How to develop a web marketing strategy

By Brandon Crowley, Minneapolis Web Design

Before designing and implementing any new website, a website marketing strategy should be developed and ready to put into action. This will help ensure the website has a steady stream of traffic, which is important to the success of any website. Without people knowing about and using the site, it will never be able to accomplish the goals and objectives set forth by the initial website plan. Developing a website marketing strategy is a relatively simple process, with three steps: focus on the objective, develop the tactics, and write the plan. When these steps are complete, the marketing strategy is ready to implement.

Focus on the objective. [Website marketing strategies] should support the website objective. Determine what you want the website to do, and find at least three ways you can do this. For example, if you want the website to increase awareness of a particular brand or product, sample strategies could include:

Improving online communication, Communication of the website’s existence and development to existing clients and Advertising campaigns.

Develop the tactics. Tactics are the specific action steps you will take to make the strategies happen.

Continuing with the example above, you could:

• Send an email newsletter to all existing clients and mailing list members announcing the development of the site
• Start and use several different social networking accounts with Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, in order to start building brand awareness and following
• Write and submit a press release
•  Start a paid per click advertising program to increase exposure and awareness of the website

Write the Plan. Now that you know what you need to do and how you are going to do it, it is time to put everything down in a plan. This way you’ll have a reference to go by as you move through the website marketing strategy and can make changes if you need to, based on how well the results are turning out to be. This will also help to inform others who may be working on the project with you.

If your website is already up and running but did not have a marketing strategy put in place before it launched, it is not too late to take care of it. Focus on what is going on with the website by using an analytics program, such as Google Analytics to see visitor trends. These trends will tell you: what, if any, search engine phrases users are coming to the site on, how long they are staying on the site, how many pages they are visiting while on the site, what page they came to the site on, and what page they left the site on. Use this information to make adjustments to the website marketing strategy accordingly.

If you’re having difficulty deciding what to do and how to do it, you may want to take a look at our marketing services. This is a wonderful way to ensure your website makes it on the map and starts getting the traffic it needs to succeed.

Call us today to find out more information, 1-866-400-4936 or locally in Minneapolis 612-204-2500. You can also contact us by clicking here.