Whether you want a thousand customers to buy an off-the-shelf product from your site or one big potential account to call you, your web site has the potential to multiply your business effectiveness. But using the internet as an effective marketing tool means a lot more than just
designing a site and plugging it in. If you approach your web site as a design
problem, rather than a marketing problem, you'll fail to take advantage
of the enormous potential of the internet. Here are seven key questions you should ask yourself before you begin building your site:
1)
Do I Have Clear Objectives?
Why should you be on the web? Who are you trying to reach? What are you trying
to accomplish? How will you measure success?
2) Am I Integrating My Site With My Total Marketing Program?
Do your on-line and off-line marketing efforts have synergy? Are they supporting the same objectives? After all, in the big picture, the web is just one more element of the marketing mix; it can
be most effective when it works dynamically and interactively with traditional
print and broadcast media.
3) How Will I Develop My Content?
What will you put on your site? Do you know what to say, and does your final
copy say it? What will you use for visual material such as photos and graphics?
4) How Will I Organize My Site?
How do you present your message and supporting information in a systematic manner to be most effective?
How can you anticipate the ways visitors will want to navigate through
your site? And how do you use information architecture to structure an interface designed for maximum usability
and maximum results?
5)
How Can I Use Interactivity Successfully?
How can you use interactivity, such as animation, visitor input mechanisms and data base integration, to keep your visitors
engaged? Remember, the internet is a more dynamic medium than print, and print solutions just
don't translate well to the web. Your visitors expect more.
6) What Should I Do to Show Up On Search Engines?
How will you direct visitors to your site? Lesson one: they can't buy if they can't find you. Today, a good positioning program is
absolutely essential if you want internet traffic!
7) What Kinds of
On-Line Marketing Can I Be Doing to Support My Site?
You may want to develop an active web presence by using e-mail in a permission
marketing program or developing an extranet for your
customers. And don't forget the power of the new social media, like Facebook and Twitter! Thousands of companies have found success posting movies of their products on YouTube and other movie sites.
The web offers functionality undreamed of in traditional media, but you need to know how to tap it. You'll need someone who can provide all the pieces of the internet marketing puzzle
to help you through the process and maximize your chances of success on the
internet.
Here is a list of clients for whom we have created web sites:
| Arrowhead Plastic Surgeons Atlas World Travel BEC Chemical The Bluffs Brennan Industrial Truck BikeToledo Choice Ticketing The Commons at Sandusky ElderCare Advocates |
Fiberspace Funk/Leutke/Skunda Gelok International Hause Machines Heidelberg College IFMA/NWO iNet Jefferson Health Care Center Katie Cappellini Monarch Labs |
Parlan Financial |
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