Your company’s website can be an effective tool for promoting your business to prospects and customers.

Here’s how you can create a website that is an effective part of your marketing program:

• Know your target audience. Your website shouldn’t try to be all things to all people. Assess who your company’s best prospects and customers are, and target the site to them. For example, a community bank’s site might focus on residents and small businesses in that community.  A toy store’s site might focus on building a site that attracts parents and grandparents.
  
• Have a plan. Invest time upfront to outline what you want to have on your website and you’ll save yourself time and money. Start by thinking about your objectives. Do you want to establish ecommerce? Enhance customer service or develop an online community among your customers?  You’ll also want to plan for basic content such as company history, contact information and FAQs (frequently asked questions). 
  
• Keep site technology simple. While it’s easy to be dazzled by all the cool technologies that are available, remember that most visitors want a site that’s easy to use, and don’t want to be distracted by animated presentations. A site that loads quickly and is easy to navigate makes it easier for visitors to stay at your site.
  
• Invest in good design.  Work with a graphic designer to create the look and feel of the website so that it builds on your company’s logo, tag line and image. Use clear, crisp graphics and photos that grab visitors’ attention and enhance the site’s written content.
  
• Include relevant content.  Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What benefits do they get from using your product or service? These should be prominently displayed as headlines on the main pages of your site with carefully edited text and photos to support them. Detailed product or service descriptions should be on inner site pages that visitors can link to, should they want more information.
  
• Position your company as an expert. Offer downloadable white papers, opinion pieces, customer testimonials and interviews that showcase your company’s expertise. You can also educate visitors by offering tips on how to purchase or use your products more effectively.  One flooring contractor, for example, offers “Seven Questions to Ask a Flooring Installer” on his website.
  
• Keep content fresh. Nothing discourages repeat visitors more than stale content. At minimum, keep your company’s contact information, product offerings and pricing current. Go one step further by dedicating part of your homepage to announcing special sales, a “tip of the day” or breaking company news. You can also run polls or contests and link to detailed results from your homepage. These techniques give visitors reasons to return to your site again and again.
  
• Capture visitor information. Include an opt-in form on your site to allow visitors to register for a free newsletter or tip of the day. Do-it-yourself email marketing sites such as Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) provide subscription templates that can be easily uploaded to your site. Such sites also offer low cost email newsletter creation services.

The Marketing Advantage is published monthly in Union County Voice magazine, www.unioncountyvoice.com. 

Ms. Kasprzak, principal of Advantage Marketing & Associates, is a certified management consultant who specializes in helping B2B clients connect with their customers to achieve greater sales revenues.

Interested in republishing The Marketing Advantage?