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The most significant aspect of building your website isn’t its beauty; it’s the marketing strategy behind the site. Every great website and web design should start with ensuring a firm marketing foundation. In other words— Marketing strategy comes first!
As a matter of fact, marketing strategy is what determines the following things for your business website:
- What ‘looks good’ visually
- The layout of the site
- The constructs of effective navigation layouts
- Its conversion into a revenue and lead-generating marketing tool that works!
Business owners always tell me they ‘just want a website.’ Then, I ask— WHY Do You Need A Website? This question typically throws people off guard as they instantly conclude that needing a website means far more than just ‘wanting’ one!
So, I wrote this article to help ensure you’re on the right track when it comes to marketing your website properly. Simply ‘having a site online’ will never work if you don’t understand how to develop and incorporate a business strategy behind it. A marketing strategy for your site ensures that it will evolve into a wonderful and functional online tool! In addition, this article addresses three fundamental marketing strategy considerations for web design success.
Ask yourself the following questions beforehand to effectively market your web design.
- Do I have a clear ROI tied to the development of my website?
- What should my content and messaging convey to visitors coming to the site?
- How can I effectively drive traffic to my website?
Question 1— Is there a clear ROI tied into developing your website?
With every digital marketing strategy, as a business owner, you definitely want to see a return on your investment dollars. And developing your website is no exception; you must incorporate an online strategy to acquire tangible results! Yet, some may wonder what building an ROI-based website would look like. Well, allow me to explain.
Over the years, I’ve learned there are three key aspects to having an ROI-based marketing plan for your website and its design. And the following factors can help businesses measure and determine an ROI from their company site.
Businesses need to think about the ROI for their website from perspective leads, marketing database building, engagement, and revenue generation.
The following criteria is an example of what I mean:
- A company site is generating 50 or more leads per month
- It’s building a marketing database of at least 100 new contacts per month
- Their site is increasing brand awareness by generating 2,000+ site visitors per month
- Generated revenues are measurable based on confirmed data
My Bottom Line for Investing in Web Design
No one spends money on marketing without expecting a return on their investment. And to achieve business goals tied to an ROI, you need a marketing strategy to help determine the best way to structure the website to accomplish your business goals.
Question 2— What content and messaging should you convey to potential customers visiting your site?
Brand messaging and engaging content are the most critical marketing strategies for a successful web design. So, ensure you know what you need to say and effectively communicate those messages on each page. And don’t let me get started on the significance of On-Page and Off-Page SEO strategies! That topic is a whole different story!
Providing relevant content marketing to your website will depend on your industry. And though this is true, what you communicate on your site goes far beyond the business industry. For instance, every great company’s web design should consider and apply the following content marketing factors.
You should always:
- Know your target audience on an intimate level.
- Clearly and confidently address their pain points.
- Speak their language to remain ‘relatable’ instead of saying what you think is clever.
- Guide visitors to the critical and accessible information they need quickly and effectively.
- Create a compelling call to action.
My Bottom Line for Content and Web Design
Content is king, and how well you communicate to current and potential customers on your website pages will reveal whether they’ll purchase your products or services. And most importantly, the planning of what you say on each page should be determined at the marketing strategy level before the design begins.
Question 3— How can your web design and marketing strategy drive traffic to the website?
We love that famous saying from the movie Field of Dreams— “If you build it, they will come.” But in the digital marketing world, that saying doesn’t work! If you build a website, no matter how fantastic it looks, simply creating and taking it live doesn’t automatically guarantee increased traffic or converted leads for your business.
Instead, a great website requires a strategic marketing plan of execution and inbound marketing tools to give it steady exposure. In fact, an inbound marketing strategy is what constantly drives new prospect leads and existing customers to your website. And if you apply it right, online visitors will be compelled to purchase more of your products and services once the site is built.
I’ve listed below the four critical factors for driving substantial traffic to your website.
- Always utilize inbound marketing tools, like emails, blogs, SEO or PPC, and social media marketing.
- Know which unique landing or website pages you’re driving people to during every inbound campaign.
- Ensure content is always relevant to potential customer needs and in line with your inbound marketing communication or messaging.
- Use the appropriate inbound marketing platform that considers your target audience’s buyer journey.
My Bottom Line for Incorporating Inbound Marketing
You must know the end goal before the design begins. Knowing this allows you to use your site as a tool to navigate users down a successful buyer’s journey. However, you must work on that end goal while developing your marketing strategy, which should be before the start of creating designs and page copy.
It’s time to develop a solid marketing strategy for your site!
Whether you have a marketing strategy or not, if you’ve grown tired of doing the same things and reaping the same results, it’s time to experience something different. After all, you had a great purpose in mind when you created your business, right? And why shouldn’t you see it grow, thrive, keep clients happy, and yield a substantial ROI? Let us help you strategize and see tangible results!
And because we’re here to ensure you experience those goals, connect with us online to talk strategy and how to best market your website. For instance, you can take the first step now by clicking below!
