After the Launch…

You have just launched your brand new website. The graphics and colors are slick and it is smartly responsive. You’ve got a brand new site and it’s ready for current and potential members to see! Now, you only need to sit back and watch the visitors roll in. Right?

What you do next after the launch of your new site is just as important as the planning and time that went into the build of it. Since your website is the digital front line to your organization, you want to spend time promoting and learning new ways to interact with your intended audience.

Some questions to ask:

  • How do I want members or potential members to interact with the site?
  • How are potential and current members interacting with the site now?
  • Are some areas of the website more popular than others?
  • Which pages are receiving the most attention?
  • How can I leverage page or article popularity to help guide visitors to the latest promotion or to interact and explore?

Listed below are some ways you can place attention to your online presence and use your website to innovate growth.

Promote Your Content. Promote Your Site.

Promote the content on your website. Leverage social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube to help spread the word. When you are promoting your website, don’t just link to the latest loan promotion. Create content that is worthy of sharing. Educate and give to your audience.

Become an Expert and Share.

Become an expert in your field. Post articles that are specific to things happening in your industry. Today in this age of information you have the ability to engage and educate. Teach your members and potential members the ways of the industry. Give them the power of knowledge that will better help them manage their finances. This is great for your members and great for your website’s SEO. You will rank higher in search engines and the ability to find you on the internet will be easier. Give and you will get.

Pay Attention and Analyze.

Google Analytics is an important tool. If it’s not implemented on your current website, it should be. It gives you the ability to look at your analytics reports and study the data. You can find out how people are interacting with your site. You will be able to gauge the success of your current loan promo, find out where the hot spots on your site are and then leverage those spaces to your advantage — to better serve your members and help potential members find the important information quickly.

Utilize other services such as AdWords and Facebook retargeting so that you can reach members no matter where they are on the web.

Optimize and Evolve.

Armed with data from “pay attention and analyze”, you should then be able to optimize your site for better user engagement.

Build landing pages for 1:1 engagement with certain promotions. If  current ad-graphics aren’t getting as much attention or as many clicks as you’d like, create new ones with a few changes based on the data you have collected. Once you do that, you can compare results and gauge improvement.

In all of this, the most important thing to remember is to keep moving forward. Your website will never really be “finished”. Nor should it be. It should always be evolving to help your organization grow by meeting the needs of your members.

After the launch is when it really begins.