Everyday you receive hundreds of visitors from all over the world. You can’t shut down your website while you go to sleep and then reopen it like you would with a retail business. Who are these people and why are they coming to your website? If you don’t have answers to these questions, you are missing out on the opportunity to make more money. In other words, you are flushing money down the toilet and you don’t even know about it.

Few days ago, I’ve discussed why it is important to know your customer to be successful. In this article, I am going to discuss how you can get to know your customer/audience.

With features such as the comment system, feedback forms and or user registration on your website, you may already know about some of your visitors. This is a very small number compared to the number of visitors you don’t get to interact with. These are the folks that you are really missing out on. They are your true potentials that will allow you to make lots of money. They hold the key and you need to do everything you can to get to know them. In order to be an effective marketer, you need to be proactive and get to know your audience.

By getting to know your audience, you can improve your content, you can shift your sales pages, you can introduce new products and affiliate programs, you can improve your ratio of conversation, you can improve your marketing strategy and eventually you can make more money.

In order to understand your audience, you can take the approach to collect all possible data about them and then analyze the data to improve your game. Therefore, I will take you through data collection in three steps: one to collect useful data with existing tools, collect data using statistical analysis and finally go one step beyond to get data directly from the visitors. This article will only focus on collecting data. In the near future, I will elaborate on how you can use this information to more than double the amount of money you make today.

Collect Data with Existing Tools

Like I said above, you already have a few means to collect data on users that visit your site. Most of these data is collected in the backend system you may be using. For example, if you run a blog on wordpress, your wordpress system will collect information on those who leave comments, feedbacks and user registration. This data is very important because this tells you the kind of people that you have successfully converted to participate on your site.

Comments

You have to be engaged with your users to successfully build a profitable website. You need to follow the comments that are left behind by visitors. You should respond to comments and sometimes you should take their comment and generate content from it. You should then give the credit to the user for providing you with an idea to generate that content. This will allow you to learn more about existing users but it will also encourage new users to participate.

User Registration

If your site allows user registration, it will allow you to collect as much data as you want about that user. Many websites tend to keep the user registration forms short so they can encourage users to register. However, once they register, most websites allow users to update their profile, etc. This is where you can get more detail about users. This information will help you to target your marketing efforts.

Feedback

Many sites have feedback forms on their website. I am not sure how many of them take advantage of the feedback they receive from users. If you don’t have a feedback form or a contact us form, make sure you create one. Not a lot of people will send feedback but those who choose to send feedback, you will definitely get lots of useful information that you can take advantage of.

Statistical Analysis

If you are not using a traffic analytical tool such at the Google Analytics, you should get one right away. Most of these tools are free to begin with; hence you should take advantage of it. This sort of tool provides you with a lot more information about visitor patterns. They provide you with information far beyond what you may need to improve your marketing strategy. I am going to focus on a few key features of these tools so you get a sense of what to look for.

Source: Robert Robles

Traffic Source

Knowing where your visitors are coming from is important so you can focus more and more on improving the strategy to drive even more people from the same source. This is where you find out if your marketing strategy is successful in driving visitors to your site. If you spend time promoting your website on Twitter, you will see the amount of traffic coming from Twitter with these analytical tools. This information tells you the interests of your audience.

Keyword/Search Term

This is the best tool to find out the interests of your visitors. If people are coming from search engines, you should be able to track down the keywords they searched for before they reached your site. This piece of information is “key” because you can continue to focus on improving your content so you can drive more people to your website. This tells you which keywords are working for you and which aren’t. Knowing this information, allows you to focus on improving the ones that are not working for you.

Time on site/Bounce Rate/Loyalty

Finally this information tells you how much they love your site! So all of the above tools provide you with information as to who they are and where they come from. This information tells you if your website is sticky or not. If you find that the numbers low for these three key elements, you need to make adjustments to your website and the way you present your content. Lots of people may be visiting your site, but if they don’t stick around to read what you have to say, then you are wasting your time.

Content/Page Views

In order for you to distinguish between what is working and what is not working on your site, you need to dig into users interest a little bit further. This tool will tell you where the users are spending more time within your website. This tool will provide you with information that you can take advantage of to improve the content on your site. If you see users spending more time on one particular page within your site, you may want to consider changing the design and look of other pages OR work on improving contents on other pages. In other words, you can at least find out what sort of information on your site is drawing the most attention.

The above are just a few key features of analytical tools. You can use other features if you wish but the above features should be sufficient to let you know what is working on your site and what is not working. It will also tell you why people are coming to your site.

Get Data Directly From Your Audience using Polls, Surveys and Other Features

As your business grows, you may have the need to get to know your visitors even more. In order to get more details, you can implement the following tools.

Source: 6Smarketing

Polls

Polls are quick and are painless for people to complete. It usually takes a few minutes for someone to complete a polling question. Therefore this approach is easy to implement and probably will have more participants. You can choose how often you want to run a poll on your site to better understand your audience. You can plan out a polling strategy that spans our over a number of months. Then hit the users with a series of questions every week (or however you prefer) that will better inform you of who they are and what they are looking for once you’ve completed the full questionnaire.

Surveys

Surveys are sometimes difficult to pull through. In my experience, it is very difficult to get people to participate on a survey because it takes more time for them to complete a survey than a poll. However, a survey can be targeted and it will provide you with the best information once completed. You should plan out your survey so it will convince the user to complete it. You should try to keep it short in order to increase participation. You should also think about giving away a free product in return for them to complete a survey. This will motivate the visitors to participate.

On Site Features

With Web 2.0, it is very simple for you to create features that are embedded within your site that will allow user interaction. By following the user interaction, coupled with statistical analysis of content served, you can collect a lot of information about users. You can build features that will fulfill your need to improve the game. For example, if you want to know what sort of products and services will better serve your audience, you may want to build an interactive tool that asks for people to click on products they like. By collecting that data, you will know which product ranks to the top. Once you have that information, you can either create a product that you can sell on your site or signup for an affiliate program and offer that product on your site.

The intension of this article is to provide you with a quick glimpse of available tools to get to know your audience. The features and tools explained in this article are just to get you started. You can be creative and come up with many other features that will help you improve your marketing strategy and eventually allow you to make lots of money with your website.

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I think it is time for you to wake up and smell the roses. Really, is it just me or are you all feeling the same today? It is 2009, almost 10 years from the peak of the dot com bubble, a lot has changed but have you? In this article, I am going to try and touch on a few points as to why you will fail today if you follow the “status quo.”

I don’t mean to make you panic but I want you to understand the urgency to think outside the box.

Since the economy has tanked over the past year, thousands of people are left without a job, consumers are reluctant to spend money and overall a lot of uncertainty on the market. I am sure I don’t have to elaborate on this point but have you ever asked yourself what this means for you and your startups? Well if you haven’t, then you should once you finish reading this posting. “Diligence” must be taken in the wake of the current economic crisis.

There is a lot of uncertainty associated with the recession but one thing we know for sure about recessions is that all countries, including all of ours, will bounce back in time. They have all bounced back out of a recession in the past and this time too, we will bounce back. So while we are down in the trenches at the moment, are you working on your building blocks so you can excel when the economy bounces back?

In order to succeed in today’s market; you need to think outside the box. Move away from status quo. Status quo kind if mentality is not going to get you in front of your competitors; it will only keep you afloat. Afloat only if you are lucky! Thinking and doing the same as your competitors is not going to make you successful.

Source WikiPedia

Learn to think differently than others. Learn to stand out among others. Do something different so you can show your visitors that you have something unique that is not found anywhere else. Think about Richard Branson and his well known controversial marketing tactics. He created his first business when he was 16! Think about the amount of free exposure he generates just by thinking outside the box. I am not suggesting that you work on setting world records to make your startup fly but what I am getting at is that you need to think a little different than the million others who are trying to do the same thing as you are. Then only you can stand out among other entrepreneurs. Everyone has different traits, show your talent by coming up with something unique.

Here are few things you can work on that will help you with your startups.

Social Media Marketing:

Yesterday I’ve discussed about the “Importance of Understanding the Social Media Marketing.” I think it is worth mentioning that again today. The fundamental aspect of marketing is to fulfill certain objectives of yours by gaining the attention of an audience (the visitor). Such objectives could be as simple as to build your reputation, make a sale, redirect to an affiliate program, get a few clicks on your ads or to capture the lead (users, subscribers, etc).

Social Media Platforms offers a wide range of opportunities for you to take advantage of millions of people who wants to participate and collaborate with you. Some entrepreneurs focus on building profiles that are self serving with user generated content only to get traffic back to their websites. Some focus on building a community by participating and contributing to a network of people and eventually building his/her authority in that particular topic or niche. Then there are those that fully take advantage of the social media market and really push it to reap the full potential of social media marketing.

Just think about Twitter. It has millions of users from all around the world with thousands of different interests. It is like you don’t even have to be specific to one niche or to a target audience when you launch something viral on the social media. It is time to leverage the size and the reach of large user base of these Social Media Platforms.

Many large companies such as Dell are taking advantage of sites like Twitter. They are posting “exclusive sales only for Twitter users.”  I am sure you would have heard of the Dell earning $1 million in revenue by posting offers on Twitter. These are different tactics used by leading companies to take advantage of Social Media Marketing. Dell probably don’t care who is looking at their tweets. In other words, with such a large user base of Twitter, Dell doesn’t care who or when a user reads their tweet. Dell today has over one million followers on Twitter. Where else would you get this sort of attention when you hit the “send” button with your message or your sales pitch? People just waiting to read what you have to say! This is very powerful if you know how to master it.

Just think about it. Are you taking advantage of social media marketing? Are you leveraging the large user base of such platforms? If you aren’t, why are you not thinking about it?

In order for you to succeed with your social media marketing strategies, you need to understand why the people are there in the first place. You need to understand why some spend time on Twitter while others spend time on Facebook or other social media platforms such as Digg. Some spend time on all of them. People tend to cluster in places they feel comfortable with – the tools that provide them with the ability to interact with other users. Therefore, your marketing tactics should differ for each platform. Once you understand what makes each platform unique, you need to launch your campaigns accordingly to satisfy the need of those people.

Once you learn to gain the attention of these users, you will have no problem monetizing your efforts. Some of the key things for you to keep in mind about social media marketing is that when you work on your own profile, make sure you are being honest with people in your network and also try to build relationship with key influencers. These key influencers can make your story/product go viral in no time. They have a huge fan base and they can get the words out. Therefore, associating with key influencers is a must in social media marketing strategy.

Give Before You Ask:

I am sure you’ve heard these terms many times in your life. Are you really taking advantage of this strategy? How are you adding value to your audience? So you work so hard with your social media marketing strategies and drive traffic to your site but if you are not adding value to your audience, then what is the point of driving them to your site in the first place?

Many people have used this strategy and it still works. Yesterday I logged into my Google Adsense account and I saw some unusual activity. I’ve made 3 times more money than any other days. I was happy but in the mean time I wanted to know what was happening. So I went over to my site and watch what sort of ads are being displaced. With no surprise, I found an ad that was giving away a “FREE” product on internet marketing. My visitors found it interesting enough and click through to get their free product. The point of this story is that you should make an effort to add value to your audience before you ask something of them. People will almost all the time will go for it. They will click through or they will subscribe just to get the free product.

If you are a blogger, write good content so you can keep your visitors and gain their trust before you ask them to buy a product or something. If you have a website, give them a free e-book of all of your knowledge. People love the free stuff and they will sign up or even subscribe to get the products.

However, when you offer them a free product, you have to do it in a way that you don’t come across as a spammer. Therefore, you need to make them feel comfortable on your site then you offer them something they want. Do whatever you can to add value to your audience before you ask for something.

Build Strong Relationships within Your Niche:

Don’t take every competitor as an enemy and that you need to take over their business. Everyone during this recession is hurting, so why not think about working together to achieve your goals together? I am not suggesting that you should share your secrets or your products but I am suggesting that there are ways to take advantage of each others traffic, knowledge, etc.

Governments across the world are working together to tackle the economy. They know it is best to work together at this time than to compete. The same strategy should be used by entrepreneurs who are looking to build a foundation for future success. The internet is huge; there is traffic for everyone. Sharing and sending traffic back and forth between sites will allow the audience to feel fulfilled. They will feel that they have gained more by visiting your site or your competitor’s site. Refer to each others products and services. Once a visitor see you working together with your competitor, they also feel comfortable enough to trust you as well.

I talked earlier about the recession and how we need to work on our building blocks for future success. Well if you know your customers are not spending the big bucks today because they are out of a job or something, why not just work on gaining their trust over the next few month so when they have the money, they will spend it on your products? This is what I meant earlier about working on your building blocks and assembling them in a way that you are standing on a stronger foundation when this recession is over.

With this article, I didn’t mean to scare anyone about the recession or anything but just suggesting that everyone should open up their eyes, keep their heads up and start thinking outside the box.

If you find the article helpful, please use the icons below to share it with your friends through Digg, Delicious, Twitter, etc. I would really appreciate if you could leave a comment as well.

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In simple terms, a landing page is where you want to get the attention of the visitor and capture the lead. When it comes to internet marketing, this is one of the most important pages where you will be directing your traffic to capture the lead. In other words, this is the page that will convince the user to make a purchase or to register for a service. Some also use a landing page as a reference page to present relevant information to the user.

Here are few things you should keep in mind when designing a landing page.

Work on the headlines

This should be like the title on a news paper that you can’t resist but at least read the first paragraph to see what it says. Your title should be consistent with the page/advertisement that drove the visitor to this landing page. Consistency is very important.

Get the Important points across fast

In many cases, you will only have a few seconds to convince the reader. So make sure your pitch is right there on the top. You need to catch their attention and give them the goodies. Highlight the most important points and make the readers eye go to the most important information.

Stick to One Objective

Make sure your landing page does not contain multiple objectives with the visitors that come to the page. Like I said, it must be consistent and it must only ask the user to do one thing.

Loading Time

Make sure your page loads extremely fast and that the page is always up. Your landing page must load quickly and allow the user to focus on the important point. If you are paying to drive traffic to the landing page, and if your landing page takes long time to load, you are missing out on capturing good leads.

Test Your Page

In one of my previous posts, “Testing is Crucial to Maximize your Revenue”, I’ve emphasized on the importance of testing. You must test your page over and over again. Test many times until you feel that your rate of return exceeds the expense of driving the users to the landing page.

I am working on a redesign for this blog and I had these things in mind. Hence passing them on to you as well. Let me know if you feel that any other crucial points are missing.

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