Is Your Website Ready for a Marketing Program?

Before you can launch a successful marketing program, a few core elements must first be present. Your business must have clear goals, defined success markers to reach those goals, open communication between departments and employees, a way to track ROI, and finally — the focus of today’s post — a professional website.

Why Your Business Needs a Modern, Professional Website

It seems like a no-brainer necessity, but a surprising number of businesses overlook the criticality of a modern, mobile-friendly website.

A website’s purpose isn’t to display your logo and business hours. It’s where your potential customers expect to find information about your brand and the solutions you offer, and it should serve as the hub of all your marketing efforts. You can have a knockout creative advertising campaign or entertaining social media posts, but if they bring prospects to a website that drops the ball, your entire marketing program suffers.

It makes sense for large businesses to have professional websites, but it’s just as important for small businesses. What makes a website strong?

High-converting websites have these factors in common:

• They’re mobile-friendly. Your site should seamlessly adapt across devices. Never alienate mobile-users, who made up 51.12% of web traffic in 2017 (a number that continues to trend upward).
• They’re professionally designed. A polished website is an investment, much like the professionally crafted sign above a brick-and-mortar store. Your design and user experience can inform how prospects feel about your brand as a whole.
• They’re in-brand. The design elements, logo, personality, and language used in strong websites match that used across other marketing, from print executions to radio and digital advertising to social media and even the in-store experience. If any part of your marketing is juxtaposed, your message should feel cohesive.
• They’re built for lead generation. This means they follow SEO best practices to be found by potential customers. Professional websites are also easy to navigate, and they employ content marketing to offer a valuable incentive in exchange for prospect’s information, specifically email.

How to Know if Your Website Needs Work

If there was a blank box to check next to all of the pieces of advice above, how many of them would you have marked? That alone should tell you if your site needs some TLC.

Here are some questions to ask for further introspection:

When was the last time you updated your website?

If the answer is months or years ago (oof!), then you know what you have to do. Websites are not set-and-forget devices. They must be constantly updated and tweaked to stay fresh and up to search engine standards.

What is your copy-to-visuals ratio?

Visual content grabs attention faster than a wall of text. Your audience decides if they want to read more based on your headlines. Video marketing is proven to increase traffic, SEO rankings, and ROI.

Does your site capture leads?

Do you have opt-in forms? Email signup? A landing page? Call-to-action buttons? Present multiple ways to encourage your customers to connect with you, as well as to measure time-on-site metrics and what potential customers do when visiting your site.

Is your site mobile-friendly?

We can’t stress this enough. Just because you can see your site on your phone doesn’t mean its mobile-friendly. Not sure how to tell? Find out here.

Hubbard Chicago understands that a professional website is just as important as a custom marketing plan, and that the two must be seamlessly integrated. It’s our mission to educate and support Chicago advertisers, and we’re here to set you up for success in your marketing. Contact us to learn more about our website design services.