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A Great Website Should Be Your First Marketing Priority
By bbr
by Sarah Warlick, writer and copy editor
What’s the single most important marketing tool for a small or medium-sized business? It’s the company website, without a doubt. It’s not easy, being a small or medium-sized business in today’s economy. Marketing often feels like just one big hassle that never ends and can’t ever be checked off as done. That’s the fact, in a way. Marketing is an ongoing process that requires resources, and resources are limited in even the best of circumstances. Very few companies are lucky enough to have a huge marketing staff that can focus all their efforts on the job. For most professional services firms, client work takes the lion’s share of the available time and talent.
Yet anyone who’s been in business a while has learned that marketing is a major key to success, however unappealing that truth may be. Even if you’re the best in the business, you won’t be in business at all for very long if you can’t drive traffic to your door. The very phrase “driving traffic to your door” illustrates just how important your website is today; your firm’s website is your new front door.
So you market. With some selection from the print options, radio, e-books, video, billboards, direct mail, social media and all the other choices you have at your disposal, you spend scarce resources to put your name and reputation in front of potential clients. All with the goal of…what? Driving traffic to your website, of course! These days the final stop before a buying decision is the company website, nearly every time. That’s true whether it’s the first and only step on a quest for a new service provider or one that follows extensive research, after many brand exposures or none. Depending on your media choices, you’ll achieve one or more of the following outcomes:
If you devote tons of time and energy to social media, the result will be good relations with current and potential clients…who turn to your website to find the information they need before pursuing new or additional services.
If you spend money buying billboard space, radio time or direct mailings, you’ll gain significant brand exposure…which sends potential clients flocking to your website to read more and decide if the firm feels right to them before they reach out in person.
If you let your outstanding skill, value and customer service speak for themselves, relying on extremely satisfied clients to create word of mouth referrals that bring new work…those referred will head to your website to learn more about the fabulous firm they’ve heard such wonderful things about.
If you’re just one of many firms that provide service in the area of someone conducting a cold search based on location, with no awareness of your firm or any others…you’ll be just fine as long as you have a good website that shows up in the search listings and reflects well on your firm.
There is no way around it. Your website provides potential clients with the objective information they need, creates the subjective impression that moves them and illustrates your firm’s style. It’s where a decision is made: Do I want to make an appointment with this firm? You may run a tight ship with the smartest professionals and most caring atmosphere in the area, but if your website is sloppy, cheap-looking or nonfunctional, the firm is toast.
Modern marketing gives you virtually unlimited options for scope and style. Content marketing offers room for communicating in precisely the ways your firm feels strongest and most comfortable. Embrace your options both old and new, and create campaigns that make you happy while matching your budget.
Pick your favorite channels and be as creative, traditional or adventurous as you want. Explore! Express yourself and have fun! The only rule is that you absolutely must build a beautiful website that is welcoming, information-rich and fully functional. Until you’ve done that, not a single other thing you do is going to be able to deliver the business you want and need. After you’ve made such a site, though, anything and everything else you do to market your firm will add to your firm’s greater success.