Web Marketing For Dummies

From Web Marketing For Dummies, 2nd Edition by Jan Zimmerman

You’re marketing your business on the Web — of course you are! These days, if you don’t do Web marketing your business doesn’t survive very long. Read on for tips on how to market your product successfully by finding out what to put on your site and which search engines to list it with, how to target your customers and bring repeat visitors to your Web site, and become familiar with Web marketing terms.

Tips for Marketing on Your Own Web Site

As a smart businessperson, you want to make full use of the Web to market your goods and services. This includes running your own Web site. Use these quick tips to optimize your Web site for marketing effectiveness:

Attract attention with your home page and headline.
Maintain interest with text that’s about “you,” not about “me.”
Build desire with frequently updated content.
Include many calls to action.
Make your site easy to use and navigate.
Post your phone number and street address on every page.
Collect e-mail addresses to communicate with prospects and customers.
Test your site before launching it.
Use results of your traffic and sales statistics to improve your site.

Essential Tasks of a Successful Marketing Web Site

Your Web site can be your strongest marketing tool. It serves as the face your business presents to the online world. If visitors find that face engaging, you’re on your way to increased sales. You should see those increased sales once your site accomplishes these goals:

Draws new visitors to your site.
Keeps them there for several pages.
Brings them back for repeat visits.
Answers “What’s in it for me?”

Crucial Search Engines for Web Marketing

As you’re marketing your goods and services on your own Web site, you should also submit your site for free to these three search engines. They cover well over 90 percent of the natural search market:

How to Attract Repeat Visits to Your Business Web Site

If you can entice visitors to return to your Web site, you’re halfway to marketing your business’s product line successfully — more repeat visitors = more repeat sales. Consider one or more of these techniques to attract traffic to your site:

Blogs, wikis, chat rooms, and message boards
Social networking or guest book pages
Free postcards, screensavers, music downloads, or other offers
Games and contests
Coupons, discounts, or free shipping
Online events

Market Research Sites to Use for Web Marketing

You want your business Web site to attract customers — that’s the whole aim of your Web marketing strategy after all. Putting time into doing some research on your target market is never time spent in vain. The Web sites in this list can help you define and find customers:

Defining Web Marketing Terms

It helps to know the jargon when you venture into new territory, like Web marketing. To make the most of your online marketing strategies, make yourself familiar with the terms in this list:

above the fold: Content and/or ads that appear on a page before a viewer needs to scroll.
AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action): The direct marketing acronym for steps to purchase.
B2B (business to business): Companies and sites that market to other businesses.
B2C (business to consumer): Companies and sites that market to individual customers.
banner ad: A graphic ad that links to the advertiser’s site.
call to action: A marketing technique that asks prospects to take a specific action to move toward a sale.
cookie: Identifying code downloaded to a user’s machine to recognize repeat visitors or track online activity.
conversion rate: The percent of site visitors who take a particular action or make a purchase, often called converting browsers to buyers.
CPC (cost per click): Amount actually paid for a click-through to a site from an ad.
CPM (cost per thousand): The advertising cost to reach 1,000 viewers or listeners; allows comparison among various advertising methods.
CTR (click-through rate): The percent of people viewing an ad who click on it.
PPC (pay per click): Payment method for online ads in which advertisers pay for each click-through, rather than by number of impressions or flat rate (see CPM).
ROI (return on investment): The amount of money earned (or lost) as a percent of the amount invested, usually stated for a period of a year; can compute for a Web site, an ad campaign, or an entire business.
SEO (search engine optimization): The process of making a Web site search-engine-friendly to improve ranking in search results.
SEM (search engine marketing): The combination of SEO with paid search marketing through PPC, paid inclusion, or paid appearance.
URL (uniform resource locator): Address designating the location of information on the Web; includes a registered domain name.
widget: Small application tool placed on a Web site to add value.