As a solid and reputable agency in business since 2000, we are passed behind our desperate times hungry for any type of business coming our way. Not only our clients are selecting use, we have also become selective in who we choose to team up with! and that is a good thing because:

We are not into selling you a website or brand and walk away. We are not a hit-and-run business. As part of our philosophy we are heavily invested in our partners’ success. We want our clients to have multi-million-dollar budgets for us, yet we realize the fact that  it won’t be possible until we help them making ten fold or more in return. We are investing in our clients’ success and want to grow together. That is a win-win situation you want to be in.

How Your Website Relates To Your Marketing Goals

Consider, for a moment, your key marketing goals. If your strategy looks like most, you likely seek to increase brand awareness, capture more leads, and increase your customer base. As promotional efforts are increasingly moving toward digital channels, you need to build an online presence that helps to achieve these goals.

Marketing goals, when set correctly, have to be measurable. But without a strategic and effective website, how can you measure them? Brand awareness, for example, is a surprisingly abstract concept that is difficult to grasp without concrete metrics. Total web visits give you a better idea of how many people are aware of your brand.

Similarly, growing your customer base is easier to gauge if you have a web presence that helps you convert leads and ultimately customers. For instance, if you know that on average, 40% of your leads convert to customers, and your website generates 200 leads per month, you know that it will contribute to 80 new customers during that time period. Not surprisingly, 81% of marketers in a 2015 survey considered their website to be the single most important factor in accomplishing their marketing goals.

The Multi-Level Needs of Modern Websites

Any buyer's journey, whether you're trying to sell products or services in a B2C or B2B industry, begins with research. At this stage, potential customers simply look for solutions to their problems. Increasingly, that means simply typing in a general term or phrase into a search engine. Will they find your website?

They only will if it's optimized for search engines. And even if it is, it needs to be attractive and engaging enough to hold your audience's increasingly short attention span. Finally, it has to offer your audience a natural 'next step' (such as signing up for more information and to become a lead).

In short, your website needs to be built with SEO in mind, designed with a purpose, and optimized for conversions. Only then can it help you accomplish your marketing goals.

What Do You Have to Lose?

If your website cannot accommodate the above levels of audience engagement and customer conversion, it cannot be successful - and your business could suffer. Your target audience will move to competitors whose website they can more easily find, and find more attractive.

The internet has significantly democratized marketing, increasingly putting customers in control of their own brand exposure. Simply placing an ad will not longer allow you to reach your target audience, just as the phrase if you build it, they will come no longer applies. Your audience decides where to turn their attention, and if you ignore that fact through a simple brochure-type website, your business will suffer.

Digital marketing, increasingly is becoming a game of leaders and followers. Brands who continue to innovate and offer their audience dynamic presences that are relevant, engaging, and interactive are winning the attention battle. The followers, who are just now building a static website that cannot compare to the industry's leaders, will fall behind.

Which of these groups does your brand fall in? If it's the latter, your website may be part of the problem rather than the solution. In that case, it may be time for a change.

Building a Website that Helps Your Business Grow

Given the importance of a successful website in today's digital environment, you need to approach the process of building and improving your online presence both strategically and holistically. Start with your marketing goal: what exactly are you hoping to accomplish on a high-level scale? Relate that goal to your website, and develop measurable objectives that work toward it.

To accomplish these goals, avoid shortcuts at all cost. A variety of services have made it increasingly simple to create a website template for little to no cost. But templates like these cannot reliably accomplish your marketing goals in the short, medium, and long term.

Finally, any business website should be centered around your target audience. Know who might be looking for you, how they search for businesses like you, and what they expect once they find your online presence. Never rely on assumptions or outdated 'best practices' to build your website. Instead, start and end your consideration with a thorough audience analysis.

You may be in charge of and paying for your website. But if you don't build it in a customer-centric model, your website could be the problem.

What You Can Gain From the Right Website

Turning it from a problem into a solution leaves you with much to gain. You can build your online brand equity, gain more awareness and consumers, grow your market and audience share relative to your competitors, and position your brand effectively as a credible leader in your industry. But more than anything else, you will build a website that actively improves your business ROI rather than simply serving as a static representation of what you want your brand to be.

How actively are you using your online presence to attract, gain, and retain customers? And is your website part of your marketing problem, or part of the solution? Only through an effective strategy, goal setting, and an engaging presence can you ensure that your website helps your brand expand and thrive.