Have a website or internet marketing question?

We'd love to hear from you. Do you have a question about your website? Email marketing? How to improve search engine rankings? Or anything other question that relates to growing your business by maximizing your website and the Internet. If you do, send them to us at info@penpublishing.com. We'll respond to the questions we receive in our monthly newsletter. If we use your question, we will send you a "Be your own geek." t-shirt. We will start it off with a question we hear all the time.

Q: How can my website help me grow my business?

A: Websites have proven to be one of the most effective and under-utilized marketing tools available. The first step to use your website to help grow your business is to make it an integral part of an overall marketing strategy. Websites are very effective in improving marketing effectiveness, ROI and most importantly increase sales. Websites also make it very easy to test marketing messages, track exactly what your potential customers are interested in and lets company's explain why customers should do business with them in a detailed and compelling way.

So, what are some of things you can do with your website to grow your business?

• More facts, less guess work. Test your marketing messages on your website before you implement them offline. This is one of the most powerful marketing features your website provides. Conduct real-time A/B testing of different headlines, offers and/or promotions. Track which messages your target market responds to most favorably. Take those messages and implement them throughout all your marketing. This is a very cost-effective method to increase your marketing effectiveness and overall ROI. Testing messages is made even easier with a web content management system that lets you create the tests quickly and track results.
• If you have it, use it. Add video that shows off your product or services. Video can help increase your conversion rate by 20% or more. TV commercials, product demos, corporate overview videos and how-to videos can impact a potential customer's decision on whether to buy from your company or not.
• Increase search engine rankings. Optimize your website for higher search rankings. Do everything you can to increase your natural search engines rankings. It's hard to sell someone on your product or service if they can't find you on the internet. Not sure where to begin? In a previous email I outlined a few basic things everyone can do to help increase search engine rankings.
• Check the numbers. Check your website analytics on a regular basis as they provide a wealth of information about what your customers are interested in and what they are not. Define what your company's key performing indicators are then set a baseline and begin testing messages and offers and track which ones are effective. Analytics will also tell you where visitors are coming from, what keywords they used to find you, what pages they viewed and how long they stayed on your website to name a few.
• Educate your target market. Develop an email or newsletter program if you don't currently have one. According to the Direct Marketing Association email marketing provides $45.65 ROI for every dollar invested. The sales cycle traditionally slows during a down economy and email marketing is a very cost-effective way to keep your message in front of current and potential customers.
• Grab attention. Adjust your marketing message with more of a focus on value and cost savings. This includes the content on your website. Be specific about what your clients can expect when they invest in your product or service.
• Let your customers explain who you are. Highlight customer testimonials with an emphasis on benefits realized.

These are just a few things you can do to use your websites to grow your business. Review your marketing strategy and make sure it includes a strong interactive marketing plan that maximizes your website and other cost effective interactive tools.