Market Your Website So it Stands Out

Are you interested in ensuring that your website stands out and gains the right level of attention from your target market? If so, you need to think carefully about how to market your website so it stands out. There are lots of possibilities to explore here, so let’s take a look at some of the best choices.

Marketing your website: Getting started

The first question is, do you need a website? Most experts agree that you do because most of your target market is online (primarily through a mobile device) and more than half of all consumers (61% according to Google) turn to a web search first when they need to buy something. But a website that doesn’t have to break the bank. In fact, you can build a website on your own without writing a single line of code using WordPress (or another CMS) and a template. Buy a domain and hosting for about $100/ year and you’re all set. You can even find my ebook that walks you through the process step-by-step using that option in the menu above. Don’t forget to create a website that’s mobile-friendly, either.

Don’t take a shortcut (which really isn’t one) by using a website builder like Wix or Squarespace (or even WordPress.com). These are much harder to use than they promise, and they don’t help users find your website, which is the reason for having a website in the first place. If you don’t have the bandwidth or the money right now to build your website, at a minimum, purchase the domain related to your business name to ensure someone else doesn’t buy that down the road. You’ll only pay around $20 for the domain for a couple of years, so it’s well worth the money and takes almost no time. While you’re at it, buy not only the dot com but a couple of other extensions related to your name and maybe a common misspelling or two, as they’re really cheap. That way, you don’t end up with the problem faced by the White House (whitehouse.com goes to a porn site, and to reach the President, you need the .gov).

Video

First, you might want to think about using video. When you want to market your website, video provides a host of benefits, including:

Adding videos to your website can benefit you in many ways, including:

• Engagement – Videos can help visitors stay on your site longer, which can improve your SEO. For example, a video on your homepage that explains your business can signal to Google that your page is useful.
• Visibility – Videos can increase your site’s visibility in search engines, which can lead to higher rankings. Videos can also increase your social media presence because they are shareable.
• Brand recognition – Videos can help you deliver a message about your brand using visual and sound elements, which can increase brand recognition.
• Conversion rate – Videos can increase your conversion rate, which can lead to more sales. For example, studies show that adding a video to a landing page can increase conversions by 80%.
• Trust and authority – Videos can help build trust and authority in your industry, as other companies and news organizations may link to your videos.

Videos make your website more engaging and immersive overall, which is fantastic news. It’s also excellent when you want to demonstrate something so your market understands the value of your products or how to use them effectively.

In terms of how to create video for your website, you don’t need the same quality as found in studio films or TV shows. No one expects that online. However, creating videos is time-consuming, and the tools necessary to do a good job of it are expensive for a startup. You might want to work with experts in motion graphics production. They can help you create compelling videos that are absolutely going to work in your favor and deliver the results that you are looking for.

Blogging

Next, you should consider adding a blog to market your website. By producing fresh, valuable content on a consistent basis, you set up your brand as a trustworthy authority in your market space. Users will turn to your website every time they need information about products in your space and, likely, buy products from you while they’re there to get your great content.

You might think that blogging is largely irrelevant when it comes to marketing your business and that no one is going to want to read your blog. However, this isn’t true; the quality of the content determines whether you’ll see value from blogging. If you create fantastic content for your blog that resonates with your audience, then they’ll keep coming back to see what’s new. For instance, I once listened to a pool installation company owner tell the story of beating out the competition simply by sharing information about how to care for your pool, how to hire someone to build one, and offering examples of pricing for the installation.

Blogging is also essential to improving your SEO. If you don’t know about SEO (search engine optimization), you don’t understand how to market your website effectively. Think about your own habits when using a search engine and you’ll understand SEO. When you search for something, you use words to let the search engine know your intent so the engine can deliver content to address your needs. The search engine provides a list of results and you likely chose one of the first links you see on the list. Thus, content that ranks near the top in search results gets more traffic (we call this organic traffic). SEO is an algorithm used by search engines to determine the rank of each piece of content related to the user’s intent.

Because organic traffic is over 50% of all the traffic that visits your website, you can’t ignore this traffic source. Fresh, valuable content is one of the most critical factors in the search algorithm.

Personalization

Another point to consider is personalization. There are lots of different choices that you can make to ensure that your website feels more personal and stands out. For instance, you might want to think about using the data that you have accumulated related to your target audience and your customers. By using your data, you can create a website that adapts depending on who is viewing your store. For instance, you might want to think about setting the images on your website to change based on the interest of the audience. This is possible with the correct data.

Advertising

To market your website, don’t ignore online advertising. You can choose from search engine ads or social media ads. Compared to other advertising channels, these channels are affordable for even the smallest startup and generate about 15% of the traffic visiting the average website.

Social media

Be sure to create accounts on the social media platforms used by your target market and post content on those platforms regularly. Connect your blog to the social media accounts to automatically share updates posted on your website with them. This website offers a lot of information to help you optimize your platform choices and performance.

Photography

Finally, you might want to think about using photography. Photography, similar to video, will ensure that your website is more attractive and compelling. You have a few options when it comes to photography. For instance, you might want to think about choices like using stock photos. The benefit of using stock photos is it means that you will immediately be able to gain beautiful images for your website. The only issue with exploring this option is that they won’t stand out because everyone will be using them. As such, you might want to hire a professional to take unique images for your business and your website design.

Conclusion

We hope this helps you understand the key steps to ensure that your website stands out and makes an impact with your target audience. In doing so, you can guarantee that your business gains the level of interest that it deserves.

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Hausman and Associates, the publisher of MKT Maven, is a full-service marketing agency operating at the intersection of marketing and digital media. Check out our full range of services.