I need to market my new firearms website – Where do I start?
The Golden Rule – Plan, Measure and Optimize
When you develop a new website for your firearms business, it’s similar to opening an office or building a store. You cannot simply hang a sign, open the doors and hope that people will find you. You have to take the initiative to market your business to your target audience and let them know that you’re open for business, what products and services you have to offer and what makes your business so special.
Marketing a website is a little different than marketing a brick and mortar business and you need to know how to promote and manage your online presence to generate the best results and maximize your chance of success.
But before you get too far ahead of yourself, consider the fact that most successful online businesses take a very structured approach to marketing online.
Here are a few things to consider
Plan
The first step in any web development project is planning. Whether you’re designing a new website, creating a downloadable brochure or developing a strategic online marketing plan for your firearms business, it all starts with a plan.
The planning phase of any project includes determining who your target audience is, the best way to interact with them and what content, products or services will appeal to them and drive them to take action.
Measure
Once your plan has taken shape, the next step is to put all of the necessary technology in place so that you can “measure” the success of your plan. This includes analytics code, lead generation forms, tracking phone numbers and more.
After all, you can’t measure what you don’t track and you will never really know if your plan is successful unless you have a mechanism in place to measure the results.
Optimize
OK, your plan has been in place for a period of time and you are diligently measuring the success of your marketing efforts – So what’s next? Well, if everything is going perfectly and you are flooded with leads and sales, you could choose to do nothing. However, most business owners that we work with will come to realization that not all products, services or we page content performs the same.
This is where “optimization” comes in. Do not confuse this with search engine optimization; for this topic we are talking about web page performance optimization. This strategy involves reviewing the content of the page and analyzing the performance of the individual web page to determine what can be done to “optimize” the performance.
Conclusion
All too often, firearms business owners concentrate a majority of their efforts on building a great looking website and then sitting back and waiting for the customers to find them. They don’t understand that Web Design is one small piece in the complex puzzle of “Online Marketing” and if you’re not committed to implementing a comprehensive plan of attack then your chance of success is greatly diminished.
By first creating an impressive online image and then generating traffic and leads through proven marketing strategies, we not only help you increase revenues, but we also build substantial long term brand loyalty.