Many of us are led to believe that a website is “a virtual office.” While this is true, it severely limits the role or function of the website of a modern organization.

In reality, your website is one of the greatest marketing tools to fashion your success in the digital world. A website can be used to influence both the image and sales of a company.

One of the cornerstones for creating a successful website is aiming to give visitors the same quality of experience they would enjoy from your product or service!

For example, a chocolate manufacturing company that claims to create the most delicious bites must be able to communicate something about that ‘delicious bite’to the people who visit its website. If this is done rightly, it can be far more successful than most forms of conventional marketing in influencing sales.

The importance of web design for online branding cannot be overlooked. Your website must carry your company’s logo and bear its corporate colors because the platform is basically an extension of the organization-albeit in the digital dimension.

While marketers are usually hard-pressed for space, forcing them to summarize information, a company has the leeway to delve into the details of its work process, results and objectives on its website. This provides a way for companies to communicate with their customers in a direct manner.

In this sense, websites may be the greatest marketing tools ever created. Let us take a second to consider a scenario; an average website may get thousands of visitors each day from different corners of the globe. Now, if a company were to gather all the information contained in its website into a brochure; how many people would get this document in comparison to how many people would visit the company’s website? Also, what is the scale of the difference in the cost of reaching a designated number of customers though a website and through a hard-copy brochure?

Any savvy marketer today would emphasize the value of website design to potential customers, because let’s face it: savvy marketer today would emphasize the value of website design to potential customers, because let’s face it: the product or service you provide would be judged to be just as good as your website appears.

Think about how you felt each time you visited the website of a company and it was outdated, full of errors, or downright nonfunctional? Just as a great website can contribute to establish your reputation in the digital world, nothing can be more damaging to your online expansion than a bad website.