Too often, I deal with prospective clients who are looking to optimize their site and rank in the top 10. While this is a worthwhile goal, I emphasize to clients that it is important to consider marketing strategy as a whole and not in a vacuum.
I refer to this as looking from the perspective of a bird. From the bird’s eye point of view, it can see everything happening around it below. Few activities conducted below escape its attention. This is how you must approach your marketing as well. You must consider how each activity complements the overall strategy of what you wish to achieve – a sale.
In a recent study done between November and December 2005 by ComScore, they found that more than half of the consumers’ online holiday buying actually occured in subsequent internet sessions and not during the first visit.
What does this mean to you?
Being number one means little if they don’t come back. They may shop at ten different stores and yours doesn’t stand out from the crowd. This can be through a memorable domain name, searching/browsing experience, user-friendliness, etc. It also means that your site better be easy to navigate. Visitors must be able to find what they are looking for and not have to hunt high and low for the item they are interested in. Remember, it is as easy as a click away from your site.
What follow-up system do you have? Knowing that more visitors don’t buy the first time around, what do you do to make them come back? What incentives do you offer?
You’ll notice that I give no direct answers. Rather than give you answers, I like to “draw-out” the answers. By pondering on these ideas, you should develop a more comprehensive strategy to combat the information overload many of your visitors face.
Here are collection of ideas to consider:
I can guarantee that if you put at least one of these ideas in action, you’ll see great results. When you do, feel free to let me know.