Internet sales continue to soar, particularly in certain market segments and more and more, the first place people go to in order to learn about your business is the internet.  If they find a well designed web site that is full of features, that works fast and draws them in, that can be a tremendous tool for promoting your business.

When you set up a marketing tool outside of the internet, your first concern is how well that new marketing effort will get noticed. So, you are most likely drawn to places where there is already an active traffic of people who would qualify as your customers. For example, that may mean putting up a billboard where it will be seen by people going to work. That target audience may be the best population to respond to your message. Or, if your business appeals to youth, advertising on Video Hits or on popular radio stations is a natural place to spend your marketing budget because the traffic is already there.

Approaching the internet is a little different. Yes, traffic is already there but we have to enter the marketing space with a different kind of strategy so we can reach the customers who are travelling certain “internet roads” and make sure those roads lead to your web site.

There is whole industry that exists to help businesses get their web sites noticed in the search engines.  It’s a good idea to use talents from others to make sure the search engines put your web site in front of the right kind of client or customer (keyword-driven). These businesses can put your web site into the flow of web surfers so you get your fair share of traffic from search engines.

That said, you don’t have to wait for an internet marketing expert to make your web site more successful.  If you have made the effort to put your web site up, you want to see it starting to pay off as soon as possible. Consider some creative ways to drive people to your web site from your traditional markets, thus educating your current customers, clients and partners about the site. Ways to do that include…

Promote the web site at your physical location. Some creative signage at your business locations can create some momentum and interest in customers to go see your exciting new web site.

Put the link on all correspondence. If you have flyers, a magazine or other current means of communications, your URL should always be listed there. Add your URL to your email signature and on business cards and all other forms of communication so your community of clients, customers and partners get used to associating that web site with you as much as they do your business name.

Create excitement. It is easy to operate a business contest from your business, especially if you have a retail outlet, that drives people to the web site for clues or to claim their prize. This kind of momentum can create huge surges of traffic through your web site with the corresponding surge of sales and leads.

The modern customer or client is used to seeing the promotion of a web site included with other forms of promotion and advertising. When your audience sees that the business has a new or fresh presence on the Internet, they will be thrilled and as likely to respond with, “It’s about time”.

You know how much you depend on the internet to keep you informed about areas of interest and about businesses you like to use. So you can see that not only putting up a good web site but letting people know that it is there and that there are big things there for them to enjoy is doing them a favour as much as it is creating new marketing opportunities for your business.

Whilst this concept may seem apparent and be common sense, it is an often over-looked or under-valued component of the creative process. And the reasons why are usually the same regardless of the type of project – such as a website or a corporate brand.

Taking a user-centred approach to design requires the understanding of the customers needs. When a creative design agency is engaged to create visuals to a brief, the customer (of the agency) is the client. As such, many creative agencies may focus primarily on satisfying the needs of their clients – and fair enough too. At the end of the day, the client is the business that will pay the invoice to the agency. However, the designs that are being created are in fact NOT for the client – they are for the client’s customers. As such, the creative process needs to meet the needs of this target audience AS WELL AS the needs of the client commissioning the work.

For example, ABC Business engages a creative agency to provide them with a series of brochures. They detail to the agency what they want to see in these brochures and provide a rough idea of the look they would like. The agency delivers these options with other variations, and between the agency and ABC Business, the brochures are completed and printed. What this process failed to uncover was whether ABC Business had a complete understanding of the needs of the customers of their business. If this understanding was inaccurate or lacking in any way, then there is a greater risk that the finished product does not communicate as effectively with the customer.

The above example uses brochures, but the essence here is to ensure that the understanding of the customer is as comprehensive as possible. This does not need to be a complex or involved process to find out. It is a simple matter of periodically surveying or questioning your customers (if you are a business such as ABC Business) to stay up-to-date with their needs. This should be done as a matter of good business practice anyway, or else how would a business know if it is delivering a product or service that is relevant to its customer?

If you are a creative agency, it is your responsibility to educate your client in this way and to be the voice of your clients’ customers. You are being engaged to provide graphic design services to match a brief, and good practice would dictate that you factor in the needs of the end customer. This ensures you are delivering the best possible service for your client.

The above approach to creative development applies even more to web site design. Understanding how a business’ customers would use a website and navigate through the site content is imperative to ensuring the site structure delivers an effective and user-friendly design. The other issues that also come from this is for the content that is presented to be relevant to the needs of the customer. So, it is not just an issue of how it looks, but what is read.

As a business you have a few options here. You can choose to survey your customer to ascertain their needs BEFORE you prepare a creative brief for an agency. This information can then be compiled and delivered to the agency you select to produce the work for you. You can choose to have the agency assist with surveying your customers, with a tight focus on the project at hand – so the results are directly related to what is being worked on. You can also engage a 3rd party (consultant) to assist with the research, and this business can work in with you and the creative agency on the project.

Depending on your budget, this may influence what option you decide to go with. It is important to understand here that by investing time and money in this stage, regardless of what you can invest, it will only help the creative process and goes to ensuring the end product is as successful as possible.

You most likely already have a system in place to help you track your customers’ needs and the conversations you have with them. At the most basic level, it is usually a pen and paper. If you have a desk littered with reminder notes about people to call or email, then you can most likely relate to the frustration that this basic CRM system causes.

Putting into place a system that helps your people manage customers can be a complex task. Hopefully after reading this post this task will seem much more doable.

Do you Need a System?

Firstly, assess whether your business is of such a size that it requires the use of a specific CRM system to help manage customers. As a rule of thumb, I would suggest if you have over 20 active customers and are continuing to connect with more potential customers each week, then you would benefit from a Customer Relationship Management system. If your business has a low number of active customers (regardless of their size) you may be able to function very effectively with a mash of written notes and a database such as Access.

What CRM System should you use?

If you have decided that a CRM system or CRM software for small business will help you, you have some options to look at. Basically, you will be looking for some type of software that can facilitate the tracking of customer details and the history of interaction with them. There are some software options available that are applicable for many different business types and some that are industry-specific. Both these streams have options for Software as a Service (SaaS) – which is basically a web based crm software solution.

For a detailed review of CRM software options available, check out ZNET’s review (see below). This review discusses SugarCRM, Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Oracle and Infor.  SugarCRM has both an open source option and an enterprise option. This piece of software is also very powerful, but we recommend that if you are serious about using any software for your CRM activities, to utilise a paid service. This is your customer history here, so it is worth investing the time and money into streamlining it.

> The best CRM suite – by ZNET

> SugarCRM

SaaS Options

The options listed above, plus a huge amount of results in Google, will show you CRM software solutions available on a monthly fee amount. The pros for this approach is:

• Low upfront fees to get started
• No specific IT knowledge required to install software
• Available from any computer with an internet connection
• Active support by the software developers
• Flexible account options to fit into your business needs (i.e. different plans)

The cons for using this approach are:

• Possibly more expensive over time than buying software outright
• May be limited with features compared to traditional software available.

Once you have decided which option you will use, spend some time understanding the system and adding your customer details.

If you have used, or are using a CRM software package that you think is worth mentioning, login and leave a comment below.