GUIDE

Today, companies’ digital assets form the basis of a successful marketing strategy. Effective implementation of this strategy depends on several critical factors. First, the IT infrastructure needs to be robust and reliable. Information Technologies Infrastructure (IT Infrastructure) plays a vital role in website marketing, affecting the speed, security, and performance of the site. However, only a strong IT infrastructure is not enough, because factors such as website performance, user experience, content management (CMS), and device compatibility are equally important.

The digital infrastructure of brands is operating systems. Infrastructure is not just a website issue. All applications and technologies that the company uses in a digital sense fall under the scope of infrastructure. Every business has infrastructure systems. Websites come first. E-mail systems, CRM, CMS, marketing automation, and all other software used are considered infrastructure systems. In today’s digitalization, brands whose infrastructure is not sufficiently developed will suffer. Some software and technologies are tools that keep things running smoothly. In addition, the infrastructures used need to be continuously developed and optimized. Underdeveloped infrastructures that cannot catch up with today’s technology put the way of doing business in danger. Cloud-based digital infrastructures are optimized systems. It makes instant interventions possible with its real-time data flow features.

The Internet is made up of millions of IP addresses. IPs make up Domain Name Servers. Today, every vehicle we connect to the internet has an IP. IP addresses consisting of various numbers have specific domain names for easy remembering. DNS servers are used to search for the website we want to access. TCP and IP are network protocols that make up the way the internet works. Servers store the contents of the sites to be accessed. TCP/IP protocols allow files on the Internet to be accessed and viewed without the need for them to exist on the computer. HTTP/HTTPs is the TCP/IP application layer protocol. It defines how messages are formatted and forwarded and what actions should be performed via the internet browser.

Website performance is a metric that measures how quickly a website’s pages load and display in a user’s browser on all types of devices, affecting overall interactivity and usability. Simply put, the faster a website loads and displays, the better it “performs.” Server and platform infrastructure play an important role in site performance, but other factors, such as unintentionally overloading content and images, can also affect performance.

Continuous infrastructure improvements, such as continuous code optimization and automatic image conversion to WebP format, help sites load faster regardless of device or location. Website performance should be considered as the scaffolding of online success. With good performance, a visitor can not only interact with the site but also convert into a customer. For example, if a website visitor experiences site freezing or content not loading, they will likely not return to the site.

Why website performance is important can be listed as follows:

User Experience: The link between website design and performance forms the basis of user experience. Having a beautiful design is not enough; Visitors may leave the site immediately due to performance factors such as page load time. Therefore, optimizing the user experience by considering web performance as well as aesthetic elements is critical to ensure business success.

Bounce Rate and Visitor Retention: For website owners, first impressions provide an opportunity to make a good impression on visitors in a short time. Therefore, websites need to perform quickly. Page load time affects visitors’ decision to stay or bounce. According to Google, if a page loads in one second instead of three seconds, visitors are 32% less likely to bounce.

Conversion Rates: A fast and smooth site with an impressive user experience increases the likelihood that users will stay and engage. However, even just a one-second delay in page load time can reduce conversions by 4.42%.

Brand Perception: Poor performance can negatively impact brand trust and overall perception. Visitors who do not have a good experience may question the value of the brand, which can have a long-term impact.

Mobile-First Culture: With the widespread use of mobile, the mobile performance of websites has also gained great importance. Fast-loading and high-performance mobile designs attract users’ attention. A 0.1-second improvement in mobile site speed can increase conversion rates on retail sites by 8.4%.

Websites are the basis of digital marketing. Today, every brand that wants to make comprehensive marketing communication over the internet needs a website. Websites are made up of content. The content is planned in a way that attracts the attention of the customers. Keeping the content regularly and up-to-date will increase the traffic to the website. Today, the complexity of websites and the increase in the number of shared content have necessitated some tools for website management. Content management systems are meant to eliminate this challenge. Now, content, images, videos, or blogs can be added to websites without requiring technical knowledge and advanced software knowledge.

Content management systems are the management of websites without requiring code knowledge. In the past, this required knowledge of HTML and code. Today, with a correctly chosen CMS, the entire marketing team can make changes to the website. Websites consist of themes, images, text, or animations. CMS allows pre-release monitoring of changes made on the site. CMS interfaces are user-friendly. Websites are structures that require constant updating, and this is possible in a short time with these interfaces. The most demanding part of a website is its general appearance. To do this from scratch requires high software, design, and code knowledge. The basic appearance of a website can be created in seconds using themes and templates that are readily available today.

The contributions of using CMS to digital marketing success can be listed as follows:

Creating a Website Without Coding Knowledge: CMS systems have revolutionized web design by helping users without coding knowledge and limited technical resources create an online presence for their business. Users can create content without writing code, customize their site’s design, and install extensions to add functionality to their site.

Workflows and Productivity: Multiple users can access and work on the backend of the CMS simultaneously. Simultaneously, marketers can produce content, IT professionals can enforce security protocols, and developers can add custom code to the theme.

Collaboration and Security: CMS enables the most effective and secure collaboration by providing user roles and permissions. For example, content authors may have permission to write, publish, and manage content, but they cannot delete plugins.

SEO Optimization: CMS platforms help optimize the site for search engines using internal or third-party tools. You can customize page titles and meta descriptions, choose SEO-friendly URL structures, create XML sitemaps, add visual alt text, and create 301 Redirects.

Security: CMS platforms have built-in features and plugins to secure the website. Some paid platforms offer features such as a 24/7 security team, SSL, private CDN, and SSO memberships.

The time spent on the Internet is increasing day by day. Shopping, getting information, reading news, or getting information… Whatever the purpose, having the fastest, easiest, and smoothest internet experience is what everyone wants. Ease of purchase is expected from an online shopping site. Finding the desired information quickly is expected in a form site. Smooth processing time is what is most expected from a bank application. At this point, user experience is the point where brands are responsible for providing their target audiences with the experience they expect.

User experience is not just a website design. User experience is to build an ideal customer journey in the digital world. A user-friendly website design, a successful purchase journey, highly readable content, and high-level mobile compatibility… If a brand can bring all these opportunities together for its customers, it will be ahead of its competitors in the field of user experience.

Beneficial: Planning the experience for the benefit of the customer. The experience must have a purpose. The usefulness of the design increases the traffic.

Usable: The experience must be consumable effectively and efficiently. A seamless experience increases conversion rates.

Findable: The product or content needs to be found quickly. For the products to be found easily, the content must be produced in a user-friendly manner.

Credible: The user must trust the information they read about the product or service. The promises for the product must be fulfilled.

Accessible: It’s about the content being accessible from every device and platform. The experience needs to be experienced by everyone.

Desirable: Aesthetic and emotional elements should be considered when designing the experience. The more desirable an experience is, the more interesting it becomes. Engaging experience yields desired results in conversions.

Valuable: The experience must offer value to both the brand and the users. This factor is like the sum of all other factors.

With the development of technology, many digital devices are used in daily life. Computers, mobile phones, tablets… Each device has different uses and benefits. Brands deliver their communications to target audiences with the help of devices. Each device has its importance for marketing communication. Computers, one of the most common tools today, are devices where different platforms such as websites, e-mails, and social media channels are used effectively. In addition, post-campaign analyses are also done by computers.

The most popular device today is undoubtedly mobile devices. Today, a large percentage of the ads that appear in front of the target audience on the internet are on mobile. The internet experience and ease of use have been quite different with mobile devices. In addition, location-based marketing has developed with GPS technology. Another device is the tablet. It is located between computers and mobiles in terms of size and usage area. Everything that can be done with mobile can be done with tablets with larger screens. Businesses need to plan their marketing communications for each device. Every device has advantages and disadvantages.

Smart TVs are the new trend devices with internet capability. Today, platforms that can be watched on smart TVs have been developed. Netflix, Hulu, Disney +, and Amazon Prime are among these platforms. You can also access the internet via smart TVs. Brands place their marketing communications where they see fit, depending on the manufacturers of Smart TVs. Most of the ads on smart TVs are broadcast on media platforms.