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The short answer is both. You
need a Web site and you need to market it. A Web site
without online marketing is a little like the proverbial
tree falling in the forest -- it's there, but will anyone
find it?
If I were forced to come down on one side or the other, I'd
say spend more on marketing. What form that takes and where
you put those dollars depends to some degree on whether
you're selling products or services. However, the challenge
is that if you have an inadequate Web site or one that
doesn't provide consumers with the right information or
enough of it, all the online marketing in the world may not
help.
Online marketing, whether on directories, specialized
vertical sites, shopping engines, or through search can
deliver a potential lead to your door, but if you don't
deliver what the consumer is looking for, you may never get
that call or close the sale.
Even sophisticated marketers and large companies often have
trouble taking the hand-off from, say, Google or Yahoo! and
closing the sale. What the consumer or prospect sees when he
or she lands on your site is critical. That's why you must
address both your site and online marketing; the two must
work together.
Think about the entire process from your customer's point of
view. Where do you direct consumers when they arrive from
third-party sites or search engines? Is it your home page, a
deep link, or a specialized landing page?
Here's what online marketing authority MarketingSherpa said
about the comparative effectiveness of specialized landing
pages vs. deep links or links to merchant home pages (in a
paid-search context):
Specialized landing pages without regular site navigation
get the highest conversion rates. Marketers who send traffic
to their regular home page get pitiful conversion rates.
Folks who deeplink but leave standard navigation are usually
somewhere in the middle. Our July 2004 survey clearly shows
the paid search trend is toward . . . stupider marketing.
Here are the numbers for paid search campaigns:
Marketers using specialized landing pages -- 42 percent
Marketers using deeplinking -- 32 percent
Marketers sending to a home page -- 26 percent
In other words, specialized landing pages performed the
best, followed by "deep links" (to specific information on
your site). Links to merchant home pages performed worst.
All this goes to the question of taking your customers'point
of view into consideration in designing your site and your
campaign. As the data above indicate, the two must be
integrated.
If that all sounds complex, it is.
Your site should be clear, simple to navigate, and include
search functionality. Before deciding how and where to spend
your money, decide whether your site is usable or needs an
upgrade. Conduct a survey of customers, friends, relatives,
and colleagues. What do they honestly think of your site,
its strengths and weaknesses?
Web design and hosting are becoming commodity products and
it may be possible to upgrade your site or redesign it
altogether relatively inexpensively. If you're a product
seller with a huge catalog that may be a more complicated
matter.
Do some research online, talk to business associates and,
after you've narrowed it down, call some Web hosting
companies. Increasingly, small business Web hosts are also
offering marketing services in simplified packages. Those
include:
- Affinity
- EBay ProStores
- Interland
- Vista
- Yahoo
- Register.com
I'm not endorsing any of
the above. But these firms try to simplify the online
marketing process and offer a range of services along with
their Web-hosting packages.
If your site doesn't need a makeover, you'll have to decide
whether you want to outsource your marketing or
do-it-yourself. There are an increasing number of companies,
in addition to those mentioned above, that offer simplified
online marketing for small businesses. And there are
agencies that cater specifically to small business (mostly
service providers). Among them are:
- Leads.com
- LocalLaunch
- LocalLead
- Pinpoint Local
- ReachLocal
Whether to use these
agencies depends on the nature of your business, your budget
and your orientation to marketing. For those who are more
ambitious and want to take a hands-on approach, there are a
dizzying array of options and considerations.
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