These days, it seems like everyone has a website. And why not? Once it's created, an effective website can be an invaluable marketing tool that not only provides an easy way to get your business recognized, but it can provide a substitute for printed marketing materials, which saves the environment and saves you money. However, in order for your website to work its magic most effectively, you need to make sure that it's putting your best foot forward. The following tips can help you get the most out of your Internet marketing.
1. Think of your website as an ongoing series of job interviews with thousands of anonymous employers. If it doesn't look good, you don't look good. Remember, many of your potential clients are looking at your website before they've heard of you or your company. How does it represent you and your business? Can your clients tell what you do and how competent you are by looking at your site? Or does it look like it was thrown together, just to "get something up there?"
2. <span style="">Keep an eye on your language.</span> Keep your copy simple, accessible and to-the-point, and make sure things are spelled correctly. Nothing can hamper your credibility like a website or e-mail message filled with poor grammar and typographical errors. Consider hiring a professional copywriter, who has experience in writing for your target audience.
3. <span style="">Hire a professional.</span> Unless you are a web designer by trade, it's a good idea to have a professional develop your site. Not only can a professional designer give you a site that effectively represents your business in a unique and compelling way, it will save you a considerable amount of time and hassle. You have enough to worry about without having to learn web design as well!
4. <span style="">Use Web Standards.</span> Building your website with web standards means a faster-loading, more affordable site which works in every browser. This means that, unlike some sites that only seem to work for Internet Explorer on Windows, your site will continue to represent you effectively on every browser, no matter what.
Dani Nordin is the founder of the zen kitchen, a graphic and web design studio in Somerville MA that specializes in eco-friendly marketing materials. To learn more about the studio and sign up for her monthly newsletter, which contains helpful articles, recipes and studio news, visit http://tzk-design.com.
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Comments: 5
A poor one at that. I work for a manufacturer's rep. We represent at least 20 companies and they all are trying to make the shift to web and CD based literature. The problem is that they all produce marketing materials for paper and then try to transfer them to web or CD via PDF. the problem is that 8 1/2 x 11 printed material does not transfer well to the computer screen. If its big enough to read you can't see it and if you can see it, you can't read it. Also, with printed material, it is easy to put two pieces of paper side by side to compare two items. This is generally much harder to do with computer based materials.
If companies are determined to eliminate paper marketing materials, they should bite the bullet, cut the cord and produce material designed and formatted for the computer screen and dump paper altogether.
Go to ISA.org or adaptivecontrols.com and look at any of the manufacturers listed. These are high tech industrial products. Most sites are little more than indexs to the paper library.