Marketing and PR

Marketing in web design

It may sound very paradoxical, but it's a fact that written information are at first rather irksome to the fleeting surfer, because it takes time to read them. The information are only interesting, if the surfer has found his site. Any surfer looking for a web site containing a certain topic can be regarded as a fleeting surfer, because at first he randomly checks whether the web sites deal with the right topic. The start page assumes a special position because it is the first page the surfer will see. Consequently, it is absolutely important that the start page is fast: It has to be fast as regards load time, and above all it has to be fast as regards information transfer: The surfer must be able to grasp the information in no time. Exactly at this point we hit on an analogy between a web site and an advert: We look at adverts only for seconds, and all information must be transferred in this short period of time.
 
Therefore we can only learn and profit from the PR sector and the PR experts' long-standing experience in the field of advertisement layout. Since a web site is not an advert, however, we cannot simply adopt the criteria for successful advertisement layout. We are only interested in certain topics: What are the methods for integrating photos and designing headlines and flow texts?
 
The most important criterion for the layout of these three components is: speediness. Adverts must get faster in order to win in the ever growing competition for customers. Faster - because we are living in a world of information satiety, where there is only little interest for adverts and a growing preference for images. An advert has to convey its message within just a few seconds and the onlooker must be able to understand it immediately.

"Whoever is eager to produce successful advertisements should - to be on the safe side - expect only little interest for their message. It may also be helpful to be rather modest. This is the quality that makes up an advertizing expert. Modesty that makes you realise that you should not take yourself and your product too seriously. You simply will have to accept that there are people who are not interested in the product. And not at least in the advertisement. If you follow these principles, you will automatically produce better advertisements. Advertisements which offer the right information in a well-thought-out way: fast advertisements."
From: Meyer-Hentschel Management Consulting, Erfolgreiche Anzeigen, Wiesbaden, 1993, p. 20

The start page of a web site should also meet the criterion of being fast. In fact, it has to be fast in a dual sense: It has to set up very fast, and the fleeting surfer must be able to read it very fast and to understand it immediately. Nothing speaks against adopting the means from advertizing here: use of images, fast headlines and fast flow texts.