The Central Hub

This is probably one of the most powerful blogs I have written and as we head into the future it will become the most important blog you have read. Society is changing, the way we communicate, what we want to listen to and how we want information has changed forever. You must keep up and make the changes yourself if your business is going to be successful. No longer can we just sit back and think that all this is a craze and it will disappear, that the good old days of radio, TV and print media will return. The time has come for interaction and 2.0 technologies.

There is a central hub and it can provide you and your prospects with everything they need and want. Over the past 5 years the central hub has changed and in the next 3-5 years will change again. It will become more interactive, prospects will expect more from it and it will need to keep the attention of your users. The central hub is your website.

5 years ago getting a website was a big thing, it gave your business an online presence, the yellow pages were disappearing and people were finding businesses through Google, it just had to be done. Well today the landscape has changed and users (prospects) expect more from a website, the boring brochure site that 85% of business owners have is not good enough anymore. Your website must become the central hub of all your marketing campaigns.

This is where most web designers and I do not get along; most web designers want your site to look pretty, to be a brochure and to be boring. It is quick, easy for them and not too much thought needs to go into it. The unfortunate part is that sort of website will not make you any money. It will not bring in leads and in the near future users will not even bother staying on such a site.

Web designers are not marketers they are not interested in the return on your marketing dollar, but winning awards. Yeah they say it will bring in leads, but they do not know how.

The central hub of the future needs to be interesting, interactive have blogs, social media interaction, resources, value; it must have technologies that your user can play with. This is the site of the future; this is a site that people want to visit and share with their friends.

So how can we do this in a simple way?

The first part step in changing your central hub is to add value into your site. This might be through a free resource page or a blog in which you can put valuable and interesting information. This information needs to add value to the users world to the extent that they will tell others about it.

Secondly your central hub has to be able to capture data, a prospects name, email and possible phone number. The bigger a database your business has the bigger a business you have. No longer is it reasonable to give away a free e-book or audio that in itself is becoming too well known and boring. This step ensures that when you send your marketing to the central hub you have a way of capturing them.

Finally your central hub needs to interact with social media; users should be able to join you on your business fan page, twitter, linkedin and youtube. Not only should there be links from your website but pages should be integrated in so it is an easy process and users can see what is happening right there on your site.

A boring website that consists of a brochure is a site of the past, it is time to change and interact with your prospects the way they want to be interacted with, in a way that allows them to spread your business to their circle of influences.