Marketing 301 – Website Design

                A good website should be at the cornerstone of your marketing campaign.  The amount of information you can provide is staggering when you look at the costs.  You can purchase a domain at GoDaddy.com for $10.  You can have it hosted for $50 a year.  Sixty bucks and you get to provide ticket buyers with unlimited photos, videos, press quotes, and most importantly:  a link to buy the tickets.

                So how do you go about building a website?  If you don’t have a friend who can build websites, I suggest you start looking for one immediately.  Or better yet, pick up a copy of Dreamweaver for Dummies and learn how to do it yourself.  The internet is the future for marketing and communications.  The cost savings of doing things online are through the roof.  Any time you invest in understanding the internet will not be wasted.

                With that said, here are a list of tips and guidelines to follow when creating your website: 

1. Please, please, please – make it look nice.  Make sure the colors match, and make sure the layout looks pleasing to the eye.
2. Make sure the website loads quickly.  I hate slow websites.  Flash-based websites are the worst because they take nearly a minute to load.  By that time I’ve lost interest. 
3. Do not have music play automatically the moment you open the page.  I cannot tell you how much I hate this.  Most people listen to their own playlist while surfing the web.  It's rude and disruptive to invade my space like that.  And what if I'm at work?  If something starts blasting over the speakers you just humiliated me in front of all my co-workers.  If you’re producing a musical, have a page where you can listen to the tracks, but give them a choice.  Don’t ram it down their throats.
4. Three things should be visible on every page.  The name of the play, the location of the theater, and a link to buy tickets.  This is common sense, but I am continually shocked at how difficult sites make it to find basic information.
5. Make it as easy as possible to buy a ticket.  An easy to find link that says “tickets” should be on every page.  When they make up their mind to purchase a ticket, you want that process to be as smooth as possible.
6. A picture is worth a thousand words.  Invest in great pictures for your website.
7. A good photo is more effective than a good illustration.  There is marketing data to back this up.  (but make sure they’re good).
8. People will assume that the quality of your website reflects the quality of your show.  So again – make it look nice.  It should look like a lot of TLC was put into it (which will give them the impression that a lot of TLC was put into the show).