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How effective is marketing in site design? Well, let me share an ‘off site’ story.

A blind man was sitting on a street corner and a sign had been placed before the man that read, “I’m blind, please help.” In front of the sign was a hat with a few coins shared by those passing by. A marketing guru was walking by and noticed the man sitting there. She spoke a few words to the man and tossed in a few coins. Then she took the sign turned it over and wrote something on the back of the sign and placed it back in its spot with her own message on display.

When she came back later in the day she noticed that the hat was nearly filled with bills and coins. When she voiced her amazement, the man turned toward her and said, “You were the one that changed my sign.”

“Yes, I was,” she admitted.

“Please. What does it say?” he asked.

“The autumn colors are changing and I can’t see it.”

Can you see how the difference in marketing allowed those who passed by to discover they had a way to identify with the man when a simple “Please Help” sign did very little to motivate them to action.

This is often why so many businesses hire advertising agents, copywriters and freelance writers to help them achieve a website that helps touch consumers on a different level than just saying, “This site carries a wide selection of really good stuff.”

Sometimes good marketing is simply finding a new way to say something that generally comes across as either trite or cliché.

Typically when site design is discussed there is often the knee jerk reaction that leans toward simply ‘throwing’ text together that can fill the newly created pages. The design often relies heavily on graphics without paying similar attention to what is actually being conveyed to site visitors.

If you have an existing site you may want to personally review the pages or hire someone who can help you. This is a good idea to locate outdated and inaccurate information as well as descriptions that are not especially helpful to your marketing goals.

The more you can connect with your customers through potent marketing the better your conversion rates. Connecting with your customer with consumer-centric marketing practices actually invites a greater level of trust and patronage from those customers.

This doesn’t mean you toy with their emotions, you simply learn to speak a language that is personal and inviting to your site visitor.

Don’t run your site like some Middle School students who ring your doorbell and pass you a flyer while saying, “You don’t want to buy any magazine subscriptions? Do you?”

When you give your customer an easy out – they’ll take it. Too many sites either portray something that they aren’t sure is even worth your time or they never get to the point of asking for your business.

Market effectively, give a call to action, and demonstrate confidence in what you have to sell and your website design will be the catalyst for improved and long-term sales.

Do you realize thousands of new Websites are added to the incredibly vast catalogue of cyberspace every month? That’s really amazing, especially when you consider this could literally go on forever and the Web would never get “filled up”.

The Web really is an unlimited opportunity for growth and expansion, whether your aims are business, charitable, or personal. However, quite sadly, I believe for every Website that does go live, there are many hundred other people who “want to” launch their site but just can’t find the confidence to do so.

Many people will tell me they “just don’t have the time” or they “can’t afford it right now” but the truth is these are just excuses in almost every case. Basic psychology suggests that we tend to put off, avoid, or make excuses for not doing those things we are afraid of for one reason or another.

The truth is most potential Website owners are simply intimidated by what they believe will be an ultra-technical process. And the great news here is that building a fabulous Website is not an overly technical process!

One really doesn’t need to become an expert in Web languages, domain and hosting management, or anything else to have a highly effective Web presence up and running within just a matter of days. As somebody who owned a profitable Web development company I will go as far as to say that you only need a basic grasp of about 10% of the overall body of knowledge in the Web design field to achieve great success.

This means for every 100 techniques you really only need around ten to do a great job on your own Website. How’s that for a shift in perspective?

You don’t need to know how to build fancy graphics.

You don’t need to understand complicated database functions.

You don’t need to worry about learning any programming languages.

(Seriously you need ZERO knowledge of Web programming)

You don’t have to spend a ton of money on software.

You don’t even need to spend a lot of time learning the basics. If you have been able to read this article without a struggle you should be able to learn the basics of quality Web design in only a few hours of study.

The most important part of your Website project is this: You must get started right away!

The biggest difference in folks who have their site online and working around the clock for them and people who never enjoy this benefit is so simple:

Those who have a Website took the first step and moved forward from there. And these people found that once they took action, even just a little bit of it, the rest of the process unfolded in front of them almost like magic.

I’m not going to tell you there isn’t some work and study involved. But it’s nowhere near as hard to understand and implement as you might think it is.

So don’t delay even one more day. Decide right now to start spending at least some time each day learning the basics and you could easily have your first site online in one week or less.