|
|
|
Branding Your Business To Make More Money
Branding your comapny should be the first thing a company does. You have to convince potential customers to buy from you. Very few people have a monopoly like Microsoft or Ebay, Everyone else need to steer business to their company or product. When...
Don't Dare Brand Your Business because you may lose!
Branding and the Importance of Providing it on your website:
Award In Internet Marketing
Are you giving your profits away? Is your business online - Do you realize how valuable an online presence is? It is 24/7 * inexpensive* advertising for...
Franchise Resolution In 2005
The outlook for 2005 is out; it is going to be yet another challenging year, with the recent increase in oil prices finally settling in. Economic growth rate is going to be modest and the traditional manufacturing engine of growth may be...
Hardcore Sales Vs. The Relationship Part II: Building A Relationship With Your Prospect!
I would like to discuss some of the positives and negatives of sales and how they relate to relationship building. I would also like explain how you can go about starting to build a solid vendor-client relationship, and what pitfalls to avoid in...
How To Brand Your Home Based Web Business
"A coke and a smile!" I would be willing to bet that just about everyone today recognizes this slogan. Branding is the process by which you associate in peoples minds a name, slogan, or logo with a product. Included in the association are all of...
"I Have Nothing To Say!" Overcoming The Fear Of Writing
Do you have a fear of writing that first article? If so, this article will help you get started and help overcome that fear of writing.
You have worked hard on your business and now the time has come. You keep reading that you should do it...
Inexpensive Ways to Promote Your Business :: Part 1
Ok you have your business model, the I's are dotted and your T's
are crossed, and you're ready for the customers. But where are
they? As much as we would like to believe customers will flock
to your doorstep (or your web "doorstep") overnight,...
The 12 Reasons Why Most Ads Fall Flat On Their Face, Costing You A Fortune Instead of Making You The Money You Deserve!
1. You think you need ‘Image’ or ‘branding’ advertising because that’s all the so-called ‘top guns’ use in their advertising. You don’t use direct response advertising they don’t and you’d think they know best.
2. You never offer compelling...
Thoughtleading: The Art of Separating Yourself from the Pack
Lately the age-old business dilemma of how to stand out from the crowd has been haunting companies and professional service firms more than ever before. All too many firms nowadays look too much alike, with marketing strategies seemingly unable...
Why You Need To Have Your Prices Upfront
How much do you charge? I don’t know. I’ll have to check with my brain.
Huh?
In nine out of ten sites, customers will not be told upfront, how much the customer is expected to pay for a product or a service.
The website/brochure will hem...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ten Basic Steps For Building A Web Site That Works
"1. Assemble a web site development plan that is integrated with
your overall marketing processes; the content should be
consistent with offline materials, the graphics/images don't
have to be identical with traditional media, but should be
consistent with your overall branding, style guide, usage of
colors etc.
2. Hire a web site design firm that understands your market
position and one that won't get ""geek crazy"" - meaning they
are so in love with their own design capabilities, your site
gets bogged down with graphics, plug ins, GIF garbage, etc. But,
conversely, check your ego at the door when you work with your
design firm - I've see so many good web site designs get ruined
by clients who can't or won't listen to what we tell them!
3. Pay attention to ""load times,"" how long it takes a web
site to load on a 56 KBPS modem (this is an industry average),
if its more than 12-18 seconds you may experience the ""click of
death"" - the site doesn't load quickly and the surfer is gone.
Of course, if your targeting broadband customers who are
reaching your site via ISDN or DSL then you can build a site
that incorporates multimedia-ready content that may include
streaming audio or video, or Shockwave or Flash capabilities -
go ahead and let those digital geeks get carried away with
cutting edge content!
4. Dare I say it, ""keep it simple"" - make your site easy to
move around in, build a menu structure that is consistent with
industry standards, local menus (for a page or section) on the
left and global menus (overall site navigation) at the top
and/or bottom of each page, keep as much information ""above the
fold"" (above the cutoff point at the bottom of a monitor),
don't make people use horizontal scroll bars unless absolutely
necessary.
5. Inculcate ""digital speed"" into your overall site design,
your client/customers should be able to get to their desired
area of your site within one or two mouse clicks; they will
quickly get frustrated if they have to click-through multiple
menus to find information they are seeking.
6. Develop content that is web-enabled, people don't read web
site content like they do offline media, keep your paragraphs
short no more than two to three sentences, build in white space
with your content, include links in your pages - don't try to
tell your whole marketing story on your site - get people to
call you (hello the telephone still works!), e-mail or fill out
a profile form (see below).
7. Make your site permission-based marketing ready - I love
Seth Godin's ""Permission Marketing"" book,
http://www.permission.com, and we recommend it to all of our
clients
- he champions building a long term relationship with a
customer by asking their permission to continue to market to
them and incorporating value/information in all marcom
processes.
8. Ensure your site is optimized for Search Engines by
identifying 8-12 keywords that people will use to find your
site, then incorporate these keywords in your site content (to
drive relevancy with s/engine spiders/bots) and then manually
submit your site to the top ten search engines. We don't'
recommend most of the free or $19.99 specials available; yes,
all will get your registered with the s/engines, but getting
listed on page 75 of 350 pages (for example) won't really drive
qualified traffic to your site, you need page 1-3 listings on
the top ten engines to really drive qualified traffic.
9. Delve into your log server files to uncover ""digital
tracks"" made through your web site - your log files are raw
files that show how and from where (in most cases) people
accessed your web site, where they went on your web site, how
long they stayed, etc. Web Trends is the defacto industry
standard, http://www.webtrends.com/default.htm, but we use and
recommend a market-experienced firm in Europe, Fantomaster, Ltd.
to our clients http://www.fantomaster.com - they have a suite of
Search Engine products that can be downloaded for free or
purchased.
10. Think global in your overall site design - the greatest
Internet growth is occurring outside North America, so it is
essential to build a site that can be accessed easily by people
around the world. What issues do you need to look at? Load times
are very important (again), develop content that avoids
colloquialisms that may not be understood by others who may not
speak the same language, you may want to make your site content
available in diverse languages, there are a number of emerging
applications that will facilitate this process, ensure your
e-commerce capabilities can be utilized by all.
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and
marketing experience. He is the founder/CEO of a Northern
California based, privately held, profitable Interactive
Marketing Agency and Software Company, Intelective
Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, and can be
reached via e-mail at Lee@intelective.com. "
About the author:
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and
marketing experience. He is the founder/CEO of a Northern
California based, privately held, profitable Interactive
Marketing Agency and Software Company, Intelective
Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, and can be
reached via e-mail at Lee@intelective.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|