Whether you are building, commissioning or reviewing your website, it is important to make sure it will help to deliver your business goals. Asking one killer question about this area of your digital presence really will help to take your business to the next level.
So what is the killer question?
‘What is the point of our website?'
The trick is to identify the one key goal that your website needs to achieve. You may feel that there are several objectives that your website needs to support. If you are a start-up e-commerce business, for example, you may want it to build brand awareness to sell your products. As a start-up, of, you want people to understand your brand.
Identifying your killer answer will help you to create a website that focuses on the key element to support and grow your business.
Most business reasons for a website fall into a few key considerations. If you want your website really to work hard for your business, your primary drivers should be its design, structure and visitor experience.
Killer website reason 1: Sell goods
As an online retailer, you know you need an e-commerce facility, but really good e-commerce websites make the shopping experience central focus. If potential customers found you because they are searching for the type of products you sell, they need to see your products first. Your personal journey or eco credentials may be additional persuasive factors, but they should not get in the way of the purchasing experience. Have a look at some of the most well-known online brands and you will see that the products come first.
As an e-retailer, your website should display clear, attractive imagery and easy navigation through to purchase. The ‘Buy now’ buttons, for example, should feature a colour that grabs attention while complementing the design. The speed of your website is important; if it takes a long time to navigate between products, your analytics might show potential customers leaving the site early.
Case study: ValetPro, a company that manufactures specialist car cleaning and protection products, sell their goods online. Their products take centre stage on the website that eonic.digital designed and built for them.
Killer website reason 2: Drive enquiries
If you want to drive sales but have a product or service that doesn’t lend itself to an e-commerce transaction, your website will need to drive enquiries. Your website design needs to reflect whether you want visitors to email their enquiry or pick up the phone. This means making sure your contact details are visible at all times, with compelling calls to action telling them what their next step is on every page.
Case study: eonic.digital created a website for property care company, Kin Kan Do with the key aim to get potential customers to request a quote. The easy-to-use quote request form features prominently on every page to make the contact process simple.
Killer website reason 3: Generate new leads
An extension of driving enquiries, if you want to collect customer data to enrol them on a persuasive user journey, your website needs to be designed to convince them to part with their contact details. Typically, this involves offering information, for example, in the form of an ebook. The user will be asked for their email address in order to receive the information.
Remember that any data collection must be in line with the General Data Protection Requirements (GDPR).
Killer website reason 4: Showcase your work
If your business is visual – for example if you are a photographer, artist, architect or builder – the purchasing decision will depend on whether people like the look of your work. Your portfolio should, therefore, take centre stage within your website design. It’s also important that the images are properly scaled for fast scrolling to avoid visitors clicking away.
Killer website reason 5: Reduce admin and streamline processes
Your website has the capacity to be the personal assistant you always wanted! Whether you’re a sports club with members wanting to book classes or a beauty salon taking appointments, your website can save you time with an automating booking system. With 35% of customers preferring to schedule appointments after working hours, an online booking system means they can reach you at any time.
Your online booking system needs to be easy to find, navigate and quick to load. Streamline the process to its bare essentials wherever you can and monitor user behaviour in your analytics report. The quicker and easier the process, the more website visitors will become your fans.
Case study: For Canadian Travel Clinics, eonic.digital added the online booking system at the front of the website, to drive conversions by making the process simple to use.
Killer website reason 6: Build trust and credibility
The modern consumer is cautious, with 56% of people stating they would not trust a business without a website. Having a clear, well-designed website instantly boosts your credibility as a legitimate business.
This will include clear messaging about your expertise, customer testimonials and online reviews. Some people will come to your website via word-of-mouth recommendations, so this messaging shouldn’t clutter the visitor experience for the person simply looking for your phone number. It does, however, need to be easy to find for those who exercise caution before committing to a purchase.
Case study: Recruitment companies can be tarnished by pushy, quota-driven companies, who put targets ahead of finding the right candidates for clients. That’s why we put the values of Recruitment Solutions, prominently on their new website.
Killer website reason 7: 24/7 online presence
Having a website makes your business visible anytime, anywhere. Even outside of usual hours, your website will continue to find and secure new customers.
For this to succeed, your website needs to rank highly on search engines for potential customers find you. Research has found that 93% of people don’t look at results beyond page one of Google, with 75% clicking on the top two results only.
The technical term for making sure your website is found in relevant online searches is search engine optimisation (SEO).
Key strategies for boosting your website’s SEO include:
- regular content built around your target keywords
- social media to drive traffic to your website
- optimising the page titles and meta tags on every page, alt tags on pictures and keywords in text
- backlinks connecting your website to other, reputable websites.
Your website is one of your business’ most important marketing tools, so continue to analyse and refresh as your business changes. By ensuring it is a true reflection of your business at its very best you stand to gain customers, talent and admiration from your customers.
Eonic.digital offers digital strategy, web design and development, marketing and hosting support to brands that aim to make a difference. Contact us to find out more.
