The design and building of a tailored website that converts visitors to customers tops the list for marketing your business. Business owners who don’t budget for a top quality, high performance and creatively branded website will lose out in cyberspace.
A website is one of the most important tools in your marketing arsenal.
At Original Ginger, we’ve been helping clients thrive online since 1997. Our experience in creative design and web development has equipped us with the knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. We want to share some tips with you about crucial elements your website needs to turn visitors into clients.
What Makes Great Web Design?
Top websites are built on the following foundational components. Whether you are building a website yourself or leaving it to professional web designers like us, let these components guide you to design and build a site that turns suspects into prospects and prospects into customers.
- Unforgettable Brand Appeal
- Strategic Content
- Strategic Site Structure
- Call to Action
- Mobile Design, Scalability and Browser Compatibility
- Customer Fulfillment
- Website Hosting
Planning a Website with Unforgettable Brand Appeal
Plan a visually stunning, effective website that will turn your audience into your customer. Great web design works with branding to reach into the hearts of your target market. So, before designing a website you need to know who you are and what your ideal client wants.
Nike doesn’t sell running shoes, it sells the promise of achievement. Mercedes doesn’t sell cars, it sells the luxury lifestyle. And if you want to learn from another master how a brand can reach into a consumer’s heart in seconds, watch an Apple ad.
Your website has to showcase your brand in its look, feel, words and images. All elements need to meld to create the brand experience you want. This will convert your visitors into customers.
Creating Strategic Website Content: What do You Want to Say?
Once your branding is solid, it’s time to represent your brand in words.
Website content introduces you to potential customers. Plus it’s a doorway to search engine traffic.
Strategically created content plays a huge role in determining if your website is found.
Writing for the web is different than writing for other marketing collateral. You need to write fluid and naturally flowing copy for web surfers to read, but also content that is optimized for search engines and in just the right dose.
Web copy needs to be brief, concise and engaging. Today’s web surfers have the attention span of a goldfish. You have seconds to capture the attention of any visitor and keep them. Long chunks of text, unclear verbiage, and overly mysterious leads will lose an audience, fast.
Your web content needs to be found, to engage and to be remembered if you want to convert visitors to clients.
Strategic Website Structure
Make it easy for visitors to find the information they want. Use short obvious pathways to action and create your website layout accordingly. How your website is laid out will not only affect usability by website visitors but also by the search engines.
Consider factors like how long it takes your site to load. Assets like large images or video affect loading time. Loading time will influence whether visitors stay on your website, shop on it and whether they return.
Keep the website structure as clean as possible. This will help search engines properly index your website, find your content and send relevant targeted traffic your way.
Plan your website navigation, pathways and links so that relevant targeted traffic will find your website and be more likely to convert to customers.
The Call to Action: Tell Them What to Do
In business, you have to ask for what you want. This is the call to action (CTA) and is a key part of effective web design. To turn website visitors into customers, you need to present your offering clearly and attractively. Make them eager to purchase the product or service immediately. If they don’t click, call, or order, then you haven’t achieved your goal.
Calls to action can be on your website, in a tweet, on a campaign specific landing page or in an ad. You need to pick the right call to action then create compelling copy and appealing design.
Placement for your call to action is paramount. Make your call to action stand out and convert website visitors to customers.
Mobile Web Design, Scalability & Browser Compatibility
Where does your audience look for information?
Consider devices: are they using smart phones and tablets or computers? Do they have a big bold monitor to work on or a tiny phone screen?
Consider browsers: are they using old-school Internet Explorer or are they on Chrome, Firefox or Opera?
The site has to work on the device and browser your ideal customer is using.
Today, for most businesses, a website needs to look and run terrifically on all the major browsers, monitor sizes and devices.
Customer Fulfillment: Does your Website Close the Deal?
Website visitors might not be ready to buy. They might be doing research. That doesn’t mean that they won’t do business with you in future. Prospects might visit your site to learn where you’re located, what your business hours are, or other information. This interest in information could signal an interest in further dialogue about your product or service.
But how will you know who they are? How will you stay in touch? Any and all warm leads need to be captured!
The capture and fulfillment process is critical to convert website visitors to customers.
Web Hosting: Survival of the Fittest
Web Hosting: Survival of the FittestYou’ll need to choose a website hosting service. These companies provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing internet connectivity.
To keep the costs low for small businesses, some hosting companies offer space with other business sites on “shared” servers. Private servers are available, but are more expensive and may not be necessary for a small business.
Your website is one of the most important tools in your marketing arsenal.
Designing a website that converts visitors into clients is critical.
Hungry to learn more? Get the full scoop and download a FREE copy of our awesome Guide, “Web Design: 21 Tips that Convert”.
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