One thing that you will hear my repeat over and over is the importance of a comprehensive marketing plan. There many levels to this, and like I mentioned in the last post, the first step is always consumer analysis. Many marketing consultants bundle this together with market research or “industry analysis,” but I prefer to single out the most important focus—consumer analysis. After consumer analysis, what’s next? In essence, the big question is, “So we know our consumers now—what they do, where they eat, how old they are, and the like, but how to do reach them?”

As you might suspect, finding answering this question is not a simple, “Do A, do B, and then do C, and I promise success.” Rather, this is a new tier of the marketing conceptualization. No matter the solution however, your market research, specific consumer analyses, and other marketing and advertising expenditures are for not if your product is not up to par. When discussing web marketing, your product, whether it is actually you company’s physical product or not, is the website. As such, here are some tips to help your company develop and implement an original, attractive site design.

1. Keep a consumer focus. Notice that the last few weeks, or perhaps months, have been dedicated to knowing your consumer. Now that you know what they like, make them happy to be treated to the look, feel, and functionality of your site.
2. Get inspired. Go through design catalogs, and see what you like. I often make use of inspiration I get by looking through architecture magazines, beauty products, interior design examples, and other web sites. If you take a gander below at one website for which I designed the layout, you may see hints of the classic Paul Mitchell shampoo bottle. I have appreciated that bottle since I was quite young, and I was able to make use of it on the home page of a client’s blog.
   
3. Abide by the rules; break some, but don’t feel like a vigilante—you might be sorry. There are times to break rule and times to fall in. When considering the aesthetic appeal of your website, go for the gold! Dream it, and make it. When it comes to conventions, however, remember that there are reasons that the W3C meets. You want your website to accessible through different browsers, in different resolutions, and for years to come. Make sure to go by their coding guidelines, or newer browsers and newer standards could leave you in the dust.

In summary, the issue is this: when developing a comprehensive web marketing strategy, remember that after putting in all the effort and funds it takes to get to the top Google listings for valuable keywords, the last thing you want is for your bounce rate (high rates indicate that visitors quickly leave your site—often due to disinterest) to be enormous. Remember, if your site is poorly designed, there is always a competitor’s listing below yours on Google, and if their site is designed better—and their bounce rate is low—well then site design is the difference between a good return on investment and a bad ROI.

Take some time to make your website representative of the great product or service your business should be famous for.

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This is the first post on my new blog. My name is Casey Troy, and I am a marketing consultant in Los Angeles, California. I will use this blog to catalog my notes and advice in the realms of SEO, web design, business development, and guerrilla and classical marketing. Stay tuned.