• -Alert-
  A company called Asia Pacific NameBrand Solutions Ltd has been emailing businesses with .com and .ca domain names and telling them they need to register Asia-pacific domain names in order to protect their sites. This is not true, do not send them any information or register a domain name with them. If you are interested in obtaining .cn, .asia or any other domain names contact your preferred domain registrar.
• We're hosting a 'How to Get an Effective Website' workshop on Wednesday, January 21 it will cover everything you need to know to have a successful website. The cost is $25. For more details email kelsy.flewitt@14theories.com
• 14 Theories would like to welcome Kelsy Flewitt to the team as Project Manager. Kelsy is a St. Lawrence College graduate from the Advertising/Integrated Marketing Communications program and has worked in the economic development industry and the telecommunications industry before joining 14 Theories.

Most of us know that it's essential for almost all businesses to have a website, whether it's a basic site with static content about the business or a full fledged e-commerce site. What most businesses struggle with is how to make their website an effective tool in the marketing mix.

Like any marketing piece a website needs to be integrated cohesively with the rest of the marketing plan. The first step in doing this is, ensuring that your website address (domain) is present wherever your contact information is listed: on your business card, advertisements and email signatures. Also getting rid of email addresses that don't extend your brand is a good idea (hotmail, gmail). Now that people are aware of the site don't confuse them when they visit by having brand design elements that don't match your other marketing pieces. Ensure the same colours, designs, graphics and logos are used throughout all marketing.

The next step in integration is ensuring the content on your site is a part of the communication loop your target audience will be following. For example, a promotion you are advertising in print media should push the customer to the website for more details and the website details should push the customer to the business location for pick-up. Once the customer is in the store they should be told to check back to the website for another piece of information that pushes them through the communication loop once again.

Your website has the potential to be the most inexpensive and yet the most effective tool in your marketing toolbox, as long as long as you make the most of it. Making the most of your website can be as simple as having current information available. Any information on the site that is dated over a month old will make customers wonder if you know what you're doing. Not to mention, having consistent updates will encourage customers to visit the site more often which will strengthen your search engine listings.

Making the most of your site could also mean creating a supplemental web presence through social networking sites. By understanding and using Blogging, Facebook, YouTube and Digg, you can add another communication and traffic driving tier to your marketing mix. Social networking allows customers to interact informally with your business and is an excellent market research tool. Social networking sites also provide a good way to 'soft launch' other marketing mix pieces. An example of this would be if you had a new product to launch, test it out or provide information about it on your Facebook page or Blog and ask for feedback.

Making your site an effective part of the marketing mix is relatively simple; it just takes the know-how, integration, maintenance and bit of creativity. For more information on the topics covered in this article please contact us!