Website design is the world’s greatest marketing tool

“Website design” may bring to mind colors, fonts, and graphics. Think deeper than that. Website design, the heart of your online marketing plan, is a critical link to attracting future customers and keeping the ones you have.

Online marketing has come of age. The internet is poised to live up to the expectations of businesses who need to engage customers. From the standpoint of integrating the Internet into your business plan, this is an optimal time. The bust of the dot com phenomenon is a dim memory, the public is more tech-savvy than ever, and the Internet

is prepared to accommodate them.

Internet accessibility is burgeoning:
• Computers are gaining power while costs are plummeting
• 50.8% of Internet users have high speed connectivity at home1
• 71% of the general population has Internet Access

Compare these facts to the year 2,000, when 51% of Americans had a home computer. Only 41.5% of those home computer owners accessed the Internet

What are all of these connected people doing? They are putting down “roots” in online communities such as Twitter and Facebook, which are growing exponentially. This growth crosses broad demographic bands, from “tweens” through the elderly. As of December 11, 2009, Facebook had reached more than 350 million users with the ages of 35 to 54 being of the fastest growing group.

By putting down virtual “stakes” in these online communities, businesses can now reach more people, with less expense, and still anticipate a greater rate of return on their investments than ever before offered by any other form of traditional marketing “Simply having your business online isn’t enough, its important for companies to have a modern website that caters to the customers’ expectations along with search engine visibility and a tight integration within the social media frenzy of Twitter, Facebook, and blogs” Noel says

“Many of the tools available today are free, but do require implementation time on the user’s part. In the current economy, many users prefer to expend time instead of money if the result is retention of cash,” Wiggins adds.