
9 steps to building a successful online strategy from a Brisbane Digital Marketing Agency
Sustainable Marketing Services is a Brisbane digital marketing agency with many years of success in digital marketing. In this blog we share 9 steps to building a successful online strategy.
Your website can help you to attract new customers and strengthen relationships with existing ones.
But did you know that you can use it to measure and optimise all of your marketing - so you can achieve more using the same or less resources?
9 steps from a Brisbane digital marketing agency
Building your online presence is a never-ending journey not a destination - so here are 9 steps to help you get started on building a website and creating a successful online marketing strategy!
- Start by setting some goals for your website. Be clear about why you are building the website. Is it to create a professional image for your business? Do you wish to attract online leads? Perhaps you want to sell products online? How many people do you want to visit each month? What percentage of traffic do you want to convert? Your goals will influence the type of website you build and how to promote your website.
- Prepare an online marketing strategy. Your strategy needs to bring your brand to life, promote your website, build a relationship with visitors, and attract and convert leads. Identify a goal page (where you want visitors to convert into a lead or buy). What action do you want them to take on each page? What messages and offers will they need to click to your goal page)? Be mindful that visitors will need to visit a few pages before they have the confidence to act.
- Select a reputable web designer. Your website needs to be Google friendly so people can search and find your website. It needs to be robust so it doesn’t break. Make sure it can be modified so it can change as your business grows. Choose a quality web designer who will be around in another 5 years. There are some really good web designers in the Redlands - such as Propeller Graphic Design & Marketing and iSonic Websites. Develop a clear brief to prevent budget blowouts. Google gives preference to high quality websites built by professional web designers. Read Damien Buckley’s article on “Google roll out ‘High-quality sites’ algorithm” to learn more.
- Develop a visually appealing design. On arrival visitors will scan your webpage quickly to assess whether they wish to click further. So the design should make it easy for visitors to understand who you are, what you do and why you are different - at a glance and without needing to scroll down the page. Consider including bright and friendly photos of your team to help visitors feel engaged with your company. Make sure the design is consistent with your branding.
- Create a simple and easy to use navigation menu. Consider giving visitors a few ways to navigate around your website. Some visitors like to navigate via the main menu, some like to use clickable buttons, and others like to use links with compelling call to actions. Once the website is built you can use Google’s in-page analytics to compare the effectiveness of your navigation, buttons, links and call to actions. Continuing to optimise the navigation paths will increase the conversion rate of your website (no. of unique visitors / no. of leads).
- Use a compelling style of copy. Writing for online marketing is different to offline marketing. Your copy needs to compensate for the loss of human contact. People read less online - so find the balance between a short copy style for humans and a slightly longer copy style for Google’s spiders. Powerful headlines are important for visitors who only scan content. Using popular keywords (one keyword per page) will attract visitors. (Use the Google Keyword Tool to identify relevant keywords. ) Compelling call to actions will encourage visitors to act.
- Social proof your website. With no human to talk to your customers online, you need to think of other ways to build confidence. Adding logos of industry bodies, accreditations or awards you have won will build confidence. Including photos of your team will also help engage with people emotionally. Arranging for the creation of a professional video through a local video company like Xander Video will also help build confidence with both visitors and Google.
- Optimise your website for search. Google has written a very simple document to explain how you can optimise your website yourself (Look below heading Google Webmaster Centre and click on the Google SEO Starter Guide). Alternatively, you can choose a SEO specialist such as Web Essentials. www.websiteessentials.com.au Matt Gemmell has also written a useful article “SEO for non-dicks”. Your website needs to be updated with relevant content on a regular basis to maintain and improve your search ranking. So invest time to do this yourself or pay a professional - otherwise the traffic to your website will not grow (and may actually fall).
- Promote your website. Once your website is built, this is just the start of your journey. You need to attract visitors from both online and offline mediums. Simple ways to promote your website include adding your web address to your email signatures, business cards, car or building signage and in existing print advertisements and brochures. Promote your website online using Google AdWords, SEO, and local directories such as the Redlands Directory, Facebook or pay per click advertising through media relevant to your target market. Once your website is built measure the traffic you receive each month, count the leads you receive, and assess the conversion rate of your website. Use Google’s analytics to continue to analyse and improve the effectiveness of your website. Focus on increasing the conversion rate from existing visitors and achieve more with the same or less resources - this is just smart business! Of course, the insights gained from your website will also help you to optimise your offline marketing as well.
Sustainable Marketing Services, a Brisbane digital marketing agency, can develop an online marketing strategy for you and then work with a range of website designers to build a high performance website for you!
Visit our case studies here.
Sustainable Marketing Services is an award-winning Brisbane digital marketing agency with a long history of delivering sustainable success for our clients.
Book a complimentary meeting on 07 3446 5837 or via email us here.