14 September 2012
8 Principles to help structure your website, No.1
Principle 1: Avoid Accidental Marketing
It’s easy to get caught up in accidental marketing. Many people get easily excited about different marketing techniques and new technology, and can run off track. You need to spend your valuable time on the marketing which will really make a difference to your business.
The following are a range of questions which you and your company should be able to answer with ease and confidence:
- Do you understand the need within the current market for your services or products?
- Who exactly are your customers?
- What do your customers really need from your business?
- What benefits do your customers get from your own business?
- What are your unique selling points? -Why should I buy from you instead of someone else?
- Are there any better options out there? Or worse?
- How do customers make a decision to buy from you?
- What do potential customers need to know before buying from you?
- How do people perceive your product and your company?
- What is the process that people have to go through to buy from you?
- What is the value of your product or service to any customers? (not the price)
- If a customer was asked if they would recommend your product, what would they say?
There are also a range of ‘symptoms’ of accidental marketing. If you are familiar with any of the following, then you could be suffering:
- More effort is spent discussing how things look within the business or website, rather than what message they convey.
- More effort is spent on tracking analytics and metrics than understanding what they are actually showing.
- More effort is spent explaining the services or products which you offer as a company, than the effort spent looking into what it is your customers actually need.
- More effort is spent trying to gain more potential customers and bringing more traffic to your website, than trying to figure out how to convert current prospects into customers.
- More effort is spent attracting new customers than that spent on existing customers.
- More effort is spent researching and implementing new technical gimmicks than that spent adapting tried and tested principles which have already been proven to work.
- Your marketing and sales teams don’t communicate much or respect each others input.
“Whether accidental marketing becomes a buzzword any time soon, really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that those who persist in practicing it won’t be around long – and those who don’t won’t miss those who do.”
– Call To Action (2005). Eisenberg, B&J.
Check back soon to see the next principle, “Getting the Winning Edge”.