A WEBSITE PRIMER FOR NON-GEEKS Ralph Sherman/madison2main.com © madison2main, 2013, all rights reserved

Marketing Context  Your website is your brand  Most good websites are content/information-driven  Websites, like your brand, need to reflect both short-term needs and long-term values  Buyers today are looking for transparency--expect brands to embrace the web’s value to them  All websites perform better when coordinated with other marketing and operations strategy

Requirements  Every successful website must have:  Answers: Who/What/For Whom/Why  Intuitive navigation  Structural (designed) SEO (Search Engine Optimization)  Basic Analytics tools (aka Google Analytics)  A plan for adding, replacing, editing content

Also Nice To Have…  Relevant links from other sites  Content sharing options (Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest)  Promotional content  Data capture and lead management system (CRM)  Valuable, proprietary content

Start Here  Think of your website as an offer—buyers choose offers when:  They are aware  They are quickly engaged  You build trust  You make it easy  You make them smarter

Discovery Before Design  Before your select a template, Content Management System (CMS) or agency/consultant:  Discuss needs with your stakeholders (employees, customers, investors)  Do a brand inventory—what is your current messaging, what needs improvement  What if—understand what more leads might mean to growth and operations--quantify  Know what decisions require consensus vs approvals

You Get What You Pay For  Websites may be “free” or cost hundreds of thousands of dollars—the more leads you need, the more likely you will need experienced, professional marketing help and tools  Service-based brands, especially local and “search- driven” products can use a well-designed website to assure “1 st Page” rankings and eliminate some competition  If you don’t have someone “billable” on your staff with content development skills and communications training, you need to outsource it and budget it as overhead or sales expenses

And SEO Is Still Critical  On-site: how the content is written, titled and annotated to index properly with organic (keyword) search  Off-site: growing in importance for indexing high with search engines—sharing content, links from other sites “SEO is about being authentic, credible and relevant to your brand and offering”.

Beware the Web “Dandy”  If it sounds too good to be true, it is  Web design is more than writing code, or filling templates  Proper web design and content will improve your rankings, increase traffic and build lead opportunities—it is still up to you to leverage that  Social Media is not a “thing”—it is another tactic that can build trust and awareness over time  Don’t create a Blog if you hate to write—and don’t outsource it to someone who does not know your brand

And Remember…  Every website is one thing if nothing else— a trusted source of useful information. Ralph Sherman Principal Consultant Madison2Main