You’ve heard of businesses achieving amazing results through effective web marketing, but getting those results aren’t easy if you’re not an expert. There’s a lot to learn; however, you can eliminate the confusion and understand the building blocks to a successful website with the right website strategy template.
Quick Links:
What is a Website Strategy?
A website strategy is essentially the business plan of your online presence. It provides you a path to help you achieve your online goals and understand the possible challenges you will face along the way. Through your website strategy template, you’ll also learn where to allocate your resources.
How to Define the Outcomes of Your Web Strategy?
During this process, it’s important to ask yourself what you’re trying to achieve through your web marketing strategy? Every business has different needs, so it’s crucial to understand what your business’s needs are. By answering this question, you’ll understand what direction to take your business and define the goals you wish to achieve.
For example, if your goal is to increase conversions, you need to lay out the necessary steps to get there. With a website strategy template, it goes through each step of the process, taking your prospective customers on a journey that will increase trust and ultimately conversions.
Strategies for Your Website
Your website is the main focus of your business; that said, there are various elements to pay attention to when creating an effective web marketing strategy.
1. Landing Pages
A landing page is an individual page your visitors “land” on that solely focuses on a specific goal, whether it be creating conversions, joining the subscription list, etc. The landing page doesn’t have any distracting elements such as menus or sidebars, as the purpose is to persuade the visitor to carry through with your goal.
2. Mobile First
We’re living in a world of mobile devices, which means your website needs to be mobile-friendly. By 2024, it’s projected that 44% of e-commerce will be done through mobile devices. In addition, Google favors mobile-friendly sites, so make sure your website is responsive on all devices.
3. Google, SEO, Backlinks
When it comes to search engines, the most commonly used site is Google. In fact, research shows that 64% of all web traffic comes from organic search, and you want a piece of that. To rank on Google, you need to focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and backlinks.
4. Social Media
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube are great (and free) resources to use to help your business promote and share its content. In addition, it’s fantastic for cultivating brand awareness and customer engagement.
5. Content Marketing
Content marketing isn’t about selling your products or services; rather, it’s about educating your viewers on overcoming their problems and reaching a solution—with your product being highlighted as the best solution. Content can be created via blogs, videos, webinars, podcasts, etc.
Website Strategy Benchmarking
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the idea of creating a website strategy, but you need to have a base to work off of. It’s important you record your current performance metrics. By knowing your present situation, you’ll be able to make the right changes to your website. Focus on knowing the following metrics:
- Average monthly bounce rate
- Average number of visitors and unique visitors
- Average time on the site
- Top-performing keywords by traffic, lead generation, and rank
- Average monthly new leads
- Total of inbound links by domain
- Total page indexed
- Total sales generated
- Total pages that receive traffic
Once you have this information, you can create a website strategy template that fits your business’s goals. Now, this may be overwhelming; however, a marketing network can help you understand your website’s performance and weak spots.
Website Strategy Goals
So, you’ve looked at your performance metrics, but now what? It’s time to ask yourself if your website is serving your business goals. The goals you have for your business guide your decision-making.
That said, your website strategy template should focus on how you’re using your website to achieve your business goals. Your goals should be composed of both short-term and long-term goals. Ask yourself these questions:
Short-term (12 months) Business Goals
- What do I want to achieve by next year?
- What steps do I need to take?
- How will my website help achieve these goals?
- What are the challenges my business faces?
- How will I track the progress?
- Do I need additional help to reach these goals? (For example, a marketing network)
- What is the deadline for these goals?
Long-term Business Goals
- How have my short-term goals helped with my vision of the business?
- What is the most important issue the business needs to focus on?
Website Strategy Audience Buyers Persona
If you want your business to be successful, you need to know who your audience is. Who are you trying to reach? By understanding your audience, you can design your website as a tool to help you connect with your target audience.
The way to connect with your target audience is by understanding their needs. Your product or service offers them a solution to their problems, but what are their problems? When forming your target audience, really think about who your customers are. This will help you craft your website design around your buyers persona.
For example, you’re a wedding attire company, who will be visiting your website? Mostly like, women who are trying to find wedding attire for their upcoming event. By identifying your buyer persona, you can design a marketing strategy that speaks to them and their needs.
Website Strategy Branding & Messaging
Before even touching your website strategy template, you need to understand your brand, value proposition, and message clearly. The second someone lands on your website, they need to know what you offer, how it benefits them, and why they should choose you and not your competitors.
If you’re unsure of your brand and value proposition, a marketing network can help you define your business and your position in the market. If you need to change your branding to improve your engagement with your target audience, do so.
As much as your brand is important to you, it’s even more important to prospective customers.
Branding is a project on its own and needs to come before website strategy. So, invest the time in defining your brand and the visual aspects, including logo, color palette, and style. By doing so, all these components will remain consistent within your brand.
Website Strategy Competition
You don’t necessarily want to think about your competition, but you’re going to have to. You can learn a lot from them and help position your brand.
Start by answering these questions:
- Who are your indirect and direct competitors?
- What would a prospective customer choose your business over your competitors?
- What makes your business different from your competitors?
To answer these questions, you’re going to have to do some snooping and see who your direct competitors are. Look at their social media profiles and websites, and while observing, ask yourself these questions:
- What feelings do you get from their brand?
- What is their “Call to Action”?
- What keywords do they use?
- Are there any similarities between your competitors? If yes, what are they?
- How will you be different from them?
The purpose isn’t to copy them. Your goal should be to see what feelings and experiences they’re offering their customers.
Website Strategy Implementation & Tools
Now that you’ve done your research and have an idea of what you need in your website strategy template, it’s time to start applying these ideas. To get started, create a list of tasks you need to do to reach your goal.
The list should directly correlate to your goal and the deadline in which you want met. Here’s an example of an implementation list for a product launch.
Sample implementation List
Goal: By September 15th, I will have 10,000 followers on Instagram and high engagement to launch my product.
Path: To achieve this goal, I need to create high engagements through posts, live streams and create giveaways relevant to my product to drive traffic to my website.
Tasks:
- Brainstorm giveaway
- Draft content
- Design content layout
- Create automated marketing to nurture existing clients
- Include links to content on my website
- Share links on social media routinely
- Connect with influencers during live streams and giveaways
- Run social media ad to increase subscribers
- Create email campaign sequence
- Create landing page
- Create cart for my product
- Create promotional videos
- Plan product awareness launch
- Create a countdown
Why and How Often Should You Redesign Your Website?
In today’s world, things change quickly, including website trends. It’s essential to have a competitive edge and redesign your website every 2.5 to 3 years. That way, your website stays up-to-date and meets the requirements to be found on search engines.
If you’re unsure about your website, a marketing network can review your website and see whether or not you need to redesign it. But some factors can help you determine whether you need to redesign your website:
- How often your goals change: does your website represent your brand?
- Your company’s budget: do you have the budget to invest in a redesign?
- The functionality and speed of your website: does your site take too long to load? Is it functional?
- Performance of your website: Is your site converting traffic? Is there a high bounce rate?
- Are there changes in the industry?: has Google changed its website requirements?
Wrap Up
A website strategy template can help guide you through your website’s redesign and make sure you’re getting the most out of your website. That said, there are components to consider, so if you need guidance, a marketing network will be able to alleviate this project off your shoulders.
