As more companies are set up, competition is keen in reaching desired target audiences and communicating the right messages to them. Most firms share a common problem – to gain an online presence stronger than competitors’. We spend money to build a website and spend another lump sum to direct traffic to the website. We then engage branding consultants, SEM companies and SEO specialists to raise our online awareness. With a growing significance in social media marketing, budget allocated to advertising in social medium starts off as a small investment eventually leads to above-the-line advertising. After some time you find that it does not seem to yield the right ROI. So where does the problem lie in?

There are several answers to that. It might be your website structure, your marketing strategy, your communication message, or other factors which you could have overlooked. In this article, we bring to your focus the message that is conveyed in your website.

More often than not, business owners tell us they want to sell EVERYTHING. They tell the world that they SELL everything. Truth is, they do not – they just WANT to sell everything. When that happens, the message of the website is diluted and the impact of communication is weakened.

For instance, instead of going to a locksmith’s website to get his services, the user of the website has to sieve through several pages among other complimentary businesses that the locksmith engages in before the user lands on the page which contains information on his main service, which is lock picking.

At this point of time, some of you reading this would claim you do not face this issue. In that case, may I suggest that you follow through this simple test. Find a friend or anyone who has yet to see your website and get him or her to find a specific product or service that your business offers. If your friend uses more than 3 clicks or spends more than 5 minutes to find the service, it might be a good idea to rethink about the central message that your website is communicating.