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Creating a Website Marketing Plan: Step 5 – Take Stock and Reassess
Posted by: | CommentsPreface: For those of you just joining us, this is the final installment of a five-part series I have been doing this week. Throughout this series I will refer to websites as a general term, as all of these concepts and strategies hold true whether your website is a static brochure, informational site, blog, online store or other form of website.
STEP 5 – TAKE STOCK AND REASSESS
How do you know if your plan is working? Periodically you have to step back, evaluate and reassess your methods.
One of the most frequently made mistakes in small business is not giving your marketing efforts enough time to work. These things take time. You are not going to get indexed on all the search engines overnight. You are not going to build a newsletter subscription list overnight. You will not sell 100,000 mega-niche widgets overnight, either.
Set a schedule for reassessment. Check in on your results monthly, do a bit of tweaking along the way and look for patterns. Most marketing efforts take a good 3-6 months to really do their job. Look at your plan and results after 6 months. What is working? What is not? Have you learned some new tricks along the way? Use your orignal marketing plan (you know, the one you have been creating with me this week) as a first draft. Revise and re-implement.
Continue your cycle of assessment, revision and implementation every 6 months or so. Over time you may discover that you only need to do a major revision yearly. Again, these variables ultimately depend on your website and its goals.
P.S. I really hope this series was useful and that it will help you achieve greater success in your business! I am going to be adding this article in its entirety at my 30 Second Commute web site. If you wish to use the article on your site, credit it properly.
Creating a Website Marketing Plan: Step 4 – Work Your Plan
Posted by: | CommentsPreface: For those of you just joining us, this is part four of a five-part series I will be doing this week. Throughout this series I will refer to websites as a general term, as all of these concepts and strategies hold true whether your website is a static brochure, informational site, blog, online store or other form of website.
STEP 4 – WORK YOUR PLAN
Step 4 of creating a website marketing plan is kind of like embarking on a diet or other life enriching activity – you may know what to do, but if you don’t work on it, nothing will come of it! You have defined your purpose, set goals, created a strategy and now you have to follow through and work the plan.
There are many tools available to help you stay on track, but you have to actually use them. Find the tool that fits your personal productivity style and use it.
David Seah has some wonderful printable task planning sheets available for download. These can help you allocate time and resources for your marketing tasks throughout the day/week/month. Some tasks will need to be done daily and others weekly or monthly. Pencil them in on your calendar for the entire month and they will be less likely to be forgotten.
Another method is to look at your week and set certain tasks to occur on certain days. Maybe you spend 30 minutes on Mondays planning your posts or news for the week, Tuesday’s marketing time is spent reviewing and tweaking affiliate and other monetization links, and so on. If you have multiple sites, you may want to set aside different days for different sites or similar activities for all sites on the same day. Whatever works for you!
Hold yourself accountable and keep track of your progress. You’ll need to have this information ready for tomorrow’s post: Step 5 – Take Stock and Reassess.
Creating a Website Marketing Plan: Step 3 – Create Strategy
Posted by: | CommentsPreface: For those of you just joining us, this is part three of a five-part series I will be doing this week. Throughout this series I will refer to websites as a general term, as all of these concepts and strategies hold true whether your website is a static brochure, informational site, blog, online store or other form of website.
STEP 3 – CREATE STRATEGY
In steps 1 and 2 of creating your marketing plan you defined your site’s purpose and set some goals. In step 3 you need to lay out a strategy for achieving those goals – after all, your site isn’t going to grow all by itself. You will need to do some research and some trial and error to figure out what methods work best for you, but here are some ideas.
Search Engine Optimization and Submission
Take some time going through your site and make sure you are using standard search engine optimization techniques (Self SEO has great tips) and hand submit your site to the major search engines (some say this isn’t necessary – I say it can’t hurt).
Keep Your Content Fresh
Your site will get indexed more efficiently and visitors are more apt to come back if they see that your site has regularly updated information on it.
Social Networking
Posting comments on relevant blogs and getting involved in discussion boards/forums is a great way to get the word out about your site. The key is to get involved in a meaningful way. Don’t just spam. When leaving comments on blogs, add to the conversation. Forums can be an excellent way to boost traffic, establish yourself as someone in the know, and to network. Again, do so with the attitude of giving more than you get and you’ll be happier with the outcome. (Great article on Using Forums to Promote Your Website)
Traditional Advertising
Depending on the type of site you have and/or the product you are selling, don’t forget traditional advertising vehicles. At a minimum, you want to make sure you have your web address on your email signature, your business cards, and printed collateral. Newspaper, magazine, radio and TV spots may be worthwhile too; you just need to know your audience.
New Media Advertising
Is a pay per click campaign just what the doctor ordered? Maybe, maybe not. From link exchanges, banner ads, Adwords, Overture, and affiliate campaigns, it just depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your site. If you choose these options, be sure to allow sufficient time for them to work. Many companies abandon marketing campaigns before they have had sufficient time to be successful. Do your research!
You will need to prioritize your tasks and allocate the proper time and monetary allowances, then get ready to work your plan. Tomorrow we will focus on working the plan, because you are ultimately the one who must put the wheels in motion.
In the meantime, here are two posts I have recently read that add to the concept of marketing your business and your website:
- Copyblogger’s 10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers
- Success from the Nest’s Your Business Plan as a Story
