How to Make Your Website Fit Into Your Marketing Strategy

For any business, a website is your number one marketing tool to build a brand’s presence and attract traffic. Your website represents your business in a fast moving digital world and is one of the essential marketing tools you can use to increase brand awareness and grow your sales. It’s no longer a “nice to have” part of your marketing strategy. It’s a must-have.

If you’re struggling to attract the right type of customer, increase website traffic, and provide the products and services you know are needed, then it’s time to evaluate how a proper, professionally designed website can fit into your marketing strategy. Let’s take a look at how you can successfully use your website to drive your marketing strategy into a profitable business.

#1 – Understand Who Your Customer Is

If you are an existing business, it’s worthwhile taking another look at which customer you are trying to target and attract based on your marketing strategy. Take your current audience and evaluate how they interact with your website, which product/service pages they migrate towards and which of these products/services are most popular from a purchasing perspective. This will give you an idea as to what content is performing best and resonating with your audience which then provides you with content direction for the remainder of your website.

For new businesses looking to integrate their marketing strategy into a professional website, conducting a target market analysis is a prudent approach. To do this it’s useful to separate your audience into two categories; Quantitative & Demographic and Qualitative & Psychographic.

Quantitative & Demographic looks at location, age and income. If for instance you are selling a range of premium road cycling clothing from a store in Brisbane your target market analysis will focus on Brisbane, to individuals with an income that allows for disposable spending – $90,000+ in the age bracket of 28-45. This has narrowed your audience down significantly and already given you an idea as to what your audience looks like from Quantitative perspective.

Qualitative & Psychographic takes a more thorough approach in a target audience analysis. The focus here is to try to establish how your target market thinks and responds to certain product/service offerings. Using our premium road cycling clothing as an example, what about the range is going to want to make your audience conduct a purchase? Perhaps it’s the materials used, or maybe the brand stands for something that they are passionate about i.e. a portion of profits is donated to providing bicycles to children in third world countries or is there an aspect to the clothing range that helps with rider performance? Once these Qualitative aspects have been established you can then meld this to your Qualitative results to formulate a solid buyer persona.

Once you’ve figured out who your customer is and how they like to interact, you can start to build content on your website that will attract these customers and make existing ones continue to stay loyal to your brand offering.

#2 – Goal Setting

The next step in your marketing strategy journey should be to establish a list of goals that you want both your website and overall business to achieve. Here are a few to get you started;

1. Generating qualified leads

Having a website that acts as your sales rep is the ideal situation for all businesses. A website delivers valuable information and highlights product/service offerings which help customers with their ultimate buying decision. A website that can educate and convince a visitor will result in qualified leads and ultimately a healthier profitable business which is the goal of every business.

2. Increase awareness

Awareness is something every business is trying to achieve in the marketplace. This goal can be achieved in a variety of ways depending on the product or service being offered. From web design perspective, informative content in the form of text and videos, imagery and unique social media strategies all help to capture attention and make potential customers more aware of your brand offering.

3. Grow Presence

Growing your presence can be done in two ways – organically or paid. Any new business starting out may have somewhat tight marketing budgets which is why organic presence growth is the best course of action to take. Implementing this early on in your business journey also sets you up nicely for the future compared to those who decide to pay to grow their presence and neglect the foundation of their website. A great way to organically grow your business is to pay close to attention to your content and SEO practices which can grow your visibility on search engines significantly and cheaply.

Goals like these, among others, will give your marketing strategy a purposeful direction that translates into results.

#3 – Evaluate Your Website Branding Direction

Does your website clearly communicate who you are, what you do, and why you do what you do? If not, it’s worth taking a look at the design of your brand and content you’re using. Your website is the first impression a visitor is going to have of your business so make sure it’s a good one!

A good way to see what is working in the market is to see what your competitors are doing and see what ways you can improve to really standout in the market. Make sure your branding and messaging go above and beyond the viewer’s expectations and attract the right kind of customers you want.

The content on your website must also be closely evaluated and implemented as this is the main communication medium that your customers will be experiencing. The way you communicate or the ‘tone’ that you use is directly related to your brand so make sure you stick to your chosen tone through your websites content.

If you’re not sure if you’re headed in the right direction, it might be worth considering a web developer. A professional web developer can help you refine your vision, develop a strategy for visitor flow, and create a website that will set you apart from your competition.

#4 – Harness The Power Of Google

Once you’ve identified your target audience, established your goals and happy with your websites branding and content, it’s time to harness the power of Google and start driving traffic. As mentioned previously, SEO is a key component for a website ranking success which Google dictates based on the quality of your content so be sure to abide by Googles SEO standards.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that helps you track the performance of your website and identify how visitors are interacting with your page. Many businesses neglect this free service from Google so make sure you take the time to track and assess your website.

#5 – Optimize Your Site For Social Media

Get the most out of your website by optimizing it for social media. Not to be confused with social media marketing, optimizing your site uses tools to:

• Provide visual elements that can be shared on social media (like images and video).
• Add social media sharing buttons on the pages you want visitors to share.
• When someone shares your content, make sure your URL is generated in a snippet to drive people to your website from the shared content.

These simple tools drive your social media exposure which in turn increases your website exposure. By driving this organic traffic, you create better engagement and more interactions to drive sales.

It’s also worth noting that your social media theme should try to replicate that of your website and overall brand theme. This helps provide a long-lasting memorable connection with your audience from a branding perspective.

#6 Don’t Neglect Your Blogging

The inclusion of a blog page is another great marketing strategy that a business can use on its website to grow awareness, engagement and build authority with Google.

60% of consumers feel more positive about what a company represents and offers after reading a custom blog. With over 75% of chief marketing officers believing custom content is the future of marketing and consumer engagement, it’s easy to see why blogging can be so valuable.

#7 – Analyze, Update, Rinse, Repeat

Keep your website driving your marketing strategy with proper monitoring. When it comes to digital marketing, everything you do is measurable and can be analyzed. Make sure you have the right tools and metrics in place to achieve your goals. Use Google Analytics to track your website traffic and interaction goals so you can review the information and make the right decisions about content updates.

For example, you own a house painting company in Brisbane, but you’re not getting much traffic on your blog posts talking about the types of paint you use. You should see where you can either update the posts to make them more relevant or merge the information in other pages to incorporate it as a part of more compelling content.

Know When It’s Time To Partner With A Pro

As a business owner, your time is valuable, and you may just not have the ability to create or update a website that will work for you while also running your day to day business. That’s where Strong Digital comes in.

Based in Brisbane, we understand your unique needs as a local business and we’re here to help you succeed.

We’ve got zeal for creating our best work with a clear purpose to help you evolve your marketing strategy to include a website that not only enhances your online presence but drives your target customers to purchase your goods and services. So if you’re ready to create long-term value for your business, give us a call and see what we can do for you!