I have the pleasure of getting to meet with local business owners every single day. The most common question I ask an owner as soon as I meet them is, “Does your website make you money?” Sadly, in my years of digital marketing, I have never heard a “Yes” in reply.
What is the purpose of a website if it doesn’t make you money?! Is it to see your pretty picture, or to let your nephew who took a web design course in community college use your business as an experiment? NO! The purpose of a website is to MAKE YOU MONEY!!
Years ago, as Marketing Director for multi-million dollar advertising campaigns, I often struggled with traditional advertising mediums. A standard full page, full color print ad was $5,000 and all we could do was put trackable 800 numbers in the ad, and HOPE that the person that calls could distinguish this one magazine from the 15 industry mags that they read each month. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. This traditional form of advertising is called “Spray and Pray.” You spray out a bunch of magazines and PRAY that someone calls you from it. It’s hard to track, hard to monetize, and near impossible to place an accurate Return on Investment. (ROI)
Please don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying traditional forms of advertising do not work, many of them still do. However, where are you sending these people once your ad has reached their eyes? Are they calling an 800 number, visiting a website, or stopping by your location? The Internet has allowed us as marketers to not only track each dollar that we spend, but know how long they spent on our site, which pages they went to, what kind of device they were using, where their geographic location is, how many pages they viewed, what Internet Provider they use, and even their favorite color. Okay, maybe not the last part, but you see my point!
When visitors come to your website, they should know EXACTLY what they are supposed to do. They need a mission. Whether it’s to call today, fill out a form, click here to learn more about this, they need to be lead down a path. If you don’t lead them down a path, they will lead themselves right to another site that will. Each small business owner should become VERY familiar with their weekly Google Analytics reports, and OWN each of the numbers that are within the report. These reports tell a story. That story is telling you everything about your consumer, and how you can improve your site to make it easier for people to find what they are looking for.
Internet Marketing isn’t easy. However, when armed with the right tools, the right knowledge, and the right know-how, you can have a VERY successful Internet Marketing presence with a much smaller budget than was ever possible before.
If you want to learn how your company can reduce traditional advertising costs, increase website conversion, and start MAKING money on your website, call us today at 1.800.316.8030 or e-mail me or contact us via our website. We’d be glad to meet with you and help you reach your goals in 2012.
February 8, 2012