Remember the days before the remote control, when we actually had to get up from the chair to change the channel on the television? Is it just me or did we seem to turn the channels a lot less often then? With the advent of the remote control, our attention span has been all but obliterated and our patience for commercials is now a relic of the early days of television.
The same is now true of the Internet. With the click of the mouse, we can surf from site to site, visiting virtual storefronts and businesses, traveling across the globe or across the street without ever leaving home. Around the world, businesses are scurrying to the Internet in the hopes of tapping the untold potential profits that lie in wait. While hurriedly staking out a claim in this fabled gold field, many are abandoning the basics of good business, hoping to make a quick fortune without the prerequisite planning and investment.
Don’t believe me? Just ask one of the hundreds of thousands of businesses that have signed up for a free 30-day free web site trial, only to give up all hope after 30 days with not even a single verifiable lead from this trial effort. Although some of these free offers have yielded a few successes, for most, putting a skeleton web site on the web today is tantamount to tacking a business card to a telephone pole in New York City and waiting for the phone to ring off the hook. It’s not all doom and gloom though. There are numerable ways to increase your odds at success on the web. Please consider the significance of good strategy and sound design in your quest for the perfect web site.
Most sites on the web today conform to one of two basic formats, defined largely by their intended business purpose. Informational sites educate the viewer, but rarely solicit a call to action to purchase anything. The opportunity generally exists to request more information in the form of a brochure or catalog, however no sales are transacted through the site. Sites of this nature are well suited to professional
service providers who use their web sites as an easily accessible on-line brochure, available to a seemingly infinite client/customer base 24 hours a day- 7 days a week. Quite to the contrary, a sales-driven site is all about the purchase. Web sites geared to sell are ideal for
consumer product companies that have the support and know-how to move product quickly and efficiently over the Internet. Price and selection are kings of this domain and are the preeminent arbiters of success for a sales-driven site.
Whichever site format you decide is best suited for your business, creativity remains one of the most crucial factors for success in building and retaining a strong Internet-based clientele. With millions of businesses vying for an increasingly fragmented share of consumer attention, it’s a virtual impossibility to simply post your site and hope it gets noticed. Aside from the importance of good publicity, which will increase traffic to your site, consistent, creative, and engaging web site design and captivating copy are perhaps the most significant contributing factors in attracting and keeping potential clientele glued to the pages of your site.
To Internet optimists, the World Wide Web embodies the infinite potential of global enterprise. It is laden and overflowing with unbridled opportunity that borders unfathomable. Businesses that invest wisely and plan a sound and reasonable web site strategy will stand to reap an impressive Internet harvest in both the short and long hauls. Please however, consider this cautionary note. The Internet, like most every other means of marketing and advertising offers disappointing returns and dismal quarterly balance sheets to those businesses that neglect to invest adequately in the design and development of an alluring and engaging professional web site. Attractive design and strong copy are the foundational building blocks on which to develop your site.
Take a few minutes to scour the web for what you would consider first-rate sites. If you already have a site, how does your site compare? Many of the best web sites are singular in purpose, offering multiple paths to the same end. They demonstrate a cursory knowledge of their clientele and assume a reasonable level of impatience. They are often visually stimulating and increasingly interactive to counter this
impatience. Like a seasoned, patient fisherman, good sites offer salient bits of information that lure the customer to the hook. Not everyone will bite. The important point is to know your product or service, understand your customer and pick the right bait. Remember…Good sites are unafraid to ask for client feedback and may even encourage customer ideas to make it better.
Your web site cannot be all things to all people. A good designer will work with you to establish a series of site objectives and will organize your site in an easy to understand manner. Once your ideas are organized, your site should be mapped out and a strong, organized message put into place.
First impressions are crucial to attracting customers to peruse your site. The home or splash page is the first page that your customers will view. Like an enticing menu at a great restaurant, a well- designed home page will impress visitors and build their appetite for more.
As important as design is to the ongoing success of your site, a strong partnership between design and written communication is also crucial. Design must complement and not substitute strong written copy, and all graphics must download quickly and easily. Remember that as quickly as a viewer has clicked onto your site, they can also click right back out. Graphics that take considerable time to download is the deathblow to even the most well planned and meticulously designed site.
Your web site is your on-line business card, brochure and sales presentation. It can become your most productive sales tool and may help your company bridge the gap to competing successfully in the global millennial business marketplace. The web is clearly revolutionary, but in many respects is no different than any other traditional media vehicle. To develop a sound business on the web requires foresight,
planning and a reasonable financial investment.
With your eyes keenly focused on the potential and pitfalls of this new marketing tool, prepare your company well to compete in this new ethereal landscape. Plan with vision. Invest wisely. It’s a new world. Be brave.
|
