7 ways to successfully market your website
A look at some of the top methods to get your website noticed
“Build it and they will come” might have worked for Kevin Costner in the movie Field of Dreams but this not the recipe for a successful website. If you want to sell, you have to first be noticed. David Mackley looks at 7 of the top methods to get your website noticed.
So far in this series we have looked at; how consumers buy online, strategies for selling online and advice on choosing a good website design company. The next step in running a successful website is probably the hardest to get right; marketing your website. But when I speak to retailers about selling online, they rarely have any budget for marketing the website. There is almost an expectation that if they build a website people will visit it. I suppose there can be an element of truth in this, but typically for new websites if they don’t have any marketing sales will remain low for quite some time.
I would say a reasonable budget for website marketing is 10% to 30% of revenue. Interesting to compare this to marketing spend in your bricks and mortar shop. Often the location itself is responsible for the majority of visitors.
TIP: Before considering internet marketing, it is interesting to think about how much you currently spend on marketing for the shop. Try comparing your shop rent and rates to a general office space in a non-retail area. In my local area, Newbury office space is approximately £12 per square foot and retail is double (about £25). The retail rent is higher predominantly because it is in a location with footfall. This difference can be considered as marketing spend. So on a rent of £40,000 the marketing spend is about £20,000 per year. If the shop turns over £200,000 a year, the marketing spend is 10% of revenue.
The choice on how to market your website depends on your strategy (as discussed in a previous issue). Here are the main options.
1. Email marketing. It is well known that the easiest people to sell to are your existing customers. So your marketing should start with building a database of existing customers and set up regular communication with them.
TIP: I suggest using a professional email tool to email your customer base once a fortnight or once a month with a new product or two and links to your website. Remember to add value though, give them some news on latest trends or relevant information as well to keep them reading those emails.
2. Multichannel marketing. Research has shown that multichannel customers spend on average more than customers who shop via a single channel. This option is about promoting your website to your existing shop customers. This could be via promotional material, on receipts or discount vouchers. You might also trying to keep customers thinking about you by offering customer loyalty programs when they shop online and in store.
3. Pay per click advertising. Google’s own pay per click system is called AdWords. You simply pay Google each time someone clicks on your advert. Prices start from a few pence per click. It’s a great way of getting instant traffic, but it is also easy to throw money away unless monitored regularly.
Google will present your ads when a user types certain keywords into Google search. You choose which keywords these are. Good keyword selection is essential to ensure you attract users who are interested in your products and are most likely to buy from you.
TIP: Google offers free telephone advice to businesses starting out with AdWords.
It can be very easy to get carried away and select the most popular keywords recommended by Google AdWords with the highest traffic in terms of clicks. But remember traffic is not your main goal, a successful advertising campaign will bring quality traffic, i.e. people who are more likely to buy. So select keywords for ranges where you have a strong story, whether this is price, range, availability or other angle.
The beauty of AdWords is you can advertise just a small range of your stock. Use this to your advantage and find selected buyers. For example; if you sell Wrangler Stretch Jeans you can choose the following keywords: Jeans (7 million searches), Wrangler Jeans (70,000 searches) or Wrangler Stretch Jeans (8,000 searches). Of these three I would recommend the latter because a) it delivers more highly qualified buyers, b) there is less competition and c) it’s a fraction of the price per click.
TIP: When you create your ad, make sure it is totally relevant to the keywords you choose. The reason for this is that Google assess how many people view your ad and what percentage then click on it. If this percentage is high then Google with think you have a good advert, and as they always want to promote good adverts, they will reward you with higher listings. One of the most common problems is that people don’t make their adverts relevant enough. So in the example above, mention “Wrangler Stretch Jeans” and include a competitive statement. Then you are more likely to get a higher percentage of clicks.
If you are already using Google AdWords, why not try Yahoo! Advertising. It is less competitive and can also deliver good results.
4. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This is about getting visibility in the natural results in search engines. There is no fee per click here. But in a competitive market, with lots of other companies vying for first page listing in Google, how will you convince Google you are worthy of a top spot? In my mind SEO is the most important marketing activity for a serious retailer for the mid-term because once you have a good ranking and continue to do the right things it’s a sustainable way of generating visits to your website.
So, how do you do it? Well for serious businesses who are keen to be around for years to come, there is no quick fix. No magic in SEO. Success comes from having the right attitude and hard work. By attitude I mean wanting to positively contribute to the web. If you want to do this by offering a great shopping experience with interesting, original content then you are halfway there. If you (or your SEO company) then participates in relevant discussion with the online community then your site will eventually be seen as an authority in the area you are in. If Google sees you as an authority it gives you higher listings.
Google are successful because they have consistently beaten the others at presenting the best websites for a given search phrase. If they consider yours to be a good website then you will be in the top group. There are many factors in how they determine what makes a good website, but part of it is the quality and originality of the content (yes they do read it) and the number of votes your website has. Votes are other websites linking back to yours.
Google AdWords (Orange) and Natural Listings (Green)
5. Affiliate Marketing. An affiliate marketing agency is like a dating agency between 2 businesses; affiliates and merchants. The affiliates are websites with lots of visitors and some space available. In this space the owners are happy to put in selected adverts from merchants. What makes a good affiliate is that they have lots of good content on their site and lots of niche traffic, i.e. visitors interested in a specific subject. For example, an good affiliate might be a popular party organizer. The owner may use an affiliate network to meet with fashion merchants. If they select you, your advert or garment would appear on their site. When a user clicks on the link and buys something from you, you pay commission to the affiliate (usually about 15%). This is a little more to it than that, but affiliate marketing is a fast growing area because the concept is you pay only when you sell something. In practice, the truth is it takes time and understanding to attract the right affiliates to make it work.
6. Social Network, Media and Viral Marketing. Social sites have turned the web upside down in the last few years. A good social campaign can result in increased brand exposure and thousands of new website visitors. One way to start is with the social news websites like Digg and del.isio.us. You can upload interesting news stories to these sites but it is important to get a feel for the type of content that each community is likely to be interested in. You can then upload your story and tag it so that users interested in your type of story can see it and recommend it to others in the community.
A second option that may be worth considering is though Pay Per Click activities on networking sites like Facebook. If you think your market is the type that will use Facebook then it’s worth looking into this.
7. Print media. I cannot leave out print media advertising as it can play an important part in a successful website marketing campaign. Adverts in magazines and newspapers can drive high quality, targeted traffic to your website. PR in magazines and newspapers is a great way of promoting your website as well. However it does take time and is a skill in its own right, but if you are enthusiastic, up for a challenge it can be very rewarding and it’s free. PR can range from product reviews to news items about the business. I know retailers who frequently get in leading national magazines and newspapers like The Sunday Times which can create a real buzz on the website. For those new to PR a starting point could be the local paper, but keep an eye on the results as you may be wasting time by not getting enough business in return for the effort.
How to measure the performance of your marketing spend.
More than any other sales channel, website marketing activities can be measured more cleanly and more accurately. It has been a revolution in marketing analysis. For independent retailers I do suggest looking no further than Google Analytics because it is superb and free. To get started with Analytics create a Google Account then set up an Analytics account. It will provide you a snippet of code to give to your web company who will be able to add this to your website. The simplicity and flexibility of reporting is superb. This may be covered in more detail in a future article.
David Mackley MBA BSc is MD of Intelligent Retail – providers of Multichannel EPoS and eCommerce websites for independent retailers. If you have any questions you can contact David on 0845 6800126 or dmackley@intelligentretail.co.uk
.
So far in this series we have looked at; how consumers buy online, strategies for selling online and advice on choosing a good website design company. The next step in running a successful website is probably the hardest to get right; marketing your website. But when I speak to retailers about selling online, they rarely have any budget for marketing the website. There is almost an expectation that if they build a website people will visit it. I suppose there can be an element of truth in this, but typically for new websites if they don’t have any marketing sales will remain low for quite some time.
I would say a reasonable budget for website marketing is 10% to 30% of revenue. Interesting to compare this to marketing spend in your bricks and mortar shop. Often the location itself is responsible for the majority of visitors.
TIP: Before considering internet marketing, it is interesting to think about how much you currently spend on marketing for the shop. Try comparing your shop rent and rates to a general office space in a non-retail area. In my local area, Newbury office space is approximately £12 per square foot and retail is double (about £25). The retail rent is higher predominantly because it is in a location with footfall. This difference can be considered as marketing spend. So on a rent of £40,000 the marketing spend is about £20,000 per year. If the shop turns over £200,000 a year, the marketing spend is 10% of revenue.
The choice on how to market your website depends on your strategy (as discussed in a previous issue). Here are the main options.
1. Email marketing. It is well known that the easiest people to sell to are your existing customers. So your marketing should start with building a database of existing customers and set up regular communication with them.
TIP: I suggest using a professional email tool to email your customer base once a fortnight or once a month with a new product or two and links to your website. Remember to add value though, give them some news on latest trends or relevant information as well to keep them reading those emails.
2. Multichannel marketing. Research has shown that multichannel customers spend on average more than customers who shop via a single channel. This option is about promoting your website to your existing shop customers. This could be via promotional material, on receipts or discount vouchers. You might also trying to keep customers thinking about you by offering customer loyalty programs when they shop online and in store.
3. Pay per click advertising. Google’s own pay per click system is called AdWords. You simply pay Google each time someone clicks on your advert. Prices start from a few pence per click. It’s a great way of getting instant traffic, but it is also easy to throw money away unless monitored regularly.
Google will present your ads when a user types certain keywords into Google search. You choose which keywords these are. Good keyword selection is essential to ensure you attract users who are interested in your products and are most likely to buy from you.
TIP: Google offers free telephone advice to businesses starting out with AdWords.
It can be very easy to get carried away and select the most popular keywords recommended by Google AdWords with the highest traffic in terms of clicks. But remember traffic is not your main goal, a successful advertising campaign will bring quality traffic, i.e. people who are more likely to buy. So select keywords for ranges where you have a strong story, whether this is price, range, availability or other angle.
The beauty of AdWords is you can advertise just a small range of your stock. Use this to your advantage and find selected buyers. For example; if you sell Wrangler Stretch Jeans you can choose the following keywords: Jeans (7 million searches), Wrangler Jeans (70,000 searches) or Wrangler Stretch Jeans (8,000 searches). Of these three I would recommend the latter because a) it delivers more highly qualified buyers, b) there is less competition and c) it’s a fraction of the price per click.
TIP: When you create your ad, make sure it is totally relevant to the keywords you choose. The reason for this is that Google assess how many people view your ad and what percentage then click on it. If this percentage is high then Google with think you have a good advert, and as they always want to promote good adverts, they will reward you with higher listings. One of the most common problems is that people don’t make their adverts relevant enough. So in the example above, mention “Wrangler Stretch Jeans” and include a competitive statement. Then you are more likely to get a higher percentage of clicks.
If you are already using Google AdWords, why not try Yahoo! Advertising. It is less competitive and can also deliver good results.
4. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This is about getting visibility in the natural results in search engines. There is no fee per click here. But in a competitive market, with lots of other companies vying for first page listing in Google, how will you convince Google you are worthy of a top spot? In my mind SEO is the most important marketing activity for a serious retailer for the mid-term because once you have a good ranking and continue to do the right things it’s a sustainable way of generating visits to your website.
So, how do you do it? Well for serious businesses who are keen to be around for years to come, there is no quick fix. No magic in SEO. Success comes from having the right attitude and hard work. By attitude I mean wanting to positively contribute to the web. If you want to do this by offering a great shopping experience with interesting, original content then you are halfway there. If you (or your SEO company) then participates in relevant discussion with the online community then your site will eventually be seen as an authority in the area you are in. If Google sees you as an authority it gives you higher listings.
Google are successful because they have consistently beaten the others at presenting the best websites for a given search phrase. If they consider yours to be a good website then you will be in the top group. There are many factors in how they determine what makes a good website, but part of it is the quality and originality of the content (yes they do read it) and the number of votes your website has. Votes are other websites linking back to yours.
Google AdWords (Orange) and Natural Listings (Green)
5. Affiliate Marketing. An affiliate marketing agency is like a dating agency between 2 businesses; affiliates and merchants. The affiliates are websites with lots of visitors and some space available. In this space the owners are happy to put in selected adverts from merchants. What makes a good affiliate is that they have lots of good content on their site and lots of niche traffic, i.e. visitors interested in a specific subject. For example, an good affiliate might be a popular party organizer. The owner may use an affiliate network to meet with fashion merchants. If they select you, your advert or garment would appear on their site. When a user clicks on the link and buys something from you, you pay commission to the affiliate (usually about 15%). This is a little more to it than that, but affiliate marketing is a fast growing area because the concept is you pay only when you sell something. In practice, the truth is it takes time and understanding to attract the right affiliates to make it work.
6. Social Network, Media and Viral Marketing. Social sites have turned the web upside down in the last few years. A good social campaign can result in increased brand exposure and thousands of new website visitors. One way to start is with the social news websites like Digg and del.isio.us. You can upload interesting news stories to these sites but it is important to get a feel for the type of content that each community is likely to be interested in. You can then upload your story and tag it so that users interested in your type of story can see it and recommend it to others in the community.
A second option that may be worth considering is though Pay Per Click activities on networking sites like Facebook. If you think your market is the type that will use Facebook then it’s worth looking into this.
7. Print media. I cannot leave out print media advertising as it can play an important part in a successful website marketing campaign. Adverts in magazines and newspapers can drive high quality, targeted traffic to your website. PR in magazines and newspapers is a great way of promoting your website as well. However it does take time and is a skill in its own right, but if you are enthusiastic, up for a challenge it can be very rewarding and it’s free. PR can range from product reviews to news items about the business. I know retailers who frequently get in leading national magazines and newspapers like The Sunday Times which can create a real buzz on the website. For those new to PR a starting point could be the local paper, but keep an eye on the results as you may be wasting time by not getting enough business in return for the effort.
How to measure the performance of your marketing spend.
More than any other sales channel, website marketing activities can be measured more cleanly and more accurately. It has been a revolution in marketing analysis. For independent retailers I do suggest looking no further than Google Analytics because it is superb and free. To get started with Analytics create a Google Account then set up an Analytics account. It will provide you a snippet of code to give to your web company who will be able to add this to your website. The simplicity and flexibility of reporting is superb. This may be covered in more detail in a future article.
David Mackley MBA BSc is MD of Intelligent Retail – providers of Multichannel EPoS and eCommerce websites for independent retailers. If you have any questions you can contact David on 0845 6800126 or dmackley@intelligentretail.co.uk
.