I passionately believe that every business could benefit from having a website. However, I am concerned that 95% of business websites fail to deliver value to the business? Is yours one of them?
Just putting up a website, or opening a shop, or inventing a product, or launching a new service is no guarantee of success. It requires an effective marketing strategy and for me marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.
How do you choose which web marketing strategies to invest in?
There have never been so many ways to waste money and you don't have enough time, resources or money to try everything. It's not about spending more, it's about doing the right things and doing them well.
Marketing ROI (Return On Investment) should be a key component of your overall web marketing strategy. Simply, this involves measuring marketing activity and making sure that the value of the return is higher than the cost of the activity e.g. Given a choice of 5 activities, each costing a £1,000 ($2,000), which one generates the highest value to the business?
At this point if your eyes are beginning to glaze over, just think about it as getting more for less. I have no doubt that when you want to buy a new car or TV or holiday you compare alternatives and consider what you are paying and what you get for it. Marketing ROI is just applying the same principle to your business activities.
Everyone can evaluate Marketing ROI now
I have been evaluating Marketing ROI for over 15 years for some of Britain's biggest brands. Although, the principles are fairly simple, the application used to be complex, challenging and costly. However, there are some great tools available that make it significantly easier to do Web Marketing ROI than it used to be.
For example, Google AdWord analysis includes a simple but powerful tool to measure the return on Google AdWord investment. Google Analytics takes this on to a higher level and provides data on hundreds of web metrics.
However, for some people the data is scary and they often can't see the wood for the trees. That's why many of my web marketing clients ask me to do their Marketing ROI analysis which empowers them to make wiser choices in deciding which marketing activities to invest in.
Web marketing tips that any business (large or small) could apply to attract and retain valuable customers
- Make measuring marketing ROI a key part of your web marketing strategy
- Have a business objective for every marketing activity e.g. attract x target web visitors per week at less than £z per visitor or achieve p sales per week with an average revenue of £q at less than £r per visitor
- Measure your web performance against your key objectives on a regular basis. The more you spend, the more frequently you should measure
- Identify what's working and what isn't
- Make improvements based on the learning
- Continue measuring & improving
- If it's too daunting for you or you need help then get a Web Marketing ROI expert to help
Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.
Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency (based in Wiltshire & Bristol) which helps companies to attract and keep valuable customers online.
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