Posted by Larry Sullivan

I often hear local advertisers talk about what advertising worked and what didn’t… they almost always consider the medium and rarely the message. Then I wonder… “So… 100 people typed in the category of your business, your town,and visited your site… then decided */not/* to do business with you… why do you think that is? Hmmmm…

A recent survey conducted by Nielsen/Netratings  for WebVisible showed just how important website design really is. Peter Krasilovsky  has a nice write up on the survey at the The Local Onliner . What really struck me is:

“Eighty-five percent of respondents agreed that the quality of a business owner’s website is an important factor in earning the consumer’s trust. Over 75 percent of respondents said they were more likely to make a purchase from “an unfamiliar business with a quality website,” than “a poor website from a known business.”

Eight-five percent!!! In Yellow Pages, we used to call this ‘completing the ad cycle’. Somebody would get recommended to your business or see your advertising and they would come to the Yellow Pages to get the numberor learn more …and if you’re not there or if you’re not well-represented… you’re going to lose that customer.

Well, what’s old is new again, right? Check out how many referrals were potentially lost in one month alone by glancing at the analytics of this local search campaign  good place to start a web marketing campaign is at the beginning… with a good design. Paying for a good esign up front will save you thousands in marketing costs down the line.

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Today’s post is from our anonymous Internet insider, Mr. X.