Your strategy for success on the web

1. Attract the right visitors to your website
2. Engage their interest 
3. Build their trust 
4. Lead them to take action 
5. Measure the results 

1. Attract the right people to your website - If you aren't attracting the right visitors to your site, you're not building your business. Rather than relying on any one method, try a variety of techniques to bring targeted traffic to your website, including:
    
   • Search Engine optimization (SEO)
   • Pay-per-click campaigns (PPC) 
   • Email marketing and email newsletters 
   • Links to related, non-competitive businesses 
   • Real-world promotions, advertisements, and PR 
      
2. Establish credibility - Just like you would in a real world sales environment, begin to build rapport with your visitors immediately after they arrive. Establish your credibility by demonstrating that your company understands their needs and has the best products and services to meet them.
   
   Your website must have a very professional look and feel that reflects your company and the marketplace in general. The copy must speak directly to your visitors in the appropriate "voice" and emphasize the benefits of your offerings to potential customers: "What's in it for me?"
    
3. Give your customers what they need - Provide the appropriate information and available options at just the right time! How do potential customers make the decision to buy your products or services?
   
   As much as possible, your website has to support the personal and psychological needs and wants of your potential clients. Offer several alternatives for those who:
    
   • already know what they want
   • have an idea of what they want, but need more info 
   • are browsing and need direction 
      
4. Motivate your potential customers to take action - Conversion rates  are what it's all about! Conversion is the process of persuading visitors to take the action you want them to take: signup for your newsletter, fill out a form, or better still, make a purchase. Always be asking yourself what you can do to improve your conversion rate.
   
   Make the prospect's action steps very obvious in your copy - its color, style, and position on the page. Minimize any elements that can detract from the action step, and provide gentle but firm reassurance with your privacy policy, money-back guarantee, and authentic testimonials.
   
   You might even wish to consider a FLASH demo or web audio file to guide your site's visitors through the conversion process.
    
5. Measure your results - With today's powerful web analytical tools, you can learn what's working on your website and what isn't. When you have identified a particular problem area, make changes, but be very methodical. Change only one variable at a time so you will know what actually helps and what doesn't.