In a world filled with internet email popup solutions, SEO tricks, social media targeting and so much more, digital media can look like quite the intricate and complex network of strings and decisions. However, many businesses have mastered the art of sticking to basics, in order to guarantee the full effectiveness of any other elements added down the road. This is what separates the truly outstanding online efforts from those that have cracks and dents in them: mastering the basics. Let us proceed to some specific examples of how mastering the basics can completely change the way in which marketing is perceived and executed.
Relying on a stable structure
Imagine a website with a lot of digital marketing strategies implemented, to be similar to a Christmas tree. You have your base website, covered in all these different flourishes, decorations and custom elements that are meant to add more depth to the tree (or in this case, website) and to lure people towards it. It all looks great but, there’s one problem: The tree doesn’t have a support at the bottom, and therefore falls down, alongside all its beautiful decorations.
Now, imagine another tree, but this time with the support in place. Even if it doesn’t have as many decorations, it manages to stay up and an upright tree will always be more attractive than one flat on the ground. Once you have secured the tree in its support, you can add all the other elements once more, this time confident that they will have a much larger impact.
The same thing goes with websites and marketing. Before you can add your internet email popup and your squeeze page, you need to make sure that the platform itself is in the best shape it can possibly be in. You’d be amazed at how fast users can be to hit the X mark on a website’s tab, in order to close it when they don’t like what they see. The thing users want the most right now is speed. Make your website load really fast, never crash and overall provide a really smooth experience. That’s what will get people to stay and appreciate all the other elements you’ve weaved into your marketing delivery.
Users are not lab rats
To make mistakes or to miscalculate is human. However, whatever imperfections you cook up shouldn’t be directly dumped on top of your users. Don’t make them have to test out your inefficient browsing methods or your completely unintuitive way of navigating the website. Put yourself in their shoes before you give the go-ahead for any design and functionality change that concerns the users. Test it out yourself. Do you like how it feels? Is it easy enough to get from one page on the site to another? Does the way everything falls into place make sense? Answer these questions and make changes based on your answers. Expecting users to fill in these gaps for you is detrimental to your marketing delivery.
The ability to keep the founding basics of a good website in mind whilst developing a marketing machine is what separates most mediocre websites from the top page heavy hitters. Keep that in mind that there’s no doubt that you will be able to rank among the latter category.
I began writing as a professional on my personal blog and then discovered my true calling, which is writing about technology and gadgets in general. I am a technical writer, author and blogger since 2005. An industry watcher that stays on top of the latest features, extremely passionate about juicy tech news and everything related to gadgets.