Internet Marketing

Introduction

Even if you are not currently selling directly on the internet, you need to be aware of competition and trends, and you need to develop an internet marketing strategy.

U.S. retail e-commerce sales have been growing about 15% per year and are expected to have a compounded annual growth over the next few years at 14%.  Brick and mortar sales have been relatively flat and actually on the decline.

In 2012, 92% of retail sales still took place in brick-and-mortar stores.  However, by 2020, online sales are forecast to be $500 billion or 20 percent of nonfood retail sales.

For many types of retailers, the percent-to-total sales could be even higher, as e-commerce growth continues to significantly outpace overall retail sales growth.  Much of this will be fueled by the accelerating use of mobile platforms for shopping online.  Companies that sell products online should consider internet marketing as part of their distribution strategy.  In contrast, service companies tend to use the internet for lead generation and post-lead the sales process goes offline to a sales team.

Leveraging Your Internet Marketing — Pros and Cons

In addition to using your website for direct online sales, there are several marketing and distribution strategies you can use to sell products and expand their reach.

• Major online distributors such as eBay, Wayfair and Amazon (with over $100B in sales) have become critical distribution outlets and competition selling on them is fierce.  Yes, you have a wider potential reach to your target audience. But, shoppers on Amazon and eBay go for the cheapest price and if you’re not the cheapest for a product or comparable product you’re probably out of luck.
• Lesser known marketplaces, communities and curators such as Etsy, Fancy, Svpply, ahalife are another option and tend to attract people who seek more unique types of product.
• Flash sale sites (also referred to as daily deal sites) such as Rue La La, Groupon, and Gilt are doing over $1B combined sales providing an alternate business model and potential means of expanding your outreach enabling you to distribute products to your target markets quickly and efficiently.

Be aware that affiliating yourself with such distribution partners, may involve adhering to a variety of stringent rules and criteria, including:

• As a vendor you may need to hold inventory and deal with special service requirements (penalties may be involved if you cannot meet certain criteria).
• Volume can be highly variable by day, month or season.
• There may be certain pricing restrictions and competition can be really fierce – even if you have a unique quality product you may still be beaten by someone who carries a similar style or category that is of lesser quality but is less expensive (i.e. “cheap” in many cases tends to win over quality)
• Operationally, you may have to upgrade your inventory systems, as well as your overall data technology and communications systems to meet these platform’s requirements
• And yes, there may be loads of administrative work and forms to fill out.

Online Media and Internet Marketing Channels: The Basics

We are all familiar with traditional offline marketing, which has its own different channels and means of promotion such a print advertising, direct mail, cooperative advertising, radio and television advertising, etc.  In the world of online and web-based internet marketing, however, there are many other avenues and forms to consider – some which may be better suited for your business than traditional approaches alone.

Be prepared to invest in your online marketing strategy

Though internet marketing and advertising may appear to be “free,” generally they are not — at least not in practical terms for business.  Of course, you can set up a Facebook page and YouTube channel for free.  However, if your goal is to have a significant impact on your sales you will also require meaningful and current content, management of your online sites, adequate technology (hardware, software, etc.), professional design, robust web hosting etc., links, etc.  Doing online marketing “right” isn’t a “no-brainer” — it requires time, development and investment in order to be effective.  If one is naïve and does not understand the fundamentals of online marketing the experience can become a nightmare and a financial failure.  However, if you understand the basics of doing business on the internet, obtain the right help when you need it, and can ascertain which means best serve you and your customers, internet marketing will be and indispensable asset to you and your business.

Forms of Internet Marketing

The most common forms of internet marketing include:

• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Pay-per-click Marketing (PPC)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Banner Advertising
• Blogs
• Social Media Marketing

SEM – Search Engine Marketing

SEM is designed to increase your website’s visibility on Google, Bing and other search engines. SEM can include:

• SEO – search engine optimization
• SERM (Search Engine Reputation Management – equivalent to online Public Relations
• PPC Advertising (Pay-Per-Click Advertising – including ads on Google AdWords, Yahoo, Bing and social media sites)

SEM—A Word of Caution

Some people guess that common sense and intuition are all that’s needed in order to maximize your website’s search engine placement, but SEM is not as easy as it seems. To make matters more complex, SEM consultants and web developers are often notorious for charging high fees for huge-sounding projects, when just a bit of effort on the right aspects of your web program can create 90% of the profitable impact.  An experienced SEM consultant will ask about and want to learn about your specific business and can often spot the best items to work on in order to make changes that pay off.  Often, these are not the most costly items.  Listen to what potential vendors ask about your firm or to ascertain whether they are just trying to tout a generic solution.  If they don’t ask questions and are not trying to understand your business, your business goals, and your target customer – don’t walk, run.  Ask for references and specific comparative outcomes and ROI.  This can be the first test of their reliability because many firms will not answer those questions.

SEO (Search engine optimization) is the methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine, including Google, Bing and other search engines.  SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or webpage in the search engines when someone types in a specific keyword or phrase via the search engine’s algorithms.  (Note: “algorithmic search” is also referred to as “natural” or “organic” search by which you’re not paying for the keywords to show up in the results. Your search ranking is automatically reflected in the frequency and selection of key search terms in your web content, blog, newsletters, etc.)

Whether you use SEM consultants or natural key word strategies, SEO will help to ensure that your site is accessible and well-placed on a given search engine, improving the chances that potential customers will easily locate you and “click through.”  Where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site.  The higher a website naturally ranks in organic results of a search (i.e. the higher on the search engine results page the site), the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user.

SEO is not only essential for search page ranking, but it makes a website ‘search engine friendly’ – with the goal of a good position in the search results when people search for words that relate to your website, product or service.  Remember that “SEO” relates ONLY to unpaid, ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ search results mainly based on key word placement and frequency.  It has nothing to do with paid advertising.

The best position in organic search results is — of course — #1 on the 1st-page.  Many businesses have to settle for any 1st-page position, at least as an early goal.  You can’t pay the search engines to get a better organic search position – you have to work at it.  This is where selection of your target market and linking of your key words to what your market is searching for comes in.  Many people miss this point, and end up spending a great deal of time and money with unfavorable search page placement.

Organic SEO position is important because every time someone visits your site after clicking an organic search result, you have received a visitor who’s probably interested in your website.  Better yet, the probability that such a visitor will click through and eventually make a purchase is increased dramatically by their initial identification of you in an initial search.

SEO is typically a set of best practices that webmasters and Web content producers follow to help them achieve a better ranking in search engine results and tend to fall under two types of categories — onsite SEO and offsite SEO.

• Onsite SEO involves making sure your website pages, titles, tags (part of the site code) and overall structure are optimized for target keywords.  Increasingly relevant content that users want is becoming a critical component in your ranking.

• Offsite SEO is pretty much what it implies.  You need to make sure that you have a significant amount of inbound links from highly respected external websites that are directed to your site.  It is a significant factor in how search engines rank your web pages.

You need both onsite and offsite SEO to be successful, and the right mix has everything to do with analytics and tracking.  Keep in mind that you MUST be using the right keywords or run the risk of spending time and money driving the wrong people to your website.

Many businesses optimize their sites based on the keywords they think people are using, not the keywords people are actually searching for.  That is a big mistake.  Doing a little upfront research with free tools such as Google’s keyword search (or even more robust marketing software paid solutions like Hubspot or Marketo) will go a long way in helping you in developing effective SEO for your business.

PPC (pay per click) is a method for placing online ads on search engine pages, web pages or social media pages by paying for each click-through, rather than by number of impressions or a flat rate.  PPC is used on websites where advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked.  With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market.  Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system.  There are also numerous variations in CPC terms such as CPA or CPL which your vendors need to explain if applicable

In PPC programs, the online advertisers will pay Internet Publishers the agreed upon PPC rate when an ad is clicked on, regardless if a sale is made or not.  The basic measures of PPC accounts are:

• CPC (Cost Per Click – the amount you pay each time someone clicks an ad and is directed to your site).  CPC can range from a few cents for specialized, uncompetitive business niches – up to $50 or more for highly competitive industries like financial services.
• Cost Per Conversion (the amount you spend before you get one sale, signup or other goal).  If you ‘convert’ one out of ten visitors, and you pay $2.00 for each visitor from Google (i.e.: CPC = $1.00), then your Cost per Conversion will be $20.00.

Usually PPC ads cost nothing to display – when a viewer clicks on the ad, only then is an advertiser is charged for the ad – hence ‘pay-per-click.’

The most popular PPC ads are text ads like you see on Google’s search page.  Video and display ads (display ads have a photo or graphic or logo) are also common and can appear on almost any website (although they are generally ‘served’ from an advertising provider like Google).

PPC is a very quick and easy way to promote your website, products and services when getting a 1st-page organic position is a longer-term, more difficult goal.  PPC is generally profitable when your business targets a specific segment of the market with a relatively unique product or service or offer – and when there are not a lot of competitors bidding against your ads and driving up the cost of your PPC efforts.

Affiliate Internet Marketing

Affiliate Internet Marketing is the term used to describe a revenue-sharing plan where an online automated marketing program lets webmasters place an advertiser’s banner ads or buttons on their own website.  Webmasters will receive a referral fee or commission when a customer has clicked the affiliate link and performs the desired action, such as make a purchase or opt-in for downloads or newsletters on the advertiser’s site.  Advertisers invest in affiliate programs for lead generation, and, of course, sales.

Email Internet Marketing

Email Internet Marketing is a type of direct digital marketing that uses email as the marketing communication delivery method.  Email internet marketing comes in a variety of forms including:

• Direct email to a selected list of recipients
• Affiliate emails
• Email newsletters and other “opt-in” forms of communication

Email internet marketing is used in a number of ways by organizations and marketers for brand and customer loyalty building, acquiring or converting customers, company advertisements, or for communicating promotional offers and more.

E-mail internet marketing requires you spend time building your list.  Sign-ups, contests customer feedback and social media are all ways to build your list.  Organizations like Constant Contact are inexpensive resources to mail and clean your list.  Also, ensure you are not “spamming” your recipients and that they have a ready mechanism to opt out from your emails if they so desire.

Banner Advertising

If you have spent any time surfing the web, chances are you’ve seen more than your fair share of banner ads and related forms of advertising (pop-ups, etc.)  A banner ad is typically rectangular advertisement placed on a Web site above, below, or on the sides of the Web site’s main content and is linked to the advertiser’s own Web site.  In the early days of the Internet, banners were ads with text and graphic images.  Today, with technologies such as Flash, banners have become much more complex and can be ads with text, animated graphics and sound.  Most commerce-related Web sites use banner ads.  Think of banner ads as a magazine or newspaper ad but in an interactive, digital format.

Blogs

A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order.  The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log.  Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog, or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging”.  The term “vlog” refers to a video blog.  Why have a blog?  Many have a blog to bring a more personal touch as an expression of their brand and to create a dialog with their audience.  Some do it for sheer vanity.  However, blogging if done well can also be a boon for a site’s SEO.  Blogging has become easy and inexpensive, but as with all internet marketing outreach it requires constant tending to keep it fresh and relevant.

Social Media Internet Marketing

Social Media Internet Marketing is a term used to describe a variety of Web-based platforms, applications and technologies that enable people to socially interact with one another online.  Some examples of social media sites and applications include Linked In, Facebook, YouTube, Del.icio.us, Twitter, Digg, blogs, and other sites that have content based on user participation and user-generated content (UGC).

If you think about it, social media is like an online version of word-of-mouth advertising.  One user on a social media site may favorite, follow, or Digg something about your company, and suddenly your brand and name is being shown to all of their friends.  If the friends repost the mention they open up your brand to all of their friends and so on down the line.

When creating profiles on these sites, remember to link them up.  For example, on your Twitter profile you can include a link to your blog or Web site.  On Facebook you can install a Digg application so others can see what you favorite, and a Facebook Twitter application lets your Tweets become your Face book status update.  Twitter feeds can be added to your blog, and so on.  By linking up your profiles, with one update you can blast your message to multiple social sites.

Success in Social Media Marketing requires that you Be Open, Honest, and a Little Social, too.  To successfully market in social media spaces, a business needs to create honest and open profiles that will appeal to consumers and create enough “buzz” to encourage sharing with friends and networks — don’t pretend you are “just another user” on the site.  Be honest in letting users know that you represent a business, versus being a single person who always tweets and posts information that links to one business.  People will see right through this.  Being genuine, impactful, and at times even humorous can be great ways to make Social Media Marketing work for you and your business.

Remember that when you use these social media sites, you are opening your business up to direct dialog and comments from users.  One of the biggest mistakes a business can make in such cases is not responding.  When comments are left on your blog, a message is posted to your Facebook Fanpage wall or when someone tweets a reply to your status on Twitter, make sure this person gets a message back from you.  Show that you have an interest in what they are saying.  If you never respond, the user does not have a reason to come back to your profile. Make sure you have staff members who will continue to update these pages with fresh posts and comments to users.  Daily updates are best.

One thing to remember is that as a business engaged in social media, you might receive comments and posts that are not positive — comments that you might feel hurt your business reputation.  A business has to always be courteous and address the concerns appropriately, no matter how rough the comment you are dealing with is. Social media links can travel fast and wide, causing sometimes unforeseen consequences unless dealt with.  This is where Social Media Reputation Management might play an important part in your overall strategy.

Social media also provides a way for you to promote new launches and products. For example, you can twitter company news and announcements (via links), you can add unique and fun demos of our products on video to your YouTube channel, or upload hot product shots to Flickr or your Facebook Fanpage.  When an online publication covers your business or products those news stories can also be added to your various online social media profiles.

Concluding Thoughts on Internet Marketing

I hope that what I have shared with you makes a convincing case that the importance of successful online marketing of your product or service cannot be underestimated.  None of the elements of internet marketing work in a vacuum, and you should consider your goals, your budget and what overall strategy and plan-of-action would be best, especially given the stage of development of your business.  At the end of the day, online marketing boils down to testing and measuring what you’re doing, tracking the results of campaigns and tweaking the programs.  That’s why analytics is so important – with good analytics you can gauge what is going on with your online marketing and adapt accordingly, insuring that you are not wasting time and money, but rather that you are achieving tangible results while knowing why.

Also remember the actual quality, pricing, and differentiation of your product or service itself will determine your ultimate success.  While internet traffic can obviously be delivered and retained on the website by effective marketing methods, your product or service, its features and benefits, will still be the crucial factor for making a sale.

Companies need to develop integrated plans with these efforts and continually monitor changes, opportunities, challenge successes and failures.  Google Analytics can be a key tool in measuring these factors and the changes.  In the end impressions, clicks, conversions and ultimately profitability are the real measures of success.

Glossary – A Few Web Internet Marketing Terms

It helps to know the jargon when you venture into new territory, like internet marketing.  To make the most of your online marketing strategies, familiarizing yourself with the terms in this list will help in your conversations and further research:

Above the fold:  Content and/or ads that appear on a page before a viewer needs to scroll.

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.

Cookie:  Identifying code downloaded 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.

SEO (search engine optimization):  The process of making a website 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.

SERP (search engine results page):  Short for search engine results page, the Web page that a search engine returns with the results of its search

Social media:  Two-way communication channels online for networking, sharing news and views, contributing content, and soliciting comments from customers and prospects.

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 website to add value.

Guidelines for Website Design

Your Website Design — Things to Ponder

You’re thinking about website design. Congratulations! This could be a great move to propel your company to growth and success.

But before you start, did you know:

• Currently, over 8,000 websites go live per hour, and
• Of the estimated 600+ million websites worldwide, approximately ¾ of them are inactive.

So, before you run off and hire a high-priced designer and developer, there are a few critical questions you need to ask yourself and issues you should consider to ensure your that your website design helps you in your business goals, and ends up being more than a waste of money.

First-and-foremost, your website design will be a reflection of your business and brand, one that can be an essential and critical part of your business and its ability to succeed in a complex and highly-competitive world.  I recommend you approach building a website as you would in forming your business — first, think strategically and then, think about the nuts and bolts that bring the light of day to that strategy.  This article is designed to help you do just that, and to provide perspective regarding what you need to know or at the very least what you should consider before you create a website design.

A friend of mine once said, “When you have 10 seconds to live, spend nine of them thinking!”  This advice applies to many areas of life and business including the successful construction of your website.

Your Homework—Have a Plan

If you have a business plan already in place, you most likely did your basic homework:

You researched your target market, you evaluated your competition, and you defined your unique value proposition to determine the viability of your business.

Your website design should be a reflection of that business plan and in building your website you need to keep the answers to key questions in the forefront.

At the end of the day — website or not — it boils down to the simple questions:

• Why should someone do business with you vs. someone else?
• What value do you provide that others don’t?  and
• How do you offer value in a way that is different from your competition?

Your Website as a Tool to Reach Your Audience

The more information you have, the more you know about your target audience – who they are, how they behave, their hopes, their fears, their goals, and even what technologies they use. The more you know about your audience, and the more you know about your own business goals the smoother, less expensive, less time-consuming and less troublesome the process of building your website will be. As with any complex project, there will always be delays and changes, but the more you think about and know the answers to the larger strategic questions in advance, the more effective, efficient and successful you will be.

The Four “C’s”

There are four critical questions to address before you’re off and running to build your website design:

• Your Company
• Your Customer
• Your Competition, and
• Your Competitive advantage

None of these should be looked at in a vacuum.  Remember, they all interact, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  Let’s look at each of these in more detail.

Your Company

Before you start designing your website (much less actually building it), and before you begin talking to web designers and developers, consider the goals of your site, including the following possibilities:

• To sell your product or services
• To develop a community
• To provide a contact for future communication or selling
• To build your brand
• To provide information
• To build long-term relationships,
• All-or-some of the above

Even if you answered the very last response above, there are priorities and great differences regarding how your website design will help you achieve one or more of these goals.  Even among the top 5 etailers (Amazon, Staples, Apple, Wal-Mart, and Dell — who represent over $60 billion in E-commerce sales), there are profound differences in goals, relationships with customers, repeat business strategies, sales, etc.

In the final analysis, the main reason you are building your website is to have a positive impact your business, including its ability to generate revenues, profits, growth and competitive advantage.  Every decision you make regarding the design and construction of your website should be focused on improving these goals.  Examples of the types of questions you will need to answer with your website design and construction include:

• What is the brand image I want to convey across all channels?
• What is the tone of voice and positioning I want to convey and how will it resonate with my audience?
• How can I rapidly and clearly communicate my value proposition to my audience?
• How can I create a desire in my audience to buy and refer?

It goes without saying that the answers to these questions will be critical in your website design.  For example, if you are launching an accessories line that focuses on handcrafted, upscale Italian styled jewelry you probably want a clean, sleek design with very elegant perhaps more muted tones.  Having a design with bold colors and call outs that look like a discount brand will certainly not be beneficial for you and in fact will bring forth less than desirable results and probably bring more harm than good.

Your Customer

Ask yourself the following two questions about visitors to your site:

• Who do I want to visit my site?
• Who is most likely to visit my site?

These questions lie at the heart of your target market.  Ideally, the people most likely to visit your site are the same people as those you would most like to visit your site.

So, what can you do to maximize the probability that your site will be visited by a high frequency of target customers?  The answer to this question lies in the answers to the following questions:

• Who are my target customers and what do they want to know?
• What do I ultimately want visitors to my site to do?
  • Fill out a form?
  • Purchase an item?
  • Sign up for a newsletter?
  • Call for a quote?
  • Visit your brick and mortar location?
• What vehicles or technologies are my visitors using?
  • Are they coming to me through a computer, tablet, or smart phone?

Answering these questions will help when it comes to designing your site, mapping out your site’s information architecture and designing the overall user experience in terms of content and features.  Careful planning in these areas will insure that people will want to visit your site and do business with you.

Rule #1 about Your Customer–Make it easy and remember to keep it simple.  If people can’t find what they’re looking for or aren’t engaged in your content, they’ll leave. Try to have people get to where they need to go in four clicks (preferably three) or less.

Also, it is critical today that you determine what and how you want your site to appear on various browsers ( chrome, explorer) and technologies (iPad-, Smartphone, desktop ).  These issues should be addressed In the design of the site but carefully tested in the execution.  There will be some compromises but at least underrated what they are.

Your Competition

You may feel you know your competition, but have you taken a serious and objective look at their websites? Ask yourself:

• What is common among my competitor’s websites?
• Which of my competitors’ sites do I or don’t I like?
• Why?
• Are there major differences between my more successful competitors’ sites and others?

If you are selling products at retail, be sure to research Amazon and eBay.  They are probably your competitors and might also be considered as customers.  Research how they have designed their sites for maximum efficiency for their customers.

Keep these things in mind about your competition as you plan and develop your website.  Certain industries have common elements and themes in their sites, as well as certain required features which you should also include on your site.

Your Competitive Advantage

Before you invest too much time in creating a copy of your competitors’ sites, also keep in mind what makes you different and how you can stand out from the crowd. This is also an important component in your web-based competitive positioning.

Ask yourself:

• What makes my business unique and how can I best express this in my site?
• What do I have to offer that my competitors don’t and how can this be rapidly communicated on my site?
• How am I different than my competition?
• What do I actually do better than them?

This approach to analyzing your competition and your own business helps you think about what makes you different and how to express such differences in your website design, whether it be through content, features, or functionality.  Careful attention to these matters will give you a slight edge while still being in line with standard industry practices that are there for a reason.

The Nuts-and-Bolts of Your Website Design

Once you’ve tackled the larger questions behind the website, it is time to get into the nuts and bolts about your site design, its functionality, how information is organized, and the actual content that will be on the website.

Domain Name

A domain name is the address where your website will be found on the Web.  The best domain name is one that uses the company’s name in the URL.  But sometimes that can be hard to get, if you haven’t already registered it.  If you can’t get your company name, then consider something catchy or memorable that your customers can associate with.  Most sites use .com at the end but public organizations generally use.org and .net is generally as a secondary source of names.  In choosing a web name provider, try and stick with your web site developer.  In any case, use a recognized dealer, like Yahoo, Google or Go Daddy.

You’re Website Designer

Website designs have become easier to develop, less expensive, and have more built-in features than years ago.  Resources such as WordPress, Intuit, Volusion and Network Solutions all offer very good sites with lots of options at very good prices.

In considering who will design and build your site, there are some major decisions you need to consider.  Frequently, technical designers will give you great functioning sites, but they may lack the aesthetic qualities you desire.  On the other hand, creative designers can design beautiful sites but they many not navigate efficiently or facilitate SEO and ecommerce efficiently.  It is critical that you consider and balance these features, especially if you have a limited budget.

Your web design also involves a number of functions that need to be considered in your evaluation. These can also be divided up or handled by one or more staff. The decision on using a purchased site versus designing your own should be primarily based on cost, the complexity of your needs and the uniqueness needs of your look.

Your Website Designer should manage the project including:

• page layout
• graphics
• text location
• theme and colors
• navigation and
• Cross-linking of pages.

If your website requires coding, the website programmer will take the plan from your Designer and create the code to make the site run correctly.  In many cases, code is already embedded in the elements of the site and simply need to be “plugged in.”  Your Designer and (if needed) programmer are also responsible for all the technical details that happens behind-the-scenes to make sure the site works properly for your visitors.  You may also want to hire an Internet Marketing Consultant to help you determine how your website fits into your overall marketing strategy, and how to generate more traffic.

When you select a web designer make sure in advance that you will receive what you expect.  Obtain and check references, and look at other sites the designer has created.  Be sure the designer understands your business, its goals and resources.  Make sure the site has proper capacity for growth.  Your site might also require revisions for some of the following now or in the future:

• Provisions for integrating with other internet efforts especially social media sites.
• Check out and credit card provisions with organizations such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Pay Pal
• SEO links and key words
• Tracking especially with Google Analytics
• Connections to EBay , Amazon and affiliates

Also make sure you have a clear plan and understanding regarding:

• Who owns the site and the code?
• Who will maintain and provide the server for the site?
• What is the backup and emergency plan for the site?
• Who is in charge of promotion and price changing mechanisms?

Plan Your Website

Above all — don’t neglect the planning of your website.  Even if you’re going to hire a professional Web designer to build your site, you should have an idea of what you want on it and how it should appear to your audience.  And, don’t be afraid to build it on your own if it is a productive use of your time and resources.

Content, Content, Content

Now that you know your goals and understand your target visitor and what she or he is looking for, decide what content you will need on the site and how that content is to be structured.  Organize that content into “buckets” – this will essentially become the menu/navigational structure there to make it easy for people to “navigate through the site” and find what they’re looking for.  This navigation should be consistent throughout the site so that no matter where someone is on the site they may access the menus and navigate from one category or page to another.  In general, you want to think about your site as three or four levels deep – your home page, category pages, content pages, and action pages (e.g. place where someone fills out a form, buys a product, etc.)

Content considerations on your site include:

• On the homepage when someone gets to your site what does that home page look like?
• What are the most important things people should know or you want to convey?  You may want to guide them to other parts of the site and feature specific content or product.  Your home page is usually the first point of entry to your site
• Your category page provides a summary of what may be in a particular category and provide links or guide the user to featured or deeper content ahead.
• Your content is just that – perhaps the most granular of what you have on site.  It may be an article or product information – it tends to be that area where you ultimately influence and want your visitor to take action.
• Remember, the pages can have different functions and don’t try to do everything at once on the same page.  In particular, pages may be designed for goals like creating attention, building the image, promotions, and/or SEO.  If you are focusing on selling the promotion, SEO goals and branding may be have some conflicts.

E-Commerce Considerations

If you are considering an e-commerce site below is an outline of the basics you may want to consider as you plan your site.

• Informational architecture / navigation
  • Header
  • Utility Navigation
  • Primary Navigation (should be top level menus to product categories and other primary navigation, for example to key content areas such as a blog)
  • Secondary, Tertiary and Other Navigation
  • Footers (which may be delineated into further categorization including
    • Customer Service: Contact Us, FAQs, Returns and Shipping, etc.
    • Company Information : About, News, Legal (e.g. Privacy Policy)
    • Find Us On : Social Media pages
• Home Page (product and other promotions)
• Catalog Pages (category pages)
• Product Pages
  • Product description
  • Features and specifications
• Registration Sign In and Accounts
  • Create an account
  • Sign in
  • Account management
  • Sign out
  • Address book
  • Previous orders
  • Wish lists
• Shopping Cart
  • Add to cart
  • Shopping cart widget
  • Shopping cart page
  • Checkout Process
• Other Pages
  • Press pages
  • Blogs

Final Words

Designing and building your website is one of the most important tasks you will undertake in launching and growing your company.  In many respects, your website design will be what most of the world sees when it “meets” you.  Planning and executing with quality are the keys, and here are some final thoughts:

• Think about how people look for information and how they categorize things
• Put yourself in the visitor’s shoes
• Map out a few pages at first, and then add to your site using the framework you developed.
• Remember a website is a reflection of your business and your reputation relies on professionalism and a professional look.  Doing the upfront homework and knowing why you want to have a website and the goals you are aiming to accomplish (and how that takes place) will put you at an advantage when you are ready to begin building a website.  Information is potential power and knowing what you’re trying to accomplish is a great boon when and if you begin to speak to web designers.

Startup Business Internet Guide

Why Should I Do Business and Market on the Internet?

By best estimates, 85 percent of American adults now use the internet, and a growing number of them are shopping online.  Ecommerce sales is currently on track to exceed the $1 trillion mark in 2013.

In today’s world, when someone is looking for a product or service the chances are they are doing some if-not-all of their shopping online.  Businesses that had a high use of the web increased business by 10% while those with little or no internet business decreased by 5% (source: Boston Consulting Group, The Internet Economy in the G-20, and March 2012).

The question is not “why?” you should do business and market on the internet, but “how?” to intend to do so and make the most of it.

What Role Should the Internet Play in Your Startup Business Plan?

The unprecedented global reach, speed, and efficiency of the Internet offers a critical resource for businesses to inform consumers and promote your brand, services, and products.  In addition, using the internet as a fundamental marketing and sales tool is an extremely cost-effective way to reach people either locally or worldwide.  Startup business owners adopt and use the internet to generate better and more relevant leads, to introduce customers to new products, or new features of existing products, and to direct customers to the most efficient way to purchase the product in question.  The process of internet marketing and sales is now well-established, as illustrated in the model below.  The internet provides a highly efficient and cost-effective means for businesses to reach new and existing customers, to create relationships, offer opportunities to experience and sample, and ultimately to purchase.

Here are some of the major issues you need to think about as your online marketing and sales outreach meets your potential customers in the purchase process:

1. Consider:  what brands/products do consumers have in mind as they contemplate a purchase?
2. Evaluate:  how do consumers gather information to narrow their choices?
3. Buy:  what are the key factors that drive consumers to a certain brand and buy it?
4. Post-purchase:  what factors matter most to consumers as they reflect upon their buying experience and form expectations/considerations that will or will-not lead a subsequent purchase?
5. Advocate:  what factors will drive consumers (your greatest marketing asset) to tell others about the product or service they purchased?

This framework can help you focus your time, energy and resources to best determine how to allocate your marketing and advertising dollars, know where true opportunities for sales are, and determine what you need to deliver in order to effectively compete.

Using the Internet as a Research Tool Before You Start

Before you start spending money on your internet platform, it is wise to conduct some initial market research, i.e., using online resources such as “Information Strategy and Research” and “Quick Market and Competitive Research.”

In terms of your major competition, you can ascertain information regarding their products, merchandising, distribution strategy, channel distribution, pricing and overall brand positioning.

Google your competitors, use keyword search tools (https://adwords.google.com/keywordtool — is a good free source).

Look at online trends (www.google.com/trends/ ‎ — another free resource), view competitors websites and statistics (Alexa, Compete and Quancast have some great free tools to learn about different websites online statistics).

If you’re a retail or e-commerce startup business, in addition to using major search engines such as Google or Bing, search on Amazon and eBay to help you determine how your competitors are using various distribution channels and how they price their products and services.

View potential market and customer demographic information including:

• Population statistics
• Demographics
• Shopping affinities, etc.

There are tons of tools and free sites out there (beware, however—these sites often hook you in on the freebies, and then offer premium tools for a subscription price).

Quantcast is a good quick resource for viewing website statistics, visitor demographics, and interest affinities.  ComScore measures what people do as they navigate the digital world and it publishes many studies and a variety of whitepapers that may be relevant to your startup business.

Many data analytics companies, industry publications, and service providers publish papers and studies which are great tools to use.  I am amazed at how much industry data and market information is available on the web.  For example if you go to www.bpplans.com, you can frequently find preliminary free draft business plans for businesses such as yours.

What Should Your Website Look Like and What Should it Do?

One of the most basic steps for starting an Internet marketing campaign is to create a website if you don’t already one or, if you have a poorly designed site, re-designing it to adequately serve your present and future needs.  A primary purpose of your website is to enable you to advertise and promote your startup business to customers and/or clients in the most efficient way possible.  Think of a website as a place where you provide information about your products/services in a well thought-through and organized fashion to interest and engage your audience so that they want to “click through” your site and ultimately do business with you.

Another key role of your website is to establish, build, and maintain your credibility as a quality business.  For some businesses, their website is more than a marketing tool, and some savvy startup business owners have integrated their websites into their business operations.  For example, if you are an online retailer, your website is the “life line” for your startup business, and it needs to function flawlessly from first customer contact to efficient transactions to follow-up service and contact after sale.  Monitoring direct sales, tracking promotion and marketing campaigns, and keeping real time inventory are also commonplace in well-run Ecommerce businesses today.

How Much Should I Spend on My Company’s Website?

Depending on your business goals and needs, designing and building a site can range from less than $100 to several thousands of dollars.  Some startup businesses have been very successful designing their own sites using free or inexpensive website builders/templates such as WordPress, Volusion, WIX, or Weebly.  Most likely, you want something that reflects your own vision and unique startup business.  Many designers will work with these template sites to custom size to your needs.  In any case you should compare resources and have an outsider review your site and plans.  There are now many sites where you can post your website project and receive quotes from experts from around the world.  Elance is one such example.

Tracking Your Site’s Performance

Once your site is designed and launched, you will need to track its performance to be sure it is working as you had intended, and that your customers are responding as you had hoped.

Monitoring and tracking your site includes the following types of data capture:

• How many people visit the site, where do they come from, and how long do they stay?
• Where do they spend their time on the site?  Do the “click through” or come-and-go?
• What pages have the most site traffic, and how many of these translate to sales?

While there are quite a few paid services offering analytics (Coremetrics and Omniture for example), Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics ) is a great free tool to track your website’s statistics and key performance indicators.  You simply need to install a short code onto each page of your website, and the reports are instantaneously generated.  Google Analytics is specifically designed to give you data by page, demographics, time on the site, visits and actual sales, etc.  Your problem will generally not be finding the time to look at it but rather getting addicted to the wealth of information it provides.

Final Words About Your Startup Business’ Website

If you have a vision to grow your company and thrive in today’s world, a website is an essential tool with virtually limitless capabilities.  Careful planning and design will help insure that you make the most of your website, and that it serves your startup business well.  As with any tool, your website must be maintained and used for its intended purpose, as a complement to your other marketing, advertising, promotion, and sales assets.

The most important aspect of the internet is that it is dynamic and interactive.  The average consumers receives 50-150 emails, texts, tweets, etc. per day. There are numerous technologies to view the internet including laptops, desktops, iPads, and phones that need to be considered in various parts of your business.  Sharing information and communication through tools like the cloud, Skype and Read Me are growing every day.

In summary, you need to evaluate and monitor how every aspect of your startup business is affected and can benefit from using the internet.