8.23.2004
Improve your E-Marketing - without a lot of effort
Improve your E-marketing – without a lot of effort!
Many companies put quite a lot of time and effort into designing and launching their websites. The sites contain valuable information on the company, their products and services and often includes easy to use ‘contact us’ forms so that customers and potential customers can easily reach out for assistance. The problem is that once the website is done, it’s forgotten. It becomes the ‘step-child’ of a company’s marketing efforts. It sits for months and often years without an update and becomes stale and as a result, customers rarely return. Even worse, the search engines ‘think’ that the site is inactive.
A stale website is often a result of its development. If the content isn’t easily editable using built-in content management functionality, the site’s owner (usually someone in the marketing department) has to jump through hoops or pay the original designer to make updates. This ‘updating headache’ causes the website to fall to the bottom of the marketing priority list and there it sits – doing nothing.
Don’t worry. All is not lost. The good news is that there is an easy solution to this problem. It’s relatively easy to ‘retrofit’ an existing site with an administration console for editing the content directly through your browser. No special software is needed and no knowledge of .html or any other programming is required.
A website should be updated on a monthly basis. Change the content and add articles, case studies and press releases. A “what’s new” area on your home page with links to an archive of articles is an ideal way to keep your site fresh and let the search engines know that your business is alive and well. You will definitely notice an improvement in your site’s rankings once you begin to refresh your site.
One of the great things about the web is that a user can ‘compare’ a dozen competing companies in a matter of minutes. This means that the design of your site MUST communicate the kind of company you are – quickly and visually. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best in the business – if your website looks like the daughter-in-law of the CFO designed it as part of a school project, you WILL be overlooked by potential customers. A face-lift every 18-24 months keeps your site interesting and competitive. There’s no need to build from the ground up each time; a simple re-design of the main site graphics and perhaps a slight change in layout is all that’s necessary.
Once your site is looking good and it’s being updated on a regular basis, it’s time to seriously evaluate your e-mail marketing efforts. If you aren’t doing so already, you should definitely invite visitors to subscribe to an e-mail newsletter. By building a database of individuals who are interested in your company, you can quickly and inexpensively keep in contact with them by broadcasting news, product information, press releases, awards…even ‘specials’. Because a subscription is ‘opt-in’, that is a choice that a user makes to receive more information, you are not becoming a ‘spammer’. Instead, you are reaching out to customers and prospects without relying on them to keep visiting your website.
Consider these ‘tips’ on effective e-mail marketing:
•Don’t broadcast too often – once a month is probably the limit.
•Don’t include too much information – the e-mail newsletter is meant to be a quick read and bring people back to your site (where the full article has been included using your new content management functionality).
•Don’t ignore a person’s request to be unsubscribed – better yet, have a mechanism that will automatically unsubscribe them.
•Do include a method for users to unsubscribe if they wish – this will keep you in compliance with anti-spam laws.
•Do personalize your e-newsletters as much as possible.
•Do segment your subscribers into distinct groups so you can more easily target your message.
•Do use a Broadcast E-Newsletter system that tracks the results of your efforts – how many people open the message, who opens the message, who followed the links, etc.
•Do keep the content of your newsletter related to your business – ‘on topic’ as they say.
When you effectively communicate with your customers and prospects with an updated website and regular ‘touches’ with a branded e-mail newsletter, you can be assured that your online marketing is up to snuff. Stay active with new content and keep your e-newsletters interesting and you will reap the benefits!
Artropolis, Inc., is a company devoted to technology as a means to improve sales, marketing, customer service, branding and internal processes. Since 1994, Artropolis has been the premier Minneapolis web design team, having delivered value for clients by designing and developing websites that achieve specific business needs.
Many companies put quite a lot of time and effort into designing and launching their websites. The sites contain valuable information on the company, their products and services and often includes easy to use ‘contact us’ forms so that customers and potential customers can easily reach out for assistance. The problem is that once the website is done, it’s forgotten. It becomes the ‘step-child’ of a company’s marketing efforts. It sits for months and often years without an update and becomes stale and as a result, customers rarely return. Even worse, the search engines ‘think’ that the site is inactive.
A stale website is often a result of its development. If the content isn’t easily editable using built-in content management functionality, the site’s owner (usually someone in the marketing department) has to jump through hoops or pay the original designer to make updates. This ‘updating headache’ causes the website to fall to the bottom of the marketing priority list and there it sits – doing nothing.
Don’t worry. All is not lost. The good news is that there is an easy solution to this problem. It’s relatively easy to ‘retrofit’ an existing site with an administration console for editing the content directly through your browser. No special software is needed and no knowledge of .html or any other programming is required.
A website should be updated on a monthly basis. Change the content and add articles, case studies and press releases. A “what’s new” area on your home page with links to an archive of articles is an ideal way to keep your site fresh and let the search engines know that your business is alive and well. You will definitely notice an improvement in your site’s rankings once you begin to refresh your site.
One of the great things about the web is that a user can ‘compare’ a dozen competing companies in a matter of minutes. This means that the design of your site MUST communicate the kind of company you are – quickly and visually. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best in the business – if your website looks like the daughter-in-law of the CFO designed it as part of a school project, you WILL be overlooked by potential customers. A face-lift every 18-24 months keeps your site interesting and competitive. There’s no need to build from the ground up each time; a simple re-design of the main site graphics and perhaps a slight change in layout is all that’s necessary.
Once your site is looking good and it’s being updated on a regular basis, it’s time to seriously evaluate your e-mail marketing efforts. If you aren’t doing so already, you should definitely invite visitors to subscribe to an e-mail newsletter. By building a database of individuals who are interested in your company, you can quickly and inexpensively keep in contact with them by broadcasting news, product information, press releases, awards…even ‘specials’. Because a subscription is ‘opt-in’, that is a choice that a user makes to receive more information, you are not becoming a ‘spammer’. Instead, you are reaching out to customers and prospects without relying on them to keep visiting your website.
Consider these ‘tips’ on effective e-mail marketing:
•Don’t broadcast too often – once a month is probably the limit.
•Don’t include too much information – the e-mail newsletter is meant to be a quick read and bring people back to your site (where the full article has been included using your new content management functionality).
•Don’t ignore a person’s request to be unsubscribed – better yet, have a mechanism that will automatically unsubscribe them.
•Do include a method for users to unsubscribe if they wish – this will keep you in compliance with anti-spam laws.
•Do personalize your e-newsletters as much as possible.
•Do segment your subscribers into distinct groups so you can more easily target your message.
•Do use a Broadcast E-Newsletter system that tracks the results of your efforts – how many people open the message, who opens the message, who followed the links, etc.
•Do keep the content of your newsletter related to your business – ‘on topic’ as they say.
When you effectively communicate with your customers and prospects with an updated website and regular ‘touches’ with a branded e-mail newsletter, you can be assured that your online marketing is up to snuff. Stay active with new content and keep your e-newsletters interesting and you will reap the benefits!
Artropolis, Inc., is a company devoted to technology as a means to improve sales, marketing, customer service, branding and internal processes. Since 1994, Artropolis has been the premier Minneapolis web design team, having delivered value for clients by designing and developing websites that achieve specific business needs.
