What’s the one characteristic all successful online businesses share? The answer is they all have an effective and engaging website. Part of the success admittedly is down to design. Good website designers can help you get all the technical and aesthetic details right, and deliver a site that’s usable, functional and interactive. Excellent website designers will also deliver a site that has good navigation, great visual design qualities, great content and effective online branding.
However, the very best website designers know that the top-performing sites need something extra: yes, they still need the right technical stuff and great visuals, but they also need the wow factor – that is, the ability to talk to and engage with customers. The web designers at Search and More understand this; we appreciate that a great website is more than simply a sum of its parts, and we definitely know how to give sites the wow factor.
How can web designers create the wow factor?
Engage with customers and talk to them
Regardless of what anyone might tell you to the contrary, first impressions definitely last. So as the company website is your portal to the world, it’s important that it makes the right impression from the outset. Not only does it need to attract viewers: it needs to provide the sort of experience that will keep them there and keep them coming back time after time. To ensure this happens, the website will need to provide a platform that sells your products and services in an interesting and appealing way.
How do you do that? Well, by creating content that is engaging, interesting and great to read. What sort of content are we referring to here? Well, content that readers can warm to and content that resonates with its audience. The type of content that works well here are things like company success stories, staff biographies and detailed information about the products and services a business provides: in short any type of content that helps you stand out from your competitors. Here are a few more content suggestions:
- Intriguing company insights
- Links that keep your customers hooked
- Ideas or concepts that your users will remember
- Keep your website content focused and don’t over-elaborate
It’s important to keep your content on-message and to the point. Customers aren’t really all that interested in business strategies or how well you’re faring. What they want is information that tells them they can trust you. So give them content about whether other customers found your products and services useful. Give them success stories and let them read testimonials from satisfied customers.
It’s a simple message really that basically tells customers you can be trusted. It can be said simply and briefly, and definitely doesn’t need over-elaboration. However, there’s a fine line between keeping it simple and making it hard to read. Reading should be a pleasure, not a chore, so keep it personable and interesting.
Sharing is caring
In any sort of relationship, whether that’s personal or business, sharing is essential. Sharing is the glue that binds relationships together. But the $64,000 question is what should you share? Everything or very little? Well, the answer is anything that you feel your customers would benefit from knowing about; so give them information on product reviews, hints and tips and company insights. It’s also very useful to share information and feedback from your customers too as this will make them feel involved and appreciated. If you haven’t yet started a company blog, then get one online as quickly as possible, as blogs can help to drive more traffic to your website. You can use your blog to educate your readers. Tell them about your success stories, ask for their opinions and use them as a sounding board if you’re considering launching new products.
If you’d like further information about effective website design and creative content marketing, call Search and More on 0161 669 5544.
