In the age of brand marketing, the best website design companies stay up to date on how people are interacting with the web, the latest trends in internet marketing strategy, and which previous approaches are no longer engaging people. While you ideally want your website to be built once and have it function properly across a variety of devices/screens, a market savvy designer is going to help you keep it up to current snuff. In other words, what works now may not work in 3 years. That’s just the nature of marketing.
Most recently, content marketing seems to be the winning market strategy for strong branding, and four specific types of content seem to rise to the top of the heap. Here they are, in no particular order:
Infographics
The basic idea here is that people respond better to information that is presented visually, and it’s as old as the hills. But insofar as their use on the internet, it’s taken time for the evidence to surface that people prefer to digest ideas when presented to them in a visual format, i.e., in charts, diagrams, humorous cartoons. Basically, anything other than dense text.
E-books
You may have dismissed the e-book as a fad (or a seemingly massive chore you want nothing to do with creating), but they’ve actually proven to be a really effective way of harnessing an audience. And it needn’t be a dense, text-only affair, either. Use infographics to help get your points across, and keep the e-book fairly short and easily digestible. The best website design companies will help you devise a landing page, and they may even offer search engine optimization packages to help drive traffic to it. You can generate interest by offering a chapter or two for free, after which folks will likely be more willing to purchase a full-size e-book from you. Along the way, you generate an email list of potential customers from people signing up for the free content.
Blogs
Blogging may seem like a chore, but the figures don’t lie: companies that do it generate a whopping 67% more leads monthly that those that don’t. Whether yours is a small business or large, topical blogging drives traffic and draws people in with relevant bits of information, and the proper use of keywords can help increase your ranking in search engine results. Internet marketing blog entries needn’t be long — maybe just 500 words — but if you don’t have the time, hire a service to generate the content for you. It will pay for itself over time, and the best website design companies will be able to point you in the direction of a great content developer.
Video
With the widespread increase in internet speeds, video has taken over. And it can be so versatile, from a simple cartoon pitch about your business to how-to tutorials about relevant tasks. Inforgraphics, by the way, can often be turned into animated video graphics without breaking the bank. Video entertains us, much the same way that watching TV does… and you already know how addicting that pastime is. Also? Video will help increase your search engine ranking.
When it comes to brand marketing, not all website design packages are created equal. But by using these four proven types of content, you’re bound to rise above the rest.
More research here.