What is your strategic objective for developing your core business web and social marketing presence.  Do you have a SEO strategy, a layout and look that will keep people on your site and a plan to turn visits into conversions and new business? If you think the goal of your web presence is to tell the world all about your business and the products and services you offer, than you are probably wasting your money. An effective website is not a virtual yellow pages add, but a dynamic tool that can change how you market yourself, build your brand and convert visits into clients. You first need to define the strategic objective of your website, blog, or social marketing efforts and then deploy an effective TLC strategy to maximize your penetration, performance and productivity to maximize success.

The “My Business” Website is a Recipe for Failure!

When most businesses look to develop a website, their focus is to promote themselves, their business, as well as the products and services they offer. This is a fatal strategy based on traditional marketing strategy.  Their website is all about them and not the needs of their prospects. Look at how the categories or pages are titled on your site.  Does it say  “About Us”, “Our Products or Services”, “Contact Us”, “What We Do”, “Our Team”, etc.  The point is that if you get someone to visit your site you have 3.8 seconds to capture their attention and keep them on your site.  Unless they are the small percentage (less than 5%) that are actually looking for you or your product or service and you are not speaking to their needs, they will just hit the back arrow to check out the next site listed out on Google or other search engine they may be using.  Your focus has to be directed at your target and their needs and not just what you have to offer.

You Need to Deploy a T.L.C. Strategy for Success!

Before you start or continue to waste your money investing in a website because everyone else in your market has one, set yourself apart and deploy a T.L.C. strategy to maximize its impact and the “ROI” return on your investment.  I see so many businesses waste their investment in their web presence by  either only focusing in on:

• Driving traffic to their site by investing in SEO, PPC, SEM, social strategies and other traffic development tools only to have them visit a site that does not convert them.  Money wasted!
• Working with a website graphic designer who creates a beautiful site that either no one will ever see, or is so fancy that visitors get lost in the flash and dazzle and do not convert.  Money wasted!

T = Traffic

You can have the greatest web site in the world, but if no one ever sees it, you might as well have never invested the money.  It is like a tree falling in the deep woods… know one hears it fall.  Generating effective and targeted traffic to your website is vital to its success.  There are a variety of different and effective strategies that you can deploy to generate traffic and potentially fo viral, but it is only one cog in the wheel for your web presence.  To create real velocity for your site you need to have a comprehensive strategic plan that leads with the generation of traffic to your site.  What is yours?

L = Layout

I have had clients spend thousands of dollars working with a web graphic design artist creating a great looking website that was basically worthless to them because it looked real cool, but did not keep visitors on their site and effectively directing them to where they wanted them to go.  I have seen amazing flash sites and beautiful layouts that look great but either overwhelm you with options or do not effectively guide you to where you want them to go, which should be based on education, need and a “Call to Action”.  In the end you think “that was cool”, but go back to Google to find what you are looking for, as cool without being able to find what you are searching for is a lost opportunity.

A site’s layout needs to be designed for the visitor and not you.  They need to like the look, but more important the site needs to guide the visitor to where you want them to go in order to elevate the visit into an educational experience that helps facilitate an opportunity to capture and convert the visitor.  If  your site does not guide your visitor to the call to action you want, then it is not an effective marketing tool to grow your business.

C = Conversion

Why spend thousands to  drive  clicks to your site if you do not have a strategy to capture, communicate and convert into prospects and ultimately sales.  The primary objective of your website is not to tell the world how great you are.  The primary objective of your website strategy is to educate your visitor and offer them information in order to capture the contact information of prospects, so your can convert them into either a sale or dialogue of communication that will establish rapport (like, trust, respect) in order to open up sales opportunities.

Your layout is all about driving your visitor to a call to action that will enable you to capture and convert them as a prospect and begin a dialogue with them.  Visitors rarely will just give you their name and email offering them a newsletter or to get more information unless they are looking for you.  That does not represent much traffic for most sites.  You have to have an offer of value than will motivate your target to give you their contact data in exchange for something they perceive has value to them.

Once you capture them you can then implement an effective targeted marketing strategy, but without effective TLC you will never convert your web presence to its full potential……

As always, more to come

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