In December 2009, The Harris Interactive Poll found that 80 percent of adults in US spend an average of 13 hours a week online. People search for information using search engines, indexes, and wiki. People surf websites to browse for products or information. Some simply post questions on their Twitter and Facebook accounts expecting credible recommendations from their friends.

Internett users in Asia represents more than 40% of the world’s internet user. Reaching out to target audience or target market online is definitely the way to go in today’s day and age. Businesses need to establish their presence online to engage and convert prospects into customers.

Online or digital marketing does not mean placing advertisement on Google or Yahoo anymore. We have Facebook, Twitter, Groupon and others that may serve the same purpose. The question is where will the interested prospects who wants to know more be led to? They should be led to a formal website. It could be a company, product, or an event website with all the information information that they need to know.

Take The First Step. Develop A Website.

The entire concept of digital marketing is about corporate branding, increase product/service awareness, which would lead into greater sales and profit margin.

Website should be seen as a business component that could help the company achieve competitive advantage and not aa mere information counter. A well planned, designed and developed website could act as the marketer and sales person for the business.

A well planned website would define the scope and purpose of the website. A website without purpose would turn out to be a mere information centre. A website with objective and purpose would have content and functions that would benefit the business.

A well designed website would grab the attention of the visitors and encouraged them to browse the website. The website layout, colour theme, placement of logo and menu plays a part in influencing visitors behaviour.

A well developed website ensures that the functions and features are secure, fast and user friendly. Visitors dread slow loading website or those that kept leading to server error pages.

To Develop A Website, You Will Need This

1. Domain Name

   Having a website is good. Having a website with a domain like mycompany.yahoo.com. is not. Get a nice and easy to remember domain name. It is recommended that the domain name is the same or, at least, one that reflects the company’s brand.

   With domain name, corporate email and website can be set up. It more professional to have a corporate that goes like john.doe@mycompany.com than john.doe@gmail.com.

   Domain name price is between $15 to $80 per year depending on domain extensions (.com, .net, .com.sg, .sg, etc)

2. Hosting Server

   Website needs web hosting servers to go online. If you are starting up and trying to save cost as much as possible, you can create email accounts in the same server. There are many web hosting company in Singapore who have been around since the 90s.

   Before engaging any web hosting company, it is good to read reviews on these companies by their current or former customers. If you are from Singapore, SgWebhostingtalk is a good start.

   A basic web hosting package cost is between $8 to $15 per month.

3. Web Design & Development

   Designing a website and development is a complicated process. It is not as easy as drawing snails on paper. The design of the website will affect website visitor’s behaviour. Website design is improving by the seconds, it is best to keep up with the trend.

   When developing website, it is always good to keep the end in mind. At the end of the day, the purpose of the website must remain in tact and the website must be found, hence it must be search engine friendly.

   The cost of developing a basic but unique website that reflects the company identity and branding varies from $850 to $2,000 depending on the functions required. To learn more about our service cost, read more on our web development service.

4. Good Written Content

   A good written website content is a friend of search engines. Good content engages visitor and would convince them to read more and perhaps be converted into buyers.

   Updating of content is a must. It’s a big turn off for visitors to find out that the website content is updated. Be sure to develop a website that can be easily updated. Engage a webmaster to perform content and web updating. If you are considering on outsourcing, read more on our web maintenance services.

5. Be Found In Search Engine

   Remember that a website needs to engage its visitors? But what is there to engage if there’s no visitors? You need to be found in search engine, such as Google and Yahoo.

   There are ways to be found in search engines. This can be done through paid advertising, social media engagement and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). These would cost you quite a bit. However, the least you should do is to submit your website to the various search engine around.

Wrap Up

Website should be viewed like any other business investment. It should be planned so that it has a role in the business and help to widen the business marketing outreach. There say a journey of a thousand mile starts with single step. For digital marketing, it starts with a website.