Marketing affects how customers perceive your business. This perception is influenced by your advertising, online presence (website) and much more:

• How well is your website is designed? Does it look dated? Is it clean or chaotic and cluttered?
• How good is your customer support?
• How quickly do you respond to customers’ concerns?
• The quality of the work you do for your customers…
• Everything that affects the customers’ perception of you is marketing.

Advertising is only one component of marketing. Successful online advertising brings customers to your website, but keeping customers coming back is another matter. Your ads can make big claims that bring lots of customers to your landing page, but if you cannot deliver, your marketing will not be successful, you will not gain momentum, you will not gain customer retention. Customer retention builds revenue.

For your marketing efforts to be successful, your customers must perceive your website as having value and being a place worth coming back to. So what is value and a place worth coming back to? What kind of perception should you strive for? Here are several possibilities:

• Wide selection
• Great value
• Best prices around
• High quality work
• An expert in your field
• Comprehensive guarantee
• Great customer service

The list goes on and on. For your marketing to be successful, your customers need to perceive your business as a place they can trust, and one that offers excellent value and customer service.