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Your website is only as strong as the strategy behind it.  Whether you plan on using it for sales, marketing, branding, for fun or to sell something; it is mission critical in having a strategy that takes into account some of the following areas:

• How do we align our website with our organizations objectives
• How do we spend our resources
• Who are we building this strategy for
• What is the measurement for ROI
• Where do we start / prioritize
• Where do we want to go

                      Thanks from Web Strategy by JeremiahWith so much out there today, making sure you are using the right tools for your campaigns are important.  Even more so, staying consistent among them all is just as important as remembering your login information for facebook or linkedin.  Check out the article and let us know how you think your strategy is coming along and whether or not Rose could have been as successful without a strategy.

Don’t take business online without road map — My Biggest MistakeMonday, June 02, 2008 By Rose Corrick, as told to Plain Dealer reporter Marcia Pledger When you’re a small-business owner, it’s difficult to stay in front of all the challenges in marketing a business. At Art of Cloth, we sell clothing primarily through wholesalers. It’s labor intensive creating hand-dyed ponchos, jackets, shirts and T-shirts. We make patterns with dyes, using all sorts of items in the process, including potato chip clips, poles and circles cut into plastic scraps. In my case, Art of Cloth is really two businesses because we’re making material and clothes. Both need to be profitable while fitting price points. Our designs are artistic. I was eager to sell them all over the country. My biggest mistake was investing in an e-commerce Web site before I had a clearly defined strategy for selling online. It didn’t take long for our wholesale customers to have a real problem with the company selling items online. After four years in business, 95 percent of my sales come from wholesalers. About 200 boutiques nationwide sell my line. I think I would have grown faster if I had a clear, effective strategy that drove wholesalers to my Web site as well as individuals wanting to know where to buy the products. Unfortunately, that wasn’t my initial strategy. I’ve had three Web sites since I started the business. The first one was designed to establish a presence. It was beautiful and informational. The second one was an e-commerce site that was set up for the public. Both of them were costly. I sought advice before I set up the e-commerce site, but I was encouraged to expand my market by selling clothing online. I didn’t spend enough time thinking about the role the Web site would play with my business plan, which included eventually focusing on the wholesale market. In two years, I sold only a few items online. Meanwhile, I concentrated on building the wholesale business. I never worked at driving people to my Web site. It wasn’t a priority. I was too busy designing new lines, experimenting with colors and fabrics. I was also trying to figure out my market. At first I was making custom, high-end silk clothing for a very limited market. Lifestyle trends indicated that I needed to change directions with more casual and affordable clothing. I introduced a hand-dyed T-shirt line about 18 months ago and built on that with casual knit jersey separates. Sales increased dramatically, but not online. A few months ago, I ended my contract with the e-commerce company and redesigned the site. Now, the focus is on driving the public and wholesalers to a Web site with more specific information about clothing lines, my contact information and the closest retailer to the customer. This time I hired a contract employee with experience in managing Web sites. It takes time to figure things out. I spent 25 years working in another field, as a commercial interior designer. But my degree is in textile design. I’ve always loved fabrics. My target market is women, 35 to 65, interested in expressing themselves in a creative, unique way. Since the business started, production has increased tremendously. I have several contract employees who make about 600 garments a month. I feel good about the direction of my business. We recently launched a second Web site, myartofcloth.com, to sell sale items, samples and old inventory. The site does not compete with wholesalers. Don’t spend your money on online marketing until you have clear objectives for your business. Seek help. Get advice and weigh your options. But remember, in the end, you have to be true to yourself. It’s your business and only you can figure out the direction. For More Biggest Mistake pieces, go to: cleveland.com/biggestmistake

 Until then, check back on May 1st to see the launching of our website.  I have been working night and day to make sure all this happens and we are almost there!

 See you then,

David

President, WorkSmart eMarketing LLC

Web 2.0, Search Engine Marketing, RSS Syndication, Viral Marketing…  Only the beginning to a long list of new-age tactics and strategies to help you stay afloat with your competition on the internet.  Don’t sweat it, WorkSmart eMarketing is here to educate you, design, brainstorm and implement the right internet marketing tactics for your organization.  Call or email us today so we can tell you more about how we invest in your company.

1) cost-efficient

2.) time-effective

3.) ease of use

4) ease of turning visitors into customers

5) and a HIGH Return on Investment.

eMarketing is simply Working Smart – to market your business, your idea, yourself, and/or your cause.

eMarketing campaigns should be focused on one thing – your website. This may be a corporate or business website, a personal free website or even a blog that facilitates your web presence. Hence, much of your focus should be on your website . Be sure to create a solid foundation when developing your website to include;  content, navigation scheme, overall layout, flow of traffic and keyword phrases.  These decisions should be based around the goals of your campaign. A few examples: If you want to increase traffic from search engines, build your plan with a focus on Search Engine Marketing. If your goal is to attract customers and improve retention; create a strategy around email campaigns, blogging and begin getting connected to social networks.

Regardless of your goal, there are a few VERY important items to always be conscious of:

1.    Persistence: Before any real eMarketing push, you must be ready to execute, follow through and be persistent about your investment. In many campaigns, it takes time before the real Return on Investmen (ROI) is recognized (“cashed in”). Sticking to your blog schedule, your newsletters, updating social media websites, new content on your website and so forth, are all reflective on how successful your campaign will be. Many small businesses find this difficult and begin to no longer hold themselves accountable for keeping up to date due to the multiple roles one must play. Find an accountibilibuddy to stay on top. This is critical to your short and long term success.
2.    Ask for/Accept and Search out Assistance: the internet has available, and the Web 2.0 push has provided for, tremendous amounts of resources, learning materials and communities to chat about helping you get started on your campaign. Technorati.com is a search engine for blogs. Read a few and comment on some in your niche to get a better feel of how to write for your blog. Slideshare.net has a variety of slide show presentations, many of which are educational – search for your topic of interest. Sit back, click and learn. Most importantly, many people utilizing eMarketing consider themselves to be entrepreneurs; which is fine, but that does not mean we entrepreneurs must know “everything”.  Seek and accept advice.
3.    Education: Every week brings new techniques, theories and case studies that show the best practices of professionals in different areas. Many of these people have blogs or lists of websites to help educate individuals on specific campaigns (social media, podcasting, video, SEM, etc…) Every day I allocate 1.5-2 hours on reading and researching new articles or tools on the internet. Build it into YOUR calendar and stick by it! Educating yourself is critical to your short and long term success.
4.    Center of traffic: All campaigns are typically built around one center. In most cases, this would be your website. For those working on a tight budget,  set up a blog, use your linkedin.com profile (professional networking site) or set up a free website through Microsoft.com until you get the appropriate funds for a more customized presence. The great thing about eMarketing is its ease of use to measure results. So making sure you have a website or place on the internet to track your results for your campaigns is important. Make sure that you are leveraging the first 5 seconds of someone’s visit to the best of your ability in line with your goals of the campaign. Tracking, understanding and being willing to make necessary changes to your website, blog, profile, etc., in order to get the desired results; will encourage the growth of both you and your business.
5.    Keyword Phrases: These are the phrases that people on google, yahoo, etc… are searching. For example if I want to find a golf course in Oxford, Ohio; I would go to google.com and type in “Oxford, Ohio golf courses” this is the keyword phrases and the basis to many Search Engine Optimization campaigns. However, picking out two phrases that you think people are going to search for (typically 3 words or more) helps focus your content, improve your rankings, and keep all your material connected with the same tags. This allows you to be “found” even in situations where people didn’t realize they were looking for YOU!

Follow these guidelines and be on your way to Working Smart with your eMarketing campaign in 2008!

Don’t work hard, WorkSmart!