Printer Friendly Version                                    Back to Capsules    Taking Your Online Marketing To The Next Level Inevitably, every company reaches a point where it must re-evaluate its initial online marketing and consider how to take it to the next level. In moving to the next level, two sets of issues will be intertwined. The first are the strategic questions of how to boost your marketing, operations and communications efforts. The second are the cosmetic and design challenges in improving web sites. You have two online vehicles available for online marketing: e-mail and the Web. And there are two basic approaches: push, in which you send messages out to customers and prospects, and pull, in which you hope to entice them to come to your web site. Often marketing campaigns will combine those various possibilities but it is possible to be successful with just one element. Many Ways to Use the Web Selling online can range from a very simple process in which customers order through e-mail, perhaps directly from your Web site, to a full-blown e-commerce arrangement in which they shop online, pay online, and receive confirmations and information on delivery online. It's therefore important for you to clarify your goals. You may simply want to improve the current online channel you have developed for dealing with existing customers and modestly expand to find new prospects. Or you may have a much more dramatic change in mind, taking advantage of the Web to reach people who otherwise would never hear of you or to gain cost savings in your operation through online sales. Evaluating Your Site You also need to evaluate how your web site fares – and what improvements you want to make – when benchmarked against four fundamental principles: the need to be information rich, interactive, attuned to individualized experiences, and integrated with your business. Take some time as well to surf the Web, studying other sites for design, colours, ease of navigation, and the depth of the site (how many clicks you have to go to find information). It's important to remember that visitors to Web sites scan for information of direct interest to them rather than spending much time reading a particular page so the text within your website should be concise. Information should not be buried deep within a site since the more levels users have to visit in order to get the information they want, the less chance they will find this information. Some questions you'll want to ask – about your current and future efforts – are: Have you taken sufficient advantage of links, to and from your site, with logical partners? Are you easy to find on the most popular search engines? Have you done everything you can to bring customers and prospects to the site through conventional means? You also need to look at whether you can begin, or accentuate, your permission marketing efforts – sending e-mail messages to prospects and customers who have signified their interest in receiving useful information from your company or your web site. Also: can you begin, or enhance, loyalty programs through online channels? It's important not to rush about madly, trying too much. Online, just as offline, it pays to know your goals and attack them in a systematic fashion. If you would like more information or assistance with Taking Your Online Marketing To The Next Level for your organization, please contact us.