Use of Cookies
A cookie is a short text that is placed in a the hard disk of a visitor's computer, by the website. Thereafter, whenever that particular visitor accesses the website, the cookie is sent back to the server. This is beneficial in tracking down some important information about the visitor's surfing habits, which may help to facilitate the process of conversion of casual visitors into potential or actual customers.
To summarize, internet marketing has added a completely new dimension to the concept of marketing in general, and traditional marketing style in particular. Effective use of different online marketing strategies would definitely enhance your business prospects. The crucial point, though, is the use of these strategies in the right way, to give that extra edge to your business and surpass your competitors.
Effective Website Marketing Strategies
So you want to put your business online, but you don’t know what to do? Here are some basic, but effective website marketing strategies for the newbie…
Effective Website Marketing Strategies
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A website is an interesting tool for a business that wants to sell its products or services over the internet. While it gives your company a global presence, it also opens one more channel for enquiries to come in and sales to happen.
Your website is your company’s face on the internet, and needs to be treated as such. Here are a few things that will help you.
Analyze the following before embarking on this mission: What is the aim or goal of getting your website on the net? Who is your target market? What is their age group and gender? What are their preferences in terms of colors and content? What is their spending capacity in relation to the product / service that you plan to sell on your website? Will your website make it easy for them to ask questions / place an order / access customer service and how? Who are your competitors? What makes them your competition? Why are you better than your competitors? What do you want to convey to the world via the website?
Be very specific when you answer these questions, because these are going to be your guidelines for designing the website and writing its content.
The website design must be in line with the overall ‘look and feel’ of your company’s marketing collateral (logo, brochure, letterhead etc.). At the same time, the design must not be "too heavy". A rule of thumb is that the webpage should load in 12 seconds. Bear in mind, that not every person in the world has a broadband connection. There are still some people out there with dial-up connections, who might be your potential customers. The average website viewer is not going to wait for hours on end for your page to load. He will move on.
The website content should give out all the relevant information to the viewers, without being too prosaic. The average website viewer is not going to stick around on your website reading reams of data, unless he is writing a thesis on it. On the net, people want to see the information right away, in one sweeping glance. Make sure the content is short and sweet and to the point.
A simple website is written in a language called ‘Hyper Text Markup Language’ or HTML. Of course, there are other languages, programs and code that have come up for adding functionality and beauty to your website.
The content of the website must be optimized for search engines. These search engines are the best thing that happened to websites. They make it easy for you to reach your target market. Go through their search engine optimization tips. Respect them and their rules.
The search engines look at the content of your website for ‘keywords’. These are the words you type into the ‘search’ box while looking for something specific on the net. Keep your keywords relevant to your business. Include them into the content of your website. Write the code for with your keywords accordingly. Keep the content straightforward. Don’t overdo it with the keywords.
Use effective titles for each HTML page to make them easy to be searched. Don’t put all your various products / services on one selling page - this will confuse the customers. Categorize them and give them a page of their own. Do provide all the relevant information about your products / services in a brief, concise and informative manner. Ensure that your website does not have any broken links. If you are going to have your brochures etc. available for downloading, then be sure that these are also in keeping with the ‘look and feel’ of all your marketing collateral (including the website).
Going further, you can hire professionals in this field to do the job for you. They can suggest even more effective strategies to ensure that your aim is met. Keep your website structure flexible, so that you can change it when you increase / decrease the number of your products / services. Log on to various relevant forums or networking sites to promote your website. Always keep the website up-to-date.
Don’t expect results overnight. These things take time to happen.
The Mom Factor: What Really Drives Where We Shop, Eat, and Play
Marketing to Mom: Eleven Ways to Infuse Your Business Establishment with "The Mom Factor". A groundbreaking new book from Urban Land Institute explains how Moms decide where to spend their time and money in restaurants, stores, theme parks, and other family attractions.
The Mom Factor: What Really Drives Where We Shop, Eat, and Play
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Listen to your mother. It's good advice for practically everyone. But if you own or manage a store, restaurant, amusement park, sports arena, museum, or any other location where families go to spend money, this friendly little admonishment takes on a whole new meaning. Simply put, mothers control America's purse strings. And that truth, according to a compelling new book from the Urban Land Institute, is reason enough to get them firmly in your corner.
"It is estimated that women engage in 80 to 88 percent of all consumer spending in the U.S.," says Nora Lee, author of The Mom Factor: What Really Drives Where We Shop, Eat, and Play
(Urban Land Institute, 2005, ISBN: 0-87420-944-7, $19.95). "Now, consider that three-fourths of America's 108 million adult women are mothers. It doesn't take a mathematician to see that Moms make well over half the consumer buying decisions in this country! That is staggering financial power . . . so why don't businesses bend over backwards to attract us?"
It's a good question, and one that is thoroughly explored in Lee's book. She explains up front that The Mom Factor is not "Encyclopedia Maternica" but is "one Mom/businesswoman's analysis of a very complex subject, based on a decade of professional scrutiny and careful thought." Considering that there is almost no hard data on Moms, per se, this is a strong reason for retailers and others to take note. The fact that it's well written and overflowing with commonsense ideas is another.
The Mom Factor is rich in real-life observations and anecdotal evidence of what happens when companies ignore Mom and what happens when they acknowledge her. And Lee has helpfully concentrated her findings into what she calls "The Mom Factor Checklist," eleven elements that make a store, restaurant, or other family venue appealing to mothers. Here, condensed from the book, is her list:
1. Health and Safety: Planting the Seeds of a Customer Dynasty. Moms can see danger around every corner. Spills in the aisle, cholesterol-laden food, inedible decorative plants, rickety roller-coaster wheels, bad sightlines at the arcade, and nasty restrooms at the stadium all represent a very slippery slope. On the other hand, if a business provides quick cleanups, appetizing healthy alternatives, barriers to overinquisitive little fingers, evidence of regular safety inspections and maintenance, a clear view of the little ones, and sparkling restrooms, it might well have a customer for life, or, even more important, the beginnings of a customer dynasty with Mom at the center.
2. Customer Service: The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow. Mom says, "Pay attention to me," but often in a soft, self-deprecating voice. Snooty waiters who prefer adults lose both tips and repeat business, but the waiter who brings the toddler some crackers and the first-grader a set of crayons--without being asked--is golden. In good mall design, service and safety include a well-marked pickup and drop-off location for the teens who don't want to be seen with Mom. The clerk who is empowered to make a decision on a return or a sale price beats the heck out of "Duh, I'll have to get the manager, who might be back after lunch."
3. Value: Cheap Does Not Always Equal a Good Deal. Some of the wealthiest among us could be found at Target on a Saturday afternoon. Mom's idea of value translates to a balance of reasonable prices, decent quality, and good selection. Just as Mom will pay more for good customer service, so will she pay more for good quality, but it's always a balancing act. Cheap flip-flops make sense for one summer of beach-going. But it might be worth it to get a good, warm, more expensive coat (maybe a size too large) to last her youngest the whole winter.
4. Efficiency: When Money Buys Time. Efficiency is why grocery stores now have banks and Jamba Juice, and banks have a Starbucks, and ATMs sell stamps--for those moments when time is of the essence. It's often a little thing. For instance, there are grocery chains in the United States and the United Kingdom that actually listened when Moms asked them to remove the gum and candy impulse items from the checkout areas. Moms were tired of ending their trips to the store with a battle with the kids over the "I wannas!" Grocery shopping instantly became more pleasant and more efficient.
5. Social and Community Conscience: Why Pink Ribbons Work. Giant discounters that hire the differently abled or give a set portion of their profits to local schools are more likely to see Mom repeatedly than those that do not. Products displaying pink ribbons attract attention and dollars because Mom's mother or aunt or sister had breast cancer. She'll drive the extra miles to take the kids to the family entertainment center that is holding a fundraiser for the Humane Society because then her role as cheerleader and as a purse with legs has some meaning. And if she is so inclined, she has an opportunity to give one of those Mom speeches about putting your money where your mouth is.
6. Story: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of. At a zoo, establishing a personal connection with an orangutan named Clyde, who's 22 years old, loves blueberries, and has a jealous mate named Audrey, helps both Mom and child immerse themselves personally in Clyde's story and, more broadly, in the story of a Southeast Asian forest habitat in danger. Story helps not only in theme parks, zoos, museums, and attractions, but to a lesser extent in malls, stores, restaurants, and sporting events. Even the flashing lights and thunder that accompany
the misting of produce in many grocery stores represent a kind of storytelling.
7. Comfort: Now, It's Personal. OK, my feet are killing me, and I've spent $213 for bags full of stuff that are now dragging me down. Where do I sit for a minute? How about my kids, who of course have all the energy I lack? Mom wants to be comfortable. She wants clean restrooms and plenty of them, good ventilation and smoking control, effective queue management, tables that don't smash Dad's knees when he sits down, room to maneuver around racks of merchandise, and maybe even a peaceful place to retreat to for a few minutes, before tackling the to-do list again. Invest in her comfort and she will invest in you.
8. Learning and Teaching Opportunities: The School of Mom. Mom looks for education everywhere: the milking display at the county fair, the furniture factory tour, the traveling display on the life of Ray Charles at the mall, the hayride outside of town, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln at Disneyland, and Hall of Fame displays at the football stadium. Even restaurants can offer lesson opportunities, if Grandpa draws on the paper tablecloth while the little ones watch, or the décor consists of World War II flyers' memorabilia.
9. Fun: The Pursuit of Amusement Equality. Whether the destination is a family entertainment center, museum, local mall, sporting event, or the beach, Mom aims for the most fun for the most people, and all too often sacrifices her own enjoyment for that of others. After all, she knows firsthand the cost of disappointment; it's written on the faces of those kids. The destination that helps her in her quest will win her dollars and her loyalty. The one that considers her own pleasure and then delivers will win her devotion--and a small shrine on which she will place generous offerings of chocolate and comfortable shoes!
10. Continuity and Change: Baby, Don't Ever Change . . . Much. The paradoxical appeal of both change and continuity has a special fuzzy place in the Mom Factor. Mom likes variety and a degree of cool, to keep the kids interested. So the new ride at Disneyland is a good thing. So are an array of choices on the café menu, and spring fashions, and the new joey at the zoo. But you're in peril if you mess with the Tiki Room and its animatronic birds, or white Jockey Classics in the boys department, or the meerkat habitat that has always been at the entrance to the zoo. A balance between change and continuity is necessary to keep Mom and her family happy. If change is for the better, then make sure better is really better.
11. Connection to the Heart: A Moving Experience Doesn't Mean Installing an Escalator. Care, concern, conscience, community, wonder, engagement, love, comfort, fun, enjoyment, loyalty, pleasure, delight, and passion. These words all denote a personal, emotional connection between Mom and her world. In an increasingly impersonal, technology-addicted society, Mom is the touchstone for matters of heart. Even in commercial transactions, Mom takes things personally. If a business demonstrates disregard for the safety of her kids, or inattention to its own responsibility to her community, or disrespect for her or her family, she won't just turn away--she'll get angry. Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned.