There are a few things to consider when beginning the journey of Online Marketing. Central to your Online Presence is the design of your own website and its subsequent pages and profiles. A good marketing agency will ask you about what your business does, so that they can get an idea of how to repurpose that information to connect you with relative markets. A GREAT marketing agency digs deeper into who you are as a company and creates inspiring ways to demonstrate that throughout your Online Strategy, so that you have a comprehensive feel in your communications.

The difference here is that one method positions your company for Online Traffic, whilst the other positions your brand for engagement. We're one of the latter agencies, where we place people and passion in their respective roles throughout the design process. Read further to identify a few ways you can create this connection with your audience.

Focus on why you do what you do

Although you need to express your core offerings on your website, those are secondary to the sales process. The first MAJOR step in any interaction is what we call "The Greeting". This interaction can take place in various formats and circumstances, but are all equal in value. "The Greeting" is about first impressions and first contact.

Think about it - in the first five seconds, you can figure out if you're engaged in an interaction you don't want to continue. Whether it be that cold call, which inherently sometimes feels slimy, or that salesman, who talks about products non-stop and never listens to your needs; these violate the standard of one-one value exchange. The consumer wants to know why they should buy from you as well as what benefit they'll receive from using your products/services. 

Make it simple for your audience to find what they want

This sounds like a no brainer, doesn't it? You'd be surprised how many businesses fail this test of Online design. This goes back to the question of what you'd like your website to be designed FOR, as opposed to what you want it to look like. If you have a website for your company that makes 'chachkies', then don't you think it'd be a good idea to show someone where they can go to get more information about them? Even better, wouldn't you like the visitor on your site to enquire as to how they can obtain these quality items? What if I said this is a local distributor looking for a 'chachkies' producer to meet the demand of 100k monthly order? No, I bet you're listening.

The point is, your website should have a clear aim - in this case it's to educate the Online Community about the business, its unique advantage in chachkies, and why they're useful. If we've done that, and maybe sprinkled in a couple of offers on landing pages, the serious chachkies guys will be enquiring and we'll have nurtured leads that translate into conversion and  then to sales. Money in the bank and a win for the Online team.

Imagine the opposite - someone is on their computer and looking for what your company does, only to find your website with a lot of flashy distractions, but no clear way to find what the're looking for. Three to four clicks later, they've moved onto a clean professional website, with call-to-actions and uniquely designed pages with just enough information to entice an enquiry.

Make sure lead generation is a vital design feature of your website, as without that, you may be losing potential customers to the guys that do.

Want to learn more about how to design for Lead Nurturing?