1. Optimise – Get the website found in organic search and that will get phone calls, email enquiries, instant chats or allow you sell online by answering questions and doing demos. Or actually having a shop for commodities over €20 where you have the margin, so you can afford to sell and ideally offer Free shipping worldwide. Not all sales are profitable, so do make sure you have the budget to design and develop and then promote the website. And then to be able to afford the investment of time and money to manage it. Plus all the logistics of getting the products made and then shipped to the buyer, handle returns and breakages, lost parcel and insurance etc. Read our free SEO guide What is SEO?
2. Advertise – Use Google Ads or Facebook advertising or possibly Linkedin and Instagram, to advertise your products or services and linking back to your specific website landing page. This sort of advertising is getting more and more understood, more and more popular and therefore more and more expensive. But there are ways to get a great and measurable return on your online advertising spend, in a way that offline is hard to quantify. If you invest €100 in this form of advertising and get €1000 in sales, is that a good way to go?
3. Convert – If you are optimising and advertising then you will be getting traffic to your website, so now focus on the UX or user experience. And work on getting visitors to engage by asking a question, signing up to a newsletter or for a free guide, ebook or quote and call you or just simply buy something. Just as in a bricks and mortar store, this is something you need to do regularly. If visitors do not convert, then you are not gettting the right traffic or you are not convincing visitors to take action.
4. Promote – When you have a website let your customers know you have it and why they should visit it. Add something in or on your physical packaging to promote visits to the site. You might add a special offer in each delivered parcel that upsells a related product.
5. Engage – Be present when customers browse the website and offer real time response or online chat etc. Let visitors know that you are there and ready to be of service, just like a bricks & mortar store. An instant chat pop up (on the first visit only) would let people know you are there for them. If you move visitors to shop online, they may spend more time in your online store, because they can do it at home.
Your web presence is more than just having a website. It includes your company Facebook page and activities. It includes your Linkedin company page and activities, Twitter, Instagram and Google Business Profile. Anywhere you appear on the web.
How do I get more business from my Website and my overall web presence?
If you have the product, the margin and the budget, then you can start with planning the business, create the wireframe and start the design of the website. Without eCommerce it is an easier deal and you are just talking about promoting and optimising a website with the sort of useful content that gets the phone ringing. But either way the web is a wonderful tool for reaching a wider audience and giving better service to the existing client base.
Landing Pages
Create specially designed pages to promote specific services. Get some Landing Page ideas HERE.
Bottom line – Your success will ultimately depend on how much value you bring to your visitors. That includes how the goods are packaged when you deliver them, how fast they get there and how great is your customer service. You are not just looking for online customers once off, you want people to keep coming back for more and who will rave about you. There is nothing new here, it is the same as being on the High Street, with the added complication of it being hard to see who is in the store and how they react to your offering.
Digital Marketing – this is a science and is very much data driven, so if you do not know how to manage your own, then outsource to someone competent and set agreed targets, to ensure you benefit profitably from any online presence. Any digital marketing needs to be a part of your overall marketing plan, rather than be a stand alone maverick. If you do use a digital marketer get references and check them before partnering up, as it can make or break your business.
