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Online Marketing: Designing Your Web Site for Success |
Online Marketing: Designing Your Web Site for Success
By Israel Rothman
RISMEDIA, April 21 – This week we examine what I call “the seventh deadly mistake”—having a lousy Web site.
It will not do you any good to get traffic to your Web site if it has no content. Nobody wants to visit a vanity site. The more clicks required to find the desired information, the less effective the Web site, no matter how elaborate and flashy it may be.
The combination of perfect graphics in the right amounts, with easy intuitive navigation which leads the visitor to the goal effortlessly, without the need for thought, without too-early qualification can make the difference between a site with lots of traffic and no deals, to a stand alone functional point of sale, attended by a computer that’s open 24 hours a day, making you money while you sleep at night.
Nobody wants to see a face or know about an agent’s dog and kids when they arrive at a Web site. People want to find the most high tech, upscale, professional, connected, savvy provider of the product or service they are seeking, much as they once used the yellow pages, so start with your phone number!
I recommend that you hire a professional designer with real talent to build your Web site, even if you want to maintain it yourself.
But don’t expect the designer to be your copywriter, marketing consultant, marriage counsellor, and surrogate friend all wrapped up into one package.
Before you contact the designer, you should:
Know your market – nobody knows your business like you do, stop sweeping the floors and washing your own dishes long enough to do your real job: know who your target customer is, what words he is typing into the search engines and why, what his demographics and motivating influences are, how old is he/she/both.
Determine a realistic budget – if advertising worked how much of it you would do? You wouldn’t want the cheapest lawyer, dentist or doctor. Just as your health and freedom matter to you, the profitability of your business can contribute greatly to those goals.
Your Web site is the branding of your business, a representation of you, more important than your printed brochure in today’s marketplace. Your Web site should represent you as you would like others to see you. A professional Web marketing campaign should allow for between $5,000 to $50,000 per year or more for ongoing design and maintenance alone, before adding advertising.
Get a real designer – one who can showcase your business effectively & professionally. Look for established design firms with full time, in-house staff and a proven track record of serving satisfied customers (ask for references). Is the company accredited & do their staff have formal training in web design and web programming?
Watch out for home-based one-man-band web design companies! Will they be around tomorrow or next year? I doubt it.
Have interactive content – maps, demographics, statistics, news feeds, lots of traffic-building content can be either bought inexpensively, or bargained for in reciprocal agreements. The more up-to-date content you include, the more value there is in revisiting your site, and the more likely a visitor will bookmark it and return.
Don’t overdo things – our eyes hurt, we look at computers more than we care to admit, give your visitors a break.
Make it fast – we are in a hurry, we are tired, we are looking for something, help us find it.
Use brief introductions and minimize choices – our minds are filled up with too much data, so skip to the chase, please!
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CBS Group Inc.
