Marketing and communications professionals are constantly looking for creative ways to promote their businesses and organizations. It's a way of life. Where a normal person sees a refrigerator magnet, a marketing specialist sees a chance at continuous visibility. Where a normal person sees a free postcard, a marketing specialist sees potential publicity for his company's new service. Where a normal person sees a collection of pictures and words online and calls it a website, a marketing specialist often does the same thing, and that's a problem.
The web is our most powerful, yet most neglected tool in marketing. Very few organizations truly take advantage of its power. Many of my clients become my clients because they need to update their branding. They need a new logo, office materials and marketing materials. They most often have a website, but it typically isn't what they want to update first. When I ask employees what they want to get out of new branding, the answer is either "nicer business cards and things to send/give out" or "don't bother me." This is a tremendous insight into that fact that selfishness is a huge motivator. Employees rarely visit their company website unless it's their job to do so.
They personally give out their business cards and other collateral and they want those materials to reflect well on them. Or, in the "don't bother me" group, they just want to do their jobs and don't want to be hassled by some annoying designer. At any rate, the website becomes secondary and employee's needs are first.
The lesson here is this: if you want to get into the mind of your market, you have to discover what selfish need they have that will get them to visit your website and give you business. The web is powerful because it provides instant answers for people actively searching for information. The web is not just about pajama-clad 20-somethings looking to buy CDs before bedtime. Every demographic imaginable has representatives online actively seeking you out. For example, a company employs a PR specialist to help build business. That PR specialist knows that she needs to align the company with a charity to offset some of the company's prior bad behavior and create a story for a press release.
If she stumbles on your organization's website and reads about your history, annual events and contact information, she may move on. But if your website discusses how your services dramatically helped specific people, how you are growing each year, how if she gives over $5,000 her company will be listed in every publication you produce, and how your corporate donor program has positively affected another company like hers, she may pick up the phone to talk to you. Throw in a choice of a free Spa package at the local très-chic spa or 10 free movie passes with her $5,000 donation and she may just send a check.
Here's another example: I am redesigning the website of a geography-themed game company based in Redmond, Washington. Their site currently provides detailed information about their games and lists where the games are available for purchase. The images are large-easy to see but tough to load. All of the information about each game is provided at once. In addition to implementing a way for people to buy the games directly online, the main purpose of the redesign is to give visitors some choices. They are able to decide how much information they need by reading a few sentences about each game and then clicking if they want to read more. Or, they can opt just to go buy the game and read nothing.
Or, they can take the geography quiz on the home page and see if they are smarter than most of the population. It's always nice to get an answer correct and read "Good for you-you did better than 92% of the people who took this quiz." (People like to be told that they're smart, but they love to be told that idiots populate the world and they're not one of them). The 92% who get it wrong just have another incentive to buy one of the educational games. The point is to make the site about the visitors, not the company.
No one visits your website for you. They visit your website for themselves. The things that you think are important about your company or organization really don't matter unless they drive visitors to your site. For example, most websites outline a company philosophy, culture or mission.
Go check out your web stats and see how many people return to that page. That information can certainly be on your site, but for your own professional health, take it off the home page. Put it somewhere that people only have to see if they really want to. Besides, a visitor will interpret your culture and philosophy by the design quality of your site before they ever read a word.
A powerful website allows your company or organization more options and exposure than any other medium. You can experiment. You can change and update information freely. You can tell your public about special events, new products, case studies, or research that you are doing at virtually no cost. You can connect your customers to other useful companies. Chances are, if you're reading this, you or your employer has a website. Answer these ten questions about your website and see if there is room for improvement.
- Who visits your site and why?
- Are visitors getting what they need when they visit? Are they getting it fast?
- Are visitors giving you what you need when they visit?
- What are you giving visitors that they can't get at other sites similar to yours?
- Does your site look clean, professional and trustworthy?
- Is the design intuitive? Is it easy to navigate?
- Can your site be found on most major search engines?
- Do you have a way to track the number of visitors to your site and what pages get the most hits?
- Is there an incentive on your site to get visitors to return on a regular basis?
- If you picture the people, philosophy and culture at your company and then visit your site, do you feel like they're the same?
One common roadblock to having a truly effective website is a lack of personnel to actually keep it up. If your company has someone who updates your site regularly, you're in great shape. Do an audit; see if you're appealing to the selfish drive of the people who visit your site and if you're providing them with what they need when they visit. Discuss the pitfalls in your website with coworkers and figure out a remedy. Be creative about what you offer your public to get them to your site and keep them coming back. Prize incentives are effective but can be expensive. Links to relevant articles, a monthly e-newsletter, or weekly trivia games also work well.
If you don't have a person who regularly updates your site, find one. Either a regular employee or a contract employee willing to give you a certain number of hours per month will work. When you come up with an obscenely effective way to increase your business, you want someone there to update your website immediately.
Ultimately, if you think about your website with a sense of relief that it pulls its weight by increasing your bottom line, you're in the right place. If not, take yourself to a spa or a movie, and get ready to embark on your most important marketing project ever.
Audrey Nezer is an award-winning graphic designer in Seattle, Washington. Her company, Artifex Design, creates playful, edgy and effective marketing and communication materials for companies and organizations throughout the United States. Visit http://www.artifex.net to learn more (and win a prize!)
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Audrey_Nezer
Back
