This article is based on transcript excerpts from an audio coaching message I once sent to a Web Marketing client.
I want to give you more insight on what you should be looking for to measure your progress or the success of your web marketing system.
A lot of what I have learnt to do over the years from personal experience has gone against what you could call conventional wisdom.
Many so-called Internet Marketing experts in Nigeria and outside, sometimes tend to blindly follow the more commonly talked about ideas about Search Engine Optimization and how to do it.
As a result they just waste their time on mechanical stuff that concerns more of the programming of the web, which many times does not even come close to approximating what the mental attitude of potential buyers they are looking to attract is.
They don’t understand that there is a lot of psychology that influences what people do on the web. That people are not robots, people are not software, and so there is only so much you can do to “control” THEIR ACTIONS!
But what you can do is use your “programming” to present to people who are THINKING, information that will convince them that they need to click and come and do the things you want them to do on your website.
So, how do you know if your WMS is working – and how well it is doing so?
Here are some ideas you can use – including mention of a few performance measures:
1. Monitor Your Web Conversion Ratio:
You want to measure the rate at which people subscribe to your mailing list.
It’s not something that will start happening overnight. It might take you a long time, and will depend on the quality of what you put out, as well as the volume – PLUS how you do it.
So that’s one of the indicators you can use:
You’ll see people subscribing to get your newsletter, submitting your website contact form to make enquiries.
Those can be computed into an index called the Website Conversion Ratio (WCR).
[Tip: Click here to read an article in which I explain more about this concept]
Now, there are 2 levels of conversion that can happen:
A. There is a conversion in which they make contact with you for enquiry purposes.
B. Then there is a conversion in which they make purchases and become customers/clients.
2. Monitor Your savings in Time, Effort and Money Expended on Marketing Your Brand
The benefit here is that your Cost of Customer Acquisition/Cost of Sales DROPS, while you boost the reach and impact of your business promotion efforts.
The WMS will be helping you focus on doing what matters most using the 80:20 Pareto rule, reviewed against results you record over time.
So you’re going to save time, effort and d money in terms of how you do your marketing. There will be some things you used to do that you will eventually realize you no longer need to do or that you can do MORE effectively and efficiently in terms of cost, time and effort you have to expend.
This means you will be able to use what you have to get more done, and by so doing reap improved profits.
For instance, regarding fielding questions from prospects that phone to speak with you.
Your WMS will serve potential buyers with virtually all such routine, generic information they need to arrive at up to 70 – 80% certainty that you can help them with the solution they offer.
In that mental state, they will no longer simply be curious, and will in most cases contact you eager to get final clarification towards making a buying decision.
A good example of content in a WMS that makes the above happen more easily is the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). It is however the basic element. There are more sophisticated others
With such features in place in your WMS you would be able to do your marketing with confidence and peace or mind. No longer would you worry about whether or not you left anything out that could have helped convince the prospect to buy.
Indeed you would often rest assured in the knowledge that most of those who walk away were not serious buyers in the first place.
You’ll therefore feel okay letting such people walk away.
Having said all that, the WMS by making them contact you, would still afford you an opportunity to continue sending them marketing messages via the periodic broadcasts you would be doing to your mailing lists subscribers database (to which they would belong).
Important Note: Correct use of a WMS completely eliminates the need to chase anyone – least of all a prospect.
Never forget that. You NEVER chase them: they come to you. You can follow up, but after that, you let them be, and leave the WMS to do its magic. It’s as simple as that.
3. Monitor Your Search Engine Visibility
This has to do with how you “look” online – especially when people encounter you through natural searches they conduct.
The more you show up in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), especially when you dominate the first page entries for keywords relevant to solutions you offer, the better your WMS is doing for you.
One good way to begin is by checking what “Googling” your name (and keywords relating to what you do) produces in terms of search results on a regular basis, starting from day 1 of using your new WMS.
The evolution that happens over time can be most interesting and pleasing to observe. I’ve done this for myself and many clients over the past decade.
Hint: Let me end here by stating that I NEVER aim to achieve 100% in my use of the WMS at any state.
It makes no practical sense to do that in any area of endeavor.
People who get things done and who achieve authentic, lasting success are rarely those who aim to get perfect results. Perfectionists tend to NEVER finish anything worthwhile.
Instead I operate based on the Pareto principle – aiming to achieve at least an 80% success rate.
You see if out of every 10 things you want to do, you succeed with 8, you’ve passed. Whether it’s an exam, or test – whatever.
The Pareto principle says 80% of the desirable results you get will be due to 20% of the stuff you do. Therefore if you can identify what those 20% that you do are, you will be well on your way to scoring 80% or more on a regular basis for the long term.
In other words, you’d be sure of recording predictable success for the long term in that chosen area of Endeavour.
That’s basically the thinking behind the conception of the WMS I develop for clients. I used myself as the Guinea Pig to make it work, and today, I help others setup theirs.
So you don’t want to approach the use of your WMS with a perfectionist mindset. That would lead you to failure!
So, you need to look at your visibility online and ask yourself a question:
What are the things I can do to get myself noticed favorably in ways that can boost my credibility and ultimately lead to sales?
Those would be the 20% stuff you need to do.
Guess what?
The tasks outlined for you to use in implementing your WMS make up that 20% and they WILL help you record the 80% results you want.
TIP: Make Google Your Standard In Evaluating Online Visibility Delivered by Your WMS
I must note here that is in your best interests to make Google the main platform on which you do your tests and measurements.
This is still related to the Pareto principle.
You see, available statistics indicate that over 80% of people online use Google as their first choice for online searching.
The implication of the above is that your best bet for knowing how well your WMS is helping your visibility is to do searches with your name, for instance, online.
Once you’re okay on Google, chances are good you will have little to worry about in relation to other engines which are much less impactful compared to Google.
If you’ve not used a WMS before, it is possible you may find yourself competing with others for space capital on page 1 of Google SERPs for your name and keywords relevant to your marketing needs.
You’re going to be checking how things are going to evolve. So you’ll take a snapshot of it, and monitor from then on.
Every time you type your name or keyword in Google, what do you see?
One week from now, two weeks from now. A month from now or a year from now?
If you use a WMS the way I recommend it, at the frequency I recommend it and with the quality of material I recommend you put in it, you’ll be unstoppable!
Why?
Because there are very few people who will be able to continue at that rate, consistently, for the period of time the WMS will require you do it:
And your period of time is indefinitely i.e. you are going to continue FOREVER!
Therefore your WMS is going to make sure you dominate for your name and the keywords relevant to the offer you are making to your target audience.
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