You have two primary tools in your Digital Age Marketing Toolkit. Each one has its strengths and you’ll want to use the right tool for any particular marketing job. But you’ll get your best results if you coordinate the use of your two tools so each makes the other more effective.
A Web site is an excellent place to put a lot of information and enrich it with links to other information. To be most effective here you need to understand some basic things about what makes a great business Web sites.
Great business Web sites are based on clear and explicit business objectives. You should have metrics to tell you how you are doing in achieving your objectives and you should review those metrics regularly and frequently.
Great business Web sites provide lots of relevant information and features that help visitors find and use it most effectively. Relevant information is information that solves a problem or answers a question for your visitor. Features that help visitors find and use that information include search engines, good information design, private areas, calculators, comparators and configurators.
The best search engine option I know is PicoSearch. That's the service I use on this site.
Great business Web sites use technology wisely. Every design element on your site should have a purpose that helps you reach your business goal. Anything that does not do that should be removed. Big graphics and anything that winks, blinks, moves, or generates the message “loading …” you should take a very hard look at whether it's necessary because it's probably degrading the visitor experience.
Remember that you’re not limited to a single Web site. Consider having separate sites for special purposes and market segments. Consider private areas of your site that you can use to support your sales force. Consider giving your customers, or at least your best customers, their own personal pages.
I've developed an entire area of this site to help you develop or change a business Web site. It's the sub-site on Great Business Web Sites.
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Email is an excellent communications tool. Use email for routine communication, thank you notes, follow-ups and other such tasks. Use email to notify customers and prospects of important events or issues. Use an email newsletter to stay in touch with folks.
Autoresponder technology is one of those powerful tools that simply doesn’t get used enough. That means you can gain some competitive advantage by using autoresponders. Use them to provide almost instantaneous responses to information requests. Use them to acknowledge orders. Use sequential autoresponders to deliver a sequence of marketing messages or a “mini-course.”
If you're looking for a service to handle the details of your email newsletter or discussion lists, check out Databack Systems. I used them for my newsletter, Monday Memo, almost since we began publishing in 1995.
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Your Web sites are powerful tools. Email is a powerful tool. But they’re better when you use them together and when you coordinate their use with your other marketing efforts. The true magic is in the mix.
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