Direct Response websites are websites designed to get a visitor to take action, whether that is calling your 800 number, filling out a form to get a specified incentive, joining your email list, signing up for your monthly newsletter or making a purchase.
More Than Just A Pretty Picture
Nowadays, just having a pretty website is not enough to compete in your industry. You also need a targeted web strategy that will draw traffic to your site, meet the visitors’ thirst for information or solve a problem and generate leads & sales.
Any designer with a handful of web design skills can give you a site with Flash animation and pretty pictures. But as a small business owner, you need a site that is more than an overly hyped online brochure. You need a site that performs for you, generating leads and converting those leads to sales. You need concrete online marketing strategies which deliver measurable results and generate profit for you…guaranteed.
But of course, since it is your website, you have the final say. So if it is flash & dazzle you want, you can always hire a designer to give that to you too. (We just don’t recommend it as a solid online strategy.)
Before you ever start building your site, know your company and your industry from the inside out by utilizing comprehensive surveys, research and competitive analysis. Always get the results in an easy-to-understand format so that you have a record of what your competition is doing and how you can have the ultimate competitive advantage.
For example…
* Is Your Website Optimized for Google, Yahoo & Bing?
* How Do You Measure Up To Your Online Competitors?
* One-Third Of Website Visitors Drop Off From the First Page, Are Your Visitors Sticking Around?
Direct Response websites are designed to get you more Internet visibility, qualified traffic to your site, higher conversion rankings and even first page rankings for Google local searches. Having a website that works to grow your business is the most effective use of your marketing dollars, provides a cost-conscious way to communicate with your potential customers or clients and positions you miles ahead of your competition.
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The benefits of a dedicated domain name for small business owners are enormous. Not only does it increase your company’s credibility, offer a convenient point of reference for your products and services and reduce your marketing and advertising costs, but it also provides your potential customers with an easy access point to your company 24/7, totally at their convenience.
Now it’s likely that after you come up with a killer domain name, you find that it’s already been registered. But don’t be discouraged because you can easily get around this little hiccup by adding common extender phrases to your name like “the,” “my,” or the plural “s.” Try it out and see which has the best ring to it. Remember, we’re going for a name that’s easy to remember and easy to spell so those two rules trump any attempts to be clever.
Let’s talk about the pros and cons of those free business card offers that you see floating around the internet. We’ve all seen them and even being a Designer myself, I freely admit that I’ve been tempted too. When you’re first establishing yourself, the list of “to do’s” seems so long that being able to check off business cards as “Done” is reason enough to be tempted by the quick-fix a free business card offer provides.
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