Search engine optimisation (SEO)

 

SEO is one of the most talked-about aspects of online marketing and is so complex

that it will be dealt with separately in chapter 6. Don’t worry: you do not need to

know or apply any SEO principles until then. For now, here is a brief explanation

for the sake of completeness.

Search engines such as Google have special processes for deciding which web

page shows up first in their lists of search results. SEO is the process of getting

your page as high up on that list as possible. There are many technical ways

of improving your position on this list, but two of them relate specifically to

copywriting: keyword optimisation, and the hierarchy of content on a web page.

• Keywords. When somebody searches online, one of the ways that a search

engine knows that your page is relevant to the search request is that the

same words appear on the web page as in the search term that was used.

Therefore, the more frequently these “keywords” appear on a web page, the

more relevant that page will be to a search engine for the query that was made.

• Content hierarchy. Another way that a search engine identifies relevant

content is by analysing content areas on a web page. Some areas are valued

above others in terms of importance: for example, a search engine considers

the main page header to be more important than sub-headers. Similarly, it

will consider sub-headers to be more important than a paragraph of body

copy. Therefore, if your chosen keywords appear in these important places,

such as in your page’s main header, a search engine will see the page as more

relevant for search queries relating to that keyword.

SEO is a long-term marketing technique that will bear fruits if you approach it with

determination and patience. With the right skills, knowledge and resources, SEO

could be the simplest and most important marketing tactic for achieving increased

traffic and ultimately increasing your return on investment.

• Non-biased. SEO only generates natural (organic) listings and is perceived to

be non-biased. According to www.seoresearcher.com, natural listings convert

30% more than paid listings and the percentage of clicks on organic search

results increase with the level of education of online users.

• Return on investment (RO I). SEO has a better RO I than any other marketing

medium. The only “cost” spent on SEO is the time spent researching,

calculating and analysing data, but the return can be considerable.

• Less fraud. There are no bidding wars or click fraud.

• Brand presence. SEO helps build an online brand presence and long-term

positioning. Search engine rankings are relatively stable compared to PPC and

SEO is cheaper and works over a longer term than other marketing strategies.

• Flexible. Through an SEO campaign, you can reach a large audience of people.

Your organisational strategies can optimise your website to meet the needs

and requirements of your choice.

• Measurable. By tracking key conversion goals and analysing relevant statistics,

SEO success can easily be quantified.

• Targeted. Converting visitors into customers is one of the essential goals of

SEO . You are able to derive the source of specific traffic through your website

and report on which keywords are generating the most traffic. The more

targeted traffic equals more sales.

Principles of writing for the web

While web copywriting should adhere to all the general rules above, there are

some added technical and stylistic rules that apply to online text. One of the most

important things to remember is that web readers are active participants rather

than simply passive readers. They will click links, navigate to new pages, multitask

when browsing, open multiple tabs and so on. They will not read a web page

from start to finish, but rather create their own journey through it. This is one

of the reasons why creating a user experience is so important (as you learned in

chapter 2) and why writing for readability is crucial. Keeping their attention is very

difficult, and your approach to writing for the web must take this into account.

Keep web copy short and simple. The quicker and more directly you can make

your point, the better. Put the most important information prominently at the

top so that it appears above the fold of the website (the part of the website

that is visible without scrolling down). Break your copy up into short, readable

paragraphs – this creates space and makes it easier to read. Above all, make sure

you preserve a no-nonsense approach to your brand and product; web users will

see through your marketing rhetoric easily and will mistrust your message.

• Wrong: If you have ever had the problem of not being able to access your

email on your cellphone, maybe you should consider trying out our product sometime.

• Right: Can’t access email on your cellphone? Download our product now.

Be genuine and honest. Your writing must reflect the credibility of your brand, and

must be genuine so that readers feel a personal connection through the impersonal

online medium. Always write accurately and honestly about your product; readers

will immediately notice when your writing is hype rather than genuine enthusiasm.

Avoid exaggerated words and clichéd “marketing speak”; web readers expect

content to be frank, clear and true, and any indication that this may not be the

case will drive them away. A good way to come across as genuine is to adopt a

friendly, open and unassuming tone.

• Wrong: Our unbelievable time management product will promote absolute

synergy throughout every aspect of your business! You will get 100% more

productivity instantly!

• Right: Our time management product will help your employees work together

more efficiently. Previous customers have reported a 20% increase in

productivity after the first month.

Focus on headlines, leads and captions. Often, you concentrate so much on the

main body of text that you overlook the “little extras” like the headline, the lead

(the introductory line) and captions for your images. Don’t ignore these elements.

The headline is the most important piece of writing on the page because that is

what draws a person to read your content – or not. Try to keep the headline both

as short and as specific as possible.

Writing an eye-catching headline

• Keep it short, preferably under 10 words

• Be as specific as possible

• Use simple, unambiguous words

• Try to make the reader curious by using intriguing and emotive words

• Entice the reader by asking a question or making a bold statement

• Address the reader directly by using the pronoun “you”

• Headlines with numbers work well (e.g. “5 tips for…” or “The top 8…”)

• Headlines that suggest a benefit or reward are also effective (e.g. “How to…” or “Why you should…”)

• Be honest – don’t let your headline mislead the reader about the content of your article

 

The lead, or first line of your text, is vital because most readers decide whether

they will read the rest of the text based on it and the headline alone. There is a

copywriting idiom that states that the purpose of the headline is to get the first

line read, the purpose of the first line is to get the second line read, and so on.

Captions for your images are also important, since they help readers to scan the

page for interesting information. The caption should be quite short, describe your

image and indicate its relevance to the text.

• Bad headline: Great new offer! (Unspecific, uninteresting, sounds like a marketing ploy.)

• Bad headline: Your business could be made more successful if you follow these steps (Indirect phrasing, long-winded without providing much indication of what the article is about.)

• Good headline: Double your Twitter followers in 3 steps (Clear, direct, promises useful advice in an easily digestible quantity.)

• Good headline: Are you at risk from online identity theft? (Direct and intriguing, creates a concern in the reader’s mind, sparks curiosity.)

 

 

Have a clear call to action. A call to action is a statement that tells the readers

exactly what you want them to do – should they buy your product? Share your

article? Follow you on Twitter? The only effective way to get people to do what

you want is to tell them directly. Your call to action will be related to the goal of

your marketing campaign and to how you measure conversion (more on this in

chapter 8). If you want to grow your online social community, the desired action

will be to engage with your social networking profiles. If you want to increase

sales, you may want visitors to download your brochure or free sample.

• Wrong: There are many ways you can keep in touch with us. Browse our website to see more about us.

• Right: Sign up to our newsletter now to keep up to date with special offers and promotions!

Create value. There are hundreds of billions of articles on hundreds of millions of

websites on the web – what will make people read yours? Don’t get caught up

with trying to write well for the web and forget to make your content meaningful

and valuable to your audience. Consider what the users of your product may want

to know about, how you can make their lives easier or how you can entertain

them. Provide enough information so that anyone who wants to buy your service

or product can find what they need; web users can be quite cynical and will want

to consult a lot of information before they make a decision and hand over their money.

It is good to consider taking one of two approaches: either become the niche

expert in your field by writing about industry-relevant details and news (have a

look at www.carblog.co.za, a blog for people interested in automotive news), or

become a generalist teacher, somebody who educates outsiders or novices about

the industry (for example, www.goodadvice.co.za writes blog articles that teach

laypeople about finance concepts). Have a close look at how both blogs approach

aspects like jargon, assumed knowledge, familiarity with basic principles and levels

of specific detail.

 

 

 

 

Communicating with a web developer

 

Developing a website is expensive and complex, so it is vital that you communicate

properly with your web developer – and that you listen to their professional advice.

The first important aspect is making sure that you have the correct documents.

These are: • Your design specification sheet and the designs your designer has created, which you have approved.

• Your technical brief, which you will work on with your developer and transform into your technical specification sheet.

• Information about your hosting and domain name arrangements.

When you meet with your developer, explain in normal language what sorts of

features and goals you want for your website, outlining as many details as possible,

and feel free to show examples. Take the time to understand the developer’s input

and suggestions, and ask them to create a technical specification sheet for the

project. Then do your homework by researching the suggestions made to make

sure you fully understand the parameters of what the developer has suggested.

Remember that a developer is a professional but may not be looking at all the

important aspects, like your target market, so be open to new ideas but keep your own view in mind.

A web developer will strive to make your website meet the following five criteria:

1. Easy to update. Ideally, your website should have a simple CM S that you can

manipulate easily and without technical expertise.

2. Quick to load. Your website must have a small enough file size so that is

will load quickly for a wide variety of people using different computers, connections and browsers.

3. Easy to find. Depending on your contract agreement, your developer will

optimise your website so that it will be found easily by a search engine. Note

that this could be a separate expense.

4. Interactive. Your developer will include interactive elements like the navigation,

links, a search feature or other additions. Your development costs will vary

depending on how many extras you want.

5. Secure. Your developer should put measures in place to protect your website

against spammers, viruses and other web risks.

Like with any other project, make sure that you clarify rates and deadlines before

you approve the work – and be prepared for unexpected delays or problems,

which can occur regularly with web development. Outline the exact outcomes and

deliverables of the project in clear terms; find out what service or maintenance

agreement – if any – is included in the cost. Keep a good documented record of all

decisions made, in case there is a dispute about an aspect of the project.

You will be given the chance to make small corrections as the project progresses,

within reason, but understand what it means when you “sign off” on something.

Signing off means that you are happy with and fully approve the feature under

discussion; after you have signed off, the element cannot be changed again

(except at considerable cost when the developer must revert the project to an

earlier phase). Be completely sure that you are happy with something before you sign off on it.

Website Problems

The website has many problems, including:

• No focus – the viewer doesn’t know where to look or what to click.

• Multiple colourful backgrounds and font colours are confusing – what is a link?

• No defined corporate identity – where is the logo and the brand-appropriate design?

• Hard to read text in the navigation bar (grey on red).

• Vertical navigation makes the visitor scroll down, and the links are not clearly named.

• Far too much clutter and content that is not optimised for web reading. No

white space to guide the eye or create a sense of order.

• Unrelated content – why is there a picture of a welder?

• The page is not centred – it appears on the left of the screen.

• In addition, the site plays music automatically. This is undesirable for several

reasons: it dramatically slows the loading time of the page, it annoys the

viewer and it can infringe copyright, as it seems to do in this case.

Good design:

• Excellent design layout means that the entire page appears above the fold (you don’t need to scroll down at all).

• Good use of white space and symmetrical layout. Content is minimal.

• Having two navigation bars is confusing, but the links are clearly labelled.

• Text is well laid out for readability and is short, and the headings are clearly defined.

• The three blocks at the bottom suggest calls to action.

Web style guides

The process of designing a website involves choosing specific colours, fonts,

images, layouts and other elements. Once your page is conceptualised, it is a

good idea to create a web style guide. Your web style guide is a document that

defines all your design choices, so that your approach is standardised and easy to

refer to if changes need to be made. It also defines key framework and technical

aspects that are important to remember when making additions or changes. This

document is very useful for maintaining a coherent and attractive website and

helps a new designer get up to speed with your design choices. You should update

it regularly to make sure it conforms to your current designs.

For a small business, it is sufficient to note the basic style elements, colours,

fonts and layout preferences, as well as the approaches to usability and user friendliness

(for example, never having more than five headings in the navigation bar).

 
  

   

Online copywriting

Online copy is any promotional written communication, as opposed to images,

graphs or other content, that you publish online. Online copywriting is not the

same as online writing in general. Specifically, copywriting is the art of creating

persuasive text that promote your product or brand. Copywriting explains,

endorses, convinces, attracts and persuades. Any writing that you publish about

your business, both online and off, will fall under the category of copywriting:

your website, brochures, promotional articles, emails and so on. While professional

copywriting for marketing purposes is a specialist skill, anyone can learn to write

effective, engaging content about their brand.

Where do I find it?

Everywhere. Here are just some of the places where you will find online copywriting:

• Websites. All text on a website is web copy, from the home and contact

                   pages to the customer feedback and product descriptions.

• Blogs. Business-run blogs are the epitome of online copywriting.

• Email promotions. Any marketing messages sent by email, like newsletters

                                 and special offers, fall under copywriting.

• Online adverts. The text of any online advertising is also web copy, since it is

persuasive writing used to promote your product or brand.

 Promotional articles and press releases. If you write commissioned articles

about your product, even ones that are loosely related, you are writing web copy.

 

Copy can be divided into two broad categories. Short copy comprises the small

 

bits of text that are dotted around your website, in your online adverts, your

promotional emails, blurbs and so on. Short copy is generally only a few sentences

long and must be direct, to the point and action oriented.

Long copy, in comparison, is any longer piece of writing, like a blog post, email

newsletter, press release or article. Long copy allows you to expand on an idea

and build a brand personality, which helps you engage with your readers, but

needs a strong headline and good style to ensure it is read. Both long and short

copy have an important place on the web and in your brand strategy.

Content management system

 

 

A content management system (CM S) is the system that you use to add or change

content on your page. CM Ses come in varying degrees of complexity, and the one

you will choose to use will depend on your internet skills and on how often you

modify your page’s content. The three options are:

1. Basic template CM S. This type of CM S can be used by anyone because it is

very simple and just requires the user to enter the new data. No technical

knowledge is needed. If you have ever used WordPress (www.wordpress.

com) or Blogger, you have used a simple template CM S. Yola also has a basic

template CM S. This is also the cheapest option, but has the fewest features.

2. Open source CM S. This type of CM S is more advanced and can be customised

by a web developer to include the features you want. This can be a good

option for non-technical people, depending on your choice of open source

CM S. Joomla (www.joomla.org) is a popular option. Open source CM Ses are also free.

3. Custom CM S. Some advanced websites need a custom-build CM S and

generally require a web developer to manage them. This option is viable if

you plan to hire an agency to create your website or if you have a dedicated

IT department; however, the other options are perfectly suitable. Building a

custom CM S is very expensive.

If you plan to update and add content to your page often, choose a CM S that you

find easy to use – that way, you can manage the content yourself without having

to hire a web developer. If your page is going to remain largely static with few

changes, which is unlikely, it is all right to pick a more complex option – but even

in this scenario, you can save yourself time and money by using a system you

understand. The complexity of your website is largely dependent on which CM S

you choose.

Writing for the web

Web copywriting is a specific and unique type of writing, and often requires a

specific touch to get it right. The most important things to remember are to keep

your writing very simple (using short sentences, common words and plenty of

paragraphs), to put the most important ideas first and to structure your text so

that it is easy to read (by using bullet points, bold, spacing and so on). 
 

Basic web design principles

 

 

Whether you plan to design your website yourself or to hire a professional to help

you, it is important to understand the principles of good web design. Even though

a lot of what makes a page attractive is in the eye of the beholder, there are

definite web design principles that your should keep in mind. Remember to tailor

your page to the expectations of your customers.

Keep it simple. A website with a complex navigation, many sidebar links, lots of

text and dozens of images will only confuse and put off your visitors. Keep your

design as simple and neat as possible, and trim away excess content – especially

on your home page. Your visitor should have no doubt about what you want them

to look at and click. If you do need to present a lot of information, make sure it is

extremely well structured and that your navigation is clear.

Prefer minimalism. Web design puts a high value on “white space”, or the empty

places between page elements (which is typically, but not necessarily, white). It is

good to have a lot of white space so that your page looks uncluttered and stylish.

It also helps lead the viewer’s eye to the most important elements – which is part

of a good viewer interface (see section 4.4). This doesn’t mean having a page

that is practically empty; it means that you shouldn’t clutter things and all the

elements of your page should have their own place and be easy to see.

Screen resolution. Screen resolution is the size and shape of the computer

monitor that your page will be viewed on. Most web users have quite a high

screen resolution, though most still use the “square” aspect ratio rather than a “widescreen” one.

Limit your colours and fonts. In line with the philosophy that simple is best, keep

your design to just a few complementary colours and never use more that three

fonts on your website – one is sufficient, as is a standard size. A very important

thing to remember when planning your content is never to make entire words or

sentences capital letters unless it is absolutely necessary – in the online world,

using caps is the equivalent to shouting. Take inspiration from your corporate

identity and existing business designs

Also, make sure that your colours and fonts are “web safe”. Web-safe fonts and

colours are those that anyone using any type of computer and web browser will

be able to view. Never use elements on your page that are not web safe, no

matter how nice they may look: if your customer doesn’t have your obscure font

installed on their computer, they will just see an empty page or a line of gibberish.

Practical considerations. Use your own common sense when you assess your own

page and make adjustments accordingly. Is the text too small or too big? Does

the font and background colour combination make the words hard to read? Is

your heading too big or indistinguishable from the main text? Do your images load

properly, or do they take a long time to appear? Do you have to scroll sideways to

view the whole page? Are there any unnecessary elements cluttering your view?

Are related topics and items grouped together, or is there no discernible order? A

detailed examination of your page will reveal issues like these.

To see more things to watch out for, refer to www.ratz.com/featuresbad.html.

Remember that a website isn’t about its individual elements at the end of the day,

but about what it looks like as a whole – so assess your website as a whole once

you are happy with the elements.

Standardise your style. There is nothing worse than a schizophrenic website with

a new design on every page and a different font and colour for each element.

Make sure that your design stays consistent throughout your website. A good way

to ensure this is to tell your developer to use CSS (which stands for “cascading

style sheet”) when coding your website. This works just like paragraph styles in

Microsoft Word: you can define what “heading 1” or “body text” should look like

by creating a CSS style, and if you ever want to update your page, you can simply

tweak the CSS and the update will be applied to your entire page.

General principles of good writing

 

 

Start with a plan. Before you begin writing, take some time to plan exactly what

you want to say and what purpose you want to achieve with your writing. Consider

how you want to present your information – should it be a list, a blog article, a

table or maybe even an image instead of text? Keep your goal in mind as you write.

Keep it simple. Simple writing means short sentences, clear and direct phrasing

and avoiding complex words or jargon. Use as few words as possible to bring your

point across, and avoid padding your writing with unnecessary adjectives.

• Wrong: Our very exciting new service will completely and totally overhaul the

way you understand and think about web design, CSS, CM S and customer subscription solutions.

• Right: Our new service will change the way you look at all aspects of web development.

Be active, not passive. Wherever possible, write your copy using an active voice rather than a passive one.

• Passive: A large range of services is offered by our company to meet your needs.

• Active: We offer a large range of services to meet your needs.

Write for readability. Readability is a word that means “ease of reading”. There

are many ways to make your text easier to understand. Use bolding or italics to

highlight important words, short paragraphs to keep your ideas separate, bullet

points to outline important details and subheadings to give your text structure.

Do not write whole words or paragraphs in capital letters – this is the equivalent of

shouting online and has the same negative reaction. Most web readers scan text,

which means they run their eyes over it quickly without absorbing everything.

Using these tricks will make your text more scannable and will make sure the crucial things stand out.

• Wrong: Our product has many features, like helping you to manage your

digital documents, keep a list of your online contacts, archive your emails and manage your diary.

• Right: Our product features:

o Manage your digital documents

o Store online contacts

o Archive emails

o Manage your calendar

Be consistent. Every aspect of your brand should be consistent, and this is especially

important for your writing. Always make sure that your written communications use

the same terms, vocabulary, spelling, tone and level of complexity, not to mention

the small but vital stylistic elements. Though you will use different techniques for

you website, blog and other channels, all your writing should feel that it comes

from the same source. An excellent way of achieving this is to create a style guide

for your brand. A style guide specifies the standard terms, spelling and so on for

your brand-related writing – for example, do you spell the word “internet” with a

capital or lower case “i”? You can consult an editor to help you construct one, or

you can download this detailed guide: www.techwr-l.com/files/examplestyleguide.

pdf (note that it refers to US conventions). The Yahoo Style Guide is also an

excellent starting resource: styleguide.yahoo.com.

Be creative. It is perfectly acceptable to let your own creative voice come through

in your writing. You don’t want to sound like a carbon copy of every other product

or brand available. A bit of brand personality (discussed in more detail chapter 7)

is a good thing. Also be creative in what content you create – find new angles,

ideas and niches to explore.

Use correct spelling and grammar. You will look extremely unprofessional if you

have dozens of grammatical mistakes and spelling or typing errors in your writing.

If you keep things simple and consistent, you should have no trouble writing

correctly. Don’t hesitate to consult a dictionary or grammar guide if you are stuck

• Wrong: Our web tool have many useful featurs. You can customize your web site easiliy.

• Right: Our web tool has many useful features. You can customise your website easily.

Proofread your writing. One of the easiest ways to check whether your writing is

correct and clear is, quite simply, to read it. Proofreading is the process of reading

a piece of text in detail and fixing any stylistic, grammatical or content mistakes

that you find. Even if you are not a language expert, you will find that you pick up

lots of small errors on your own. You can also consider hiring a freelance editor to

check your writing for you. A helpful hint is to leave the content for a day before

you go back to proofread it – the time refreshes your mind and makes it easier to

pick up any errors

The parts of a web page

 

 

Every page on your website consists of several distinct parts or elements. There

 

are two important concepts to consider. First, these elements can either be static

– which means that they remain identical on each page of your website (this is

also called “universal” or “global”) – or dynamic – which means that they change

from page to page. Second, every web page has a “fold”, which is the imaginary

line at the bottom of your screen: if an element is “above the fold”, it means

you can view it without scrolling down; “below the fold” is the opposite of this.

Because of this, content that is above the fold generally gets more exposure than

content that is below it, which in turn impacts where you’ll place elements and key

information on a web page.

Here are the main components of a web page, and the criteria that should apply to them.

• The header. Your header is the top-most element of your web page and is

the part that includes your brand name and logo. This is where customers will

look to identify your page, so be sure that it is clear and striking. Your logo

should always appear on the top left of the page, and should be a clickable

image that takes you to the home page. You header will be static and will

always appear above the fold.

• The navigation bar. One step below your header is the navigation bar – the

row of buttons that visitors click on to get to other parts of your site. Always

make sure that your navigation is a horizontal bar at the top, and not a

vertical bar. Depending on the complexity of your page, your navigation bar

could consist of just a few buttons, or it could have elaborate dropdown

menus with many links. Your navigation bar will usually remain static and

will always appear above the fold. It is vital that you give your links obvious

names, so that visitors have no trouble finding what they need. The worst

type of navigation is “mystery meat” navigation, where the visitor is not

given any clues about where each click will take them.

If your page is complex enough, you could consider adding contextual

navigation, which is navigation that changes dynamically depending on where

the user is on your page. Examples of this are “breadcrumb” links, which show

where in the context of the entire website you are, and expanded navigation

bars, which appear as submenus to the main navigation.

 

 

Pages on website

Aside from pages - home, about, contact , your website can have a wide variety of other pages –

again, depending on your type of business and what you need from your website.

Here are some suggested additions.

1. Products. It is useful to have a dedicated page that explains your products or

services in more elaborate terms. A restaurant can display its menu, a service

provider can outline its services and additional features, while a product seller

can list the types, variations and features of their products. If your product

or service is very complex, or if you have many products, consider creating

one page that lists all your offerings and a separate page for each individual product

 

2. Blog. If you have the time and energy to run a blog (see module 7 for more

 

on this), this is a good addition to any website. A blog is an online journal

where you can post short, regular articles on your topic of expertise. This is

a great way to demonstrate your knowledge, provide useful content for your

customers and improve your search engine ranking (you will learn all about SEO

in module 6) – not to mention a way of opening a channel of communication

with your target market to interact with you. A blog is also a good place

to announce the latest news and press releases for your organisation. Be

aware that a blog requires a lot of work and maintenance, and that a poorly

maintained blog can do more harm than good. Ensure that you have the

time and resources to create at least one post every two weeks, and more if possible.

3. Custom error page. If somebody types in the incorrect web address for one of

 

your pages, they will get a “404” error message.

 

If you have a sitemap, you can include a link to it. The most important thing

is that your customer should not leave your website just because of a small

mistake or typo. Your web developer will be able to create a custom error

page for you.

 

 

Visual aspects of your website

Once you have planned out the overall holistic aspects of your website, you can

begin thinking about the way that it actually looks and behaves. Be careful not to

get too carried away by the potential of what you can include on your page – start

simply, and you can always grow the content from there. In addition, remember

that your website is for your customers and visitors, not for you – don’t add

elements just because you like them; your primary consideration should be if they

add any value to your target market. The “keep it simple” rule applies here.

Design considerations

 

Your website is a public face for your business and its design should therefore be

treated with considerable care and consideration. One of the first steps you should

take is to research your competitors’ pages to get a general feel for what your

industry’s standards and expectations are. Also have a look at pages of companies

in related industries for ideas. Be sure that any design you choose is appropriate

for your type of business. For example, here are four websites for legal practices.

All four pages have a very conservative design and favour black, white and shades

of grey over bright colours. This is in line with the professional and serious image

that legal professionals aim to portray to their customers.

This also speaks to the target market, which is a related and important point. While

it may seem like a good idea to create a website that is radically different from

your competitors’, so that you stand out, this tactic is likely to backfire unless

you have done some extensive research. This is because your target market has

already defined the standards for your industry and has certain set expectations. A

lawyer’s website filled with brightly coloured animations and an unusual layout will

be dismissed as untrustworthy, regardless of the actual content and reputation.

However, you can still come across as professional and trustworthy by doing

something different, within these parameters.

Another important consideration is that your website must fit in with your overall

corporate identity (your company’s logo, colours and print designs). Creating a

holistic and uniform brand image is vital and your website – as an integral part

of your strategy – must fit in with your other marketing communications. Your

designer will be able to advise you on adapting your corporate identity for the

web, since this involves considerations like using web-safe colours and fonts

Web design

Web design is the process of planning and creating the way your website will look

and feel. It is the first part of creating your website and is the stage where you

can implement your creative ideas, branding and visual appeal.

4.1 Planning

As with any marketing strategy or project, thorough initial planning is essential.

Planning a website involves considering its role in your business plan and allocating

sufficient resources to the development and upkeep of the page. At the planning

stage, answer the following important questions.

1. What is the purpose of your website? Try to summarise your goals and

objectives in two sentences, and let this definition inform every stage of the development process.

Our website should be easy to find for people looking for gardening services

in the Cape Town area. Visitors should request a quote and contact us by email.

We want our website to rank high in search results and draw traffic to our

active Facebook Page. We also want to generate prospective leads with
our email newsletter subscription.

Our website must provide useful content for people in the book publishing

field. We want to entrench our position as the leading book publishers in our genre.

2. What do you need on your website? Make a list of all the tools and functions

that are essential for your website, and be strict with yourself not to include

unnecessary extras. This list is important because if your project goes over

budget, you will know which elements are not negotiable, and which can

safely be cut. In strictest terms, the only essential aspects of a website are

the home, about and contact pages, a navigation bar and your corporate

branding; however, this would make for a bland site. Let your website’s purpose guide you.

3. What do you want on your website? Once you have noted the essentials,

think of the other useful elements that it would be good to have on your

website. Again, be careful not to add frivolous and excessive details. Some useful additions include:

 

• A contact form that your customers can fill out, so that you can get their

contact details along with their permission to send them emails.

• One-click sharing on your content so that readers can instantly post your

content to their Facebook, Twitter and other profiles.

• An automated feedback form for complaints and queries.

4. How much control do you want over managing the website? Do you want to

be able to do everything yourself, or would you prefer for your developer or

IT department to manage your page and update your content? In addition,

consider how often the content will change: if you post a blog article every

day, it is easier and quicker to manage the website in-house, but if the content

is relatively static, you can safely leave your developer to manage it.

 

 

 

Your website is the centre of your strategy

 

What makes a website so important for marketing? Why is it the central element

of any online marketing strategy? Here are a few reasons:

You control the page. A website is a place where you can express your brand

and marketing message fully, in whatever way you want. You are generally

not constrained by anything except your imagination and budget. It is also

the definitive source for accurate facts and information about your business

and products.

• It is a powerful tool. A website is not just an information page: it can be a

powerful marketing and business tool. For example, if you analyse the data

on who visits your page, you can get a good idea of who is interested in your

offering (you will learn about web analytics in chapter 8). You can include an

online store, a community and other features too. You can also customise

your website to reflect exactly what your target market is looking for.

• All roads lead to your website. As you will see in the mind map below, your

website is the hub that all your other marketing strategies lead to. In effect,

it is the final destination for every aspect of your online campaign.

• You are expected to have one. If a customer can’t find you at www.yourbrand.

co.za, they are unlikely to expend any more effort to find you. Today’s

connected audience takes it for granted that your have a slick website with

all the requisite information. Gone are the days of leafing through the Yellow

Pages (unless it’s online); you need a website that is easy to find and even

easier to navigate

It is your brand’s online home. Your website is the one part of the web that

is completely devoted to your brand and marketing message. It serves as a

reference point for customers, fellow businesses and even your own staff.

Not only do you provide content, you can also use it as a point of sale, a

social community and a message board.

• It is stable. While your social networking pages, advertising campaigns, email

newsletters and so on will change, your website will always remain in the

same place (at the same web address). This is extremely important on the

ever-changing web, especially for links that lead to your content.

Think of your website as the online equivalent of your physical office. When clients

visit your office, they expect certain services and features to be in place. The

same principles can be applied to your website.

  

Marketing tactics in unison

 

 

Imagine the following marketing journey online:

You are a book publisher and you are releasing a book by a new author. A potential

customer searches Google for her favourite genre and sees the sponsored advert

announcing the book launch. She clicks it to access the information, which takes

her to a microsite created especially for the launch, primed with keywords. The

page displays a link to your Twitter feed and another link that allows her to read

a sample chapter if she fills in her name and email address.

Curious about the book, she submits her details and immediately likes the material.

She writes about it in her own Twitter feed, cross-posting it on her Facebook

profile, including your UR L and Twitter username. Her friends immediately follow

the link, and some enter their details. One of them says he will attend the book

launch, and another pre-orders the book on Kalahari.net. Using your web analytics

tools, you are able to track how many people respond to her posting, and where

– and how – they engage.

She isn’t sure about the book herself and sends a question to your Twitter profile.

You and the author both respond within ten minutes, sparking a conversation

between you and another of her friends. Because she is engaging with you,

you decide to offer her 20% off the ebook version that she can read on her

smartphone. A few weeks later, you email her and her friends some bonus video

content that relates to the book, and let them know about another author whose

writing they may enjoy.

Does this sound like the kind of engagement you would like to have with your

customers? When you integrate all of the strategies in this course into a holistic

marketing plan, results like these are not only possible, they’re easy.

Online equivalents of traditional techniques

 

Physical office > website. Think of your website as the public face of your

company. Where before customers would visit or phone your office to find out

about your products or to make business arrangements, this can now all be

done on the official website. A website can offer additional features, like useful

resources, online shopping and customer support.

 

• Direct postal mail > email. Email is the targeted, personalised equivalent of

traditional posted direct mail. It has several advantages. Firstly, it is much

easier for the client to act on the information if you include a link or a fill-in

form for a competition. Secondly, it is easy for the customer to opt out of

the advertising, making it less intrusive – or they can share it further if they

find the content useful. Thirdly, it is much easier to construct a specifically

targeted list online, due to the wide availability of demographic information.

And finally, email marketing is cheaper and quicker, since there is no printing

or posting involved – which also makes following up and answering questions

easy.

 

 • Traditional advertising > online advertising. Print, radio and television

advertising usually requires a large investment upfront for creation, and a

second large sum for placement. Online advertising carries a much lower risk,

since it can be fully controlled, changed, retracted and modified at any time.

The more targeted the advert, the more likely you are to generate qualified

leads and higher returns.

 

 

• Surveys, polls and market research > web analytics. The traditional way of

measuring the effectiveness of a marketing campaign was to take survey and

polls of consumers and to measure the effect on the company’s income; both

quite blunt and subjective measures. Web analytics are very different – they

allow absolute and precise measurement of every activity that your marketing

material is involved in, giving you the best picture of what works.

 

Traditional PR > web PR. Traditional PR usually happens behind closed doors,

as individual problems and complaints can be dealt with in private, or on the

large scale, through impersonal broadcast media. On the web, PR takes on an

entirely different dimension, because anyone can read what others are saying

about your company. If the message is bad, a substantial crisis can occur.

Brand management and PR are incredibly important on the web, because even

one dissident voice can have a marked effect.

• Word of mouth > viral. Traditional marketing relies heavily on word of mouth

to spread slogans, brand names and recommendations, and the web is no

different. However, online word of mouth has the tendency to spread virally,

as each agent is linked to exponentially increasing numbers of people down the

line. If every Facebook user has an average of 100 friends, then every profile

is just two steps away from 1 million others. Figures of this scale indicate just

why ideas can spread virally on the web.

 
 

Online Presence

Why you need to be online

1. Your market and competitors are already there. If you market and sell products

or services to a middle-class clientele, you need to extend your strategy to

include the internet.

2. Web users expect the highest convenience and information at their fingertips.

All companies need a website as their central point of contact. If your details

don’t come up in a web search, you will be ignored.

3. Customers are fickle. They will not expend a lot of energy to find you online.

Even worse, if your competitor is easy to find online, your potential customers

will happily turn to them.

4. Since South Africans are using, socialising and buying on the web – and

especially because current advertising spend is still very low – now is an

excellent time to move your marketing into the online sphere and capitalise

on a new and connected audience.

5. Audiences want to interact with and converse about your brand and products.

Give them the opportunity to do it in a mediated space, and become part of

the discussion.

6. Online marketing is almost always cheaper and more targeted than traditional.

You can reach the best customers at the lowest price.

When done smartly, your online marketing plan will integrate seamlessly with your

traditional tactics, won’t cost a fortune and will expose you to a market that you

had previously been invisible to.

Why you need to educate yourself

 

Despite its seeming ease and accessibility, internet marketing is not something

that just anyone can do without formal training. The online space is full of cultural,

legal and financial pitfalls. Traditional strategies don’t translate directly onto the

web. Customers have different and challenging expectations. The way that you

spend money and schedule your campaigns works very differently. And with the

plethora of new developments, tools, protocols, strategies and approaches, it is

impossible to keep up with everything on one’s own. Keeping yourself educated

and informed is the only way to ensure that you stay relevant and innovative.

There are two parts to this: first, learning the basics and the principles of the field,

and second, keeping up with new developments.  

Internet marketing today

 

Throughout its history, the internet has reinvented itself many times – and

the changes are far from over. The current web is dominated by socialising,

cooperation, sharing and personal entertainment. It is a space both for work and

play – an essential tool for virtually every business and the go-to repository for

all forms of media culture products. People of all ages are spending more and

more time online, and are turning to the internet for better services, convenience

and life-enhancing tools: just consider how people use online shopping, online

banking, web communities that cross all boundaries, instant news and updates,

social networks and chat, self-expression and any of the dozens of other things

that the web makes possible. 2010 was the first year where online advertising

spend overtook the amount of money spent on newspaper advertising in the

USA. It was the same year that online readership overtook traditional newspaper

readership, which illustrates just how large an impact the internet has had on the

marketing and advertising industry

Global trends

The internet marketing field hasn’t stood still. Here are some of the current trends:

 

• Social media marketing. Whether it is a fad or here to stay, social media has

made an indelible mark on the web landscape and, concurrently, on marketing

tactics. Social media marketing involves using peer recommendations, sharing,

building brand personality and addressing the market as a heterogeneous

group of individuals. It also uniquely encourages customers to create content

and buzz around a product themselves.

 

• Viral marketing. This form of marketing involves the exponential spread of a

marketing message by online word of mouth (sometimes referred to a “word

of mouse”). A major component of viral communication is the meme – a

message that spreads virally and embeds itself in the collective consciousness

(“Don’t touch me on my studio” is a recent South African example). Viral

marketing is closely tied to social media, since social media platforms and

their sharing functionality are the main way that a message is able to “go

viral” online. Keep in mind, however, that viral marketing does not make a

holistic online marketing campaign and should be just one of many tools used

to create awareness and encourage interaction.

 

• Brand as product. More than ever before, brands are creating personas and

identities around themselves rather than the products they sell. The online

space allows customers to interact and converse with the brand personally

and directly.

• Ad fatigue. Web users have become very familiar with online advertising and

have learned to tune it out – or have even installed programs like AdBlock

Plus to block it altogether. Marketers today have to think of very innovative

and eye-catching strategies to entice wary viewers.

 

• Targeting. Virtually all online advertising is targeted to reach specific readers.

Unlike the broad-strokes targeting done in traditional marketing (placing an

advert in a relevant magazine, for example), web targeting can be extremely

precise. With the immense amount of personal and usage data currently

available, targeting can be done automatically and extremely successfully.

 

• Golden oldies. Despite all the exciting new strategies, email and website

marketing remain among the most useful and effective techniques. These

strategies do, of course, use new tools and tactics (like advanced tracking,

integration with social networks and customer-generated content), but their

essence stays the same.