When it comes to creating an attractive, informative, website that reflects the true essence of your business; the task can be a bit daunting. What should you include? How do you attract your clients?
The primary purpose of business websites are to attract customers. But you don’t just want them to view your site, you want to motivate them to take action. This action might be initiating contact with your office, ordering a product, bookmarking the site for future reference, or referring others to the business. If a site simply entertains without motivating, it’s not doing its job. To build a site that will work for you and the goals of your business, consider the following:
- Define your customers. Determine who is most likely to want your products or services, and why. Who is your target market online? What information are they looking for?
- List your customers’ needs and concerns in order of importance. Then create headlines and text that relate your products or services to those needs, in the same order. That way when a customer first enters your site, they can immediately see something that relates to them.
- Clearly describe the nature, characteristics, capabilities, or parameters of your products or services. Many times, your business website is the first way a potential client may be introduced to your business. Make sure that through your site they can get a clear understanding of who you are and what services/products you can provide for them.
- Include prominent links for navigation, questions, and order placement on each page of your site. Don’t make your clients work hard to maneuver through your site. If you place a call-to-action on a page, make sure you have a link there that will allow them to easily complete that action. (Think an email button, call button, or contact form).
- Provide product reviews and/or references. Your business provides the best service and the highest quality products. But don’t let potential customers just take your word for it. Your existing customers can be your biggest cheerleaders. Include a review/testimonial section on your site to validate the level of service you provide and guarantee your prospects that they are making the right choice by working with you.
- Answer inquiries promptly, and/or respond immediately with automated e-mails stating when you will follow up. If you have a contact form, make sure to set this automation so your prospects know when to hear from you. But be honest, do not state they will hear from you within 24 hours regarding their inquiry if it will truly be up to 7 days. Do your best to respect the allotted time frame you have given them.
Once you have completed your business website, don’t overload your guests with information that isn’t leading to profits. In building your website, avoid the following pitfalls:
- Too much flash, sound, and fury. You’re trying to bring in customers, not win a design award. It’s better to minimize on-site confusion and focus on explaining how you’ll meet your customers’ needs. Make sure your site is visually appealing, but too much flash or sound can not only bring down loading speeds on your site but also feel overwhelming to the viewer.
- Too much detail. Voluminous pages and files load slowly, which tends to make customers move on. For the same reason, minimize graphic files and high-resolution images wherever possible, while still maintaining a professional representation. Inform your prospects on your business, but don’t overload with information.
- Complicated navigational systems. Navigation should be simple and obvious, with consistent and prominent navigation bars on each page.
- Obscuring essential information. Present information in order of its importance to the customer. The text should be clear and concise.
Building your site from the ground up can feel daunting; but so can trying to re-design it yourself. Contact our office today at (616)458-1835 and see if we can be the help you’ve been looking for! Your business website can be an effective sales tool. Be sure you are giving it the attention it deserves!