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With the changes in today's economy, many small businesses are looking for better, more cost-effective ways to promote their products and services. In addition, many consumers are turning to the Internet first, even before using the phone book, when looking for local companies to do business with. This is leading many businesses to take a harder look at adding online marketing to their marketing strategy. Of course, the first step in doing so is having a website. But there are a few marketing related questions a small business owner should ask before hiring a web designer to create their small business website.
Do they understand direct response marketing?
When used correctly, your website can become one of your best marketing and sales tools. But to do so, it will need to be created with solid direct response principles in place. That doesn't mean that your website has to look like a long-form sales letter. But it should do a good job of grabbing people's attention and enticing them to take action immediately...whether that's making a purchase, calling for a quote, subscribing to an email list or some other action. The entire purpose of your website is to get a response and a good web designer that understands direct response principles can help you create such a site.
Do they have online marketing experience?
Your web designer should also understand online marketing, which is different than just knowing about direct response marketing. There are some particular nuances to marketing a website on the Internet that you'll want to be sure your web designer is aware of. For example, the technology used to create a website or the way the URLs are formed can have an impact on how well it ranks in the search engines. Just because your website "works" doesn't mean it will "work well" in the search engines. A good web designer with solid online marketing know how can help you navigate these potential landmines.
Will they do any real SEO for your site?
Just about every web designer you ask is going to tell you that they'll do search engine optimization (SEO) for your site. But that's simply not a good enough answer. More specifically, you want to make sure that if they offer to do SEO for your site, that they're doing keyword research. Otherwise, how will they know what terms to optimize your site for? The last thing you want to do is pay for a site that you expect to show up in the search engines only to find out you're not getting any traffic.
You'll also want to make sure they're building links for your site. This is the single biggest factor affecting your search engine rankings, but is also time consuming and is something many pure web design companies aren't willing to do. But if you can get connected with a web marketing company that also provides web design services, you'll have a good chance of getting solid SEO work along with having your website created.
Will the website they create include email marketing?
Email marketing is one of the most overlooked and profitable strategies that small businesses can use to make their website produce better results. Most website visitors won't purchase, call or take action the first time they visit your site. One way to minimize the number of these lost leads is to give away something of value in exchange for their contact information. This could be something like a discount coupon, free report, video, audio, etc. Then you can follow up with them over time using an email newsletter or similar strategy.