Marketing on the web has a big part to do with delivering what your target audience wants. So if you are working with a small budget, you want to make sure that your marketing dollars go a long way. Luckily with the internet, there are many ways you can gather critical information about your market to make smart business decisions. Here are some inexpensive ways to get useful data that will help you spend your advertising dollars more wisely.
Analytics
Start by installing Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free web statistics solution that allows you to track your website visitors and their actions. You can learn a lot about your market just by installing Google Analytics and studying the data.
How people find your site? Search Engine, Referring Site, Email, Direct.
Where people are from? Country, State, City.
What people are doing on your site? See which products/services are being viewed the most, see which page people are leaving your site from, see how long people are on your site.
What actions people complete on your site? Fill out a contact form, download a file, view a specific page, sign up for a newsletter.
Surveys
If you have been collection an in-house marketing list, send them a survey to find out how you are doing. This is an inexpensive way to collect feedback from your current customers and make adjusts based on their comments. Here are some things to ask in your survey.
What can we improve on?
What new features would you like to see on the website?
What products or services would you like for us to offer?
Which products would you like to see on sale?
Tiger Direct did a really good job of listening to its customers for the 2008 holiday season. They let their customers choose which products they wanted on sale. They took a survey and made the top 10 products, their holiday specials.
Forms
Creating a contact form is a simply way for website visitors to contact you and submit their information. This can also be an easy way to have people opt-in to your newsletter. Keeping the number of forms to a minimum will be a good way to increase the number of conversions.
Directory and Listing Submission
There are a number of free directories you can submit your website to, to help gain inbound links to your website. Start by submitting your local business listing to Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Also look into niche directories that cater to the same target audience.
