www.epnet-design.co.za
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Need To Create A Website That's Profitable?
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The two most important factors to a profitable website are useful content and top search engine rankings to ensure visitor traffic.
1) Top search engine rankings to ensure visitor traffic.
Everyone who has a website wants it to rank high in the search engines.
Our search engine marketing services are as important to us as our web design
skills, (what is the use of building a web site if you can't get it highly
placed on the search engines?) This activity of ours, to get your site highly
ranked and get lots of visitor traffic to your website, is critical and has
resulted in our success. read more...
2) Useful Website Content
Business websites are a waste of money and time. Well most of them are. Most
people go online for just one reason-- Get Information. Yet, what do you see at
most websites?
copy like this: Mission Statement!
See the problem? If you stop and think, this is not a website problem. It’s a
communication problem, which is why most websites fail. The customer wants
information and help and most communication fails to do that.
They load you with mission statement and with information about
the company. It’s all about me, me, me. This primary reason causes more than 90%
of all websites to be inefficient, useless and a waste of time.
It is also the prime reason why not many people make money off their website. If
you start talking about YOU, no one is interested. To give out credible, useful
information is the prime function of every communication piece. If almost
everything on your website doesn’t answer the question What’s in it for me?,
it's definitely not worth the time of the customer.
What a Well Designed Website Does: |
- It gives information, and builds
credibility.
- It builds the brand and allows you to earn
off the brand.
- It builds customer loyalty.
- It allows customers to use it as a
suggestion box. It’s not a perfect world and
customers should be encouraged to let you know
what can be fixed.
- It should achieve basic marketing
principles. It should be solving a problem and
aimed at a specific target audience.
- It should generate its own income like any
profit centre. It should justify its reason for
existing.
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How To Create A Near Perfect
Website
Consider these factors as important benchmarks for
creating a website. If your website doesn't do these
things, you have to question, why not? |
- Revenue Generation
- Data Collection
- Information Source
- Feedback and Complaints
- Distribution
- Reconstruction
- Fan Club
- Associated Tools
- Meet the Basics of Communication
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While it's all very fine to be a
charitable institution, a website costs money. Which
person or organisation in their right sense would
spend R50,000 for no return? There would be
questions to answer and heads would roll.
Yet, most organisations do just that. They spend
anywhere from R12,000 to R50,000 on a website that
will not generate any return.
We are not talking about straightforward e-commerce
here. We are talking about a bigger brand issue and
how you can use the brand to achieve the financial
goals of the organisation. The watchword should
always be--Show me the money!
Yes, even schools, hospitals and other organisations
can use their websites to make money, and then use
the money for a good cause. Charity and good causes
are all very fine, but everything costs money. If
you can generate revenue, there is no reason on
earth why you shouldn’t be doing so.
When You're A Guru, Everyone Listens
It's not what you say, it’s how you say it. Website
design is not about design, it’s about thought
process. Websites are but a tool to get information
that builds the brand further. Articles and material
that help the person browsing the site can achieve
this.
Information isn’t about getting across what you want
them to hear. It’s about asking them what they would
like to have. This is endless. The customers' needs
keep changing and you must be able to have
information that can excite and educate them. This
also keeps the other audiences active.
Who Are Your Audiences?
A website imparting information appeals to two
simultaneous audiences. It speaks to your current
audience like a newsletter or brochure would and it
also speaks to a potential audience.
While you are specifically targeting current
clients, there is no reason why the information
doesn’t impart knowledge to future clients, even
potential employees.
There are a zillion people out there who are simply
selling goods and services and not helping the
customer in any way. If you help them and keep in
touch with them, when the need arises, you will be
first in line.
Clawing Your Way To The Top
This is also a good system to use when you want to
capture business from competition. You don’t always
have to be #1 with your client. If you don’t have
the business, keep plugging at your #2 position and
someday #1 will stumble. When that happens, you get
an opportunity to move in. Don’t always look at
everything as a sale situation. People have innate
fears about change. Imparting good information marks
you out as a credible, trustworthy source and their
desire to work with you will go up as you keep
giving them nuggets of useful information.
If You Don’t Do This, Drown Yourself
Helpful content is one of the most important and
inexpensive tools to corner your target audience. If
a person feels the connection and you lead them
through the right steps, they will invariably feel
the need to get more information.
If you aren’t collecting e-mail addresses off your
website, then you’re missing out on the few people
(or many as the case may be) that are really
interested in your product or service.
How To Get The Data Off Your Customers
The only way to get them to part with their e-mail
address is to first establish your credibility and
then offer something in return. However, once you
have their e-mail address and their permission, you
can turn your website into a wonderful marketing
machine as long as you don’t overdo it. People get
tons of e-mail everyday and the junk goes out very
quickly. The more useful your information is, the
more chances you have of getting visitors to sign
up. You can then use that information to market to
that audience selectively. So make sure you're
collecting data or your website's true potential
becomes pretty dodgy.
Is Your Website Built For Complaints?
You build a car with all the features. You paint it
black. The customer wants it red. You try to sell
the black car and face resistance. You call the
customer stupid and go on trying to promote your
black car.
We all do this. We decide that’s what we need to
promote. The customer on the other hand would like
something else that fulfils their needs. We never
stop to ask. Ever!
Every section of your website should have the
ability to handle feedback that can then be
incorporated within your website and other
communication to give the customers what they need.
Feedback also allows you to stay ahead of your
competition big time! Once the customers trust you
and see changes in the website, they will be
encouraged to give more important feedback that
could change not just the website but even the
working of the organisation. Perception is
everything, and you need to know at all times what
the outside world perceives your organisation to be.
Once you have that data, it allows you to go ahead
and make the changes you need.
Is Your Website Sitting In A Box?
How are you going to promote your website? While
most websites rely on getting to the top of the
search engines, you may not have that need. You may
have a very specific targeted audience you want to
reach. That audience would never search for your
website online. They would have to know it, or never
find it at all.
Companies print brochures and then make sure they go
out. They build websites and it sits in the box
undistributed. They hope, and this is a big hope,
that someone will visit. It doesn’t happen. You have
to figure out the distribution process as well, so
that your website goes out to your target audience.
If It's Worth Building, It's Worth Renovating
Most organisations make changes to their business to
keep competitive. Yet, they think nothing of keeping
the website stagnant for 50+ years. (Ok, I’m
exaggerating, but on the web 1 year= 10 normal
years)
Expect change to be inevitable. The website should
be constructed so that it's easily changeable and
updateable. It should also not require a degree in
rocket science. You should be able to update it
while you’re sitting at a cyber cafe in the Bahamas
while sipping your Caribbean Punch!
Understand that it’s inevitable and, like all
marketing tools, this tool should be reviewed at
least every 6-12 months and changed or reconstructed
to meet current customer demands.
Are You Signing Autographs Yet?
Most organisations survive on their fan club. People
who love you so much, that they’re willing to talk
about you to everyone in sight. Many organisations
have clients that are well spread out.
The website can be used to keep that Fan Club
together. It should be used as a networking tool as
well. Most organisations ignore this fact.
If I love eating Indian curries, everyone else in
that Indian curry section can be linked up to do
business with each other. If they love your company
or organisation, they will reinforce each other
about how great it is, plus they will do business
with each other.
The more successful they get, the more it rubs off
the organisation and eventually, the more business
you get to do with them because of their success.
A Website Shouldn’t Be Deadline Driven. It Should
Be Need Driven
What’s the point of having an absolutely stunning
website before deadline if it doesn’t do anything
for the person viewing it. Too many people in
organisations are caught up in their own ego of
having a website up. It’s often not worth it.
Websites Aren’t For The Company. They Are For The
Customer
Websites are a marketing tool. Use the principles of
marketing to build and promote them. That of course,
means having a target audience. Having a problem you
can solve. Flag off that problem and then provide a
solution.
Yahoo might be the wonder of yesterday but
Google.com is the one that gets the most converts.
Yahoo is trying to be everything to everyone, Google
isn’t. Don’t get lost in the hype of technology
because everything on this planet is based on
psychology and emotion.
Most websites have no objectives at all. They have
no target audience. They are created because it’s
fashionable to do so.
Dump the fashion. Understand the basics of internet
marketing and communication. And if you don’t
understand the basics, get someone who can!
Otherwise you’re doing what millions of websites
across the world do- Nothing!
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 Marketing and developing websites
Our web design services
Graphic Designers Africa If you need not only a
compelling and attractive looking website but also a
productive one this is where Epnet Web Design can help.
We are totally committed to the success of your project
and understand the importance of good service,
efficiency, productivity and are open 24/7/365!". Our
professional development & design team of consultants
are made up of highly trained staff, including ISP
service providers, project managers, graphic designers,
website developers, web designers, programmers,
copywriters and search engine optimisation experts we
also provide web hosting we are Internet consultants and
SEO marketing consultants in South Africa.
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Successful web sites
Do you want a website or do you want a website
design and marketing company to make you money, and
get you noticed? Read our article on
profitable
website design and marketing and what we will do for
you!
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