Without any degree of hesitation, any business existing today, big or small, would do well with having a website. Why? A website is a business’s best marketing tool.
Although referrals can do wonders for your business, a fast and responsive website with superb visuals and valuable content can set you apart from your competitors and increase your bottom line.
A website is pretty much the gold standard for businesses today when it comes to the world of marketing. Consider it your one-stop shop for all your service and product offerings, information, and FAQs, and it is one of the primary avenues for you to connect with your customers.
Your website is your gateway to communicate everything there is to know and what makes up your brand. Not only that, but it is also where you can deliver your brand voice, assets, your intentions. But to achieve that, it should rank high on every Search Engine Resource Page (SERP) to be able to attract the most number of visitors.
Accentuate Web Design and Marketing is in the business of designing and creating websites for our clients. Alongside this, we also offer a holistic approach to all your marketing and online presence needs.
No longer will you solely rely on referrals, but we help you promote your site, and expand your reach to as many people as possible.
You Need to be Found
Having a website is only half the battle. Building a website, and getting it live online, does not automatically ensure people will come visiting and, hopefully, come ringing in the sales. Your website is not some fictional baseball field that’s urging you to be built so that people will magically come and watch a game.
If you look closely, at the 1989 movie ‘Field of Dreams’ people did come after the baseball diamond was built. HOW? Perhaps some force or supernatural being compelled them to go to that specific field to watch a game of long-dead baseball legends.
In parallel, a website needs to be known or found by people, so it can be of use to you and your business. Simply putting a website up will not do you any good, unless you promote it.
This is where marketing comes into play. But don’t let that intimidate you. You’d need to know what people are looking for and create a plan on how you can make people find your website.
Your website and marketing must have a symbiotic relationship for each to work successfully. You might have a great website, but if people don’t know it exists, it won’t do your business any good. Likewise, you can have great marketing, but without a website, you can still make sales, albeit slowly. Slow sales also mean your path to success is also considerably slowed down.
Not only do you need your website and marketing to co-exist symbiotically, but they also have to work in synergy to gain maximum results.
If there is one task your marketing people have to do first, it must be to market your website.
Marketing Your Website
To the uninitiated, promoting a website may seem like a daunting task. The good news is, though it may be challenging, there is nothing impossible about it. Know what content to create and get in front of more people.
The key to website marketing is creating valuable and useful content that potential customers would want to read and share. To enhance this further, you’d also need a plan to reach people beyond your existing audience.
When you understand what your audience is looking for and how search engines identify your site to be of great quality, the world is your oyster.
You can start marketing your website through the following channels:
1. Improve Your SEO
Users commonly find a website via search engines. So it is best to start with this channel and enact ways to optimise it. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as the name implies, uses methodologies that make your website not only accessible to search engines, but it also makes it appealing to users.
Google uses ranking algorithms designed to sniff out websites using dozens of signals that make your website appear useful and trustworthy. Tactics in SEO help your business reach the top listing of the search page where interested parties can easily spot your information.
PRO TIP: Great SEO strategies ensure that your business website is front and centre, enabling a steady flow of traffic to your website.
2. Backlinks
Backlinks help drive traffic from one website to your own, and they are extremely valuable promotional tools. Think of website traffic as a form of currency. It would make perfect sense that you’d want to receive this currency from reputable sources.
Just as you don’t want dirty money or those that come from shady lenders, you wouldn’t want traffic coming from irrelevant sources with ill repute.
PRO TIP: Credible backlinks are signals for search engines to mark your content as relevant and trustworthy and will help improve your rankings online!
3. Create Quality Content
Some may argue that content marketing is the only type of marketing left, but the fact still holds that content marketing is as relevant as ever.
Quality content provides your visitors immediate value by imparting new knowledge and insights, perhaps that’s the reason they want to view your site. Do note that your site’s web design plays a crucial role here.
You may have great content, but if your site has an unappealing user interface (UI), or is hard to navigate, it can cause users to bounce out from your page. They’d head on back to the search results page even before they get to know anything about your brand.
PRO TIP: Highly engaging content and web design must work in synergy if you want people to stay on your site long enough to absorb your messaging.
4. Be Social Media Savvy
Social media platforms today are numerous, and marketers have to pick the most advantageous strategies for each specific platform. Each platform presents a different ‘culture’ and what works for one may not be as effective for others.
But regardless of the platform, publishing content on these sites is a powerful way to get customers clicking to your website. They are powerful channels for lead generation.
PRO TIP: Social media is a great channel to connect with your audience genuinely. However, acquiring a substantial number of audience does not automatically translate into sales. Note that everyone has a problem that they need to solve.
You’d need a great and well-implemented strategy, backed up with great service or product, and the right audience. You’d need all these three, PLUS a great website. Social Media is an important element in any business plan, but do note that it’s just one part of a bigger pie.
5. Get the Services of Influencers
Social media influencers are great connectors. These people have established reputations as trendsetters, knowledgeable individuals, and even entertaining that’s sure to capture the attention of a lot of their followers who enjoy their content and actively participate in online conversations.
PRO TIP: Influencers can help promote your brand and make people aware of your marketing messages. Apart from bringing traffic to your website, people get to know about your brand through a third party, which also helps accelerate movement through your sales funnel.
6. Use Email Signatures
Statistics have shown that an average worker sends out about 40 emails per day. In comparison, this same person receives about 121 emails each day. Why not put those outgoing messages to work by promoting your website?
PRO TIP: Emails sent from your brand’s domain name should include a link back to your website. Those readers will be able to easily access your website without having to go through any additional steps.
Your Website and Digital Marketing in Synergy
If you look into your website’s digital marketing, there are various ways to develop a strategy to optimise and promote your website. By investing in digital marketing, you can help your business grow and gain new leads and conversions through your website.
Users normally judge a business the moment they enter a site. Your website’s design and user experience play a major role if your audience remains on your page or leaves.
Furthermore, a strong digital marketing strategy is imperative to help your business grow and reach new leads. By developing a website and marketing, and having it work in synergy, you’ll be able to reach more people that want to hear, learn, and engage your business.
If you need help with website design and developing a digital marketing strategy for it, Accentuate Web Design and Marketing is a full-service Web Design and Digital Marketing Agency. We’d love to help you create a fruitful website and provide digital marketing services, all under one roof.
We’d love for you to see what this looks like, and how you can smash out this concept with our team’s support. Do check out our latest Client Case Studies. These are a testament to designing websites and providing other online services through a holistic and marketing-based approach. We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to contact us to know more.
