by Sheri Fink

Created on: May 24, 2007   Last Updated: May 25, 2007

One of the primary goals of a web marketing strategy is to increase company profits. This can be accomplished by utilizing the company's website to lower acquisition costs and increase conversion rates. By using the website as a lead-generation tool, the company can maximize its resources, making sales more cost-effective, lowering costs, and ultimately increasing profits.

The company's website should assist in acquiring, converting, and retaining customers. The Internet provides the ideal environment in which a company can create a lead-generating website that turns prospects into qualified leads and, eventually, into customers 24 hours a day without any additional effort or cost on the part of the company.

The process in which prospects are converted into customers involves the following steps:

1. Promote to prospects. The company must be proactive and promote its product to prospects, attracting them to their website. Promotions can include viral marketing, paid advertising, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and public relations.

2. Convert prospects into qualified leads. Prospects can be converted into qualified leads through engaging them on the website. Some of the conversion opportunities include intuitive, consistent navigation; targeted, benefit-driven content featuring calls to action; value-added features such as blogs and discussion boards; and effective, customer-oriented customer service.

3. Close the sale with qualified leads, converting them to customers. The company can close the sale by persuading qualified leads to take the desired action. Effective techniques to convert first-time customers include well-written web content that addresses their needs, values, beliefs, pain points, and how the product can solve their problems; a powerful, rhetoric-free unique selling proposition stating the company's competitive advantage; and persuasive calls-to-action embedded into the website.

Once the company has acquired a customer, its website can be part of an effective customer relationship management strategy to retain and re-sell to that customer. Customers are valuable company assets due to their low acquisition costs once they've already purchased from the company. Ongoing customer service strategies include: maintaining regular contact with the customer after purchase; incentivizing and rewarding customers for referrals; and providing value-added information, such as advanced notification of new product launches, to existing customers.

Learn more about this author, Sheri Fink.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.