Marketing
Basics for the Webmaster
Marketing Basics for the Webmaster
What is the relationship between Marketing and Web designing?
How can a better understanding of Marketing help the web designer
manage his business more profitably?
What is marketing?
The American Marketing Association defines Marketing as “the
process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion
and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges
that satisfy individual and organizational goals”. On the
other hand, The Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK defines Marketing
as “the Management process responsible for identifying, anticipating
and satisfying customers’ requirements profitably”.
Note the occurrence of Customer Satisfaction in both definitions
and the underlining concern for Profitability in the second definition.
In other words, a businessman needs to identify the needs of a consumer
and explore ways of satisfying these needs in order to make a profit.
The Webmaster therefore needs to understand his client’s
customers. Does the client sell to various segments of customers
(e.g students, retirees, young upwardly mobile professionals, etc?)
or only one homogenous market such as any one of these segments?
What are the lifestyles of such customers? What do they like to
do in their pastime? How do they relax? Where do they live? What
are their aspirations? If, for instance, the client’s customers
are tertiary school students, are they interested in sports? Would
it be right to create a page on the client’s website for snippets
of information on the lifestyles of sports personalities around
the world, even though the website markets an interactive software
to help students write term papers and long essays? Or take upwardly
mobile professionals, as another example.
How about including a page (on the website of an insurance company
selling policies targeted at this segment), which contains links
to write-ups explaining several possibilities of personal finance
and wealth creation opportunities? Will such “side attractions”
ensure repeat visits to the website?
Once a Webmaster knows his client’s customer, he can anticipate
the customer’s wants, appeal to the right emotions and show
that customer how the client’s product or service will benefit
the customer.
The discerning Webmaster must also try to understand the industry
within which his client operates, his client’s competitors
and what these competitors offer in comparison to what the client
offers. If any of the competitors has a website, how customer friendly
is the website? Does navigation within the site make it easy for
the competitor’s customers to make orders?
Can the customer have his most cogent questions answered right
there on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page without having
to go through the pains of writing a mail? Can the Webmaster then
create a website for his client, that will outsell the competitor’s
site in these areas?
While the client sometimes provides a brief explaining the kind
of website he thinks he wants, the truly innovative Webmaster may
go beyond this brief to add value. A word of caution, however: this
should be discussed with the client.
Websites are marketing tools
The fundamental reality of how people use the web can be seen in
the following comparative descriptive sketches of offline and online
buyer behaviors. Offline, bustling crowds of would-be shoppers (or
prospects) pass by your place of business (take a busy mall, for
instance) and some of them may walk in, if your shop occupies a
vantage location, your wares are attractively displayed and they
can notice both.
Online, however, people search for information. There are millions
of people, but no crowds and each person searches alone. So, while
the offline businessperson thinks of a vantage “location”,
the online businessperson must think of relevant “information”
or “content”, information that meets the needs and interests
of the target market.
The Power of Search Engines
People who visit the web are looking for information and solutions.
Most often, they rely on Search Engines to suggest or recommend
the most likely websites, which may satisfy their needs. For the
Webmaster to create a website which brings lots of targeted traffic
to his client therefore, he must perform some tasks such as keyword
brainstorming.
In other words, he researches his site’s main theme on the
web, such as “weight watching”, to find related words
that are often searched by web visitors, but rarely targeted by
websites. Such words can then form the topics for each page of his
website and eventually provide the website with a theme or focus
for optimum search engine ranking.
This is only one in a series of tasks which the Webmaster needs
to perform for his client’s website to rank well with the
search engines and attract warm, willing-to-buy traffic on an ongoing
basis. Such tasks can be very tedious, especially when the process
is done manually. It is no surprise therefore, that some webmasters
shy away from this aspect of the job.
However, such tasks can be automated with Site Build It! , an all-in
one site-building, site-hosting and site marketing solution which
automatically performs the following operations for webmasters:
Keyword Brainstorming, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine
Submission, Search Engine Reporting, File Upload, Sequential Auto
responding, E-mail Marketing, etc.
This system of tools works without compromising design or site
functionality. Which means a Webmaster can create his site, using
his favorite HTML and graphic (or other) software, simply upload
the files and let Site Build It! do the rest. More on this software,
including purchase and download instructions, can be found at http://webmaster.sitesell.com/net_hunting.html.
About the Author Dele Ogundahunsi, an
e-marketer, specializes in Advertising and Web Design Direction.
He can be reached on (+234) 803 85 10 10 2 or at agroport@outgun.com.
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