4 Digital Marketing Success Secrets To Know Before Engaging A Website Development Company In Zimbabwe
The point is you want a website that will give return on
investment. Right ? Unfortunately, many websites turn out to be wasted online resources
because entrepreneurs nose dive into website development and hosting without
the requisite knowledge about what characteristics a proper website and
successful digital marketing campaign should have. I emphasize the importance
of this because a website isn’t created for the sake of it but as a lead and
sales generating tool within the overall digital marketing strategy .
In the following text I will tell you the secrets of a
successful website and a successful digital marketing campaign. But who am I ?
Iam Cain Ndhlovu the founder of Sunrise Digital Marketing Agency in Harare,
creator of a free online training titled FromConcept To Profit: A New Product Digital Marketing Blueprint, a blogger and I help startups and entrepreneurs
launch new products online so that they stimulate sales, become successful and
be able to live the life of their dreams.
I think I should also tell you how I got started in what I
do because it wasn’t some big strategy play but an interesting humble
beginnings story.
As the Zimbabwean economy went under my
father always told me to start my own “thing”. Having being influenced by my
father to like entrepreneurship I was attracted to real estate. I thought a
commission based employment was a perfect start.
But the competition there wasn’t kind
to a newcomer. You know I was just a school leaver who only knew poem writing.
I still have fond memories of my masterpiece Wilderness Wanderer which talked about a beautiful girl searching
for true love. So I had no marketing skill at all, and I was eventually fired
for poor sales.
I joined another real estate agency.
This time I wasn’t fired but the agency owner simply told me the words, “maybe
selling real estate isn’t for you” so I left on my own.
Ultimately, I had to answer one
question, “How can I improve my sales of real estate?”
Being on death ground my creativity was
stimulated and I managed to turn poem writing to property article writing.
At first I distributed the articles by
e-mail as PDFs but I realized that to reach a bigger audience I also needed to
be on the world wide web.
A generous friend introduced me to a
blog and my first blog called Property Matters News was born. Overtime I
continued improving and perfecting my knowledge of a blog.
A turning point …
The year 2014 was a turning point
because I managed to attract a client who would later pay me USD 1 000.00
commission after she read a blog article titled;
“ Financial consequences of purchasing
property from a seriously-ill seller and other purchases to avoid ”.
This article resonated with the lady because she had
purchased a Harare house in Msasa from a seriously ill seller. There was an
outstanding balance. She decided to clear the balance by selling a piece of
land in Madokero.
On the blog there was an opt in page that said “ To get a real estate agent who can help you
conveniently sell property please leave your details here”. The lead put her
contact details there, I got a client and the rest is a story that ended well
with a USD 1 000.00 commission.
You may ask, “What is an
opt in page ?” This takes us to the first digital marketing secret you must
know called an opt in page.
But before talking about this let me first talk about
something also important. As I struggled with poor sales I decided that digital
marketing was the answer. But why digital marketing ? There are many offline options available for
example newspaper, bill boards, radio, flyers etc.
My answer is in an eye opening comparison below;
(1) Audience
Online marketing – infinite
With digital media the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and
other social networks can help you to literally ensure that someone
across the world sees the AD depending with how you target it .
Offline marketing – limited
Geographically speaking only people who drive past the
bill board will be affected by it.
(2) Targeting
Online marketing – specific
Social media help you with buyer persona so that you are
able to target the right audience.
Offline marketing – approximate
You can’t really determine who is to see the bill board
but estimate based on e.g how affluent or not is the area .
(3) Customer interaction
Online marketing – feedback
Social media gives customers a voice and allows
interaction which is something valuable because it helps to mold your campaign
making it more customer centric.
Offline marketing – delayed communication
If your customers don’t like the AD they can’t tell you
through the bill board but they have to put a lot of effort in contacting you or
they just stop buying your product.
These are some of the reasons I considered in choosing
digital or online marketing ahead of everything else.
So what are these four secrets of digital marketing
success. Here is the first.
Secret #1: An Opt In Page
The website you want to set up for your business MUST
have an opt in page. In my formative years this was the catalyst that really
helped in facilitating a turning point for my career in real estate sales.
What’s an opt in page ? Sometimes
it is called a lead capture page, sometimes its called a squeeze page its still
the same thing its an opt in page. It’s a page where your website visitors see
a promise that says “Hey enter your name and e-mail right here and you are
going to get access to this free thing.” A person who exchanges contact details
for your free piece of value becomes a lead.
Why is that important ? It
helps you convert visitors to leads and leads are people who will become
customers. This is called pre-qualification. Do you want to be a better closer
? Aspire to be better at pre-qualifying for
leads instead ! Sales people waste time talking to bad prospects when good
prospects passes by.
These leads are very valuable
because as I said they are people most likely to buy. But its not yet time to
bombard them with products for sale so after acquiring leads the next step is
to use them to create a mailing list. This takes us to the next secret.
Secret #2 : A Mailing list
A mailing list is very
important because one, it is a digital asset you can truly own. Your social
media accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc are controlled by the social
network to a greater extend. For example Facebook is now more of a paid
platform because you now have to pay to get in front of your own friends. So a
mailing list is your insurance policy.
Two a mailing list allows you
to do what is known as content marketing. Content marketing is the best online
marketing idea and it dictates that you must first send content, value or free
educational material to leads before asking them to buy.
People can not buy if they
first do not know the value they are getting out of your products. So by first
sending them free content you are actually demonstrating value. This is why I
cautioned earlier on that as soon as you get a lead’s contact details it is not
best time to bombard him or her with products for sale.
So far I have kept on talking
about a lead about whom I said he starts as website visitor. But you may ask,
“How do you bring these visitors to your sight in the first place ?”
This takes us to our third and
forth secrets.
Secret #3 : Social media
The last time I checked Facebook,
LinkedIn and Whatsapp only, had a combined 4.6 billion active subscribers. Its almost
every one on the planet on only three social networks ! What these means is that firstly social media is
a huge source of website visitors.
Secondly, it helps create
social proof. The likes and followers on your brand helps to influence others
into eventually becoming your customers. Humans when they see others doing
something they are usually influenced to do it as well. This is the power of
social proof.
So its critical to open social
media accounts, set up things like branded pages and actively participate there.
Secret #4 : Google Search (+ other search engines)
Today people yourself included
when we want to find information online we search on search engines Google
search being the largest of them all. In the same sense it is therefore,
important that your website is optimized for search engines so that when
prospective customers search your website ranks amongst the top in results. So
search engine optimization (SEO) is very
important. Doing it well can be as good as acquiring a license to print money.
But you should be wary of SEO
spam. What is this ? These are methods banned by Google like link baiting because
they seek to get an advantage on search results in a way that Google deem
violates its Terms and Conditions.
So what are the approved ways
of getting the best ranking on search results ? At the top is a blog. Making
regular “how-to” blog posts attract search engines’ attention because search
engines like latest information that provides answers to users.
In my free course From Concept
To Profit: A New Product Digital Marketing Blueprint I teach how to create a
free blog for marketing purposes.
But the issue of SEO spam is
serious and this is why Google invested millions into a software called
Penguin. This a police man to ensure that the terms and conditions are not
violated in this regard.
Below is an in-depth look at
this issue and other similar mistakes you must be aware of in as far as digital
marketing is concerned.
4 Common Online Marketing Mistakes Exposed !
1. Not marketing your
website or blog
Many believe that once a
site is live it will market itself and visitors will flock to it in their
millions. This is fallacious. Without real efforts to distribute your site’s content
especially on social media and search engines your site is wasted resource.
There are over one billion websites on the internet today so what are the
chances of someone stumbling upon yours?
2. Having unrealistic
expectations
Sometimes this is caused
by the assumption that online initiatives have overnight results. Yes there are
cases of exceptional success but these are rare at best. If you are wise you
don’t base strategy on exception but on the rule and the rule is that online
success is built upon hard work not shortcuts.
3. Engaging in shady
practices
A certain programmer
once told me he could improve my blog’s ranking on Google for certain key
words. When I asked him to explain how I discovered that his methods were what
Google call SEO spam or black hat methods that may involve tricking the search
engine into giving you a better search ranking for certain key words. Google
has invested millions for combating SEO spam that is why they have developed
software programs like Google Penguin. Being penalized by Google is something
difficult to fix. You may experience a short term gain but eventually you will
loose.
4. Marketing to everyone
Many companies erroneously measure a website’s success by the
quantity not quality of visitors. A site require the right visitors because at
the end you need visitors who will convert to customers.
Conclusion
In my experience as a digital marketer I have noticed that many
people who start a business commission the development of websites that end up
as white elephants. One of the reasons for this is that you as an entrepreneur
and the programmer do not know what technological features a website must have
in order to function as a successful digital marketing tool.
If you want a more detailed understanding about digital marketing
in this regard you can register today for my free training titled From Concept To Profit : A New Product Digital Marketing Blueprint .
Course
Details
Tuition = Free
Method of delivery = E-Mail
Number of courses = x3 PDFs
Duration = Each PDF Is Less
45 mins read
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