A strong website can do so much for your business. It can draw in new prospects, strengthen relationships with current clients, even act as a venue for your buyers to purchase your products directly. But for all that to happen, you have to build it well. Looking to get started? Below are nine ways you can improve your website and make it into the lean, mean, selling machine it needs to be in 2014.
1. Make sure all your other marketing materials point to it
This one should go without saying, but make sure every marketing touch you have with prospects and clients has a link to your website on it. Email signatures, business cards, invoices—every piece of your business that touches a customer should have your Web address on it. Why? Because your website is only valuable if people actually know about it. The more you tell people about it, the more they'll notice and remember it as a resource for interacting with your business.
2. Make navigation as simple and intuitive as possible
A website is only useful if it's usable. If prospects and clients go to your site and immediately become frustrated by confusing site navigation, it's not likely they're going to think highly of your business, let alone pursue spending money with you on that interaction. Keep your site navigation fast and simple, in order to keep users happy and able to find what they want on your website.
To streamline your site navigation, make sure it's as simple, flat and circular as possible. Users should expend a minimum amount of clicks to get where they want to go on your website (simple), there should not be a lot of extra pages between where they are and where they want to go (flat), and each page should allow them to click to any other main page on the website (circular). Additionally, make sure site buttons are clearly labeled and easy to find, in order to make the mechanics of your site's navigation as obvious as possible to new visitors.
To test the quality of your site's navigation, consider emailing some of your trusted customers and asking them to navigate your site and rate its efficiency. Sending your site to friends and peers outside the industry and having them similarly test and rate your site is also a good option. Their experience will be approximate to new customers visiting your site for the first time, so if they cannot navigate your site easily, you know something is wrong.
3. Keep it simple
A simple site design has many benefits, from faster load times to better navigation across browsers and devices. Avoid complexities like animation, pop-ups and audio. Such additions will not only slow your site down, but also interfere with users navigating your site—something to be avoided at all costs.
4. Use site copy to its fullest
Any time users have clicked through to a detail page on your site—say, a page for a specific product or an "about us" section—they should be reading copy as informative and marketing-friendly as possible. Make sure your detail pages are loaded with all the detailed copy a reader would want, and also have the marketing angle you desire. Having the details of your products explained well is certainly a good start, but you should also be mindful that every click-through on your website is another marketing touch for prospects and clients. Put your website copy to work for that purpose, and make sure it fulfills some marketing goals as well—be it distinguishing your products from your competitors, promoting any sales or specials you might have, or just staying consistent with your company voice.
5. Have big, inviting images
"A picture is worth a thousand words" is no less true on the Internet. Use photos to their fullest potential on your site. Have big, crisp photos of your products, a prominently placed and large image of your company logo somewhere, and clear, easy-to-read navigation buttons. Additionally, avoid cheesy stock art photos. Today's online consumers, especially print buyers who work in marketing themselves, will easily spot these and think less of your company for using them. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but none of them are worth anything if they tell a boring story everyone has heard before.
6. Use an inviting site design
Your website should be designed in a way that makes it seem inviting, happy and professional. Think about how sites like Amazon, Google and Facebook use color and shapes. These sites avoid colors that are too dull (browns, grays) or too aggressive (reds, neons), and have just enough white space on their pages to avoid seeming too busy and tightly laid out, while still maximizing space.
7. Build communities on social media groups
Social media accounts give you a way to reach customers when they're not visiting your site, or even thinking about your business. A strong social-media presence can be valuable, but first you need to build a community on the sites of your choice.
Every social network is a little different in terms of community-building guidelines, but there's a general guideline that can be applied to them all: Be personal. Share pictures and video of people at your company working, having fun, or doing anything else that's interesting or shows personality. Write posts that have nothing to do with your business, such as "What's your favorite fall beer?" or "How was everyone's Thanksgiving?" or "Today is national dog day! Our favorite dog is the beagle. What's yours?" Comment on or interact with the post of another social-media account that's a client of yours. Anything you can do to make your company seem likable, interesting or fun should be your No. 1 goal on social media.
Why? Two reasons: One, sharing the personal side of your business is a good way to build affinity with prospects and customers, since the more they feel they know you, the more they'll trust you and want to do business with you. Two, a primary focus on fun, personal content will make the occasional serious post about your business much more palatable to your followers. Too many posts about product sales or other business-y stuff is a sure way to turn off followers on social media, but a handful of carefully crafted business posts within a larger body of fun, non-sales content can be an effective way to drive buyers to your website.
Social media can also be an effective customer-service tool, letting you communicate with customers in a fast, public-facing way.
8. Build an e-newsletter
A collection of email addresses of clients who have agreed to receive periodic emails from your business can be a critically useful thing to have. Promoting product sales and special events is an obvious use, but more creative uses are an option as well. Unlike social media, e-newsletters allow for split messaging, i.e., sending half your email list one message and the other half a different one. This opens a wealth of product research and testing options for your company that might not be available otherwise. You could track which products people are most interested in or which email subject lines get opened more, or offer two different ways to redeem coupons, etc.
9. Use Google to its fullest
Google has several products that are vital for building business through your website. The first is Google Analytics, a traffic-reporting program that provides detailed reports on the behavior of your site's visitors. Everything users do on your site, from what exactly they're clicking on to how long they're staying on your site, is recorded and available to read and analyze, courtesy of the platform. It's free, and installed by a simple script you can place in the footer of your website.
The second is Google's search product itself. Ranking highly on Google's search results should be the priority of any business. The best way to do this could be having your business mentioned in online articles or press releases, but in general, your site should be full of relevant keywords ("business forms for the banking and financial sector," "marketing and printing solutions for small businesses in the Tri-state area," etc.).