This year marks our 20th anniversary, and we’re inviting the business community to celebrate with us! Introducing Unleash the Power: Breakthrough Marketing You Can’t Afford to Miss — a marketing series that begins with a Kickoff Event, followed by a four-part summit series. Check out the press release below for complete details and view our videos on YouTube!
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Learn the Crucial Elements of a Killer Website and Improve Your Web Presence
By Brian Flook, MIRM, President of Power Marketing
In today’s online environment, a killer website is your single most important marketing tool. Much of the time, buyers will visit your website before they ever see or talk to you in person. Your reputation and closing ratio are often determined by the website alone. What chances does your current site give you of closing a deal online?
You may want a website that is simply an interactive online brochure or you may need a comprehensive e-commerce site. Knowing your consumers allows you to build the most effective web experience.
So think: What do you want your website to do?
Do you want them to purchase something? Do you want visitors to join your database or get out their credit card? Every website should have an objective besides unique visitors. Your website is much more than a destination, it can be where your consumer eliminates you or takes action.
Once you decide what you want to accomplish with your website, you can begin to develop a killer website. So what is a killer website?
A Killer Website:
Developing a NICE
NICE stands for “Nearly Instant Compelling Effect.” Your company’s NICE message should be an instantaneous message that clearly communicates your product’s most sustainable, distinctive and compelling qualities. Unlike your more traditional Unique Selling Proposition, your NICE message is all about speed and the Internet. Similar content, but designed for immediate perception.
When a prospective customer visits your website, their immediate impression is your NICE message. Within seconds your home page communicates to the buyer more about your company and your product than is reasonable, fair or desirable. BUT THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS! What is the immediate signal your website sends out? What is the instantaneous effect your website has on visitors? That is your NICE message.
Some websites communicate poor quality or shoddy marketing and design. Others communicate your company’s attention to detail and use great imagery, web savvy and navigational ease to get the point across.
We all make snap decisions, and the Internet makes it that much easier to make a snap decision when making a purchase or choosing to hire a company. Don’t miss out on sales opportunities — respond to the change with a great website.
Top 4 Keys for Developing a Killer Website:
Be Prepared
Carefully plan your site’s navigation. Your site’s navigation scheme is the essence of the experience. Ask yourself “What do my customer’s want?”
Helpful Navigation Hints:
Use Keywords in Your Content
Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” Sure, both provide light, but one gets your attention while the other demands it. Write first for your human friends and then for search engine robots. That being said — research your keywords! Pay for a keyword research project or use Google’s Keyword Tool. Our SEO team at Power Marketing would be happy to price a custom SEO campaign for your company today. Just click here!
Helpful Content Hints:
Think Simplicity in Design
The greatest designers know that simplicity is the supreme form of sophistication. Clutter, confusion and visual turmoil are repulsing; clean, simple design gently entertains my presence.
Helpful Design Hints:
Search Engine Optimization is Critical
SEO matters! Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an Internet marketing strategy with the purpose of improving the volume and quality of traffic to your website from SERPs (search engine results pages) using organic search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion.
When your site is properly optimized for search engines, your web presence and Internet relevance greatly improves. SEO is crucial, but don’t forget to design your site and copy for people first, then search engines. Don’t forget to add media to your website, including anchor text, images, video, .pdf files, etc.
Five SEO Techniques You Can Start Tomorrow!
If you want to succeed on Google, you must understand Google! Best of luck as you pursue your success online. Keep reading our Power Points for more tips about web design, strengthening your keywords, SEO and your overall marketing strategy. To learn more about the ideas in this newsletter and others, contact us at info@Power-Marketing.com.
*Article appeared in the July issue of Power Points. Sign up to receive the monthly e-newsletter here!
What exactly is a brand? Does such a thing exist or is it just more marketing mumbo jumbo slight of hand? Some people think their color scheme and logo make up their brand. What do you think? I believe that the concept of ‘brand’ is overrated, but the effect of it is not. I describe that effect as ‘brand recognition.’ I believe a brand is a promise delivered! That promise is expressed in many ways: customer service, great product, value, price, quick response, etc. Great marketing always comes down to one thing: Tell your audience, in a compelling way, what your company does that is unique and better than your competition? Answer that question and perform the answer consistently, and you’re on your way to building a good brand. That doesn’t mean you don’t need a good logo or consistent marketing or a website that provides customers with a great experience. You do!
Don’t confuse the concept of image building with branding. They are similar, but not the same. The following is a simplified definition of branding found in Wikipedia®: A brand includes a name, logo, slogan, and/or design scheme associated with a product or service. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the use of the product or service and through the influence of advertising, design and media commentary. A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to the product and serves to create associations and expectations around it.
The simplest concept of branding is that it’s much more than images, icons or names. The capacity to own a brand is larger and more far-reaching than any ad or marketing campaign could ever hope to be. Brand loyalty is truly a gift to companies from customers when the business proves, beyond any doubt, that they are worthy of their trust. This usually occurs when the company’s performance, credibility and consistency have risen above the competition. At that point, the company becomes the proud owner of that which only customers can give and take away — solid brand recognition.
Image advertising can buttress an existing brand, but rarely will it ever create one on its own. If you have a bad image, you need to change it by improving your product, service or the client’s perception of both. Product image is about reputation, credibility and standing in the community. While you can control your company’s identity (which is its graphic appearance), you have less control over its image (which is the general perception your customers have).
Brand is about the consistent performance of quality and benefits that you put forth and, hopefully, maintain in numerous media. It’s a strategic way of establishing your company and products in the minds of customers by using advertising (newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, outdoor medium and the Internet), collateral materials (flyers, brochures, printed materials, direct mail, trade shows and telemarketing) and even point-of-purchase materials among other things to “brand” your image into the minds of your consumers. Much like a rancher brands his image into the hindquarter of his herd.
Branding 101 teaches that a brand is more than a name or a company logo and that customer loyalty can’t be earned by an ad. In order to gain customer brand loyalty — which is a concept that is fading every day — you must gain customer’s trust over time by consistently performing in a fashion that demonstrates your credibility.
Try these five brand-building ideas and employ them into your marketing to begin creating better brand recognition:
1. Make a specific brand promise and consistently deliver on that promise.
2. Keep your marketing consistent (website, logo, collateral materials, signs, etc.)
3. Don’t attempt to be everything to everyone. The Internet gives business the ability to niche our products and services like never before.
4. Position someone in your organization as an expert in your field using seminars, social media, editorials/white papers, blogs or other means.
5. Your business needs to own something if you don’t have a unique product or service: a story, a unique offering, and a social audience.
Branding is important, but it isn’t simply a one-step process. The concept of owning a brand is popular, but the process is much more difficult. To own a brand is to possess the top-level of recognition of a category in the consumer’s mind. Xerox owns the copying category. FedEx owns the overnight shipping category. And Godiva owns the chocolate gift category. What category can you own?