Marketing for the Web
Being a new venture, Webazzle has a long road ahead, but we're not scared! We take a different approach to building online experiences, big and small. Our message is simple. You want a better online presence, we want to give it to you. Marketing for the web is not only what we are trying to do to earn your business and referrals, it is what we want to help you accomplish for your own organization.
A simple search of 'How to market my website' will flood you with endless pages of results on how to do exactly what you might not need to do.
In the world of shiny new technologies, smartphones, social media and subliminal advertising, your best bet is to get back to the roots of basic marketing. There is no secret formula that you can simply plug in to your marketing strategy.
Here are a few key areas you should pay attention to when building a marketing strategy.
Social media can make or break a business. Do a sanity check on yourself and search from the perspective of someone else who knows nothing about you. Do you like what you see? Does anything in your search conflict with the message you are trying to convey?
Damage control aside, make sure that your social media accounts are current and have relevant information or supporting content. If you are in the business of travel, chances are having gratuitous amounts of 'Cats vs. Cucumbers' may not send off the right message.
A common mistake when creating an initial brand or re-branding, is a lack of things to say or share. It's easy to search for other examples of what you want, but remember it's someone else's content you are looking at.
Even if all you do is create a simple brochure style website, make sure you have enough image and content assets to keep your audience engaged.
Search engines are pretty darn smart. Learning how to rank higher is a lot of common sense once you learn the key elements. Without being strictly SEO specific, here are some things that not only increase credibility on search engines, but with the actual human users of your site:
- Up-to-date content
- Relevant content (watch out for Lorem Ipsum placeholder text)
- Unique content
- An SSL certificate on your site
- Verifiable user engagement
- Privacy policies
- Valid links
- A complete sitemap with no dead-ends
- Legacy site redirects
- Lightweight design features (leave crazy animations and features off the main pages... unless that's your business)
Not that creating an ad will cause your site to go 'viral' immediately, but it will bring actual users to your site. Be sure you are prepared for the new interest when starting an ad campaign. While having 'too much business' right away seems like a wonderful problem to have, it can actually ruin your reputation long term if you aren't prepared for any spike in traffic.
There is more value in criticism that praise when it comes to refining your marketing plan. Ask for real feedback from outside your circle. You can even create a simple focus group if you wanted from your community buy putting an ad out and buying lunch for an hour or so of people's time.