Creating an internet marketing plan for your website and business. |
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For todays post I am shifting from web hosting a little bit. I want to talk about internet marketing – specifically how to develop a marketing plan for your website and business. The hardest internet marketing concept for me to grasp was how to properly link to your website and how to funnel targeted traffic to your sales pages. I hope that after you are done reading this post, you will have a better understanding of how to market your website and how to properly funnel traffic to the different areas throughout your network of websites, articles, and social bookmarks to make a sale.
Since the success of your website mostly depends on your internet marketing efforts, you should have a well developed plan or blue print on how to market your business products and services.
Most important tip: No one likes websites that sell things
The truth is, driving traffic to a website that is made solely to sell things(a business website) is quite difficult to do. It is even harder to get people to link to a website that sells things – after all, most products are not link worthy/interesting to write about. Unless of course the site linking to you gets something in exchange (affiliate sale).
So how do you get people to buy your products online?
What I have found to be the best way to drive traffic to your business website(or sales pages), is to make a ‘buffer website’. It is important that your buffer website has no sales pitch what so ever. A good buffer website is a website(blog, forum, wiki, etc) that is a hub for free, useful information and freebies.
I am going to use my web hosting business for example, since after all this is a web hosting blog. You may have noticed that this blog is full of free information and tools. You will find very little sales propaganda through the pages of my blog. However, my blog is setup to funnel traffic to my business website where I make the sale. When the user reads my free info I provided, it develops a level of trust and bond with the reader. Therefore, when I forward them to my sales pages, they are more willing to buy from me since I am seen as a ‘friend’ to them – after all, I just provided them with some useful information they didn’t know before.
I wrote an article awhile back on how a blog can drive sales to your business website. You should check it out for a better understanding of buffer sites.
OK. Now to the point – the marketing plan.
Below is a bubble map of how you should setup your websites in order to make the sale. This setup will work for almost every niche on the internet.
The arrows represent where you want to flow your traffic and link building efforts to.
Article Marketing
Write useful but incompletely articles. Word the articles so that they have to visit the site in the resource box of your article to get the finished information. For instance, if I were to write an article about green web hosting, I would say something like ‘green web hosting is somewhat new so there are few companies in the industry. The green web hosting market is completely untapped yada yada yada’. Then in the resource box you would say something like ‘[link]Check out my post about how to turn your web hosting company into a lean, mean, green machine![/link]‘.
You have just provided them with useful information – the green web hosting market is completely untapped. However, you have not said HOW to tap the market. In your resource box, they will know that in order to find out how to go green, they have to read another article that is on your blog or website.
Mini sites like Squidoo and Blogger
What I like to do is setup a couple mini sites that cover similar topics of my info and sales website. If we use web hosting as an example again, I would have my sales website(sells web hosting), my info/buffer site(useful info on web hosting), and a mini site(web hosting company reviews). I would setup the flow of traffic so that the mini sites send the traffic to my info site, and from there you go for the sales page.
Social Bookmarking
With social bookmarking you definitely want to avoid sales pitches at all cost. If you flow traffic directly from the SB to your sales site, I guarantee you that your visitor will leave within seconds. People on social websites are not looking to buy stuff(directly) but looking to be social and read and learn. To convert these people into sales, you need to send them straight to your info website first.
Forum Marketing
Forum marketing is a great way for instant visitors. It is possible to make sales directly from a forum board, but only in certain situations. You can probably get instant sales by posting ads within the forum where it is allowed. In most cases however, It is a good idea to setup your signature to flow the traffic to your info site first.
Word of Mouth
Word of mouth will generate much more quickly for a free and useful web site. A user will forward a friend to a website – ‘hey man I found this great webpage on how to market a website…check it out at http://whatever.com/’
Your Mailing List
You want to build up your list as much as you can from both your sales website and info website. Every time someone buys from you, add them to your mailing list. Every time someone is sent to your info website, try and capture their contact info to add them to your mailing list. Your mailing list is your friend. Be nice to your friend. Don’t send nothing but advertisements to your mailing list. Send them like 5 useful emails that direct them to your info website and on your 6th email, you can slip in a product or two.
The Complete Marketing Plan
By now you should have a general idea of how to flow traffic to your sales pages. However, in order to complete your marketing plan, you need to experiment. As I said before, this strategy will work in almost every niche around, but you need to practice. Figure out which traffic generation sources work the best for your niche and focus on those. Social bookmarking sucks for some people, while other people swear by it. It is just a matter of the niche you are in, and what the buying trends are. Just keep practicing!
Mar 25th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Having a plan online, like directing the marketing efforts to increase site traffic is like pointing yourself to your ends and objectives. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the subject.
Mar 26th, 2009 at 5:02 am
I agree with your post. Marketing plan is the most important factor to ensure Internet Marketer success.
I will love to read your future post. Thanks.
Mar 26th, 2009 at 9:55 am
I love today’s post for one reason:
Too many people are caught up in the business cards, letterhead, and office space that they forget one thing:
It’s about sales! Make some…
And if you’re just getting started – try using a lot of the “free” advertising techniques to build your base (so you CAN quit your day job)..
I remember started out at 15 years old.. the only form of advertising I could do HAD to cost nothing (I was 15 years old!) And I was quickly able to build a multi-million dollar mail order business in the 1980’s at 15!!!
SO I hope newbies and internet marketers really take these tips to heart and make a mint!
Onwards and Upwards,
Jeff Gardner
Founder –
Mar 28th, 2009 at 6:29 am
Great Post , A good marketing plan is really important but with that a good web design is also important that encourage visitors to buy the product
Mar 29th, 2009 at 9:42 am
one of the best SEO advices ive heard in months. kudos!
Apr 15th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Hm. I didn`t understand how we can use article marketing and why do we need to use it! Now I`ve already realized everything)) Thanks to you!
… teasing marketing – that is what!
Jul 9th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Nice Post!
The Internet provides great opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses, but doing business online presents unique challenges and requires new skills. Per my experience search engine optimization would be the best practice to improve your online business.
Jul 17th, 2009 at 12:17 am
i think marketing strategy supports your objective. The strategy defines general approaches you will take to meet your objective. For example, strategies to support the above objective could include improve online communication, information, and education, build awareness of and interest in your company on the Internet, and communicate the Website’s existence and advantages to existing clients.
Jul 21st, 2009 at 2:06 am
I disagree with your opinion “Most important tip: No one likes websites that sell things” It is depend on the authority or how famous the website really are. For example Amazon and Ebay. Their website is only sell things but they already famous enough to make people talk about it.
Jul 29th, 2009 at 2:25 am
I never knew about marketing plans before. I will need to think about this when I market for now on
Aug 4th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
about the maling list. i think i have to change to your way. thanks for this great post Dan
Aug 24th, 2009 at 11:42 am
I agree with your assessment of article marketing to some extent. I think having an editorial calendar, policy and writing style guidelines will help with consistency and continuity as you build your readership with content. Think of creating a broad narrative arc that tie in your “episodic approach.” It’s okay to leave them wanting more but don’t leave them hanging.