Use The Web To Catch More Business
Q: Hi, Steve. I would like to begin e-marketing. I understand regular marketing but this online stuff is a bit perplexing. I was hoping you could shed some light on it for me. Thanks a lot.
Kevin, St. Charles
A: I would be happy to, and yes, between Web sites, email, e-zines and a lot more, e-marketing can indeed seem overwhelming. But once the elements of e-marketing are broken down, it is easy to see how they work together to create more business.
As I see it, there are four basic purposes of e-marketing, and once you understand them, figuring out which e-tool to use is much easier. E-marketing should help you either:
- Attract potential new customers
- Interact with those leads
- Turn those leads into sales, or
- Follow-up
Let’s look at each a bit more closely:
1. Attracting New Customers
How do you attract potential new online customers? There are essentially four methods:
- Your Web site: All e-marketing begins with your Web site. It must be clean, easy to navigate, and helpful. Your e-store must be current, intuitive, and quick to load. A webmaster will keep your site humming, but you should also know how to do it yourself.
- Optimize your Search Rankings: Potential customers will usually find your site by typing key words into search engines like Yahoo! Or Google. Accordingly your Web site must have those key words as part of your html code (your webmaster will understand that last sentence.) You should also consider purchasing a listing on the Yahoo! Directory. Doing so increases the likelihood that Google will rank your site higher.
- Link Up!: Because Google’s ranking system analyzes the number and quality of sites that link to yours, link exchanges with other good sites help your cause.
- Buy Ads: People will also find you by seeing paid placement ads, like those small boxed ads on Google. They do work.
2. Interact With Your Leads
You can only convert these new leads into customers if they trust you. In the physical world people can actually see you and check you out, but not so online, so you have to earn their trust in other ways:
- E-Newsletters: Free e-newsletters create qualified leads (and email addresses!) of people interested in what you have to say and sell. Once they are used to hearing, and receiving valuable information, from you, they will be more inclined to listen to offers and buy from you.
- A Blog: Yes blogs are trendy, but even so, they allow you to interact with your site visitors on a daily basis and thus are an additional way to earn trust. They are also free to set up — check out Blogger.com.
3. Close the Sale:
Because online there is no “closer” to close the sale, you have to do this electronically. How?
- Make it Easy: Amazon has a “3 click” policy that states that customers should be able to buy what they want in 3 clicks. That's the idea.
- Offer Freebies: The web is a culture of freebies. Use that. Offer free shipping or downloads or coupons, etc.
- Use Customer Relationship Software: Customer relationship software offers repeat customers extra service and support. It also can help new buyers to jump in while also assisting infrequent buyers to become more frequent ones.
4. Follow-up
Just as you may follow-up on a sale in your “real” store, you may also want to do the same in your e-store. There are two tools for doing so:
- Web Tracking Software: What items of yours sell the most, or the least? At what page do people leave your site most often? Web tracking software answers vital questions like these.
- Web Log Analysis: What Blog items do they stick around to read and which do they click past? Knowing these sorts of things is valuable too.
See how easy that was?
Today’s tip: I follow my own advice as well. At my Web site we have just re-launched our free e-newsletter, which is chock-full of small business tips, hints, strategies, and ideas. You can check it out — Small Business Success Secrets — at www.mrallbiz.com/newsletter.