Internet Marketing - 10 Steps to Improve Website Performance

• Provide general information for clients who are interested in you, particularly earlier on in the buying process.
• Provide information or resources to save you money, for example:

• A Web site is often far less expensive than printing / printed material distribution costs and you can update your Web site in 'real time' very affordably.
• A Web site provides easy access to information and resources for your customers freeing up customer service and sales staff's time and resources.

Web marketing considerations - INFORM:

• What is your Web site’s focus?
• How does the focus of your Web site align with branding or overall business objectives?
• Can you provide up-to-date, timely, and regular access to information with these tactics?

This strongly determines keywords and phases you will use in your Web site content.

• Did you know that it often takes MANY visits to a website before a visitor will decide to buy or contact you?
• Provide products and services that set up consistent 2-way communications between customers and your business, for example:

• E-mail newsletters;
• White papers available for download;
• Regularly updated feature articles;
• Blogs & RSS;
• On-line chat and forums;
• Instant messaging programming;
• Flash, video or other animation to ‘entertain’ your visitors.

Web marketing considerations - BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS:

• How can you layout your Web pages so that visitors can easily access Web site features like e-mail subscription fields or links to forums?
• Can you provide up-to-date, timely, and regular access to information with these tactics?

• Present products or services, a "call to action" and ask for and "close" the online sale!
• Provide capabilities for on-line transactions.
• These require a ‘secure’ Web host / service.

In general there are 2 options here:

• ‘Real-time processing' is when a credit card or other form of payment is processed and the order is ‘closed’ immediately using automated e-commerce software; this is typically necessary when large and steady volumes of orders occur.
• 'Delayed purchasing', whereby a customer provides payment information and the order is manually processed by a business upon retrieving this information from a secure Web server; this can be more affordable for smaller business when orders aren’t that heavy nor steady and the business has the opportunity to pick up and process orders in a timely manner.

Web marketing considerations - SELLING ON-LINE:

• What search engines and directories can you target that specifically address e-commerce delivery and capabilities?
• How do you direct and channel visitors to the e-commerce section of your Web site? ... using graphics? ... using text? ... using navigation?