I can’t understand tough things, so let me make it simple for me (I am in 2013 and into digital marketing profession). Website is your online face. It’s because why people come to know you even though they do or don’t share the same language / nationality / interest / requirement / line of thought etc.
Now why do we need a website at the first place? During my work stint with different companies I found out it can’t be one single reason behind any business need and every business need should end with profit and loss balance sheet. Now let’s see what the advantages of a website are
- Reachability – we can be available for our client round the clock
- Clear representation of company, deliverables, people, credibility
- No confusion about what you are trying to convey, no loose talk no extra promise
- It’s less costly than any other promotional activity
- Works as a PR agent, sales professional, HR professional for you
- Less maintenance cost…So on and so forth
- Flexibility to the changes happening in your organization is faster
- You can check the performances faster than other medium
Ohhok.. I understand that website can’t be called and ground zero necessity for all business, but if you have to grow it’s a must have. It’s cheaper and works like many.
I am good till here but if it’s a must have while growing then why should I think so much about it. Now this is where I got real easy answer, let’s take couple of example which happens,
There is normal tendency in human being in today’s heavily connected wired environment is whenever someone come to know about a company, reason might be anything from becoming a prospective customer / employee / news agency they tend to open internet and try to search for that company and then the most important thing happens. The website comes in front and in couple of minutes that person becomes judgmental about the goodness and authenticity of that company. For an example If we see a good website kind of jazzy looking full of color some people will feel good and thinks that it’s a good company wherein a simple white background might bore some people will say nothing good about it lets check out something else, now if this is happening with your website then you might be losing out your precious business opportunity or some cream of talents which can help you to take up the clients challenge. If we see a somewhat complicated website hard to find what we are looking for then it’s a waste most of us will say forget it not my cup of tea. Now being complicated might be helpful for you to pull younger generation but this generation will not come for business but for jobs.
And moreover if I am investing a single penny into it I should make sure it gives me back more than that. So let see what it takes to make it successful,
4 most important parts a website –
- Design – Why design? Because if you have a chance to create your own face it’s obvious you want to have one of most beautiful one. Now I know beauty lies in the eyes of beholder and here it’s your eyes which is taking the call. A combination of vibrant color is good idea until it’s not overdone or matching the concept of the business. For an example a marriage properties website will not suit black or white as it will with red.
- Usability – Wow what an aspect, we all love gorgeous man / woman in our life who is less complex in mind :o). If your website looks awesome but I don’t know how to go to your contact page it’s a waste. So we should think as if we are school students / novice and design it. The usability factor actually doesn’t work hand on hand with design all the time. Designing an attractive website is easy but an attractive and ease usable website is not a piece of cake.
- Content – Finally my favorite point and the most important point. Who likes a good looking person without brain? No one right. I think content plays the role of life in flesh. I have seen website which are too technically sound that layman people like me don’t find it interesting to read. Please prepare the website as generic as possible and more of a business centric. You have to keep another thing in mind that usage of right keywords are another most important part as it makes life of SEO professionals easy. And make it client centric, while writing your content please keep your client in mind and try to think why he / she should come and read your content. He is not increasing their knowledge as there are forums to help them with. They are coming to your website to learn and solve their existing / future problems or getting information if you worth their penny. Experiment with your content because that’s the only way out to become leader of your field.
- Update – If your website is an instant hit don’t take a back seat, keep changing the content to provide better data, new information before they become obsolete, so that people who have visited website will come back again and again. Change the design as per visitors’ feedback because change is inevitable and it’s the only way you can be in business for a longer time.
Now as I said content is one of the most important part of a campaign lets discuss some more on that part like what might go wrong, don’t ask me why I am not discussing what will go right because if you are not going wrong then you have good chance of going right. But becoming 100% accurate with content is like mirage. So here are some points where we should not do,
- Don’t try to teach your clients, they know more than what is required because of online media
- Don’t write a history paper, follow the KISS theory with a D and respect your viewer’s time – Keep is Simple and Sweet and Dumb
- Don’t make impossible claims and don’t furnish incorrect data
- Don’t be selfish and speak only about you – remember people are coming to your site to find out if there is something useful for him / her.
- Don’t miss the story – everyone likes story telling. So if your content doesn’t have a story and continuation then there is no good reason to read
- Don’t miss the page content layout. Because once a customer lands into your page it might take anywhere between 10-30 page surfing for becoming a lead, but to get that you have to make sure they are surfing that many.
There are few more things I think I should mention here only to complete the story, They are the measurement matrix
- Bounce rate – it’s the rate how many people closed your site on the first touch
- Average viewing time – it’s the time spent by viewers in your website
- Page view
- Organic traffic
- Inorganic traffic
- Search traffic
- And so on and so forth.. (There are many things in this world unseen)
I think till here we are all good in getting a website, measure them. So investment decision is done but how to find out ROI, the very one reason a business runs.
We can measure the ROI of a website, try to look into the traffic report which you can get from many way. Take a count how many people actually called your contact me number or mailed you in mail me option or chatted with one of your executive or dropped their details for you to get in touch with them. And you can see how it’s helping you in your business. These are very direct ROI of website but there are indirect ROI also.
Finally as there is say in sales that “every sales starts with a no” we can pull a similar one about website marketing i.e. “Every visitor can be your customer or influencer”
This is a personal scribble ground. The opinions expressed here are all personal they do not express any direct or indirect linkage to the organization I am attached to. But I love changes so they might be changing time to time. :o)
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