Specific guidelines for retail and media websites
When your publication is online it should be on a network of websites, not a single website.
Yesterday we discussed that one of your websites should be designated as an Internet Hub—a website devoted to accepting and generating website traffic.
But what about the other websites in your network? The ones that should be monetizing customers and fulfilling other strategic goals?
An Internet Hub can monetize visitors through advertisements, but tasks like selling products, selling classifieds and generating leads should be delegated to other websites.
One of these websites we call the Retail Website.
One of the obvious business goals of the Retail Website is to sell products. But there is another frequently ignored business goal—to build relationships with users—that is vital to a retail website’s continued success.
[text_ad]
Two strategies are used to balance these goals. Both require a product to sell and free information to give away. The free information is best disseminated in a free email newsletter, which is a powerful marketing tool.
- Bonus Strategy: The buyers are offered free information via an email newsletter as a bonus to their orders.
- Up Sell Strategy: The free information is offered before the paid product offer. After users agree to receive the free product, they are immediately presented with an offer for a paid product.
After users agree to receive it, the free email newsletter builds relationships with your customers and persuades them to buy more products.
Contact your email newsletter subscribers on a regular basis and give them free content while reminding them of your products.
This relationship building strategy is key to maximizing the revenue potential of every visitor to your website.
Tying your Retail Website to your Internet Hub, and creating websites to fulfill other strategic needs, are also vital to successful online publishing.
The way these websites interrelate should provide fluid and consistent navigation from site to site.
Users should not have any trouble moving to any one of your websites from anywhere on your network.
To learn how your websites should interrelate—and also how to successfully market, publish and organize yourself online—attend our next Mequoda Summit.
It will be two days jam packed with vital online publishing knowledge that will teach you everything you’ll need to be profitable online.
