Websites are an extremely cost effective tool when compared with other tools in a marketing communications mix. This article is a case study of a real business that illustrates just how effective a website can be.

Company Xyz is a service provider in a highly competitive industry. Like all good companies, Xyz provide excellent customer service, extremely high customer satisfaction rates, and attention to detail in all aspects of the business.

In 2003, Xyz decided to build a comprehensive and detailed website that cost a once off fee of less than 5% of their total annual marketing budget. Xyz also advertised Yellow pages throughout metropolitan and regional areas which cost them a whopping 60% of the marketing budget. The rest of the budget was spent on items like displays, giveaways, competitions, flyers and other traditional marketing methods.

The website grew and due to good design it was showing up on the front page of search engines for its keywords. As the internet grew, so did Xyz’s website.

Now, the website is the highest performing marketing tool for Xyz. A large majority of customers view the website after hearing about the company, even if they heard about the company from another source. Not only is the website a great informational resource for customers who have heard about Xyz from other sources, the website also brings new customers to the business. The website alone brings in over 40% of all sales, with word of mouth a close second. The other marketing initiatives combined brought in less than 20% of total sales.

This case study shows the power of the internet. The once off small expense of building a website has been referring massive amounts of sales while expensive yearly advertising in the Yellow Pages and other areas send much much less.

Summary

A well designed website can be an extremely effective and efficient marketing tool. Good website design is extremely cheap when compared to other less effective advertising like Yellow Pages. Web Design is a one off fee that is less expensive than a one year ad in the Yellow pages.

Of course the results will vary based on the industry, but the point of this case is to show that if you don’t have a website, you could be missing out on a LOT of customers.

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