Don't Forsake Your Marketing Home Page - Laurie Swiryn

Yes, Web 2.0 and beyond is here to stay and site visitors are more tech savvy than ever before. It's prudent to develop Web sites that have all the bells and whistles for your visitors who have all the time in the world...However, it is vital for your company to develop and maintain a state-of-the-art, frills-free marketing Home Page as well.

Nearly 20 years after most companies developed their first Web site, it is more important than ever that your main corporate URL, the one that you print on every invoice, flyer, promotional product, brochure and sales rep's forehead...the one that is www.yourcompany.com, deliver your company's elevator pitch with a punch. This is your Home Page and if you look at it through the eyes of your customers or prospects, you may just find that it’s become a big mess!

Certainly, your Home Page can link to more sophisticated Web applications, however, too often companies forget that the main goal of your company’s marketing Web site is to instantaneously provide new and returning visitors the assurance that they have landed on a company whose products and services are just right for them.

Your marketing Web site represents the "face" of your company to the world at large on the World Wide Web. It's foolish and a bit narcissistic to assume that most visitors who come to your Web site already know what your company can do for them. Forcing them to wait while gratuitous dancing bears and other gorgeous but otherwise useless graphics parade across their screen is akin to answering your phone promptly and then putting the caller on hold to listen to your favorite iPod song list. Many, even most, will hang up or click away...and once they are gone, it is very difficult to get them back.

Perhaps it's not a lot of flash and fancy graphics that deter visitors when they come to your Web site. It can be any number of other Web elements that deter visitors and throw them off course.

Here’s a short list of things to look for when applying a critical eye to your company’s Home Page…

• Include a call to action on your Home Page. This a Web basic, the simplest form of interactivity and most companies ignore the opportunity. Some easy-to-implement examples include:
- Call us for your Free Quote today
- Signup for E-mail Updates (forms based with text that says "Why your information is safe")
-Download our…brochure, price list, product list

• Good writing makes Web sites successful. Copy, not content is king for your Home Page.

• Be certain that there are no typos or grammatical errors on your Web site…you are marketing to educators!

• Accessibility is vital for your Web site, but more important for your Home Page. Sites are accessed today from web browsers, email clients, news readers, podcast feed readers, podcasts…make sure yours works with all of them!

• Refrain from asking visitors to sign-in, sign-up or register in any way other than a small link or sign-in box in a discreet area on the Home Page.

• Use rotating and other moving graphics judiciously. Their presence on a page makes it difficult to find and read the real meat of your message.

• Update the content of your home page frequently but don’t move around the essential navigational elements because your returning visitors do not want to have to re-train their brains every time they visit your site.

• Make sure all broadcast email you send your visitors complies with the CAN-SPAM act and that send only relevant and timely information, not more often than once every 8 weeks.

• Make sure that your company’s phone number is on every page of the Web site – even better if it’s in the same location on every page.

• Provide an easy-to-use form for requesting more information. Don’t ask for too much information… just enough to be able to respond to their requests.


This blog was written by Laurie Swiryn, VP Education Markets at Cuesta Technologies -- http://www.cuesta.com. Cuesta is a full-service Web development company that has specialized in developing custom Web sites for the K-Adult education market since 1995. Laurie can be reached by calling 888-255-9085 or at laurie@cuesta.com.