But how? By leveraging the value a well-versed website designer brings to the table. Regardless of a business’ size or industry, a proficient website designer can help:

• Achieve a desired image and appeal to specific markets
• Enable prospects and customers to quickly find relevant information and easily complete tasks
• Build a customer base and increase leads, sales and revenues

Oddly, businesses frequently fork over significant marketing budgets to PR firms, radio, TV, and print publications. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, businesses spend about $400 billion on advertising annually, much of the money going to traditional channels, like television commercials. However, when it comes to their website — the marketing hub that pulls all marketing operations together — business owners often tighten the purse strings.

Case in point: a home renovation business owner recently complained to our web copywriters about the lack of return on his $6,000 print ad investment. We suggested he would get a better return by upgrading his poorly designed website. “How much to get it done right?” he asked. When I estimated a basic redesign might cost $5,000 to $8,000, his jaw dropped.

I then asked him whether the website represented his business in a professional manner. He responded, “No.” Did it generate any leads? “Not one.” Considering the company’s typical sale exceeds $3,000, a well designed website could pay for itself in little time. But the dreadful website is still online, and will be for the foreseeable future.

Quality Web Design Boosts Online Sales

Why are companies like this willing to pay thousands of dollars for print ads, but can’t seem to justify hiring a professional to design an effective website?

Doesn’t it make sense to invest marketing dollars where consumers are increasingly spending their time? Consider these facts:

• In September 2009, nearly 27 billion hours were spent on the Internet globally by a record online population of 1.2 billion people ages 15 and older, reported Netcraft.
• Generation Y spends 17.4 hours a week watching TV versus spending 8 to 33 hours on the Internet, revealed BBM Diaries and 2008 BBM Nielsen Meters. Moreover, an nGenera survey asked this “Millennial Generation” which medium they could do without, and TV lost to the Internet in all 12 countries surveyed.
• A Harris Interactive poll revealed in December 2009 that 50% of respondents who were online bought something on the Internet during the previous month.

It’s undeniable: More people are spending more time on the Internet, and the vast majority are turning to search engines and social websites to find and research products and services.

Plus, as people get used to making purchases online with credit cards, they’re ordering more than low-priced books and electronic equipment. Our web copywriting firm has clients who successfully sell everything from high-end lab services to multi-million-dollar green homes online.

Studies also show that offline shopping is heavily influenced by the Web. In fact, thanks to Internet search, nGenera reports 83% of Y Geners say they usually know what they want before going to buy a product.

So how clients perceive a product or service on the Web is critical, particularly since it’s often the first point of contact. Whatever customers may look for in a product — innovation, craftsmanship, fashion, status, and so on — a web designer plays an increasingly important role in creating the perceived value and interest.

Remembering When… and Thinking Ahead

As the Internet kills the old music institution, eliminates print journalism, and transforms the TV and movie industries, many businesses seem stuck in deep denial. They refuse to acknowledge that whole industries, likely including their own, are being remade.

The business world is being digitized, which allows smart companies to increase reach, locally or internationally, and boost revenue sources. Those who leverage the Internet can make enormous strides in little time, while headstrong dinosaurs suffer slow but sure deaths.

Not long ago, entrepreneurs were forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars getting a business off the ground, on everything from architects and tradespeople to permits and rent.

Marketing costs were no different. Small local print ads only had so much reach, while promotions in radio, TV, and established print media often cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Spending a major chunk of a marketing budget on one ad or direct mail campaign provides a single shot. If it misses, it could put a business in a cash-strapped state and cause its demise.

A Good Designer Provides a High ROI

Some business owners decide to get a website because “the other guys have them” or “customers expect us to have one.” Sadly, those business owners don’t appreciate the vast opportunities online presence can provide, and they put little thought, effort and resources toward their online marketing and branding.

It doesn’t matter how low website design and development costs are kept; if the website doesn’t generate a return, the money is being wasted.

With more than 75% of North Americans using the Internet, a well designed website can help businesses cost-effectively break into new markets, generate new revenues and maintain growth.  Our copywriting firm has teamed up with numerous designers who created websites that paid for themselves in as little as three months.

Website Designers Help Businesses Excel

This success is not by chance. Behind most successful websites are designers and developers with knowledge, experience and a keen desire to help businesses achieve their goals and objectives.

With more than 230 registered domains competing on the Web — 46 million websites were born between January and April of 2009 alone, according to Netcraft — it’s crucial to stand out from the crowd and get key messages to intended audiences.  A qualified web designer can build a website that cuts through the clutter, and can help even a start-up business “outbrand” and outperform established companies in almost any industry.

As consumers and businesses spend more time and money on the Web, companies need to realize that good website designers are imperative to their future well-being and growth. Investing in a good web designer makes perfect business sense.

Regardless what business or industry you’re in, websites have evolved into the base of operations, where prospects and clients inevitably go to gain product, service, and company information.

Of course, other marketing elements play a role: postcards, e-mails, PR, commercials and much more. But these sources frequently push people to a website. Even TV commercials are trading in 1-800 numbers for website addresses.

That’s because websites can do more than inform. They can also allow online transactions, from simple enquiry requests, through change of detail processing to full-on purchases.

To be sure, when properly planned and developed, websites can become virtual ambassadors.

Research has demonstrated that fear-arousing communications usually stimulate the audience to take action to reduce the threat. However, Author Robert Cialdini explained, “When the fear producing message describes danger but the audience is not told a clear, specific, effective means of reducing the danger, they may deal with the fear by ‘blocking out’ the message or denying it applies to them.”

As a result, they may be paralyzed into taking no action at all.

How to avoid this denial? Help people see behavioral means for ridding themselves of fear by including a clear, specific, easy-to-follow plan.

Marketing intelligence

Marketing intelligence comes from gathering information on business and competition. This intelligence helps businesses understand a market, so it can develop sound strategies and develop customer relationships.

You’ve gained valuable knowledge. You’ve got a high IQ. Fantastic! But what you do with it relies on practical intelligence.

In Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers, Phychologist Robert Sternberg explains practical intelligence is: “Knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect.”

That how is integral to any business. An organization might be brilliant. But if it says things the wrong way, that general intelligence might as well not even exist.

That’s why well-versed designers and copywriters are integral to any branding or marketing campaign. They get the how to say it.

From an SEO perspective, it will reportedly inject a new ranking factor into the algorithm — website speed. As a result, Google will be pushing faster sites higher in the search results, whereas slower sites will find it harder to rank.

On that front, here’s an insightful article you might want to check out: Website Performance: What To Know and What You Can Do.

Harrison Hot Springs, a 90-minute drive from the Vancouver International Airport and the Richmond Olympic Oval, has been the focal point of the mysterious ape-like creature, also called Bigfoot, for more than a century.

If Colbert accepts the invitation, he will be provided transportation, accommodations and special training (which could include spa treatment) to help him prepare both physically and mentally.

This Sasquatch search would be timely and fitting, given:

• One of the 2010 Olympic Games mascots is a Sasquatch named Quatchi.
• Colbert has a much publicized fear of bears, and the Sasquatch is considered a predator of the bear, making them perfect allies.

The search would be led by Sasquatch Investigator Bill Miller, who began researching the creature in the early 1990s. Colbert and the Sasquatch Investigator would “analyze any evidence on numerous factors, including: track depth; soil conditions; toe movement; pad flattening; mid-tarsal breaks; weight distribution; stride; and track alignment.”

In late 2009, after calling Canadians “syrup-sucking Canadian ice holes” for reportedly denying the American speed skating team ice time, Colbert accepted Richmond, B.C.’s invitation to become the official Richmond Olympic Oval ombudsman during the 2010 Winter Games.

“Harrison Hot Springs hopes Mr. Colbert will accept our invite to locate and make contact with the Sasquatch, which could be a historic event for Canadians and Americans alike,” said Stephanie Key, Executive Director, Tourism Harrison.

Tourism Harrison is in direct contact with Colbert’s team, and will make an announcement as soon as possible. You can check for updates on the Tourism Harrison blog, or check back here on what could be a fun event to track.

See original release.

It’s integral to consider who you are communicating to, and why you’re communicating to them.

To sell effectively, you need to pinpoint why visitors buy things. Here are a few possible motivators.

• To be popular
• To feel important
• To make money
• To save money
• To be attractive
• To be secure
• To be happy
• To be healthy
• Fear
• Greed
• Guilt

If a person is buying a luxury sports car, is he buying reliable transportation to get from A to B, or status. While a person would rarely admit it (or even realize it), likely the latter. Successful web copy addresses such motivators.

For more information on web copywriting, and to touch on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, check out Web Writing: The Good, Bad and Ugly.

Links help visitors scan pages. Properly developed links stand out from normal text, and provide strong cues as to what the page is about.

When naming links, the more specific, the more useful. Don’t just give visitors a hint — give them the necessary information they require to act, right then and there.

A key is to use descriptive keywords. For instance, a link like web copy provides little explanation on what the visitor can expect to find — information about writing web copy, before and after samples, or hiring a web copywriter?

An explanatory link like 5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Web Copy provides clarity and insight, and promotes positive online experiences. A link makes a promise, and needs to deliver.

Mayer says the ideal will be to get access to your friends’ updates in search. There may be increased privacy concerns and complaints from publishers, but Mayer and Google likely won’t be deterred.

Look out! An omniscient, omnivorous Google is coming, and it knows what you want — even if you don’t.

Read: Marissa Mayer: An omnivorous Google is coming