Your Marketing Magnet

The internet has done more than change the way we do business, it has changed the face of marketing and PR. In fact, surveys indicate that one-third of the public logs onto the Internet to get news at least once a week.  In the era of the digital economy, if you’re not online, you have no way of knowing what’s being said about you on the World Wide Web or how your brand name and image is fairing against your competitors.

So having recently gone through the process of creating my second website, I thought I would share the three C’s (commerce, content and community) of E-Business Success with you and look at what you can do to draw potential buyers (and the media) to your site:

The first C – commerce refers to your Web site’s ability to permit your consumers to buy your products or services online.  Without it, you cannot have true one-step mail order on the Internet, but rather, only an e-mail address that generates online leads or offline purchases.

The second C – content, refers to the information and services you make available on your Website. Web sites that only display product information are not as interesting to Internet users as those that offer useful information and tools.  An example of such a tool can be found on health websites that ask you to enter your height and then show your ideal weight.  The better your content, the more likely users are to favour your site.

On the surface, the interactivity and the graphic nature of your site may make it alluring as a marketing tool.  But the truth is web surfers are drawn to content, not graphics.  And while animation and Day-Glo colours may make your website inviting and lively, rich content is what actually attracts browsers to your site and keeps them there long enough to become buyers.

According to Hotline, the monthly newsletter produced by The Newsletter Publishers Association in Washington D.C., what people once called editorial is now content.  Hotline observes that on the Web, much of a company’s or person’s website content is not created by professional publishers or writers, but by users, buyers and consumers – the same people who are sharing and talking with each other.  The article concludes that “The power of content comes from someone with interests or experiences similar to yours who are writing you about it.”

The third C – community — refers to the relationship that users have with the Web and each other.   The equivalent of your neighbourhood bookstore, cafe, or coffee shop, when web surfers go online and log on to your site, they feel it is a good place for them to spend their time, especially with other visitors.  Those who study the Web world say there are three communities out there:

√    Internet communities that serve as a marketing and advertising tool
√    Extranet communities designed to strengthen relationships with trade partners or customers
√    Intranet communities that facilitate knowledge sharing with an organization

What can you do to help build this sense of community and draw more traffic to your site?

One sure way is by offering free information for registered or signed-in visitors to access such as an E-book or article series. Chat rooms, forums, links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other sites as well as useful information such as resources, blogs and newsletters also work while helping you build your contact list! So does joining and participating in online groups. And posting comments and messages.  Why? Because when you see potential clients in postings talking to the person who originally posted the message as well as by name to each other – as they argue a point or share their opinions – you know you’re on a site with a strong sense of community.

Take iVillage.com for example.  The use of the word “village” in the name instantly creates an image of an Internet community.    In addition to catering to a variety of interests, including news, health, parenting, pets, relationships, travel, personal investing and even a book club geared primarily towards women, this site also allows you to send Instant Messages to other members, participate in chats, post notices on boards, and even have your own member’s page.  The same applies for all other Social Media sites.

Community may be the most important C in assuring your websites’ success.  In fact, the greater the sense of community, the stronger the relationship between your site and its users!  Therefore, you must do all you can to opt users in and add them to your e-list or direct them to your site. This measure not only allows visitors to develop a great relationship with your site, it also maximizes their receptiveness to it and willingness to receive e-marketing messages you wish to send them.

Too often we fail to realize that our business and website is much more interesting to us than it is to the masses it is meant to attract.  However the more content and utility you offer, the more visitors will grow to like your site, and the greater awareness you’ll gain from it.

It is important to measure your web surfer activity as well. Remember those who visit and buy know you better than those who visit it sporadically or never buy.  Factors you can examine and measure include hits (or the number of times people visit your site on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis), page views (the specific pages visitors automatically click to), duration (the amount of time visitors spend on your site), and conversations (the number of click-through visitors who make a purchase).

You can track traffic to your site and use this data in network planning to ensure sufficient bandwidth to handle peak periods. Just think about what happened to Internet toy retailers when they got more Christmas orders in a year than they could handle!  Customers were very upset and the share prices of those dot-com companies plummeted.

The bottom line is, don’t assume a close relationship between your site and the visitors who log onto it exists.  Your customers dictate the depth of the relationship, based on what they need.  So don’t try to bond with every visitor who makes their way to your site.  Instead, focus on getting to know your customer and listening and responding to their needs, and having them get to know you.  Over time, if you nurture these connections, real relationships will inevitably result.

Stay tuned. Next edition we’ll take look a deeper look into how to design your website so that those you want to visit it do and we’ll also explore the different ways on how you can profit online and make your website rock!

You can also view my video on “What Constitutes a Great Website” by clicking HERE.

To your success,

Feel free to leave me a comment.

Want to reprint this article in your e-Zine, newsletter or on your website? You can as long as you do not change it, acknowledge me as the author and include its copyright date, my head shot and this paragraph:

Founding Publicist, Prime Time PR and former editor PRtalk (Canada’s only online PR magazine), Janette Burke is a marketing/PR coach, consultant, columnist, trainer, speaker, TV Personality and creator of “The Magnetic Marketing/PR Process TM” (TMMPP) – her customized, cost-effective, step-by-step, guaranteed to get-results-now marketing/PR coaching and training program.  To discuss how she can help take your business to the next level, call:  (905)882-6893; E-mail: janette@yourmarketingmagnet.com or visit: www.yourmarketingmagnet.com.