Module 2-The Online Ecosystem Final LK

3. Starting to build an online Ecosystem

3.1Build a content rich website

If you wanted to find out what was happening in the world or how to build something you would probably go online to find that information using a search engine such as Google or Yahoo.

If you want your customers (target audience) to find you when they are looking for your product or service you need to create and develop a website to welcome them.

Your businesses’ online presence is tightly linked to how successful your business will be. Creating a content rich easy to manage online ecosystem is the key to your success in today’s environment.

You want traffic (i.e. people) to find what they are looking for when visiting your website. They must find it easy to navigate (like using Google maps to find a place in the city), when they type in queries and the questions they may have – all the way to finding the right solution (your product or service) that fits their needs.

You need to run your customer’s journey into a website funnel . If you think of your website as a paper brochure, it will have some products or services listed, some pictures or photos, some pricing options and different ways to contact you.

The start of the buyer’s journey or the bottom of the funnel

The Funnel

Search engines, have changed in terms of what information gets you noticed online. You still want to prepare a ‘brochure’ but in a digital-friendly way; however, this is only leading buyers to the bottom of the funnel or it will be at the end of the buyer’s journey i.e. people ready to buy, looking for the right partner and price. If you think of strangers who may have a problem, but they are not yet sure of the solution yet, this is where your online ecosystem can start to steer them in the right direction. A content rich website is typically in the form of a webpage or a blog post.

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