Improve Your Marketing
Results: Identify Your Offers
Before
you can improve marketing results, identify the offers
your site makes
Lack of clear direction. It’s a problem faced
by many internet marketers. Ask yourself what you want
to get out of your website or marketing campaign. With
no clear goal, it is impossible to know what to track,
let alone plot a course for improvement.
It’s tough to say who is to blame for this lack of focus.
Is it the business owner? How about the web designer?
The IT department? What about the marketing department?
The responsibility likely falls in the hands of each
of these groups.
The internet is still new enough that most businesses
are not accustomed to thinking about what they want
out of their web investment. Or they simply say, "We
need to get more out of it," or "We know we
can get more out of it, but we don't know how."
The secret is to understand your offer, and focus on
improving it.
I’ve seen it all in my experience consulting and also
building websites. Most small businesses don’t want
to incur the expense of planning out a sound marketing
strategy. Larger companies simply do not want to take
the time. The IT department doesn’t really care. And
graphic designers... they are great at making things
look good, but usually could care less about marketing
goals.
Luckily things seem to be changing and the above generalizations
certainly do not apply to the most successful websites.
If you want to improve your internet marketing effectiveness,
you have to understand the offer your business is making.
Understanding your offer requires a bit of strategic
thinking. The old "Think forward and reason back"
rule applies here. What do you want to get out of your
web marketing? Once you know this, its easier to see
what your offer is (or needs to be.)
Most websites and online marketing campaigns are similar.
They want one or more of a handful of things. See if
you can pick out the offers most relevant to your business.
Lead Generation:
Service businesses, and companies who sell products
with a complex or long buying cycle are often most interested
in generating leads through the web. The sales staff
then calls on these leads and (hopefully) makes sales.
Direct Sales:
The internet is a wonderful medium for direct marketing.
Everywhere you turn on the net, you see direct sales
in action. If you are only selling one or two products,
you fall into the direct sales category. Each constitutes
a seperate offer.
Newsletter Signups
Do you have a newsletter? Online newsletters are great
for building a relationship with potential customers.
This offer is informational. A promise of future information
is made, in exhange for the customers email and willingness
to be exposed to a limited amount of advertising.
Event Registrations
The net excels at handling registrations for upcoming
events. Particularly if your audience is technologically
savvy. Do you host or run any events?
Whitepaper signups
Online distribution of whitepapers has become a top
method of lead generation for some businesses. It is
particularly useful for complex products, or those with
a complex buying cycle.
Conclusion: Focus on your offer
Once you have identified the offers your web site or
marketing campaign make, you can work towards improving
your results. The first step is done- identification.
In order to improve your results, you will have to track
the results you are getting.
Scott Miller
___________________________________________
Vertster.com | http://www.vertster.com/
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