These days, marketing your business involves an effective online strategy in conjunction with your printed advertising.  Most businesses wouldn’t intentionally send out confusing print marketing campaigns, or pieces that play music when you open it (we’ve all seen those children’s birthday cards).  In line with this – we should keep some basic concepts in mind when designing and delivering online marketing efforts, primarily the layout of a company website.  After all, your website is your corporate identity through which a vast portion of users are introduced to your business.

SIGN UP FOR WEBINAR – How to Build a Profitable Website

KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is really THE primary element of a successful website design.  The rest is just fluff.   Unnecessary complexity should be avoided as it turns out consumers don’t care much for opening up a musically animated page that fades into a puzzle that must be solved to find what they’re looking for.  If this sounds like your site, rest assured that you are turning off potential customers and the revenue they could be sending your way.

Actually, your clients care far more about your location, phone number and services than an artsy experience that a designer wants to charge $5,000 to create.  Most web visitors prefer a site that makes it easy to find what they’re looking for, like a restaurant’s hours of business, accurate contact information, and valuable features like the ability to purchase online gift certificates, book appointments, or gather contact information from prospects.

Unfortunately, many businesses are far too focused on flashy visual aesthetics of their web design and spend an inordinate amount of time waffling on the music, background and images on a splash page, the whole time allowing the critical importance of usability to take a back seat.

I know what you are going to say; “My business requires a visually competitive edge!” or “Our appearance is everything to our customers.”  Have no fear!  Your website can deliver the complete package; functional navigation and excellent modern designs that catch the visitor’s eye and draw them in for a closer look.

 SIGN UP FOR WEBINAR – How to Build a Profitable Website

Your business website needs intuitive navigation, proper image placement and careful use of white space to help establish your brand identity – all while allowing visitors to rapidly find what they are looking for.

Ask about PFL’s new online services, which are now providing dynamic websites to our customers. And be sure to sign up for the webinar, which is scheduled for August 24th, at 12:00pm Mountain Time. Don’t miss it!

In my research for upcoming sales training a quote jumped out at me, “In today’s economy, it’s getting harder to find new clients, but it’s easier than ever to lose the ones you’ve got.” While not necessarily a revelation, I thought it drove home a really great point … establishing solid business relationships and, more importantly, constantly cultivating them, is the key ongoing success. 

I’m not a sales professional. I’ve never aspired to be one. In fact the quote that always comes to mind for me when thinking about sales is from Say Anything. When asked what he wants to do with his life, John Cusack’s character says (paraphrasing) “I know what I don’t want to do, sir. I don’t want to buy anything, sell anything, or process anything. I don’t want to buy anything sold or processed, sell anything processed or bought or process anything bought or sold.” 

While sales has a mixed-bag reputation full of used cars, vacuums, and pressure, the fact of the matter is that the exchange of goods and services for money is what keeps our economy running and sales professionals are a big part of that engine. 

A sales professional, though often measured, in part, by closings knows that the key to success is long-term, repeat business. 21^st Century sales professionals know that the way to get that business is through establishing and maintaining business relationships. Developing a partnering relationship with your clients where the focus becomes each other’s mutual success takes your customer off the market and ensures that you’re selling your products and services at your price.