Powerful Marketing Ideas for the New Internet Age

Last week I had lunch with a CEO who had just asked his Website team to re-optimize his company's site. "We've got to get more traffic to our site," he told me, "or else we're never going to sell more product."

Of course, he's right. To sell on the Internet, you need traffic. But getting traffic is a lot harder than it used to be, given the staggering number of companies doing business on the Internet. The greatest optimization in the world will probably land your company mid-pack in search results and when those visitors arrive, they better find something pretty unique, or they won't stick around for long.

So, what works better than optimization, pay-per-click and the other tactics that most people reach for to squeeze more income from a static site? Here are some that can make you dominant, not dominated, in Internet commerce.

Strategy One: Create a stand-alone Website for each of your enterprises. Let's say that you have a company that sells bar supplies. You could optimize your site around "bar supplies" - and get lousy search engine results anyway. (A sample Google search for that key term just netted me 11,400,000 hits that led me to a lot of similar-looking companies.) Or you could build a separate site for each of the categories of products that you sell, like tavern puzzles. (Those neat wrought-iron puzzles that tease the brain.) A search for "tavern puzzles" just took me right to a company called tavernpuzzle.com, which occupied first position in a list of more than a million sites. So I rest my case. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, be something unique to a special group of customers.

Strategy Two: Create a simple Website that supports just one goal. Do you want your visitors to place an order, to subscribe to an eNewsletter, or to sign up for a free software trial? Remember that goal, and don't pack in a lot of things that distract your visitor from it. To see an example of a company that does this well, visit Carbonite.com. This very simple Website's only goal is to convince visitors to sign up for a free software trial.

Strategy Three: Do micro-diagnostics on your Website. You need advanced diagnostics that tell you which pages your visitors are landing on, how long they remain there, which other pages in your site they click to - and whether all that activity supports your goal for the site. (See Strategy Two 2 above). If you don't have tech people in house who can amass that kind of data, consult with an outside vendor that specializes in advanced site analysis. Onereputable firm that can help is Keynote.

Strategy Four: Get sound market research behind your Internet efforts. Conduct a survey that asks your customers some simple questions. What were they looking for when they came to your site? How did your site enable, or discourage, that effort? Next, have a market research company conduct focus groups with pre-screened, experienced Internet buyers who test your site and tell you how well it is working. A company called Wilson Internet Resources offers some excellent free articles on the subject.

Strategy Five: Be among the first in your field to claim a spot on the Mobile Internet. It's coming - so why aren't you the first to be there? But there is a lot to learn first. You can't just shrink your Website and stick it on a phone. A recent article in PC World covers the basics.

The days when we all thought that the Internet had limitless growth potential are gone. As the space it offers gets more saturated, only the very smart will survive.

Michael Sexton is President of Trump University. To learn the latest strategies for Internet Marketing, enroll in Trump University's Marketing Mastery Program,taught by professor Donald Sexton, PhD. Classes are forming this week.

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