Methods to market your business through your website
There is no doubt that the marketing landscape for any kind of business has changed dramatically in the past few years. In the early days of the Internet, having a business website was essentially little more than a ‘shop window to the world’ where goods and services could be advertised, with some deals closed and sales made. Today things are very different, with online transactions playing an increasingly large role in trading across the board and ‘conversation rates’ being the big buzz phrase for an online presence. What this means is that marketing your business through your website is now a twofold process, one part of which revolves around getting people to visit your site, and the other making sure that visits converts into sales.
Worldwide platform
The old name for the Internet was ‘the world wide web’ and today that web is more of a platform, or connection of different platforms, that makes up a truly global marketplace. This means that any business, no matter how small and wherever it is physically located can effectively trade with people and other businesses all over the world. However, it also means that competition is fierce and the marketplace is extremely crowded, so in order to make a success of things, you need to utilize every tool available to you.
Online image
The image your company presents online is essentially the way that the majority of people will perceive it. This means that your website design is crucial, because an old-fashioned or dated look will not only give the wrong impression, it can also mean that functionality suffers too.
One big example of this is the way that search engines like Google now put a great deal of weight behind how ‘mobile friendly’ your website is. Basically, not all web pages are designed to work on all types of screen sizes, so something that looks great on a desktop or laptop might be virtually unusable on a smartphone. This is just one basic way that a business website needs to take a wide overview of what it is intended for and how it needs to go about doing it.
Branding
A stylish looking site can make all the difference too, and that doesn’t mean you have to have the budget of a multinational corporation to achieve great results. Branding is all about choosing the right images to promote an identity. This means that the font you use can be as important as the words it spells out. It also means that photographs and pictures are key things to get right, because the Internet is a highly visual medium.
Thankfully you don’t need professional grade equipment or skills to get access to the highest quality premium imagery. You can find thousands of images on Dreamstime, which can be used to make your website deliver the best production values possible and give you stunning imagery that will attract attention and keeping visitors engaged.
Be social
Of course, one of the basic things to understand about marketing your business through your website is that the Internet is a two-way process and it is all about communication. Connecting with existing and potential customers is the name of the game, and so having a great looking well designed website is only part of the story. Using the social aspects of the online world is now an established pillar of marketing and that means coming to grips with being social.
Using major networks such as Twitter and Facebook to spread the word about your business can take many different forms. Paid-for advertising on these mediums is increasingly taking over from more traditional print publication ads, but at a different level – simply putting the work into building up networks and connections can work wonders in a totally different way. Having the chance to contact a company in real time and get a prompt reply is something that an entire generation is now taking for granted, and any business that ignores this is likely to fall behind their more savvy competitors.
Content is king
Making sure that your web content is informative and engaging is also essential to generate return visits. Using regularly updated blogs can help spread your brand in an organic way as users share it with others in their own networks. Additionally, having reviews and feedback options gives another dimension to the old ways of marketing by ‘word of mouth’ and recommendation. Of course, some people might be concerned that this type of approach leaves them open to bad feedback or negative comments, but users far prefer to see this being answered or tackled head-on rather than businesses that turn a blind eye to potential problems.
Other forms of content such as video and audio demonstrations can also be highly-effective online marketing tools that can easily be introduced to an existing website, and immediately offer extra value. Basically anything that generates user interest and keeps the attention of a visitor to your site is a good thing and should utilized at every possible opportunity.
Future proofing
Making sure that your online presence has an up-to-date functional form and features contemporary styles only bring you to today. The fact is that no website can ever be cast in stone and expect to look as good in a month or two as it does today. The rapid evolution of the Internet and the devices that we use to access it means that things are always changing and forever moving forward. This means that having a ‘future-proof’ website is an impossibility, but once you get into the frame of mind that understand you need to be constantly engaging with your website, it becomes far easier to make sure you don’t get left behind.