Your Website is a Marketing Tool

Your Website is a Marketing Tool

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Everyone knows they need a website. Not everyone knows what a website is for.

Maybe this sounds silly, but try answering this question: What KIND of company should you hire to do your website?

Every day, businesses make the mistake of hiring computer programmers or IT companies or graphic artists to develop their websites.

Yet if you ask those same businesses what they want their website to do, 9 times out of 10, what is most important to them has to do with MARKETING. They mention wanting their website to do the following:

  • Generate leads.
  • Inform potential buyers about their products or services.
  • Create a visible presence online.
  • Give visitors the right kind of impression about the firm.

These are all things that can be easily accomplished with some smart marketing tactics. What does a computer programmer or a networking company know about marketing?

Don’t get us wrong, a designer may know little about marketing; but, what you need is an expert, not a novice. They may be a great artist, but art is still a tool that can be used well or poorly to achieve your marketing goal.

Marketing is about getting the right people’s attention, building interest and creating confidence, and getting them to take action.

That is the most important technology of building websites because that is the purpose of the site. Programming and art are tools that should be used to accomplish that goal. They are not goals in themselves.

A beautiful or striking looking site may be nice to look at, but what if it doesn’t get a single visitor or work to convert a visitor into a potential buyer?

Even though an incredibly functional website, brilliantly programmed may be impressive, if it doesn’t make the phone ring, what good is it?

Those skills are ALSO needed to create an effective website. An ugly website or one inappropriate to the industry or the products or services it is promoting – that will repel visitors and you won’t accomplish your marketing goals.

A website that doesn’t function properly, runs slowly, and/or doesn’t look right on different screen sizes will not only lose visitors in droves, but will take a big hit on search rankings from Google.

So there are three completely different technologies needed to produce a fine and effective website. And these are VERY different. So different that someone who is a master of all three would be a true unicorn. Think of it like having someone who is an NFL linebacker who is also a PhD student in math and a master painter. There is actually someone who is the first two of these, but he has no paintings showing in fine art galleries.

In short, don’t expect to hire a one-man band and get a great website.

So here are four questions to ask any company which is a candidate for developing your website:

  1. Do you have a marketing expert in your company?
  2. Do you have a staff member who specializes in website design (NOT a graphic artist, which normally means print design).
  3. Do you have an employee who specializes in website development?
  4. Are these three different people?

IF a company can answer these questions positively, and you like their portfolio, and reviews show they have good customer service, you are probably going to be happy with your choice.

To extend the pro football analogy, otherwise, you are going to be playing missing a quarterback or a running back.

Lucky for us, at thirteen05 creative, the answer to all four questions is YES!

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