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Web site
marketing - websites that generate business
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Web site
marketing.
Every UK small company should have its own web site. Not to have
a web site is just downright foolish. The world wide web is the answer to the
small businessman's prayer. |
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If you are new to the Internet and web site marketing
then you might well be a little sceptical about how this new global technology
could help small businesses. The fact is that the Internet gives small
companies a prescence in their respective marketplaces and that, until
recently, only large, powerful and rich companies could afford such a global
prescence. I am a small business owner and I receive a steady stream of
enquiries and business from all parts of the UK and indeed from all over the
world. Five years ago there is absolutely no way I could have afforded such
universal visibility. Do not be tempted to simply put your corporate brochure
onto your web site - web site marketing is much more than this. If you are a
small company it will probably not work in that you are unlikely to receive an
appreciable volume of enquiries or business. |
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You need to look at this new business opportunity
much more analytically and I would strongly suggest the use of a
marketing consultant such as myself to
help with this process. |
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Why choose a marketing
consultant to produce your website rather than a design agency?
Simple.
Commercial experience. |
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The Internet is full of web sites that are very
creative and very rich in superb graphics that carry out a wide range of
spectacular tricks on your screen. The problem is that no one ever sees them
because they had not been designed by people who understand the way in which
web sites are found on the Internet. |
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Text. The Internet is about text. It's what
search engines look for. It's what
surfers read in order to determine whether the site has anything to offer. By
all means the website needs to be visually attractive, but the emphasis must be
on text. |
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The generation of the website that will generate
business requires considerable analytical thinking and commercial experience
rather than creative design. These are not the characteristics of a graphic
designer ! |
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Your text is your message. The textual content
of website pages often takes second place to design, but it's the text that
provides your visitors with the details of your message. So it's important to
make your text visitor-friendly. Consider your medium - no-one really enjoys
reading from a computer screen. And consider your audience. If visitors are
bored by your website, another more interesting one is only a mouse-click away.
On the other hand, the web's interactivity means there's huge potential to
engage your visitors. |
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Beware of technical experts who claimed to be
Internet marketeers. Many of them have never held commercial positions and have
certainly never had responsibility within any companies - blue-chip or
otherwise. Likewise, beware of design consultants who claim to be e-commerce
experts. These people have very specific skills at designing complicated and
design-rich pages but have a tendency to overlook some of the more practical
hands-on aspects of website promotion and of course have no experience of the
greater commercial principles. The internet is but another weapon in the
marketing armoury and you should consider very
carefully whether a more commercially aware approach needs to be taken in the
development of your website. |
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