Marketing Tips for Your Company Website

By Allan Pulga

Nowadays, staying competitive involves more than just having a website – retailers need to maximize their web presence. This involves a combined effort of leveraging your website, integrating online and offline marketing efforts, and communicating effectively online.

Susan LaPlante-Dube, Entrepreneur.com columnist and president of Massachusetts-based Precision Marketing Group, offers the following pointers to assure you’re getting the most out of your website investment:

“Like all successful marketing efforts, you must develop a clearly defined goal for your website and have an understanding of your online target market,” says LaPlante-Dube.

She encourages retailers to decide whether their site will:

• replace their sales and marketing kit
• close sales
• create a secondary revenue stream
• serve as a virtual storefront
• support other marketing activities by providing a professional online presence

Most cellular retailers will choose all of the above, with less emphasis on closing sales and creating secondary revenue. The next step, adds LaPlante-Dube, is asking yourself if you can accomplish these objectives with your existing target market. In other words, you must be certain your would-be customers will use this website for the above purposes.

“Be clear about what you want your site to accomplish,” she says. “Clarify your objectives and measurements to know if your investment brings you the expected return.”

“When visitors arrive at your site, the overall look and feel determines whether they stay or move on. Your site needs to reflect your brand and be consistent with your other marketing pieces. Also, your site needs to be easy to use and navigate. So design is important.”

Once a visitor has decided to stay, it’s up to your copy to keep them there. It should be relevant and answer visitors’ questions, logically directing them to important points and enticing them with calls to action throughout the site.

“Use familiar language, anticipate their questions, address problems they have that your company solves – speak to your target market so they feel you ‘get it.’”

• Use “we” instead of “I” if you want to be perceived as a larger company.
• Keep content fresh and updated so visitors want to return.
• Keep copy brief and to the point.
• Include clear calls to action. Phrases like “Call us,” “Sign up for our newsletter,” and “Complete our survey” will prompt visitors to take action.
• Make it “sticky”: Figure out how you can keep people on your site. Use a one-question survey that provides immediate results, direct them to helpful information and encourage them to browse your online store.
• Offer tips and advice. This reinforces your expertise and adds value to your site, which will bring people back.
• It’s not about you – it’s about the reader. Your home page should not be strictly self-promotional; it should address the problems and challenges your customers face, and tell them how you can solve them.

LaPlante-Dube says the keys to getting the most out of your online investment can be summed up in three words: Leverage, integrate and monitor.

• Leverage: Create an inexpensive postcard about your site, with an offer that compels people to log on. The offer could be a coupon for 10 percent off, for example. The better the offer, the more traffic you’ll get.
• Keep a “What’s New” section updated on your site to list new clients, promotions or favourable news articles. Also, link your site everywhere you sensibly can.
• Integrate: Put your website’s URL on every printed marketing piece you have: business cards, brochures, Yellow Pages ads, invoices, coupons, etc. Hang a banner with your URL across your storefront. Wherever you put your phone number, but your web address there too. 
• Monitor: Statistics help you determine your return on investment. Review site statistics quarterly and look for trends.