"Marketing is a circle that starts with your idea for generating revenue
and completes itself when you have the patronage of repeat and referral
business."
From The Guerrilla Marketing Toolkit by Mitch Meyerson and Jay Conrad Levinson.
"Marketing is not about spending money on such things as advertising, direct mail and PR. Those are just tools. Marketing is about growing your business - its revenues, profit and valuation."
Mark Stevens, from his excellent book Your marketing sucks
Today I've been "pimping my blog", as David Meerman Scott would say, and I've just added RSS.
"What's RSS?" you say. Well, it's a great way to keep track of all your favourite blogs from a single web page.
To explain the benefits of RSS here's a reprint of a mini-tutorial by A-list blogger and online marketing savant Brian Clark.
And after you've added The Profitable Website Manual to your RSS feed reader I highly recommend adding Brian's blog, Copyblogger, as well. It's simply one of the best written and most insightful blogs on online marketing around.
Take it away Brian:
And why should I care?
Good questions. First, here’s why you should care.
When someone clicks on your about us page they usually have one question in mind: "Who are these guys?" Your potential customers want to get a sense of the people behind your website. And they're looking for signs of trust and credibility.
An about us page gives you a legitimate opportunity to talk about yourself. So don't blow it by filling the page with hype, boring mission statements or meaningless marketing fluff.
Instead, you should use this page to start building a relationship with the reader. At the same time you can reinforce why you're a better choice than your competitors.
Why your about us page matters
The about us page has an important role in providing visitors comfort and trust in your company and your ability to meet their needs. It exists to:
This page is particularly important if you're selling products over the web. People need reassurance that you're a reputable business before they'll enter their credit card details.
Here are six tips for what to include - and what not to include - on your about us page:
Simple, unobtrusive designs that support users are successful because they abide by the Web's nature - and they make people feel good.
Jakob Nielsen, website usability guru
Many websites seem to be designed for the sole purpose of being cool, different or winning design awards. But a business website must be designed to meet its business objectives. Otherwise it's a waste of money… even if it does look good.
Good design is important on the Web. But if your site's going to be a success, it can't be designed in a vacuum. Here are four essential website design principles to help ensure your website is profitable:
Targeted traffic is the lifeblood of every profitable website.
A profitable website depends on two numbers: the number of visitors to the site and the proportion that actually become customers. These metrics are known as "traffic" and "conversion rate". Increasing either one means better results.
The first three ingredients of a profitable website - simple and effective strategy, high-quality design and customer-focussed content - all relate to raising conversion rates. So it's no surprise the fourth ingredient is targeted traffic.
That's because your website is like a billboard in the desert. It doesn't matter how good it is, if no one sees it, it's absolutely worthless. So you need a strategy to attract targeted traffic your website.
The most popular way people find websites is through search engines such as Google, Yahoo and msn. You can expect a large proportion of your website traffic to come from these search engines.
But people can also find out about your site in other online and off-line media. For example, they might visit your website after you give them a business card with the URL on it. Or they might see a print advertisement encouraging them to visit your site.
Here are three powerful strategies to ensure a steady flow of targeted traffic to your website:
"Marketing is everything you do that makes the sale easier."
Stephen Fairley, author
The graphics and the technology are a minor part of web success. The content is the hard part, and it is also what will make your website a success or failure.
Gerry McGovern, author of Killer Website Content
It's hard to go wrong when your website offers, well-organised, well-written, customer-focused content. But from my experience few companies heed Gerry McGovern's advice for creating a successful website.
They focus all their effort on creating an eye-catching design. The content is usually an afterthought - a badly organised mish-mash of brochure copy, old press releases and stale marketing clichés.
Websites like this are rarely profitable. They fail to deliver enquiries, leads and sales. In fact, a website without high-quality content can easily drive potential customers away and erode hard-earned brand equity.
If your website isn't getting the results you would like, don't spend any more money on a prettier look and feel. Rather, make the content on your site a priority. Here are five reasons why:
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Alan Lakein, author and time management expert
A simple and clear strategy is the foundation of a successful website. Unfortunately, creating an effective strategy is the most difficult part of building your site. You need to do a bit of research and give the matter some deep thought. Perhaps that's why so many business owners skip this crucial step.
But rest assured, the difference between success and failure often comes down to website strategy. It's far better to have a solid strategy with mediocre execution, than a poor strategy that's brilliantly executed.
Strategy is about aligning your website with the needs of your target market. Developing a strategy forces you to consider what result you want and how you'll get it. It guides the design and content of your website, without hampering creativity. And it ensures the site meets your most important business objectives.
So how do you develop a strategy? By answering the following five questions:
How do you avoid having one of the 90% of business websites that don't bring in more business? By understanding and avoiding these seven common website myths that stop your website being profitable:
Myth 1: If you build it, they will come
The idea that "if you build it, they will come" worked for Kevin Costner in the movie "Field of Dreams", but it doesn't work for websites. Yet this is the most persistent and dangerous website myth.
Many people assume that if they put a site up on the web they'll be swamped with customer enquiries and new business. They won't.
Customers don't just magically appear at your site. You must have cost-effective ways of generating targeted traffic. And you have to use proven strategies and techniques to convert browsers into customer enquiries and sales.
