Plenty has been written about how to setup an effective website, from designing a home page to effective SEO management and employing promotional lead-generation tools. But in thinking about all I've read and written on the topic, I’ve boiled it all down to five amazingly simple features and sum it up this way: be direct and to the point.
1) Simplicity – How many times have you gone to a website that was so full and so complicated that you became tired touring and clicking around? Too much hyper-interactivity without a defined purpose is just activity and sure to turn off visitors. One simple message is easy to understand, easy to use and, best of all, easy to purchase.
2) Design – With literally hundreds of millions of active Web pages available, it's essential that yours be well designed. Good design attracts a person’s attention. This seems so obvious, and yet there are millions of websites that have skipped this essential ingredient to success.
3) Communications – Another key to a successful website is to establish a conversation with your visitors. A weekly or monthly enewsletter allows you to stay in front of your visitors and allows them to let you know what they think about what you have to say.
It's essential to establish a voice in your market. But don’t be too loud, by the way. Be very sure your message truly represents who you are and what your company offers.
4) Opt-in – A lot has been written about collecting data on visitors as they download your information or play your videos, etc. With all of the research we’ve conducted, there is much evidence to support that you are better off giving away quite a bit of information without asking for any from your visitors. This seems to encourage increased visits and requests, which are many times more meaningful than trying to push visitors into action.
5) Be responsive – I admit this is somewhat of a gripe of mine, but it never ceases to amaze me when a company receives a request of ours and does not follow up. The company probably got busy with something else and just forgot about our request or it received so many it had no way to process them. Either way, it lost a potential customer and that’s never a good thing.
Suffice to say, it’s important to communicate your interest in all you do and follow through with all of the promises you make in your marketplace.
Following these simple five attributes will help you build a strong platform for everything you do. If you have other thoughts on what are some online “essentials,” be sure to let me know at tom.marin@marketcues.com.
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Tom Marin is the Founder and President of MarketCues, Inc., a national consulting firm. He has worked for some of the world’s largest corporations and middle-market firms. Tom’s focus is to help CEOs drive their strategy shifts and strategic growth programs. Follow MarketCues on Twitter. Tom also welcomes emails new LinkedIn connections or calls to (919) 908-6145.