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The trick to successful marketing on the Net is to encourage would-be clients to visit your Web site and, once they've found it, hold their interest. How? Here are a few suggestions. |
| Web
Page
Design |
Build your page to appeal
to your target market. If at all possible, provide a little entertainment
with your information. Tell the history of your gold-plated widget. Add
a little trivia for true widget aficionados. Then sell them your
wonderful widget.
Note: The Internet is effective for advertising even unusual or low-demand products. With a potential of more than 30 million buyers, you can reach a greater audience on a smaller budget than with print, broadcast or direct mail advertising. |
| Make it Fast | There are now so many web page gimmicks
- all of them highly entertaining the first time they're viewed-
that it's tempting to add music, video and animation to your page. But
unless you're promoting a music CD or a process that needs to be viewed
to be understood, these "bells and whistles" do little to enhance your
page. And they greatly increase the time it takes for the page to load.
Not everyone has high speed Internet access. With a standard 56.6 modem, page information can take up to a quarter of a second per kilobyte to load during peak traffic times on the Net. Large unoptomized graphics, numerous photos, or moving cartoons can add several hundred kilobytes to the size of your page. The net result (pun intended!) is that your page will never be viewed by frustrated surfers who give up on it because it takes too long to appear. Find a designer who knows how to build tight, fast loading pages with optimized graphics. A very appealing page of 30-60K can not only convey a great deal of information, it can and should load completely in a few seconds. (This page is 22k in size.) |
| Check
the Browsers |
Design your page to be viewed with as many different browsers as possible. HTML code, the language of the World Wide Web, is developing at such a rapid rate that only the latest versions of Netscape or Explorer can interpret all of it. Make your page accessible to the many Internet users who don't yet have the newest browser software. |
| Make
it Easy
to Navigate |
A well designed page is easy to travel around in. Jumps connect related information so the viewer can move from one topic to another without scrolling through the whole page. Sites with multiple subject areas are easier to negotiate if a catalog or index is included. Your page should also be flexible enough to allow for changes and future expansion. |
| Keep it Current | Don't let your page get out of date.
Modify it as soon as any of the information changes.
Check your links regularly to make sure they haven't changed their Web addresses and that they still relate to your page. You won't know that the International Brotherhood of Widget Makers Web site now features a widget playmate of the month unless you keep checking their page! |
| Promote
Your Site |
Just posting your page on the Internet
isn't enough - you need to promote it. After all, you wouldn't hold a sale
or introduce a new product without letting anyone know about it.
Be sure to include your Web page address on all of your printed materials, from letterhead and business cards to advertising. You'll boost your visitation - the number of "hits" on your page - by registering with whatever search engines are appropriate for your site. These are searchable directories that index thousands of Web sites. Yahoo, Alta Vista, Excite, and Lycos are among the most popular, but there are more than 900 directories, many very specialized, that can help your target audience find you. Your Web designer can identify appropriate search engines and register your page with them. When you come across other Web sites with complementary information, include them in your links. Ask the page owners to link to your site in return. |
Contact
Us
 |
Talk to Word Works designers
Judy and Clay Woods about a page for your business. We can write or edit
copy, design the page, convert it to HTML, register your domain name and
post the page for you.
Call us at (903) 455-7232 or contact us by e-mail at design@word-works.com |
