Website design for marketing your business
Many businesses make the mistake of assuming that having any-old website will attract new business and bring customers in. However, a poorly designed website which lacks good-quality content will do little to promote your business and help you build the trust and reputation of your company brand.
Your website should be thought of one of the most important tools in your business’s marketing strategy and when designed and used properly, it will help you improve customer service, offer online sales and branch out into new customer markets.
What do you want your website to achieve?
If you are to get the most out of your new website then careful planning is required: you need to have a clear idea of what you’d like to achieve through your website and which customers you want to attract. Once you’d identified your goals you’ll need to promote your website on the search engines (Google, for example) to gain maximum exposure.
This is where SEO (search engine optimisation) comes in and when done well, effective SEO has the potential to help you get your website to the top spot in Google’s search rankings for the search terms that are most likely to be used by potential customers.
In addition to attracting new business, a marketing website has the potential to do so much more. Customer service can be improved if you provide your contact details and information on how to return items, for example, whilst customers can be kept up to date on new products, discount offers, sales or news about your business. If you sell a product or a service, this should be available to order or buy from your website.
The importance of good web design and great content
Your website should be designed to reflect the identity of your brand and the image of your business: a hastily put together, DIY or ‘on-the-cheap’ website just won’t cut the mustard. It’s important that your website is professionally presented and of a high-quality both in-terms of design and content. In the same way that you would not attend a job interview in a pair of old jeans and a shirt that you bought in the 1970s, for your website to gain you more customers it needs to be smart and up-to-date.
The content of your website should be driven by your marketing plan and digital marketing strategy. If you want users to keep returning, make sure you provide regular updates and to encourage new visitors you should send emails to alert them to updates, make full use of social media and online advertising.
Website maintenance
The design and launch of a new website is just the first step and once your website is up and running, you will need to ensure that it works properly and is regularly updated. There’s nothing more off-putting than stale content, pages which are slow to load or technical glitches and problems such as these will simply encourage visitors to look elsewhere. Make sure you respond to enquiries quickly and if you haven’t got time to do this yourself, use Bluehoop Digital to keep your website up-to-date.
