The Keys to Maintaining Your Web Presence

1. The Keys to Maintaining Your
Web Presence
By Anubhav Singh

2. In This Chapter
• Closing the loop
• Remembering that customers rule
• Surfing the waves of change
• Taking risks, earning rewards
• Enjoying your work

3. Marketing Begins with ABC
Review and revise your marketing plan. Are your product mix and merchandising correct? Are
your competitors carrying new products? Do you need more items, fresher items, different sizes
or colors? Do you need to offer new services to accommodate changes in technology? Or
conversely, have you overreached, trying to do a little bit of everything instead of focusing on
your greatest (and most profitable) strengths ?
Take another look at prices. Are you still competitive? The Web tends to drive prices down
because of price comparison sites and the increasing presence of major discounters online. If you
can’t make a profit matching a corporate giant’s lowball prices, consider how to rephrase your
value proposition, the statement that justifies your higher price with greater value. Your value
could be 24/7 service, selection, warranty, online support, auxiliary products, or something else.
Revisit your decision about selling online versus offline, or both. Have you accidentally
cannibalized your sales? Are you competing with your own retailers?
Review your onsite, online, and offline promotional activities according
to the principles in this book. Are you driving the right people to your Web site?

4. Reaching Out to Your Customers
• Drop a business reply card into your shipment.
• Add a survey to your Web site.
• Ask callers what they think.
• If you have a bricks-&-clicks operation, ask people who come into the store
what they might like to see on your site.
• Monitor complaints about your site that are sent to the Webmaster.
• Tally customer service requests for products or problems with order fulfillment.
• Drop into your blog, message board, or chat room at random times to see what’s
happening.
• Make it easy for customers to send you new product ideas or comments on
current offerings.
• If you allow reviews on your own site, read them.
• Schedule time to check professional reviews or user ratings on sites like c|Net
(www.cnet.com), Epinions.com, or Shopping.com.

5. Rewriting Your Marketing Plan for the Future
Every company needs to pay attention to what’s happening around it. Changes in
competition, the business landscape, Internet technology, and legislation might all affect
your bottom line. Every year, pull out your online marketing plan and adjust it to
accommodate the changes you see around you.
Two-stepping with the competition

6. • Creating a professional website to express quality and professionalism
• Optimizing how visitors find you in search results
• Increasing your traffic with paid advertisements
• Using social media to generate buzz about your website and product or service
• Relationship building with bloggers
• Engaging in online communities
• Developing your authority in online forums
• Linking to your site on directories
• Informing and growing your audience with email marketing
• Analyzing for improvement

7. CREATING A PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE TO EXPRESS QUALITY AND
PROFESSIONALISM
Visuals
Responsive Design
Concise Messaging

8. OPTIMIZING HOW VISITORS FIND YOU IN SEARCH RESULTS

9. INCREASING YOUR TRAFFIC WITH PAID ADVERTISEMENTS
GENERATE BUZZ ON SOCIAL MEDIA

10. RELATIONSHIP BUILDING WITH BLOGGERS
Blog outreach – working with bloggers to create genuine, authentic content to promote your
business – is a public relations-focused tactic whose goal is to create brand awareness without
having to purchase placement for your branded content.

11. ENGAGING IN ONLINE COMMUNITIES
Online communities (or groups) are comprised of people who share the same interests as your
business. Community members have personal profiles, and they post, share, and chat with other
members.
The beauty of online communities as they pertain to growing your web presence is
that communities are greatly segmented—by niche, location, language, and many other
parameters.
DEVELOP YOUR AUTHORITY IN FORUMS
If you want to improve your business’s brand awareness and reputation while driving more traffic
to your website, you can do so by developing an authoritative voice in pertinent forums.
Online forums are places where visitors (usually members) have discussions (a popular Q&A
online forum is Quora) and post messages, questions, and answers. There are approximately 300
million forums, offering you considerable reach to customers and leads.
A link to your site in your signature can receive numerous impressions and clicks.

12. LINKING TO YOUR SITE ON DIRECTORIES
INFORM AND GROW YOUR AUDIENCE USING EMAIL
ANALYZE FOR IMPROVEMENT