Gone are the days of a direct sell to prospects, we're now in a time where relationships with your prospects and customers will drive your sales. With the current climate prospects will want to get to know you or your company in as much depth as possible up until the point where you're either sat face to face or communicating via the telephone and email.

So to assist you with relationship building online there are a number of steps that can be followed to get the ball rolling;

1. Plan and create your company's marketing strategy - Without a plan you cannot execute your strategy. As part of your plan you will need to consider the online elements of this plan, as your website will act as an integral part of your business and not a separate entity to be a success, if everything is headed in the same direction you will have focus.
2. Research - Like all good ideas they need to be researched and its true for online profit increasing from your website.
   1. Competitors - Look at what they're doing already, design, content and profile.
   2. Google Adwords Keyword Tool - Research the phrases your prospects are looking for and decide if what you had in mind matches the results.
3. Your Website
   1. Design - Incorporating Call to Action elements. Does the design provoke a planned response? I.e. a sale online, a telephone call.
   2. Content - Is you copy well written and engaging?
   3. SEO - Search Engine Optimisation, ensure your website is optimised to maximise your online exposure.
      
4. Email News Letter - Get a name and an email address, the first step to communicating directly to a willing prospect.
5. Google Account - Setup a free Google account. As part of their software suit they have some really powerful tools that will help to drive your website online.
   1. Google Analytics - Simply add this to your Google Account dashboard and you will open up the doors to understanding your website visitors and how well your website actually performs across all of your web pages.
   2. Google Adwords - Online Advertising PPC (Pay Per Click) - Setup cost effective campaigns to drive your business and keep it within your marketing budget.
6. Video - Create video specifically introducing you or your company and how your services benefit your clients. Not only will prospects get to see and hear what you're like, this provides the perfect platform to engage people who want to know more about what you do.
   1. A series of planned and connected videos will help to build up a good story for your audience to follow. We all like to watch good video, just look at how popular You Tube is!
7. Social Media / Online Communities - Setup an account with a few social networking websites to drive your profile around the internet, not only will you get exposure to possible contacts and customers, its also a great way to assist with search engine optimisation.
   1. LinkedIn - Professional Online Networking
   2. Twitter - Micro Blogging platform
8. Online PR - Make sure your press releases are far and reaching. Submit article to huge traffic generating websites. This will boost your SEO efforts and start to reflect the professionalism your company has.
   1. Ezinearticles
   2. Scribd

If you create your plan and include the above this will point your online marketing efforts in the right direction. A lot of the above points are relatively small investments that reap big rewards if carried out correctly. Some company's will have the time and resource whilst other will need to employ a company, such as ours (LAS Design) to assist with the creation and delivery of your online marketing plan.

The above is not exhaustive and points out some key areas your website can start to become focused for truly successful results, whether that be increasing the leads you receive or the number of sales you make online.

To find out more call Leon Now on 0845 260 9779.
www.lasdesign.net