Gaining Confidence Online and Free Website Marketing

This month sees more doom and gloom reported on the news, but the message still seems to be more upbeat for online stores. 

According to a survey on nearly 2000 people by "New Media Age" 36% plan do more of their shopping online than with high street retailers. In the 18-24 year old group, 45% said they would shop more online and 44% for the big spenders (the 25-34 year-olds). However, 70% of consumers felt that websites should offer better customer service, especially mentioning delivery times.

The message is clear for 2009 - whether you have a online shop or not, more and more people are seeking better deals online - so how can you make sure your website is capturing this active audience, conveying a strong sense of customer service?

Building Confidence Online

It's all about confidence. If consumers don't trust your website, they are unlikely to spend money with you - it's that simple. Your website must build trust, and it comes back to something we always talk about - know your customer.

Here are a few questions about your customers: -

• Who are they?
• What age group do they belong to?
• Are they male, female or both?
• Are they comfortable spending money? 
• How do they make decisions regarding purchases?
• What specific questions will they be asking about your products and services? 
• Is there anyone else involved in the buying process?

Your website must reflect your visitor's needs and you must answer any questions they may have about your products, services and buying processes. If they don't feel comfortable and you don't address their needs, they will probably go elsewhere.

For online shops product information is critical. Take advantage of your CMS tools - login to the site and spend some time putting better product descriptions and images in.

For brochure websites, make sure your product and service information is comprehensive, clear and concise.

Gorilla Marketing on the Web

There are many ways to increase visitors to your website. Getting your website up in search engine's natural listings should be very high in your priorities.

One way to help your position online is by increasing your website's page rank, or respectability online (for specific technical information about the Page Rank algorithm see Wikipedia's article).

Page ranks are calculated using a number of factors, but inbound links is certainly one key way to help. As well as working on your page rank, publicising your website will increase your visibility as a business and drive more traffic to your site.

Here are a few places you could consider getting links from: -

• Online business directories - there are a number of website directories all over the internet that allows you to register your business for free, e.g. FreeIndex, Scoot, ApprovedIndex etc...
• Article Writing for Online Magazines - for most business sectors there will undoubtedly be online magazines. These will often allow you to write articles on their pages which can include links back to your website.
• Forums - people will probably be asking about your products and services in forums - a simple search should reveal hundreds of forums for your business type. Create an account on these forums, and answer peoples questions - include a link to your site. You can also gain new business here as well as gain an insight into your customers.
• Social Networks - there are a number of business social networks (BT Trade Space is one example) where you can register your business for free.

Investing a small amount of time every day will soon make a noticeable difference, so start searching now!

Loan Scheme for Start-ups

No, we're not offering loans, and this isn't really in our industry but we felt is was important to let people know about a new finance package released by the government this month. Click here to find out more...

Featured Case Study

This month, one of our websites was promoted to the Drupal.org homepage. It is quite difficult to get a post promoted to the front page, but the case study highlights the development process of quite a complex website as well as demonstrating the capabilities of Drupal as a platform. Click here to read more.

And finally...

Remember, we are here for you - if there's any aspect of your website or paper-based marketing you wish to discuss, please do get in touch. We are always happy to help! The new telephone number is 0845 833 7445.