Marketing in the 21st Century

21^st Century Websites and the Marketing Behind Them

By Shannan DuShane

November 9, 2012

If you are a business owner and you have a website, what is the one thing you are most concerned about? Most of the time the answer is; it has to be visually stimulating and business functional.  These days you still want those objectives; but you want a company that has a focus on much more than just that; you need a company that focus’ on the entire picture of the design and marketing strategies as a collaboration together.

Websites today have several unique components; from open source management systems to the ability to use ERM software and integration of custom applications.  Sometime the thought of marketing does not even cross their minds until the completion of the website and then it is too late.  Well not too late but if definitely depends on your marketing strategy what you will have to change and implement after the fact into the website to accomplish the goals you have set forward. 

With my clients, I always start with a design and development questionnaire and that includes an in-depth analysis of the marketing strategy; both online and offline, to ensure complete overhaul of the website takes on the same advantage as the company marketing initiative.  Knowing that it is unquestionably lengthy, it is undoubtedly an important necessity in the complete knowledge and understanding of the tactical approach I will take in the concept, design, development and completion of the website.  I take into consideration each factor including their current branding strategies, brand awareness, online marketing, social media efforts, PPC advertising, search engine optimization and search engine marketing; off line marketing and local marketing efforts as well.

While the concept is done and approved, I am researching the company, doing marketing and target audience analysis, and a search engine analysis of where their current position is, if a current Google account is setup and in place with all of the tools such as analytics, places, webmaster tools, ect. Other main objectives I look at would be if there is a sitemap in place and has it been submitted and the cross linking strategy in place. Obviously there are many other factors but I’m not trying to write a book here.

Search engine optimization is one of the most important factors to consider implementing into your new website. While this is a constant items to attend to because organic results are never guaranteed it really depends on your designer/developers ability to understand influences and dynamics of the search engines and what they look for.

Some items you want to take into consideration would be your positive ROI; because this is a long term tactic you will need to set aside a minimum time each week to review and make adjustments.  This marketing investment is a solution that will bring you higher return-on-investments if you keep up on setting time aside and not letting it go.  SEO marketing also increases your brand awareness, this is an important for any company’s long term success to ensure a broad awareness of it brand. Non-stop marketing, just consider the costs of having just one marketing consultant promoting your site online 24hours a day! Now that would be expensive! SEO resolves this issue for your brand, as it never stops nor sleeps.

So many businesses build websites and either assume traffic will just flock to them or find them that they don’t need to pursue any other avenues of marketing.  WRONG! Search Engine Optimization (SEO) makes your website work for the proper rankings and position on the engines.  This will in turn bring you more leads, increased consumer traffic and improved visibility overall.