The key to marketing for online businesses is simple: branding. Branding has been a marketing buzzword for a very long time. It has caused a flurry of redesigned corporate logos, spiffy new letterheads, mission statements, rewritten mission statements, and even theme songs, and an endless stream of focus groups to guide the process. All of this can play a role, but branding is simpler than that, really. Its letting customers know who you are, what you do, and how you do it (and it doesnt hurt if they come away believing youre better at what you do than your competition).
If you want to create an identity for your online business, you need to define your brand up front. When customers arrive at your website, the first thing they should see should be what you do and why they should care. There are way too many websites that bombard you with flashy graphics and catchy slogans, yet leave it to you, the potential customer, to figure out what the heck they actually do! This is wrong, dead wrong. The best thing you can do is spell it out. Who you are and what you do should be immediately clear and unmistakable.
A potential customer doesnt know who you are. The best way...