You probably think you know what you are selling. But that’s only the half of it. You are also selling an emotional experience. Getting that right is the key to success and is what company websites and internet marketing ought to be about.

That was the message from internet entrepreneur and business consultant Phil Crowshaw of the Geeky Group when he gave the keynote presentation at the Tile & KBB Business Insight Day, run in conjunction with The Tile Association.

Phil accepted it was a difficult concept for traditional businesses to encompass. “It takes you to a whole new level of thinking and it frightens people half to death,” he said. “People’s fear factor is huge and uncomfortable.”

Phil, who launched what he believes was the world’s first online business TV channel in 2002 and is now one of the Government’s Growth Accelerators, said the information revolution is having such a significant impact on society it makes changes brought about by the industrial revolution look like a glitch.

Changes are happening quickly – like the switch from desktop to mobile computers. And one piece of advice Phil has about websites is that they should be responsive – that is, they should be able to change so they can be viewed easily on mobile phones and tablets.

The reason: for the first time last year more than half of all connections to the internet were made on mobile devices and that trend is likely to  continue.

Phil said people are becoming ‘nomophobic’ – frightened to be parted from their mobile phones.

One defining factor of the information revolution is the sheer volume of information, which makes it difficult to be heard above the noise. “Time has become so, so important to us,” says Phil. His solution: content marketing.

This requires firms to be brave and as different as possible, even controversial perhaps. None of which, he conceded, is comfortable ground for traditional companies. But “if you don’t push the boundaries the danger is you will be ignored”. Good examples of content marketing: the John Lewes ‘Man on the Moon’ Christmas advertisement and the meerkats of Compare the Market.

Videos have become important. Both because people prefer to watch than to read and because Google recognises that fact and is more likely to put a website with video content higher up its ratings.

According to Phil, there is a 53% greater chance of appearing on the first page of Google if your site contains a video.

But he warned about being polite with a video because it can annoy people and slow down a website, so “don’t have it going when people first get there – everyone knows they have to click the triangle.” He said a video showing what you do should be no more than one-and-a-half to two minutes long.

Phil said the aim of content marketing can be summed up in three words: know; like, trust. “Arguably, ‘trust’ should be at the top of the list,” he said.

To be successful, company websites have to demonstrate expertise, especially in construction where Phil said the public default perception is that every builder is a cowboy.

The website should contain useful content that will be valued by visitors. That would invoke the ‘law of reciprocation’. People are social animals, so when they are given something useful they like to give something back. “If you provide your prospects with something of value they will automatically think they owe you something.”

But Phil warns that content marketing is a longer game. We all have the ‘instant gratification monkey’ sitting on our shoulders, he said, but knowing, liking, trusting are emotions that take time to cultivate.

Content marketing includes “what I’m doing now: standing in front of people and talking to them”. Phil called it 3D content marketing. He says it is important, as are phone calls now they are becoming enough of a novelty to secure a sale.

Paula Hayter, the Sales Manager of Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS), The Tile Association’s service partner that had organised the Tile & KBB Business Insight Day with the Association, reinforced the point: sales people who make the most calls make the most sales, she said.

A website should provide sales leads. It is why it should include ‘calls to action’ to get brochures or price lists that require visitors to leave their email address and telephone number. They should be followed up with as personal an approach as possible without bombarding the person.

Mike Beech, Product Marketing Director of KCS, said company websites have three essentials: to be found; to meet customer expectations; to illicit a response from visitors.