The key concept to consider about a website or “a constellation of web assets,” which may include an official corporate website, a campaign specific micro-site, blog site, Facebook page, Twitter feed, LinkedIn Group, etc...is its own business. It is not a sign pointing to a brick and mortar business. It is not merely a place for brands to talk about themselves. It is an entirely new business for that brand. In an ideal world, the site (the entire constellation) makes money by creating future revenue streams as well as new business partnerships.
Rather than just creating a presence, brands must be a presence. For that to happen, each brand needs to have multiple, over-lapping campaigns that accomplish 3 things:
1. Monetize Website Visitors
When we talk about monetizing visitors that come to our website, we are talking about conversions. A conversion is an opportunity for a site visitor to take some kind of action. This action could be a full conversion (purchasing a product), partial conversion (filling out a form) or an engagement (commenting on blog or social media). All of which are designed to attract the right users and encourage the right actions. Every action, whether it’s full or partial, has value. Being a site owner means knowing the value of each action as well as being able to optimize and drive more value from every site visitor. In order to capitalize on visitors coming to your website, initiatives like lead recapture are beneficial to brands because they help gather the right type of information to help stay in touch and remarket to first time visitors. The information collected depends on what your organization or brand considers valuable but might include data such as: name, email, phone number, website landing page visited, or what item was downloaded. Based on the information that is collected, we can then remarket to these people with relevant information that we know they will have interest. This type of marketing appears to be more relevant to the interest of the person and is less intrusive because of what we know based on the information that was collected. Additionally, this also prompts interested individuals to come back to your website or to visit your other “owned” media such as social media pages, YouTube videos and/or newsletters.
2. Increase Website Visibility
Website visibility is the process of getting your website found on the internet when prospects are searching for your related products and/or services. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to stand out against the competition and rank toward the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). One of the key elements to consider about website visibility and how to optimize your visibility is to consider the user. If you were a user looking for a specific product/service/answer, what words or phrases would you use to find what you’re looking for? Use content to address your ideal prospects questions, concerns and interests. In order for users or prospects to find our website on search engines, we must think in terms of SEO, Search Engine Optimization. This means selecting relevant brand terms and keywords as well as creating unique content that will help your website get found and attract relevant users.
3. Drive More Website Traffic
There are many creative ways to increase and drive more traffic to your website. Some will cost money and some won’t. We’ve mentioned ways to monetize site visitors and increase site visibility by giving users the opportunity to take some kind of action on your website as well as providing valuable content that will answer your ideal visitor’s questions or concerns. Offering free, original, and quality content on your website is one of the most effective means for increasing traffic to a website because you are offering something others can’t find anywhere else and doesn’t compare to the quality of content that you provide. In addition, other ways of driving traffic to your website are paid banner or affiliate ads, custom integration, affiliate linking, and social media, to name a few. In addition, another major element to consider is if your website was built with a responsive design, meaning that it was designed to optimize accessibility via a mobile device. Savvy brands/websites work all of these angles.
If you're a website owner, how have you accomplished these goals?
