Improving Your Company’s Marketing Efforts With A Web Critique

Getting a website critique is a great way to improve the quality of your business’s site.

For all businesses, including B2B companies, a website is the number one way to market your products and services to potential clients no matter where they are. Websites are so beneficial because they future customers to handle product research on their own and come to you when they are ready to buy. Advances in technology and Web 2.0 designs have put customers in the driver seat of online purchases. Many clients will use your website to make their purchasing decisions before they speak with your company’s salespeople.

If you have never considered enlisting the help of a professional website critique, now is the time to get serious about it. Even if your existing site generates results and appears to be functioning well, a website critique can greatly enhance those results by pointing out ways to increase page views and enhance the overall visitor experience. An objective third-party opinion is especially important if you sell your product from your site.

A good website critique will examine the following areas of your site:

* Navigation. Is your site easy to understand? Do all links work and go to an appropriate page?

* Design. Does the look and feel of your site relate to your company’s branding? Is the design appealing and consistent throughout the site?

* Ease of use – Is your site made to encourage visitors to make a purchase? Are you using quality images? Is contact information easy to locate?

* Search engine marketing – Are the keywords used in your site the best for drawing in the right kind of traffic? Are meta descriptions and page titles unique and being used properly?

* Content – Is your website’s content designed to persuade readers into making a purchase?

* Technology – Is your site using up to date web technology such as CSS sheets and text navigation? Are you keeping page load times to a minimum?

A professional website critique can give you insider advice on how to make the right improvements to your website. This will lead to an increase in sales for your business. Instead of taking advice from friends and employees, get a professional to direct you.

Ray Perry is an Internet marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience. He is the Chief Marketing Officer at Market Blazer, a small business marketing company and authorized Duct Tape Marketing coach. You can get more information about website critique at www.MarketBlazer.com.

Understanding Your Target Market Leads to Success

Business success is only possible through an understanding of your company’s target market.

The target market of a B2B business is the group of companies that you will market your products and services to. You need to understand this market in order to be able to market to them successfully. By analyzing this group of businesses, you can hone your marketing efforts appropriately in order to make your techniques as effective as possible.

It is important to note that B2B businesses tend to work with a smaller target market than B2C businesses. The people you need to market to make decisions that affect their entire company. For this reason, make sure to develop your marketing strategies accordingly. Do not forget that patience is important in the B2B marketing world where sales cycles are long and personal relationships are a vital part of making a sale.

Educating your potential clients is an important part of marketing in the B2B world. By sharing helpful information with potential business clients, you can begin to form relationships that will lead to eventual sales. When you help educate the decision makers at companies you want to sell your products and services to, they will become more interested in what you are offering. You can do this through telemarketing, direct mail, newsletters, webcasts, and personal sales presentations.

Think about the following list of questions when trying to figure out how to establish a good relationship with your target market.

* Which businesses are you trying to reach with your advertising efforts?

* What clients do you expect will be the most likely to purchase your products and services?

* Who makes the final decision about purchasing from your business? Will the CFO, the office manager, or some other person place the order with you?

* What type of business is most likely to be interested in buying from your company?

You can also use tools such as customer satisfaction surveys and market research information to hone in on your most promising targets. Once you have analyzed your target market, you can then discuss what will motivate them to buy from your business. This information can help as you craft a core marketing message and execute an effective marketing strategy.

Ray Perry is an Internet marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience. He is the Chief Marketing Officer at Market Blazer, a small business marketing company and authorized Duct Tape Marketing coach. You can get more information about your target market at www.MarketBlazer.com.