A sample chapter on the importance of your business website from http://www.easy-digital-marketing.com

1. Your website
A SAMPLE CHAPTER FROM EASY DIGITAL MARKETING BY VERONICA STENBERG
“In today’s information age of Market- “In a way, the Web is like - your
ing and Web 2.0, a company’s website Hollywood agent.
is the key to their entire business.” It speaks for you whenever you’re not
around to comment.”
- Marcus Sheridan - Chris Brogan & Julien Smith
Author Of The Sales Lion Blog Authors Of Trust Agents
Marketing Speaker
© 2012 Easy Digital Marketing by Veronica Stenberg www.easy-digital-marketing.com

2. Your website is one of your most valuable business tools and might I add adver-
tisement for your business and yourself - always on, always visible. The only space
you truly own and govern and control on the internet these days.
This chapter covers all you need to know about how to create a well executed website that will be the
dealmaker in your digital marketing campaigns - and deliver the results you want.
This section is written as a guide so that you can identify what is important for your business and tran-
scend this through to a brief with the help of a freelancer or a digital agency of your choice.
Why is your website so important?
As a small business owner you may be one of those people who dismiss the fact that you need a website
or proclaiming that having one is not at all important for your type of business.
In fact it can be even more so for a smaller business, a professional website is important for your busi-
ness for the following reasons:
Visibility – a website is a 24/7 ad for your business, and today search plays an integral part in
customers buying cycle and in finding new services. Which means, you will gain new customers
and/or leads from your website.
Customer confidence – a well executed website is a credibility indicator for your business.
A website should reflect your brand, and communicate your services in a professional way, which
can be what in the end makes you win the potential customer from your competition. Simply
put because your website is of better quality and delivers the information they are looking for by
making a connection with the potential customer.
Dealmaker - it’s the hub of your online presence and digital marketing activities - where you
convert clicks from your ads into customers or prospects on a newsletter list. In other words,
your website should either capture potential customer details or convert browsers to buyers!
Control - You own and control the information – which is necessarily not the case if you rely
solely on social networks – or free blog platforms for your online activities.
Insight - you can track the visitors and interaction with your content and draw conclusions to
improve your product, services or offers.
© 2012 Easy Digital Marketing by Veronica Stenberg www.easy-digital-marketing.com

3. An in-house assessment – your starting point towards your first website or im-
proving your existing one
Just don’t go and spend money on creating a website for the sake of having a website. Before contacting
an agency or freelancer - make a quick assessment around these 6 points - from your business perspec-
tive:
1. Purpose
2. Your target audience/customers
3. What action do you want the visitor to take?
4. Marketing
5. Communication
6. Technical requirements
Purpose
What is the purpose of your website, should it be informative, an online shop, a lead genera-
tor? A communication tool?
Your target audience
Can you identify who your target audience is? who is most likely to visit your website, and
why? By answering these questions you will be able to accommodate for your visitors needs
and you will be more likely to give them a positive experience.
What action do you want the visitor to take?
With the purpose and the visitor in mind, what do you want the visitor to actually DO on
your website? By having this in mind, you can place call to actions appropriately around your
website to guide your visitor to take the desired action.
Marketing
Establish if you haven’t already, what marketing requirements you have. Make sure a campaign
landing page template is considered. As well as any call to actions which is important for you
from the point above.
Communication
What communication requirements does your company have? What is your brand/business
about? And what are your core values and unique selling points?
In terms of communication features – do you want to have a blog, a news section or tie in
© 2012 Easy Digital Marketing by Veronica Stenberg www.easy-digital-marketing.com

4. any twitter, Facebook or other social media feeds into your website? What is important for
your business?
Technical requirements
Do you have any 3rd party systems, or other software implementation requirements?
Gather this information to a short and to the point brief for an agency or freelancer and you will be off
to a great start!
This is a sample chapter from Easy Digital Marketing
- your playbook for online success.
The eBook will be released this very autumn. If you want to
get notified about the release or receive more sample chap-
ters directly to your inbox, go to:
www.easy-digital-marketing.com
The eBook simplifies digital marketing and is your no-fuss-just-do-it companion to
getting started with online marketing for your business.
© 2012 Easy Digital Marketing by Veronica Stenberg www.easy-digital-marketing.com