Although this article gets down to basics, it's not an introduction to website development or a 101 approach to interactive Internet communications. It's written for everyone currently considering, developing, or operating a website and focuses on the activities, ideas, components, and marketing vehicles that attract surfers to visit and revisit a website.
From brand builder to revenue resource. While developing, revising, and revamping your website, define your short-term goal. Directly or indirectly, the site ultimately should be a source of revenue and profits. It should play a key role in the sales process, just like each activity in the marketing process.
Thinking your Web page will be an instant revenue source is dangerous. Although E-commerce is growing 200% annually, 50% of total revenue is made by 10 websites (yes, that's the number, not the percentage), and 95% of the consumers who visit a website don't buy anything.
Even so, the most basic site, whether offering a product or a service, can generate sales over the Web. Just having a website communicates something positive about a firm, which can influence a buying decision. That said, it's important to establish priorities early on. The key people involved in your site have to have a realistic expectation of why you built the site and whether it's for E-commerce, brand building, or both.
Where there's a Web, there's a way. Once you've established your site's purpose and balanced its purchasing, product promotion, and informing functions (selling, yelling, and telling), the next step is to attract customers to your site.
Search engines are a valuable way to lead prospects to your firm's website. A search engine craze has swept the interactive nation, causing companies to obsess about the rankings. Yet, according to a study of 11 major search engines by Steve Lawrence and C. Lee Giles of the NEC Research Institute in Princeton, NJ, search engines cover only about 16% of cyberspace. Translation: 84% of the world's Web's pages won't be found by anyone using those engines, so promoting your site via traditional methods is far more effective in terms of time and money. In addition to search engines, use print, broadcast, and outdoor advertising, direct mail, word of mouth, internal signage, and other conventional marketing activities and vehicles.
Getting content with your content. Despite the trend to load websites with numerous articles, multiple messages, attractive graphics, and assorted gizmos, simpler and faster beats a beautiful display that takes forever. After all is said and downloaded, the name of the game is to get people to return to your site. In a survey of 8,600 U.S. households by Forrester Research Inc., the vast majority of respondents said that they return to their favorite websites because of high-quality content, ease of use, quick download time, and frequent updates of information.
Here are some other key components of a good site:
- Quick, clean entry
- Uncluttered home page
- Easy maneuverability throughout the site
- Concise information
- Well-written copy
- Customized news
- Well-organized content
- Easy methods to contact the firm
- Prominently positioned drop-down menus
- Ability to retrieve information
- Effective use of color and product presentation
Y'all come back, now. Look for balance during each planning, design, and marketing stage. Focus on making all pages of your site customer friendly, rich in content, and easy to read. Make the messages appropriate for your needs and those of your customers/prospects, and you'll have many happy returns -- of visitors and on your investment.