subject: Key aspects of an online marketing plan for more web traffic [print this page] Key aspects of an online marketing plan for more web traffic
It does not matter how good a product or service actually is if nobody knows about its existence and what it can do, it will not fly. A marketing plan is vital for the success of any business. And while the internet provides many opportunities to market your product to a large audience, you must have a deliberate plan on how to do so if you are to succeed. An online marketing plan will help your business better position itself on the web in order to make its products more visible and easier to find.
As you develop your plan, you must start by identifying your target market and positioning your product accordingly. While many businesses have developed websites and launched their products on the web, many do not take time to study, identify and target the appropriate market for their business. The internet is a 2-billion user strong market place enormous by any standard. But the internet is also diverse and not everybody is everywhere, so to speak. An online marketing plan must identify the sites where you kind of clients would frequent or establish the kind of things your target market would be looking for online.
Businesses that do not have a well thought out online marketing plan may find that their business attracts substantial web traffic but does not convert to any sales. This could be because you are marketing your product to the wrong audience. But it could also be because you have attracted the right web traffic but have not prepared your website appropriately enough for them to buy your product or want to return.
That is why preparing your website must precede any off page marketing strategies. By the time you establish a profile on social networking sites and direct users to your website, or post articles on article directories that redirect web traffic to your site for more information, your website must have all the information and functionality required. The last thing you would want is to spend time, money and energy to invite web traffic to your site only for the visitors not to find the information or functionality promised.
Set up and assign responsibility for updating your website regularly. Prices should be up to date. If you want visitors to have the ability to make purchases on your site, set up a shopping cart and find ways of working with an online merchant payments service provider. The ability to receive payments from major credit card service providers would be particularly ideal.
Part of a business online marketing plan should include an invitation to subscribe to an email newsletter. Do not restrict only to persons that make purchases. Anyone that visited your website must have been drawn to it by something and there is a good chance that they may only require a little nudge to buy. Once your marketing plan has covered all the things you need to do on your website, you can embark on off page techniques.
