If you are over the age of 35, you probably remember when the most innovative thing you could do on the web was interact in an AOL chat room. And you thought you were so cool doing it, too.
It’s safe to say that we have come a looooong way since then. We live on the web – personally, professionally, and everything in between. And the web lives everywhere too – desktops, tablets, mobile. It’s a huge interconnected world that is changing by the minute. With everything at our fingertips to communicate and share information, sometimes it feels like the web – the mothership – is being out-shined by all of the things it actually sparked. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Dating sites, Online review forums. None of them would exist if not for the web.
A couple of years ago, Mikal E. Belicove penned an article for Entrepreneur.com called “Five Reasons Why Websites Still Matter“. He came up with a short list of reasons not to ignore your website; including:
- Branding
- IT and Engineering Jurisdiction
- Content
- SEO
- Analytics
He gave advice saying “that you lead first with your website, followed by leveraging social, email marketing, point of purchase, mobile, apps and other forms of marketing and outreach to drive traffic to your website where you can generate qualified leads who convert to paying customers.”
Your website is like a giant canvas. On it, you can visually tell the story of your company and your brand. Everything you paint (your content) is an extension of your brand. And as the look and feel of websites have evolved over the years, so has the content. Gone are the days of a static website page with some contact info and a small blurb about the company. They have been replaced with stunning visual experiences that draw your audiences in and lure them to lose themselves in the resources your provide through countless pages that all splinter off from your home page.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any cooler….marketing apps happened. Mind Blown.
Today’s consumers use apps for everything! Wanna find the closest gas station? There’s an app for that! How about printing hard copies of photos from your smartphone? There’s an app for that! Wanna use your smartphone to pay for your cup of coffee? Yup! You guessed it…there’s an app for that too!
Do you want to create an engaging and interactive digital experiences for users on your website? Say it with me. THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!
In a recent article by Pratik Dholakiya on Search Engine Watch, he says,
“As humans, we remember and care about experiences far more than things, or content. We will always remember and treasure a vacation more than, say, a movie (unless it’s “Star Wars”). The marketers of the future need to create interactions. Users experience them, and so they become memorable.”
We are just at the beginning of this digital marketing revolution. Every time you think it can’t get better, the web and what we can do with it as marketers changes. Something big is about to happen.