it easier for companies of all sizes to find new leads, and communicate with existing prospects and customers.

Not all of the activities listed below will be appropriate for every company. We'll be glad to talk with you about your needs and recommend an appropriate solution.

Search Engine Marketing

Making it easy to find your website on the search engines is the goal of search engine marketing. This involves determining the search terms and concepts that the site should have high rankings for, determining where the website currently appears in the search engine rankings for those terms, and then massaging the website page keywords, tags and headings in order to improve the results. This is an iterative process that can involve additional tweaking with the website as the search engines spider the revised pages and re rank them. In addition, it may involve adding or rewriting content to better reflect your keywords and marketing goals.

Directory Submission and Site Linking

Search engine directories, such as Yahoo and Open Directory, supplement the results provided by the search engine crawlers. Listing your site in the major directories greatly increases your web visibility. There are probably other directories that might be relevant to your industry or market. There may also be other locations where links to the company's website can be arranged, such as with suppliers and business partners.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-Per-Click advertising puts your message at the top of the search engine results when someone types in keywords you have specified in advance. You are charged only when someone clicks through to your site from the ad. Pay-per-click provides faster results than general search engine optimization in terms of increased visitors. It also provides a good way to test different keywords you may be considering for your site.

Visitor Tracking

Knowing who responded to your marketing initiatives and what lead the customer to purchase from you is the holy grail of marketing. The Internet makes this more difficult, since prospects can visit your site for information anonymously. Now, you can track visitors from search engines, PPC campaigns, email acquisition, or other marketing initiatives to monitor a campaign's effectiveness.

Website Registration Systems

A key component of website marketing is a registration system that visitors can use to access special content, sign up for newsletters, request catalogs, demos or samples, and contact the company. Visitors to your site are interested in your product or service. By capturing their names and email addresses, you can communicate with them in the future.

Email Acquisition Programs

Search engine marketing is not the only way to get people to your site. An effective email acquisition program can expose thousands of likely prospects to your products or services. Email acquisition programs send your message to individuals who opted in to receive offers and information about topics that interest them. The mailings you send can be designed either to generate immediate sales, or to get people to register on your site, so you can market to them later.

Email Nurturing Programs

Once you have begun to develop a list of likely prospects, you should communicate with them on a regular basis. Email nurturing programs, whether newsletters, catalogs, or sales announcements, bring visitors back to your website, and let you identify your best prospects or customers.