You have to plan it.
Many companies take an ad hoc approach to online marketing.
Why?
Well, if I had to guess, its probably because the cost of messing up is so low. Assuming of course you haven’t been totally offensive in a Pepsi or ATT sort of way. No longer do you need to spend $100,000 and 6 months to test an idea. But that still shouldn’t change the funtamentals. You need to have an objective and a strategy for achiving that objective before you get yourself all hot and bothered over your website. Before starting out, you need to think of your customer, you need to get inside their head by:
- Understanding the way they use language. Did your average customer got to Vassar, Yale or the School of Hard Knocks? Is English their native tongue?
- Why are they buying the product – WHAT IS THEIR PROBLEM
- What is the best way to present the offer? Visually? Lots of copy?
- How does the customer obtain the product? Is it shipped? If so, how fast? Is shipping free? Can faster shipping be an upsell?
- Is there an after sales service component to the product? How is it handled?
- How is payment structured? Is financing a key to getting people to buy?
- Is your company in the habit of ignoring customers between promotions? This is a big one. Are you ignoring the obvious repeat buyer of your products?