An important question to answer when creating or revising a
Web site is "What are the goals of this site?" because the
answer will drive your site design and marketing decisions.
In Part 1 (
http://www.webmarketingarticles.com/CustomerDecision.htm), I
took a look at understanding your site visitors' decision
making process and providing them with the right
information, thus converting more visitors to purchasers.
Here in Part 2 I will present some tips for attracting the
right customers to your site and ideas for profiting through
information sites.
Breaking Through the Clutter
If you are like most of us, getting people to pay attention
and understand how you can help them is a daunting task.
Repeated exposure is one way to catch your target customers'
interest.
James Maduk has a unique system for doing just that, without
becoming a pest. He has what he calls a search engine "Site
Mesh" consisting of a hub and spoke family of Web sites (The
hub and spoke concept is explained further in Part 1.).
By structuring the sites so they are related, but with each
spoke a highly targeted, one-page site selling only a single
product, he is able to achieve multiple listings on
competitive key words in the search engines.
James explains, "What this means is that instead of having
one chance of someone finding my site, I now have 55 chances
- or as many chances as I have sales pages."
As an example, James owns three of the top 15 sites
currently listed in the Google search engine under "sell
audio ebooks", including the #1 and #2 listed sites. These
same results appear in the Yahoo! engine as well, all at no
cost.
(Author Note: For a free audio-visual demonstration of
James' Google and Yahoo! search engine results for numerous
keywords, go to his "Getting Ranked 1st on Google" sales
page and click on "Proof" in the bottom navigation.)
Managing Sales Sites
In Part 1, Karon Thackston explained the multi-step buying
decision and why many of your visitors may not yet be ready
to purchase. If you own a sales site, those early in the
decision process are not likely to buy from you.
There are ways, however, you can attract visitors to your
site who are approaching the purchase stage. One is to have
a presence on information sites that attract visitors in
your target customer groups. On the information sites,
visitors are gathering information and evaluating options.
In other words, they are preparing to make a purchase.
Michelle Horstman, owner of Choice Promotional Products,
www.choicepromotionalproducts.com, says, "I do get hits from
advertising on 'informative' sites such as
www.barmitzvahfindit.com, where they have a vendor area."
For those on a limited budget, Michelle suggests purchasing
advertising on sites that participate in pay-per-click
programs like Overture or Google AdWords.
"When you list with Google and others on your own, you may
have to pay more than your ROI would justify." She explains.
"However, when you advertise with an informational site,
that site can afford to pay more for the clicks, since they
are supported by multiple vendors/advertisers. Ask the site
if they'll offer a trial period so you can see how much
traffic it is producing."
Managing an Information Site
If you run an information site, the majority of your
visitors will be too early in the decision process to
purchase. So how can you both attract visitors in the early
decision stages and earn revenue?
You can attract information seekers by structuring each page
in your site so it gives information on a specific topic.
This expands the list of key words through which searchers
can find your site.
Other ways to earn revenue from an information site:
- Initiate the two step selling process James recommends in
Part 1.
- Participate in a few select affiliate programs, which you
can promote on topic-specific pages in your Web site.
- Join a targeted advertising network such as Google's
AdSense.
- Sell your own advertising space.
In any case, coordinating your Web site marketing to attract
visitors in the "right" decision making stage creates a win-
win situation. Your visitors find the information they need
and you profit - through sales, advertising, or affiliate
revenue - by meeting those needs.
About the Author
Bobette Kyle draws upon 10+ years of Marketing/Executive
experience, Marketing MBA, and online marketing research in
her writing. Her book, "How Much for Just the Spider?
Strategic Web Site Marketing for Small-Budget Businesses",
shows how to better find, target, and attract Web customers.
Read about it at WebSiteMarketingPlan.com -
http://WebSiteMarketingPlan.com.