Phase 1: Create the Proper Selling Environment

The Selling Environment is what will convince your Web site visitors to become your customers. Everything that your visitors experience AFTER they arrive at your Web site is part of the Selling Environment. Some examples that we discussed in a previous article include:

• Design of your site
• Sales copy
• Mechanisms to capture names and email addresses of your prospects
• Contact methods such as a toll-free number and live chat
• Following up with your prospects via email

It's important to create the proper selling environment BEFORE you move onto Phase 2. Otherwise, you'll waste time and money attracting people to your Web site. Make sure you can convert them to buyers, before you invest time and money bringing them to your site.

Phase 2: Attract QUALIFIED Traffic to your site

Qualified traffic is different from ordinary traffic. For example, a person who goes to a search engine and searches for "technomarine watch" is probably interested in buying a TechnoMarine watch. If your Web site sold this brand of watch, this is the ideal kind of traffic to attract. A higher percentage of these visitors should convert to paying customers versus most other sources. Compare this with an unqualified prospect that arrives at your Web site by clicking a banner ad featuring this kind of watch. While it's possible the banner ad prospect wants to purchase this watch, it's also likely that they were surfing around the Web and clicked on your banner out of mere curiosity.

The prospect that came from the search engine was actively looking for information on a specific watch brand. This is similar to someone who opens the Yellow Pages to look for a company that sells a specific product or service. In both examples, the prospect is often ready to buy and is just looking for the best seller. Therefore, people who come to your site via banner ads, popups, and print advertising will be much less qualified than people who discover your site via the search engines.

Even though search engine visitors are more qualified prospects, there can still be a large variation in the likelihood of them making a purchase depending on the search terms they use. For example, which prospect would be more qualified: someone who searches for "technomarine watch" or someone who searches for "sport watch?" The first prospect would be more qualified. TechnoMarine is a specific sport watch and the person who searches for the more specific item is usually further along in the buying process. In many cases, he already knows that he wants a TechnoMarine watch and he's just trying to find the best Web site to buy it from.

There are instances where consumers search on a specific brand or keyword, arrive at your site, and then leave without making a purchase. Searching for a more specific keyword phrase implies a more educated consumer. Depending on how competitive your offering is compared with the offerings of other online merchants, highly focused keyword phrases may be an advantage or a disadvantage. If you have the strongest selling environment and your price is competitive, then you will be in a good position to convert this prospect into a customer.

If your competition has a stronger selling environment or a better price, then you may lose the order despite the prospect being qualified. Of course price is not everything. For example, clearly emphasizing that the item is in stock with same day shipping can often win a sale.

What about the second prospect, the one who searched for "sport watch?" This person doesn't know exactly what he wants, so he's less likely to make an immediate purchase. However, if your pricing is higher than your competition's, then this search term may turn out to be more profitable for you. Since he doesn't know exactly what he wants, it's less likely that he's done any price comparisons on TechnoMarine watches. If your offer for that watch is appealing, you may be able to convert him into a customer, even though your price may be higher.

The lesson here is that you can't make a blanket assumption that more specific search terms will always convert better. The search term that a person uses can be a good indication of the type of prospect you're dealing with. You can use this information to segment your market. Many companies, recognizing that different types of offers appeal to different types of consumers, will promote a portfolio of Web sites rather than a single site. One site may target the high-end of the market. Another site may target bargain hunters. A third site may target a particular ethnic group. The possibilities are limitless.

If you're a small business owner, the idea of setting up multiple Web sites to target different markets may seem overwhelming and even overkill. However, you don't need to build an entire site tailored for each type of prospect. You can still optimize a Web page that is written with that particular buyer in mind. Custom-tailor your pages to be not only search engine friendly, but also buyer friendly.

After you've identified your target markets, selecting the best search terms to focus on can still be a difficult task. Beginners often make the mistake of focusing on search terms that are too general. The problem with general keyword phrases is that it's often extremely difficult to achieve search engine placements for them. For example, searching for "watch" on Google returns over 26 million pages. You have a slim chance of getting your site listed on the first page of Google for this keyword. There are just too many other pages competing for the top positions. Furthermore, you'll normally convert a significantly lower percentage of those visitors to paying customers.

Searching for "sport watch" returns over two million pages. That's a lot better than 26 million, but still pretty competitive. Searching for "technomarine watch" returns about 35,000 pages. Now, we're getting into a realistic range. Searching for "technomarine butterfly watch" returns 566 pages. Provided there are enough people searching for such a specific keyword phrase, this would be an ideal phrase to target.

Targeting phrases so specific that no one is searching for them is another common mistake made by novices and even veteran marketers. Ideally, you should be somewhere in the middle. Optimize your Web site for phrases that are searched often enough to make them worthwhile, but not so general that they become unattainable or have too low a conversion rate.

A great resource for keyword phrase research is a service called WordTracker. WordTracker maintains a vast database of millions of search terms. You can enter any keyword phrase related to your business and WordTracker will tell you how often that phrase is searched and how competitive it is on the various search engines. It will also provide you with a list of related search terms, and a competitive analysis for each of those phrases. It truly takes the guesswork out of what keywords and phrases you should be targeting. Since much of your competition will not bother with such a step, this one tip alone can provide you with a competitive advantage.

Visit WordTracker online for your free trial.

Phase 3: Measure the Results and Adjust as Needed

No one can predict the outcome of any marketing campaign with perfect accuracy. Successful marketing comes out of a never-ending cycle of testing and refining. Even the best baseball players in the world only get a base hit about 30% of the time that they come to the plate. Similarly, the best marketers know that their ideas about what will work will often turn out to be wrong.

Unfortunately, most Web site owners don't do any testing. They have no idea which keyword phrases are converting and which ones are losing money. They don't know if the sales copy they've written is doing its job effectively, or if it could be improved. Measuring your results becomes particularly important if you're doing pay-per-click advertising in which every visitor who comes to your site costs you money. Next month, I'll discuss how to track your advertising campaigns to achieve the best results.

Brad Konia is the CEO of Market My Site, a leading search engine optimization and online marketing firm. Market My Site offers a suite of full-service and self-service solutions designed to increase traffic to your Web site and convert that traffic into paying customers. Mr. Konia is also the author of "Search Engine Optimization with WebPosition Gold 2" and the developer of the official WebPosition Gold 2 Video Tutorial. Visit Market My Site on the web.

Please visit our site to learn more, order, or try WebPosition.

                 ← What is this?

---