Owning and running a website requires a strategy – without strategy you can’t have direction and without direction you can’t have purpose and without purpose… well you get the idea. Having a strategy or a blueprint will give you a structure from which to build your online success using a simple formula.
In last week’s article I discussed mindset and your web design partner, two fundamental aspects to getting your website on the right track. Here are the next two to add to your blueprint:
Step 3 – Plan & Build Your Website
Having got the right web design partner it’s time to build your online empire! But get it wrong here and the repercussions will be expensive and time consuming. That’s why you need to break down your web project into manageable chunks. It begins with the specification which is where you do all of your groundwork thinking and is where the website takes shape on paper. Next those plans are fashioned into a design you can see, then they are turned into a working website and finally tested and put live on the Internet.
It sounds deceptively simple but it isn’t! In fact, it’s a complex and detailed process and one which typically takes a lot longer than you think. The biggest risk to you is believing that your web designers will do it for you. In reality they can only provide you with the framework for your site; its organisation, content, sales capability, testing and marketing is completely down to you. They may be able to guide you but they certainly can’t do it all for you.
Take a look at my article: Don’t Blame It On The Web Designers for a little more on this subject.
Step 4 – Discover the 7 Principles of Internet Marketing
Getting your website live is only half the battle. The other half is getting visitors to it and conversions from it. This is where having a keen understanding of Internet marketing will make the difference between your website just being another unproductive corporate website and being one that sparkles in Internet space.
But Internet marketing is also not just about doing a bunch of stuff on a list. To be really successful it’s vital you understand the underlying principles of why you’re doing it and to let them mould your daily activities.
The 7 guiding principles of Internet marketing are as follows.
- Know who your customer really is and profile their character
- Apply more than one marketing approach at the same time (Here are 32 for you)
- Test, evaluate and optimise your marketing approaches (Read more…)
- Develop a mentality where your focus is on doubling your online performance (Read more…)
- Understand the relationship between traffic into your site and conversions from your site
- Analyse your own success so you have an at-a-glance understanding of where you need to focus your efforts.
- Understand your customer’s lifelong value and how you can use that to invest further in your website. (Read more…)
Knowing these principles will save you from costly mistakes as well as help you focus your efforts in the most efficient way possible.
Next week I’ll give you the next step to add to your blueprint: Getting instant traffic to your website.
