Running a business website can certainly be a challenge for any company. But in today’s competitive market, having an effective web design that works for your business is just one of several startup marketing essentials.
From our own company’s experience, here are three things in particular we have found that every business owner needs to have on their business website:
Prominent Calls to Action
Your online visitors want and need direction. With their super short attention spans and the dreaded bounce rate, you have mere moments to engage your website visitors and guide them where you want them to go. Be direct in your approach – a clear call to action whether it is a sign up form for a newsletter or a featured product you are selling or even a big phone number in your header to drive phone calls, it needs to be obvious.
A clear call to action on your main page isn’t simply the act of adding a big button, it is about strategy. Make it clutter free and precise, stick to the essentials and take away the distractions.
Compelling and Engaging Content
Unique content is what will initially drive your online visitors to take the action you want them to take. If you are lacking an effective headline or a brief and prominent explanation of your value proposition, your visitors are not likely to make it past the homepage or landing page. Compelling content needs to be simple, short and direct. Motivate your visitors to take action.
Provide a Consistent User Experience
What does this mean? When you provide a “consistent user experience”, you are creating a feeling about your company in all of your marketing, especially as they interact with your website. Several elements influence user experience in your website design:
Web Design Elements – Your website design should embody your company brand. The design should also engage your target market and cause them to feel a certain way. For example, a bed and bath website targeted at middle-aged women, should “feel” like a place where women want to buy things for their home.
Credibility/Trustworthiness – Your website design and functionality also plays an important role in how credible and trustworthy you appear online. It may be seem like a small thing to you, but a person getting their first impression of your company wants to know that they are going to have a good experience and not get scammed. Credibility doesn’t mean having a fancy homepage with seals on your checkout page if you are selling something, it is more about creating an online space that is professional and easy to use.
Ease of use – Your online visitors need to be able to easily navigate your website pages without getting frustrated. You should use clear menu navigation and structure, use best practices to be effective and purposeful to direct users through your pages and make contact information easy to find.
Next Steps
So how do you take the next steps to get an effective web design? BMGcreative is here to serve, as an experienced web design company and marketing partner. Contact us to get started or make an appointment online!