Considering an online marketing strategy? Bamboozled by the options?

 We are all constantly bombarded by businesses asking our advice about marketing their businesses online; Search engine optimisation, Pay per click, social media marketing…

 With a myriad of digital marketing companies and 10 more starting every week, the choice is immense. Yet all online marketing strategies fundamentally link back to your website. If your website isn’t up to par, your marketing strategy will have been in vain!

 By driving ‘traffic’ to your website that is lacking in certain aspects, such as poor usability and design, you only fuel the growing impatience of customers and clients. If your customers can’t accomplish their aims on your site, the competition is only a click away! People want what they are looking for and they want it now!

 Take a step back, think about your website,

• Is your website easy to navigate and is it easy for customers to find what they need to know?
• Does it accurately reflect your business and the services or products that you offer?
• Does the design reflect your brand and create an element of trust for the customer?

 Most reading this article will say, “Yes – Of course!!” to the questions above. However let’s examine the facts:

• More than 83% of Internet users are likely to leave a web site if it takes too many clicks to find what they’re looking for. (source: Arthur Andersen)
• 58% of visitors experiencing usability problems on a web site don’t return. (source: Forrester Research)
• 60% of the time, users fail to find the information they’re seeking on a web site due to usability issues. (source: User Interface Engineering)
• The average e-commerce site could increase its sales by an astonishing 79% with a usability redesign. (source: Jakob Nielson)

 So maybe you should look again at your previous answer!

 If you want to help your prospective clients and customers reach their goals, you have to think about how your website functions for them. An easy to use site that reflects your brand and values will reassure them that they are buying from or working with a reputable supplier. One who cares about their customers and the service they provide. Your website is the ideal place for you to dispel any qualms they may have about using your company.

 At Templeton Green we can provide you with the knowledge that will raise your awareness of what is working with your site and what is not. We will help provide the consultancy for you to streamline your business process both online and offline. This will allow you to engage more intelligently with your digital marketing and SEO Company, such that you can ensure you provide them with the kind of brief that is an accurate reflection of your companies brand and values.

We would recommend also that once you have re-defined the business process that is attractive to your ideal client – that you engage in the first instance, a specialised web design company who focus of great design more than any other service. One of our favourites for the SME community is deFreeze Ltd.

 A well designed and developed website will:

• Confirm to customers/clients that you are a business of good standing and have invested in a professionally built and designed site
• Be easy to navigate and use ensuring customers spend time on the site, engaging and enquiring or buying
• Be ready when you do come to implement an online marketing strategy – the foundations are already in place; a solid, well designed and built website.

You wouldn’t build a house on wet stand, the foundations would never work. In the same way, you shouldn’t spend money on a marketing campaign, essentially to drive people to your site, if your website doesn’t work.

So as we always say at Templeton Green – In business as in life, we have a choice, what will yours be today?