Does your website communicate an integrated message?

It seems blogging is a good way of condensing thoughts. Thoughts that by themselves don’t achieve much of anything, but probably writing them down is the same as painting a picture, or something that can be objectively shared with people around to bring out clarity in the author’s own thinking.

Our team lives day in and day out surrounded by websites. We scan and scourge the depths and widths of the great world wide web for ideas, inspiration, geeky codes, tools and scripts, and for a lot of referencing. Even with so much throughput, we are compelled almost everyday to share with each other and discuss websites that are either exceptionally well made, or absolutely ridiculous.

However, in any given sample of business websites produced in recent years, we find that there is a growing tendency to ‘search more but find less’. There’s often a sense that something is missing, or out of context, or maybe the page is just too cluttered with distracting flashy ads to focus on the core message.

This corrosive effect of information noise is what takes the excitement out of a website for us. It’s a personal as well as a peer verified experience that our recall rate for commercial websites is strongly correlated to certain features of the websites themselves. The real question to ask is clearly whether a certain website communicates an integrated marketing message to its visitors?

It is not about what mix of online marketing strategies you can deploy with an assortment of available tools, neither is it the advertising and promotion budget for the online project. It’s the simplicity of designing a central marketing message and building the structure and components of the website on that foundation. Not only your website home page but all landing pages, PPC campaign, Facebook campaigns, Articles etc. are part of that integrated marketing message. The primary message that really needs to be communicated to an online audience needs to be concise and very-very efficient to attract visitors’ attention, qualify the type of visitors and convince them to complete a marketing objective.

Here, I would like you to take a pause to consider your favorite website and think of the core value proposition that you keep returning to it for. What would it take for a new website to gain a similar share of your internet time? If you operate a web site, analyze if you have an integrated message for communication to every visitor. Think of how this communication evolves. You’d agree that it is the primary differentiator when it comes to connecting with prospects and converting them into customers when using the online medium:

We apply an original conceptual framework for web pages we make, comprising a fine balance between design aesthetics and content quality, on a understanding of the required information density, and backed by appropriate functionality. The optimum effort put into balancing these aspects is made greatly efficient by the build up of an integral message right from the concept stage for a website.

Come to think of it this way because common computing technologies are still evolving. And with the number of ‘run of the mill websites’ that went online while I was writing this, its hard to expect to come across many that can truly distinguish their core message.

In the long run, simplicity sometimes wins the game by a large margin such as in the case of twitter, positioned as a light micro-blogging service, and creating a phenomenon of its own.

The web is a massive playground for human creativity and although not every website needs to have strict measurable objectives, those that are made with a specific marketing intent must be guided by consistency across:

• A clear and concise marketing message, a slogan or a punch line.
• Differentiating product features / service testimonials
• Highlighting benefits offered to customers / clients / members / guests / subscribers etc appropriately
• And an efficient track of measurable goals and progress

Most marketers and business owners forget to focus on online marketing strategies which are driven by specific marketing objectives. Therefore, I would also like to share a secret tip with you. You must specify your objective and customize your marketing message accordingly. For example, “generating traffic for the website” and “generating sales leads” are two different objectives and must be handled separately.
If you think of revamping your online strategy then feel free to get in touch with us.