When you create a website include features that give you the ability to market effectively 24/7 on autopilot. Turn your website into a lead generating machine.

The odds of a new visitor returning to your website a second time are less than 1 in 10. Most studies indicate that a buyer has to be exposed to an offer at least six times before they make a purchase. So how do you create a website that can effectively deal with these two marketing realities?

One way is to insure you include marketing automation when planning your websites. Typically marketing automation is achieved through the use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software platforms that not only track your customers so that you can effectively offer upsells, but manage and track all of your advertising campaigns as well. Knowing what works and what doesn’t is essential in optimizing your promotional budget and increasing revenue.

CRM programs can be pretty pricy and can easily run $1000 to $10,000 per month. If your business is just getting started this is not a smart option for you. However that does not mean that you shouldn’t try to automate as much of the marketing as your budget will allow.

Realistic market automation for the small business website

Do what does the small business website do to get this process started?

One answer is to entice your visitors with something of real value that will compel them enter their email address giving you permission to contact them in the future. That’s right it’s the old newsletter, white paper, secret report, five great tips routine that nearly every business website seems to be offering today.

Figuring out the best way to present that offer is a whole different subject so let’s just focus on what you do after you’ve received the address.

You could manually send an email confirmation notice and then offer the link to the download but your website runs 24/7 and you don’t. Also who wants to spend their entire day monitoring their email? When you create a website keep automation in mind.

The perennial favorite

Automating email campaigns through the use of an autoresponder is probably one of the oldest forms of market automation and it still remains as one of the most effective. Using this tool you can send confirmation emails, set up multiple email campaigns, send thank you emails after a purchase and offer up sells and all it takes is a one time set up.

If you’re working on a budget remember to assign a value to your own time. When you create a website anything that can help you be more effective and more productive allowing you to do more in less time is highly desirable and an autoresponder program fits that definition exactly.

The autoresponder is a great tool for converting new visitors into customers but what do you do when you hit that home run and suddenly you are swamped with orders? The good news is you’ve found a product or service that people want and you have a bucketful of new business. The challenge is to take those new customers and turn them into repeat buyers and do it without spending half your life trying to figure out who should get what new offer and when.

Free CRM programs

That brings us back to CRM programs and the good news is there are some open source programs that are available for free. Will these have all the bells and whistles as the sophisticated software solutions? No but they will provide enough data to allow you to develop a solid relationship with your customers and prime them for repeat business. To find these programs just Google “free open source CRM” and you’ll have a choice of a dozen or so.

There is so much more involved when creating a website than just some content and images. You are after all creating a business website and in order for it to succeed you have every tool you can afford working for you to drive customer relationships and sales.

Author Bio: Maria Free Website Builder I have been in the online marketing industry for over two years and love all things related to e-marketing, writing for the web, SEO and SEM. I’ve been working for a large company that specializes in web design, and love how dynamic this field is – I am constantly learning new strategies and concepts as the world of online marketing evolves.

Category: Internet
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