1. Get clear on what the purpose of your website is

   Otherwise it can just end up a confusing mess. Is the purpose of your website to sell something, give information, nurture relationships??? It’s up to you – but get clear from the start. For example, the purpose of this website is to give leading edge information to our clients that can help them significantly grow their business and increase their profits. Simple as that. So get clear on what you want your website to be and focus on it.

2. Remember that your website should not be about you

   OK it sounds weird but the truth is your prospective clients and customers aren’t that interested in you. They’re interested in what you can do for them. There’s a fundamental difference. Sure, you can have an ‘About us’ section and your website certainly needs to convey your pre-eminence in your field. But beyond that it should all be about your prospective clients. Step into their shoes. Meet their needs. Address their fears and concerns. Above all, give them solutions and solve some of their problems. Then you’ll have a website that people will want to visit.

3. Give People Free Stuff.

   Don’t hold back. If the purpose of your business is to add real value to peoples’ lives – start now. Give visitors to your site information they can use that will make a real difference to them.

4. Email Addresses

   You’ve heard this a thousand times before, but would you believe that most businesses still do not collect the email addresses of everyone who contacts them. You may as well take a huge bucket of cash, go to the top of your building and throw it out of the window. Every time a business fails to capture someone’s email address they’re turning down the opportunity to contact them for FREE, for weeks, months and years ahead. This is insanity. It’s also insane not to offer visitors to your website an easy way of submitting their email address, so they can see if you’re as good as you say you are. Your web designers should be able to set up a simple way of doing this.

5. Once you have Email Addresses – use them!

   Of the businesses that are good at collecting email addresses, hardly any of them follow up by communicating regularly with their customers and clients in an effective way. You don’t just have to use email to sell stuff. You can use email to thank people for their business, make them a special offer, give them a free article or report, send a newsletter, recommend a product or service they may be interested in, ask for referrals, share some news that may be interested in, ask why they’ve not done business with you…the list is only limited by your imagination. The point is this. You could grow your business by 10, 20 or 30% just by adopting an effective e-marketing strategy.
   

6. Automate your Emails with Autoresponders

   One of the reasons that Email Marketing is so powerful is because if you set it up properly, your entire email operation can be automated. Using autoresponders you can decide who gets which emails and when they get them. You can even create a system where people who purchase a particular product or service receive a series of emails leading them to further purchases. And the entire process is automated – which means that you can lie on the beach while the profits roll in.

7. Test Pay Per Click Advertising

   How would you like your business to be at the very top of all the search engines without spending months on search engine optimization that probably wont work anyway. You can do this simply and rapidly with pay per click advertising. This enables you to get to the top of the search engines but you only pay when someone clicks to go to your website. So unlike most internet advertising, you only pay when someone visits your site. How much you pay will depend on how much competition there is amongst other advertisers in your category.As with all marketing, the golden rule is to TEST and measure the results.

8. Use Audio on your website

   The internet now offers the opportunity for you (or a professional voice over) to speak directly to your customers and clients. Adding audio to your website can be very powerful and is not expensive. Either produce something yourself or contact us and we’ll produce something for you. Either way, if you want to stand out from the crowd, aim to get audio on your site within the next month.

9. Consider Testing Internet Advertising

   The collapse of internet advertising after the dot com boom, gave advertising on the web a bad name. But for many businesses, it’s become a key part of their marketing mix. Consider testing internet advertising on a small scale – if it’s successful and you are able to role it out, it can be a superb way to reach large numbers of potential customers and clients very rapidly.
   

10. Stay ahead of the curve

    These points just skim the surface of Internet and Marketing. In addition, it changes, literally by the month. Make sure you keep reading the latest trends in marketing on the webs and it will pay off in spades. In the months and years ahead, the information you receive will be worth thousands to you and will keep you ahead of the competition.

- Top Ten Tips submitted by Chris Cardell

1) The clients may not be getting your message:

Don’t be ridiculous, you say. I’m sending them emails - and I think it’s the right address. Your email heads straight to their in-box. Oh, is it? How do you know? How on earth would you know that they were actually getting it? Just because your marketing is headed to the right address, doesn’t mean it’s sitting in the right box. If you’re using email marketing, all your emails may be headed to a pre-arranged folder that the client means to read, but never does. (Hint: Change the email address you’re sending from).

2) Your message isn’t compelling enough:

You think your message is compelling. Your business partner thinks so. Your parakeet thinks so. The client doesn’t think so. Your message bores the client to bits. This is because you could be making several mistakes. Some of the most elementary mistakes are mixing up attraction with conversion factors.

Another mistake that most businesses make is they appeal to the ‘need factor’, instead of what the client really ‘wants.’ Of course, there are dozens of mines, when you’re trying to persuade, and unless you have a comprehensive checklist of what to put in your messages, you’re going to miss out crucial components. Sad, but true.

3) You’ve not created the first step:

Yes, so you’ve followed the rules, and kept marketing to the client. And yes, your client database is up to date. And God knows that everyone who sees your message says that the offer is extremely compelling. So what’s keeping the client from buying your product/service?

It’s called the first step. A first step that clients as well as volcanoes need to take. Something needs to trigger off the reaction. Something has to start the boiling, the hissing and the burping. And that something could be a free event that you hold. It could be a lower-priced item that you offer to start the reaction. It could be an outstanding offer, that gives a bunch of goodies that just can’t be resisted by the client. Look at your local supermarket for instance. They offer a few items at rock bottom price, probably making little or no money at all on these specific items, but the rest of the products are at regular or even higher price.

The Answer lies in the Theory of Consumption

So you’ve got to get them to get one purchase under their belt, and then work towards increasing consumption.The more they consume, the more they tend to consume. Make sure your clients are getting the message. Make sure the message is compelling. And yes, initiate a first step to get clients interested.

Then make them an offer they can’t resist. Yes, you may not make much money on the offer - but if you employ the “Givers Gain” Philosophy, (where you give a lot first - then you gain a lot later) and they will keep coming back for more.