Content Strategy for the Web: Is Your Website Built for Online Success?

Content Strategy for the Web: Is Your Website Built for Online Success?

by | Feb 5, 2012 | Blog, Content, Design, Strategy

All websites can be classified into 4 types:

1. A site that sells product(s) or service(s) by the quality of design and copywriting, which is in turn

2. A lead generation site that attracts potential new clients

3. A customer support or self service site that reduces costs by completing routine tasks, replacing or reducing human interaction

4. A content site that educates or informs visitors about your organization or service

Most websites are a mixture of the above, yet content strategy is the key! They all need to do 2 things to be successful:

  1. Attract enough new prospects to survive and prosper by cost effectively letting their target audience know that they exist (PUSH), and/or getting found (PULL).
  2. Once prospects land on your website, their experience there needs to be positive, and this is a decision that is often made in less than 1/20th of a second! The user experience is determined by the quality of design and copywriting which is in turn developed by following a strategic process outlined by the diagram below:



Website marketing is an ongoing process, similar to designing and building a house. It is then important to maintain and build the value of your marketing properties and prevent this value being depreciated through neglect of infrastructure or promotional activity by competitors.

To get the best return on the marketing investment, time needs to be dedicated to answer the questions that assist in building a solid foundation for the marketing of your business online.

By starting at the bottom and working up, the process will be shorter, less painful and more profitable.

www – web – the great equalizer by content marketing

by | Feb 4, 2012 | Blog, Design, Promotion

The web allows ‘small business Davids’ to compete with corporate Goliaths.

Your website is the most flexible and accountable content marketing weapon today. Usually the first thing that your prospects see and experience about your business, it is your most public face to the world, a showroom open every hour of every day.

  • The investment into your website is 100% measurable and hence accountable.
  • Your website is an interactive medium and a distribution channel that allows 1 : 1 personalization
In the case of a recession the use of the internet by consumers will only be accelerated as they will spend  more time at home. So remove the cobwebs from your website today!

Internet Advertising is still very underutilized.
A typical US consumer might spend 25% of their media consumption time on the Internet but a typical US advertiser spends only 7% of their communications budget on the web.

Web technology is more accessible than ever: Low Cost and Easy to Use, if you choose to DIY in-house and cheaper than ever to be outsourced to a third party web marketing agency. But be careful who you choose!

Design, Build, Promote, and Maintain to maximize results and make your website work as hard as you do to:
  • Provide visitors with a taste of your product or service
  • Tell visitors why they should buy from you and not your competitors
  • Collect information about your customers
  • Customize customer experience
  • Improve customer service and provide a vehicle for feedback
  • Generate sales leads

Marketing tactics on how to cut your marketing costs without decreasing effectiveness

by | Feb 3, 2012 | Blog, Promotion

While marketing tactics deal with needing Original Ideas & More Creative Execution, more importantly, you need to SHARE!

  • 12 Half Page Print Ads are more effective than 6 Full Page Ads
  • One Colour, called spot colour can be used instead of Full Colour to decrease the cost without effecting effectiveness if the design is used creatively to compensate for this.
  • Use 30 Second Radio Ad v 60 Second Radio Ad
  • Decrease the Direct Mail List Size and follow them up with Telemarketing or
  • Share the cost of Direct Marketing – Printing, Mailing and Distribution with a complimentary Product / Service.
  • You can share the cost of traditional advertising like print by coming up with a creative advertisement that promotes 2 complimentary products in one advertisement and generates synergy between the products to the benefits of both.
  • The same concept can also be taken online by sharing Pay Per Click bid costs and the costs of the Landing Pages.

Start thinking and sharing.

11 Most Effective Ways of Reaching Your Target Audience if you are a small business (SME)

by | Jan 31, 2012 | Blog

As discussed previously, reaching your prospects and customers with your message is today the single greatest ‘cost of doing business’.

If you are a small business, selling to other businesses (B2B) or a professional services firm and even when selling directly to your customers and clients (B2C), then here are our top 11 ways of getting your message to them most cost effectively.

In my past life, when working as a media planner buyer for one of the largest advertising agencies in the country, I quickly realized that when it comes to a media budget – there is never enough money! And I am talking about big national and international brands, with tens of millions of dollars who had to quickly make choices about media channels, geographical markets, length and intensity of their campaigns.

Yet the sad truth is that most small businesses do not plan their promotional budgets with anywhere the same level of professionalism. Even more importantly, the smaller your budget the more creative you have to be with your communication as you don’t have the luxury of being able to drum in your message through the sheer weight of your media budget. And you have to be more vigilant with capturing and analyzing data to understand what works and what doesn’t. 

You will notice that Social Media, the most talked about development in the marketing arena and consumer lifestyle is ‘missing in action’ as a separate point in this list. The reason is simple. Social Media Marketing is so important and so pervasive in attracting customers, that aspects of what is now deemed social media marketing should be present in each of the 11 points below!

1. REFERRALS
  •  Existing customers 
  •  Influencers (who are not customers)
This of course implies that you have both a strategy and an offer / incentive to get these 2 audiences to refer business to you.
The media you use to get the message and offer to them may be made up of one or combination of the following:
  • Face to Face Conversation (Personal Sales)
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Email
  • Telephone
  • Direct Mail
  • Promotional Products
2. NETWORKING
  • Physical – Dedicated Networking Groups, Industry Associations, Expos, etc
  • Virtual (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc)
3. YOUR ONLINE ASSETS (Website, Blog, YouTube Channel, Twitter, Facebook, etc)

4. SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING
  •  Paid Search / Pay Per Click
  • Search Engine Optimization  
6. PR – ONLINE

7. PR – TRADITIONAL

8. DIRECT MAIL & TELEMARKETING

9. NEWSPRINT
  • Trade Press
  • Local Paper
  • Niche Magazines

10. POINT OF SALE & PACKAGING

  • If you are a retailer or supplier then getting this right is paramount
  • Window displays and merchandising in general are still under utilized by most SME’s 

11. OUTDOOR
Strategically placed traditional out of home and ambient media can be very effective. Consider the following for inspiration:

  • Large Traditional Super site Billboards on Freeways purchased at distress rates
  • Gyms, Medical Rooms, Lifts, Cafes, Restrooms, etc anywhere where there is a ‘captive audience’
  • Business Signage (outside and inside your premises)
  • Make sure the medium ‘drives the message’. This means craft your message creatively to address the medium it is in. E.g.: If you have a sticker on the mirrors of all the local hairdressers advertising your Personal Training Services Business then you should be connecting the message and offer to the mirror, or to the experience of getting a haircut, e.g.: “Do you like what you see? Get your Free Fitness Assessment at XYZ Personal Training and get on the road to looking and feeling good – inside and out”