having a plan for marketing your website
It’s one thing to think about marketing your website. It’s another thing entirely to actually have a plan and write it down. I cannot stress enough the importance of establishing a plan for marketing your website before you start (or hire someone).
Now, I’m not saying that you need to be an expert or even know anything at all about Internet marketing to come up with a plan. But the important thing is to really think about what it is you’re trying to accomplish. Are you trying to increase sales? Improve traffic? Create a better message? Whatever your particular goals are, its important to have those goals in mind when you start the the process of marketing your site.
Moreover, it is really critical to have an idea of what you are trying to accomplish before you hire a consultant or SEO firm to work with. The reasons: 1) if you don’t know what you want, it’s going to take extra time to define your goals (a task which, hopefully, your website marketing consultant will do first thing). 2) if you don’t know what you want, its going to be difficult for you to measure success. This is really important, because, when you invest time and money into your website, you want to feel like you’re seeing a return on that investment. Without knowing what you are trying to accomplish, it is impossible to tell whether you’ve gotten there or not.
Okay, so enough theory. Here’s how you can put this into practice:
1. Brainstorm: Sit down either by yourself or with members of your staff and think about all the things you’d like the website to do (even if some of these things are “long-term” goals, it”ll help you understand the bigger picture).
2. Write it down! I cannot emphasize this enough. Don’t waste your time trying to remember what you brainstormed about. Write it all down so that you can easily review and prioritize your ideas.
3. Review & prioritize: Read through your list and prioritize based on relative importance to your business and on the resources available to you. If you know you cannot afford to add live video to your site now, this should not be your #1 priority. On the other hand, don’t be afraid of the costs at this point. You may find that there are inexpensive solutions to items on your wishlist.
Whether you’re doing your own website marketing or hiring a firm to help you, coming up with a basic plan – a list of priorities and goals – will put you in control of the situation and allow you to better measure success!
