Before you spend another dime on your Website
12/10/2007 - By Janice Waddick WHY ISN’T MY WEB SITE WORKING?
Before you spend another dime on Internet marketing or spend money on fancy web design or scrap your existing site and decide that the Internet simply doesn’t work for your business. Read this article.Establishing and maintaining a successful Internet presence can be one of the most challenging and rewarding objectives any company can embark on. However, without an effective success strategy, your Internet initiative can quickly become a painful liability and disappointment.
During World War II, the SPITFIRE aircraft and the pilots that flew it, more than any other single factor, decided the outcome of the Battle of Britain and changed the course of World War II.
AIS Media developed the SPITFIRE formula after having helped hundreds of companies establish and maintain an effective Internet strategy. It is our proven success acceleration strategy, which can decide the outcome of your Internet initiative and change the course of your business forever.
1. SPECIFY your web site’s primary objective. What is the most important thing you want your web site to do for your business? Sell your products/services? Generate sales leads? Enhance the quality of your customer support?
Sure, your web site can be informative and sell. However, make sure you have a clear call to action. Would you prefer your prospective customers to call your office and speak to a sales associate or buy online? Make a decision and build your web site around it.
2. PROJECT your results. If you plan to sell products/services, have a clear goal. How many you will need to sell daily, weekly and monthly to break even. At what price? Be sure to consider all of your fixed costs associated with maintaining your web site. Also consider that your results in six months may be substantially better than in your first.
3. IDENTIFY the tools and resources you will need. Make no mistake, on the Internet, your web site IS your business. Just like office space, your visitors do judge your company and place a value on your products/services by the quality of your web site.
Does your web site lack a professional look and feel? Do you offer secure, online payment processing? Is your site equipped with latest lead-capture and Internet marketing tools? How fast and reliable is your web hosting service?
4. TARGET your market. More eyeballs don’t necessarily equate to more sales. Who are your best customers? What are their demographics? How can they best be reached? How do you plan on driving traffic to your web site? Internet marketing? Traditional marketing?
5. FOCUS your offer. Will you use a loss-leader and up-sell your customers later? Will you offer the best price? Will you capitalize on superior service or product quality? Will you use bonuses and incentives to create urgency?
5. IMPLEMENT your action plan. Monitor results and be prepared to analyze your statistics. Make sure you have the right reporting tools in place and you know how to interprete the information properly.
6. REFINE your strategy. Don’t say “the Internet doesn’t work” if you don’t get the results you want right away. Set realistic expectations. Be prepared to make changes. Are you getting the right traffic? Which offers and price points are working best?
7. ENHANCE your results. There is always room for improvement. Is your web site is performing well? It could do better. How could you double your results? Listen to your visitors and customers. They are your best resource for good advice.
GTA Web Solutions is a Greater Toronto based licensed provider of AIS Media services. We are an end-to-end solutions provider that designs, implements and supports highly functional websites. We work directly with you to define specific project requirements, oversee the project implementation, and provide ongoing support. Founded in 1997, AIS Media is an Internet consultancy and services firm.Through licensed providers like GTA Web Solutions, they help companies and organizations solve complex business and marketing challenges through creative Internet-based solutions while managing costs effectively. AIS Media has helped hundreds of companies worldwide, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations, profit from the Internet.
