I wanted to take a short time to analyse our web strategy this year, share it with you and hopefully pass on some ideas for you in 2007.
We have worked hard during 2006 to add real value to our website. 1st May saw us with a new face to the website and a structure change in August and throughout the year we have concentrated on adding content, changing content and getting rid of pages that don’t get viewed - basically, practising what we preach.
Now, bearing in mind we are a Design and Web Agency in Basingstoke, could we really have expected that much traffic and a real return? We aren’t selling comoditized products and we are business-to-business so our market is limited and the sale is more complex than off-the-shelf.
Traffic Increase
As you can see, our traffic over the year has risen and our search traffic has also increased. What is pleasing however, is that we aren’t relying on search for traffic.
How Have We Managed It?
Well, we worked out what we had (we were honest about our strengths and weaknesses) and what we sold and used that as a starting point.
- What Services Do We Offer?
- How Can They Be Categorised?
- How Do They Compliment Each Other?
- How Can We Sell Them Online?
Another big part of our web strategy was to position ourselves - we began to understand our customers simply by thinking about the ones we already had; the ones we made profit from and the ones we work well with.
Give ‘Em What They Want
So, with all this new data we started to tailor the information on our site to tick the boxes that prospective customers may have:
- Do you do what I want?
- Do you know what you are talking about?
- Have you done it for any other companies?
- Is it being sold to me in a way that is attractive and that I understand
Spread Yourself Out There
So we created quality content, not just sales messages.
As well as reference White Papers on Design, Web and Online Marketing, we also created a Tool that analyses web pages. This tool alone has attracted over 7% of all traffic throughout the year-to-date (20.9% in Q3).
We have also not been shy in putting out the messages ourselves using social media tools:
And… people started to like us! The design of the website, our tools, etc. They were kind enough to link to us because it was ’stuff’ offering value.
Traffic Can Lead to Good Traffic
But, at the end of the day, we are a business looking to sell things, so the proof of the pudding, and the only stats that really count, are how many sales did we generate and how much value did the site hold for existing clients?
The level of new clients this year has increased. Our top ten client spenders in the last six months include four clients who weren’t clients this time last year.
Our retention is also good. We are finding ‘best fit’ customers which benefits them and also us - they buy us, just as much as what we sell; and we work well together.
Conclusion
As much as it is good for us to look back retrospectively at what happened and how we did it, I sincerely hope you can benefit in 2007 by thinking as your online offering in terms of strategy, rather than purely basing everything on a ‘company website’
It’s not easy, it takes time and money, and the results aren’t necessarily instantaneous. What it does allow for, however, is a strategy that is sustainable and, in our experience, one that builds into something stronger and stronger over time.
Why not start building the foundations now?
