Written by Dennis Sims, Internet Marketing Specialist at Active Web Group. Posted on July 21st, 2011
Here at Active Web Group, I speak to prospects and clients to help them to better understand this complex thing we call the internet, and how better to use it correctly to best serve what they are individually trying to accomplish with their website. I usually start off most conversations with a little education, but I like to keep it simple, engaging and not boring. I say “internet marketing is simply two things, first to make sure you’re getting as much targeted traffic as possible. Second, to make sure you’re converting that traffic, as high a percentage as possible into a sale, a lead or a new quote request.
What does beauty have to do with your website you may ask? Well look at is this way, if you’re a guy and you’re walking down the street, and you see a beautiful woman (regardless of whether you’re with your woman or not), you’ll most likely follow her walk down the street. It’s the way we’re hardwired. People are first attracted to something visually, that is the first thing that you may or may not find yourself interested in. Now, after that, their personality may kill it completely, but you get the point here.
Your website is the same thing, if you spend $25,000 a month on Internet Advertising or off web advertising and you direct people to a site that doesn’t look nice, the contact forms are broken, or pages don’t work, or the load time is too slow, or perhaps bad colors, or maybe it’s not compatible with all browsers, your ecommerce cart doesn’t work, your last news item was from 2002, etc., etc., etc. (you get the point here), if there is anything that might tick someone off like that, then you aren’t doing the best job you can. You will never 100% make your website loved by all people, but you 100% can make sure you eliminate and remove anything that someone may find annoying, non functional or just plain useless.
I say all the time, that a website design is very much like car designs of recent years. If you look at cars from the 50’s, you sure as heck know, that it is a completely different look. If you look at cars or you see a movie that was made in the 1980’s you may say to yourself (I always do) , I can’t believe that’s what the cars looked like back then, they are so dated. Same thing goes with clothing and hair styles. People are inherently faddish, and you have to keep up with the masses. If you don’t maintain and keep a fresh looking website, I can assure you that some people won’t think that you’re successful enough to maintain your appearance. If you see a slovenly person on the street, with ice cream stains all over his shirt , or mustard and ketchup stains on his shirt, messy hair, and wrinkles clothes, chances are that person isn’t making 6 figures a year, same thing can be true with websites. You never know what negative thing you may do, but remember this. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, make sure your site is beautiful to the highest percentage of people possible, and you’ll definitely have one of the necessary steps to make yourself successful on the internet.
