Compared with the traditional sales model, online marketing is a way to expand emerging markets. Due to its relatively low cost and numerous successful cases, it has gained widespread attention from small and medium-sized enterprises. However, many people have aspirations but lack understanding of what exactly the concept of online marketing is. Some people think that online marketing is just about creating a website; others believe that the essence of online marketing is selling things on the Internet, or more bluntly, making money online. As a result, many companies hastily start promotions when their websites are not yet complete, give up due to poor results, and some traditional enterprises find their transformation into e-commerce not smooth but rather full of failures. Therefore, there are inevitable doubts about whether online marketing, which comes from the virtual world, is reliable.
The answer is unequivocal. E-commerce and online marketing are absolutely effective supplements to corporate marketing models and will inevitably evolve into mainstream marketing models. "If you don't do e-commerce now, you'll have no business in five years," we may not delve into whether this statement was made by Bill Gates or borrowed by Jack Ma, but online marketing is definitely a trend. There's an example to prove this point: five or six years ago, perhaps few of us knew about online shopping, but now? From Taobao to JD.com, from home appliances to daily necessities, online shopping is everywhere. But why do some companies frequently fail when they try online marketing? Shanghai Yinhang Technology, a web construction company, believes that the lack of attention to details causes many small and medium-sized enterprises to lose at the starting line. Without discussing e-commerce, online marketing is a systematic project, and every detail of the most basic three steps is crucial to success.
Step 1: Website Construction is Important, Analysis and Planning Are Indispensable
Before constructing a website, planning is even more important than the construction itself, which is often overlooked by many small and medium-sized enterprises. What kind of website should a company create, what domain name to use, how to layout the web pages, what columns to set, these subtle points cannot be ignored. Many companies currently follow the practice of finding one or several network companies to provide several plans, then comparing prices and starting production. What effect will such websites bring? If one realizes that the website is an organic part of online marketing, perhaps they wouldn't be so rash and rough. I believe a more reasonable approach would be for the company needing the website and the company building the website to carefully analyze the website positioning and browsing groups, and define the website functions and page design according to demand.
Website construction is also very important because the website is the execution result of the preliminary planning of online marketing and also the carrier of website marketing performance. For example, when we promote advertisements on search engines, after users click on the advertisement, they naturally get directed to the website for conversion. If the website design and production are not good enough, it won't be able to retain users, let alone the subsequent traffic conversion. Under the guidance of planning and website construction schemes, how does the importance of website construction manifest? I believe it lies in the details. It can be affirmed that two websites with the same functions and column settings will offer different user experiences depending on which website construction company produced them. There are many related details in website construction, such as page loading speed, some humanized color matching or text enhancement, etc.
Step 2: Optimize the Entire Site from the Perspective of Users and Search Engines
In many people's minds, when mentioning optimization, the first thing that comes to mind is the search engine. This thinking is understandable because more and more people are using search engines to look for the information or services they need. A company with a website hoping to conduct online marketing must not ignore the importance of search engines. Almost everyone involved in website construction or online marketing knows that search engines measure website weight mainly through two factors: content and links, which is why some people summarize the essence of search engine optimization as "content is king, link is emperor." However, website optimization is definitely not as simple as writing original articles and posting external links. If that were the case, almost every website could achieve ideal rankings. Where exactly is the secret to website ranking? Perhaps only the search engine itself knows. Now there are many teams dedicated to website optimization diagnosis, such as the SEO optimization group of A5 Station Master Network. With professional team diagnosis and guidance, one might avoid some detours in website ranking.
Besides search engine rankings, website optimization has another layer of meaning, which is user experience. And I believe that the main focus of website optimization should be on improving the user experience of the website. Because no matter what promotion method is used, the goal is to make users see the website. If the website design and production are not good enough, all marketing efforts will be in vain. There are many ways to improve user experience, such as enhancing website access speed and continuously enriching and perfecting website content from the user's perspective. However, improving user experience should avoid overdoing it. For instance, some websites expect to leave a deep impression on users by adding videos, animations, and constantly popping up product or service recommendation windows, resulting in users feeling annoyed and closing the website. I wrote an article titled "Don't Fall Into the Subjective Trap, User Experience in Website Construction Is Very Important" that proposed six excessive behaviors in online marketing, which is worth referring to when constructing a website.
Step 3: Choose Appropriate Methods for Promotion Based on Users
With the in-depth development of the Internet, there are now many network promotion methods. However, network promotion must choose methods suitable for oneself, and analyzing user behavior is crucial. Let's take the website construction industry as an example. Promotion methods include posting on forums, writing tweets, publishing soft articles on major portal sites, advertising on industry portal sites, and EDM email marketing. Among all promotion methods, which one has the best effect? Search engine promotion is undoubtedly the most effective promotion method due to the nature of the industry. For example, if a company selling infant products wants to conduct network promotion, search engine marketing might not be the best choice if targeting end-users. Instead, promoting on Taobao or some baby care forums and portals would yield better results. Similar examples abound, but the core is that before conducting network promotion, one must carefully analyze user consumption habits. Otherwise, spending money and effort will result in twice the work for half the result.
I believe many people receive countless advertising short messages every day, which is also a type of promotion. The purpose of mentioning advertising SMS here is to remind online marketing personnel that when conducting network promotion, they must consider both user usage habits and user feelings. Still taking a website construction website as an example, using the EDM email marketing method for promotion under massive targeted email distribution will definitely produce certain effects. However, if not well-controlled, the more emails sent out, the worse the effect might be. Frequently, blog comments and some website article reviews are filled with blatant advertisements. What's the point of doing this? Not only website construction needs user experience, but website promotion also requires valuing user experience. Marketing details are everywhere, and so is user experience.
Every detail of website construction and online marketing is crucial to success, such as a simple and memorable domain name, a secure, stable, and fast host, a good website, and a network promotion method that fully considers user experience, etc. Shanghai Yinhang Technology, a website construction company, believes that any success is not accidental, and online marketing is the same. Only by truly considering users' perspectives and integrating user experience into every detail of online marketing can online marketing proceed smoothly. Before writing this article, I was preparing to buy an exhaust fan online. I thought that the online shopping sites of traditional appliance chain enterprises like Suning and Gome would be more powerful (after all, they specialize in appliances), but unexpectedly, after searching for several minutes in the product search box, I couldn't open the product page. In contrast, YiXun and JD.com websites opened instantly and responded quickly. Observing a spot reveals the whole leopard. Maybe some companies still have advantages now, but if they don't realize the importance of details and user experience, the e-commerce transformation path of traditional enterprises will become increasingly bumpy.