A website marketing plan is much more than web design and hosting features

If you've done any research at all into your website marketing plan, you will have realised that it's simply not enough to have a good-looking web site, you need to attract visitors. And not just any kind of visitors, they should be motivated visitors. That is, visitors who are motivated to spend time and money pursuing your offer.

There's not too many "real" website marketing plans out there..
If you do a search on the net, you'll see that there are a huge number of internet marketing offers, most of them based on the premise that little effort is necessary to make big money on the net. Google the term "internet marketing" and you'll see what I mean.

But the reality is, the vast majority of these service providers are providing nothing more than a few nuts and bolts, most of them useless, unnecessary and over-priced, and with their offers cloaked in an assumption that strategic marketing on the internet can be reduced to a series of simple steps. Buy the right tools and follow your nose to financial freedom, no thought is necessary.

The real world.. of common sense
In the real world, the logic which applies to marketing offline, also applies to website marketing plans. Human beings take action for a reason. They are informed by emotion and judgement. They make buying decisions based on trust and confidence. There is no "magic" about the internet, it is merely an electronic tool for human beings to get information. It can be used to make a commercial profit, but merely having an internet presence doesn't guarantee anything at all.

Real humans respond to real content
Recognising that human beings will make buying decisions based on trust and confidence, quickly leads to the conclusion that a successful commercial website must have content which is sufficiently appealing to the visitor.

Content is the key. Good content provides the visitor to your web-site with a valuable experience, leading to trust and confidence in you and your offer. Informed buying decisions become a natural consequence, with no coercion, high-pressure selling, over-blown hype or trickery.

Where do the visitors come from?
How to get visitors to your website in the first place? It is no coincidence that the major search engines' (Google, Yahoo, MSN) overriding purpose is to ensure that searchers on the net get what they want - quality information.

You trust Google when you search for something on the net, that the results presented to you will be relevant, informative, and as high a quality as possible. The key? - Content. If your web-site has good quality, relevant content which pleases a visitor, then Google will want to present your site to a searcher.

So content is king - and it serves a dual purpose - it pleases your visitors, and it pleases the search engines. Content is far more important than what your web site looks like, and how it is hosted.

The "mysteries" of SEO
Because of the importance of the search engines such as Google in delivering visitors to websites, an entire industry of Search Engine Optimisation ("SEO") has grown up around the internet. Most of the so-called SEO experts would have you believe that there are a series of clever tricks which can be used to generate search engine interest in your web site.

Some tricks actually work for a little while. But sooner or later the only strategy which works consistently, is that of providing genuinely valuable content. The search engines are constantly on the lookout for artificial tricks, and devote huge resources to ensuring they don't work.

The bottom line: for a website marketing plan which really works - keep it real, use common sense. You're not just building a website - you're building a business.

Fire your web designer now!
Website builders are in huge supply, but they don't provide what you really need - business building. For a website marketing plan from a company which "gets it" - we highly recommend SiteSell.

(By the way, SiteSell is a perfect example of the over-delivery of superb and relevant content to their visitors and subscribers. The value and volume of solid web-marketing advice and material is outstanding. If you're new to internet marketing, there is no safer place to start).

SiteSell has a range of options from DIY to a full consultant-based service, all with an emphasis on business building, and the technical stuff taken care of. If you'd like more info, contact us here.