Step One: Set Your Goals, Your Business Goals:

With all of the reporting and statistics available in this new online marketing world it’s easy to get lost in the numbers and lose focus on what your real business goals are. Goal setting for your online marketing should be no different than any other marketing goals you set. It should be focused on real, meaningful business numbers instead of website hits, and search rankings. Too often, however, the two are easily confused.

As an illustration of the difference, think about your print advertising. You don’t pay for a ad in a trade journal because your goal is to have 30,000 readers see your ad 6 times per year, instead your real business goal for that ad is to increase awareness enough to move the needle on sales in the form of increased traffic and ultimately closed sales. Your website is exactly the same. Your business goal should not be to be number one in a specific keyword it should be more specific to the business like generating ad impressions and selling more new customers every month from internet generated leads.

Step Two: Establish Your Baseline:

Before you can reach your business goals you need to know where you are right now. Fortunately, online marketing is one of the most measurable and accountable forms of marketing you can use. Tools like eNewsletter open and click reports, Google Analytics and AdWords can track just about everything you could want to know about your on-line ad campaign. Clearly, this is very useful information.

The trouble is, it’s a ton of information and making sense out of it all requires a PHD in Googleatomy.
Fortunately, there are a few very specific metrics than can quickly give you an idea of where you are and how your campaign is performing and Dispatch Marketing has specific focus on these.

Step Three: Grow SEO, The Right Way:

Search Engine Optimization is one of the most commonly misunderstood concepts when it comes to on-line marketing in the Industrial Distribution market. There are so many companies out there today trying to sell SEO to businesses that it can be very hard to separate the truth from fiction. In a nutshell this is the definition of SEO (from Wikipedia):

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of maximizing the volume or quality of traffic to a web site (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing ("SEM") which may deal with paid inclusion. The theory is that the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.

The straight story is simply this: You can get something for nothing with SEO. It’s cheap, but it doesn’t always last for long (someone else is always trying to knock your site off the SEO mountain) and too often doesn’t result in achieving real business goals for a business – like sales.

Really good SEO, on the other hand, the kind that keeps you at the top of the search engines for terms that generate business for your business over the long term takes a little planning and management.
Search Engine Optimization is still marketing and while the tools and terms are new, the concepts are the same. SEO will allow you to tap into the web and drive more traffic to your site – Smart SEO will drive relevant traffic that is looking for what you have available and will help convert that traffic into leads and finally sales.

Step Four: Supplement with Online and Offline Advertising:

While organic SEO can get your website found very inexpensively, there are other ways to promote and advertise your business website, both online and offline. SEO should be just one part of your overall marketing strategy. Tools like Google AdWords, Banners placed on websites and even the standard ads can help drive interest in your business.

• Traditional Advertising. One of the most often overlooked aspects of online advertising is your traditional offline advertising. Everything you do, from TV or Radio spots to your business cards to print ads and flyers should include your web address. Even the signature line of every email coming from your business should have a link back to your site. Why? Because typically it’s the name of your business and people are far more likely to remember the name of your business than your 800 number.

As with everything you do as part of your overall marketing strategy, you should measure the results of your advertising campaigns and determine the effectiveness of not only each approach – but even specific websites or publications. So, if you don’t get leads from a specific method drop them and move that budget into something more effective for your Business. Each business is different so managing this can be complex. Fortunately, Dispatch Marketing offers concise and clear reports to help you understand your campaign’s effect.

Step Five: Add a Greeter to Your Website (DispatchPLUS):

Can you imagine customers calling or walking in your business with no one asking if they needed help? Isn’t the ideal business situation to have a friendly and personable greeter invite people into the business, make sure they are getting what they need and if they need help connecting them with the right person to answer their questions?

Why should your website be any different?

Modern technology allows you to literally monitor your website live, and in real time push an invite “Can I help you find something?” chat to your visitors. You can answer questions, re-direct them to pages on your site, perform searches for them and ultimately build rapport and even offer to have someone who knows more about a specific product they are interested in and be able to call them back in a few minutes.

The DispatchPLUS “Virtual Greeter” can extend the hours of your business, improve the visitor’s experience on your website, get them the information they need quickly (or connect them with someone else who can) and most importantly can convert an anonymous visitors into a qualified lead in just a few minutes.

Step Six: Go Outbound with Email Marketing:

Regular email communication is the least expensive way to keep your business in front of customers and prospects.

• Ad Hoc Announcements. Sometimes you just need to get the word out about something big. Let’s say you’re having a big event next weekend and you want to let all of your customers know about it quickly. With an Ad Hoc email you can easily create a message, add some graphics, link back to more information on your website and maybe even a “registration form” and send it out within minutes.

• Monthly Newsletters. Keeping your customers connected to your business long after the sale takes effort. By setting up a monthly email campaign you can automatically send out a newsletter every month to all of your customers and prospects. You can even include posts and information from your facebook and twitter pages, upcoming sales and specials and articles and blog posts you’ve written or found that you think might be interesting to your readers.

• Inventory Updates. Early in the buying process customers are inventory focused. Sending out “latest arrivals” emails shows prospects what’s new on a regular basis. This information can also be combined with newsletters and even ad hoc emails when appropriate.

• One to one marketing campaigns. Managing the ongoing long term communications with customers and prospects on a one to one basis can be achieved using one to one campaigns. Targeted email campaigns with specific emails and steps scheduled out years in advance can keep customers connected to your business and help them progress through the buying process with very little work from the sale team.

Dispatch Marketing email campaign management tracks everything from bad email addresses to opened emails to links clicks and percentage responses. These tools allow you to constantly monitor and adjust your campaigns to help you ensure success.

How to Get It All Done

As you can see, an Online Marketing Strategy and can be as simple or comprehensive as you want to make it. But with 90% of your customers using the web to start their buying process and more and more people relying on email, eNewesletters and other on-line media, a network to communicate a comprehensive on-line marketing strategy is critical to your business success.

If your just starting out, many of the initial steps can be handled by you or your sales and marketing team. As things progress, either hiring a dedicated web marketing manager or outsourcing the job to your ad agency or a company like Dispatch Marketing, Inc. might make more financial sense.

Either way when you begin the process, make sure the people you work with understand not only the technology and tools available to manage your strategy, but that they really understand your industry and your specific business goals…Because at the end of the day the focus should remain fixed on sales and the bottom line.