The Web Sight

Posted by Madhavi on Nov 2, 2010 in Social Networking | 0 comments

This article is a guest post by Madhur Dharmadhikari.

One ends up spending millions to reach out to consumers locally. Give your brand a passport to travel the world. The World Wide Web is like a magic wand in a marketer’s arsenal. More and more brands are opting for an online presence since geographical barriers is not an issue. It’s a great tool to broaden your vision of the brand and to open up loads of opportunity doors.

What’s Online Marketing Anyway?

When we say online advertising we mean appropriate ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, Social network advertising, e-mail marketing, etc. Online advertising allows for the exact messaging and key word search. For example, AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and AdSense show ads alongside related keywords. But, the first step is to have a website in place to give the consumer a closer look of the brand. A website acts as a virtual shop for the products. Also, whatever one would opt for – ads, blogs, newsletters, etc. will be finally linked to an information center which is the website.

What Makes A Website Click?

A website should follow a simple thumb rule: AIDA

Attention: Grab your target audiences’ attention
Interest: Create curiosity
Detail: Provide details
Action: Call for action

The website should definitely be attractive and easy to comprehend. But at the same time it should be rich in content and have the exact key words that relate to the brand. Writing the content is the toughest and the most important part here. One would miss out on SEO (search engine optimization) big time, if proper key words are not present in the content. SEO maximizes the chances of the website appearing in the initial pages if a search made.

The content should not just be verbose paragraphs of text. A customer engagement initiative should be there for the user to keep coming back. Discussion boards, polls, commenting, etc are few examples to involve the consumer. The content should be properly segregated into sections. Too much happening on the first page may simply overwhelm the user and put him off.

The Mega Info Hub

The website is a hub to upload lots of information. For example, one might want to send bulk emailers to a certain database. To bypass the spam folder the emailer can go in the form of a link which can be hosted on the website. A website also Improves credibility.

It gives the marketer the opportunity to tell potential customers what the brand is all about and why it deserves their trust and confidence. Internet marketing allows for viral marketing as well. The visitors of the website can spread a positive word of mouth. This way, your customers do the marketing for you! The next thought that’s crosses our minds is, how to promote this amazing piece of hard work. The web address should never be forgotten in any printed material. The use of networking sites is a very good tool to leverage website promotion.

Creating A Microsite

Another interesting component of websites is a microsite. It is an individual, self existing web page or series of pages which are supposed to function as a supplement to the primary website.

The microsite has its own domain name. It may be linked to a main site or not or can be used temporarily. When a product needs to be treated differently one can go for a microsite deign. For example, when a new product is launched, instead of making consumer got to the parent site and then look for the new product, we just create a microsite which could be the new-product-name-dot-com. It can also help us to know how many people have been interested in that typical project.

Conclusion

The world of online marketing is an interesting experience. Since this gives us exact data click by click about how many people entered the site, we get an idea about the effectiveness of our communication. Also, it creates a lot of interest value around the brand using good animations and graphics. So just, log on… and give your brand, a new avatar!

Madhur Dharmadhikari has over 4 years of experience in the advertising industry. She has been involved in servicing brands from various industrial sectors like retail, industrial, real estate and hospitality. Apart from her work, she is very interested in photography, creative writing, reading and art.

Who says ideas don’t travel across mediums? With her unique understanding of how the industry works, Madhur brings in a lot of insights into the concept of Branding and how it can be used in an Internet setting. Watch out for more insights from Madhur on this blog! Meanwhile, you can follow Madhur on Twitter or add her on FaceBook.