These days, many businesses and brands will develop a website because they think they need to have one. While this is true, they do need to; it’s a dangerous mindset to have. To invest in digital, simply out of obligation (because you feel you need it) rather than placing true value and commercial meaning in the website is risky business — your website is a key touchpoint for brand communication, and so should it’d design be carefully considered.
So, to test the effectiveness of your current website, have you done the following?
A clear call-to-action on your homepage
The home or landing page of your website should clearly convey your business’ role and purpose within the first 5 seconds of viewing. As such, you should avoid cluttering the space or including unnecessary information in this first instance of interaction. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes; how have they come across the site? What are they looking to gain from initial contact with your brand? What crucial information do they need to know about you, to encourage their custom? This may come in written or visual form but should be very apparent without the visitor having to seek the information out.
Use design to convey your unique personality
The proliferation of easy-to-use and low-cost web building domains available online has allowed smaller businesses to take their web design into their own hands. However, this has also resulted in numerous cookie-cutter lookalike sites, diluting brand personality and competitive difference. You should consider your digital presence as central to your budget and partner with a trusted big commerce developer to ensure your User Interface and User Experience is second to none.
Showcase your products
You’re proud of your product or service, so why display it in a lackluster way online? Visitors should be able to explore your full range of offerings and attain enough understanding of each product to decide which is best for them. That’s not to say your approach should be overly functional. Indeed the most successful websites are both functional and enjoyable to use.
Track visits and utilize analytics
Beyond keeping sales data, consider how you can capture information on visit durations, site journeys, and user demographics, and mine this information for insights regularly. For instance, if you are receiving a far greater amount of visitors than converting sales, there might be somewhere in the site where potential customers are coming across an issue and then leaving.
Isolating these errors may be a huge turning point in your commercial success.
If you aren’t confident navigating and using analytics tools yourself, there are services where you can outsource this role.
Your website: you put in what you get out
If you fail to invest in the design of your website, it’s unlikely it will prove a useful sales channel. However, by ensuring you make the user experience as smooth as possible, and give customers all the information they need to make a sale, a site can certainly be used to your commercial advantage.
Piedmont Avenue Consulting is a San Francisco Bay Area based business development and marketing consulting firm who creates brand awareness, strengthens customer loyalty, and increases lead generation through leveraging new technologies and streamlining business processes.
Contact us today to schedule a free consulting session to review how we may be able to help.
