Creating A Web Presence - Part I

In large corporate cultures that utilize the internet as part of their marketing strategy, you’ll hear the expression “web presence” used quite a bit. To the average person, the term “web presence” translates directly to “web site”, but this is only part of the picture. Whether you run a large corporation or a small business though, understanding precisely what “web presence” is will help you tremendously.

Web presence refers generally to your company’s overall exposure to consumers on the internet. Exposure on the internet translates directly to traffic to your web site. Web presence does not directly refer to your web site’s ability to be seen or found by consumers, although this is of course a huge part of it. Other forms of exposure tend to vary, and not all of them are actually found online. It is by understanding how to target, create, and utilize a web presence that you will bring traffic to your web site, which is the first step in creating leads from your site.

And that my friends, is what I intend to share with you over the course of my next few posts. If you want to turn your mortgage web site in to more than just a business card on the web, you’ll want to read these articles. Today, I’d like to talk about actually targeting your web presence.

Before you can begin to create a web presence, it’s important that you know who you are creating it for. As a business owner, there is no value in trying to target each and every human being that uses the internet. If you are engaged in the business of selling mortgage loans, for instance, you have very little need to pursue the interest of 12 year old children, thus, targeting your web presence to that group of individuals would be pointless. So, the question becomes…who should see you? The more clearly you define a target for your web presence, the easier it is to reach that target. Thus, a targeted web presence is one that aims to attract a particular type of traffic.

Targeting your web presence is really just a matter of understanding your audience – the people you want to attract. What type of person is most likely to have a need or desire for the product or service you’re offering? In the case of a mortgage company, you’re obviously looking for adults who have an interest in obtaining a mortgage loan. Unfortunately, that’s far too general to really yield answers as to how you should target that audience.

If you find yourself with a long list of unanswerable questions about your target audience, then you’ve not narrowed your target down enough. The truth is, you should know everything critical about your target audience. “Adults who want a mortgage loan” could mean just about anything…they could want a first or a second mortgage, a purchase loan or a refinance…this might be the first time they’ve ever bought a home or made any major purchase on credit…they might not even have any credit…You may feel like you could get the answers to those questions once they contact you, but unless you give your audience a reason to feel that you can and will provide them with their specific need or desire, they’ll never ask you the questions. The only way to convince someone that you can assist them with a need or a desire is to target it adequately.

So…even if you provide every mortgage loan under the sun…even if you can get a loan in any state, and in all the third-world countries on the planet, recognize that no single person is going to want all of those things all at once. By focusing…targeting, you are ensuring that when the person that does want that specific thing comes along, you are in a position to offer it to them, and they will recognize that. Targeted traffic – traffic you designed your web presence for, is the most likely to convert in to a lead.