Assessment #3

Name: Lauren Haydon

Date:September 28, 2018

Subject: Product Marketing

MLA Citation:

Crowley, Maggie, and Kristin Harad. “Web Marketing Myths Debunked. (Cover Story).”

Journal of Financial Planning, vol. 28, no. 7, July 2015, pp. 28–31. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=103662995&site=ehost-live.

Accessed 20 September 2018.

Analysis:

In the new age of media, it has constantly been drilled into our heads that your online

presence is objectively one of the most important things that makes a cliente decide if they are

going to come to you for business. Within that understanding that web marketing is important,

there are a few misconceptions floating around that have been proven to be detrimental. This

week I read an article that debunks these myths and more specifically talked about how these

beliefs can negatively affect those in the financial consulting business. It gave a list of the main

ways companies go wrong when opening up a website and how they can improve their branding

and in turn, boost their profits.

The myths that the article discussed all centered around the misconception that a website

serves as a place for existing customers to go and gain access to resources versus a touch point

for potential clients to go in and discover if their needs can be met by this company. Some
believe that web preferences do not matter, their target audience is not even online, or that once a

website is built, nothing more needs to be done for it to serve its purpose. The authors of this

article continually prove that wrong by pointing out one single fact: everyone ( and we mean

everyone) is online. Everyone is guilty of googling someone new before we actually sit down

and meet with them. Whether we find their social media page, their website, or even instances

where they have been featured on another companyś site, that is our first impression of them. It

has been proven through research that after you meet someone for the first time, it takes

approximately twenty-one times for that impression to change. By taking control of their online

presence and making themselves appear to be as great as possible, customer traffic flows at a

higher volume.

As I read in my article the other week, target market should be the driving force for every

thing that we do as marketers. This plays true in the cyber aspect of the job as well. By

segmenting who we want our primary audience to be, websites that we create can serve to better

draw in members of this group. Every component of the platform can make the consumer feel as

if they were lucky that they found us and our company versus just any other company that does

exactly what we do. The images, the colors, the call to action, and even the messages should all

reflect what your market would want to see on your site. One thing that I was very fascinated by

was the money that is lost when a company puts a call to action on their website that is too

demanding or too specific. That makes potential clients feel as if they are agreeing to an

ultimatum which they find binding and uncomfortable. When companies have multiple ways to

take action on their website that are tailored towards each level of commitment, they succeed

more.
 Before reading this article, I held the belief that some business could generate some cash

flow just from their websites but I never considered how they could use it as a whole new

engagement platform. With Google selling ad preferences, it changes the entire way this market

now runs.